alternative healing
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Violets, Weeding and Fear
This year, violets have overtaken my garden. From just a few in one area of my garden last year I now find these seemingly dainty plants with their heart shaped leaves throughout my garden. I have learned that they spread by rhizomes, or underground roots. I started gardening only a few years ago and still Continue reading
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The Seasons in our Lives
I love springtime. Ever since I was a child, it has been my favorite season of the year. I recall my utter happiness when the crocuses would first pop up along the roadside on my hometown in Connecticut and I just knew that my heart would open wide and I could soon be running around Continue reading
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Another Kind of Diversity
There are many kinds of diversity we have been attempting to appreciate and honor in recent years. First, we have racial diversity, whose challenges and ramifications we are often painfully aware. Then there is the diversity of lifeforms on our planet, including animals and plants of all types as well as the elemental forces of Continue reading
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PATIENCE
When my daughter was in nursery school, her favorite song starred a snail and had the following refrain: “Be patient, be patient, don’t be in such a hurry/when you get impatient, you only start to worry.” These words have popped back into my mind in the last few weeks, as we have been dealing with Continue reading
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Healing with the Stone that Cuts
Obsidian is not a fancy or flashy stone. It is not one that is typically used for expensive jewelry or takes the center stage at gem shows and displays. Often piercingly black, it can sometimes be mahogany brown or forest green or rust red. It may contain inclusions that looks like shiny stars or silvery Continue reading
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Living Stones, Loving Earth & Now
Life as we know it is changing, shifting. We can feel it in our bones and in our hearts. Many are the explanations offered for these new times we struggle to wrap our minds around. For those who truly follow the ancient Toltec/Mayan ways, this is because we are in a time of transition from Continue reading
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Destigmatizing Hearing Voices
I want to pose a question for you today: Is it ‘normal’ or is it ‘crazy’ to hear voices? And, more personally, have you ever heard a voice whispering in your mind or in the ethers…telling you something in clear, precise language? This is a big question for me, one I have wrestled with much Continue reading
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Honoring the Mountain, Honoring the Water
Imagine partying non-stop for a month, as a sacred act. That’s what goes on throughout much of the Ecuadorian Andes starting on the summer solstice. In a tradition that extends back to long before the Inca in this part of the globe, communities and villages celebrate Inti Raymi, or the sun festival long and hard. Continue reading
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HEALING WITH THE HELP OF IMBABURA AND COTOCACHI
Mama Maria climbed the stairs of her two bedroom concrete home in the small town of Iluman, Ecuador to get something. What could it be? I had arrived to her place half an hour ago. It had taken the taxi a few minutes to locate her clinic, since the sign announcing she was a “yachak” Continue reading
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