I Know The Way You Can Get
I know the way you can get
When you have not had a drink of Love:
Your face hardens,
Your sweet muscles cramp.
Children become concerned
About a strange look that appears in your eyes
Which even begins to worry your own mirror
And nose.
Squirrels and birds sense your sadness
And call an important conference in a tall tree.
They decide which secret code to chant
To help your mind and soul.
--Hafiz, excerpt
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Mine came on for the first time of the season. I smelled the metallic air when I woke, and I knew to grab socks and a sweater.
There was a misty haze of cold dew along the fields, and a quietness of busy people slightly more withdrawn.
The poetry of the horizon speaks of geese pushing time and of leaves blushing red and setting sail.
There is much work of medicine and magic to be done, still.
I feel the stirring of our ancestors asking more of us, and the longing of the Earth for more response-ability.
I watch the squirrel heed these laws every time he digs to bury a nut.
Nature calls us to heed rhythms.
Are you listening? What do you hear?
Four Keys and Four Herbs for October Transitions:
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Temperature:
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How is the temperature in your body? Do you wake feeling cold, hot, or uncomfortably mixed? What do you do support your comfort?
Ginger
Ginger root helps to warm our circulation and regulate our 'triple heater', making temperature adaptation easier for our bodies. Instead of hot cocoa, try a cup of gently simmered fresh ginger root, with a little bit of honey. Or, make ginger root hot cocoa :)
Daylight and Moonlight:
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How is your rest & activity feeling? Are you sleepier or more energized than you were in the summer?
Seaweed
Seaweed is mineral rich giving our bodies the ability to be fully awake, and fully asleep, at the appropriate times. Seaweed is also brimming with both lunar and solar energies .... as it is fed by the sun and nourished by the moon and her watery tides. As perhaps the fastest growing vegetation in the world, seaweed feeds our wholeness and ability to be strong during periods of growth and change.
Your muse:
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How is your creative self? Engaged, disowned, tired, longing or restless? Your sense of divine connectedness to your life and your daily expressions of self? Your time for self care and reflection, meditation, or nourishing touch?
Cardamom
Cardamom is just sensual. It's sweet and spicy, gentle and strong, loving and clear. Cardamom in my warm milk, on my warm apple compote, or in a spicy soup, cardamom just makes me feel inspired. I often combine it with my other favorite muse herbs like Damiana and Kava Kava, but on her own she can re-awaken the imagination and playful self. When our senses and our mind are both playing, we can experience intense creative satiation.
Your footing:
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Do you feel steady, sure footed, and solid? Or frail and precarious? Are you the river, or are you the glass bottle floating down the river, headed for rapids? What is the message in your glass bottle, waiting to be freed, so that you may flow?
Burdock
Burdock to me is a water root. Dug from the wet earth and cooked in soups we are centered deeply in our water-bone humanness. We become grounded, centered, yet not stagnant. Burdock root nourishes our ability to be stable in our bodies, in our truth-speaking, and in our hearts.
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Perhaps you open my newsletter or blog expecting to be more formally taught about herbs.
By now you've probably realized that isn't entirely how I roll.
I could teach you about just herbs, but if you don't have the willingness to listen to your body, herbs aren't going to do much.
I don't teach answers, I teach questions.
I give possibility and options and resources and catalysts .... the answers belong to you. Answers can change over time.
And our bodies are part of nature. In listening to nature, we hear our bodies. In listening to our bodies, we hear nature.
In being honest about our senses, intuitions, impulses, and callings, we access a deep and perhaps ancestral strength that can empower our lives in profound and meaningful ways.
My wish for you is to continually have access to, and connection with, your true source.
May you have a blessed day, dear one.
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1 comment:
Thank you so much for your thoughful entry on the transition into fall. As someone who suffers from seasonal depression, questions and reminders like this mean a lot. Best wishes for a happy October!
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