Tadd and I were living in Arlington, Washington about ten years ago. The house we were renting was an old, old Victorian farmhouse that was falling apart. I had returned from my apprenticeship with Susun Weed in New York about a year before that and was beginning the integration period of this life changing experience. I was also just beginning menopause and I felt like I was falling apart also.
I had quit my job as a teacher and was living off of some savings I had and then off of Tadd's income. I already had started a small herbal products business and was selling at farmer's markets and a bit through mail order. I had started writing a column for The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries and discovered I could write about plants.
There was a very, very large managed forest to the east of us. I would climb up behind our house and walk and walk through it. I spent my days walking in the woods and gardening, talking to the plants and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Tadd wondered that also.
I began to cook all our food from scratch at that time and also made nourishing herbal infusions for us to drink. I grew lots of food for us and made medicines from the plants that were near. I grew very close to one of the Douglas Fir tree up in the woods and visited her almost everyday.
I also remember the Herb Robert and how it helped me feel welcome on the forest trail.
I had some problems with my self esteem at this time. My body was changing and I gained quite a bit of weight. I had shaved my head to celebrate my transformation upon finishing my shamanic apprenticeship and I hated the way my hair looked for a long time.
I sought shamanic healing to help me navigate this strange new life and trained with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I started a shamanic practice in my little delapidated house near the woods. In the unseen world of my journeys, I found the home base for my shamanic herbal practice. I began to teach and enrolled a couple of apprentices to come explore the way of the wise woman with me.
Then the world trade towers came down. This marked a significant change in both Tadd and myself. Tadd began to struggle a bit with finding enough work and well, I was hardly making any money at what I was doing. Our chiropractor told Tadd about a woman from Vermont, Toni Stone, who had helped his wife double her income. Tadd gave her a call and started to receive coaching from her.
Within the next year, we had moved to Whidbey Island to rent a little house on the beach. I started to receive coaching also. And within a couple of years we bought a beautiful farm where we now live and work.
It has been almost six years since we moved here to our little farm. My herbal school, Crow's Laughter Mystery School is very successful and my products are helping to heal many people all over the US and even internationally. I have always had within me a beautiful idea of how I wanted everything to be. When I started studying prosperity with Toni Stone and now Gifford Booth and many others, I learned that I could bring into the world, that beautiful idea. And I have done that and continue to paint a greater picture of it.
I have learned that sharing my gifts even when I don't think I have them to give has opened me to a greater sense of life. I have learned that being thankful for what I have been given over and over has trained me to see possibility. And I have learned to give up the easy road and instead, I have found a deeply engaging path that is rich and embodied.
I look forward to growing deeper and stronger into the richness of life and invite any and all of you to join me in celebration of our passionate abundance.
May it be in Beauty.
I had quit my job as a teacher and was living off of some savings I had and then off of Tadd's income. I already had started a small herbal products business and was selling at farmer's markets and a bit through mail order. I had started writing a column for The Beltane Papers, Journal of Women's Mysteries and discovered I could write about plants.
There was a very, very large managed forest to the east of us. I would climb up behind our house and walk and walk through it. I spent my days walking in the woods and gardening, talking to the plants and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Tadd wondered that also.
I began to cook all our food from scratch at that time and also made nourishing herbal infusions for us to drink. I grew lots of food for us and made medicines from the plants that were near. I grew very close to one of the Douglas Fir tree up in the woods and visited her almost everyday.
I also remember the Herb Robert and how it helped me feel welcome on the forest trail.
I had some problems with my self esteem at this time. My body was changing and I gained quite a bit of weight. I had shaved my head to celebrate my transformation upon finishing my shamanic apprenticeship and I hated the way my hair looked for a long time.
I sought shamanic healing to help me navigate this strange new life and trained with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I started a shamanic practice in my little delapidated house near the woods. In the unseen world of my journeys, I found the home base for my shamanic herbal practice. I began to teach and enrolled a couple of apprentices to come explore the way of the wise woman with me.
Then the world trade towers came down. This marked a significant change in both Tadd and myself. Tadd began to struggle a bit with finding enough work and well, I was hardly making any money at what I was doing. Our chiropractor told Tadd about a woman from Vermont, Toni Stone, who had helped his wife double her income. Tadd gave her a call and started to receive coaching from her.
Within the next year, we had moved to Whidbey Island to rent a little house on the beach. I started to receive coaching also. And within a couple of years we bought a beautiful farm where we now live and work.
It has been almost six years since we moved here to our little farm. My herbal school, Crow's Laughter Mystery School is very successful and my products are helping to heal many people all over the US and even internationally. I have always had within me a beautiful idea of how I wanted everything to be. When I started studying prosperity with Toni Stone and now Gifford Booth and many others, I learned that I could bring into the world, that beautiful idea. And I have done that and continue to paint a greater picture of it.
I have learned that sharing my gifts even when I don't think I have them to give has opened me to a greater sense of life. I have learned that being thankful for what I have been given over and over has trained me to see possibility. And I have learned to give up the easy road and instead, I have found a deeply engaging path that is rich and embodied.
I look forward to growing deeper and stronger into the richness of life and invite any and all of you to join me in celebration of our passionate abundance.
May it be in Beauty.
