Category Archives: Thoughts and Observations

Walking in a Winter Wonderland…

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It’s been snowing here in the Northeast. That’s a bit of an understatement right now, as we have huge piles of snow by the roads, are busily shoveling snow off the paths, and are buckling down for more to come. Yikes!

But I have been enjoying the snow in ways I haven’t in years, if ever. Perhaps because, without a car, I don’t have to drive in it. And I live where they shovel and plow the sidewalks for me. I am very lucky!

frozen river with hare tracks-2-10-14

The small river is frozen with a half moon of hare tracks in the snow.

I have just recently started going out for a walk every day. A dive into severe depression has meant that I have to add new coping skills to the ones I already have in place, and walking is one of the easiest things I can do that helps.

So on many days you will find me crunching through shin-high snow, leaving a small trench of trodden snow in my wake. It is exhilarating and fine aerobic exercise.

snowy tracks-1 2-07-2014

My snowy trail

I have been discovering wonderful things, and paying attention to the plants and the outdoors in whole new ways.

We have both hares and bunnies in our neck of the woods, and the tracks they leave differ from each other. Who knew?! They trail along through the top layer of snow, swerving here and there or making a sharp zig-zag turn, and mostly go from one area of covering trees and vines to another.

What I have really been seeing for the first time is the absolute beauty of the trees, vines, dried seedheads, and other plants in the snow and winter landscape. With all the snow, of course it looks like the quintessential winter postcard or Christmas card. But beyond that is the sublime glory of each plant, twig, or bare stalk outlined against the snow, or simply being itself within the fullness of the land.

I have been paying attention to the bare trees, which allow me to see details and learn about the trees which are hidden or invisible in a way when the leaves are out and all the other plants are flaunting their own foliage and colors.

bare black walnut tree in snow 2-2014

My friend, the black walnut tree.

For instance, on one walk I saw the pods, with tiny seeds still inside, of the black locust tree. I had just been reading about these in a wild foods forum I’m in, and lo-and-behold, suddenly there they were on the snow, and later in another walk, clinging to the bare branches of a tree! Then I looked at the tree itself and noticed the very deeply textured bark, so different from the other trees nearby. Except that several trees had that same texture of bark, and when I checked their branches, they had the little pods still attached. So I noticed a community of trees I have completely missed up until now.

black locust branch

Broken branch of black locust tree.

My walks are not silent. The birds are very vocal, and it is amusing to occasionally hear what sounds like a spring song in the midst of this wintery snow. No longer a harbinger of spring in our neck of the woods, there are flocks of robins in the trees and hopping on the snow, their bright breasts flashing in the sun. I can hear the cardinals before I see them. The sparrows and chickadees are everywhere and other birds come winging by or hop around on bare branches or in the yew bushes.

This winter with its seemingly endless snowfalls has been an unexpected gift. I am so grateful for its beauty and the presence of creatures and trees and the Spirit of our Mother Earth.

To Change Your Attitudes, Change Your Core Beliefs

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Recently I was thinking about changes I need to make within myself, and how large they are. I was wondering if I’ll be able to make them successfully.

One large change I need to make is making decisions at the time they need making, instead of putting them off or waffling about them. That day it seemed like it would take more energy and strength than I could muster up, but the day after thinking about this, it felt like it would be easy.

What was the difference between one day and the next? It was the energy I had. When you have enough energy, the right kind of energy, then things are much easier, much more doable.

When changing your life, change your attitude

Sometimes when you need to make changes in your life or behavior you need to change your attitude. Change your attitude and the rest will come more easily. Sometimes the hardest work you will do in making a change is changing your attitude.

Why is this? It is because the attitude you have toward or about something encompasses your beliefs about it. And your beliefs shape your thoughts and your actions.

You cannot act in a way that is contrary to your beliefs. You may disagree with me about this, saying that you often act contrarily to what you believe, and that may be true. But, on a deep level, your core beliefs, and you may not even be aware of what they are, will prevent you or compel you to act in particular ways and bring about results that may be very different from what you want or expect.

It is the effects of our deep core beliefs that can make something like positive thinking or the book and movie The Secret seem like nonsense, or impossible. Because it doesn’t matter how much you want to meet the right partner or make a ton of money, and it doesn’t matter if you repeat the right affirmation a hundred times a day (though doing this can be helpful, as we’ll discuss in a bit), if your underlying beliefs are radically different from your conscious, stated beliefs, the desired outcome won’t happen.

I speak from much, much experience! For so many years I wondered why, even when I tried an affirmation or three and thought I was changing my beliefs, I didn’t get what I really wanted. It took time to start to see that it is the deep core beliefs that underlie the surface beliefs, wants, and desires and drive my behavior far more reliably than my conscious thoughts. Damn, it’s frustrating!

An example, one of many, from my own life is the belief I just discovered that putting myself into the public arena is dangerous. I have worked at building my business for years, but have struggled consistently, again and again finding myself falling apart and getting ill just as I am about to take off and make the leap to the next level. I recently found that I have a long-standing belief that if I get sick I will be safe from dangerous situations. Now it may not seem that having one’s own business is dangerous, but if you look at all the potential for failing, being disrespected, seen as a fool, doing the wrong thing, and so on and so on, you see how it can feel very dangerous. I had no clue that was in there until just a couple months ago! Looking back it is easy to see why I have not gotten farther than I have. But the fact that I have found this core belief means that I get to change it, and it means I get to change my attitudes and my results as well.

This is the beauty of understanding that your attitudes drive your results. If you are not getting the results you want, change your attitude! If you can’t change your attitude, or it seems to be absolutely correct but you are still not getting what you want, then it is time to start looking below the surface to what your deepest core beliefs are. They may surprise the heck out of you.

Best Use of Affirmations

There are a different ways to get to the bottom of our beliefs and change them. Even though saying affirmations may seem useless, especially if you don’t see changes quickly, they can have an effect. They are a sort of top-down effect, not as quick-acting as digging in and finding the deep core belief, but they can help to start to change those beliefs.

What you tell yourself over and over again affects what you believe, so that when you repeat the same thing again and again, you start to believe it. Repeating an affirmation is a way to drill down to the core and change things. They do work to some extent, and they give added energy and momentum to the changes you are making to your core beliefs.

In my opinion, however, when you have a stubborn core belief, just saying affirmations will take a terribly long time, or just not be effective. If a belief you are changing is not particularly strong, it is more easily dispelled and changed by using affirmations.

When you are working to dislodge the deepest beliefs, affirmations can help you put a new belief into place, while working to understand the old belief and root it out, helping to replace it with a new, positive belief.

Thus, one of the best uses of affirmations is to help reinforce a change in attitude and/or belief, and in this way they will be much more effective than thinking that just saying the affirmation will bring about the desired results.

Surviving the Holidays

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snowflakeSo you’re all cuddled up with your gift list, checking off all the gifts you’ve gotten for everyone you love, and you’re thinking about how fabulous it’ll be getting together with the fam and all your groovy, fabulous relatives… Or maybe not.

In actuality, this is a really tough time of year for many people, and the planning we should really be doing is how to get through it with as little damage as possible, keeping what we can of our sanity and our good humor.

So here are a few suggestions for taking of yourself, ‘cause if you don’t do it, who will?!

If you are visiting family or other folks that will be difficult to be around, for whatever reason, there are a few strategies that you can use:

  • Give yourself a set time by which to leave. You can always stay longer if things are going well, but if not, have an appointment or other super-important event that you forgot about until just then, but which you must attend to immediately. Or just say you need to go and do so.
  • Have a friend call you at a particular time to check in. Have a code word, if needed, for her/him to know it’s too much and help you make your escape. Or they can just check in with you to help you make it through the insanity. Or have a friend that you can call.
  • Try to take your own vehicle, so that you can leave without having to persuade others to leave when you need to.
  • Find a compelling reason to be doing something else entirely that day or days that prevent you from attending.
  • Have some of your favorite herbs for relieving stress with you. What I have found is really helpful is to take a water bottle and put 2 or 3 doses of my herbs in the bottle. Than I drink half or a third of the water at a time to get one dose (I am not worried about it being exact). Since I take a number of herbal tinctures this makes it fast, easy, and portable. You can also make herbal teas or infusions and have them ready in one or more water bottles or thermoses.
  • Take time to relax with a lovely bath or even just a foot or hand bath (I wrote about herbal baths here). It can be wonderfully relaxing and rejuvenating. Have mug of your favorite herb tea while you’re soaking and you’ll feel even better!
  • If you have any sort of dietary restrictions or preferences, make sure your host know beforehand. If you’re not sure they’ll have the food available that you need, be sure to bring a few items with you that you can eat if you need to (you don’t have to be obvious about it, but do make sure you can eat what you need to). If you have food allergies this can be particularly important.

Being kind to yourself is ultra-important right now. It is much more important to take time to catch your breath than to get one more gift (I know, easier said than done).

If you don’t get everything done that you want, or even one-tenth, give yourself credit and props for whatever you did accomplish. I share with you my latest motto (for what it is worth): Completion, not perfection.

If you mess up with your family, if you can’t be with loved ones, if you are grieving or alone or whatever else, it is even more important to be kind to yourself. Speak kind words to yourself, make yourself yummy comfort food, watch a favorite movie or show, listen to wonderful music.

Stop beating yourself up for whatever you feel, even if it’s vile or uncomfortable or “I’m not supposed to feel this way”. You feel the way you feel and the feelings will pass. You are allowed the full range of your feelings, and no one has to know what they are except you!

Do find people you truly love being with even if only for a few hours. Buy yourself a gift.

Go outdoors and revel in the beauty of the season, whether snow-covered or bare and brown (and if you’re where it’s warm and green, enjoy that!)

I wish for you at this time of the winter solstice and the holiday season much love and loving connection with others and yourself.

Disrespect for Real Food

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Perfectly good home-grown squashes in the dumpster. Why would someone put squash in the garbage instead of sharing with others who might want or need this wonderful food?

One of the biggest problems in our society right now is a disregard and disrespect for real food, food that grows from the ground and has to be prepared by our own effort. This due to the ubiquitous availability, for the most part (in the USA), of food, any kind of food, mostly processed food and instafood (mixes, premades, precooked, etc.), but also cosmetically perfect foods raised with chemicals to make them so.

The I see examples of disrespect for real food literally in my own backyard.

Wenham Gold appleI live in a housing development for seniors and the disabled (I am the latter). We are extremely fortunate to have community gardens in the field beyond the last building. Within the community gardens are two old apple trees that were once cared for and produce marvelous apples. Because I don’t know if they are a named variety, I call then Wenham Gold.

Wenham Golds are a yellow-skinned apple, with a delicious taste, good keeping qualities, and a slightly mealy quality when fully ripe. They are excellent for both cooking and eating out-of-hand. They are remarkably insect-free, perhaps because they grow in gardens that attract predators of the invasive apple insects (you know the ones–bite into an apple and there is a worm–ewwww!).

The apple trees produced a bumper crop this year, drifts of apples on the ground, and apples falling from the tree for 2 months. The last apple just fell within the last couple days.

pile of applesNo one from my development showed any interest in these fabulous apples. I am the only one who tried to make inroads into the bounty. Everyone else ignored the gift from Gaia. Yes, the apples are not smooth and shiny; yes, some have bad spots that need cutting away. But overall they are as good any apple you will pay for, and they’re free! And even more importantly, free of unhealthy chemicals. But ignored, loved only by me and the occasional squirrel or raccoon.

Another example that just floored me was the neighbor who threw eleven butternut squashes into the dumpster. She had raised them herself, tending the plants all summer. At the end of the season they sat in a pile in her garden bed. I refrained from taking any, assuming she was saving them for herself.

Then one day I put trash in the communal dumpster and happened to look in (you would be amazed at what people throw out). There were the squashes! We have a community center where residents leave items they don’t want, and share surplus veggies and groceries. The squashes didn’t come into the center to be shared with the residents, they went into the trash! Fortunately for me, when I did my first dumpster dive ever to liberate the squash, there was a quantity of grass to step onto, and a neighbor to hold the squash and give me a hand out.

When we, as a society, have so much perfect-looking, ready-made food so readily available, we forget what a gift real food, grown from living soil and prepared with our own hands, is. We go for the cosmetically perfect produce grown with pesticides and herbicides (chemicals that kill the natural world, and eventually us humans). We go for the food already prepared for us, even though it is full of synthetic chemicals for taste, texture, and appearance, because it is easy and seems to taste good. We ignore or aren’t aware of the fact that this food nourishes neither our body or our spirit.

It is time to start respecting real food. You can start by choosing and eating real food in your home and workplace. Show other people by your example how valuable real food is and how to treat it with respect.

Connecting with Gaia

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earth from spaceRecently I met someone who communicates with the devas of plants  (A deva is the spirit or over-soul of a plant or animal species.*) I asked him to see if he could channel a deva for me. The being he channeled turned not to be a plant deva, but was the spirit of our planet, Gaia. It was neither thrilling nor humbling, but rather left me feeling peaceful and honored that she chose to talk to me

Gaia had many things to tell me and answered a couple of questions. Some of what I was told was personal, and some feels important to share.

The thing that fills my heart when I think of it is that Gaia said that she is literally here under our feet to support us. She bears us humans no ill-will. She wants only for us to be happy. She provides for us. We are loved by her.

Gaia said that it is sad when species disappear, but it has happened before, and others will come to take their place. She has been here for millions of years, and sees it from that perspective.

I was pleased to hear her confirm what I think, which is that inevitably some species will disappear, with or without our human interference. This doesn’t mean that we should just go and use what we want as we want, but rather that the earth will heal from each disappearance.

As my friend was channeling we could hear live music coming from the party we were attending. Gaia said that playing that music changed everything. That when we are happy it affects everything, and that when we are sad it affects everything as well.

When do we ever think that what we feel can, and does, have an affect beyond us? And changes the whole universe?

And Gaia told me that we do not end with our skin, but that our being radiates out beyond, that our skin is not the limit of our being but that it continues outward. (Scientists have found that the field generated by the human heart can be measured up to 15 feet away from the body!)

One last thing to mention is that everything on this earth has an aliveness, an awareness, even the stones.

I hope you will go look at the world around you with new eyes.

*There are different definitions of what a deva is, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(New_Age).

Plants’ Alchemy: Manifestation

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Mullein--Verbascum thapsus

Mullein–Verbascum thapsus

One year I had a mullein plant put itself smack in the middle of my garden path, and it was a very narrow path! All summer I walked around it, not wanting to pull it out, knowing it had a message for me, but not taking the time to listen.

Finally I took the time to sit with Mullein and ask it what it wanted me to know. I received a picture of air and sunshine and leaves and… I have no words for the actual vision I was shown.

I had to translate it to human terms so I could understand what I was being told. The message was that plants take what is invisible, what is unformed and untouchable, and transform it into a tangible form, one that can be felt, touched, seen, is somehow solid. I found this amazing and awe-inspiring, invoking reverence for all plants.

I thanked Mullein for the message it had so patiently waited to give me and it finished its life cycle that fall.

Later I realized that what mullein was describing is photosynthesis. Plants take sunlight—ethereal energy that cannot be tangibly held, and transform it into leaves, flowers, stems, and roots—their very tangible plant bodies. So simple and so common, perhaps, something we learn about in school, something that happens all around us every day that we don’t even think about.

And yet the way I was shown that information helped me understand what a miraculous, sacred act it is for a plant to transform sunlight into matter. It is something that animals and humans cannot do, period, and which we must rely on the plants to provide for us. What would we eat if not plants, or animals that eat plants at some point? What would we make clothing out of if not plant materials, or wool from animals that eat plants? You get the picture.

But it is not just photosynthesis that was being explained to me. It was about the ability to transform, to manifest, to make something from “nothing”.

Since then I have felt that where plants fit in the vibrational scheme of this world is in the middle—somewhere between the dense energy of animals (including us humans) and the energy of the stars and the higher realms of Spirit (God, if you will). Plants are the intermediary between these denser and lighter energies. They help bring the lighter energies from the etheric realms into the physical, where we can connect with them.

In my humble opinion, plants are the first, and the truest, alchemists.

The Grace of Children

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Iris holding babyThe birth of two nephews recently caused me to remember how utterly the birth of my daughter affected my life.

Having a child affects every parent, but I think that for survivors of child abuse, the changes are especially profound.

I’ve talked with several women who are abuse survivors with children of varying ages.

We’ve talked about the ways we changed our lives in order to care for our children. However imperfectly we did things, we know that we did better than our parents, changed destructive behaviors and started or continued healing because it was of utmost importance for the health and safety of our children.

Whether or not our parents were capable of loving us or expressing that love, as parents ourselves we found our love propelling us to different behaviors.

When my daughter was born I had no idea that I had been abused and was still in an abusive relationship with my parents.

I had strange fears for her safety that made no sense given what I thought my life experience had been. Years later when my memories of abuse surfaced my recurrent fears finally made sense.

Because I had been abused and was still involved in abusive situations, I did put my daughter at risk and left her in situations that should not have happened. When I have thought of this in ensuing years it is perhaps the hardest thing in my life for which to forgive myself. Not being in control of my life, being in a position of utter powerlessness, seems like no excuse, seems like it can’t ever be resolved in my heart. I am still coming to terms with it.

By age 22 I was a single parent. I was in great emotional turmoil and pain and acted out a lot. I was aware at the time of putting the brakes on my crazy behavior because I knew I had to care for my child.

There were many times when I was extremely depressed and wanted to die; I couldn’t see how anything would ever get better.

What still amazes me is that however badly I felt about myself, I always had the sense that I was a better parent for my daughter than her father and that I had to stay alive to care for her.

I had to learn better ways of dealing with my daughter because of how she responded to what I did. When she was four, she knocked over the Christmas tree for the second time. When I said I’d kill her she responded by telling me that I couldn’t kill her because then she’d be dead. From then on I eliminated “I’m gonna kill you” from my vocabulary.

Joining Parents Anonymous, a support group for parents under stress, helped me learn new ways of coping with my daughter and treating her appropriately. Still, it took years for me to stop swearing at her and calling her names.

The biggest changes occurred when I started remembering my own abuse. I started confronting my hugely inappropriate behaviors with my daughter, looking at the causes of my rage that were so out of proportion with anything she had ever done, and began withdrawing from my family who were abusing both of us.

The advent of my memories began a terribly painful period of my life, that lasted for several years. One of the biggest impetuses I had to keep going with the healing process, when it just seemed more than I could humanly do, was that I wanted better for my daughter.
I wanted to be a better mother, I wanted her to know that there was hope and healing for whatever she might realize she had been through, I wanted to change for the generations to come. I wanted my daughter to have a sane, loving mother.

While I don’t know how sane I am even today I do know that I have the courage, and it takes a lot in the face of my fear of her possible rejection, to tell her how much I love her, how proud I am of her, how important my child is to me.

This column is dedicated to Loy and Pietra. April 2006

 

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.

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.