Images of a Snowy Winter

Shifting Moon, Love Moon

"Moon in my hand", photo: Sage Wilson age 11

My dear friend, Ji-Ling, reminds me of the sacred practice of naming our Moons each time she becomes full again. In fact, as I begin this post, a beautiful (I'm sure of it) email awaits my eyes, certainly about this moon and her poetic and personal interpretations of it. I anticipate the read and the closeness I feel when I read other's lunar whims.

This Moon for me is the love moon.

I'm re-learning to love from a deeper place - I'm re-learning what it means to be a friend, a support, an open ear, and a member of a family. I'm learning bit by bit how to help my children learn, too. These are vulnerable and tender lessons but so very worthy. I trust that, like the grinch, my heart pangs are merely from growing, and sure enough - soon enough - the love will be even more than I imagined.

In my waiting, I ponder and dream. I am temporarily homebound without a car and simultaneously iced and snowed in, awaiting the completion of more arduous tasks which await my attendance. In the meantime, I deepen my quietness, make dense teas, and ask questions. How can I be a better friend? How can I speak my truth and leave judgement behind? How can I reach out and tell my distant family members that I care, despite never being able to travel to see them. I long to make heart connections with the people who mean so much to me, in an overly-busy and stoic world.

In my waiting and shifting I play with my blog colors, like a painter might paint the background of a new picture, or a dancer might change costumes for a new piece. I try little things to encourage my creativity.

I long to heal the suffering body and spirit of my dear family friend. I long to sooth the fear and longing of his wife. I nourish myself so I may nourish others.

My practice for this moon is to activate love.

What is your Full Moon moon this month, dear readers?

The Tree Year ~ Winter Birch

As part of my devotion to mother nature and my love for plants and trees, I am participating in a wonderful project. This year is the UN International Year of the Forests, and this weblog project, The Tree Year, is a beautiful way to get people to pay attention to the trees and to share their findings.

A whole year of observing one tree? Oh my. That is a very tall order. Not because I don't want to spend all year observing trees - its just that only one tree would be near impossible for me. So while I will forgive myself if this expounds into a forest itself, I will, at least, begin with one kind of tree. Sort of.

I have spend my fair share of time devoted to the Black Birch tree, because it was abundant where I was living. In my new abode, there are less black birches, but copious amounts of white, paper, and grey birches. They are absolutely stunning to me, and I know I will naturally be watching them each day and hopefully learning a bit about their magic and medicine. I have paid tribute in my title photograph. I intend to keep the title photo reserved for these trees for the duration of the tree year, and will be posting observations and learnings from time to time. I hope you will be inspired to be a part of the tree year, too.

So far, I am mostly just absorbing their presence: they rarely get gigantic like the mighty oaks, but some of them do manage to get pretty muscular and big. I think my first order will be to learn more clearly the difference between the species, as they are more tricky to identify in real life than they are when looking at pictures in a book or on a website. Especially considering it is winter here, with no leaves to assist me. Many of them grow in groves along the edges of mixed woods, where there is dappled sunlight and usually good water supply somewhere near, like a river, although they don't seem to like wet feet as the willows and alders do, but more the rocky hillsides and clearings. Some of them stand alone as ornamental trees, highlighting colonial homes in the area.

The decomposing birches offer plentiful food for a variety of woodpeckers. As you can see, the different shaped holes indicate different types of woodpeckers. The rectangle shape in particular is that of my favorite, the grand pileated woodpecker. Little ladderbacks and downy woodpeckers look at home with their matching colors of grey, black, and white.

        

And although I haven't come across any yet, birches are the main host for a wonderful medicinal mushroom known as chaga. These winter colored trees seem to take good company with the scrub pine, beech, hemlock, oak, and maple trees. There is plenty of moss and a beautiful red soil I am learning is a red sandstone.

The birches I see here, in Massachusetts, are so elegant. They stand with this delicate snowy skin as if the North Winds are never far behind. Like the bones of the forest, all wise and standing strong like Grandmother. I know this tree - this trio - has much to teach me. And so I watch and listen.

The Gifting Season ~ The Underbelly of Yuletime

For many including myself, The holiday season is a challenge. From the over commercialization, mass spending, circulation of toxic toys, useless gadgets, empty foods, and immense garbage. The expectation whether self imposed or externally commanded, often leaves us simple Earthy folk feeling drained and defeated.

We have also taken brave steps towards insisting on a season of nourishment rather than disdain. Many of us have taken bold steps in asking our families to downsize gifts, making them homemade or more personal, such as gifts of time spent together, planting trees in our children's names, giving gifts of health such as massages or yoga retreats, and focusing more intently on each others' passions in life as inspiration for these gifts.

There is also this funny thing we feel called reciprocity. I know I'm not the only one who feels this intense, burning requirement for equality. Although I'm immensely grateful for the many gifts that come my way in general, specifically at Yule I feel anxiety around the exchange; whether I will leave feeling as though I gave as much (or as good quality) as I received. These expectations are daunting.

I have not found a solution, but little by little I work towards a more empowering time. I want to see joy in my children's eyes, not because they have just opened a wii or a wad of cash, but because I finally had time to make cookies with them. Or because we chose a little tree together and cut it down in the freezing cold and drove back with it nearly flying off the car.

These are cliche - I know - the moments we look for on TV and give lots of lip about. But they're harder to get than we think. We cover them up with icing and candy canes and ribbon - for what reason?

Perhaps because we can't achieve our deeper expectation, our deeper hope, and the failure is unbearable. We feel cheated out of enough time or money or creativity to make it happen. Or perhaps because when we do reach it, it is so powerful it nearly hurts. Perhaps because the feelings available to us at times of truthful giving and receiving, should we be willing to feel them, open rivers of unshed heartache and longing for love and connection in it's many forms.

Yule morning for me is painful and beautiful. It brings me face to face with my unmet goals, my growing children, my aging eyes. It's also humbling; the sweetness of colored pencil cards, feathers wrapped in cloth, coupons for snuggling up and reading together. Long, intentional hugs.

When I melt all the overly sweet, fake frosting of the holidays away, I'm left with something just sweet enough, and just filling enough, without the sugar crash.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In light of gifts for plant lovers, consider these valuable resources for the tree-hugger in your life......

Beautiful Handmade Herbals from:

Blissful Botanicals (My Mama:)

Blue Turtle Botanicals (amazing Darcey Blue)

DreamSeeds (Teton Herbalist Kristena Haslam)

Invaluable reading/resources:

Plant Healer Magazine (which includes yours truly, waxing poetic about Witch Hazel)

Herbal Roots Zine (a resource I favor for myself and students alike)

Herb Mentor Membership (endless applicable information for all herbal people!)

We'Moon Calendar (My all-time favorite datebook and daily inspiration)

Mountain Rose Herbs (for bulk herbs and herbal supplies)

Of course - finding local farms for things like winter CSA memeberships, wilderness programs for nature awareness and primitive skills, an invitation to a local Red Tent Temple or drum circle, or fresh organic meat from a nearby farm, are incredibly valuable gifts which directly reflect original meanings and traditions of this season.

May you come closer to your heart, your truth, and satisfy your deepest needs for connection this holiday.

My gift to you, dear reader, is a little poem of Witch Hazel which didn't make it's way into Plant Healer Magazine. (consider it a teaser for the article that did get published ;) enjoy......

~~~~~~~

Witch of the Woods

Ahhh the sun in my eyes

Through eyelashes of Hazel

She

The Witch of the woods

Winking at me, flirting I think

With her coppiced heart

And divided wholeness

Whose reckless ways

In tandem bloom and fruit and flower

And when ready

Explode

So far as to reach the riverbank

On the opposite side

With her I go

Through the veil of October

Riding the winds of the wrinkles in time

As I laugh through my lines

And I see anew through the gauzy tricks

Of Fall and of Fey

And her mischievous way

Wands of witch, divine waters

Flowering pretty, her petals cool

I am taken to dreaming

In my hazel-eyed mind

Holding the hands of change

I sip a sunlit cordial of wishes

Of rolling like her wavy margins

In the wake of summer

In the wake of unrealized hopes

In the wake of release

I float along in her astringency

And wit

And wait for ripening time

When I can explode

And reach the other side

Too

Turkey Day Medicine Bag

On Turkey Day I'm grateful that I'm not the one cooking the meal. I will be contributing my spiced-apple salad (previous post) and some gourmet cheeses. But really what I'm packing up this morning are a slew of remedies for Holiday's inevitable maladies. 

Here's what I'll be toting in my medicine bag......

Black Cherry Elixir ~ For those with the nagging cough, and those with hot burny digestions. I use black cherry quite often to steady my heart rate and settle my nerves.

Kava ~ For my son mostly, who's indigestion is also nervous and painful, accompanied by a frustration of having to socialize. I combine it with the black cherry elixir, and sometimes peach.

Peach Elixir ~ Also for hot, irritating digestive complaints and temperamental personalities. For those who just feel pissed off most of the time, and if they don't express it outwardly, they end up with UT problems or ulcers.

(for an exquisite profile on peach, please visit Kiva :http://animacenter.org/persica.html )

Black Birch ~ For the people who feel uprooted, not "at home" and are finicky about getting around to putting some kind of food on their plate and then maybe even into their mouths. Great for teens and Elders. (Birch plays a key role in forest succession. Think of it as a transition remedy) Also for tension headaches.

Crystallized Ginger ~ For the unmoving, tired, slump on the couch after eating. Along with a hot cup of:

Dandy-Blend ~ An easy way to get dandelion root into people who would not otherwise take the tincture. It's a super yummy beverage that's easy to make and does the trick. Sweeten it with just a little honey instead of sugar, but don't drown out the bitter flavor - that is the medicine!

Echinacea elixir ~ There is always someone who is ill with something they don't understand. It's a little insurance for this statement "I don't know! It's weird. Its like... (---insert strange metaphor) .... and I just can't get rid of it."

St. Johnswort ~ For the blues, for the bruises, for the teary-eyed. For the nerve pains in the hip and back. For my own sanity.

Mugwort ~ Artemisia vulgaris ~ This one for cold, crampy digestion, especially liver stagnation, or anyone who can't get warm but shouldn't take ginger for it's too hot and dry. Mugwort is a woman's best friend :) Mugwort is also supreme as a pre-digestive bitter before a meal.

Alder ~ A new plant ally for me this year, I've been using it for lymph congestion with great results. So this will go for anyone who shouldn't eat that gluten filled biscuit, but does anyway. It will also go onto my poor daughters face which is swollen to the hilt with a wicked case of poison ivy.

Peppermint elixir ~ for teas or stuffy noses and little ones.

White Fir Elixir ~ purely for pleasure. I like it in my coffee.

For external use, I'm packing Witch Hazel tincture, Chaparral oil, Pain killer salve, and lip balm.

I already have a basic first aid kit in the car, so I usually have Osha and Yarrow already.

Need to grab a few survival items for your 

Blessings on this day to all of you, and may you have very happy tummies.

Plant Healer ~ A Journal of Traditional Western Herbalism ~ Open for Subscriptions!

I'm immensely honored and inspired to be a contributing writer for the premier issue of Plant Healer Journal. This promises to be an articulate, rooted, and outspoken voice for us Plant People, as well as a calling to the world at large who suffers at the hand of profound disconnection. My hope for this journal is many-fold. I hope people with flora curiosity will dive in head first. I hope that us herbalists will finally have informative, dynamic, applicable, and delicious reading we can count on. And daringly I hope that some people in a little corner of the political box, will close their greedy wallet and go eat some weeds, and realize that we are more sane than anyone for doing so. And maybe pull some strings on our behalf.

But back to the simple hopes ~ I feel really lucky to be a part of a resurgence of home and community herbalists who are so passionate about plants and healing, and who are getting back to the ground in their practices. I hope that this magazine, in it's unprecedented content, sells wildly.

Below is a clip and link for the original article.

~Ananda

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subscriptions Open Today For

Plant Healer:
A Journal of Traditional Western Herbalism

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& 5 Exclusive, Free Video, Audio & Visual Bonuses!
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please continue reading this article at it's original source:

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Spiced Apple Salad and the Healing of Food

Obviously it's been a long time since I wrote about herbal medicine or plants in general. It isn't because I have not been working with them, in fact I've learned monumental amounts. It's just, as my mom would say, 'anacana' - translation: on account of nothing. In other words, it's just because that's how the cards have fallen.

Often in life I feel like the ideas I have are brilliant, but then I'm not fast enough at pursuing them and they get used up by someone more savvy or opportunistic than I. Such is life.

In addition, I'm time compromised. And we all know how that goes, I don't have to explain.

So my post today is a little different but every bit relevant. It's about food.

As long as I can remember I've dubbed myself as "hating to cook". Which has made it exceedingly difficult to feed two growing children, a husband on occasion, and daily, myself. Growing up I learned simple basics to my benefit: how to cook soup, eggs, and make a great sandwich or salad. But that's it. Jump forward to having two small children and absolutely no idea how to not burn meat, shop frugally at a grocery store, or make a meal while managing children, you've got a recipe for a dis-empowered kitchen wishes-she-were-a-goddess woman.

I've burnt countless chicken breasts. I've ruined plenty of rice. I've eaten dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. It wasn't until I made a commitment to cooking that anything changed.

But it wasn't easy. I'm a very busy woman! I work part time, take my children to learning co-op, I teach plants, I teach dance, and I try to write now and again, and I've got an apothecary and a household to manage. So you can see it's additional pressure to feed good meals to my loved ones.

But... I love food. I've never had any "food issue", so I don't have any eating stuff to deal with. I love food of all kinds and have always had the taste for healthy, well rounded foods. I love to eat and have always been active and never had any weight issues. So again, my problem was solely the fact that I HATED COOKING.

It was arduous. Laborious. Boring. Painful. Hopeless. Confusing. A waste of time.

And while I cannot say it's all better now, I can say I've come a very, very long way.

I'll mention here my Medicine Woman Mentorship. I'll mention it because one of the main thrusts is being in touch with one's senses and the birthright to take good care of ones self. Within my lesson work (and I'm still near the beginning) I am asked about my commitment to myself. It was clear to me that by not feeding myself, not engaging my senses and nourishment through the very basic human actions and needs, I was avoiding nourishment, pleasure, and pro-active healing.

The other note I'll make here is that my husband, as well as my children - miraculously - have a gift in the kitchen! Yes, my kids have been lucky to receive amazing cooking lessons from close friends/chefs in my community, and to learn plenty from Dad, but they just have it - the patience, the instinct, the love, and the uncanny ability to read and understand a written recipe from a cookbook. This has been (while slightly frustrating) an unsuspected inspiration.

And so within both my MWM as well as my monthly women's circle, I declared that I needed to both embrace and cultivate my inner Kitchen Goddess. I needed to find the woman in me that could infuse my food with both magic and skill. This was couple of years ago.

It's been a long journey and I'm still at it. I have a lot to learn. I've held to a Soup-Monday tradition for a while now, which helps keep me learning new recipes and by making it a routine I can count it as a required activity rather than something unimportant. I have tried my best to invite my hunter friends to feed me locally hunted venison, teach me about the animal and the different cuts, and had some healthfully harvested roadkill such as groundhog which was hit cleanly by an employee while I was at work. I've tried with the help of a talking thermometer to learn how long to cook meats, and I've enjoyed the benefit of finally cooking chicken well even if I'm not spoken to. I've cooked roasts, fish, acorn oatmeal, roasted potatoes, and many other dishes to a "T".

I'm proud of myself. While I cannot say I want to spend every day in the kitchen, I can say I'm no longer scared of it, and sometimes even really love it. Like today when I invented this spiced apple salad to take along for lunch tomorrow.

Sometimes eating disorders are not about getting fat or skinny, they are about not knowing how to cook, and not having the time in this fast forward life to do it. Sometimes they are about fearing the GMO's and learning to get outside to forage and to find local CSA's, farmers, or hunting. They really are about healing our relationship to eating, nourishing, taking, feeling, life, death, growth, creativity, and the intimacy therein. They are about consuming - the kind of consuming that was known before it was evil.

The moments I take in the kitchen, when given the time and spark, are sensual moments not too unlike my herbal potions or dance movements. They are moments that use to deplete me, and now feed me. And my family. They are organic, sensory, delicious moments.

~~~~~

Apple~ Spice Salad

5 ripe cubed apples

1/3 cup slices almonds

1/3 cup chopped dried cherries

1 Tbsp chopped crystallized ginger

1 whole fresh squeezed lemon, or more if desired

3 Tbs herbal infused honey (I used sage and monarda, you can use what you like)

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Stir well and enjoy

~~~~~