The Beauty of the Healing Crisis

As I write this, Autumn is in the air.  The leaves are beginning to change color.  Just like Persephone, the plants are dying or beginning their return to the underworld. I have spent the last two weeks caring for my grandmother, whom it seemed was making her own way to the other world.  Today is her 94th birthday, she has surprised all of us, by deciding to live!  While, she still has much healing in her future, to me she is a symbol of strength and determination.  She also has re-enforced my belief that there is a reason for our healing crises.  I really could not find a reason for her suffering.  However, it was clear to me today.  When my grandfather died in January, my grandmother didn’t think there was any reason for her to live anymore.  No matter how many times we told her she was important to us, she never truly believed it.  Now, so many people have filled her with love and prayer.  Today was, I believe, the first time ever, she has really sat on her well-deserved throne as matriarch of the family.  I can see in her face that she is reveling in the love and attention and finally understands that she is important.

While I was not happy with the timing of her sickness, I appreciate the timing of her recovery.  It seems rather appropriate to me, since we are approaching the end of October.  For many cultures, the end of October/beginning of November is a time to honor our ancestors.  In Mexico the festival is known as “El Dia de los Muertos”, the Catholic Church calls it “All Souls Day”, in Sweden it is known as “Alla Helgons Day”, and many countries celebrate “Halloween”.

Most of us are most familiar with Halloween.  However, what seems like a mainstream money making holiday is actually based on a Gaelic sacred holiday to honor the ancestors and celebrate the new year called Samhain (pronounced SAH-win).  They believed (as do many Pagans today) that at this time of year, the veil between this world and the next is thin, which allowed the ancestors to come back and help or guide us or if they have not been respected, to haunt us.  People would set out turnips or beets with lights in them to guide the ancestors to their home, hence, today’s jack-o-lantern.  People would also give offerings of food to the ancestors, which has been replaced by trick or treating.

I have always felt that our culture disregards our elderly and ancestors.  I use this time of year to honor my ancestors through my favorite medium, food.  Generally, I eat and give offerings of their favorite foods.  I also have an offering plate for all of my ancestors and the ancestors of this land.  Up until this year, I mostly focused on my great-aunt Emma by eating a milky-way and my great-grandfather (“Great-Pa”) by eating or trying to eat a grapefruit (that is another story about the power of grief).  This year, of course, I will be adding my grandfather and brother.  As I see this as not only a time to honor them but also as part of my grieving process, I am sure that I will have a more elaborate celebration.

Plants as Healing Guides

I started this summer in deep grief, mourning the loss of my brother.  I spent large chunks of the day in bed.  However, I have 2 sons that needed a mother, so they started pulling me out.  Then, the Plants started asking me to make medicines, I turned them down, because I didn’t think I was in the right frame of mind.  So Spirit and the Plants decided to speed things up and get my healing started.  Because of them (and some dear friends), I feel like I have emerged from the darkness of my grief.  I will always miss my brother and will forever love him, but there is work that needs to be done on this dynamic planet and I can’t waste any more time.  So I will hold him in my Heart and take part in the wonders of life.  Thank you to all who shared thoughts, kind words, and prayers with me.  And thank you to my many clients who patiently waited, allowing me the space and time to heal.  I greatly appreciate it. While I cut out most of the human world, I opened myself more fully to the Plants and Nature.  I was able to spend time in the wilds of Banff National Park, Canada (I highly recommend it) and the Adirondacks of NY (a heart place of mine), as well as on Windy Hill Farm.  I also went to several classes including the New England Women’s Herbal Conference (WHC).  At the WHC this year, there seemed to be a repeating theme mentioned: our world is quickly changing and the Plants are willing to help facilitate this for us and help us return to our wild, native roots.  One of the classes that I took was with Pam Montgomery.  She told us that Plants have always evolved before their animal counterparts.  She also mentions this in her book Plant Spirit Healing:

Going back to the beginning of plants and animals, we see that amphibian plants, which are seedless vascular plants like horsetail and ferns, moved to land first, then reptilian plants like angiosperms or ones that have internal development and protection of an embryo moved to land last.  As plants moved to land their animal counterparts followed them so that mammals did not appear on land until angiosperms (flowering plants) were there to feed them (page 20).

Essentially, since all animals depend on Plants to live, their evolution allowed our evolution.  So we have a very close connection to Plants.  This thought can lead to much discussion.  The point that I want to make is that we owe much to Plants.  Yes, it is generally understood that they give us food, shelter, and oxygen.  More and more people are returning to the knowledge of our ancestors and understanding that Plants have other roles in our lives through physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.

We know that we have a deep connection to Plants through our breathing.  They give us oxygen which our bodies use and then we exhale carbon dioxide which they use.  Pam said something else that made me think, “If we (humans) disappear from this earth, the plants will continue to thrive (there are other sources of carbon dioxide); however, if plants disappear from this earth, we will die in about 3 minutes (from lack of oxygen).”  Now, I know that there are some scientists reading this who will try to comeback with another scenario, we have oxygen tanks, we can create oxygen from water, etc.  I ask if these are your reactions to put them aside and just think of everything that Plants give us and even with these scientific processes, how long could we survive without plants.  So while these Plant Beings are so generous, how do we repay them?  We clearcut, we poison, we genetically modify.  How is that for gratitude?

What I ask and what the Plants ask is that we change our ways.  There are those who are already honoring the Plants and their numbers are growing.  However, the Plants are insistent that we move faster, deeper and share their knowledge.  If we, as individuals, can create strong connections with the Plant Beings and continue to grow these connections we will not only “save the planet” but we will really be saving ourselves.  For once you have that strong connection, you cannot turn your back on the plants nor will you want to!

____

Message from the Plants:

Turn off the television

Spend time in Nature (everyday! And yes, a backyard is nature)

Go Barefoot

Eat Wild Foods

Lyme Personality

What I learned in my Flower Essence training that has had the most impact on my life is David Dalton’s theory on Lyme disease (as well as his treatment plan).  As you may know, when we are working with Flower Essences, we are looking at the personality and childhood trauma.  Certain traumas and personalities are prone to certain illnesses and diseases.  David discovered a Lyme personality profile.  A person with Lyme tends to be: Type A, Martyr/scapegoat, pleaser/peacemaker, oldest/only child, and/or perfectionist.  The overall energy pattern is too much energy going out, not enough coming in.  For instance: someone or something is always more important than oneself.  (Now, if you fit one of these categories, it does not mean that you have Lyme, but you may be prone to getting it.  Also, it is possible to have Lyme and not have these traits.)

I contracted Lyme years ago.  So, this profile was particularly interesting to me.  I am a pleaser/peacemaker, only child, and I can be a perfectionist.  I definitely put more energy out than I take in, after all I am a mother and a healer.  I will admit I was a Type A in High School and possibly in College, but have worked really hard at changing that and so I didn’t classify myself as one.

However, that changed when I had the flu in March.  Anyone who has studied Waldorf philosophy or Anthroposophical medicine will tell you that fevers are soul changing and growth inducing.  In my family, we try not to fight fevers because when you come out of one, you have a sense of clarity and see things in a new way.  (Often kids get a fever right before a big growth spurt.)  I awoke from my fever and looked around.  I had a stack of about 9 books next to me, which I was trying to read while I had a fever!  All of them were non-fiction.  Most of them were herb books, also had a parenting book (Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, I highly recommend it), and a couple gardening books.  I figured that since I was stuck in bed, I should put my time to good use: learn more about herbs (they weren’t to help me with my illness) and plan a forest garden.  That was when I realized that I am a Type A!

Now that I know these things about myself and the connection to my Lyme disease, I understand how incredibly important it is that I take time for myself, relax, do something I enjoy, ask for help, etc.  Lyme is my teacher and will remind me when I continue to ignore my needs.  For anyone who matches the Lyme personality and has not developed Lyme disease, I recommend making changes for yourself now.  Lyme may be a great teacher, but there are much easier and more enjoyable ways of learning the lesson.

Be the Calm

"Make your heart be a lake with a calm, still surface and great depths of kindness"

~Lao Tzu

These are interesting and difficult times.  Between the responses to the elections, the violence against the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, and many numerous personal traumas/dramas my friends, clients, and family are facing, life can be overwhelming.  And I have heard this from many.

Fortunately, I know that when life is difficult, there is a learning opportunity near.  For me this lesson is to be calm and centered.  When we allow ourselves to get caught up in the drama, we lose sight of the bigger picture.  Suddenly, it becomes easier for us to lose our footing and we end up feeding the chaos.  However, if we can meet the challenges with calm, we allow ourselves to discover solutions that otherwise we would have missed.

Of course, it's okay if we get swept up, we always have the option of regaining our center.  I was reminded of this lesson recently.  I came home from Standing Rock on the 19th with a little cold.  On November 20th, I watched in horror for hours with tears streaming down my face as law enforcement shot water at my brothers and sisters in below freezing temperatures and shot clouds of tear gas among other atrocities.  The next day, my cold became something else, until the point that I collapsed and was loosing consciousness.  As I was recovering, I heard one of the Protectors speaking and he reminded people to "Be like a Rock" for a rock that is grounded does not get washed away by the water, it moves the water.  He said to "Be like a Mountain", for a Mountain does not get blown about by the air.  Here was my medicine.

I know that when I am centered and calm, I can accomplish great things.  One of my gifts from St. John's Wort this summer was realizing how much can be done by simply aligning myself with the Plants and concentrating on my Heart.

This is a simple task and yet it is challenging to remain calm when chaos is all around.  The good news is that when you remain calm, you bring calm to the situation.  So how does one do this?  The first task is to find your center.  My suggestion is to spend time in Nature, particularly with a Tree, a large Rock, a Mountain.  Tap into their energies.  When I need to center, I connect with these.  I also ground.  I send my roots to the center of Earth and my branches to the center of the Universe.  I feel my connection to all.  I focus on my Heart, for when we are in our Heart, we are naturally calmer and operate with a wide perspective.  And of course, breathe!

I think that it is also important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  We have known for a long time that the paradigms are shifting.  The anger, hate, and attacks that are coming forward are the vestiges of the white-supremacist, patriarchal system which is scared to lose power.  The United States was founded on this form of power and this is the basis for our culture.  Therefore, as the paradigm is shifting, our own shadows, particularly those connected with the old paradigm are coming to light.  In the great scheme, this is good, really good; though it may feel awful.  When you are confronted with the Shadow, whether your own or another's, I encourage compassion.

This is a great time to concentrate on personal healing, particularly releasing the old patterns and limiting beliefs, healing the Heart wounds, and preparing the physical body to receive greater amounts of energy.

The way I see it, we are being asked to Be our Highest Selves, NOW!  All the lessons, all the healings are being put to the test.  Can we meet the challenge?  Can we hold up a mirror of compassion and Love to the Shadow?  Can we remain calm and centered?  Do we dare to Be what we came here to Be?  Can we receive everyone with kindness and gentleness?  Can we Be Love?

I say YES!!

I hope you do too.  If we slip or stumble, remember we live in the Universe of Perpetual Second Chances.  This is all a learning opportunity.

Much Love and many blessings!

Photo credit: Catherine Huang