A Crunchy LIfe

Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart. -Pablo Casals

What is it about music and meditation that cause them to be so important to me? Sound and vibration and silence and stillness are found throughout the universe. It seems to make sense to me that it would also speak to me, and that I would also feel the need for both in my life.

Music was the first to speak to me. As a small child it was music that helped me fall asleep and calm myself. As I learned to perform other’s music – Bach, Handel, Debussy, Faure and on – I came to understand that music provided a safe place to touch emotions I didn’t otherwise give space to in my day to day life. Music became deeply personal. As that happened, my ability to play in front of others diminished. Now, it is just for myself. Listening to music changed as well. I found that certain types of music connected to different emotional states I was feeling or wanted to feel. Listening to music became purposeful, as well as enjoyable.

Meditation extended the purposefulness into the realm of silence. I remember the first time I was guided through a meditation experience. I was 20-years old and working as the waterfront director at a summer girls’ camp, and the head of the camp decided that as part of staff training we would also participate in a guided meditation. My tent mate and soon to be best friend Anne practically quoted A Chorus Line after the guided meditation, “I dug right down to the bottom of my soul and I tried, I tried……but I felt nothing.” I, on the other hand, recounted to Anne all that I experienced. She rolled her eyes, and I was hooked.

When I listen to music or meditate I connect with something larger than my self. Both are heart-based practices. Both provide an opportunity to acknowledge and feel different aspects of my thoughts and emotions, to get out of my head and into my heart. They provide respite and recharge throughout the day. They help to release stress and anxiety, but more importantly through music and meditation I am able to soften and open my heart to all around me. I find my morning meditation to be my most powerful practice as it creates a foundation for the day. Morning meditation provides an opportunity for me to check in with my self and the universe. By focusing my mind, emotions, and senses first thing in the morning, the calm, peace, and devotion that arises sets the tone for how I approach challenges throughout the day.  I am able to lead with my heart.

My morning meditation occurs at 4:30am while everyone in the family is still asleep and after Winston, our bull mastiff, and I have gone for our morning walk. I have a dedicated  space, a cozy cushion to sit upon, and a candle.  I sit in a comfortable seated  position, roll my shoulders backwards, then forwards. I slightly lower my chin and just breathe. Some days I set an intention. Some days I chant. Some days I sing mantras. Some days I ask a question and then listen. Some days I focus on a natural element – earth, air, fire, or water – represented by a special rock or crystal, an aromatherapy blend, the candle, or a bowl of water. Some days I focus on an ancestor through a family heirloom. Some days I just sit and focus on 108 breaths. When I come out of morning meditation, I am able to carry the awareness that arose to all of my daily activities.

There are many types of meditation practices. All it takes to get started is a quiet space and a few minutes. Once I developed my practice I discovered I can drop into my meditative space any time I need it throughout the day, just like I do with music.

Some meditation resources:

• Jon Kabat Zin – guided meditation  available on Audible: Guided Mindfulness Meditation Series 1, 2, and 3

https://www.audible.com/pd/Guided-Mindfulness-Meditation-Series-1-Audiobook/1615445250?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

https://www.audible.com/pd/Guided-Mindfulness-Meditation-Series-2-Audiobook/1615445269?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

https://www.audible.com/pd/Guided-Mindfulness-Meditation-Series-3-Audiobook/1615445277?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

• Britt B Steele – guided meditations on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/8vWTW
• Insight Timer – is a free app for mindfulness that is available on Google Play and the App Store. I have used Insight Timer for years and love it because I love setting the timer how I want it – duration, starting bell, ending bell, etc. The app also has tons of available meditations (as well as music, yoga, courses, live events) – I haven’t explored them yet but they are there if I want to explore options.  

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“What are you willing to surrender today… give back to the earth? So. you can rise again…. new, fresh, and ready to face this glorious world and all it brings…. with eyes of acceptance, wonder, and joy.” – Britt B Steele

I don’t talk about my work life here or on Instagram very often but it is the crux of this lotus. My career in education proceeded rather swiftly. Teacher. Department Chair by age 29. Assistant Principal by age 34. Principal by age 40. I completed my Master’s degree and my law degree while working full time. The one consistency through out this time was that I continually sought to prove myself. To do more and be more for the people I worked with and the teachers and students I served. Once my husband and our children entered my world when I was age 35, 38, and 41 the fast-paced stress-filled lifestyle was fully internalized.

It began to take it’s toll on me in countless ways. The internalized negative self-talk grew louder. The internal stress created by me and the external stress created by the work, materialized physically in my weight, skin, eyes. My resilience diminished. My recovery from stressful situations was slower.

There was a subtle voice that grew louder with each day, until one day I heard it loud and clear, and I realized that I brought it all on myself. It was my own thoughts, fears, assumptions, and pressures that created this environment in which I lived. And, if I created it, I also had the power to change it. This wasn’t about how to balance work and home as a wife and mother and educator. This was about setting a pace I wanted; a pace in which I would be able to thrive, not just make it through each day. With clarity I understood that  am able to control my time, how I spend it, and how I feel about it. I put the brakes on, and took the time to really look at my underlying thoughts, goals, and actions.

The first step was to Stop. I took a day by myself to stop. To be comfortable without an agenda. No expectations. No requirements. No obligations. No mobile phone. No computer. Paper and pencil only.  This could have been anywhere – a retreat, a hotel, a cabin, my bedroom, the beach. The only requirement was silence and solitude. For me, it was a vacation day in Washington, D.C.  I took walks in the city. I swam in the hotel pool. I took a long herbal bath. I reflected and I wrote.

The second step was to Look. I took a long look at my days through the lens of two questions: (1) What time is available in my day? (2) What are the important things to me – the things that fuel me? On a typical day, my work day is from 6:30am – 4:30pm.  My list of important things turned out to be much smaller than I expected; everything fit into one of four categories:

• Morning rituals
• Family time
• Movement
• Evening rituals

I realized I had plenty of time in the morning for my morning rituals, as long as I was willing (and able 🙂 ) to wake up earlier. On the other end of the day. if dinner was at 6:30pm that gave me one hour when I was first home and 2 hours before bed time that was available.

The third step was to create an Outline. I began by writing a description of my ideal day. Keeping in the forefront all of the things I listed above that are important to me and fuel me,  I outlined the day – from the minute my eyes opened until they closed again at the end of the day. 

I wake up at 4am and my morning ritual begins with stretching and checking in to see how I feel before I even emerge from bed and then a walk with Winston, our bullmastiff. Then, it’s  a warming morning beverage, morning yoga, meditation, shower, getting ready for work, laundry, breakfast, and out the door.

When I arrive home it’s family time until 5:30pm, then dinner prep, dinner at 6:30pm, yoga at 7:30pm, and then 8:30pm prep for bed – reading, washing up,  no tech, etc.

The final step was to create a Way to implement this plan. I could not do this alone. I realized that I would need others and tools to be successful. Here are three easy changes we made:

Each night of our weekly menu is based upon specific meals:

• Leftover Night
• Bowl Night
• Burger Night
• One Pot Night
• Pizza/Calzone Night
• People’s Choice Night
• And, the one that was added – Girl’s Chef Night. The girls take over dinner prep one night each week. It helps me slow down but more importantly it gives them creative time together. Breakfast is a common theme but sometimes they are more experimental.

The girl’s also took responsibility for several jobs each day. For example, the oldest takes care of trash, wiping down the dinner table, and wiping down the refrigerator doors on Monday night. The youngest straightens the sunroom, feeds the dog, and gets the mail on Thursdays. They learn responsibility for caring for our surroundings, they learn what it means to be a part of a (family) team, and I get to set my pace.

In the beginning I also set an alarm on my phone to help me remember my evening yoga time. I tend to get caught up in the energy of the night and found myself missing my yoga time simply because I forgot about it and when I realized it, it was bedtime. An alarm helped me create a pattern and commitment.  My husband protects the time by making sure I am not interrupted so I can focus ❤️.

Slowing down. My body, mind, heart, and spirit are now nourished through this changed pace. I am prepared for anything life’s twists and turns bring, and my recovery to stress is swifter and gentler.

My process – Stop, Look, Outline, Way – worked for me. Each of us must find our own way and our own pace. The magic for me came in realizing that I had the power to choose.

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She needs wide open spaces Room to make her big mistakes -Wide Open Spaces, The Dixie Chicks

Baby needs someone to believe in And a whole lot of space to breathe in -Hold on Loosely, 38 Special

Space is one of those words that has such a wide variety of meanings.  Measurement. Location. Home of the moon, stars, and other universes. Squares on a Scrabble board. Then there is always the saying, “Man, I need my space.” The definition and understanding of space is ever evolving.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, space is from Latin spatium – “expanse of ground, area, space occupied by something, expanse in which the universe is situated, intervening space, gap, interval, space available for a purpose, room.” It is also from the Old French spaze, variant of aspace, Old French, Middle French espace, espasse (French espace ) “period of time, duration, deferment, delay, respite.” What I love about these origins is that they speak to space available for a purpose and respite. That is exactly why this lotus is so important: nurturing purpose and respite.

Each lotus so far has focused on daily rituals, actions, and connections. Earth/Nature, Place/Land, Movement, Healthy-Happy all describe the tools that are important to supporting me each day. Tools I tap into daily. This lotus, Space, is about looking at what connects these tools. It is about looking at how location and my lived experiences in the present interact and connect to the abstract and intuitive knowing and grounding that comes from each lotus. For me, this is space.

Space is about renewal. It is about creating opportunity. Opportunity to  nurture moments and to give myself respite. This type of space is both geographic and personal. 

Geographic space. Geographic space is relational, based on location and then qualities, processes, and proportions. Sometimes I just need distance from people, from the city, from the every day. Room for myself. Quiet that let’s me hear my own thoughts without extraneous chatter. It’s about finding those locations in the world that fuel relaxation and reconnection. Its meaning comes from relating to other concepts, my 12 lotus. Space manifests in locations where I can freely implement the tools found in the other lotus. Sometimes it means going away from my home. 4am walks with our dog to tap into Earth/Nature. Swimming to tap into Movement. Trail walks to tap into Place/Land. Sometimes it means finding the space within and around my home, like my special space in our back garden – a lounge chair surrounded by hydrangeas with a small rock cairn to remind me to always follow my way. 

Personal space. Personal space is a combination of physical and mental space. It is a space that nourishes, sustains, protects, and is a refugee from all of the things that pull me away, distract me, and demand my time and attention. It is a sacred space. I work long days. I leave the house at 6:30 am and sometimes don’t return until 5pm. The physical taking of the first step through the threshold of the doorway can determine how my mental state unfolds once I am inside. When I walk in the front door to our home it is important to me that our home greet me and welcome me. As I move through the rooms, I want to feel an ambiance that helps me relax, rejuvenate, and renew. The way daily life in our home is performed is directly linked to how I perceive our home. Intentionally interacting with our home as sacred space provides room for creativity, room to practice the tools embodied in each lotus, and clears the clutter of what I have carried from my work day. The items we have chosen to display and use throughout our home are nourishing and supportive. Every decision we make in our home builds this personal space, just like each of the tools in other lotus support how I approach each day. 

When considering what to bring in to my personal space I ask myself these four questions: Is it beautiful? Is it useful? Is it sustainable? Does it support health and wellness? This is because all of the items in a room bring their own energy to the room and combined they create a unique energy for the room. Here are some examples:

Entrance:

• Herbs and plants on the outside doorstep
• Iron horseshoe above the front door with the open end facing upward
• Lavender bundle by the door

Dining Room:

• Long wooden dining table 
• Earthenware dishes made by a local potter
• Artwork by local artists
• Cookbook collection

Living Room:

• Seasonal nature table
• Fireplace and Hearth – hearth oil to bless the hearth and iron tools
• Art books and music albums
• Succulents and herb plants
• Artwork by local artists
• Natural fiber blankets and beeswax candles
• Wool area rugs

Kitchen:

• Cast iron and copper pots and pans
• Glass containers for storage
• Wooden and copper utensils and stone mortar and pestle
• Homemade hand soap from plant and mineral based ingredients, fragrance free, biodegradable
• Cleaning supplies from plant and mineral based ingredients, fragrance free, biodegradable
• Beeswax candle in northeast corner
• Flower in bud vase
• Fresh and organic ingredients
• Spices and herbs
• Kombucha brewing
• Vinegar brewing in vinegar crock
• Mung Beans sprouting
• Herbs in a window box outside the kitchen window
• Family cookbook on wooden stand

Bedroom:

• Natural fiber bed linens and duvet
• Sustainable furniture with beautiful and efficient design
• Fresh flowers from our garden
• Photos of and objects connected to ancestors
• Agate, Carnelian, Jade, and Quartz crystals
• Homemade linen spray
• Artwork by local artists
• Salt lamp
• Technology free space
• 60 books that impacted my life and books to be read

There is no “right” way to work with space. It is reflective, experiential, and personal. Understanding space has allowed me to relax into my daily rhythm knowing that purpose and respite are built into the day.

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I live in a complicated place.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how I came to be here, in this place at this moment in time. I am aware of much that transpired in this place before I arrived and I know my knowledge is incomplete. I am a work in progress. As long as I am here, I seek to connect with the whole of this place, to see things as they are, with open eyes and a soft heart.  

I live on the stolen land of the Piscataway, Nentego, and Susquehannock peoples. The stories and the knowledge that passes through their ancestral lines is embedded in this Earth. This Earth connects these First Nations, through memory and history and ancestry and stewardship. I appreciate and respect their stories, and I honor and learn from them. I acknowledge and am thankful for the stewardship and love of this land by the First Nations, their deep roots that have nourished it, and their elders past, present, and emerging who continue to shine their light.  

This land now also holds the successes and memories of the Europeans who came here, as well as the stories of the conflicts and suffering that they brought with them: wars, diseases, genocide, slavery, hatred, corruption, white supremacy. As a woman, I have a complicated history with this part of the story. Women as both perpetrators and subjugated. As a descendant of these Europeans I bear the weight of it all, and am responsible for it as a beneficiary.  

I experience place as being rooted in an understanding of the natural environment and the cultural environment. When I lived on Smith Island (see blog post, January 2021) it was the immediate recognition of both that I sensed upon my arrival on the ferry that very first time. In a way I was remembering that simple formula – natural environment + cultural environment – as soon as I saw Tylerton. It all came down to the sweet spot where the human experience and the landscape were one. There is a feeling that arises when a place speaks to the depths of one’s being. Something churns. Something resounds. It’s not recognition, exactly. More like something awakens.  

My adventure on Smith Island was to dive into that crossroads between the landscape and humanity. To discover all I could about the natural history of the marshes, beaches, sea grass meadows, oyster reefs, and open bay while diving into the culture of the community – the church, the language, the post office, the store, the tiniest sewage treatment plant, the one-room schoolhouse, mailboat delivery, cemetery practices, stories and folklore, culinary traditions, gender expectations, working the water. Along the way, the exploration changed. Tylerton was rooted in me.  

This place where I live now, just north of Baltimore City, is different. I am sentimental about it. After all, it is home. My childhood memories are here. We’ve built a family here. The dead on my mother’s side of the family are buried here, going back to 1893. But that deep sense of connection to the Earth and this place does not come easily. It is something I have to strive to intentionally create between me and this place.    

This place has seen it all. Before George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore and after. It knows all that has come to pass. And, it remembers, all of it. It is my responsibility to listen and learn from this place as a way of respecting and honoring our common humanity, and thereby creating a new relationship with this place, this point on the Earth that I call home. A relationship based upon listening to what this place has to teach me and then building my own deep-Earth-centered practices to be able to continually tap into the teachings it has for me. A relationship that entails responsibility for the place and the communities around me. A responsibility that is based upon recognition, honoring, healing, and atonement, to this place. A responsibility that grows into sacred connection and purpose.  

I can only do this if I strive to comprehend the whole. This is a life-long process of listening, feeling, learning, and action. Some of the ways for me are:

• Engaging in humanity-centered work such as continuous food drives, supporting a women’s shelter, projects to support families and patients with developmental disabilities and disorders of the brain, spinal cord and musculoskeletal system, and social action initiatives.
• Working with high school students who teach me so much about their lived experience, and afford me the opportunity to support them in making their dreams come true.
• Combining ancient practices such as blessings and meditation with aromatherapy based on the native plants of my ecoregion, thus connecting the past and the present.
• Engaging with the local native plant society, natural history society, and nature center.
• Identifying the stars, planets, and constellations that inhabit the seasonal night time sky, and striving to learn more.
• Acts of Restorative Kindness that seek to restore native ecosystems. More information: https://wearetheark.org/
• Creating and nurturing a backyard garden for wildlife that provides access to food, water, cover, and places to raise young. More information: https://nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife
• Growing our own food with sustainable practices
• More ideas are available in the January 2021 post.

As often as possible I get my hands in the soil. Digging. Feeling. Smelling. Listening. Doing so connects me not only to the present work I am doing and the future growth I hope to see in my garden and my self, but also to all of those who have called this place home before me.              

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• Wendell Berry

• I start my day with a 4am morning walk with our dog, Winston.
• I rise before the sun and greet her each day with a moment of silence followed by a verse/mantra/prayer.
• I wear an ammonite around my neck to remind me that in geologic time we are all connected and all come from stardust (read Neil Tyson deGrasse for more thoughts on how we are stardust).
• I walk barefoot outside at least once a day in the grass or the garden.
• I integrate herbal knowledge into my daily wellness routines.
• I take a cue from my own AP Environmental Science lesson plans and have a place I return to outside each day to sit and see what the universe needs me to hear.
• I park far away from any building I am entering so that I can walk even longer outside.

• Practice ceremonies/traditions connected to the seasons.
• Maintain a nature centerpiece on our table that changes seasonally
• We read stories/folklore that corresponds to the seasons.
• We grow our own vegetables and herbs.
• We make time on the weekend to adventure and explore outside together.

GREETINGS, again, world!

In November 2019 I was in the midst of a conversation with Britt Kolo, the creator of MarketingPersonalities.com when I received a call that one of my high school students had died in a horrific accident. A beautiful, vibrant, talented, young life was taken in a freak accident that could neither have been predicted nor prevented. Everything shifted at that moment. I began to question this journey I was on. Why was I even trying to write a blog? Why was I trying to share my thoughts? Why did I think I had something to share? Why was I making any of the decisions I was making if life is so fleeting?

The result, I stopped working on the blog in January 2020. I tried to keep my social media posts going. But that too suffered from my growing silence. I followed a hunch that I needed to look deeply into what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how I was doing it. I didn’t intend for it to take most of the year but 2020 has been an unusual year to say the least. My intent was to look deeply into my creativity and to re-connect with it. My approach was a sabbatical. A time to delve intellectually and emotionally into the work of knowing myself as a creative. 

SABBATICAL 

• “a period to devote oneself entirely to the development of a new and transformative project — whether that is writing a book, conducting fieldwork abroad or learning new teaching pedagogies.” 
• -“transition into the kind of concentrated period of creative work that is difficult to accomplish on a typical academic schedule.”

I remember reading articles in the Chronicle of High Education a couple of years back about all of the think-abouts one should consider when going on sabbatical. Lots of advice to be bold in the development of one’s sabbatical. I decided to put those ideas to use during my time away form the blog. I began by setting my learning goal: to make peace with my creativity and to bring it into the open, fresh air and space so that it can breathe and speak. I considered all of the ways I see creativity expressed in my life and all of the ways I re-fuel it. 

I joined a group of amazing creative women from around the world in Anna Lovind’s Creative Doer course https://annalovind.com/the-creative-doer-community-2/ and I began to focus on daily acts of creativity and connecting with creative women. Wow! A powerful group of creative women accepting and supporting creative women in the pursuit of their dreams. I was exploring the creative work that nourishes the rest of my life.  I was re-emerging. 

And then, COVID-19. Quarantine. Social Justice protests. Environmental disasters.  Economic hardships. My creativity stopped. I found myself without words. That’s not entirely accurate, either. I found myself with lots of thoughts, feeling, emotions, reactions, but nothing came out. Even as I shared with our high school students the importance of creating in quarantine – whatever that looks like – and how much the world needs creatives during COVID, I couldn’t do it myself. 

I realized that I needed to go back to the the practices that connect me to who I am and my place in this big, beautiful universe. 

I shifted my goals. 

1. 20 in 20 Adventure Challenge from Hike Like A Woman (HLAW). This has been an opportunity to create my own adventures and broaden my idea of an adventure.  As HLAW explains, “an adventure is whatever you want it to be! For some an adventure might be reading an adventure book, a trip abroad, or a hike down a trail that they’ve never been on before. For others an adventure might be learning a new skill or starting a new habit.” The 20 adventures I will have completed this year look very different than the ones I envisioned in January 2020. Gone are the new countries and swimming in new places. In are the home-based adventures that spontaneously emerged. COVID has been an adventure all of it’s own.   https://hikelikeawoman.net/

2. 365 mile challenge in 2020. Get outside and move! 1 mile every day or 365 miles total in 2020. It all counts –  walk, run, hike, swim, bike, paddle. It’s not competitive, it’s collaborative as we share our success and challenges with each other. https://www.365milechallenge.org/

3. 52-books in 2020. In 2019 I read 33 books and set my sights on 52 books in 2020. All genres represented. With four weeks to go I am only at 75% but it’s doable. 

4. Delving deeper into herbalism and aromatherapy, and my ancestral lineages associated with them. I’ve completed so many great courses in 2020 with Aromahead Institute https://www.aromahead.com/ and The Herbal Academy https://theherbalacademy.com/. The Intermediate Herbal Course and the Natural Perfumery course are two of my favorites, and I am in the final stages of aromatherapy certification. 

5. Working closely with my teacher, Britt Steele, and finishing the year with the annual 108 day Pilgrim. www.brittbsteele.com 

6. Coming back to my writing.

What I learned along the way is that I have everything I need and everything I have been searching for is already inside of me. It has been there all along waiting for me to see it. Waiting for me to see the interconnectedness. Waiting for me to free my creativity. Waiting for me to jump back into the work of creating meaning and sharing it with others in support of our collective remembering of our creative, powerful, unique feminine wisdom and knowledge.  

The last conversation that Britt Steele and I had before our family escaped to a cabin this summer, was about lily pads as a metaphor for those things that that we go back to in order to re-connect and ground. Tucked away from our daily lives of work and obligation, my husband and I went hiking. As we emerged over a hill, there in Winston Lake, was a thriving community of Nelumbi lutea, American Lotus. The American Lotus is distinguishable from lily pads because it is round like a pancake. They are so amazing!

I have learned so much from these beautiful American Lotuses:

The American Lotus grows in shallow water but then moves out to depths of 5 or 6 feet. Reminding me to ground myself first and then I am able to confidently move into unknown depths.

The American Lotus opens in the sun and closes at dusk. Reminding me of the importance of daily rhythms. To be in tune with the natural world. We are a part of the ecosystem, not a-part from it. 

The stem in the center of the leaf of the American Lotus draws oxygen into the plant. Reminding me that breath is life, and that, like life, I cannot control my breath but I can awaken my breath to move through and with it. Breath affects how I receive everything happening around me. Being breathed makes way for life itself. 

The American Lotus comes together to form fields. Reminding me that when all of my lotuses come together each day, my creativity flourishes, my limbic system is nourished, and I am at my best for the divine work of supporting my family and community. 

I don’t have it all figured out. And, this isn’t about getting it, whatever it is, perfect. This is about finding my way through the mess and imperfections of each day. It is about finding the tools that support me and using them each day. The best part of each day is the chance to begin again.

I discovered I have twelve American Lotuses that are available to me each day as my foundation. They are all different sizes. Some are scraggly. Some are well-formed. Some days I am diligent about tapping in to them and some days it is more free-form. They all have one thing in common – they are always available to integrate me and this land and universe I am part of.

Here they are, my 12 lotuses:

1. Earth/Nature
2. Place/Land
3. Movement
4. Healthy-Happy
5. Space
6. Slow Down
7. Music/Meditate
8. Breathe
9. Teachings/Teachers
10. Wisdom-holder
11. Ritual/Ceremony
12. Divinity

I’m so pleased with my sabbatical. The path has been different than I imagined but I have come to the other side ready to move forward. Each month in 2021 I’m going to share something about one of my lotuses. I’m also going to send out the newsletter again to share what I am listening to, reading, watching, etc.

This isn’t about me knowing the way. I know a way, my way. Right now, this way is working for me, and at a later time, it may shift again. Just because it is my way, doesn’t mean it will work for anyone else and that’s not the purpose of sharing. The purpose of sharing is to nurture community, to share experiences, to learn from with each other, to connect to our shared wisdom and knowledge. If you have made it this far in this post, be sure to sign up for the monthly newsletter at: https://tinyurl.com/ACrunchyLifeNewsletter

Thanks for joining me on this new adventure!

December 1st! ❤🎄🌟 Christmas construction has begun! We have transitioned from the orange celebrations to the red ones – amping up energy, light, beauty, and joy. Christmas Spirit essential oil blend is back in our daily rotation. Our mantra for the month is “Breathe in, the light and love of the season. Breathe out, embody the light and love of the season.” 

Today is not only the beginning of December; it is also the beginning of Advent. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin, “to come,” and is observed throughout the four Sundays leading to Christmas. It has been observed since the fifth century with themes of watchfulness, preparation, and hope. Advent is a season of light and love.

By the end of the day today we will have placed our wreaths and candles in the windows of our home; set up our manger; prepared our advent wreath; found a special stone to add around our advent wreath; read together Day 1 of our St. Nicholas stories; and reflected on our first week of advent verse.

The light of hope. The first light of advent is the light of stone. Stones that lie in crystals, sea shells, and bones. 

For our Advent verse we combine each of a Rudolph Steiner’s Advent verses with one of the four Advent themes. For this week it is stones and hope.

Our elf, Fred Woodchomp, also returned today. Fred moves around the house at night and leaves little notes to be found the next morning. His notes are focused around seasonal reminders and holiday preparations as well as the advent verse for each week. He gives the girls tasks to accomplish such as stories to read aloud, actions to take for animals, loved ones, and strangers, etc. so that we are continually focusing on the meaning of the season. Fred stays with us until Epiphany and helps fill the season with peace, kindness, light, and love for all. Last year Fred asked the girls to take a minute each day to write something nice about each other and tie it to the strings on their bedroom doors. The next morning the girls woke up to find the notes they wrote to each other and a candy cane. I was please to see that he continued asking them to do this again this year. Two sisters, 4 years apart in age, can sometimes forget to see how special each other are. It is important for each of them to take some time to sit and reflect on their relationship as well. It helps  them grow stronger together.

With all of the focus on doing and hurrying and obligation that the holiday season can bring, Advent reminds our family to slow down and be intentional about the things we choose to do that will fill our lives with the spirit of the season. We don’t try to fill our days with obligation and busy-ness. We focus on what is meaningful for us and that which brings hope, joy, peace, and love to our family and others. We focus on savoring each moment and day. On filling ourselves with the light and love of the season, and turning that love and light back out into the universe for others. Plus, its a great opportunity to grab a fuzzy blanket, something warm to drink, and a book to read together or just have a chat as we gather together in the evening in front of a glowing fire.

Light gives hope and beauty.

How do you kick off this season of light and love? 

I am so excited about this post. I know it doesn’t look like much from the picture but it represents a new learning and growth point for me. I love herbs. I love growing them and using them in cooking, body products, beverages, and all sorts of other ways to support wellness. I am always reading and growing in my herbal knowledge. But, I play it safe in my making. I make things that don’t require me to stretch beyond my comfort and knowledge boundaries. I’m not sure what keeps me from really experimenting. Fear, I suppose, is at the root of it.  Of getting it wrong. Of it not working or not tasting good. I don’t have that fear in any other cooking but there it is, rearing it’s ugly head in herbal preparations.

One herbal preparation that has interested me for so long is bitters. I have used them for making, as my oldest would say, “adult beverages.” A friend of our family brought us back the biggest bottle of Angostura bitters from Trinidad that I have ever seen. The size of the bottle was amazing. How could one person or family use it all? I knew there had to be more to why bitters are so integral in other cultures. 

Italians, for example, have Aperol and Campari, both of which I have loved for years as an aperitif. It wasn’t until I began learning more about bitters that I realized that Aperol and Campari begin as herbal bitters – with the base ingredient being Gentiana latea (gentian) root. The history of bitters goes all the way back to the master formula created more than two thousand years ago. Mithridates, king of Pontus, an ancient kingdom on the southern shores of the Black Sea, developed the first recorded bitters formula in the Western world. China has a much older, well-documented history of the use of bitters. In Central America bitters evolved from blending cacao with other additives.  

Bitters supports digestion of food. They are touted with being able to soothe the walls of the GI, ease cramping in the intestine, relieve gas, relieve an upset stomach, They can have a calming effect on the nervous system. They can be created to support the cardiovascular system, skin, digestive system, and that is just the beginning. As I began to learn more and more about the cultural and wellness reasons bitters are so highly valued I began to be intrigued by how they are made.  

I finally decided to take the leap. The making of bitters is one aspect of herbalism that I had never explored. But bitters kept speaking to me and peaking my interest so I decided it was time to listen to the messages and give it a go. After all, making bitters seems to be a great way to meld traditional knowledge with modern needs and the research and creativity available to us. I wonder if there is an ancestral memory that has had bitters calling to me. But that’s for another post. 🙂 

As I mentioned in my 7 July 2019 post, I am having a love affair with cacao right now. I love the rich flavor and the thousands of years of history that comes with it. So when I came upon Guido Masé’s Cacao Bitters recipe that he shared in The Herbal Academy, I had to try it. Now I have a lovely after-dinner bitters that I can use in drinks or on its own with a little hot water and honey. I love the fact that it is not a quick-make. It takes intention. Patience. Time. First, I made the tinctures with each of the herbal ingredients. This required each of them to sit and rest for anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks before they could be combined to form the bitters. In the end, the combination of cacao, damiana, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, cayenne, and raw honey relaxes my mind and spirit and is lovely for closing out a meal.  

I’m so glad I jumped into making bitters. I put fear to the side and decided to trust my herbal knowledge and techniques, and my intuition. The result is I am having so much fun exploring different combinations of herbs. I have lots of plans for experimenting with formulating my own blends, and can’t wait to see what I create.  

For more on bitters check out:

Herbal Academy:  

• History and Benefits of Bitters – https://theherbalacademy.com/history-and-benefits-of-bitters/
• Making Bitters – https://theherbalacademy.com/bitter-integrations-making-bitters/

Book:

DIY Bitters: Reviving the Forgotten Flavor by Guido Masé and Jovial King 

Instagram: @urbanmoonshine