Ease and flow, pandiculation and meditation

'Tis the winter of the nap, as far as we're concerned.

And why not? There is nothing sweeter than snuggling down for a snooze whenever we might just feel like it.

We're up before the sun most mornings anyway, in time to catch moments when the little orchard that we've created in our back yard looks like this:

Just before dawn.

Yep.

Life is easy. Life just flows.

You know that moment when you wake up well rested and relaxed and you yawn and have a really delicious stretch and then just lie there for a bit?

The Sunshine Gang

There are plant allies for those of us trying to hone the skill of sustainable happiness.

I like flower essences for this, because their actions are subtle and gentle. I think the flower essences are closer to the vibration of the heart than anything else I know. I particularly like how they can be used so specifically, to light up the dark places inside us.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and what could be sunnier than a flower?

That middle layer of ick

I sleep really well at night, and I have great dreams. Dreaming is something of a sport to me, I can have a lot of fun there. My waking moments are fun, too. My life is joyful and satisfying.

But sometimes I'll be cozy in my lovely bed, drifting off happily into la-la land, and suddenly some scene of tragedy is playing out before me. A refugee camp. Or an accident scene. Occasionally, when waking up from a perfectly nice sleep, I'll find myself in the midst of swirling thoughts. Worries about loved ones or even just acquaintances from the web.

Has this happened to you?

What the hell is that, anyway?

Faffing about with lanolin and ending up with a "cleansing cream"

This project was a fiddly business!

And the resulting "cream" does not have the light and silky feel of something like Nivea would make, that's for sure. It's actually quite heavy and at first I was pretty crestfallen about that. But stay with me here, because in the end it turns out to be doing wonders for my (ahem) mature skin.

This version is adapted from Sarah Garland's "The Complete Book of Herbs & Spices". I say "adapted" because, well, at first I was winging it, then I realized I was, in fact, fucking it up, then I referred to the book. And I wasn't even trying to make a damn cleansing cream, I was trying to make a moisturizing balm for my feet .. but then .. well, I'll start from the beginning, okay?

Help is on the way

Our bodies respond to our emotions, so (I figure) probably the most important thing we can do for our health is to cultivate a conscious sense of well being. After all, the body will do its best to maintain health; well being is its natural state. Best not to undermine that with a conflicting state of mind.

That bears repeating, perhaps?

Well being is the body's natural state.

Some seeds

Most of the seed planting I do takes place at this time of year, the fall. And sometimes in the winter, too. It's really a delightful way to go about expanding one's stock of flowers and medicinal plants; calendula, mullein, evening primrose and pansies do particularly well this way, and no doubt there are others. Echinacea, too.

I wander through the garden foraging for seedheads that have matured on the plants and scatter the seeds on the surface of the soil where I want them to come up next spring. No particular care is taken, just a whole lot of fun is had.

Betony for tinnitus

(Please note - Here I am referring to Wood Betony - Stachys officinalis, formerly known as Betonica officinalis, a plant that comes to us from Europe. It is not the same plant as Pedicularis canadensis, also known as American Wood Betony. If you are looking at commercial sources, it is essential to ensure you know which you are getting, as they do not have the same uses.)

Regular readers will know that I'm a fan of the Doctrine of Signatures (see top bar), and also that I do crazy things like let plants instruct me on how to prepare and use them .. so the following is an example of how those sorts of things play out in my world.

I'd been drinking betony leaf tea off and on throughout the summer, "keying it out" over a period of some weeks. ("Keying it out" is herbalist-speak for getting to know a plant's personality.) I made a very mild brew, just 2 or 3 leaves fresh from the garden to about a litre of freshly boiled water, steeped for about 10-15 minutes. I added a couple of tablespoons of that tea to each glass of water I drank throughout the day, so each batch lasted me a few days. See? Not very much betony in my system at any one time, but enough, and for long enough, that I could get a sense of what its more subtle effects might be.

I dunno if that's what other herbalists and plant folk do, it's just the way I like to do things.