DandeLion Grove

Hurricane Sandy has left quite a mess in her wake. Some areas have less damage than others, and some are still struggling with the storm itself as this is being written. 
Once the storm has passed, there is always some clean-up. In the case of a hurricane, personal lives meet Mother Nature...people may have lost loved ones, have damaged homes and communities, or have lost animals to the storm. Things have changed. Change is really the only constant we can count on here in this life.
What matters now is how we move forward. Whether we survived intact or had great loss, we can get through this together. Natural disasters have a way of helping us to open our hearts and feel compassion for one another. We check on neighbors, help our communities clean up, and make donations for others in need. We step up and really become the best we can be, caring for one another openly, no matter who they are.
Then typically, our lives return to "normal" and we resume our activities as before th…

Natural disasters have a way of getting our attention. If we're lucky enough to have a warning, we get to prepare, and it usually has us running around chaotically trying to organize what we need in anticipation of the event and fearing the worst.
It also brings an opportunity that we might not otherwise take time to do. We are forced to decide what is truly important to us in an impending disaster scenario. We get brought back to our core. We remember that people and our animals are what counts the most and what we need to take care of. We remember that water, food, shelter, and clothing are the critical needs. We get back to basics and leave the rest behind.
We begin to reach out to one another as we recognize that no one can weather a large storm alone, whether it's an event of Mother Nature's doing, or something difficult in our own lives. We need one another. The storms in our lives remind us of that, helping us open our hearts once again to compassion and the truth of…

I was cleaning out an old box today, and came across a graduation card my beloved grandmother gave me for my high school graduation 26 years ago. My grandmother passed away within a few months of my graduation, so seeing her signature there on the card today caught my breath. And then I read the words of the poem, and tears flowed freely.


I don't know that I truly grasped those words as a bright-eyed and naive young woman, but I do believe that the meaning was captured in my heart. My grandmother planted a seed, unbeknownst to me, perhaps as a last gift before her passing. Isn't it just like a grandmother to give you a treasure that gets buried deeply somewhere, only to be unearthed much later when you're ready to understand it in a whole new way? 

These words are as relevant now as they were then. What a gift to find this again today, and be able to share it with other women in my life. I honor the wisdom of my grandmother, the author of that beautiful poem, and all women, …

 "Self-love, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting." ~William Shakespeare

As the autumn moves along and the cooler weather saunters in, we start our journeys inside. This is the perfect time of year to start doing some extra self-care so that we can avoid the intrepid viruses and flu that come banging at our door as the holiday season approaches.

Our lives are so busy that we often neglect taking good care of ourselves. 

I don't know about anyone else, but my head tends to get full at this time of year from the return of school to the flurry of holidays on their way. I find myself running in circles at times, trying to tackle the stuff on my task list, but it feels like a juggling act where I'm never really quite sure which things are in the air until I've dropped one. I get forgetful, distracted, and very much like a squirrel trying to figure out where to hide her nuts. And somehow at the end of the day, I look at the task list that has nothing checked off, but I…

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." ~Henry David Thoreau

Yeah, that. Wise words. Wonderful words. And scary.

I'm on the precipice, ready to jump, but not sure where I'll land. So many thoughts and feelings as I stand on the edge, ready to fly, knowing I've spent my life working to get to this time. 20 years in the making to follow my dream of a becoming a holistic wellness practitioner and writer.

But will I hit the cliff instead of flying? Will I get blown off-course by a shear wind? Or will my wings open gracefully, catching the current, sun glistening off my shimmering feathers?

Well, I won't know till I jump. So I'm jumping... 

Please check out "The Apothecary" page where I just posted some tidbits for Fall and Winter. This is just the beginning, I still have lots to do "officially", but wanted to start sharing some goodies as I hear pe…

A bit of a rant, but please stick around to the end. It gets better. :)

The American culture is in a state of transition, and there is plenty of blame to go around for everything that is out of balance, from the economy to education to energy resources, etc.

Guess what? We're all to blame for what's not working. Every single one of us. If we didn't do it, we allowed stuff to happen. We all played a role here - we co-created the culture we now have.

And what do we have? 

A broken economy. Debt from war we had no place in. We're raping the earth for finite resources that will not sustain us. We're sick from stress-related diseases. We have a broken education system where the teachers are blamed for its failure. We have endeared a culture where both parents now have to work in order to make ends meet, so keeping up with family life and having the energy and time to love and care for our children in the way we want and should is nearly impossible. Our children are fallin…

My attention has been drawn lately to those who are living with debilitating chronic health conditions. The pain and immense change to their lives has been nothing short of disturbing, and ailments like auto-immune disorders leave us at a loss for answers. Some symptoms can be controlled, but there seems to be very little healing going on. My heart goes out to those who suffer in this manner, and I'm wondering how we can begin to approach healing in our culture a little differently. I think we're missing something.

We are complex beings and everything in our lives and bodies is integrated. When we compartmentalize and try to separate out our health from our job, family, friends, environment, etc., we do a disservice to ourselves, and we are incomplete. We are related to everything in our world...our health, our family, our jobs, our planet. All are connected. 

If we are to be well, we need to address all our needs: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. And by spiritual…