JourneySeeds

White Pine...

 

 

 


 

 
In the middle of the night two nights ago a blizzard whipped through our tiny town in New England. We thought an earthquake was happening outside.  Alas...no...it was a 60 foot white pine tree that came crashing down just 8 feet from the house.  We are feeling lucky.... 

The Yule Season in photos...

 
Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse, Winter Solstice...we stayed up and watched the whole thing....

 
We activated and began making mead on this most auspicious day/night...

 
Quiet Tree....

 
Warming by the stove between running in and out to gaze at the eclipse....

 


 


 

 


 

 

 

 

 
The boat I made for my husband for Christmas.  It is made of paper mache, vintage linens, hemp, vintage buttons...I put a book of Pablo Naruda's love poems with it.  I also found a beautiful old marriage proposal letter written to a woman named Pearl buried in an old box of gloves at an auction...I put the whole thing together on top of a pile of vintage linens....he thought it was beautiful.  I was so happy.

We have had a wonderful few weeks. We've visited with friends and family, crafted our way through the month of December, enjoyed lovely music, made some beautiful food.  Yesterday we made homemade traditional egg nog with bourbon and brandy, drank a punch bowl full of champagne punch, laughed ourselves silly with the love of friends and family.  Today we are sitting it out through a blizzard that has arrived and is blowing its way through New England.  While this blizzard is blowing we are making mead outdoors under the cob oven roof and indoors homemade pizza is cooking!  We are holed up in our cozy little home, with a dog content upon the hearth, christmas cookies at the ready for eating when we pass by the table...life is good tonight....

Radical Honesty...

I am loving this post by Arjuna Ardagh about Radical Honesty.  Maybe it's difficult, maybe we don't want to share or face the pain and hurts we've experienced at the hand of others or that we ourselves have created for someone.  It is worth considering at least...even if we in reality are not brave enough to go there this time around.  We are all evolving.  How can Honesty become a way of life....?

 source

Excerpt form the above piece linked.
Every time I switch on the news, every time I meet with my clients, or teach trainings for coaches, every time we have dinner with our friends, I feel that I hear the same thing. When I show up for a meeting of one of the two mens’ groups that I’m involved in, or just hang with my wife and children, I hear it more deeply. The game is up on secrets and lies. Put your ear to the ground and listen. There’s a a shift in the collective, which has been contributed to by many factors.

Mari Smith, for example, the author of several recent books on social media, points out that the explosion of twitter, facebook, Youtube and online forums in the last years have made big advertising campaigns less and less effective. A new product or service has to be of real value in order to be spread virally through social media buzz. You can’t fake it anymore. The collapse of Enron, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and countless politicians, was not only about financial or political or sexual malpractice. It was about the cover up. We are, all of us, tolerating lying and withholding less every day.

Getting real is becoming hip.

I’ve noticed that we have a choice, you and I, about how to participate in this shift in the collective. We all have accumulated secrets and lies, the things that we haven’t told the people close to us because we “don’t want to hurt their feelings.” And we’ve all paid the price. We  all have our personal  Julian Assange, as a family member or friend, or an employee or client, who will, eventually, blow the whistle on us when our time is up. So why not surf this wave of getting the skeletons out of the closet, and start practicing radical honesty today?

What are the things you have said to John about Mary, but forgot to tell Mary directly? What are the relevant facts in your intimate relationship that you have withheld? What are the resentments, as well as the appreciations, that you have not said?

We can all start riding this wave of full disclosure, authenticity, and honesty today.  It feels good.

Here’s my suggestion: make a practice of telling one person something today, and then every day,  which you have been withholding or lying about, and where you have hoped to avoid getting caught. Stay present in the room while they digest what you’ve said, don’t practice drive-by honesty.  Avoid entering into a discussion about it, or explaining or justifying why it is so. Just ‘fess up, and feel your burden lifting.

Imagine what the world would be like if telling each other the truth became the accepted norm. What If diplomats could came clean with leaders of other countries and confess to them their withheld judgments, before needing Julian to help out. What if large corporations told you exactly what to expect from their products, and encouraged public forums with customer reactions?  What if politicians came clean about their weaknesses from the get-go, so we felt inspired to elect them for their courage to be authentic rather than the rhetoric of empty promises?  What if religious leaders were as lyrical about their doubts as they are about their faith?  And what if you and I and everyone we know put being real as a higher priority than looking good?

Now, Julian Assange is wanted by Interpol for alleged rape that took place in Sweden. The arrest warrant includes the request that he be sequestered without contact with an attorney, friends, or relatives. Gimme a break, here! These charges had already been dismissed while he was still in Sweden, and he made himself fully available for an interview at that time. The two women involved had already agreed that this was consensual sex. You know, and I know, and everyone knows why Interpol has been instructed to lock him up in a prison cell without contact with the media. And you know, and I know, and everyone else knows why this suddenly seems so important when it didn’t a few weeks ago.

On Friday Assange answered questions on the Guardian’s website.  One of the questions was what would happen if he gets “taken out.”  Assange answers “The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries, to over 100,000 people in encrypted form. If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically. Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organizations. History will win. The world will be elevated to a better place. Will we survive? That depends on you.”

But it is not only these specific secret cables that are being unearthed here.  It is a much more widespread atmosphere of deception that we have all participated in, one way or another.  You can find it deeply ingrained in banking, politics, religion, and at home in our own back yards.  History can win at all of those levels, and the elevation of the world to a better place that Assange talks about has everything to do with you and me and everyone we know.

You can start to practice radical honesty today. It’s fun, it’s energizing, it’s refreshing, and it leaves you feeling more creative, more open, and years younger.

I am not sure if this is very easy...maybe it's necessary.

Excited to to taste this for yourself?  I will host a free tele-seminar about Radical Honesty on Thursday December 9th at 6pm pst. My special guest will be Brad Blanton, the author of Radical Honesty and several other books.   You can register here. Our Awakening Coaches are trained to lead a process we call “Dissolving Separation.”  It gives you a taste of radical honesty within yourself, before you start practicing with someone else.  When you join the call, you can set up a time for a free mini-session with one of them.

Exalt us...

 
Me & Lori at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.

Being with real people who warm us, who endorse and exalt our creativity, is essential to the flow of creative life. Otherwise, we freeze. Nurture is a chorus of voices both from within and without that notices the state of a woman's being, takes care to encourage it, and if necessary, gives comfort, as well. I'm not certain how many friends one needs, but definitely one or two who think your gift, whatever it may be, is pan de cielo, the bread of heaven. Every woman is entitled to an Allelujia Chorus.

-Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With the Wolves
(thanks to pixie campbell)

December...

I found this old print at an auction...December.  It is filled with lots of plants to look at during this grey part of the year....

 

Knitted Garlands....

 
I made a pile of wool garlands for decorating...

Wise Woman Knitting....

 
Another pair of Bella Mittens finished!

 
I used Iro yarn for this by Noro.

Nourishment, Kundalini,
and the Menopausal Woman
by Mary Lane

author, "Divine Nourishment, A Woman’s Sacred Journey with Food.”
mentor at the Wise Woman University

Menopause is a passage into the autumn of our life. It prepares us to take a look at our harvest, separate the wheat from the chaff, and distill the wisdom from our journey. After taking time to go inward and do this it is time to come back out as a wise woman and plant the seeds of our wisdom for the next generation. This is quite a different scenario than we have witnessed in our culture for the last few generations.

Women have just gotten old after a difficult menopausal passage and discarded by our society. Their usefulness has been hidden by our lack of awareness of the value of this phase of her life. With so many women going through this sacred passage now we can not afford to have a vast amount of women just getting old. We can not afford to not honor and welcome our wise women into society to support the collective transformation we are going through.

Nourishing ourselves according to the Earth’s wisdom, the embodiment of the fully integrated feminine, balanced with her masculine, with no apologies about her oozing infinite creative sexual energy, and wise enough to recycle, is the first step in shifting our self rejection as women and open to our wisdom.

Many women naturally experience a rising of kundalini energy as they approach menopause. Their energy is shifting from being projected outward to attract procreation to inward and movement upward through the chakra system. Some experience this as hot flashes as the energy hits up against blocks. This energy is available to clear out and balance the blockages through the entire chakra system that does not represent the fully authentic, integrated powerful feminine.

It is a powerful serpentine energy that is the master of transformation. It prepares us to take our place with the wisdom that comes from the depths of our soul’s journey. It prepares us to be so grounded in it that we are unshakable. We are no longer under the influence of society’s conditioning. We have the strength to tell it like it is as we pass the baton to the next generation laced with deeply earned wisdom.

Honoring ourselves, shifting the self rejection, nourishing ourselves according to the wisdom reflected from nature and making friends with our sexual energy is important preparation for this sacred passage.

When we are not grounded and unable to nourish ourselves appropriately the kundalini rising through our bodies can become a dangerous vehicle that carries us to realms we are not prepared for. It can shred and dismember us in such an unmerciful way we can’t integrate it. Opening to this energy in a way that supports the balancing of the chakra system and prepares us for our role as wise women without getting blown out of the water is a tricky dance.

Nourishing ourselves according to nature’s wisdom grounds us on this wave of transformation season by season at a manageable voltage. We become acquainted with ourselves, transforming cycle by cycle. We are experienced riders by the time menopause arrives.

We are able to utilize this serpentine energy as it rises up our spine. We can then integrate this transformation, embody it and take our place as the elder with a baton that is worth passing on. There may have never been a time in history that is calling for this more than now. We can do this.
Wise Woman Herbal Ezine with Susun Weed