Travel Day

I have a strong urge to see my original acupuncturist.



Photos: Train station in Lamy, NM and train lunch.

The Call of the Elementals

In a blog that I follow, http://sewandsowlife.blogspot.com/, the writer recently asked the question, "Do you use any herbal remedies or home cures?" At first, I was reluctant to answer that I do use herbal remedies because I have a sense that buying herbal formulas and tinctures from local herbalists has a connotation of dealing with witchcraft. Fortunately, I have met some inspired herbalists who helped me be comfortable with using herbs. I can promise from my experience that they are not the villains or evil entities portrayed in movies or religious propaganda.


In the early 70's, one of the first herbalists that I met, helped me to make a soothing herbal tea blend. Using the famous book, Back To Eden, she showed me how to make custom blends of tea. Once that door was open to the knowledge that people could create their own remedies, I started noticing that many of my friends were creating their own tinctures, teas and salves from their garden herbs, flowers and roots. Friends who changed their names or named their children after the common or Latin names of botanicals both intrigued me and sometimes frightened me. I knew that many of my friends had an affinity and Divine calling to work with plants. But I also knew that our culture, religions and government battled against the use of home remedies and those who worked with the sprites, elementals and fairies.



I am not an herbalist, but I come to herbal remedies and formulas with respect. About ten years ago, while having severe peri-menopausal disruptions, I talked to my allopathic doctor about what to do. First, he warned against the hysterectomy that the OB-GYN suggested. He warned against the hormones that were manufactured without regard to the human body. He warned against pharmaceuticals. Instead, he suggested to find my way and talk with other women. When I returned home, I called the woman who I know to have the biggest front yard herb and flower garden. She pointed me to Susan S. Weed. From there, I worked my way into the life of being peri-menopausal. The male allopathic came along on this journey of watching me take charge of my body.

Once that door was open to me actively finding my way, Naturopaths appeared. I was flooded with choices and opportunities. I was also gifted with confidence in "being allowed" to find my way.



I am currently in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It seems that every style of herbalist and healer spends time in Santa Fe. The local farmers' market can have as many as six herbalists on a Saturday morning, selling their herbs, lotions and tinctures. I am attracted to Artemisia Organics and her line of herbal formulas, lavender skin care blends, various rich oils, Osha root syrup and lavender honey.




The closer I move in the world of the natural, the more I feel entrained with the plants and the elementals. There are times I am called to play in the berry patches and times I am called to rest my head against the earth to listen to a root. Since this is the New Moon, I am called to create something new.




Sometimes, I am called to have a beer.

Alberta Rose

Enjoying Alberta, Canada. Tomorrow, Ian Tyson Concert.

Thanks to Michael Caditz for photo of Alberta Rose, shot at our campsite at Wapiti Campground at Jasper.

Think I'll Go Out To Alberta

Last stop is Great Falls, Montana. Then on to Alberta, Canada for a week long hiking and camping trip in Jasper.

Following a week of trails and Solstice, we'll go to Edmonton, where Michael and I have excellent seats to see Ian Tyson. Tyson has been one of my favorite singer/songwriters since the late 60's.

I continue to navigate my life using and reducing the prednisone and antibiotic.

The blogs that I've been following, especially the nature, gardening and contemporary divine feminine/mystical topics, have been deeply inspiring and nurturing. My soul is feed here, but is ready for the experience of hiking trails, glaciers, sky and earth.

Leaving My Hermitage

Going to Santa Fe.

Sleepless With Prednisone and Doxycycline

Yesterday was our second veggie box from Whitefeather Organics CSA. Since I am sans car here in Stevens Point, I took a short bike ride to the pick up location. The box is generously filled with radishes, leeks, scallions, mixed lettuces, about three pounds of spinach, asparagus, pea tops, turnips, green garlic and golden oyster mushrooms. This is a fabulous, high gourmet quality, locally grown offering from the sands of Central Wisconsin. This part of the state is the terminal moraine, the area where the glacier stopped and dropped sand, silt, and minerals. I am eating from the earth where a glacier once rested.

With all of my good nutrition and my determination to stay healthy, I'm afraid that the eczema on face, hands and wrists is beginning to wear on me. My immune system started to feel compromised. I went to my family practice doctor; we've been together since 1979, when he first opened his clinic. We stayed together as I transitioned from using him as a primary care physician, to using him when I have a health crisis but would chose to resolve my issue through rest, herbs, exercise, nutrition, acupuncture, massage and Network Spinal Analysis. I usually tell him my plans for resolving an issue using the alternatives to allopathic, then proceed. On Wednesday, I asked for more aggressive help and that I would be open to using drugs.

Wednesday night, I began a course of pharmaceuticals for my skin: prednisone and doxycyline. Although I am not happy about it, I am already feeling relief from the burning under the skin, less visible blazing inflammation and the end to the scratching open of my skin during my sleep.

Sleep is another issue. Yesterday was the first full day of taking the medication. Last night, after three hours of sleep, I woke up, and was unable to return to sleeping and dreaming. This is unusual for me. Whenever awaked during the night, I can almost always return to sleep within minutes. In those sleepless hours, I listened to the rain, and felt gratitude for the coolness of the air and the slow steady drink to the thirsty plants. There was an appreciation for the pre-dawn sounds of this rather quiet city. But every time I thought I was drifting off into sleep by the sweet scent of rain, I could feel the twisted mandala of the prednisone and doxycycline in my body and in my auric field. I tried to chant, but scenes of a disturbing film noir visited me, intermingling with the structure of the pharmaceutical mandala. I found that if I started to imagine cleaning cupboards, washing walls, or polishing a pan, I could change the structure. Mostly though, the mandala won-over. After all, I did say that I was open to using these chemicals.

I've been awake since before one in the morning. With a fine mist of rain, I took a ride on my bicycle to the river, (the Wisconsin River), then to Emy J's for a cup of coffee. The cool moist rain felt good on my face. It was like receiving a natural facial. I tried not to think about the heavy metals or possible radiation in the water from the sky. Unfortunately, that was like being told to NOT think about monkeys.

Last year's berries:

A week from today I leave my little Church Street hermitage and return to New Mexico. I already feel my judgements that while here, I did not chant enough, did not fast enough, did not walk down to the river enough and did not embrace the silence enough.

With the exception of attending a wedding, I've refrained from public socializing. Instead of meeting friends for coffee or social affairs, I've invited a small assortment of guests over for coffee on the veranda in the morning, tea in the afternoon and a glass of wine in the evening. With summer in full swing, it is nice to sit outside in the freshness of the daily greening of two maple trees. The branches become heavier each day, the growing leaves pulling the branches closer to the earth, creating tunnels in the front yard.



Some days, I sleep late, missing my 3:35 am wake up to meet my 4 am chanting schedule. Instead, I stay in my bed, sleeping until 5:30, missing my Agni Hotra Homa sunrise timing. On awakening, I have a less than one-hour period of chanting, asana and meditation. It seems like I lost my discipline and instead race to have coffee and catch an Wi-Fi signal.

Whatever I am doing in the hermitage, I appreciate the simplicity of my routine. Waking to the morning song of birds and the smell of foliage from the blackberry plants that are growing outside of my bedroom window. I like how I can eat on my own schedule, not being expected to produce meals for a household of two and drop-in guests. Washing clothes has its own simplicity. Drying my yoga whites has become a practice of giving them enough sunlight, without the help of a clothesline. My other clothes dry closer to the earth. My days are an act of simplicity.



I've spent entirely too much time on the Wi-Fi signal that comes into my hermitage. I've found some excellent blogs written by women. I have so much gratitude for the company of women who are writing beautiful blogs. The blogs are filled with information about recycling, herbs & flowers, nature & nature writing, poetry, relationships, cooking, gardening and relationships/cooking/gardening/recycling/nature and life combined. The most valuable part of these blogs is my sense that with all of the women who are sharing their passion, I feel as if I am in the company and the grace of the Divine Mother.

Reading the blogs and savoring the messages, is my meditation. I am being nurtured and being restored by the presence of the Divine Feminine.