Weaving Together

I wore, as is my habit, one of my Spirit Cords to the Women's Herbal Conference this past weekend. It serves as a lanyard, as well as a reminder of my intentions. But I also packed my finger-spun Prayer Cord... the one made with vintage fabrics that came from my Aunt Mary, and leftover fabric from a shirt I made in the 1980s to wear when fishing with my father-in-law (and awesome friend)... the one with thirteen prayers knotted in between the closing knots of creative intention. As I was packing, I was compelled to bring it along, though didn't know why, yet the feeling was so strong that I - as I so often do - trusted the feeling. 

You know what I'm talking about. ::nods::

Then came the drive north, and the homecoming (arrival, if you prefer) and settling-in, and eventual wandering-about. And then there was this... hanging sticks and twine, and waiting scraps of fiber and fabric... a sacred community space waiting to make manifest within a sacred community space along a well-traveled pathway at the conference (within a sacred community space, and so on. Right)? And there it was. I knew why that Prayer Cord came along.

I recall the verve of those thirteen prayers and feel such deep sweetness that it's now part of this community weaving that made manifest over this past weekend. It was magic to be witness to its evolution... to be witness to the beauty that all those prayers, all those intentions, all those wishes and dreams, tears and laughter, hurts and forgivenesses, to all that LoVe weaving together.

The whole weekend.

And still.

::nods::

Peace.

My Way to Medicine

This is one of those days where I look at my gardens, cultivated and wild, and say to them, "Relax. Be gentle in your expressions over these next few days. I will be home soon to bless you, to honor you, and to tend to your generosity, for now I must make my way to Medicine."

And as I express these words I realize that they are, indeed, a blessing. A blessing to "my little acre" and the rooted life within it...  to the spouse, to the dog and the chickens, and to me and the Medicine weekend in which I'll be immersed.

Over the past few days I've been diligent with harvests and preserves, and even tidied up a couple spent beds and added mulch to them as well as to a pathway or two. Even this morning I'm finishing off the tomatoes and squash that are in the dehydrator. There are herbs hung to dry, and more waiting to join them when I return home from the Medicine that is New England Women's Herbal Conference.

I'm driving up today with a blessed green syster, and have two intensive classes waiting for me tomorrow to kick off the weekend. And the rest will be filled with learning and sharing, healing and compassion, drumming and dreaming, and so much more. And for all this I am so very, very grateful.

This Medicine respite comes at the perfect pivotal time for me, just as the gardens are exploding, and just before the mad rush to manage them as the food and Medicine that sustains us through the year. And for all this I am so very, very grateful.

Peace.

Stillness and Evolution

Over the past couple of days I've been witness to and recipient of energies and behaviors that seem distinctly contrary to the Kindness work in which I'm currently immersed, to the verve I'm nurturing and inviting into my being, my life, my Medicine, my world.

It's fascinating. The experience has reopened portals to mysteries renewed to me. It has turned mirrors toward me, and I face more challenges... to even my own kindnesses... to my expressions, to my best intentions... to my Medicine ways.

This experience was born from a consciously reluctant choice to express myself... to others... in a space I generally remain still.

I'm not sure what it all means in this moment, but I feel a space opening to me where Kindness and Truths are intersecting. And I can feel another portal forming... and I know my task is to prepare for this passage, this next tract of journey.

It's an adventure, this life. It offers beauty and cruelty, forgiveness and hurt, comfort and pain, release and judgement, clarity and confusion... and so on. And so today I pack my bags - both literal and figurative, as serendipity would have it - to prepare for this next tract of journey.

And I shall be still. As the portal forms. As the Good Medicine evolves.

Peace.

Kindness

This past week has filled my heart with opportunities and "surprises." The kind of opportunities and "surprises" that remind me that the more kindness I nurture within mySelf, the more kindness I see around me. And the more truth I speak, the more truth I see around me. And I am grateful.

Nurturing kindness should be so easy, right? And I feel it getting easier. Yet it is a challenge in this world we live in, a world that seeks to individuate, divide, and set us against one another, that seeks to indoctrinate us that someone (else) is always to blame. It is a challenge when I witness conversations of complaint, or expressions of judgement about things that - in the grand scheme - matter not one iota. It is a challenge. Yet the more I consciously root myself in kindness, the more it becomes part of me. It is a challenge, and work most worthy.

I invite you to give it a go. Nurture kindness in yourSelf. The world needs it. Now more than ever.

We'll revisit the truth at a later date.

Peace.