What is Enough?

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horn of plenty How often do you think to yourself “I have enough”?

 It’s something I am starting to think about, and ask myself: What is enough?

What is enough for you, for me, for anyone and everyone?

Our society, or at least our current economic system, is based on the idea that you can never really have “enough”.

But what is “enough”? How many people actually sit down and ask themselves that question, and then answer it?

I’ve been asking myself and looking for the answers, because really it is a big question with many answers.

I started with this line of thought because one day when I was meditating, my guides told me that I have enough, I am enough, and that there is enough for everyone. I have it written on a piece of envelope on my fridge door.

I always feel that I am not enough: I am not good enough, not knowledgeable enough, not skilled enough…you get the picture. Just not enough to be paid anything or to deserve anything. It’s an awful way to feel and I am very tired of it. I’ve had enough (hey, there’s that word!) and my guides are helping me shift my thinking.

I am starting to think about how I am enough, that I know enough, am pretty enough….

 

One day I also started thinking about what I have and whether it is “enough”. All sorts of things—apartment, clothes, money, pets, friends, food, herbs, and so on. This is somewhat different, I think, than the “abundance” idea, where you visualize being abundant, which I guess means having lots of everything.

But enough isn’t about abundance, necessarily, though it doesn’t preclude it either. It simply says that at some point you have enough (that word!) and you don’t need any more. You may not need less, but you don’t need more. What you have is just right, or good enough (that word!).

There is a difference between being satisfied and feeling like what you have is okay but you still really need more, and truly knowing you have enough.

 

It seems you can’t define what enough is without that word creeping in. So let’s look it up in the dictionary. Random HouseCollege Dictionary 1982 rev. ed.

Enough: adequate for the want or good; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire.

An adequate quantity or number; sufficiency.

In a quantity or degree that answers a purpose or satisfies a need or desire sufficiently.

 

Okay, that’s the definition in the dictionary.

What is enough for you? What does it mean to you?

How Do You Feel?

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No, really, how do you feel?

Do you know? Have you been paying attention? Do you have words to describe what you’re feeling?

man-puzzle faceChances are good that some of you can say how you’re feeling in great detail, and some of you are going “huh?”

It’s okay either way, it’s just a chance to see how much you pay attention to how you’re feeling.

Some people make decisions by how they feel, other people would never do that and make decisions only by what they think and reason out. Again, there’s nothing right or wrong with either way, it’s just how people function.

I pay a lot of attention to how I feel, sometimes so much that I can’t get out of my own way for feeling…feelings.

As you might guess, that’s also how I make many of my decisions—by how I feel.  Years ago I taught myself to feel in my gut (around the third chakra) how a “yes” or “no” feels for what I am considering. Often a “no” is a sinking feeling as of energy being pulled out when it shouldn’t be. A feeling of being drained, so that I know if I decide to do what I am thinking of, I will regret it. Sometimes it takes a while to see how my gut was right, but I do find out eventually.

When I don’t feel any disturbing energy stirring in my gut, all is quiet, then I know that answer is yes, and again I can act on it with assurance.

I have learned to be very grateful for that inner guidance, my “gut feeling”.

But following my feelings is a tricky road to walk, especially as I have spent so much time in the land of depression with its attendant anxiety and despair. When I am feeling I can’t go on, is that a clear message from my gut to stop and do nothing? Or is it my depression, anxiety, or fear nudging me to take the safe road and do nothing?

When I am feeling “awful”, any number of ways to feel including chronic emotional pain, I struggle to push myself into any sort of action, whether getting out of bed or going to work or getting on the computer. It is a real battle sometimes to know what feeling to honor to know whether I can push past the feeling into action or to just say I can’t right now and let myself be.

 

There is also the question between what we feel and what is actual intuition and what is just emotion. What is the difference between feeling emotion, pain, etc, and feeling intuition?

Ask yourself this question and find what your own answer is.

Cold Weather Favorites: Hot Cocoa, Ginger Tea, Squash Pudding, and More

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It feels like winter is advancing, and I am thinking about my favorite responses to cold weather, colds and flus, and the winter grumps.

As some of you know, I’ve struggled with depression for years, and it’s usually worst around early winter. An odd aspect of depression for me is not just losing my appetite, but basically only being able to eat soft or fluidy foods. Rather than fighting this (too often) I’ve figured out some things that I can eat and drink with ease and pleasure.

brown cartoon cupSo I am sharing the recipes for some of my favorite hot drinks that can chase away both the cold and the blues. Some are loved by many, such as Hot Cocoa and Ginger Tea. Since I have always loved puddings and make winter squash pudding a lot in the winter, I am including a variation that takes it up a notch towards cheesecake (another love of mine).

Comforting Hot Chocolate

Years ago a friend gave me a tin of gourmet cocoa, and hot chocolate became my comfort drink. With a bit of experimentation I learned how to make a really fine cup of hot chocolate.

1 cup (large or small, depending on your taste) whole milk

1 rounded teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder (Equal Exchange or a gourmet type)

2 rounded teaspoons sugar

Heat the milk over medium heat in a pot on the stove. Put the sugar and cocoa in your mug and blend them together with a spoon (this allows them to dissolve more completely and evenly in your milk. The more blended they are, the fewer lumps.) Pour the milk, heated to just below boiling (or boiling over if you’re like me) into the mug with the cocoa-sugar mixture and stir briskly. Press any lumps of cocoa against the side of your mug with your spoon.

To make this even better, add a few marshmallows, a bit of whipped cream, a sprinkle of cinnamon or stir with a cinnamon stick. Now, enjoy!

Hot Ginger-Lemon Tea

I found this recipe in my local paper and adapted it slightly. The author said it’s fabulous for kicking a cold in the rear, and it certainly seems to be. It’s also a great warming drink.

1 large mug of boiling water

2 tablespoons grated or finely minced fresh ginger

fresh squeezed or bottled lemon juice

honey

Tabasco or similar hot sauce (optional)

ginger

Fresh ginger root

Grate the ginger on the coarsest holes of a grater, or mince. Fresh ginger is infinitely superior to dried, ground ginger, and easily found at most grocery stores. Place ginger in a large mug and fill the mug with boiling-hot water. Let it steep, covered with a saucer, for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain out the ginger. Add lemon juice to taste, and sweeten to taste with honey. Add the hot sauce if you’re so inclined.

Spiced Apple Cider

Another warming drink for this time of year is mulled apple cider. I’ve never quite figured out exactly what you do to make cider “mulled,” but I’ve come up with a simple version of spicy warm cider.

2 cups apple cider (not juice)

cinnamon sticks or ground cinnamon

fresh nutmeg or ground nutmeg

Heat the apple cider on the stove or in the microwave. Pour into two mugs, sprinkle a touch of nutmeg on top (fabulous if you grate it yourself) and either stir with a cinnamon stick or sprinkle on a bit of ground cinnamon. This is spicy and warming. Hot apple cider is both sweeter and thinner than when it is cold, so it is a pleasant change from the thirst-quenching cold stuff.

Yummy Eggnog

3 ½ cups whole milk

½ cup cream—light or heavy

3 large or 4 medium eggs

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon rum flavoring or 2 tablespoons dark rum

Whipped cream (optional)

(To make a half-recipe: cut recipe in half, but use 2 eggs.)

cinnamon sticks

Cinnamon sticks

Thoroughly beat the eggs before combining them with the milk, cream, and sugar in a large pot. Heat the eggnog for a few minutes, until it becomes too hot to the touch when you quickly insert your finger. (Note: It is important to heat this eggy drink sufficiently if using store-bought eggs, since salmonella in raw eggs is becoming more widespread.)

Remove eggnog from heat and stir in vanilla and rum flavoring. Give the drink another good stir to blend it well. Let cool in the fridge for a few hours before drinking.

As with the hot cider, eggnog is delicious with a sprinkling of freshly grated nutmeg on top, and/or a bit of powdered cinnamon. A bit of whipped cream on top is heavenly, also.

Winter Squash Cheesecake Pudding

1 ½ cup cooked winter squash (1 or more: acorn, butternut, buttercup, etc.)

1 ½ cup farmer’s or yoghurt cheese (soft, cottage-cheesy homemade cheeses)*

1 cup organic sugar

4 large eggs

1 T. vanilla extract

1 t. cinnamon

¼ t. ground ginger

¼ t. ground nutmeg

1/8 t. sea salt

Optional: ½ to 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine eggs and sugar, and beat until well-combined and light in color. Add remaining ingredients, except nuts, and beat until until well mixed. Grease an 8” or 9” square or round baking dish, and pour pudding in. Top with chopped nuts if desired.

Have a larger oven-proof baking dish that is filled about half-full with hot water. Place in the oven on a middle shelf, than place the pudding dish in the bain marie (water bath)

Bake 1 hour. Top of pudding should be cracked. A toothpick stuck in may not come out clean, but the pudding will be done after setting for a few minutes after coming out of the oven.

Serve hot or cold, with whipped cream if you like. Yum!

Alternatives: if you don’t have farmer’s or yoghurt cheese, you can try these (untried by me) suggestions: Blend cottage cheese until it’s smooth. You may want to strain out excess liquid first.

Mix a package or 2 of cream cheese with heavy cream to desired consistency and amount.  You do want the cheese to be quite thick, not runny.

O.k., now go find a good dvd to watch or book to read, snuggle on the couch or in bed, and sip your delicious drink. Movies, books and magazines are always better enjoyed with a hot cup of something. A warm body next to you is a lovely addition, be it human, feline, canine, or any other version you have around.  Stay warm, and enjoy the season!

Autumn Herbs—Teas, Infusions, and Mixes

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herb cupboard

Some of my dried herbs

Last month I talked about gathering and drying or otherwise preserving the herbs from your garden, the farmer’s market, or the woods and fields around you (Herbs in Autumn).

This month we’ll see what you can do with those wonderful herbs, now that they are neatly put away and labeled. Or maybe still hanging in bunches in your kitchen? Maybe sitting in baskets here and there, already dry, but not out sight yet. My herbs are in all of these stages. Sometimes a bunch or three of herbs will hang on my drying rack through the whole winter!

One of my favorite ways of using herbs is to make teas and infusions for myself and guests. Infusions are, to me, much stronger versions of teas, and the herbal “teas” I make for guests usually fall somewhere between what I call a tea and an infusion.

Teas: Making herbal teas is fun! Don’t be afraid to experiment with combinations of various herbs you like and try different amounts mixed together. When it comes to taste, there is no right or wrong, only what delights your mouth and your senses.

In my experience, using a good quantity of herbs for your tea makes for a better tasting brew. If you think herb teas are insipid and weak, then you probably have not been using nearly enough herb matter for a cup of tea. Use more! The taste will be surprisingly robust and may truly change your mind (or your friends’) about what an herbal tea can be.

Generally, the proportion of herb to water for tea is to use about a tablespoon of dry herb to a cup of boiling water. Pour the freshly boiled water over the herb, cover (to keep in the essential oils and other good stuff) let steep for 15 minutes, then uncover and sip. You can add sugar, honey, maple syrup, or stevia for sweetening, and/or milk of your choice. Enjoy!

Here are 3 recipes I have come up with:

Restorative Tea

1 part sage

1 part rosemary

4 parts lemon balm

1 part bee balm

1 part lavender flowers (optional)

Black Tea Mimicry

5 parts raspberry and/or blackberry leaves

1 part sage

Don’t let this steep for more than 5 or 10 minutes, as the tannins can become too bitter.

Lemon Delight

2 parts lemon balm

2 parts lemon verbena

1 part lemon grass

1 part orange mint (optional)

Infusions: An infusion is made by soaking plant material (usually dried) in water that has been brought to a boil. The infusion steeps anywhere from ½ hour to 8 hours, depending on the plant material being infused. Boiling water must be used to break open the cell walls of the plant to allow them to release their constituents.

Amounts: For all parts of a plant, except roots and bark, the proportion is 1 ounce of dried plant material to 1 quart of boiling water. For roots and bark, it is 1 ounce of plant material to one pint of boiling water.

Steeping  times: General guidelines for how long to let your infusions steep is: roots and barks—8 hours, leaves and stems—4 hours, flowers—2 hours maximum, seeds and berries—1/2 hour maximum. The point of the long soakings is to get as much as you can from the plant material. The point of the short soakings is to prevent constituents that you don’t want in your infusion from getting drawn out.

If you don’t have a scale, don’t worry about it, approximate amounts are fine. A handful or so will equal sort-of an ounce.

Containers for steeping in: It is easiest to use a quart jar or pint jar, such as a canning or spaghetti jar, with a lid. Put the plant material into the jar, fill it with boiling water, put the lid on loosely, and allow to steep. The lid needs to be kept on to keep volatile constituents from escaping. You can also use a cooking pot or pan that has a lid.

Usually it’s best to infuse one herb at a time. If infusing an herb blend, infuse for the time needed for the ingredient that gets infused for the shortest time. For instance, if you’re infusing a blend that includes anise seeds or hawthorn berries, even if it includes roots, you will only let it sit for ½ hour. If you’re using a blend that includes chamomile flowers, you’ll only let it sit for 2 hours, and so forth.

However, I don’t worry too much about being exact when I am steeping an infusion, and often mine sit for hours before I get to them.

Infusions can be drunk warm or cold. If you’ve let it steep for several hours, you can warm it up on the stove or (shudder) in the microwave.

Infusions are easy to take with you in their jars, strained or not. They only last about 24 to 36 hours, even with refrigeration, so plan on making fresh infusions every day or two. If it starts smelling or tasting off, let it go—give it the plants, indoors or out.

Herbal Blends for Seasoning:  What is better in fall and winter than recently dried herbs with their rich goodness still intact to add to stews and soups, casseroles, and all sorts of dishes?!

You can use one herb, or several; follow a recipe to make an herbal blend or make your own. If, like me, you’ve always liked Bell’s Seasoning on your turkey or in your lentil soup, then look at the box and make up your own version.

Here is a recipe from an unknown source, one version of making the classic “herbes de Provence”:

Herbes de Provence (this is just one variation of many for herbes de Provence)

1 ¼ cup dried thyme

1 ¼  cup dried basil

¼ cup dried summer savory

1 cup dried rosemary

¼ cup dried lavender flowers (organic if possible)

¼  cup fennel seeds

Combine all herbs in a large bowl and stir well to blend. Store in a tightly-capped jar, or divide into ½ cup portions and store in sealed plastic baggies—these make great gifts placed in small clay flowerpots and tied with a ribbon.

This herb blend is good for sprinkling over vegetables or meats prior to roasting. They also are a flavorful addition to soups and stews.

Herb Salts Herb salts are fun and easy. All you have to do is mix your herb or herbs with some delicious salt, for instance, a good sea salt.

You can mix in the herbs fairly whole, which will you give you a rather coarse seasoning. Or you can grind up your herb/s in a coffee grinder and have them mix more smoothly with the salt.

Either way, play around with proportions. Go half-and-half with salt and herb, or ¾ herb and ¼ salt, or the reverse. Just remember to have fun and that if you like the taste, you’ll use it! It’s a great way to get luscious taste and good nutrition in one easy bite.

Herbs in Autumn

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Echinacea (Echinacea sp)

Echinacea (Echinacea sp)

Yummy herbal teas! Intensely flavored herbal additions to your stews and breads, and maybe the Thanksgiving turkey! Oh yeah, sounds soooo good.

 Well, the place to look is your own or a friend’s garden or the local farmer’s market. Drying and storing herbs for your use is simple and gives you a wonderful feeling when you’re using them in your teas and your cooking, plus they taste tons better than anything you buy in the store!

At this time of year, as summer ends and autumn starts the count-down to winter, our herb plants are starting to go into their last hurrah for the season. If they’re annuals, they are blooming and setting seed, making sure they’ll have babies before they kick off. If they’re perennials, they may just now be blooming, setting seed for a new batch of plants beyond where they already live, or they may be thinking about tucking up their roots for the winter and slowing down their growth, getting ready to shed their leaves.

So before those plants bite the dust, it’s time to harvest them and have them ready for winter use.

If you have your own garden, you can pick what you like and put it to dry. Basil is great to dry, and its flowers are edible. You can take a whole plant out by its roots, chop them and any ugly leaves off, and hang it to dry.

Perennial herbs like sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and mints can also be harvested. If they are blooming, the flowers are also edible and can be included in what you dry.

If you’ve been growing nasturtiums, not only do you want to save a few seeds for next year, but you can dry the buds, flowers, and leaves for teas and soups, or put the flowers and/or seed into vinegar.

If you don’t have access to a garden, many vendors at farmers markets are selling herbs. A big bunch of basil will make marvelous pesto, but maybe more than you need right now, so dry the rest. Any other herbs you can find, grab them and dry them.

There are, however, 2 exceptions to the drying rule. Parsley and chives lose much of their “oomph” and taste when they dry, so the best way to retain their goodness is to freeze them. Snip your parsley or chives into small pieces, spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and put them in the freezer. When they are all frozen, simply put the frozen herb pieces into a jar, plastic container, or plastic baggie, label!, and keep in the freezer. You’ll be ale to scoop out what you want when you need it.

Now you may be wondering how to dry your herbs. Over the years I have found many ways to let them air dry, here are a couple:

  • Put your herbs on a plate, a wicker paper plate holder (I found mine at yard sales), or a basket. Make sure that your herbs are in fairly single layer, or spread apart. If they hunch on top of each other, they will mold or dry unattractively brown. You can leave the leaves on the stems and strip them off when they are dry, or take the leaves off first, and spread to dry.
  • Hang your herbs in small bunches to dry. You can gather a few stems of herb together and tie them together with a piece of string, or use a rubber band wrapped around them a few times. You can hang your bunches from pegs, like coat hook pegs, from pegs on a peg board, from beams in the attack, or from a clothes hanger. The clothes hanger can be hung anywhere you can find, and the herb bunches can be hooked on using unbent paper clips.

When your herbs are thoroughly dry, you can strip them off the stems, if you didn’t do this previously, and store them in a glass jar (my favorite way) or in paper bags. Some people use plastic bags, which is fine, but I prefer to avoid plastic when I can. I try not to crumble them too much when storing, preferring to do the crumbling just before I use them. They retain more of their flavor and goodness that way.

Label you herbs! You may think you will remember what they are, but they can look really different dried than fresh, and one dry herb can look remarkably like another. I am speaking from long experience here!

For the herbs you will use in cooking, get some pretty bottles or small jars, attach pretty labels, and keep with your herbs and spices. You will be amazed at how good they taste in your cooking, salad dressings, and more.

Next month we’ll look at some of the other ways you can use your freshly, deliciously  dried herbs.

Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Stock/Broth

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Do you have bouillon cubes sitting in your kitchen cupboards? Do you actually use them? When you do, are they all gooey and sticking to the foil, and looking a little icky?

You should know that there is usually a lot of salt and unfermented soy in those cubes, as well as artificial flavors and maybe even colors (sorry, I haven’t looked at them in a long while). I stopped using them several years ago, and now make my own stock or broth to use in soups and for cooking grains, beans, and so on. Sure, it takes some work, but I love the results of what I make and have enough to last a couple weeks or more, depending on how much I’ve made and how quickly I use it up.

This all started with Bone Broth, well-loved by many people who are eating more traditional, nutrient-dense and nutritious diets. Bone broth is made with a couple pounds of bones and whatever vegetable bits you have saved, and is very wonderful.

My version has evolved as I never seem to be able to afford a really large quantity of bones, and I always seem to have a lot plant matter around, courtesy of my herb and plant work. I also have egg shells from my farm-raised eggs and save them to include in the broth. So now my broth includes a few bones, some shells, and a goodly amount of plants. The recipe is below, along with a couple of ideas about collecting the materials for your stock/broth.

To begin with—the bones. You don’t have to include them if you’re vegetarian or vegan. But if you are omnivorous, like me, then it’s great to include some. Any bones that you have, either saved from what you’ve already cooked, or bought at the store for this purpose. If you have to accumulate them over a few days or weeks, toss them in a bag or jar in the freezer until you need them.

The eggshells. These should be from organic eggs, if possible. Farm-raised is even better. You can save your shells in a basket or pot somewhere to one side of your kitchen. Don’t worry about rinsing them, they dry just fine without any smell or rotting. Crush them up to save room.

Here’s the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink part—all the veggie, herb, and plant bits and pieces and handfuls and bagfuls that you’ve been saving for your wonderful stock!

When you are chopping, trimming, etc. vegetables, all the end parts that you’d normally throw in the trash or compost are put in a bag or jar in the freezer till later. Carrot ends, onion skins, dried out garlic bulbs, celery stubs, asparagus butts, kale stalks, etc. Too tough to eat, but not too tough to stew!

You can add herbs and healthy, ingestible plants as well. If you’re stripping herbs off of stems, save the stems. Have some extra herbs from the farmer’s market or a neighbor? Toss ‘em in.

Include your “weedings” from when you’re weeding your garden and hate to throw out all those dandelions and plantain and other “weeds” that threaten to take over. You can also wildcraft them or ask a neighbor if you can have theirs, or go to a farm or a farmers market to find some of these plants. The point is to find them and use them. They will add new levels of taste and nutrition to your stock.

Here are some suggestions: dandelions leaves and roots, burdock leaves and roots, goosefoot or lamb’s quarters leaves and stems, amaranth leaves and stems, yellow dock leaves and roots, plantain (the weedy plant, not the banana) leaves and seed stalks, evening primrose leaves and roots, nettles, wild lettuce leaves, Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), the tough stalks from flowering onions, garlic, and chives.

Play around to see what you like the taste of and what you don’t. I am finding that a lot of plantain makes for a more bitter stock, and also is slightly laxative, so probably it should be kept to ¼ cup or so. Yellow dock roots can also be slightly laxative, so use just a few small pieces.

If you are unsure if a plant is safe or not, err on the side of caution. Especially if you are not really familiar with your weeds, it is better not to take chances. A good motto is: When in doubt—don’t!

You also add vinegar. The acidic vinegar will pull out calcium from the bones and eggshells and help pull out minerals from the plants as well. Combined with the fat from bones, if you use them, this will make the minerals and fat soluble vitamins very available and easily absorbed for excellent nutrition.

Use this stock for cooking rice, beans, veggies, or as the starting point for soup. You can also heat it up, add a bit of salt (and cream if you like) and have a lovely, nutritious tonic drink.

So here’s the recipe, with approximate measurements. Don’t worry if you use more or less of anything, it will work!

Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Stock/Broth

1 to 2 gallons water (filtered if possible)
1 to 2 lbs. bones (chicken, beef, marrow, etc.)
As many eggshells as you’ve got
1 to 4 or 5 cups veggie trimmings, herbs, wild plants—fresh or dried or frozen
¼ cup vinegar—apple cider, red wine, home-made, etc.

Put all your ingredients in a large pot, bring to a simmer, and let simmer for 24 to 48 hours. When it is done, or you can’t stand having that large pot on your stove anymore, you can put the stock in spaghetti or canning jars and the stock will stay good in the fridge for several weeks. Or you can freeze your stock, and pull it out as you need it. Make sure to keep the wonderful fat in your stock. Your body needs it!

Simply Grounding

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It’s been an intense summer so far! I’m not just talking about the heat, but also the energetic waves that some people are being affected by. It is odd, perhaps, but those who are most energetically sensitive are the most affected by these energy fluxes.

Many people are feeling a number of physical and/or mental and emotional discomforts and symptoms right now, without knowing why. Symptoms such as dizziness/vertigo, can’t sleep, sleep too much, flu-like symptoms, nausea, emotional issues resurfacing, anxiety, and many others. If you are worried or unsure, check with your doctor, but it may “just” be ascension symptoms, our beings feeling changes as the energy of our world gets rebooted and upgraded, so to speak.

I have been reading the writings of a wonderful mystic and teacher whose information has helped me feel less crazy when I feel flu-ish one minute, and fine the next, or the mental off-kilter mindset I had years ago resurfaces for no reason at all. Ohhh, it’s tough! If you are interested in learning more, here is a link to her website that will give you much good information http://www.alunajoy.com/articles.html

bare feet on sandBut in the meantime, what do you do when you feel off-center or just kind of unfocused and not sure what to do with yourself? My solution is to go outside and feel the earth under my feet and the dirt under my fingernails.

My default setting when I am feeling off or uneasy/anxious/scared is to go crawl into bed and hide out. But I am working on changing that, so my new solution is to go outside. Sometimes all I need is to feel the grass under my feet to start feeling better.

Other times I need to walk a bit and see the plants, greeting my plant friends, and smell the air. I have a garden plot near my apartment and often I just cannot resist pulling out a couple “weeds” (plants growing where I don’t need them) or harvesting a bit of something for a meal or medicine. Next thing you know, I have dirt under my fingernails!

With hot weather comes the need to water, so I have to stand with the hose and water and water until the soil is drenched. This leaves me lots of time to have the grass and earth work their energetic magic on my mood. After a while I start feeling less anxious, the world feels safer, and I feel rebalanced. Wow, and it’s for free!

Okay, but what about you? I have earth and soil and garden, and you may very well not. But you can still connect with the energy and power of our Mother Earth.

Go outside. Stand there. If you can find soil or grass or similar with no tar or cement, great! If not, stand on the tar or cement or whatever. (And if you can be barefoot, so much the better!) Imagine, if you are shod or on tar, that your feet are on the earth and grass, feeling the lusciousness of soft grass and firm earth supporting you. Feel the energy coming up through the soles of your feet and infusing your body. Feel your own energy coming to meet the energy of the Earth and the two mingling together. Let yourself feel and luxuriate in this for a few minutes, or as long as you need. (Perhaps you will need to find an out-of-the-way corner, or pretend to examine something, so as not to attract undue attention.)

When you are ready, thank our Mother Earth for sharing her energy and grounding with you and go about your day, continuing to sense your connection with her.

You can also, if you like, reach down and put your hands on the earth, palms flat against the soil or the tar (wash up afterwards) and again feel the Earth’s energy coming into your hands and mingling with your own energy. Continue as for your feet.

How do you feel? Yeah, better. Just repeat as necessary.

Eating Your Way Into Spring

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Garden border with herbsSpring is coming, and I am, as they say in New England, wicked excited! But not for the reasons people usually have, or even that gardeners have. What I am most excited about is not the warmer weather, or starting seeds, or wearing a t-shirt instead of 3 sweaters.

No, what I am most excited about is the chance to eat the wild greens that start popping up in March and April.

In the “olden days”, before there were Californian and Chilean farms and the planes and trucks to carry their produce worldwide and year-round, before we had hydroponic greenhouses that grow tender lettuces and pungent basil even in deepest winter, those of us who lived in cold northern climes had to make do with dried fruits and vegetables, and stored root vegetables. Not a fresh green in sight for several months.

By the time spring arrived, people were desperate to have fresh green, leafy plants and veggies of any kind. These plant foods provided much-needed Vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals, and people hungered for them with an ancient body awareness of their goodness.

Whatever started peeping above the ground that was at all edible was plucked and eaten, either raw or cooked as a “pot herb”.

Many of the plants we see in spring originated in Europe and Asia, and found their way toNorth Americawith the European settlers. Others were already here, valued by Native Americans.

Here are just a few to whet your appetite.

Some of the earliest plants to appear are in the mustard family, some very tiny—only a couple inches wide and tall. Others are bigger and more evident, such as Winter Cress (Barbarea vulgaris), and later wild mustards. Winter cress has beautiful, mustardy, dark green leaves that cook up well. The flowers are edible as well, but a cluster of flowerpods when gently steamed remind one of broccoli. Just remember if you are enjoying the buds and flowers to leave a few to reseed for next year.

Dandylion, of course, is easily found, sometimes even putting up leaves and the occasional flower in late winter (or all winter as has been the case in 2011-12). The first young leaves are the most tender and tasty, and the roots are also full of nutrition to add to soups or stir-fries.

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

A dainty little lady, Chickweed, actually glories in cool weather, and will sometimes be seen lounging about in mid-winter in a sunny spot, surrounded by snow, but in her own little bare arena.

Spring is the perfect time to enjoy the intense nutrition and green taste of chickweed, as she grows quickly and abundantly. Chickweed is best eaten fresh and raw, in salads and sandwiches, though adding it into cooked dishes toward the end will still save much of her nutrition.

Violet (Viola sp)

Violet (Viola sp)

Violets start showing their heart-shaped leaves a little later in the spring, and then their dainty flowers. Both the leaves and the flowers are edible and filled with wonderful nutrients.

Any of these wild greens can be collected, singly or collectively, and added to a lettuce or spinach salad, or combined into their own little wild salad. Use a sprinkle of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic or herbed vinegar for a finishing touch, and to help you better digest all those lovely nutrients.

Happy spring grazing!

Some useful books: A Field Guide To Edible Wild Plants Of Eastern And Central North America  by Lee Peterson

Edible Wild Plants by Elias and Dykeman, 1990, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places by “Wildman” Steve Brill with Evelyn Dean, 1994, Hearst Books (includes recipes)

Receiving

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Happy young girl with arms open and confetti coming down

“Ask and it shall be given.” So it says in the Bible, and in The Secret, the book and the movie. You just have to really, really want it, and visualize, and somehow—voilà!—there it is! But for the most part I haven’t found that to be the case.

What gets lost and goes unmentioned, unrecognized, in all the talk about The Secret and positive thinking and you-can-have-what-you-want, is the mindset you need in order to have it: You need to be open to receive.

We can want and need all day long, but if we are not open to receiving what we are asking for, or open to receive, period, we are likely not to get it.

Why, though, would someone not be open to receiving? It seems really silly and stupid. But it’s not.

 

Many of us have learned through hard experience that we won’t get what we want or, even more importantly, need in our lives. It often starts somewhere in childhood, sometimes later in life. If our needs and wants keep not being met; if we are told not to want, not to need help and nurturance; and/or if physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are ignored, then we stop expecting to have our needs and wants met. It’s simple self-defense, and a learning from experience.

However, we can’t stop the wanting, the needing—it is an essential part of our humanness and our survival. But, we squash the expectation of good.

Consciously we may want it, we may think we expect it, we may think we deserve it, but deep down underneath where our formative experiences lie, and our core beliefs drive our current life experiences, we no longer believe we can have it, that the meeting of our needs and wants will happen. We are closed down.

We have told ourselves that we don’t really want it, need it, whatever the it is. We have shut down, as much as possible, the part of us that wants and needs. We tell ourselves: We are strong, we are independent, we don’t need anyone or anything, we can make it on our own!

And why should we expect things to be any different? We’ve tried and tried, and nothing good has come of it. So we build walls around wanting and needing, and expecting, so that disappointment doesn’t keep waltzing in.

But this makes it really hard when we decide to try getting what we want and need in a conscious manner. We don’t realize that unconsciously we have shut down both our ability to receive and our belief that good things can actually happen to us.

We end up standing in our own way and blocking what we want, with no realization that we are in part putting up the barriers to what we are asking for.

How sad and awful for us!

 

When you realize this about yourself, you may be very angry with yourself for doing this and punish yourself with thoughts or words or actions.

But this is a time to be kind to yourself. Understand how hurt you have been and what difficult experiences led you to this point. Thank yourself for taking care of you in the way it knew how. You, your Self, did the best you could in the circumstances you were in. If you can’t thank yourself, then at least don’t berate yourself for your “stupidity”. Respect yourself for surviving difficult experiences.

 

Now, though, you are in the present and can open yourself to receive.

This can be very scary and make you feel vulnerable and unprotected. That’s okay, you can go about this at your own pace.

The point is to start opening yourself at a pace you are comfortable with. Or maybe it’s a matter of pushing yourself a bit beyond your comfort zone, but not so much that it is punishing or cruel to yourself.

Understand that if you close yourself off to what you are asking for and what is offered to you, then you may very well not get it. . So you may want to figure out how to open yourself to receiving what you’ve asked for.

Ask yourself; Am I ready to receive this? Do I feel I deserve it or do I feel that I don’t? If I don’t, how can I change that into a feeling of “I do deserve it”?

 

Sometimes the way to receive is to simply know that you have been closed to it and find how to open yourself up and allow it into yourself and/or your life. It may be as simple as a shift in your attitude.

Sometimes it takes understanding the psychic, emotional, maybe even physical barriers you have put in the way and removing them. You may be able to do this instantly, or it may take time—hours, days, weeks, months, maybe even years.

How long it takes depends in part on how many beliefs you have blocking the way, and what your process is for dealing with them. Also, what the psychic weight of the block is and how much pain is attached to it. If there is a lot of pain, or shame, or guilt (or all three, yikes!) it can take time to process and release them. But it can be done. And it is worth it.

 

Sometimes in order to receive you have to understand that you deserve to receive, that you are a worthy person. And also understand that other people want to give to you, and that it is alright to receive what you ask for. You aren’t greedy or selfish or bad for wanting and then taking and receiving.

Because, for the most part, what you, I, most people want is reasonable—help with our lives and our work, to live comfortably and well, to be loved, to be part of a loving community. To be safe, to be healthy, to be happy. To be fully human. And to not have to go it alone.

The genesis of this article was about a year ago, when I was taking an apprenticeship with Joanna Scaparotti. Something she had written or said suddenly opened me to the stunning (to me) realization that I didn’t know how to receive! Oh my goodness! If I was going to receive then I had to actually make room in my thinking and my expectations. And it meant that I had to allow things into my life, and to admit that I am not a self-contained entity who can exist in complete isolation. It meant/means–*gulp*–that I have to admit and accept that I need others and that I can’t do it all myself.

That realization was actually really freeing and I have been practicing receiving since then. It has been lovely, freeing me from trying so hard and not getting anywhere and finding that life can be easier and more joyous with less effort.

I was quite surprised a couple months ago when I went into a part of myself that holds experiences from early childhood, and found that way back then (about age 3) I had decided not to need or want, and that I was still, at age 57, acting on that decision. If I don’t need or want, I can’t be disappointed and nothing bad will happen (or so went the 3-year-old’s belief). I have been practicing changing that belief and learning how to receive from Spirit as well as humans, Nature, the plants and animals since then. It is a journey that I am enjoying, and I am still learning!

Learning How Plants Heal Me

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When I’ve been most depressed in my life, I’ve turned to flowers. They could reach inside my darkened spirit and touch my heart. They lifted me up just a little, enough to help me carry on.

I’ve always been connected with plants.  My earliest memories include plants: smelling gardenias (we lived in South America), eating mangoes and tangerines right off the tree, watching a miniature-cucumber vine twining up the side of my house. I adored the way tomato plants smelled. By the time I was five, my mom had taught me the European tradition of making flower garlands to wear in my hair.

All of this was really good, and important, because in the midst of what might have seemed a semitropical paradise there was very nasty abuse going on. I lived in a community that was ostensibly Christian, but their version of Christianity was authoritarian and punitive, and hid a deeper, very damaging cult within it.

Growing up as a young child in this environment was hellish. The plants that grew all around me were a saving grace. They were safe, hospitable, beautiful, and undemanding. They couldn’t hurt me (even if they had thorns) the way humans could. Their energies and their spirits were a haven for my soul and spirit.

I wasn’t consciously aware of this, of course. I just gravitated toward plants, any and all, and spent time with them. I loved walking in woods and fields, down city streets, greeting the plants and looking at gardens. I always knew the names of some plants, and in my teens I started teaching myself about them, getting to know them better.

In my teens I became aware of the power of flowers to reach inside me and change something fundamental. I didn’t even know I was depressed, I just could barely function and get about. When I walked down the street from my house I would look at all the flowers popping up in the spring; I knew where all the crocuses were, the daffodils, the tulips and forsythia, the budding magnolias. I cannot give you an explanation, but seeing them was vital to my continuing to struggle on.

In my thirties, in another city, I again would note where all my plant friends grew, following the succession of plants, flowers, seeds from spring to fall. They were dear to my heart.

When I moved to that city 26 years ago, I wanted to put down roots, both figuratively and literally. I planted a rosebush in the yard next to my building. It didn’t make it, but my gardening chops did. Well, they developed, let’s say, with a lot of coaching from the plants!

Along the way I learned how to do all sorts of wonderful things with plants. How to get colors for my yarn and fabric, how to make medicines, what wild plants are good eating, how to decorate my house with wreaths and bouquets made from my favorite plants. And I learned to listen to what the plants have to tell me, by their colors and form, by their whispers in the wind, by the energy they share with all of us. I learned how to let them bring their healing into my heart and body and life.

The ways that connecting with plants have helped me are myriad. Sometimes it’s been just lifting my spirits by seeing a plant friend. Sometimes it is the taking myself out of myself while working with the plants—preparing a dye bath, making a tincture or oil or vinegar, putting plants to dry for later use, making up a tea blend in the morning.

Other times it is the involvement with the plant world and nature. Walking in the fields or woods or down the street, greeting my plant friends, collecting flowers, leaves, roots, for medicine or dye or wreaths or my dinner-plate.

Digging in the earth in a garden is life-changing. It puts you in touch with the earth and earth energy, and brings you into your body.

When I first began gardening professionally, which meant a lot of time with my hands in the dirt!, I was terribly uncomfortable in my body while gardening. I hadn’t spent much time connecting with my body in my 40-plus years of living, and the connection with earth brought me into my body. It took time for me to get comfortable being more in my body and aware of it. I’m glad I allowed myself to do that, because I am much more comfortable in my body now, and I really love having my hands in the dirt and feeling that very visceral connection with Nature.

I feel like plants helped save my life. They certainly helped rescue and maintain my sanity. I am deeply grateful for the gifts of the plants in my life. I hope that you may find a way to bring their healing presence into your life.