mama earth calls to me

there is a thread weaving through my life right now that is making itself heard more and more: earth. 

soil, plants, the life cycle, and my place within it.

i wanted to capture a few of these disparate threads and get them pinned down in a blog post, because they are truly clamoring now for my attention; and as serendipity is wont to do, they are flooding in with perfect timing - seemingly unbidden but quite obviously exactly as planned. 

 

 

photo:  katie hess, lotus wei http://www.lotuswei.com/



 

in the above photo, katie hess is living the life i once lived, and the one i still do in my head; immersed in nature, observing and being at one with it. 

 

let's look at a word that keeps popping up in my world with increasing frequency:  biodynamic.
 

from the Crofter's Organic website:

"Biodynamic agriculture strives to transmit the life-giving forces of nature through foods which are grown by working with the rhythms of the earth and the cosmos. The forces of nature are captured in quality foods with character to feed the body, mind and soul. Biodynamic practices use the most sustainable methods of agriculture and support fair trade principles."
 

this strikes me as a manifesto too for whole living, not just the food aspect but EVERYTHING.
 

when i read articles like the following two, i am flooded with the word YES, and that marvellous gut-level feeling of something fitting absolutely perfectly.

 

http://biodynamicsbda.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/more-humus-more-humanity/

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/a-cure-for-the-allergy-epidemic.html?emc=eta1&_r=1

 

how fun is it to contemplate gettin' down and dirty in the real world as a panacea for the modern allergy epedimic?  :)

 

one of my favorite authors on the subject of biodynamic life is Prince Charles.  His books The Garden at Highgrove and Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World are truly wonderful.  here is an exerpt from a Huffington Post article about Harmony:  "The universe displays evidence of a "grammar of harmony," Prince Charles asserts in his new book, "Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World."  In the book, the heir to the British throne shares his belief that mankind's most pressing modern problems are rooted in our disharmony with nature, and that we can solve them by regaining balance with the natural order."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/24/prince-charles-harmony_n_786565.html

and just to put a momentary end to an endless topic, i'll close with personal favorite Alys Fowler, whose videos on gardening literally get my heart pounding with longing to be able to follow suit:

here's a link to a page of several Alys videos:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/earth-to-alys

 

enjoy perusing the many links above, and let's talk about what all of this means to us...i for one am slowly but confidently putting together a picture of how deeply this river of land and life runs through me, and how rich the rest of my life could be if only i can heed its call...

 

 

 



the acupuncture clinic is my opium den

this is the phrase i had in mind as i left my acupuncture session last friday.  it's an amazing experience, so relaxing and not a little other-worldly.


i've never actually frequented an opium den, but i have read books!  and the description fits: addictively, happily floaty.  i admit i will be sorry when my course of treatment is over!

my doctor says she is altering my energy, to be able to deal better with my stress.  to be able to be more peaceful and happy.  in other words, to take it down about a thousand notches.  and it really does work, against all my logic!  the trouble always begins when i leave the clinic.  i always have things to do.  so many things.  i try to do them slowly, but all that running around leads to a feeling of imbalance.  i know if i would just go home afterward and rest, it could be even more healing.  and when i say imbalance i mean literally off-balance, like as if one leg is much shorter than the other, which makes you feel slightly dizzy.  i have a session next tuesday, and this time i will take my own advice by going straight home afterwards and taking it easy.  we'll see how that alters the experience.

today i had a lovely calm sunday at home.  i cooked food for the week, cleaned a bit, and relaxed with my husband.  i adore sundays!  oddly (not!), many of my physical pain symptoms disappeared with the rest period i had today.  i begin to believe that it's true that stress kills, and i've been making myself a victim for far too long.

next up, the great challenge of finding more time of rest than just sundays.  can i do it?  stay tuned...

Oh yes please, re-visited!

Re-posting now to remind myself what my healing path is all about:

"You are allowed to slow down.

You are allowed to turn off your phone.

You are allowed to lie down…in the sun.”

from this posting by Boho Girl:

http://www.deniseandrade.com/category/enoughness/page/2/

Chinese Medicine and My Quest for Deep Healing

These days I am in a strange new pattern of self-care, or rather, I am supposed to be learning to care for myself but it is so alien that I find myself really having to struggle to keep the ball rolling.
A couple of months ago I finally got well and truly sick, after flirting with it for years.  Years of never taking care of myself, at all.  Ever.  Always caring for everyone else with no care for the carer.  Add to that an entire lifetime of eating absolute crap.  The SAD diet ("standard american diet") times 1,000.

There's a lot to say about all that, but it will keep for future posts!  So a couple of months ago when I became remarkably ill and was facing probable surgery, a strange thing happened and I somehow ended up looking at a Chinese medicine clinic website and calling to make an appointment for the free consultation.  Since then I've been seeing Dr. Sharon twice a week for acupuncture and herbs, and the experience has been amazing.  This therapy is incredible!  I would urge anyone with nearly any condition to consult with an acupuncture doctor to see if it can help them.

In the process I am having to learn self-care, on every level.  Rest, and lots of it.  Peaceful sleep.  Less stress (and not just giving that lip service but truly finding ways not to get involved on a personal level in every single opportunity to flip out each day when stressful situations pop up; this is MUCH harder than it sounds).   Eat the right foods every day, in the right amounts, at the right times.  Don't eat the wrong foods!  Work LESS.  Meditate.  Exercise daily, outside, in the appropriate way for your body.   Hardest of all for me is remembering that just because I feel amazing does not mean that I can revert to the behaviors that got me here in the first place.  My doctor tells me "save some for yourself", "what good is the money if you don't have time to enjoy the things it buys", "peaceful mind", "this is your time", and many other wonderful points of wisdom.  Now the trick is to really do it, not just smile and nod and then race off in all directions at once.

This week I did just that, and got myself back into some minor trouble.  Dr. Sharon fixed me up this afternoon and I will need to take particularly good care of myself this weekend, but all should be well soon.  I realized that I am so very bad at caring for myself that I really need something in my life that helps me keep at it, some form of reminder, some means of transparency...and it hit me!  I've been mulling over breathing new life into my blog, which was created in a fit of health consciousness a couple of years ago.  What better way to chronicle my new path and in the process share my learnings about how to undo a lifetime of transgressions against the self.  Hopefully we will discover amazing things together!