Springtime Medicine

Like the transition of the seasons around me, I've been pensive, reluctant to give up the evening fires at home, and the whole holistic verve of the long, dark nights. Winter has been reluctant as well. I see this Truth in the piles of snow from our last storm. And Spring, likewise, has been reluctant. Reluctant to shove ol' Winter off of center stage. Yet, I see Spring in the emerging patches of exposed earth and the life awakening there... in the seedlings I have started... in the waxing daylight that taunts me outdoors, even as the damp chill lingers. And I see it in me.

All seasonal transitions are beautiful, meaningful and valuable to me. Yet this one ~ winter to spring ~ seems to latch on to my awareness like no other. Or... maybe it just feels that way because, well, here we are in it.

I honor and love so deeply the razor-sharp awareness that I seem to experience as Spring pushes Winter aside. This time of obvious transition offers lessons, challenges, chances to glean Wisdom, ripe with mundane mystery, complex simplicity, temporal divinity...

With that, I invite you to make moments of pause, to join me in this time of enchantment, time and again, to b.r.e.a.t.h.e. in the season's Good Medicine.

Peace.

PS Since I'm preparing to get out 'n' about in Nature, I'm linking this to this past week's Art Journal Journey. It's a stretch, maybe, but I'm goin' for it! And linking to Paint Party Friday as well!

Delicious Procrastination

I had a few things on today's list that just weren't resonating. Know what I mean? Since they weren't time sensitive I chose to procrastinate and modify yet another cookie recipe to make these wonders...

Hempy Cardamom Cacao Nib Cookies
Makes about 2.5 dozen cookies (though, let's face it, it all depends on your choice of cookie size)
Preheat oven to 375ºF

Cream:
1 cup of virgin coconut oil
Add gradually and beat until creamy:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
Beat in:
2 eggs
1 generous teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift together and stir in:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cardamom powder (or more!)
Stir in:
1 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup hemp seeds
Drop the batter from a tablespoon, well apart, on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake about 13 minutes. Cool on a rack and then... enJOY!

Use organic (and fair trade) ingredients as much as you possibly can. It's not just good for your body, it's good for our environment, our world community and our collective future.

Peace.

Waiting for Gaia's Vernal Thaw

Beautiful, unpredictable March, the month that ushers in the vernal equinox, the solar portal of spring... I experience mixed feelings as spring approaches. I mourn the loss of winter's long, dark, solitary hibernation and nights lingering by the warmth and glow of an evening fire. I celebrate the increasing pace of seed-starting, harvesting, opened doors and windows, and the decline of wood-burning dust. Already, strolling around my little acre, currently void of snow (or mostly), I've begun harvesting garlic mustard and onion grass, I see the cleavers and chickweed sprouting, motherwort reemerging, along with Egyptian onions, and a host of others that simply wait for the snow to melt. I'm still waiting for the first signs of the nettle, and remind myself that it's still early. So while I wait for the fullness of Gaia's vernal thaw, I'll be planting my own garden... starting and tending to the seedlings that will nourish and sustain me for months and years ahead.  In. Deed.  Indeed. ::nods:: Peace.