Annie B's eddy: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

WORD FOR THE DAYSaturday, Aug. 31

It is not a question of whether you "have what it takes," but of whether you take the gifts you have -- they are plenteous -- and share them with all the world.

Neale Donald Walsch
Tomorrow's God

8/31/13

War

still

BARBARIC.

Above Illustration From Coleman Barks'

The Illuminated Rumi

"Although there are different Shamanic approaches to an understanding of the cosmos which have been largely conditional by tribal customs, cultural traditions and racial ancestry, there are recognizable similarities. In attempting to present a shamanic perspective of life that is relevant to those of us living in a modern urban society, I have approached these concepts in the spirit of the wandering shaman.

The wandering shaman was one who travelled beyond his/her own tribal and sometimes racial boundaries, seeking truth wherever it could be found, weaving what (s/he) learned with what was already known and conveying understanding to all who had ears hear and eyes to see".

from my new used book:

Shamanic Experience by Kenneth Meadows 1991

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Message from the Hopi Elders still in the Eddy

"You have been telling the people
that this is the eleventh hour
Now you must go back and tell people
that THIS IS THE HOUR
and that there are things to be considered.
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community
Be good to each other
and do not look outside of yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast
It is so great and swift
that there are those who will be afraid
They will try to hold onto the shore;
They will feel they are being torn apart
and they will suffer greatly
know the river has it's destination
The elders say we must let go of the shore
Push off into the middle of the river,
Keep our eyes open and our heads above water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history
we are to take nothing personally,
least of all...ourselves!!!
For the moment we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the world is over;
Gather yourselves
Banish the word STRUGGLE from your vocabulary
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred manner-and in celebration!
WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

¹ed·dy

noun \ˈe-dē\

pluraleddies

Definition of EDDY

a: a current of water or air running contrary to the main current; especially: a circular current : whirlpool

b: something moving similarly

: a contrary or circular current (as of thought or policy)

In the past 24 hours I have had 3 occurances that have allowed me to realize once again that I am indeed on

My Right Path.

1. That what my body has most likely been dealing with since way back in 2006-2007 is Lyme's Disease and like my bout with Ovarian Cancer, I will heal it My Way.

2. That I celebrate Not getting a job as a Park Ranger at Rainbow Springs State Park.

3. After watching the documentary by Tom Shadyak "I Am" at 4:00 o'clock this morning for the first time( I again realize) that I have Always been on My Right Path. I am Empathic. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me or my awareness.

Thanks Great Everything.

from the description of this movie on the Dunnellon Public Library Search Engine:

"Don't know who Tom Shadyac is? As a writer and a director, Shadyac first unleashed Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor remake on the world, and then a string of film fiascoes, but that's all behind him now. A bike accident left him with a host of debilitating maladies and brought him to the verge of suicide, so he took stock of his life and set out on a quest to answer some of life's greatest questions. What's wrong with the world? How do we go about fixing it? Is the fundamental nature of man essentially benevolent or cruel? So he traveled around, enlisting the aid of what he calls "significant minds" --journalists, scientists, spiritual leaders, scholars--to understand life's essential questions. "I Am" is his documentary about this quest.

http://www.iamthedoc.com

Monday, August 26, 2013

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Last Sunday while waiting for my Dad to come out of his church...

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The eddy swirls around and in me.
A circular current, contrary to the status quo, twirling through the river of life.
Up comes memories of childhood, adolescence, so-called adulthood and still I am without trying, like a little child.
Round the bend flows fragments of my life experience.
Laughing, singing, crying out. Demanding, screaming, knowing.
A leaf here, a tendril there, flowers, flowers everywhere.
Running, diving, creating,watching, being,walking, peddling on and on to come back to the beginning of the circle.
Ebb and flow, ebb and flow.
Quotes, poetry, images, experience. Drumbeats, rattles shaking, bells ringing up waves and waves of emotion, of love , loss and longing.
Around the next rock, I do not know. Burning sage and cedar, nag champa, all cleansing parts of the flow. Lightening strikes, water pours from the sky in buckets, cisterns, fueling the glow.

Joan Marlene Finneran

August 23rd 1941-July 6th,2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCp5LG_zNE

Tomorrow would have been my Mom's 72nd Birthday.

She always called me "Her Heart" and I miss her so very much.

I took this picture last Sunday morning while walking Mollie on Rock Road near our house.

We are all connected Y'all.

Just like this web.

To Everything.

All.

Poe House Books, Crystal River, Florida

I had driven by this delightful little bookstore,

POE HOUSE BOOKS

many times while taking my Dad to his church in Crystal River on Sunday but it is closed on Sunday so I could never go in. Yesterday I went to get my drivers license and stopped by there. Wow! this is now my favorite used book store! Poe House has an amazing collection of books and it's just simply a great small local business to support. It is so rare to find bookstores anyway these days but I do hope this one stays afloat for years to come.

I found 3 books that seemed like they were just meant to be for me at this point in my life and was able to put another stack into a hold box. Go there y'all. Buy some books. I also had serendipitous conversations with Kathy who owns the store with her husband Doug, as well as a patron who was donating books. All three of us had read and were fans of the poet Rod McKuen sp?

Poe House gives credit for your used books when they can't afford to buy more...and that is just good for all. You can find them on facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poe-House-Books/124124127515?id=124124127515&sk=info

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Thanks to the store in Sebastopol, California Rosemary's Garden for this!

From The Indians Book by Natalie Curtis Burlin :

"There are birds of many colors-red,blue,green,yellow-yet it is all one bird. There are horses of many colors- brown, black, yellow, white- yet it is all one horse. So cattle, so all living things- animals, flowers, trees. So men: in this land where once were only Indians are now men of every color- white, black, yellow, red- yet all one people. That this should come to pass was in the heart of the Great Mystery. It is right thus. And everywhere there shall be peace". Hiamovi (High Chief) Chief among the Cheyennes and the Dakotas

My Own Plant Medicine Path and There Are No Absolutes.....

so here's some herbal food for thought:

"The Cherokee believed that every tree, shrub and herb, down even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a cure for some one of the diseases". Sarah H. Hill, Weaving New Worlds

and Rosemary Gladstar on the Solar Infusion Method of Making Herbal Infused Oils:

"Using the solar method for making medicinal oils is my favorite method. I learned it from the wise old Gypsy herbalist, Juliette de Bairacli Levy. Though a bit more time- consuming than the other methods, it has the added benefits of the sun, the wisdom of the elders, and a delightful array of bottles sitting in a sunny spot in the garden or windowsill of your home".

She had previously stated: "People always ask why the oil doesn't go rancid sitting out in the hot sun. According to natural laws it should. But for some magical reason, it seldom does. I believe it's because of the alchemical fusion of the sun, the herbs and the oil. But once strained, the oil will definitely go rancid quickly if left in the hot sun".

I included the above quote from Rosemary Gladstar because a few days ago, I heard come from the mouth of a seemingly experienced herbalist, yet another absolute and criticism of a particular way of preparing herbal medicine.

The point is, in using plant medicine, as in life, there are no absolutes. I am thankful to this herbalist though, for she (through the catalyst of her criticisms of what one herbalist had learned in her plant medicine schooling that she encountered in her large and wonderful herb store) has re-inspired me to write about something that I have wanted to write about for quite some time. And she has inspired me to reflect on my own training ( since 1985) and gathering of knowledge regarding Plant Medicine.

Back in 1985 I was living in Austin, Texas and had started frequenting an establishment called Celebrations. In this store were jars and jars of herbal medicine, drums and other rhythym tools, books that pryed my mind wide open as well as other tools that allowed me to start thinking beyond the status quo. I also worked part-time at Texas' only remaining food co-op, Wheatsville Co-op that was named for an emancipated slave named John Wheat. Wheatsville also had lots and lots of herbal remedies as well as herbs in bulk.

After leaving Austin to live and work in a girl scout in Vermont, a co-worker and friend started teaching me about some of the medicinal and Native American uses of plants there. I slowly started doing research on my own, and in every Environmental Education program that I worked in as a Naturalist in Ohio, Vermont, and later in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California, I started incorporating what I had learned about Ethnobotany and the Medicinal, folk and traditional uses of plants in all of my hikes on trails in the redwoods and at the ocean with 5th and 6th graders under my "leadership".

At one point during the fall of 1989 I started using for myself, herbal remedies. I had used simple plants here and there, but did not become a TRUE believer in plant medicine until I had a really bad bicycle accident that left a gash on my face. My friend Gretchen, a fellow E.E. Naturalist, gave me a salve that included Goldenseal, Comfrey,Myrr, Calendula and Vit. E. That salve (Thanks Greta) completely healed my face with no scar.

From this point on, I was truly hooked and read everything that I could get my hands on , Native American, European and American regarding herbal medicine.

In 1994 I moved to Occidental , California to work in another Outdoor Education program in the Redwoods there. I was fortunate to have encountered a group of women who ran the Northern California Womens Herbal Symposium and started going to these 4 day long intensive, amazing classes for ALL things herbal. I did work exchange for my first symposium and went on to attend them and lead hikes and programs for children there until 1997.

Coincidentally (or not) the fall of 1994 I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and had a grapefruit sized tumor on my right ovary that had just started to turn cancerous. The doctor whose care I received did surgery and removed all of my female reproductive parts as well as my omentum, appendix and one lymph node was 'disected". Cancerous cells were found in the wash after the surgery, so right away I had oncologists at my bedside telling me that I absolutely had to have Chemotherapy and radiation.

Thank the Great Spirit/God-dess/All-That Is that I had the wisdom to forego those treatments and chose instead to keep the cancer from returning via Herbal Medicine and other alternative methods of healing.

My friend Terry Jensen, who was (maybe still) the lead coordinator of the NCWH Symposium was at my bedside as soon as I regained consciousness, giving me two bottles of the Bach Flower Remedy, Rescue Remedy. Another fellow naturalist , Andy Maeding , put me on the phone with his British-born Mother who had also used herbal medicine for curing herself of Cancer. This woman taught me about Essiac, an old Ojibway cure that was made famous by a Canadian nurse Renee Caisse. This combination used widely by many tribes across the continent is made up of the plants Burdock, Sheep Sorrel, Slippery Elm Bark and Turkish Rhubarb. Many herbalists have added other plants but all and all it basically cleans the blood and boosts the immune system, allowing our bodies to heal themselves.

I also had stumbled upon (from my hospital bed) reading an alternative weekly, The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic in Oakland. I did not have any insurance as an Environmental Educator Naturalist, so I qualified to receive services at this clinic as a low -income woman dealing with cancer. I will forever be indebted and eternally Grateful to the healers at this establishment. I had 10-15 different types of massage, acupressure and acupuncture, chinese medicine, organic produce, flax seed oil and more, provided to me all free. All of the massage therapists and healers were volunteers and I was able to go to this clinic for the first 6 months after my diagnosis. I later had my case reviewed by a famous Oncologist at Stanford who told my doctor that she wouldn't have put herself through chemotherapy if she were me either.

And as I previously mentioned I was surrounded in West Sonoma County by a myriad of alternative healers and therapies as well as many of the women involved in the NCWHS.

I credit my healing and preventing those 3 cells from multiplying--- all of these folks and their amazing support as well as the women who ran the store in Sebastopol called Rosemary's Garden. It was named after none other than Rosemary Gladstar who opened this store and was one of the original founders of NCWHS.
Later still I lived and worked on an amazing farm called Moms Head Gardens owned and operated by two of the wisest women I have ever encountered, Vivien Hillgrove and Karen Brocco in Santa Rosa, California. They grew medicinal and culinary herbs from around the world and taught me alot about just spending time with the plants and that the plants themselves are our greatest teachers.
Later still as a Naturalist in the Great Smoky Mountains, I had an experience alone on a trail in which an intuition came into my mind that the huge group of plants that I was looking at was indeed Bloodroot. I was fortunate to have met many fellow plant medicine folks there, one being Ila Hatter who continues to inspire me via facebook, to this day.

I personally choose to practice the Simpler Method ( one part this, 2 parts that)of Herbal Medicine and consider Ms. Gladstar ( who now owns and runs Sage Mountain School of Herbal Medicine in Vermont) one of my personal heroines and an amazing voice for using plant medicine to heal in our times.

I have been an Ovarian Cancer survivor for nearly 19 years. I continue to use Plant medicine as my primary mode of healing and refuse to put Big pharma into or on my body.

I have heard many , many herbalists speak and teach, both men and women and am always a little upset when I hear one of them discredit another chosen method of healing with plants. In my work as a Park Interpretive Naturalist in California, Oregon, Indiana and as a freelance leading herb walks in Ohio and here in Florida, I continue to share what I have learned from Native elders, Herbalists and other healers from around the world on my hikes. I am trying to start leading Plant Medicine Walks and talks again and know that this is my true path.

This I know ( and I am learning more and more everyday and even this is not absolute).

Plants are our allies and desire to help us heal in every way possible.

Plants heal by vibration and at times we really don't even have to ingest them, but have them in our midst.

Plants help us heal by intention. In other words they not only work over an extended period of time, but are largely successful by our belief. The universe is indeed holographic and it all boils down to this: You have to believe that the plants are your allies in order for them to work, and sometimes they work even if you don't. There is rarely (but sometimes) any quick fix in herbal medicine.

in a nutshell (walnut:)

There are no absolutes. Can't we stop criticizing this or that method and realize finally that 80 percent of the world's population use plant medicine as their primary hmo... using a variety of medicine making methods....and alas, It's All Good.

No I am not telling you to go out and pick a plant that you have heard heals this or that as this can be very dangerous with some plants. Work with an experienced herbalist or become one yourself, But please consider that there are many, many methods of herbal healing all over this planet.

One shaman in the rainforest getting results putting together an herbal remedy in a (seemingly) dirty plastic jar, is no less a healer than a suburan housewife simmering roots in her crockpot to make her own healing salve. It's neither good nor bad, it just is. And that's just my opinion on the matter. I am thankful for my Cherokee and Mohawk genes as well as the genes of my French GGrandfather who came to this country as a gardener and Medicine Peddler. All of our ancestors, on every continent used plant medicine for thousands of years before so-called Modern Medicine came along.

Healing with plants is in my blood and must be the focus of my now and future help in healing our planet on this path of mine. Heal on y'all.