Sparkling Lotus-land

heart centered/congruence

The pictures in this post were taken on Sunday.   Several friends who read here have cuttings from the beautiful angel wing begonia who was ready for her close-up while I was having an immensely enjoyable rambling discussion with my son.  He didn't mind at all when I picked up my camera.  We continued to talk while I clicked and he followed closely on my heels. 

 

He's been following me around - specifically so we can keep talking while I also do something of a creative nature - since he first started walking.  There's a very comforting rhythm to it; it's a dance of our fundamental relationship to each other and the ways we've found to support and encourage each other's strongest impulses.  Since the weekend there's been a big change in daily life for both of us.  After a lengthy phase of borrowing my car to get back and forth to work - plus have some semblance of a twenty-something social life - Tony has purchased his own vehicle.   This means he's driving something he actually wants to drive and, not at all beside the point, I have access to wheels all the time. 

The shift is coming at a point when I also have some accumulated energy reserves.  So I actually want to be out and about as a matter of course and have the improved faculties necessary for driving.  So far I have stuck to ventures in a three town radius but that doesn't feel at all restrictive.  My plan is to build up endurance for longer drives and social happenstances.  For now it's been an immense improvement just to run my own errands and take a few brisk walks in some of my favorite local spots.  Once I publish this post I'm off for a power walking route that's new to me; I dreamed it last night.

Sleep is coming A LOT more easily and my quality of rest has greatly improved.  So has my pain thresh-hold.  Mental and physical metabolic process is HUGELY improved. Muscle wasting has reversed itself and I'm reconnected with a morning yoga practice that feels quite wonderful.  I'm getting re-immersed in writing related to flower essence research and land healing ventures.   Am balancing those efforts with a parallel re-connection to some of my favorite creative passtimes.  All these much-appreciated improvements are accompanied by greater mindfulness on my part.  I'm taking none of the positive shifts for granted and will do my best to maintain a commitment to well-balanced goals both large and small.

The begonia in these images was once a very modest handful of cuttings - nearly 30 years ago - from a plant of unknown age.  It was flourishing madly when I first inherited it as part of my office surroundings at a clerical job from hell.  I like to think the cuttings were as pleased to escape the generalized toxicity of the environment as I was thrilled to eventually leave it and move on to a completely different phase of life experience and aspiration.  Two years back the cuttings-turned-grandmother-in-their-own-right reached upwards and outwards to seven square feet.  I cut her back somewhat severely and many friends received the trimmings.  Nowadays I periodically receive pictures of the large happy plants that have grown from them.

The plant's current dimensions are still substantial but not completely overwhelming.    She's happy in the western light of a living room window.  Her former place in this alcove has been taken by one of the gardenias and a strawberry guava.  This summer both of these young trees sustained impressive growth spurts.  They could no longer take a place on top of this desk or in the available window space in Jim's music room.  I'm grateful I have much more energy to tend to all the exotic plants that winter-over in the house.  At their stage(s) of maturing development they need proper feeding, grooming and attentive pruning for maximum flowering and continued health.

I considered the angel wing begonia to be a guardian spirit of the creative flow in my workroom.  Now that she's changed her place in the house I am noticing the same protective vibration encircling the combination dining/living room.  As a family we spend a lot of our shared time there.   The begonia has been flowering prolifically ever since she settled herself on the cedar chest beside the table where we read books and eat the majority of our meals.   There's a belief to which I subscribe:  that flowering plants put on "extra" blooming displays when they're particularly happy and well-connected to the landscape at hand.  It's an idea that's always made sense to me both emotionally and by way of experiental observation...

the deep passage

Truth be told:  I have greatly enjoyed the past two months of blog silence.  It's representative of a rather extensive time-out I've allowed myself; the better to hear/know that Self as changes in all sorts of intentional and previously unimagined ways.   This coincided with a time in the year's natural order when I'm always very conscious of an energetic spiral that moves inward and then back out in a pattern of unwinding.  And that's what I've been doing:  unwinding various layers of buried tension, carefully crafted assumptions and presumptions, intentional focus that's outlived its organic lifespan, and so forth and so on.

When I decided to indulge in a growing need for more (meaning of a higher quality...) solitude it was very clear to me that I would have to be disciplined and self-compassionate enough to heed the rhythm of my own inner time clock rather than falling back on patterns of withdrawal that chronically short circuits itself by jumping back into the fray ASAP.  Or permitting my accommodation mechanisms to be activated through the stated needs/preferences of somebody else.

The latter part wasn't easy to maintain and I didn't expect it to be.  I'm the sort of person others depend on for inspiration and psychic nourishment.  I'm also someone who seems to spend an unusual amount of time hearing the (unsolicited) confessions and emotional outpourings of others.  Sometimes I know the people involved well enough to anticipate what's going to happen but, more often than not, it just happens and nine times out of ten without any acknowledgment that this process can be quite taxing (and perhaps not situationally appropriate) for The Listener.

Usually, the fact that it's nearly always up to me to set boundaries (and assume sole ongoing responsibility for maintaining them), causes some inner friction between my dualistic capacities for knee-jerk compassion and frustrated impatience.  For much of my life it's appeared that I have far more multi-directional empathy than is good or constructive from an I, Me, Mine perspective.  What this has tended to mean is that I chronically reach a point of critical mass when I must demand space to tend to my own issues in a way that seems very sudden and, more often than not, completely unexpected from the perspective of the person who has come to rely on me listening to them on their terms and otherwise behaving as if I don't have any issues or attendant neediness of my own.

Oftentimes, in the aftermath of making it clear (primarily to myself but then also [at times problematically] to the other party involved) that I've reached the end of the line, I seek out the company of a tree - such as the Weeping Cherry pictures above - with trailing branches.  These trees generally hold a medicine spirit that offers nourishment for those with a powerful need to ground their energy and re-connect with Source.

I also tend to seek out contained bodies of water that feed or are fed from a swiftly moving source.  This type of landscape offers great meditational value during times when I feel overly pressured or pressurized at an emotional and psychic level.  I began the time-out I'm currently attempting to end with a series of dreams that involved bird nests full of newly born babies.  They were always screaming insatiably for their mother's attention. 

Over the course of a few weeks the dreams morphed so that the mother was actively quashing the babies' demands.  She wasn't hurting them (which I kept expecting her to do with the part of my mind that generally remains lucid during dreamtime) but very firmly building little walls around them which were made from nesting materials.  And I took a cue from these dreams:  what if I didn't have to tell people to step off and let me breathe so much as I need to provide nest/nurturing material that offered them a sense of safety and comfort through the materials themselves rather than my unflagging attentiveness?

Something I fully realize:  for the [oftentimes damaged and emotionally bruised] recipient such attentiveness has an illusory quality that strongly appeals to anyone who hasn't received sufficient helpful/positive attention at critical points in their development.  As a result the helpful/positive quadrant of that equation doesn't tend to be understood.  It's oftentimes rejected or undervalued within a larger craving for attention, period.  And attention is a lot like potato chips.  The more you consume the more you entitle yourself to go right on consuming.

Thus the illusion of finally having "enough" attention is inevitably destined to shatter and sometimes that process can be quite spectacular in its unpleasantness.  Clinical healing dynamics make tangible allowances for such a process but more personal inter-relationship doesn't generally hold a mutually established blueprint.  And this is where a lot of murky dysfunction finds a place to root itself:  in the metaphor of a baby and bathwater, a great number of people will consciously strive to save the baby without due awareness focused on the fact that this often leaves them floundering in some ultra-grimy bathwater.

I've thought about that particular metaphor a lot over the past two and a half years; consciously striving to remain mindful of bathwater.  The swampier it's appeared the more diligently I've forced myself to deal with it.  And I've been analyzing my character and its inherent nature.  For example - what actual gift of useful value do I offer to those to whom I listen with a stalwart intention to keep on listening come hell or high water.  I've consciously replaced my established question:  how can I develop a longer and more authentically tolerant fuse for such things with:  what am I broadcasting about the gift of listening that needs to be fine-tuned or perhaps outright eliminated?

I definitely know enough about psychology and my own roots-of-origin underpinnings to realize I've held an ongoing degree of responsibility for the fact I often seem to magnetize other peoples' Inner Baby Bird.  I then silently collude with the resultant neediness that may start filling the metaphorical Baby's bathtub waaaaay too fast for effective bailing of bathwater.

Many lists, thought-squeezing/emotionally convoluting journal entries, and conversations with my own preferred confessor/Mama Bird figure later, I arrived at an inescapable awareness that if my conscious mind won't talk to me effectively than the rest of my physical body certainly will.  Having been at that crossroads of understanding before I have also periodically arrived at the understanding that some kind of inner lightbulb really needed to want to change or I was just going to keep looping back around to the same point of awareness with increasingly high personal stakes involved.

My resolve to actively develop a fertile seedbed for such change is what led, most pragmatically, to the life-encompassing time out I've just taken.  I entered the process feeling somewhat jury rigged and held together with tape and old paper clips; my psyche felt like it was supported in a tenuous fashion similar to the hydraulic jack pictured above.  That jack is holding up three stories worth of a rambling living structure.  It's no small measure of insanity to imagine it can go on doing so in an indefinite fashion. Likewise the time had come for me to begin re-building an emotional broadcasting system that's more realistic and hence a lot more authentically humane in the all-around manner.

What I've realized - and not just over the past two months -- this is something I've been thinking, talking, and writing about for upwards of a decade, now - is that the healing community (and this seems especially true in alterna-healing circles) doesn't really honor burn-out as part of a hero's/heroine's journey.  It's seen as a pattern of failure: something to be disavowed in the self and used as some kind of moralistic object lesson when it's perceived in somebody else.  But, more truly, this is just another form of necessary dismemberment at the gates of our collective underworld.  Only an authentic hero/heroine would want to acknowledge that it's happened for them - and, more than likely, repeatedly - and then set about the task of making something sensible and sustaining from the wreckage.

 
I won't claim to have managed such a task at a done-deal level but I have definitely committed myself to maintaining the effort rather than simply hosting a periodic realization that it's work that needs to be done.  Recovering a more authentic self from a period of professional and/or personal burn-out ought to involve more than simply heading back to routes of behavior and intention that inevitably double back to more spent fuses.

I know I'm not the only one working with this particular Chinese puzzle at this time.  Your thoughts and opinions are welcomed either in comments or by way of private mail ...

cherishing

Am very grateful that these last few days of the summer season have shown some sustained improvement with my stamina levels.  I've been able to spend some very enjoyable time in a few favorite spots: along the Charles River, at the local bird sanctuary and gathering herbs in my own sweet garden beds.    Tomorrow, with an equal balance of light and dark hours, may serve a personal recalibration day.  Will be back soon with some images from my wanderings because I took plenty of pictures ...

record keeping

It's always interesting to keep track of the ways my written journal reflects its cover.  Usually I have something specific in mind when making a book selection.  This time I was thinking about moving forward and the ways this process enables us to go through passageways and portals - of time, experience and conscious growth.

This morning I realized how much of what I've been writing relates to acknowledging doors I've deliberately shut.  Some have been sealed for a long time and now I must retrace my steps in order to open them once more.  Some I ignored; as if they didn't exist and the choices they contained weren't mine to make.  A few didn't interest me enough to notice their existence.  Some doors belonged to other people and I could only stand on the outside pushing envelopes through the letter slot - metaphorically or otherwise.

The journal pictured above is relatively new but my general writing methodology is very well established.  The process reminds me of keeping a garden.  Over time I've found many parallels between various journal volumes and individual, always unique, growing seasons.  Advance planning frequently reaches a tipping point where organic life force asserts itself; trumping construction and blurring the edges of specific intentions...

present & accounted for

For the past ten days Celeste has been a little heartbroken and super-watchful.  It's because Jim was road-tripping it to Florida for a long overdue visit with his mom.  This morning he arrived back home.  Naturally the cat is now acting as if she couldn't care less and didn't pine for him intensely while he was gone.  This might not make emotional sense from a human point of view but it's absolutely classic feline psychology.

When he first got in I was still three quarters of the way asleep but I still caught the jubilation in his voice as he announced himself.   I am very glad he took this particular vacation, and fully delighted that he enjoyed the trip, but I'm even happier he's back home.  Life in the household just doesn't seem like it's fully itself without his swingin' bass laying the groove of our ongoing soundtrack.

The seasonal shifts that have been transpiring are making a vivid impression on him.  I am a gold-lit summer girl and so I don't always enjoy peoples' variety of fixations for pushing summer away and focusing on autumn's arrival. It doesn't make sense to take this sort of differing preference personally - any more than it makes sense for the cat to ignore someone she missed so dreadfully.   Yet at times I do find it a personal trial. 

From my perspective it seems no sooner has the sun peaked on the summer solstice than various people start bringing up 'the return to darkness'.   This year I was determined not to have that kind of discourse bother me and equally determined not to feel disturbed once summer reached a point of putting itself to sleep.  I thought I didn't need to keep making it my business if anyone else fancied the choice to leapfrog ahead.  They could do that without a scrim of my barely controlled disapproval.  And I could root myself in the now-ness of each passing moment during my favorite season of the year.  For the most part this intentional live-and-live endeavor has worked quite well. 

I am not sad this year so much as wistful.  Several plans or the simple ideas for plans needed to be tweaked or outright canceled due to my assortment of physical concerns.   For two days before Jim left our main topics of conversation revolved around his itinerary planning and how sorry for myself I felt about the fact that it would be a solo mission for him.  He kept trying to help me feel better about it all.  I kept insisting it was good for me to let myself express the sorrow rather than keeping my distance from such a significant part of the overall recuperative process.

While he was gone I spent a fair amount of time somewhat lost in the process of emotional recalibration.  Once I got rid of my accumulated sorrow and frustration it was time to take a more pleasant inventory of what has happened for & through me during this passing season.   Sifting through the details of that inventory has felt like an authentic blessing.

Plus even I, with my unabashed fantasies of living in an Endless Summer, find something undeniably powerful and appealing about the burnished quality of light as it fades a bit earlier each day.  As we ate dinner this evening Jim mentioned his acute awareness that the light's pattern across the daily timeframe has changed during his brief absence.  It won't be too long before leaf peepers start appearing and the landscape is punctuated by the distinctive gold-green color that's the very heartbeat of autumn's arrival in new england.

I adore that color.  It's part of the natural kingdom's seasonal statement that I authentically relish.  But in stoking my anticipation I'm getting a few weeks ahead of the organic order of things. For now it's still summer at least at the technical level.  This is a time of preparation:  a mini-season of making one last enormous batch of pesto sauce, picking some final sumptuous flower bouquets and assembling the culinary incidentals that lend themselves to pumpkin risotto and slow roasted root vegetable medleys...

uncovering

Lately I've been living the truth of things changing radically while also remaining the same.  An example:  flower essences and all manner of co-creative process have once again become the primary themes in my daily world and professional life.  Somewhere in the midst of this rainy unusual summer I have found the bulk of my e-mail and snail mail correspondence relating to essences; it's kind of like the Old Days when I was working on the Handbook and thinking or writing about flower healing potentiality 'round the clock more days than not.  There's a lovely home-coming sensibility to this particular shift and I perceive it informing all the other changes and mainstay points of focus.

Very familiar subjects/life interests can look quite different at times.  Especially when we take a step back from our best known pathways and approach the same end results or topical overviews from different angles.  Maybe we uncover trail markers left in an earlier time.  Perhaps we ourselves made the markers; maybe they were left by those who have proven to be of lasting influence and inspiration.

In the past month I've been quite busy.  It's proven to be an intensely industrious span of activity rather than simply busy-making for its own sake.  There have been no clear cut plans fueling things so much as a continuous unfolding of circumstance & opportunity.  A couple of things I did [attempt to] plan have dropped by the wayside including a backlog of draft-level posts I still want to publish on this blog.  It's all moved from the ongoing aspiration of tomorrow or the next day to whenever that actually happens.

This morning I took some time away from this desk so I could begin excavating the main garden beds.  Everything has grown to monumental proportions thanks to all the rain we've been having.  I find it hard to know where to begin and equally difficult to decide when it's time to stop.  The wheelbarrow helps me gauge how much energy I ought to expend at any given time.  Once it's full I move on to something less strenuous, at least for little while...

I brought my camera on today's walk over to the post office.  Needed to get some images of a particular medicinal herb and, along the way, I took pictures of the seeding Queen Anne's Lace.  The one above will be my screen saver for the next few weeks; reminding me that some activities are not just a means to their own end.  They also set the seeds for a future growing season I can only imagine in the haziest sense from this here-and-now vantage point.

making the most of it

Yesterday Jim and I enjoyed the rare sunlight with a bit of day tripping.  It's always nice to spend some time with the Charles River ...

Wandering with just the barest outline of a plan is fun for us.  Over the years I think we've most successfully learned how to merge our compatibilities and differences by taking time away from our normally scheduled programs.  Being together in an out-of-daily context becomes the context.  And that's both liberating and coalescent.

We took our time standing on the footbridge that crosses Newton Lower Falls.  The water's activity level was a great prompt for meditation. 

On our way home we stopped for some ice cream. 

Jim had a banana split and I had raspberry sherbet.

The highly satisfying centerpiece of our afternoon was a visit to the De Cordova museum in Lincoln.

I've shared some details about the exhibit we saw, and images from the sculpture park, over at nichobella.  Today I am fairly tired from all the activity but also quite well-satiated and ready to percolate with Unknown results of fresh visual and psychic input ...

everything all at once

As is typical of summer's midpoint the form and texture of the garden is drastically changed.  For the past few days we've had sun for several hours and most of the rain has been coming at night.  I feel like my life is mirroring the same sort of extreme weather patterns and intensive hyper-growth.  At this point I have two other posts in draft mode but they both need more attention before they're ready for posting.

I've been involved with so many different things in the past week that it's really difficult to summarize.  A lot of attention has needed to go to SLI concerns.  There has been an explosion of orders for flower essences.  I usually order dropper bottles etc. every quarter year.  Each time I get roughly twice as many bottles as I think I will need.  Last week I had to place an 'emergency' order to keep pace with the output.  So it's been dizzying especially since I was re-routing some orders during the period of time when I was unwell and felt this left me too energetically unbalanced to handle the mother stocks or any flower essences that weren't meant strictly for my own use.

It would seem I got healthy just in time!  In the midst of the flurrying activity I felt it wise to do a bit of updating on my website.  If you haven't visited in a while, you may want to take a look.

Some weeks back I prepared a key lime flower essence.  Lime remedies are wonderful cleansers - just like the rest of the citrus family.   Key lime has a special affinity for helping us to make wise choices and important decisions that will showcase and invigorate our personal strong suits and most significant healing powers.  I have been working with this essence personally for the past week or so and I really love it.  Lime essences are super-restorative and they do wonders for the the secondary heart and hand chakras as well as eye-hand-heart coordination.

My key lime plant has set fruit as well as a fresh flush of blooms.  I am so besotted by these developments that it isn't even funny.  Most days I try to take at least five or ten minutes to just sit quietly with this plant. It's worth the effort even though "quiet" and my garden are something of a contradiction of terms at the moment.  I am really hoping I will have a chance to get some tidying chores done over the next couple of days.  Taking some concentrated creative time in my work room is also super-important to me. 

 

Amidst the general acceleration of orders there's been a run on the gardenia ray panacea.  It's right in line with a new flush of gardenia buds.  This is another plant that I try to sit with as often as possible.  I have two fortuniana bushes that have been with me since they were only two sprigs in tiny pots from Logees.

As many readers know I prepare each flower essence on a per-order basis.  It's not the most efficient system but I believe it is the most potentizing for the essences, my overall relationship with the attendant plant medicine spirits, and an individual connection-link for recipients of the remedies.   When I was preparing the first panacea synergy in the run I noticed that the comfrey essence has been compromised.  I decided to switch it out with a simple triad blend that contains feverfew and prunella as well as comfrey. 

Over the weekend, when the sun finally broke through, I was able to prepare a new comfrey essence.  It was an unexpected opportunity; I had just finished explaining to several customers that I had no idea when I'd be able to do this so I'd been making the Triage Trio substitution in the panacea synergy's recipe.  My surprise at the unexpected opportunity to co-create with the comfrey flowers was underlined by a flair of appreciation for the garden spirits' sense of humor.  It never fails even when mine temporarily takes a long walk off a short peer...

on the cusp of more rain

note:  see asterik* at the end of this post for ideas of how lemon balm tincture may be employed.

This morning I was all caught up with finding a specific fabric in the cedar closet.  Then I was busy writing in my journal about the other things I hope to accomplish today.  Finally I got outside to harvest lemon balm for tincture-making.   Time was of the essence because (a) the plant is starting to set the earliest form of flower buds and I don't like to mess much with growing things while they are in their active flowering process and (b) it looked & felt like it would rain any minute.

Over the winter I read a recipe from Susun Weed that called for three consecutive infusions of lemon balm leaves.   Can't recall the source right now and do not have extra time or energy for searching so I'll have to publish an addendum at some indeterminate future time.  But I do recall the gist of the instructions.  I hoped to make a triple blend this year but fear I didn't get to it early enough in the season.  So this will probably wind up being just two consecutive infusions.

Given the rain-filled storm clouds overhead, I harvested the herb before walking down to the package store for some 100% vodka.  Then I returned to strip the leaves from the stems.  This is a very pleasant way to spend time; I like to take my time and let the occasion bring me in that much greater mindful appreciation of the plant medicine spirit.

Susun offered a rather whimsical way of judging how much plant material to use.  She likens it to building a fairy mattress:- pack a jar too loosely and the fairy will fall through the empty spaces BUT pack too firmly and the fairy will not be able to rest.  I remember this detail of the recipe quite clearly. 

Having made innumerable tinctures over the years I am aware that a wide-mouthed pint canning jar will yield a generous year's worth of healing medicine for my family and first circle of friends.   Quite awhile back I posted a mini tutorial on tincture preparation.  Today I couldn't put my hands on a wooden chopstick or bamboo skewer that hasn't been used to stir or mix paint.   So I substituted the plastic end of a barbecue fork to ease-out air bubbles once the jar was filled with vodka.

The picture above illustrates how crucial it is to get rid of the air in the jar.  Can you see how much extra room developed?  All that space needs to be filled to the brim with more vodka.   To ease-out the bubbles I begin by gently pressing down in the center of the plant material.  Then I very carefully and gently press down around the edges of the jar.  It takes a few complete circlings of the edges to release all the air.   Following the first complete circle I very gently rock the mini-masher while I'm turning the jar.  The additional agitation releases lots more air bubbles.

NOTE:   If you have a blender you can prepare your maceration by filling the jar with herbs and vodka.   Dump the mixture in the blender and process on "chop".  Pour the results back into the bottle.  There won't be much air to release but take a few gentle stirs until the mixture is quiet and bubble free.  Then add vodka to the brim.  I killed my blender processing elecampane roots and haven't yet replaced it so, until I do, this season's tinctures are coming to life in a low-tech way.

Since the mashing process compacts the bottom levels of plant matter, I invert the bottle for a week or so in order to distribute the contents more evenly.  In a perfect world macerating tinctures should be shaken vigorously on a daily basis.  In reality you can simply do this whenever you happen to remember the task.   I recommend placing the bottles - out of direct sunlight, please - in very plain sight (if you have room upon any sort of healing altar, that would makes an ideal home for this project-in-progress) so that it's easier to remember to shake them.   Six to eight weeks after you begin this process, double strain the infusion through unbleached coffee filters and pour into dropper bottles.  LABEL the bottles.  I include the name (common and botanical) of the tincture, the year it was prepared, and a few keywords that indicate how it might be used.

Back at the general making stage of things be sure to label all macerations with the name of the tincture and when you began the infusion process.  I also like to add the sun and moon sign of the herbal harvest.  Additionally I make a notation on the family's wall calendar on the date when the infusion is ready to be strained.  And I keep all information (starting and straining dates) recorded in a personal datebook that's devoted to my various healing endeavors. 

As time passes I find these datebooks to be invaluable reference tools.  I keep a record of all flower essence preparations as well as tincture and oil infusions.  I like using the We'Moon datebook for this purpose because the daily calendar contains a wealth of astrological data, including very precise lunar information.

* Lemon balm is a sedative so I always advise adding just a few drops to a juice glass of water.  Although it's a very mild sedative it's best to see how the property interacts with your body before increasing the dosage one drop at a time.

The tincture may be helpful for insomnia.  It's also wonderful for any occasion of high-stress and overwork;  I know people who keep half ounce dropper bottles in their day pack, by the phone, and at the computer. 

The plant also has anti-depressant qualities which make it useful for sadness - especially the kind that comes from Seasonal Affect Disorder.  Classically, the tincture (or tea) is advised for relief from flu symptoms.   As a digestive aid I have found lemon balm particularly nice for the sense of uncomfortable bloating than can follow a rich meal holding a higher far content than one's regular diet.

Lemon balm is also anti-bacterial and anti-fungal.  It's nice to add a few drops to water (add a drop or two of lavender bud tincture, too, if you've got it...) that's meant as a mouth rinse.  I also like to add it to rinsing water following a pedicure.  If your arms and legs have gotten scratched-up from working in the garden or walking in woods or fields, take a small bowl of water laced with a few drops of the tincture into your bath or shower.  Dip your washcloth in the bowl and run it gently over the scrapes and scratches as an initial cleansing process.  Use any remaining liquid as a final rinse.

resurfacing

This picture was taken on Sunday morning to document the out-of-control quality of the rainy garden.  Since then there's been more sun than rain.  And I am feeling well enough to get out there for at least a few minutes of task mastering each day.   Have been focused mainly on cutting back some of the herbs before they come into flower.  Anise hyssop and lemon balm have received the most attention from me.  Both leaves make nice teas.

Lemon balm is a wonderfully soothing digestive aid that can be a special friend to those with thyroid imbalances.   Many of my herb-savvy friends sent me articles about this ally while I was dealing with the most overt symptoms of Graves Disease.  While the plant holds strong affinity for over active thyroid issues it can also punch-up an under-functioning gland as well.  The herb also holds mild sedative and anti-depressant properties.  It's extremely easy to grow - falling into the invasive plant category for many gardeners.  I don't mind how much the plant expands because I adore its energy.

Anise hyssop is nice for sinus congestion.  The plant has a warming property that makes it especially good for chilly days throughout the fall season.  I have also been harvesting spearmint.  This is one of my favorite simple remedies for a host of common ailments.  It's a very good digestive aid; not as harsh as peppermint so that makes it a good and solid choice for the whole family. 

Each year I make fresh tincture from the leaves.  This is good for a "quick" digestive aid especially at times when brewing up a cup of tea simply isn't practical.  You can keep a small dropper bottle of tincture on ready hand in the medicine cabinet and a purse or backpack.  The remedy will also come in handy for headaches.  Try this if you are traveling and stuck in a hermetically sealed room with stale air:  Moisten a washcloth with hot water .  Place a few drops of the tincture on the side of the washcloth that will not lay directly against your face.  Lay the cloth against your forehead and relax for 10-20 minutes. 

note:  this kind of refreshment may be especially helpful when you are cutting back on caffeine or getting rid of it altogether.

My latest round of health concerns has given me plenty of time to think about ways I might enhance and refine my general quality of life.    And, also, to re-visit my core priorities.  After awhile I think we get so accustomed to that core that we don't necessarily question whether or not decisions we've made in the past tense still serve us as well as we need to be served by our own choice-making process.

For the past week I have been watching the white climbing roses pictured above coming into bloom just beyond my desk window.  I have spent the time I've been at my desk working on a writing project  that will need a lot more energy and focus to reach a publishable form.  It has seemed as if the climbing roses have been talking to me about the ways I'll need to make shifts in order to reach my goals in way that will be effective as well as satisfying.

Well.  On the other hand it nearly always seems as if some flowering plant or another is talking to me ...