Many things matter to me. The Love of God, my husband, our animals, my Family of Choice, our planet and its creatures…

And healing. Healing matters deeply to me, not just for myself but for all who are hurting. Although the task is too big for me to tackle alone, I wish to exude healing wherever I can. My goal, once well enough to do so, is to go back to school to get the degree(s) I need to heal through herbalism and pastoral counseling. I want to offer a hand up to help people out of their suffering to a place of calm, peace, and love. This matters deeply to me. It is a way of giving back out of all that has been given to me for my healing.

Your response made me consider. Thank you.

I think much of our need to be right is connected to fear, and the election brought this up with an earthmover for many. People on both sides were already fearful, told to be even more fearful, and then the media and election kept throwing buckets of kerosene on every lit twig of the fear fires. Result? A mess.

Perhaps giving up the need to be right would diminsh fear and thus help us all work together for a better world, regardless of who is in office. It is nigh on impossible for us all to work together with fear screaming in our ears, but we really all want the same basic things. We just have many different ideas on how to go about it, I think.

That is beautiful, Ose. I am sure your patients are very blessed to have you. Healing with homeopathy is very much an art form. This is something I love about homeopathy, acupuncture, herbalism…all require presence and listening in order to do well. Listening to the patient, of course, but also to the pattern, the remedy, the herbs, the energy, the Whole — all are necessary for healing.

This past summer while walking through the garden, an herb sort of waved at me to get my attention. I had never noticed it before, but there it was, the lovely little purple of Prunella vulgaris/Self-Heal/Heal-All. When I picked it up and held it to my chest, the anxious feeling in my heart at that moment instantly calmed and warmed. I did not know its name at that point, so went in and researched. Then I read about its traditional uses, but none seemed to fit my symptom pattern. I figured it must be meant, though, or it would not have had such an effect.

Eventually, I ran across a wonderful article by Deb Soule one the MOGFA site that talked about Self-Heal and how she started including it in many of her remedies for her clients as it deepens emotional healing. Bingo! This whole illness from which I am recovering has its root right there, so Self-Heal suddenly made all the sense in the world. I felt awed, humbled, and grateful that it presented itself to me that way.

After that initial encounter, I started seeing it all over the place, carpeting my lawn next to another beloved herb, Plantago major (Plantain), as well as at friends’ houses. All of a sudden, my world was filled with Self-Heal! It felt like a benediction. I have now made it into tincture, and an infused oil, to which I added frankincense as an annointing oil, and I believe it is helping. ❤️ Just recounting this experience of making Self-Heal’s acquaintance for the first time made me feel loved all over again!

Isn’t it amazing that people spread chemicals across their yards to rid themselves of such gifts as Self-Heal and Plantain? Plantain actually saved my infected finger when nothing else worked, but it is treated as an unwanted weed.

I had better stop. I can go on forever when I get talking about herbs and the healing power of nature! ❤️❤️❤️

You will be pleased to know of our happy flock of free range laying hens — and far too many roosters. We have had a couple hatches, as we let the hens go broody and set if they wish, and, unfortunately, you can’t order the sexes! This means we have waaaay too many roosters. We simply enjoy them as they are and try to overlook the lack of breakfast. ???? Egg production does decline with age, but we prefer to let them live their days in peace. When we had far too many, we did find a retirement home for one batch with a friend’s cousin who loves to watch chickens as we do.

Where we used to live, near Washington DC, panhandlers were everywhere, a fact of life. Where we live now, in the country, they are almost nonexistent. However, food banks seem to be in every little town, and farmers often give surplus produce that people can take and preserve, if they wish, things like boxes of carrots or potatoes, beans, etc. The Salvation Army has a soup kitchen and afterschool help and food for local underprivileged kids, and churches regularly have free meals offered. I am amazed at how the local community bands together as this was not so much a feature of life in the big city area. There seems to be more of an awareness here that the hungry are, quite possibly, one’s neighbor.

I love the food gift card idea, Kevin. That way they are more likely to go get that warm cup of coffee or soup instead of less nourishing options.

One Thanksgiving many years ago when we were helping serve the homeless, I was surprised to find that many who came through would react negatively to this or that food, often not very nicely, as if we had offered them rancid leftovers with cigarette butts in it. I marveled at this. Why would someone with so little turn away perfectly good food that way? Wouldn’t they be grateful for anything good that came their way?

I learned from one of the organizers that this is a common reaction on the part of the homeless. Why? Because these folks who were struggling so much in life had reached a place where they felt like they had no control over anything in their lives. Turning their noses up at the food offered gave them back a very basic human dignity, the power of choice.

That knowledge was humbling to me and turned my perplexed annoyance into compassion.