We Must First Breathe Out

I returned from Vermont late Tuesday night. I spent the weekend at Toni Stone's home in Fairfax at a Prosperity Training. This was the second in a series of 7 weekend trainings over the next year, every other month. I decided to do this training because my life has been so vitally enhanced by the prosperity tools I have utilized and because of the prosperity coaching I have received over the last 9 years.
I always choose challenge. Even when I say I don't like it in the middle of it, that I am going to be easier on myself next time etc. etc. The work that we did over the weekend didn't seem so challenging on the surface. We made books about our season in the prosperity cycles. We studied Feng Shui together and the Chinese Zodiac. We did needle point, we wrote, we colored. We prepared meals together and we had deep conversations about what is so.
I woke up on Sunday morning in a fit of despair. I felt like I was the most inept person alive, that I cannot even get my life together. I laid in bed for awhile in this "seeming" problem and then decided to get up and begin my chores. I thought if I moved my body, I could move my emotional body as well. I met one of my fellow prosperity practioners in the kitchen, Tim, an electrician and stand up comedian. I shared with him about what I was experiencing. He said, "There is no destination we are trying to get to. We just keep going forward, keep practicing." This helped.
We sat down in the large comfy living room/course room to write and have conversations. I shared my despair about being such a fuck-up. Toni said to the group, "Who isn't a fuck-up here? Who isn't inept?" Well, no one raised their hands. I realized that it doesn't matter, all this stuff that goes on in my head about my experience. That spending time in self concern about what my life is like was keeping me from being fully alive. This experience was ego shattering for me. It drew me away from the mind chatter of what I think I am, back into myself and who I truly am.
A shamanic teacher of mine once said that the mind chatter, the voice that goes on and on in our heads is like the out-breath. Just let it go. As the words, the thoughts float through our consciousness, just allow them to be expelled.

Intuition and inspiration are the in-breath.

In order to breathe in the breath of possibility, we must first breathe out.

May it be in Beauty.

Online Intensive: Food, Energetics and Nourishment

Join Herbalist, Nutritionist, and food lover, Darcey Blue French of Brighid's Well Herbs (www.brighidswellherbs.com), for a 6 week online intensive course on the energetics of food, true nourishment, nutrition, relationship with place and food, nutritional healing and more.

March 15, 2010 - May 3, 2010

*Learn about the ways traditional healing systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine see food energetics, and use food as healing tools on a day to day basis.
* Explore your relationship with food, your body, what you eat and why.
* Discover your natural physical constitution, and how you can use food to help you stay balanced.
* Be prepared for a deep exploration of food and our relationship to it, this can be uncomfortable and emotional, as well as enlightening and sensual. Food is a deeply influential factor in our psyche, social interactions, and cultures. All students are expected to be sensitive to others and compassionate and respectful.
*Appropriate for food enthusiasts & practitioners alike.
*Very HANDS ON, expect to be preparing foods, meals and weekly assignments for the duration of the course. This is an EXPERIENTIAL class, not just book work. I will provide resources and readings, but the bulk of the work will require the actual preparation and consumption of food.
* This is not a cooking how to class. You should feel comfortable cooking and working in your kitchen. There will be recipes and ideas shared during class discussion, and pointers and questions are always acceptable.
*Requires access to e mail and the internet on a weekly basis. Class discussion is a part of the learning process. Arrangements may be available for those with limited access. Please inquire.

Sliding scale $60-$80 per student, payable by check or paypal. Payment in installments is available by request.

Please register by emailing Darcey at shamana.flora@gmail.com or calling 520 429 2654.



About the Instructor:
Darcey Blue French is an herbalist and food lover, who has over the years explored various ways of eating, interacting with food and preparing food. Educated as a Clinical Nutritionist at the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism in 2008, she has been in private practice since that time. She has experience in Ayurvedic Cooking, Vegetarian, Allergen Free, Primal/Paleo diets and the philosophies of Dr. Weston Price. Food is far more than fuel, and Darcey is passionate about food that not only nourishes the body, but also the spirit, and tastes wonderful too. She works closely with plants, both wild and cultivated that provide both food and medicine. She is an avid forager of wild foods, gardener of organic vegetables, and is passionate about local and sustainable food systems, and how our relationship with the land, nature and wilderness impacts our physical and spiritual health and wellbeing. She truly believes that one cannot separate the health of the people from the health of the ecosystem in which they live.

Work in Progress II

I wonder if the reason

we - artists-writers-herbalists-soft underbelly mamas -

don't get the work in the world

we wish for

is because we are so damn busy waiting for

approval.

waiting for the right business to hire us

(affirmation)

for the right school to say you graduated

(it's official!)

for the right business partner

(I can't do it without a scapegoat)

or whatEVER

and we keep getting only some of what we need.

MAYBE we keep waiting for that special validation

with the right hours and perfect situation

because we are to damn scared to say

I'm good at what I do

I take responsibility for my learning curve

I have the right to make my hours,

create the structure right for me,

to be unique

and excellent

and at the mercy of no one else's

approval

besides my own.

Maybe we would prosper if we decided

we were so passionate at what we did that we were

always

learning more

and maybe we would prosper

if we had the guts

to shamelessly

self promote.

We wouldn't want to be confident, now would we?

That would be arrogant, presumptuous.

How can you have any objectivity towards yourself?

I am good at what I do.

I love what I do.

I care about my work.

I can make my own hours,

meet my own needs and those of my family,

take care of my home and the land I love,

and I deserve to make good money for it.

Without overworking.

Without extremism.

Without selling my ideas

or pride

or leaking out my well of energy.

There is room in this world for good people to prosper.

We are good at what we do.

Red Tent Temple

I'm linking this from our Red Tent Temple blog for those of you who may only be following this one, in hopes of greater awareness and publicity.......

http://spiraltraditions.blogspot.com/2010/02/red-tent-temple-february-21-2010.html

xoxoxo

I believe

I really believe,

that if we start gathering together

again, not just to eat,

but to feast on homemade goodness

of all kinds;

foods, crafts, knowledge, art,

skills

and in the affirmation of friendship we form

alliances of wealth

through sharing

through teaching,

through doing,

the momentum of community will

gain force

authenticity

and power.

And the more powerful the people

and families are in their hearts,

their homes,

the less we fall

prey to consumption, despair.

I really believe that when we gather with

those who ignite our curiosity,

respect, and compassion,

that it's a fine gift given

of sharp tools

to make a structure we

can hinge our future on,

all while baking bread in a room

filled with side-splitting laughter.

Growing Quickly When Its Necessary

In Seattle today, at Warren G. Magnuson Park, I visited the cottonwood trees. There is one tree especially who's strong presence I seek when I return to this beautiful place. The buds of this tree were swelling, plump and even though they were out of reach, I could sense the thick, gooey, resin of Balm of Gilead. This other worldly medicine is in its prime right now. I almost forgot to harvest this year, distracted by so many changes, until I was spontaneously drawn to the park this afternoon before a healing session. As soon as I drove into the park, I saw the cottonwoods and remembered.

I am tied to the seasons now. I have been returning to harvest Cottonwood aka Balm of Gilead for I think about 15 years. The plant's messages and compassion are getting stronger and stronger for me. I cannot avoid it, pretend I don't understand it or doubt it anymore. I am happily surrendered to this life along side the plants. Cottonwood has worked her magic with me quite a bit lately. I have offered her my fear and she has given me inspiration. I have harvested her buds and she has given me healing oil. I have asked her advise and she has smiled at me, comforted me and taught me to grow quickly when its necessary.

It is Imbolc today...the traditional time of initiation. I am initiating spontaneity. I am opening to the wise and wild path of change and growth, fast and fine.

What will you initiate this year?

May it be in Beauty.

Work in Progress

Alive I am in this body in this life

and although I see through story and strife

I illuminate my shadows and forge my way

through tangles of uncertain days

And in ways I think why

have I not just arrived

at the place I expected to be

With the land and the dough

and the titles to show

with a homestead that's perfectly run?

Why is it that still I'm just simple and real

with a list that's only half done

So where is the feeling

of arriving at being

of presenting the world with ME

Is she hiding? Or waiting? Or side stepping, skating?

Pretending to need to know more?

Is she scared of the walls and the

candy striped halls

of society now in it's pretentious malls?

Where is the ME, where is the YOU

that's says who the fuck cares

if I've done algebra two

What about the ME in the middle

of working on little

things that make hearts go aglow

and seeds that are planted

and small wishes granted

and words that help others grow

what about days where the magic

is normalcy,

stories of self are a fog

where the dishes go dirty

and laundry's a heap

where's the beauty in you on the days

you feel cheap

Where's the beauty in us if we don't grant

success until debts are maxed out and our

credit is fat, when our school's made out

rich

yet our jobs are a bitch

and we're still not connecting to Earth.

What's success in my skin

if I'm expecting to win

something that was never a race.

What's glory in the eyes

if I'm living disguised

and not willing

to be in this place.

Every moment a muscle

worked stronger by reaching

and weaving together in grace

and in grieving

reclaiming the normal unglamorous me

as daily life sculpts what we

are supposed to be

WE already are works

in exquisite progress,

a malleable, unfinished success.