Category: health

  • Against Returning to Normal

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    As our country begins to ease restrictions on closures related to the pandemic, the streets are filling with protests against police brutality and the normal state of our union that is white supremacy. The rage is huge and it is justified. There’s a whole segment of our culture who uses the language of freedom to explain why they aren’t wearing masks, why they want the country to reopen so they can get a haircut when they want to–“This is the land of the free.” Unless, of course, you are a black, brown or indigenous person. We live in a country…

  • Supporting Wholeness: Flower Essences for Emotional and Spiritual Wellness

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    Please join me on Wednesday, June 17 from 5:30-6:30 at the Portland Food Co-op for this talk on flower essences and how they can support our emotional and spiritual wellness. Class size is limited, so please sign up early!

  • Announcing: Walk Your Edge–A Six-Month Journey of Earth Connection

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    One Saturday per month * May – October 2015 (May 2, June 20, July 18, August 1, September 12, October 31) 10am-6pm meeting in Portland ME fee $600 : sliding scale work-trade & time dollars are options; payment plan available Many of us have been working for years to make big changes in our hearts and minds and in the larger society. As our society’s systems of racism, misogyny, homo-trans- and xenophobia and the destruction of our home the Earth are exposed and visible to us all of the time, it may feel like our work is simply too big.…

  • Holiday Sale at Justice in the Body, 12/14/14, 12-6pm

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    This Sunday, from 12-6pm, I’ll be selling my wares at the Justice in the Body holiday sale. Here’s some information about that event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1565119927053646/ http://www.justiceinthebody.com/ We’re doing out thing at the same time as Picnic, but we’ll have lots of holistic bath and body products, herbal teas and tinctures, flower essences, salt blends and infused vinegar, knitted items, stuff for the kiddos, calendars & more, along with tarot readings and massages! It’s going to be great! Stop on by for a selection of my teas, flower essences, salt blends, vinegars, smudges, and other lovely items.

  • Chronic illness and desire

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    I’ll be honest–I’ve been thinking a lot about sex lately…what I want, how I wish it were easier to come by, and mostly how it’s been a long time. It feels like I have been waiting forever to find the kind of pleasure I’m looking for, but the truth is that illness has been my lover for far longer than I had hoped. I’ve spent the last four years navigating the waters of chronic illness in a way that has been new, unsettling, and very hard on my body image. That being said, I still manage to forget that this…

  • Strange anniversaries, or what happens when your world is blown apart

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    When you are at the beginning of a journey, there’s just no way to know what it will look like when you arrive.  As I reflect upon the journey/vision quest I’ve been on this past year, I had no concept for how I would be different or how I would know that I had, indeed, arrived.  What I’ve learned more than anything else is that it’s an ongoing process that doesn’t end unless you do. One year ago today, I began what would become one of the most bizarre weeks of my life.  I had been sick for a long…

  • Some medicinal plants for the permaculture garden

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    In preparation for tomorrow’s talk, and as a way to ease my anxiety about teaching (see my earlier post), I thought I’d use a mode of communication that feels more comfortable to explore a few of the plants that we’ll be discussing tomorrow morning.  There are so many spectacular medicinal plants that have multiple functions in the landscape and offer us incredible gifts of food and medicine–not to mention joy, but we only have a little over an hour, so we’re focusing on nine plants: Elecampane, Thyme, Raspberry, Garlic, Lady’s Mantle, Black Cohosh, Catnip, Rose, and Bee Balm.  We had…

  • Check out Herbstalk this June

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    I am so grateful to have a blog post up today over at the Herbstalk blog: http://herbstalk.org/2014/04/seeing-through-the-eyes-of-the-client/ And if you haven’t gotten your tickets to Herbstalk, you should do it now.  The two day event is a great celebration of herbalism in an urban space, and it is very accessible in cost.  http://herbstalk.org/buy-tickets/  There are great teachers, an amazing vendor fair, and lots of opportunities to connect to others interested in herbalism.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until June!

  • Diving deep into embodiment

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    Any moment can begin a deep opening that leads you much further than you would ever have imagined possible.  There have been so many of those moments in my life–those gateways when a door that had been locking a vault suddenly slides open and you move into a completely new life, or at least what feels like a new life.  There are the before and after moments.  The I remember when.  One such moment happened in February when a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Sunday morning dance.  I hesitated.  She offered a ride.  I said, “okay,”…

  • And so we begin again

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    This time last year, I was beginning a week-long meditation retreat.  As I look back at that time, I can see the rapid decline of my health that was to come shortly thereafter.  The space of that retreat also mirrored the space that was soon to come to fruition in my life.  In that retreat, I can also see the beginning of a radical transformation in my relationship to myself. 2013 has been a year of powerful lessons, of tremendous growth, and of passages.  It has been a year of shadow-reckoning and humbleness.  I have felt myself become a wholly…