Happy Halloween.....

This was taken 5 years ago but it's the only time that I have dressed up on this day in many years.  I seem to be going through another metamorphic change so thought I would post this picture that I had shared on facebook.  
More importantly, this day is the 25th Anniversary of my surviving Ovarian Cancer.  I have written about it on this blog before. 

 https://anniebsiemer.blogspot.com/2009/10/


 I did surgery to remove it but refused chemotherapy.   I opted instead to use plant medicine.  I was very lucky at the time to have been surrounded by several women who were involved with the Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium.  
I will forever be grateful to that group of women.  To keep the cancer from re-occuring, I chose to use the Essiac Formula.  I was given the actual formula from an herbalist working at Rosemary's Garden, an Herbal Apothecary located in Sebastopol, California (as the prepared formula in bottles was not affordable to me).  I will forever be Thankful to the Ojibway healer who shared the formula with Canadian Nurse, Renee Caisse in the early 1950's. Google it.  Later today, I will post the formula.  It is an amazing tonic for so many things. 
NOTE: I LOVED THE ACTUAL PREPARING OF THIS AND IT ADDED AN EXTRA BONUS/RITUAL FOR OWNING SELF-HEALING....

 THE ESSIAC FORMULA

 6 1/2 CUPS OF BURDOCK ROOT

16 OUNCES OF SHEEP SORREL

4 OZ OF SLIPPERY ELM BARK

1 OZ OF TURKISH RHUBARB ROOT

-USE 8 OZ AT A TIME OF THIS DRY MIXTURE

-PUT INTO 2 GALLONS OF DISTILLED WATER AND SIMMER FOR 10 MINUTES

-COVER AND  ALLOW THE MIXTURE TO COOL FOR 12 HOURS 

NEXT PREPARE GLASS BOTTLES(12 OR MORE AMBER OR CLEAR) THE SAME WAY YOU WOULD WHEN DOING ANY CANNING...STERILIZING ETC 

 THE NEXT DAY REHEAT THE TEA, BRINGING ALMOST TO A BOIL BUT BE CAREFUL NOT TO BOIL IT.

 USING CHEESECLOTH OR A STRAINER, POUR THE TEA INTO THE PREHEATED BOTTLES THE SAME SANITARY WAY YOU WOULD WHILE DO CANNING.

STORE IN A REFRIGERATOR TO PREVENT GROWTH OF MOLD

TAKE TWO OUNCES, TWICE A DAY, MORNING(BEFORE EATING) AND EVENING (AFTER EATING)

HEAL ON!

I am proud to say that "Big- Pharma" has not entered my body/temple since 1994. 

My favorite  TREE and "GROUNDING" song......

This is/was the Silver Maple Tree that stood in front of the house on Lynward Road in a Columbus, Ohio West-side suburb called "Holly Hills", where I grew up.

   When my parents purchased the newly built-for-us tri- level house in 1962,  they had to agree to plant 2 trees and this is the one that survived.  For my entire growing up through my Mom's passing on in 2012,  it was "The Picture Tree" as everyone who ever had their picture taken outside at our house by my Mom , (the photographer) would have to
stand in front  of this tree.

A few years ago, to my dismay, the new owner cut it down.  My Aunt Mickey had my cousin Gary go get pieces of it for me and I have one piece here in Florida.

This tree will always be my original "Giving Tree" as I climbed in it as a child.

Early this morning I  was looking at the pictures on a hard-drive of a camera I had purchased for my Dad back in 2011 and found this picture and a few others that I will share here now that I didn't honestly know were there.  I am so very grateful for these found pictures as my Moms glorious backyard garden has since been completely mowed down as well.

And here is my favorite old grounding song...a song I taught hundreds and thousands of children in a few environmental education programs here and there.  I believe that it was written by a woman named Betsy Rose:  It is a song that never ends...

"Standing like a tree

with my roots dug down,

my branches wide and open...

come down the sun

come down the rain

to a heart that is open to be ....

Standing like a tree ...."

repeat over and over 

Temenos

"When we choose a seat or standing area on a bus or train, when we arrange space in an office or workplace, when we decide where to put a garden, or chairs on a porch, where to sit on the riverbank to have lunch, where to play with the children — all of these decisions have to do with temenos, marking out a space appropriate for a certain spirit that breathes life into our activity." 

from The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore

I found more on temenos today on this blog called 

"A Reverant Life" by C. Forrest McDowell PhD

https://reverentlife.com/2011/05/26/sanctuary-temenos-%E2%80%94-sacred-boundary-for-the-soul/

He writes:

"Our interior system of temenos, like rooms and gardens of the soul, is enriched and enchanted by the furnishings of our thoughts. We often come to a place in our day, for example, when we feel a need to let go of worldly thoughts and enter into a more sparse, relaxed, and peaceful inner space. At such times this interior temenos becomes interior sanctuary, as in a daydream, the recitation of a mantra, the silent outpouring of prayer, or quiet reflection. We feel, in short, momentarily walled-off from the world."

 Also from this blogger:

"The relationship between daily sanctuary and peace is so interconnected that we need to understand how temenos (sacred boundary) and the Spirit of Place afford us refuge." 

from Alfred Lord Tennyson:

"In this boundless universe
let us this thought rehearse:
We can be boundless for better
or boundless for worse."

random paper cutout by Annie B. Siemer

circa 2004

Hoping and Praying

Photo by Chandra Passero

Sculptor/Artist unknown


 

For years and years I had dreams that were focused around a very tall , very thin Obsidian Black woman in all matters of my own affairs. The first one was back in 1988 when I was getting ready to go to a job at a Girl Scout Camp in Thetford, Vermont. This woman showed me a sculpture made out of matchbook type wood. She made this sculpture in the town square there and then destroyed it. 
 

I was going back there to be The Arts and Crafts and Ecology Director. At first I thought it was reminiscent of a teaching I had in college my senior year in a pottery class. Our teacher then tried to instill in us these things: both that whatever we made would be around (after firing) for a very long time, (so it was important for it to be not only useful and beautiful to our own eyes), but we should know that it was permanent, so as not to waste the clay , I reckon. Then later I realized it was probably a nudge to realize that nothing is permanent.

I later had a dream where I was living in Sebastopol, California in which Sebastopol had become an island after some great Earth change or flood. In this same dream, about 1995, I confronted my Fred Phelps-like Brother, Michael about his treatment of me. I had been trying to maintain my health after surgery for Ovarian Cancer using the Essiac formula as well as a number of other natural healing methods (that I have previously written about in this blog). In waking life, Mike had written me a homophobic themed letter, not in support, but to tell me that he thought I was going to ( his proverbial) hell. When I confronted him in the dream, my tall Black woman ( who I had by then realized was my higher power personified) just shook her head in a slow and steady “no”. I took this to mean he wasn’t worth my energy and moved on.

 

I saw this picture of this sculpture on a friend’s facebook page and asked her if I could use it. The figure is not only important, for the temenos or ambiance of sacred space that she (my friend) has created surrounding it...but it looks to be about how I feel right now. I asked her to borrow it for this...because this is how I see both myself and my Tall Black Woman now. Sitting cross-legged, a lot older, a little more round. Trying to stay in the moment , while also hoping and praying for positive outcomes with the challenges I and we now face...individually and as a society.

I am hoping and praying that my one remaining brother will eventually treat me with the love, compassion and respect that I deserve, while also trying to accept that this may never actually happen...trying to still....again.... now let it go, knowing still that I am responsible for my own path, not his.

I am hoping and praying still that all of the people on our planet will realize that this moment is really all we have...and that loving each other can be the only way for us to survive , and that none of us are permanent.

I am hoping and praying for an end to all wars, especially the ones going on in our own families.

I am hoping and praying for the well -being of my friends fleeing fires in Northern Cali, other friends healing themselves (in their own ways) of cancers and life threatening diseases or friends and family facing loss of loved ones and myriad other obstacles to true inner peace.

I am hoping and praying that I myself can rise above the chaos and hatred and remember myself that I (even through all of the grief and challenges of my past several years) have had a very incredible life experience, meeting SO MANY beautiful and soulful folks in each and every place along my path, and remember to sit and reflect , with genuine gratitude , for each and every one of these life experiences.

4/16/2020post note: I went back and reread the amazing blogpost from which the picture of this statue came from...my old/new friend Chandra Passero. Here's the blog post that is timely again for today: 
https://www.chandrapassero.com/earth-based-traditions

occupy 8 years later

My hopes/demands during Occupy 8 years ago haven't really changed

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, "This is what it is to be happy.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

'tis the season....

10 year old collage

1 section of
Mixed Media Collage

12/21/2009

Annie B. Siemer