Extra Sensory Perception
"extra special powers"
There's a Japanese girl band that sings this amazing song, called ESP and upon searching it out, I found that apparently lots of people have songs about ESP.
My older daughter was in class last year and a teacher asked the students if they knew what ESP stood for and my daughter very confidently said "extra special powers".
Everyone stared at her like she must be joking and then she realized that her words did not align with the group. She came home a bit embarrassed and asked about it.
It's just the way that her mind rearranged the words to the Shonen Knife song that she's been
singing along with since she was a little girl.
And because of that, it's how we've always referred to ESP at our house.
I've been thinking about the way in which people perceive things, the way that I perceive things may not be the same as the way you do, but that does not mean that what one person sees/hears/senses makes the other person's perception wrong.
The other day as I was driving I had a sense that we had driven ahead a few blocks and had re-wound, if you will, and started over. I asked my older daughter who was in the front seat with me "were we just up ahead at the next light and came back here to start over?" She paused, thought about it and said, "that's not how it seemed to me". She, as my daughter is open to the possibility that reality is all about perception and that it was possible, if not improbable that it was a reality. Time is not linear. Space is not finite. We can intellectualize it, but the belief in ourselves, the trust we allow ourselves to experience things outside of normal perceived acceptable reality is a leap of faith. One must have courage to see things that others do not. One must have faith in life and belief in oneself to see outside an agreed upon limited reality.
I rarely end up where I set out, but these are the words that want to be written.
I was intending to write about the way in which our senses guide us, how each of us is ruled by certain senses. Some of us use our sense of sight, or touch to guide us through life. I know a girl who smells everything before she eats it and smells every ingredient before she cooks. I saw someone the other day in a clothing store who touched every single item she passed.
Some people need eye contact or they cannot have a conversation.
Our basic needs are sensual
sen·su·al
Etymology:
Middle English, from Late Latin sensualis, from Latin sensus sense
Date:15th century
Really, sensuality is just about connecting with our senses and yet, our culture has demonized our most basic human needs; to connect and feel, to see and touch, to taste and smell and so on.
1: relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses or the indulgence of appetite :
a: devoted to or preoccupied with the senses or appetites
b: voluptuous c: deficient in moral, spiritual, or intellectual interests : worldly; especially : irreligious (Irreligious? what? being religious means having no sense?
this makes no sense.)
I feel like Oblio in the Pointless Forest.
What is your primary sense? Your secondary sense? What sense do you feel disconnected to?
As a perfumer I like to blow open olfactory sense perception.
To allow people to have their minds blown wide open through their sense of smell. You can never be the same once you've connected to your deep, ancient, visceral connection to the world of scent.
Julia, my assistant and many of our customers have never liked the scent of rose oil, until they've experienced one of the true Rose Ottos or absolutes that we have at the store. Now Rose is the favorite, the dream, the ideal. The sensual connection to something from the past and maybe not even their own past.
What is your favorite smell?
A dear friend of mine sent me one of these get to know you better e-mail disasters and because as I said she is dear to me I sent it back to her (only her, no more forwards). One of the questions was: What is your favorite smell? I knew right away my answer, but had to decide how honest I would be and tried to come up with a "better" answer. I love Roses in the rain, I love the way the sidewalk smells after a rain, I love the smell of band-aids, I love the smell of old books, I love the smell of puppies, I love the smell of babies necks, I could go on and on. Obviously smell is one of primary sensual connections.
The real answer is that I love the way my loved ones smell, when unadorned by deodorants and washes. I love real people smell.
My friend, the forwarder, replied that she hadn't thought of it, but that was really her favorite scent as well.
I remember when my younger daughter at age 10 had come home and said that someone had suggested she use deodorant and would I buy her some. It was hard for me to imagine my baby girl needing to mask her self in this way and so we talked about it and she said that the person had said she had "body odor" - she squinched her nose up while repeating the words as it must have been modeled to her. I said yes, you do have body odor, it's a body, everything has an odor, it's a smell, not a poison.
We are asked to look and smell the same, to be nice, to be fine and we are expected to mask our own real scent.
I'm sorry, but it's not ok with me.
I did buy her some low scent organic deodorant and if she wears it that's up to her, but I like the way my friends and family smell au natural.
We're hard-wired to smell anger and love, desire and distrust. It's part of the ESP picture, the masking of scents is a way for us to get mixed messages, for us to be confused by false information to not trust our instincts.
Let's do away with so much scented laundry detergent, dish soap, room fresheners, deodorants, chemical perfumes.
We have to use other cues, to open our senses to fully live in our own skin, to see the world. To be in the world.
Tonight Julia and I went out to Toro Bravo for dinner and I speak for both of us when I say that our taste buds were blown open. We ordered many amazing little plates to share, but the bacon wrapped, blue cheese stuffed figs were transcendent. Julia said it was the best thing she had ever put in her mouth. We had a hard time considering anything else that could follow such a taste. We sat in awe of the simplicity and complexity of it for some time before deciding that we could have a drink of Sangria as a transition to the next plate.
While I was enjoying delightful food and conversation I checked out those around me, took in what I could of their story, I opened my senses to what they were telling me, telling everyone around them. With their body language, the food they chose, the colors they wear, the companions they are with, their voices and all the minutia of human-ness. Being perceptive is a drinking in of the world, a tasting, a smelling, a hearing.
Go ahead, be psychic, you already are, just pay attention, drink it in and enjoy your life.
xo
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
ode part 2 + onion poultice
continued from part one
The thing about all of this is that my treatment would have worked and was working quite well except for the flying.
The cabin pressurization is a killer.
My contact lens cleaner bottle was mangled by the pressure, just as my poor ears were.
It somehow made me feel better, to see the evidence in a plastic bottle.
I was nearly better (again) when it was time to return home.
On the flight back, the pressurization was worse, because even though my illness was mostly gone, my ears were still sensitive from the first trip a few days before.
I actually thought of extending my trip, to let my ears recover a bit, but it just wasn't in the cards.
I won't repeat the drama of the pain, discomfort and all the million ways I tried to relieve the pressure in my ears, but I did come home unable to hear clearly for days and I woke up the following morning with terrible pain in both of my ears.
Every time I sat up I could hear and painfully feel liquid moving about in my head.
My partner had to go out of town on business which left me in charge of everyone.
I actually forgot to feed my dog one day.
I resumed with the hot teas with honey and tincture, while beginning a regimen of ear treatments.
Onion Poultice has worked for me in the past when one of us has had ear troubles, including water in the ears from swimming or too much wind in the ears from the beach or just a killer head cold.
The treatment is simple:
cut on onion in half
heat the onion by placing the cut side in a skillet, until it is warmed through
cover the cut side with cheesecloth or a thin tea towel
test the temperature so you don't burn yourself or especially not someone you're trying to heal and then
place the cloth covered, hot onion right on your ear and
put on a wool hat that will also cover the onion and lay down until the onion has cooled.
compost the onion
repeat if necessary with the other half of the onion.
This helped some, but it felt like there was too much fluid in my ears for it to work fully.
I had my daughter drop straight usnea tincture into my ears.
Usnea is incredibly drying and in the past I've used it for my black lab's ears.
That worked quite a bit.
I had to go to work and still wasn't fully hearing yet, that was uncomfortable so my daughter, thank goodness, offered to ear candle me.
So sweet, before school.
Ear candles are basically 10-12 inch long muslin tubes coated in wax that you stick in your ear, light the end and as they burn down they create a kind of vacuum effect and the smoke goes in your ear and moisture and wax are drawn up out of your ear and adhere to the cone.
You put the flame out as it gets a few inches from your head and you can open it up and see what it's pulled out of you. It's pretty cool.
Then it was off to work and that was pretty much the end of it all.
It was quite the saga and ended up lasting about 7 days with a few extra days of almost all better.
It was the kind of illness that once past, I couldn't believe how sick I had been.
I feel stronger in my lungs after all the elecampane.
I grew up in a household with multiple indoor smokers, so this has been a weak spot for me.
I don't wish this on anyone and I'm glad it's in the past and even though it's been a few weeks, I wanted to give a peek into the arduous and healing world of herbal medicine.
xo
The thing about all of this is that my treatment would have worked and was working quite well except for the flying.
The cabin pressurization is a killer.
My contact lens cleaner bottle was mangled by the pressure, just as my poor ears were.
It somehow made me feel better, to see the evidence in a plastic bottle.
I was nearly better (again) when it was time to return home.
On the flight back, the pressurization was worse, because even though my illness was mostly gone, my ears were still sensitive from the first trip a few days before.
I actually thought of extending my trip, to let my ears recover a bit, but it just wasn't in the cards.
I won't repeat the drama of the pain, discomfort and all the million ways I tried to relieve the pressure in my ears, but I did come home unable to hear clearly for days and I woke up the following morning with terrible pain in both of my ears.
Every time I sat up I could hear and painfully feel liquid moving about in my head.
My partner had to go out of town on business which left me in charge of everyone.
I actually forgot to feed my dog one day.
I resumed with the hot teas with honey and tincture, while beginning a regimen of ear treatments.
Onion Poultice has worked for me in the past when one of us has had ear troubles, including water in the ears from swimming or too much wind in the ears from the beach or just a killer head cold.
The treatment is simple:
cut on onion in half
heat the onion by placing the cut side in a skillet, until it is warmed through
cover the cut side with cheesecloth or a thin tea towel
test the temperature so you don't burn yourself or especially not someone you're trying to heal and then
place the cloth covered, hot onion right on your ear and
put on a wool hat that will also cover the onion and lay down until the onion has cooled.
compost the onion
repeat if necessary with the other half of the onion.
This helped some, but it felt like there was too much fluid in my ears for it to work fully.
I had my daughter drop straight usnea tincture into my ears.
Usnea is incredibly drying and in the past I've used it for my black lab's ears.
That worked quite a bit.
I had to go to work and still wasn't fully hearing yet, that was uncomfortable so my daughter, thank goodness, offered to ear candle me.
So sweet, before school.
Ear candles are basically 10-12 inch long muslin tubes coated in wax that you stick in your ear, light the end and as they burn down they create a kind of vacuum effect and the smoke goes in your ear and moisture and wax are drawn up out of your ear and adhere to the cone.
You put the flame out as it gets a few inches from your head and you can open it up and see what it's pulled out of you. It's pretty cool.
Then it was off to work and that was pretty much the end of it all.
It was quite the saga and ended up lasting about 7 days with a few extra days of almost all better.
It was the kind of illness that once past, I couldn't believe how sick I had been.
I feel stronger in my lungs after all the elecampane.
I grew up in a household with multiple indoor smokers, so this has been a weak spot for me.
I don't wish this on anyone and I'm glad it's in the past and even though it's been a few weeks, I wanted to give a peek into the arduous and healing world of herbal medicine.
xo
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
an inadvertent ode to Cascade Anderson Geller
I woke up with a pain deep in my lungs.
The pain was as if I had been running in the artic or smoking cigarettes made of ice.
The lung pain was my only symptom, but I got right on treating it, just in case.
I began with hot tea and *local honey with our basic family tincture **the anti-infection blend.
I added about 10 dropperfuls of this to my tea a couple of times the first day. That night I had a dream where Cascade was with me. I told her about my lung pain and she warned me that it could be very serious. I asked her what I should do about it. She looked at me with her head tilted to one side and said "you're the herbalist, you tell me"
"Elecampane" I said. She smiled and said "good".
I woke up the next day and started a pot of super bitter tea. I knew I would be flying in a few days and wanted to really nip this illness in the bud.
The tea I made was elecampane & dandelion root simmered on the stove for a good long time.
Elecampane is a true love to me, the only plant I ever wrote a song for. That's cheesy, I know, but Elecampane is complex, strong, bitter, sweet, rich and unlike any other taste around. Elacampane is in the sunflower family and quite closely related to the sunchoke and even though it's called elf wort or elf dock, I find it to be a plant related more to Gnomes.
I drank some of this brew with honey and then added more water and let it continue to simmer. I must have drunk a gallon of this uber bitter brew throughout two days.
My lungs got better quickly but the pain and sickness had moved up into my upper chest.
Bummer.
I was sicker than I wanted to admit.
I kept on with my treatment. Stay the course.
This is the part where you get to hear the mantra that comes back to me often from fabulous local herbal teacher Cascade Anderson Gellar who once said to me "herbal medicine is arduous"
Basically why everyone takes anti-biotics these days. Herbal medicine is arduous, it takes time and patience and patience.
Cascade was the one who taught me all about the anti-infection blend.
The "infection" as it seemed to be, moved up out of my lungs and then out of my chest and now had fully landed in my throat.
Jeeze.
I was trying to get things caught up at the store and make the million arrangements for the children, the house, the dog, the chickens etc.
I finally packed about 10 minutes before we had to leave for the airport.
At this point, I begin to feel better, with the illness mostly in my head, ha ha, not like that but in my physical head.
When the cabin of the plane pressurized my head began to seemingly swell with pressure from the inside that was threatening to burst. I was yawning and sucking candy and pulling on my ears while yawning, I was massaging my eustation tubes. I was dring sips of water. I was miserable. I was trying to be patient. I was using calming techniques. Breathing exercises.
The flight attendant came over to see if we were alright. My travel partner explained the problem because I could not hear very well, nor tell how loud I was talking at this point, and asked if she had any suggestions. She looked at me and said "did you try yawning?"
I honestly wanted to hit her.
So back on earth, I now had a killer head cold, plugged ears and still tons of pressure in my head.
This day was all about the runny nose.
The day consisted of putting salve on my nose where the skin was raw, finding kleenexes, sucking cough drops, blowing my nose, disposing of kleenexes, repeat.
Oh and did I say that I was at this point in Las Vegas at the World Tea Expo where I was supposed to be tasting and smelling teas all day.
to be continued: part 2 will include the second half of the super-fun week that was the tea fair which includes a double ear infection, oh joy.
**Anti-Infection Blend
Like all good recipes, it has guidelines and parameters, but is made differently based on the season and what tinctures I have on hand.
Here's a basic recipe:
each tincture is already made seperately then blended after they're complete.
25% echinacea root, dried
25% echinacea root, leaf and flower tinctured fresh
15% fresh ginger root
10% usnea
15% oregon grape root
10% licorice root
We go through about 32 oz of this throughout each year. It takes care of practically everything.
Thanks Cascade.
*a great book to recommend about the healing and magic of honey is Stephen Buhner's book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers
***all of this is recommended for using your own judgment, I am not a doctor, I have no letters behind my name, I make no claims, this is my own experience.***
The pain was as if I had been running in the artic or smoking cigarettes made of ice.
The lung pain was my only symptom, but I got right on treating it, just in case.
I began with hot tea and *local honey with our basic family tincture **the anti-infection blend.
I added about 10 dropperfuls of this to my tea a couple of times the first day. That night I had a dream where Cascade was with me. I told her about my lung pain and she warned me that it could be very serious. I asked her what I should do about it. She looked at me with her head tilted to one side and said "you're the herbalist, you tell me"
"Elecampane" I said. She smiled and said "good".
I woke up the next day and started a pot of super bitter tea. I knew I would be flying in a few days and wanted to really nip this illness in the bud.
The tea I made was elecampane & dandelion root simmered on the stove for a good long time.
Elecampane is a true love to me, the only plant I ever wrote a song for. That's cheesy, I know, but Elecampane is complex, strong, bitter, sweet, rich and unlike any other taste around. Elacampane is in the sunflower family and quite closely related to the sunchoke and even though it's called elf wort or elf dock, I find it to be a plant related more to Gnomes.
I drank some of this brew with honey and then added more water and let it continue to simmer. I must have drunk a gallon of this uber bitter brew throughout two days.
My lungs got better quickly but the pain and sickness had moved up into my upper chest.
Bummer.
I was sicker than I wanted to admit.
I kept on with my treatment. Stay the course.
This is the part where you get to hear the mantra that comes back to me often from fabulous local herbal teacher Cascade Anderson Gellar who once said to me "herbal medicine is arduous"
Basically why everyone takes anti-biotics these days. Herbal medicine is arduous, it takes time and patience and patience.
Cascade was the one who taught me all about the anti-infection blend.
The "infection" as it seemed to be, moved up out of my lungs and then out of my chest and now had fully landed in my throat.
Jeeze.
I was trying to get things caught up at the store and make the million arrangements for the children, the house, the dog, the chickens etc.
I finally packed about 10 minutes before we had to leave for the airport.
At this point, I begin to feel better, with the illness mostly in my head, ha ha, not like that but in my physical head.
When the cabin of the plane pressurized my head began to seemingly swell with pressure from the inside that was threatening to burst. I was yawning and sucking candy and pulling on my ears while yawning, I was massaging my eustation tubes. I was dring sips of water. I was miserable. I was trying to be patient. I was using calming techniques. Breathing exercises.
The flight attendant came over to see if we were alright. My travel partner explained the problem because I could not hear very well, nor tell how loud I was talking at this point, and asked if she had any suggestions. She looked at me and said "did you try yawning?"
I honestly wanted to hit her.
So back on earth, I now had a killer head cold, plugged ears and still tons of pressure in my head.
This day was all about the runny nose.
The day consisted of putting salve on my nose where the skin was raw, finding kleenexes, sucking cough drops, blowing my nose, disposing of kleenexes, repeat.
Oh and did I say that I was at this point in Las Vegas at the World Tea Expo where I was supposed to be tasting and smelling teas all day.
to be continued: part 2 will include the second half of the super-fun week that was the tea fair which includes a double ear infection, oh joy.
**Anti-Infection Blend
Like all good recipes, it has guidelines and parameters, but is made differently based on the season and what tinctures I have on hand.
Here's a basic recipe:
each tincture is already made seperately then blended after they're complete.
25% echinacea root, dried
25% echinacea root, leaf and flower tinctured fresh
15% fresh ginger root
10% usnea
15% oregon grape root
10% licorice root
We go through about 32 oz of this throughout each year. It takes care of practically everything.
Thanks Cascade.
*a great book to recommend about the healing and magic of honey is Stephen Buhner's book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers
***all of this is recommended for using your own judgment, I am not a doctor, I have no letters behind my name, I make no claims, this is my own experience.***
Friday, June 27, 2008
Empowering Potion
Everyone loves the Empowering Potion.
It's been by far the most popular of our sprays but sadly, we've been sold out of it for months!
It's tricky to make a sun infused, sun inspired Potion in Oregon.
Each of the potions have their very own needs and desires and the Empowering Potion needs and desires Sun and lots of it.
7 plus days of as full sun as possible.
It's a hard feat for most of the Portland year.
I also need to have the space set up just so and have all the ingredients on hand before brewing.
For everyone who has been coming in each week asking about the potion and the girls at the store asking me when I'll be making some more already?
Well, it's finally happened.
Summer Solstice was a clear and auspicious day to brew and now it's already bright and hot at 9am, with tomorrow expecting to reach near 100 degrees, this will be a powerful batch.
The last time everything aligned for this potion was in August of 07.
It looks like the next many days will continue to be perfect weather, but I'm glad it's already made, because I'll be in herb camp all next week and any potions being made will be with the children.
xo
It's been by far the most popular of our sprays but sadly, we've been sold out of it for months!
It's tricky to make a sun infused, sun inspired Potion in Oregon.
Each of the potions have their very own needs and desires and the Empowering Potion needs and desires Sun and lots of it.
7 plus days of as full sun as possible.
It's a hard feat for most of the Portland year.
I also need to have the space set up just so and have all the ingredients on hand before brewing.
For everyone who has been coming in each week asking about the potion and the girls at the store asking me when I'll be making some more already?
Well, it's finally happened.
Summer Solstice was a clear and auspicious day to brew and now it's already bright and hot at 9am, with tomorrow expecting to reach near 100 degrees, this will be a powerful batch.
The last time everything aligned for this potion was in August of 07.
It looks like the next many days will continue to be perfect weather, but I'm glad it's already made, because I'll be in herb camp all next week and any potions being made will be with the children.
xo
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Calendula
here is an old school illustration of Calendula
in this picture you'll see the calendula that is blooming from last year's plants under the "getting taller everyday" Elecampane and on the right is the garden sage where the calendula seeds are growing next to it.
these are the babies.
this is an up close picture.
on the left is a red stem with the seed still attached, the middle plant has leaves about 1/3 inch long and the 3rd image is about to open.
so sweet and oh so strong for being so tiny
If you can see the hose nozzle at the top of the picture you can get a sense of the scale here.These are from a week or so ago and everything has doubled since then.
I'll try to add more pictures soon.
I'm in love.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
World Tea Expo
First of all, I know this sounds very exotic and beautiful and aromatic, however, the Expo was in Las Vegas and I was soooo sick.
I will write another post all about the illness and my treatment, stay posted.
We went to the tea expo thinking and hoping we would find the coolest teapots & cups, the most amazing lines of boxed & bagged teas and herb & tea infused chocolates.
Teapots: We found lots of almost lovely enough teapots and cups the first two days and on the third day we finally found beautiful teapots that we loved and they were available in an amazing array of colors.
Oh, but this is the line we already carry.
Beehouse Teapots made in Japan.
Chocolate: We have been carrying chocolate line from Belgium that is infused with flowers and spices that we adore, but we're always open to something new.
I will write another post all about the illness and my treatment, stay posted.
We went to the tea expo thinking and hoping we would find the coolest teapots & cups, the most amazing lines of boxed & bagged teas and herb & tea infused chocolates.
Teapots: We found lots of almost lovely enough teapots and cups the first two days and on the third day we finally found beautiful teapots that we loved and they were available in an amazing array of colors.
Oh, but this is the line we already carry.
Beehouse Teapots made in Japan.
Chocolate: We have been carrying chocolate line from Belgium that is infused with flowers and spices that we adore, but we're always open to something new.
So, we tasted a dozen green tea candies, tea infused chocolates shaped like teacups, shortbread cookies infused with tea and on and on. Not one thing was even a consideration. Bummer.
Tea: so much tea, so many cups, I felt awful about all the waste.
There were so many poorly brewed pots of tea. Even the tea that I carry and the tea line that I picked up were brewed in a way that was not quite right.
Our hands-down favorite product was a jasmine tea non-alcoholic "champagne".
It was beautifully brewed and carbonated and not too sweet.
I will be serving it at events and offering it as a special order item.
We met some cousins who were representing their family tea plantation in India. One of the cousins lives in India the other in Los Angeles. They had lovely energy and amazing tea.
I found a grower selling my favorite jasmine tea: yin hao jasmine. Organic, even. I'm hoping to have that in the store and my teacup soon.
We went to the world tea expo, it seems, mostly, to realize what we are carrying is the best and yes we can add a few things here and there, but really, we're pretty dialed in.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Summer Herb Camp
Summer Herb Camp
June 30-July3
Monday-Thursday
9am-3pm
For ages 9 to 13
we will:
CREATE HERBAL CRAFTS
TASTE WILD FOODS
MAKE HERBAL MEDICINE
GO ON NATURE WALKS
LEARN ABOUT WILDCRAFTING
~each day you’ll bring something home~
Cost for the camp is$175 plus $25 materials and snacks fee
Summer Herb Camp will be held at
Cost for the camp is$175 plus $25 materials and snacks fee
Summer Herb Camp will be held at
a beautiful rural property just 15 minutes from
downtown portland
About the camp leader:
About the camp leader:
Jewelie Randall is an accomplished herbalist and mother of two. She is an experienced wild crafter, medicine maker, and founder of io herbal alchemy. There will be fabulous camp helpers each day.
Registration is required as space is limited to 12
Registration is required as space is limited to 12
$75 deposit holds your child’s space in camp
Contact: 503-336-1668 or jewels@florapdx.com
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