Archive for the 'Wise Woman Wisdom' Category

Synchronicity

tammy June 11th, 2008

I have been perimenopausal for some time now and so last month when my menses didn’t begin on schedule, I thought, well I must have missed my first period. But nope, that wasn’t it. In reality, my cycle was simply synchronizing with my daughter who was about to give birth.

Very early on Friday last week my daughter called me to say her contractions had begun. Soon after getting that phone call I started very lightly spotting, nearly nothing compared to what I am used to, but still a period.

She had a very long first stage of labor that lasted the entire weekend. Her contractions would come regularly for a while, then stop, then start again. On Saturday, I noticed that every time she would begin contracting again, I would begin cramping and have more flow. Her real, active labor didn’t begin until late Sunday evening, at which time my cramps became more intense and the flow more heavy. I didn’t get a full, “normal” period, though, until she had finally given birth early Monday morning. She released fully, and so did I.

Isn’t that neat?

Having been immersed in the reductionist, scientific world view my whole life, I am still just amazed at the energetic influences we can have on each other in general. In the past, I often have synchronized my cycle with other women I have worked along side of daily. This seems common among women who are in close physical proximity on a regular basis.

But I have to say I am even more amazed at the synchronicity I had with my daughter. Due to work and school schedules, we haven’t really spent a lot of time in the same physical location during her pregnancy. Though we talked on the phone often, weeks would pass without seeing each other. That maternal bond is apparently very, very strong.

But it’s not just mothers and daughters. I remember experiencing the same thing — delayed menses triggered to flow as soon as labor started — when my son’s partner gave birth almost five years ago, though I wasn’t nearly as synchronized with her in more subtle ways such as particular ebb and flow patterns. And I’ll say, too, that this energetic type of influence and communication is also not just mother’s and daughters and menstrual cycles. I’ve had plenty of strange energetic “knowings” regarding my sons also, though none of these were at all related to menses.

So in any case, we’re all synchronized now and we have a beautiful new baby boy! My fourth granchild, Jelani Davis R.  I was in the delivery room and helped to birth him.  As his sweet little head emerged, he christened me with a nice warm shot of amniotic fluid!  Wasn’t that nice of him to make sure I was fully included? lol

Shout Out to My Mom

tammy May 11th, 2008

To one of the greatest inspirations of my life…

Mom, you were one of the few people in my young life who truly believed I could do and be whatever I wanted to be, that my life could be bigger and better despite limiting circumstances.  Thank you for that.  You tell me all the time how proud you are of me, but the truth is that anything I may ever accomplish in this life can be traced right back to those early seeds that you planted in my heart. 

And thank you for your example of how to be a strong, fierce, independent woman.  You’ve been beaten down in life more than once, but I’ve watched you get right back up every time.  There is always a way to move forward, there is always hope for a better tomorrow.  You taught me that.

And thank you for refusing to give up your dreams just because making them come true was difficult.  Against all odds, you persevered through Nursing school while working long hours to support yourself, when you might instead have been thinking about retirement.  I was so very proud this past Friday to watch you walk across that stage and receive your nurse’s pin.  My mom, the R.N.  How awesome is that? 

You teach me by example that the world will still be wide open to me, no matter how far in life I may have already traveled.   Thank you for that, too.

Mom, I love you with all my heart.  I hope this day is filled with utmost joy and deepest satisfaction in the life you have created and the numerous ways you inspire me and others every day.  Your life giving strength, your resilience, your willingness to make the hard choices and persevere… I’m sure you make the Great Mother Spirit, Mama Earth, proud.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Come, meet my new plant friends!

tammy April 1st, 2008

I’m excited to be participating for the first time in the herbal blog party this month, being hosted by Ananda at Plant Journeys.  This month’s topic is “Mythical plant personalities.”  Below is my contribution..

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I’ve spent a great deal of time this last year trying to get to know the plants all around my house.  I want to know more than just what a book can tell me about their chemical make up, their botanical name, or how to use them for medicine or food.  No, that’s not enough.  I want to also know them as unique spirits.  My favorite herbalists, who often write about their own relationships with plants, assure me that plants do have unique personalities, and that they can communicate with us if we will learn how to listen to them.

So this past year I’ve been teaching myself to listen.   

Long walks, stepping gently.  Sitting in the grass, sitting in the forest, exchanging breaths.  Gentle touches.  Watching carefully.  Tuning into my heart, sending out love.  Responding with joy when they send some love back to me.  It’s all quite fulfilling.

The first plant to introduce herself to me was the Self-heal, last Fall.   I kept noticing it in passing, as I was rushing in or out of the house, off to that appointment or this errand. I kept saying I was going to look closer… just as soon as I could find the time.  When I finally did stop to pay attention the summer was gone and we were well into Fall, and the patch had nearly died back.  But there was this one beautiful stalk still flowering, thank goodness.  If there hadn’t been, I’m not sure I would have been able to identify her.

I sat with her and thumbed through my field guide until I found out her name.  I carefully examined the beautiful crown of flowers she wore, and was struck by how it seemed to want to sing, yet could not make a noise.  I almost thought if I could just listen a little bit closer I would actually hear the sounds.  It reminded me of myself and my painful shyness, and how difficult it often is for me to shout out my song, my truth.  I knew that there was much this plant could teach me. 

This interaction was so much different from all the times I had read my favorite herbalist’s account of a plant, and then gone out to find it and use it in the ways they had described.  No, in this case the Self-heal reached out to me, and not the other way around.  It spoke its truth to me directly.  I understood at least part of its medicine through my heart.

That was my first encounter with a plant spirit but since then I’ve met lots of other plants and began to get a taste of just how unique and varied their personalities can be.  After two years of sharing the same ecosystem, I sense that they are all finally getting used to me around here, and they convey themselves to me more and more often.  I am even beginning to discover certain “neighborhoods” around my land, each having a distinctly different energy. 

The young saplings in the forest on one side of the meadow are very playful.  Last week I was walking there where I discovered an evergreen plant growing at the base of many of the trees - the Spotted Pipsissewa, Chimaphila maculata (more on that soon!).  I bent down to examine it more closely and snap a photo.  Then when I stood up, the spindly branches of a skinny young tree caught in my hair and gently raked its boney fingers through, caressing my scalp as it moved along my head.  I had the distinct impression that the tree was intentionally petting me! 

When I stood up and looked around, still amazed and slightly awed at having been petted by a tree, the young Beeches nearby appeared to be giggling!  Every one of the faded dry leaves still clinging to their branches from last season were trembling and wiggling as if the tree was hopelessly caught in a fit of shaking laughter.  I couldn’t help but laugh myself.  It was a very joyful moment.

But on the other side of the meadow, the forest is ruled by a very wise and commanding Oak.  The moment you step among the trees the feeling of being in a sacred space is palpable.  There is no leaf litter in this neighborhood.  Only many ancient layers of spongy, peaty soil.  There is no sound when you walk.  The air is cool and permeating.  The holy silence is audible.  The Oak in the center is easily two of my arm spans in width. As soon as I saw it I was filled with pure awe. I walked up to it and put my arms around it as far as I could.  I felt loved and protected.  I just leaned into it and let the raw strength flow into me.  It seemed I was in the presence of a fearsome, yet gentle and wise, lover. My heart grew at least two sizes during that embrace. 

And then there’s the Poke that keeps showing up at my door.  Literally, it grew right by the front door last year, so that the storm door would knock into it every time we opened it.  My husband kept pulling it down, and it just kept growing back.  I find this plant the most intriquing yet, a little sharp around the edges and a bit of dark mystery and danger there.  It seems a little harder to get to know, not quite as friendly as the others so far, but I’m definitely drawn to it.  I think it, too, has much to teach me, so I’ll be spending a lot of time with it this year.  

I’ll keep you posted on the lessons it shares, as well as probably introducing many, many new plant friends during this growing season.  Stay tuned!

New Year, Novels, and Nurturing with Red Clover

tammy January 6th, 2008

Boy am I glad to be done with all the holiday hoopla!  No matter how I plan, it always gets away from me before its over, leaving us all exhausted and dazed.  I was fine until I took a moment to relax — around the 31st or so – then the exhaustion hit me and I’ve been recuperating since.

I was thinking during this down time how much things have changed for me over the last few years.  Instead of grabbing the bottle of Advil for those tight sore muscles all through my shoulders and down my spine, I instead took relaxing herbal baths, massaged with golden rod oil, used my own homemade herbal pack as a heating pad, drank hot teas and infusions of anti-inflammatory herbs, and overall just made it a truly nurturing experience. Where the Advil may have relieved my muscle pain temporarily, it would have also irritated my stomach and left it aching, making my food hard to digest for a while, and the pain would have likely come back with a vengeance after a few hours.  How much better to get to the source of the pain and nourish it back to relaxation.

Same thing with the cold I just had, the one that finally got me after several weeks of fighting it off.   I want to go into more detail on that nurturing process, so more on that in my next post.

Other things I’ve been doing while enjoying my relaxing free time are reading novels and in between experimenting with a couple of different oil infusions and trying to devise my own recipe for a breast massage cream. 

I decided to reread the Earth’s Children series of novels by Jean Auel.  I just finished Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of the Horses, and I absolutely can’t wait to get back to the library and pick up the third in the series, The Mammoth Hunters.  These novels are the ultimate wise woman experience!  All the books in the series are huge, three or four inch thick books, but even so they just don’t last long enough for me.  I’m excited that I still have three more to go before I’ll get to the end of them.  They leave me feeling so inspired in my chosen path of the wise woman way!

Since it is now winter, I don’t have any fresh flowers to make oil infusions with, so instead I’ve been experimenting with making oils from dried red clover and calendula blossoms.  Later, when I can get fresh flowers, I’m going to make another fresh flower oil from each and compare them. 

The red clover has been calling my name lately.  I’ve been craving infusions of the blossoms, and have been putting them in a bundle to soak in my bath water, and now I want to capture its essence in an oil or cream so I can use it for breast massage. 

Breast massage, I’ve learned, is an important part of keeping the breasts healthy, especialy as we move into the wise years.  It makes those monthly self exams for lumps a more pleasant experience and it promotes circulation in the tissues and lymph glands, where a big percentage of cancers can form as women age.  And red clover can dissolve growths magically –  I’ve seen it with my own eyes!  Click here to read how I got rid of a little growth almost overnight with a poultice of red clover flowers. 

But even with no lumps, Red Clover is known to be very nourishing to breast tissues.  I’ve decided to pair it with the Calendula because it is just plain good for skin.  I don’t yet understand exactly how Calendula works, but I do know how my skin loves it.  So, I’m trying to formulate an oil blend or cream using these two flowers that I can use for breast massage.  I’ll let you know when I come up with a recipe that works well for me.

So, more on that cold I told you about next… 

Happy new calendar year to all.  May you have all the desires of your heart in 2008!

A Rain Myth

tammy October 24th, 2007

It is a gray rainy day today. Hurray! We need the water desperately.

Driving my four year old grandson to school this morning, he and I had a nice conversation about the rain and the way it fits into our lives. Here’s a new myth for you.

He first asked all the typical questions, along with some not so typical ones. Why does it rain? How does the water get in the clouds? Will the trees and flowers die without water? Will Mother Earth be thirsty if it doesn’t rain? How does Mother Earth drink the water? When it thunders is Father Sky bowling? Why does he do that?

After a whole slew of questions and me explaining and interweaving as best I could the science and the myth, he grew quiet, his brows knitted together, thinking hard. Gradually, his expression turned to one of disgust.

“Mimi, is Father Sky peeing on us???”

Then he decided that was the funniest thing he had ever heard and started giggling uncontrollably.

Don’t you just love kids?!

Why I brew my herbals for six weeks

tammy October 11th, 2007

Most of my honeys, vinegars, oils, and tinctures are brewed for at least six weeks. I was taught to do it this way by Susun Weed, my first herbal teacher, but it took a while before I understood why. Other herbalists frequently suggest only a couple weeks brewing time. And I have even read many that recommend making infused oil by heating it with the herb for only a few hours before straining it and bottling it for use.

So why then, when there are other less time intensive ways that many use successfully, do I continue to use the six week method? Well, it’s about aligning the subtle energy of the earth’s and the moon’s cycles with my medicines, which I have come to believe makes them more potent.

The moon has a powerful effect on the cycles of Earth and her population. An obvious example is the moon’s influence on the ocean tides. It moves billions of gallons of water on the Earth’s surface by simply moving past — that seems pretty powerful to me!

There is also evidence that the ebb and flow of the female menstrual cycle is similarly influenced by the moon. Before the advent of all the modern technology, the moon was the primary menstrual regulator for women. Women generally ovulated and gave birth on the full moon, and bled on the new (dark) moon.

I’m sure there are many, many other biorhythms on the earth that are also affected. Brewing medicines for six weeks is believed by many to infuse them with the energetic power of the lunar cycle.

For medicine making you would ideally start your medicine on a new (dark) moon, and then let it brew through two full moons, straining and bottling it on the second. This whole process takes exactly six weeks to accomplish.

It is believed that as the moon moves into fullness over the first two weeks, then ebbs back into darkness over the second two weeks, then moves once again into fullness over the final two weeks, it is simultaneously harmonizing and drawing subtle energetic qualities from the plant into your alcohol, oil, vinegar, or honey. (Some medicines are better if brewed even longer)

Ever sat in front of the ocean and watched and listened as the waves ebb and flow and experienced the tremendously soothing and rejuvenating harmony of this rhythm? This is the same energy you want to capture in your medicines. Powerful healing energy.

The Secret

tammy September 20th, 2007

I received this poem from a group list I am on and thought I would share it.  I thought it was beautiful… Enjoy!

The Secret

The Creator gathered all of Creation and said, “I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality.”

The eagle said, “Give it to me, I will take it to the moon.”

The Creator said, “No. One day they will go there and find it.”

The salmon said, “I will bury it on the bottom of the ocean.”

“No. They will go there too.”

The buffalo said, “I will bury it on the Great Plains.”

The Creator said, “They will cut into the skin of the Earth and find it even there.”

Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said, “Put it inside of them.”

And the Creator said, “It is done.”

~Author Unknown