Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Please Download, Print & Share
THE NEW COLOR POSTERS

for the

TRADITIONS IN WESTERN HERBALISM CONFERENCE

Your help is kindly requested, sharing the new trifold brochures for the conference, and making time to put up some of the matching posters.  TWHC CoDirector Jesse Wolf Hardin spent nearly 20 hours designing and creating them, with his logo framed by a selection of his and my medicinal plant portraits.  The background earth-tones are from his photo of volcanic cliff-rock near the Animá Sanctuary, but was picked for its ability to evoke the earthen pastel tones of the beautiful hills surrounding the Ghost Ranch conference site.

Write us to request whatever number of brochures you can put to good use, ideally handed to herbal and health related business owners who may want to participate by sponsoring, vending or practicing there, or left in small piles in herbal stores that will agree to keep them out.  We can send you the files if you would like to print them off yourself, though you would need to know how to print on both sides.

The color posters come in 2 sizes, large 11×17 ones that we hope you can get store owners and health practitioners to commit to keep up in their windows or on their counter fronts from now until the event next September.  We will be selling these as art posters at the event, but will also be happy to give a signed copy as a gift to you along with however many copies for you to post in your region or on your travels.  The smaller version is 8.5X11, and is available either by writing us, or by downloading and then printing the linked poster file.

Ideal places for posting the large and small posters are herb stores, natural health stores, natural food stores, health practitioner waiting rooms, herbal and healing school foyers, university student union buildings, university medicine and botany building bulletin boards, and culturally conscious cafes.  Please don’t feel like you have to take on a load… if a goodly amount of you could commit to posting even 5 or 10 – and to checking back to make sure they stay up and aren’t covered over – that would be a huge contribution!

That so many people want to involve themselves and help, is essential to making this conference a success and to ensure their will be others in subsequent years.  It is also satisfying in itself, the connection we feel in this alliance of purpose.  Thank you dearly from us both.

Kiva Rose & Jesse Wolf Hardin
TWHC
Kiva(at)TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org
www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org

DOWNLOAD SMALL TWHC POSTER HERE

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You may have noticed the change in the Animá Blog banner, with the addition of the words “Nature Awareness, Healing & Rewilding Skills,” a line that will be added to the Animá website splash page as well as soon as limited time permits.  This description is meant to further define our work and in particular what is meant by the term “Lifeways.”  Lifeways are not vaporous ideas or lofty philosophy, but a way and means for connecting with the natural world and our own natural selves, tools of empowerment with practical application in the real everyday world.  Herbal and Awareness courses, for example are made up of not just information and exploratory questions but also extensive assignments for immediate useful application.  When we do our Wild Child course, it will be with hands-on techniques for empowering and growing our offspring and students, the ReWilding course a set of steps to becoming indigenous again, restoring the land as well as our natural beings and dreams.  Our earlier name change to “School” made clear our mission to teach, now at the onset it is made obvious that we are offering, and what we are all about.  Nature Awareness covers not only nature reconnection but using the awareness and lessons that the natural world provides, wild foods gathering and paleo diet, self sufficiency, self authority and activism, plant medicines and natural healing methods.  Skills for knowing, being, and especially doing….

This blog began as a means to share with a growing number of the wide-ranging Animá community, and it continues to accomplish that near as we can tell.  But these days it is increasingly serving to affirm, stir up and provide information to a widening swath of people from all walks of life.

We hope you like it.  Some of you have been with me since the initials to this project were “ESP” and my teachings mainly shared through esoteric, activist oriented “Medicine Show” concerts, and it hopefully feels good to have been a part of and reason for the transformation and growth.  Personal thanks to Kiva for facilitating so much of the valuable shifts in organization, language and packaging, making Animá all the more accessible and effective, and to Resolute and our Supporters for doing so much to make each step possible.  And thank you from the bottom of my heart to our students and readers, for being a part of the work and blessings, inperterbable principles and organic changes of this evolving mission and purpose.

Love and Blessings, Wolf & All

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When the familiar and welcome sun came back out, our batteries were so low that the panels surged to 34 amps and freaked out our charge controller.  As of last night we had already stored enough juice to be back up to 80 percent.  While dealing with the natural ebb and flow of electricity here in the canyon, we had no idea that the entire county had been suffering an outage for 4 whole days, with gas stations shut down and only the clinic, courthouse and little grocery store running on generators.  It was a reminder of how fragile even “self sufficient” minded communities are, large or small, that a storm-dropped tower can render it helpless, with houses unlilt, cars parked for lack of fuel.  And it was encouraging, to realize again not only how blessed – but how truly possible – it is to depend on oneself and alternate technologies instead of on a system that makes us dependent.

Today I walk out, wading the thigh deep ice melt river to get to Resolute’s Owl Rover vehicle and on into town for vittles and mail.  For the first 3 years I was here I walked the entire 10 miles to the village, so these days a short walk to a warm car due to washed out crossings seems like nothing but a minor adventure and opportunity to trade hours on the laptop for awakened senses, a gratified heart and chilled feet.  I start by following the rabbit tracks in the snow, bounding as best I can through the entrance to life’s Wonderland.

Whatever your own adventures today, we hope you make sure they serve you as well.

-Wolf

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Since I last posted, a second and third storms did indeed come through, one of the few times that the internet weather reports have been right for this area.  Perhaps it is the remoteness and thus economic irrelevance of this area that results in the scant nearby data and poor forecasts, and at times we know it is the canyon’s micro-climate, as there can be storms all around us with an eye of blue above us.  Not this time however, with each subsequent front coming through on barreling winds that shook the house like a toy in a cat’s mouth.  There has been many instances of my regretting how well I nail things together, the often bent-over nails making renovation difficult, but at such times we are all amply glad that the humble little pine board cabins are so securely held together.

Judging by the snow sticking on the roof, we got over four inches of fluff the second storm, and a good 6″ on the third go-through.  The rain barrels were quickly filled, along with the outdoor tub, making us wish we had more food-grade barrels, or at least more heavy duty rubbermaid can that can be used to hold the precious fluid.  Given the increasing periods of doubt, saving the bounty of the storm events will be ever more important.  We have long though about getting a very large container and using a 12 volt solar powered pump to move water into it, but the fact that a first flush is ashy and for washing, and additional flushes for drinking, requires a system of smaller containers that can be rotated, as well as easily accessed and cleaned.

The second storm was as much cold rain as anything else.  And thus, yesterday we awoke to the sound of a river, choppy with whitecaps, overspilling its banks.  But by last night it was already back down to thigh deep at the deepest, since there was no store of previous snowpack to be melted by the rain and sleet deluge.

Rhiannon was already sledding when I got up early this morning, knowing that impending blue skies would quickly melt her boon.  Sure enough, a few hours of even Wintertime New Mexico sun was enough to strip the trees of the piles of white briefly held there.  I did get these photos for you before it was gone, proof that we know what the stuff is even if – unlike the Eskimos with their dozens of word for snow – we have can find only one word for it: amazing.

It doesn’t take long to miss the sun, however, for its warmth, the way it cheers and emboldens us, and the vital electricity that it puts into our solar system, converting brightness to power the satellite internet that this school and its projects depend on, the writing we do, and the music that we listen to and our inspired by as we write and do our other tasks.  In the 4 days of thick cloud cover, we ran the large bank of batteries down into the “red,” but were still able to power up long enough to download and send off emails, and never lacked for lights at night thanks to the energy efficient LED bulbs in the cabins.  It wasn’t possible to run a high-drain appliance like the coffee grinder, so Loba and Rhiannon ground my treasured Ehtiopian beans with an ancient stone mano and metate I discovered when I first moved to this Mogollon village site so many years ago.

Students can expect to get more lessons back in the coming weeks, with us getting close to caught up with all the Animá conference and other project needs.  Kiva is close to releasing the first of her Animá Herbal Tradition correspondence courses, on herbal energetics.  And I have kept up with magazine article deadlines, while putting together a full color 11×17 Traditions in Western Herbalism poster that we will introduce here in a few days.  Hope you love it…  The conference has turned into a huge project, but with the help of Resolute, Rosalee and our other motivated volunteers, we will make this miracle happen.

I’ve been asked to post my latest column for general audiences, on the topic of authority… and resistance to others having authority over us.  I hesitate to run too many non-Animá specific pieces, but may share it here if sufficiently provoked.

Everyone sends their best, on this truly lovely January day.

Love, Wolf   (www.animacenter.org)

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A snowy greeting to you all, from a canyon finally fully blanketed in fluffy white.  While other parts of the country were reporting freezing weather, we were enjoying warm sunny afternoons and worrying if the land would get the moisture it needs this Winter.  Then a few days ago a front moved in on powerful winds, rain and sleet at first accompanied by deep muffled thunder such as we usually only hear in the Summer.  A day of mixed sun, and then a second storm hit. This time the winds have been slight and clouds a heavy dusky gray, and we awoke to 3 inches on the ground and more steadily falling.  Being light and relatively dry, Rhiannon has found it perfect for both sledding and making bizarre Calvin and Hobbes inspired snowmen.  I cannot hardly slip out of the cabin without getting nailed by an increasingly accurate barrage of otter-tossed snowballs.

No power for the batteries of course, so we are only turning on the satellite internet for long enough to download and send off.  This makes it impossible for us to do the vendor and sponsor research that we need to be helping with, as Rosalee and our volunteers work hard to cover all the geographical areas.  Arizona, in particular, needs more attention and outreach, and hopefully we will have sun by the weekend in order to get on it.  No internet means Kiva has fewer competing tasks bugging for her attention, and can switch for a day or two to long waiting herbal consultations, her first herbal 8 week correspondence courses, and her Animá herbal book.  Apologies if we prove slower to respond to emails this week.

Today I will be working with our daughter to create a historical timeline, to give her perspective on the flow and patterns of human and natural events.  She is very anxious!  Somehow I must also meet immediate magazine deadlines, reply to students, and begin planning the conference posters before driving Loba to town in our street legal Jeep.  The offroad jeep, raised and snorkeled, is unfortunately in the shop waiting for a thousand dollars worth of repair to its water damaged rear end.  Loba would as always, prefer to stay home… but she was enticed to make the trip by renowned herbalist Susun Weed for an interview on Susun’s acclaimed women’s radio show.  The interview will be on the subject of rewilding, sense of place, and the connective power of voice and song.  We will provide a link for you to hear it as soon as it is released.

Thank you for the continuing stream of letters of support and love, and especially for the recent gifts and donations which are keeping us going and encouraging our efforts.

We are happy to be here for you.

-Wolf

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Call For Help with Conference Sponsor/Vendor Outreach

Free Registration, Acknowledgment & Unending Thanks Offered to Volunteers

doing outreach to potential event Sponsors, Vendors & Practitioners

and

Any Amount of Help Welcomed from Anyone

willing to send a Sponsor or Vendor Invite and Application to any business or nonprofits you personally know of

The TWHC is getting huge amounts of buzz on the internet, participants are already arranging rides here from as far away as New England and Canada, and we received so many requests to speak that we filled all the spots the first week.  There will be a deep ecological and conservation element, with the help of United Plant Savers. Flamenco dancers and musicians volunteered for free, and two earthy bands were so honored to be involved that they signed on from the east coast without our being able to pay their transportation here. The website has been upgraded, a special blog built just for conference announcements, a first batch of flyers and brochure went out, and more are in the works.  And finally, Mt. Rose Herbs and LearningHerbs.com made the first good sized sponsor donations.  That said, we have a number of tables/spaces to fill, and we could use more financial sponsors to ensure the event’s success.

There are 3 essential elements to this work:
-researching related businesses, nonprofits and health practitioners in NM
-Sending materials email, or snail mail when necessary
-making followup calls to be sure they got the material, encouraging them to commit

We could especially use more help contacting places BETWEEN NOW AND FEB 1ST , the deadline for Sponsors to be included on the first 1,000 20″ posters, in the first 1,000 revised color trifold brochures, and in our Sponsor Drive Director, Rosalee’s slide show video due to be made available through YouTube and through herbal and healing portals.

And those of you who understandably can’t commit to filling a Volunteer Position in this way,

we would still welcome your help sending out to any business, nonprofits and health practitioners you know:

a) TWHC Sponsor Invite

b) TWHC Sponsor Application

c) TWHC Vendor Invite

d) TWHC Vendor Application

You can click on any of the above to download them, the send them yourself and let us know you contacted.  Or alternately, simply send us  the contact name and email and phone, and we will get ahold of them ourselves.  Please try to think of what business, healers, educators and advocacy groups you know of that might value an opportunity to be involved with this conference and promoted as its essential supporter.

Thank you ever so much!  As with all of this work, it is only accomplished with the help of you, the larger Animá tribe.

Click here for more information on the TWH Conference

(Forward freely)

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The Animá Family, Allies & Friends All Wish You A

WONDROUS NEW YEAR

bringing you insight and adventure, satisfaction and growth!

We’ll look forward to sharing it with you.

This is the time of year when everything seems to turn inward.  The trees retract their sap, bears that don’t hibernate still coil and rest in mountain womb.  You see in the photo above the beaver dam at mid-December dusk, as even the oft eager beavers slow their willow grazing and hole up in earthen dens, no doubt enjoying like us the intimacy of family and home.  Emails have almost completely stopped coming in, giving us a chance to catch up to the hundred or so that have been awaiting our attention.  I am not so readily stilled, though recent difficulties have afforded me my own time in sacred retreat.

Covered outdoor beds like this one, where we sleep much of the year are now tucked in with tarps as nighttime temperatures drop down to near zero.   Several of you have asked for pictures of the canyon in snow, and the way Winters have been lately there aren’t many opportunities like this week’s little storm.

A view of the medicine cliffs, where the ancients held many of their rituals and prayed for understanding, make a good reference shot… since you will find my photos of this view taken at all times of the year, in posts throughout the Blog Archives.  Sometimes draped in mist, often lit up as though from within, they are the first thing we see in the morning as we awaken to our life of gratitude, and the last sight we see before the fall of night.

Rhiannon wanted me to take a photo of some of the local wildlife this snowy morning, starting with her!  She appears here in her new reindeer boots, with fellow otter friends on her bag, the newest in her lap, and others faithfully to the side of her.  She doesn’t yet sense how brief a lifespan is, yet already she treats it as a precious as well as rich resource and expression to which she is every minute fully given… a fine example to all.

For my last shot, I zoomed in on the cliffs, showing the precipitous ascent that the vision questers of old once climbed, on their own journey of going within.  This will be our last post of the year, but we will look forward to sharing lessons and tales with you again when we come back out of Winter’s cave for the first light of the first day of another year here.

Thanks, and love….

-JWH

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Gathering Wood at Sunset and other Joys

I was getting ready to clean up after supper yesterday when I remembered an errand I’d wanted to do before dark. I was especially happy to remember it because “glowy time” was just beginning! As many of you know, what I call “glowy time” is that special time of morning or evening when everything looks kind of candlelit from within, if that makes any sense. There is always some degree of glowy time every morning and evening, but sometimes it passes so quickly it can be easy to miss it. I love it when glowy time lights up the sky with colors so amazing that even indoors everyone’s faces suddenly look extra radiant, the walls turn shades of pink and orange, and it becomes completly impossible to stay inside!

By the time I got out to the shed with the wheelbarrow, there were big streaks of rosyness in the sky, with streaks of brightening blue-grey-purple in between.  I got what I needed into the wheelbarrow and felt myself pulled to admire the cliffs on the north side of the dry wash, and found a beautiful fallen oak that I couldn’t believe I’d never stopped to marvel at before. I wandered around for a while enjoying the crisp air and incredible sky and then came upon a fallen tree with many dry limbs that had fallen across a trail. I broke off a number of the limbs and brought them back to near the kitchen, where Wolf took my picture before I broke them up for kitchen wood. I love having a nice pile of biggish kindling for fire tending, to get the fire going well again when it’s died down. And I get so much pleasure out of gathering wood myself, whether it’s for the kitchen, the den, or the bath, or if it’s serious hunting of big pieces of oak for a sweat fire. It’s a special thing to have the chance to connect with the trees, whether they’re fallen over, or I’m leaping up to break off dry limbs. It gets me in my body and fills me with so much gratitude getting to spend time with them in their whole form before they’re in the fire. I love to admire the special ways they’ve grown around rocks or lightning scars, the patterns in the bark, the amazing gesture in each tree that reflects its many years of dancing with the wild canyon winds. It’s very similar to me to the feeling of honoring a wild animal we’ve hunted by petting it and giving it love after its death, though I’m sure that might seem a strange parallel to some folks!

Well, now it’s morning, and I got up very early so now it’s glowy time again! Time to bring my tea outside and give so much thanks for another beautiful day in this land of my dreams-come-true!! So much love and glowyness to you all, hope you all will be sure to catch the glowies coming your way each day, and honor the trees and fires that help bring light to this season of blessed darkness!!

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Most of you will have noticed that Wolf rarely posts much in the way of personal stories unless there’s a lesson to be had or something specifically relevant to our School and Sanctuary. This then, is a noticeable and vulnerable departure. It is extra vulnerable in the sense that we are all, and especially Wolf, grieving a death in our family which is very hard at any time, and especially now during the holidays and in the darkest time of the year. I personally want to thank our many allies, friends and students who have been so supportive and protective, and for, as one of my dear friends and fellow herbalists put it, circling the wagons round. Thank you, we deeply appreciate your support during this difficult time.

Love,
Kiva

~~~~~~~~~~

The internet is a boon to teachers, students, researchers and people seeking to connect, even as it has its down sides.  Besides the toxic production, volumes of misinformation, commerciality and sleaze, online theft, spamming, government snooping, and simply spending too many mortal hours looking at a plastic glowing screen, there is also increased opportunities for the spreading of deliberate lies, manipulation and malicious attacks (“flaming”).  Even more insidious, may be the way the internet and social networking can be used to the advantage of the emotionally disturbed, especially any scarily determined stalkers.

In the past, the worst we have to deal with were personal or ideological attacks which I, at least, get an odd sense of satisfaction from.  More than 99% of all response we get, after all, is hugely positive, making the very few negative reactions much easier to take.  If the attack has any merit, the discussion leads me to make new connections and thus conclusions.  If it is an unreasonably vile attack, full of venom and obviously fed by the stereotypical deep seated issues, I save them for my records.  While  the quotes I send about me to magazine publishers are sweet compliments from peers like Gary Snyder, Ed Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams, for my own entertainment I sometimes pull out my favorite attacks.  Confusingly, I have been blasted by some as too compassionate with the destroyers of the earth and the old ways, while others yell that I am too radical and uncompromising.  My writing has somehow been seen by certain segments as “too flowery” at the same time as others have called it too “polemic.”  Often the adjective used is “too,” and so I have taken satisfaction in being “too tree hugger” and “too cowboy,” coming across “too much” or “too little.”  And most proudly repeated, is the accusation that I am “too intense.”

Far less pleasurable has been our experience with the first stalker of our very own.

I teach never doing anything you will ever regret, and in fact to this day I am proud of nearly ever thing I have done no matter how hard it was on me, and no matter what the ultimate results.  The few regrets I have, almost without exception, involve relationships that did not work out, strictly physical flings in my younger days, and/or the situation of children created in this way without the opportunity to raise them.  I have violated sustainability principles on this overcrowded planet by producing a full litter over time, two that I partially got the privilege of raising until they were taken many states away, some that I did not even know about and two I have yet to meet.  I can’t regret the creation of any new being, with their own opportunities to be whole and purposeful, but I do regret my early cavalier wildness for creating offspring when I wasn’t told about a birth, when not there to sustain them into adulthood, when two suffered the wounds of being taken away from me and I found I could not with all my efforts bind one to the joyful embrace of life.  And for all my remnant 60’s sensibilities (60 BC more than the 1960’s), I have to confess I regret any one night stands partaken of in the name of natural desires or individual freedom, especially one with a complete stranger calling herself Mi—-, who turned out to have had an obsession with me, and who has now stalked me for decades.

I would far prefer to be simply demonized and pummeled.  Instead, this person has persisted with a nonstop campaign to win me over or at least get my attention again, making up amazing untruths to do so.  Thanks to the internet, for last few years this person has sought out and joined every forum and community we work with, tried to become close to everyone we are connected to including our students, and “friended” many unsuspecting women on Kiva’s and Animá’s FaceBook friends list.   Any attacks would appear obvious and the motivations clear to the people who know us, but this person poses as an extremely sweet, “only concerned” friend first, lays the ground work, and then begins careful strategizing.  More recently she is posing as a spurned but caring lover, as someone I actually had an involved relationship with.  The untruths she has posted are hurtful, but not nearly so much as those truths posted to the general public that one would hope could be privately felt and processed.  I have been pierced to the core by someone who insists she loves and admires me, at one of the most vulnerable possible times.

Anyone so “friended” is asked to please “unfriend” this person for our protection, and we would appreciate anyone contacted directly either forward us the material for our growing records of illegal harassment, or else simply spam the sender.  To the majority of readers spared contact, we suggest this be fair warning of the dangers that go with our online world, as well as fervent encouragement to measure all acts against the potential ramifications and goblins that can come back to haunt.

The deeper story here is not the regretful acts in all of our pasts, but the value of learning from them… as I have learned from the resulting heartbreak, the potential unhealthiness of unattached and uncommitted sensuality.  And through the trauma of my disconnection with a percentage of my blood offspring, learning the importance of being here consistently with our Rhiannon through all her formative years, certain, consistent, steadfast, devoted and tirelessly dependable.  It is partly because of what I have done and hurt over in the past, that she will never have to wonder who or where I am, nor how much or how well I love her.

Think for a moment, if you will, about the most consequential mistakes you’ve ever made, the most painful failures you can imagine.  Now picture – as I do, and must – all that has been learned as a result.  The wisdom your healed wounds and opened eyes have provided.  Any resulting changes you’ve made, the scary but exciting changes you know are still coming, and the undeniable growth that has happened.  Picture the new pledges you can make or have made, the reasons why you have or will make such pledges, and how powerfully and faithfully you are now enabled to fulfill them.

Thank you for listening, and loving.

-Wolf

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Greetings friends, on a clear Dec. night.  After three days of rare clouds and a session or two of rain, the battery-charging and skin warming Southwest sun is again ascendant and insistent.  It has been freezing in the morning, and everyone has finally moved inside shelters to sleep, much as we love to be out of doors.  Yet by noon today it was vest weather, Rhiannon playing ball as if it were a Summer day.  With the parting of the clouds, seems to have come a return to brightened spirits after a week or so of difficulties and simultaneous deadlines.  Somehow we have managed to proceed with student’s work and magazine articles with a progression of visits, doing the daily tasks required for the conference organization while still tending to our dear guests over the smoked-turkey day celebration.  Kiva and I have been particularly grateful for Loba, the canyon’s emissary of delight ensuring the exquisiteness of each person’s experience.  Here we see, left to right, Loba, Leah, Kiva and Nicole, with the Otter girl up front as she likes!

Among the blessings and relief, was the successful repair of the R.I.S.E. (Rising Appalachia) veggie-oil bus.  RISE singer Leah and her friend Nicole had planned to only stay a couple days, so their breakdown could also be considered a blessing by having resulted in a longer visit and more live canyon concerts.  Not to mention all the firewood they eagerly chopped, making them exceptional canyon guests for more reasons than the great music.  It was certainly great to connect, ahead of the THW Conference which Leah and her sister Chloe will be performing at.  In addition, Resolute’s “Owl Rover” was recently fixed by a local “good ol’ boy” who always charges us ridiculously low rates, and is ready to serve to shuttle her here next time from the airport, as well as to pick up and drop off featured presenters at the conference next September.  A blessing was dear friend and longest supporter Nick, taking care of our internet problems when it looked like we could lose service, and the help that Steve has been.  With Resolute’s assistance we were able to get Rhiannon a deluxe adult telescope, ready to feed the steller obsession of this special girl you all love.  We are grateful to all her ancestors, for making it possible for her be in the world, excitedly training to be a powerful protector and sweet gift to it.

It’s also thanks to Resolute, serving as conference treasurer, that the conference account is ready to go.  It is a blessing, as well, that Kiva was able to use new software for conference payments.  Even while writing for SageWoman and sending counsel to another student every other day, she still managed to get us ready for the opening up of conference registration today.  Blog readers and FaceBook friends registering first will be given gifts of  Herbal instruction and one of my signed Medicine Woman art prints.  See the post below, for details and the conference links.

We should soon be back to getting student work out on a reasonable schedule, and be back at writing our books soon.  The deadlines never stop, but the initial work for the event will be complete and we will have caught up with the most delayed of responsibilities and tasks.  I have returned to the writing of the in-depth “Awareness” essay and curricula, usually starting before daylight.  So much wells us within me, words and even entire concepts that feel like they would be lost if I were to speak them without first writing them down.  The courses, while assisting our students, are propelling this work forward, so that before long there will be a cohesive and largely comprehensive lifeways and healing practice recorded and made accessible.  I cannot imagine anything, any life or mission, more satisfying.

In keeping with the Animá teaching on self nourishment and taking time off, Kiva and Loba will be taking a day next week to gather conifer needles in the higher elevations near the Arizona border, not only for medicine but as a component of their favorite new Winter tea.  Tomorrow, I will be walking the river to take careful stock of beaver activity and river health.  It will be my time for the wordless, with no thoughts intruding on the bodily groking of all that surrounds me, all that is part and extension of me.  Time for fascination with the swirling dervish dance of leafless willow in the afternoon winds, and the artsy mosaic of dead cottonwood leaves on the forest floor.

As always, it is your own discovery of art and dance that I hope to inspire or instigate, closing again with blessings on your looking around and seeing your never-too-familiar world as magical and new again.

Love, Wolf

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