a rinse 'n' repeat resurrection?

I posted my first blog entry 20 years ago today. It was a daily practice. Then it wasn’t. Then it was. Rinse and repeat. You get the idea.

I wrote, "...this practice may simply allow me to organically explore the diversity of life, healing, spirit and energies that make up my being and offer me the experiences and opportunities that I am able to share with others - in the hopes to nurture holistic wellness and growth."

Two years ago I reflected, “Not my best structured sentence, but the meaning rings through.”

I feel a tug to resurrect the practice. Again. A tug to spew words sans judgement. Just get it out. Just flow. For the Medicine it might offer. For me, for sure. Maybe for you, too.

I write. And doodle. Every day. It’s a ritual - a Medicine practice, I say - that was reignited this past year, thanks to my Moonshine work and coven. I embrace the quiet of early morning. I cajole my mind, heart, body and being to settle into the day, to explore the current hedge of life’s mysteries.  To sip coffee. To ignore my tinnitus. To witness signs. To imagine imaginings. To stretch my body’s stiffness. To seek wisdom. To acknowledge the privilege of these morning rituals. And so on. I pick up my fuck-waste refillable fountain pens, make note of the lunar position, the ordinary date, and let the mercurial expressions present - just flow - in my daily Book of Mirrors.

Like in the recent entry I’m sharing with you here.

Despite the seasonal tug to honor the message in that entry, methinks - with this blogiversary - I may need to honor the other tug to return to this typed ritual. I mean, I know it’s been plucking at me for the past several months. I know there’s a communal need to share the Medicine that is our stories, be they grand ‘r humble. I recognize there’s a communal need to share comfort with one another. I know I’m fiercely solitary. So this way, with these typed words, feels fitting… again… in this moment.

Maybe this is it. The resurrection of regular (if not daily) shared expressions. If not for you, then for me. Whatcha think?

As I sit with this, and continue sipping my morning brew, penning my pre-dawn ruminations, I invite you - if you are able - to offer attention to the words that the spirit of winter offered me… “Embrace Winter: The spirit of quiet, stillness, slow pace, be the be. Just flow.”

Be the be. We shall see. Just flow.

🕊️

18-year Blogiversary Honor

Today, December 29th, marks the day I started to blog back on the edge of 2004. For reasons I don't really understand, I pause most every year on this day to honor the original intentions, reevaluate them, and assess my current 'n' forward intentions as I settle in with the fresh roots of winter. It's one of those odd days in which I give credence to the linear count of time. An odd day that also offers attention to the impending calendar flip, the march of linear time. Anyhoo...

Today - this 18-year blogiversary - feels akin to a spiral intersecting itself. I've been getting a bit of that feel lately. As I retire my business, yet continue the work that has always claimed me, I've considered returning to a regular blogging practice, a practice that may well replace the newsletter that has been a monthly ritual since - at least - 2013, the year I turned my attentions away from blogging. I consider this, and the meaning in the words I shared in my first blog post all those years ago...

"...this practice may simply allow me to organically explore the diversity of life, healing, spirit and energies that make up my being and offer me the experiences and opportunities that I am able to share with others - in the hopes to nurture holistic wellness and growth."

Not my best structured sentence, but the meaning rings through.

I'll be sitting with Nona Gaia, and with these words 'n' their meaning, words that still fill me, that still hold value, and that inspire me to feel as if I'm returning to a familiar, loving home that nourishes and sustains me, still... a home with deep roots, a home that holds a key part of the spiral of my being, my life, my journeys.

Stay tuned.

Peace. 🕊

A Healing Journey of Challenge and Evolution. AKA: Everything's Normal...

In 2004, when I first starting blogging, many of my posts were undeniably rooted in my personal healing journey, my evolution. The posts were written more for me that for any reader. In most ways this is still true, though in ways one might not easily recognize. And that's OK. Yet I feel a tug - at least today - to write for me, to document my journey/s here as well as in my heART journals. And so it goes.

The last couple months of 2017 were razor focused on some deep diving into the seas of my heart to examine closely the things I claimed as vital, not just to my life, but to all life, past, present and future. Some of what I discovered there was beautifully delicious, while other discoveries required brief dives and wee sips, a need for frequent decompression, and the recurring need come up for air. There was a lot of returning and returning. Know what I mean? Much of it was distinctly uncomfortable. And while I feel I've gleaned a better, deeper, if not darker understanding of my own heart and what urges me in this life, I feel I've returned to the surface with a lot of sorting and blending to manage in the days and months ahead.

As January came ripe and transformed into February, the work of sorting perplexed and puzzled me, for what I perceived felt out of character, and distinctly out of my comfort zone, for I was - quite possibly for the first time in this life - seeing things in binary form, distinct and separate, and at odds.

Then today came. And today I sense that this exercise in black and white (as they say) has broadened my view of a perspective that I do not embrace. From this higher and deeper space, I've been offered a gift of greater understanding and compassion for those who cling to what my own experience has taught me is a falsehood. A falsehood that pervades our social conventions. There's a part of me that hopes I can feel and express more of that understanding and compassion for those with whom I feel at odds, a little or a lot... and there's another part that I can feel stiffening against this hope. And yet, there it is, a challenge I've been offered, and a challenge to which I must respond.

You know what I'm talkin' about.

Yet this is still surface stuff, what I feel most drawn to in this challenge is the alchemy of it, the need to stir my cauldron with all the rival verve, and simmer it all to temper and manifest something delicious from the discomfort.

So now I sit with Nona Luna, et al, to witness the tides that stir the cauldron and temper all things in this salty brew I call life. I must stay alert, for the next phase of this journey will be lonely, for I am called to play The Hermit, with only my observations to keep me company.

Wish me well.

And may your journey bring you challenge and evolution.

Peace.

What Whispers Await

A few 2017 ferments. Some assimilated. Some we're still enjoying.
Along with others much older.

Here we are... hanging on the burgeoning daylight of the recent winter solstice, and teetering on the cusp of the so-called new year. For me, this little patch of early winter is a time that squirms with the potential of new opportunities.

There's still plenty of night darkness in which to feel held and hidden, and just enough expanding daylight to feel the squirm of our inner seeds. It's a patch of time that invites us to take a risk, to pick a seed and nurture it in the quiet stillness of winter.

On this day in 2004 I published by first blog post. As I gaze into this reflection from my current perspective the act hardly seems risky. Yet I do recall how tentative - and dare I say brave - I felt when I posted that very first Welcome-to-my-blog-entry, a statement of intention that was clearly more for me than for any reader. Nonetheless, it is, in fact, the second post on December 30, 2004 that still whispers to me... whispers how I had (finally) grown comfortable with my own voice, and was willing to share it with others.

A lot has changed in these past 13 years. And a lot hasn't. Kinda like a 13-year-old crock of forgotten kraut. While my voice has evolved, it hasn't changed much. I recognize easily it in myself and in others. Yet, it has grown stronger and wilder, and while I can still meander like no one's business, it has grown more concise. And in this season it stirs, and squirms, and I wonder... what fresh whispers await me?

Peace.

Journey's Landscape

Today marks a thing that many of us blog-folk call our blogiversary. For me, it all started in 2004 on a long-ago format that could barely handle text. Twelve years ago.

In that opening entry I wrote: No telling where this may lead. For me, herbs encompass one day, spiritual guidance the next, shamanic journeys another, maybe time spent with Nature, or drumming, and so on . . . you get the idea. To me, this diversity is at the heart of the people's medicine. We have choices. We have the will to learn about them. We have the power to choose. And we have the right to change! 

Silly words. Filled with the Wisdom of the Fool that inspires me, leads me, pushes me... is me. Still. I reflect on these aging words, wrinkled and sagging, and consider just how little and just how much has changed in this measure of reality. I reflect on the journey's landscape...  on what I've witnessed... from angles all my own.

In this moment, this eternal present we share right now, I feel infinitely grateful, and challenged... pissed off at feeling so pissed off about so much... and ready to continue the healing path... with or without you. Your choice.

And across the landscape I hear the echo: No telling where this may lead. Still.

Peace.

Reflections of Gratitude

On this day in 2004 I posted my first blog. Since then, the venues have changed a number of times as have the technologies that support them. My early blogs were pure written word, for images weren't even a possibility. A lot has changed over the past eleven years and I am grateful for those changes ~ in my rooted life, as well as those less tangible in my online life.

I reflect back and consider the folks who've been following my follies since those early days, and feel gratitude for the relationships we've forged together over the years. I find myself visiting the blogs of these friends, keeping in touch on Facebook, and in many ways it's like visiting them at their homes, getting glimpses of their daily lives and the passions that fan their heart flames.

I am grateful for the intimacy, the friendship, the love... even if I never meet you in ordinary reality. Thank you for that. You nourish and sustain me ~ and my follies ~ in ways you'll never know. And I am grateful.

And today I'm grateful, too, for our first snow of the season. Peace.

A Perch on the Cusp of New

This morning I made some time to visit some familiar blogs and to explore some new ones. After all, some long-standing relationships have been nurtured through this blogsphere that we share. Am I right? And meeting new folks and forging new relationships is always welcome.

At some point in my visiting and exploring I noticed today's date ... and paused ... and thought about how my first blog entry made manifest around this time many years ago. So I checked. Yep. December 29, 2004 marked my first blog post. Here I am, ten years later, to the date, still blathering, still journaling in a public forum, and still connected to some of those very first followers.

While the venues and flavors of my posts have shifted over the years, the general intention has remained constant ~ to nurture personal and tribal holistic wellness and growth.

This awareness, of my ten-years of blogging and my original intention, combined with an awareness of other things coalescing at present, things made tangible in current heART journal entries ... and at the time of our conventional, our shared (our tribal) calendar flip ... offered me pause.

I just happen to be coming to "the end" of my current heART journal. It looks like I'll be starting a fresh journal at this time of year we collectively call "new." And I've given these ideas (of "ends" and "news" and all things perceived as linear) more holistic consideration than I have in years, complete with so many of the shared conventions of our tribe. Like what? Like resolutions.

I don't do resolutions. Haven't in years. Yet, it looks like serendipity is luring me in this time and space that we all share. Luring me toward a single-minded "theme" for my "new year" heART journal. I consider how the timing is completely unintentional. I also consider how all things happen with reason and purpose. So ... my new journal's theme (more on that later), will set the tone for this calendar kick-off that we share.

Oh, I know this may sound like incoherent babbling to some of you, but, after all, I blog for me. That was always at the heart my intention ... and if my babbling happens to express something that adds value somewhere in my tribe, so much the better.

To those who visit, I thank you, whether it's a one-stop, or a regular visit.

Peace.

A Revisit to Uncontaminatable Essence

Yesterday marked a blog anniversary for me. It was on December 29, 2004 that my opening entry was posted and all I can really say is tempus fugit. I read my entry from 9 years ago today and laughed. 

Rather than ruminate about it here, I thought I'd take a shortcut and simply post it … 

Uncontaminatable Essence

"I am an enthusiastic Visionary with an uncontaminatable essence."~ Gaynor Linnecor

A precious friend shared these glorious words with me today and once I got past the physical challenge of pronouncing "uncontaminatable" out loud - I laughed out loud!

I laughed for two reasons.

One reason was the shear humor at hearing my own voice spitting and stumbling over what seemed an utterly unpronounceable word. Once I surrendered to simply speaking the word as I understood it and not trying to pronounce it as written, it was simple. I laughed again. Why do we make things so difficult for ourselves?

The other reason I laughed is the serendipity of the quote. In my quest for simple approaches to healing and wellness I have started (expanded, really) to experiment with making my own fermented foods, by simply working with the itsy-bitsy airborne fungi and bacteria that share my home and kitchen with me (and you with yours!). It is sad that we live in a world where simply hearing the words "bacteria and fungi" evoke thoughts of "enemy!"and "Contaminant!" Where product after product bombards us with antibacterial this and antibacterial that. A world that is pasturized and homogenized to death. 

Fear not contamination.

In my play and education with fermented foods I have learned and remembered that those little "germs" that cause fermentation have given us mighty gifts throughout our history. Not the least being simple survival! And wine! Those "contaminants" work magick for us - by preserving nutrients, creating new ones and transforming others into more digestible foods! Those pesky "contaminants" actually work to transform and remove toxins from foods!

Ahhh, how can I fear contamination when it comes to me as such a miracle as this? These contaminants are my friends. They are my newfound midwives and nurses, showing me old ways to do new things . . . showing me how unnecessary, wasteful and potentially detrimental arbitrary killing of them is . . . showing me wisdom practiced and handed down from the ancients that is life-sustaining - in both metaphor and practical application! Showing me, that pasteurization is not in the interest of my personal health and wellness, but rather that of an larger profit-oriented energy and that homogenization defies the mystery of Nature - of life itself - by only offering a consistent product time after time. That’’s just dull, and dulling - not words I associate with wellness.

So, I say - Make friends with your enemies! Learn from your contaminants! It certainly makes things simpler (less difficult). In doing so, you open yourself to becoming an uncontaminatable essence!

It’s silly, isn’t it? The simple practice of fermentation has reminded me that, from a holistic perspective, our enemies are usually our allies. So, yes - "I am an enthusiastic Visionary with an uncontaminatable essence" and you can be too! 


As I reread this I thought to myself, some things change, and some things don't. And I laughed again. As for now … I think I'll go ferment something. 

That's what I made today. Peace.

Reflections in Popcorn Stitches

I published my first blog post on December 29, 2004. It's funny to think that I've maintained a public blog for seven years, and even funnier (in a very grateful way) to consider that some folks have been following it for almost as long, from ByRegion to MySpace to Blogspot.

Popping back to that first post, I'm reminded that I started blogging primarily for me - as a discipline in both witnessing and in writing. My secondary emphasis rested in a vague hope that what I shared might inspire someone else in some nurturing way.

Words took center stage those first four years. When I moved here in 2008 imagery quickly took over. This pleased me, and pleases me still, since I prefer visual stimuli and respond favorably to it in most every conceivable way.

Yet, I love words, for they, too, are powerful tools of expression … creative expression … healing expression. And as I conveyed in that very first post, "… diversity is at the heart of the people's medicine. We have choices. We have the will to learn about them. We have the power to choose. And we have the right to change!"


So today, I changed up my morning routine. The Boy was home and while he practiced guitar I taught myself a new crochet stitch, a popcorn stitch. I'm not sure what I'll do with this stitch, or what I'll make with it … but it's a form of medicine for me, and it's another choice, so I learned about it, so I can choose and change when the time is ripe. 

And this little exercise demonstrated to me, yet again, my propensity for the visual, given the source from which I learned this stitch.


That's what I made today. Peace.

A Silly Six Year Milestone

Six years ago today I posted my first blog entry ...

Wellness Journey . . . Here and There

Welcome to my blog! No telling where this may lead. For me, herbs encompass one day, spiritual guidance the next, shamanic journeys another, maybe time spent with Nature, or drumming, and so on . . . you get the idea. To me, this diversity is at the heart of the people's medicine. We have choices. We have the will to learn about them. We have the power to choose. And we have the right to change! A regular entry in a blog, like any journal, may force me to focus on one aspect of wellness or another (something many of my peers have "encouraged" me to do, and yet I resist!). On the other hand, this practice may simply allow me to organically explore the diversity of life, healing, spirit and energies that make up my being and offer me the experiences and opportunities that I am able to share with others - in the hopes to nurture holistic wellness and growth.

So, join me in this journey, wherever it may lead, and - please - add your comments, for they are food for me! I invite you to offer your experiences and insights, as well as your challenges to my perceptions! So that is where I am today. I wonder where I will be tomorrow? Be well by Nature!

12/29/2004

In those six years things have changed, some quite a bit and others not much at all. One constant is that I'm still honoring where I am each day and still wondering (dreaming) where I will be tomorrow. I hope you are too.

To celebrate this silly milestone - and the upcoming calendar flip - I'm having a giveaway. After all, it is Wednesday … Win a Whimsy Wednesday (remember Win a Whimsy Wednesday?- so watch out for that post!

Peace.

Things

Bless me readers for I have slacked. It has been five days since my last blog post. :)

I have been enjoying hibernation - in my own way - and taking a break from daily posts have been a part of that. After all, I've been blogging pretty darn steady since December 29, 2004. So I deserve a break from time to time, don't you think?

Nevertheless, I've been busy making things. In these past five days have:

• Taught myself Tunisian crochet
• Cooked, served and ate a beef heart (local and pasture-fed) for a first time experience
• Played with inks and some very vibrant colors, another new experience
• Completed several journal pages
• Started painting some of the summer-made jewelry
• Put some plans into action
• Updated some stuff for our May Forest Folk camping event
• Browsed through art books for ideas and inspiration
• Shared time with my heathen friends for our monthly discussion group
• Put away much of the holiday decorations, leaving out some seasonal color and light
• Managed paperwork, some tax prep, laundry, cooking and other assorted housekeeping tasks
• Sipped coffee, tea and tonight (this week's "Friday" night) cocktails

So even though I've been quiet here, I've making ... all sorts of things!

Peace.

Sacred Space & Gratitude

Today the boy left the hut for a while, leaving me golden quiet time in which to make sweet space for sacred works of the conscious variety. I threw cards and did a couple readings. I spun several spirit chokers and made a couple book cords. 

Later we tackled errands together. A trip to the package store for a bottle of bubbly and a few other non-essentials ... the hardware store ... the grocer ... and the local health food store ...

It was in the health food store that I ran into my friend Laura who very recently started a blog, Purple Rose Musings (you should check it out) and I thought to myself (who else would I think to?) ... holy blog  Batman! I started blogging four years ago yesterday ... December 29, 2004 was my virgin blog post. 

So now, for you kind reader, I make sacred space, I light a candle, I burn a leaf of white sage and I say THANK YOU!

Thank you for caring and sharing. Thank you visiting and returning. Thank you for playing my silly games. Thank you for following me from ByRegion to Myspace to Blogspot. Thank you for your support and comments whether it's just for today or for the duration. Thank you for being a friend, be it the kind I know and see or the kind I've not yet met. 

THANK YOU!