Animá Lifeways & Herbal School

Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference
Final Updates

The TWHC is only a little over 2 weeks away now, and it’s great how much excitement we’re hearing expressed from people coming!  There’s some important news below for those of you already coming to this unique event, as well for anyone still considering it.

Time Running Out To Register

There is only a short while left to register, with registration officially closed on the 16th of September, the day before classes start.  To get one of the limited number of tickets remaining, please go to the Registration Page at:

http://www.traditionsinwesternherbalism.org/pricing.html#Registration

TWHC Booklet

We just spent the last several days focusing on creating and uploading what has turned out to be a heavily illustrated, 86 page Conference Booklet, containing all the pertinent info you’ll need including teacher bios, class descriptions, and 43 pages of informative class reference and notes.… expensive to print, but free this year only to everyone attending.

Website Updated

Check out the many changes at the TWHC website:  www.TraditionsInWesternHerbalism.org

Conference Concerts Update

Included on the website are descriptions of the herb-focused flamenco performance as well as of our last minute addition, Tina and Her Pony (the great women’s mountain-folk band band filling in for Arborea now that they’re unable to make it).

Check The Revised Class Schedule!

The days and times of the presentations have been adjusted, so please be sure to look over the newly posted schedule on the site when planning your time at the conference.  Note the exciting new courses we have added, one taught by Rosalee de la Foret and another by Julie McIntyire.

Arrival

Please check in with our site manager Resolute Michaels at the Registration Table in Social Center when you first get there, before going to your camping spot or rooms.  She will provide you with your:
1. Conference Booklet 2. Site Map
3. Name Tag

Lodging and Meals
If you haven’t reserved a room at Ghost Ranch, you will need to either pay a small fee to them for camping, or reserve a room nearby (see the TWH site for motel contact info).  And you need to contact Ghost Ranch directly to let them know if you anticipate buying your meals at their cafeteria.

Audio and Video Recordings

We will have our own volunteer video crew filming the evening events as well as portions of some of the daytime classes, interviews of willing presenters and attendees, crowd shots, etc., with the intention of:

1. Editing for short TWHC 2011 promo pieces for YouTube

2. Audio CDs of the classes for sale, DVDs of the concerts

3. Possibly using in a future TWHC full length documentary

If you don’t want to be filmed just say so, otherwise you will be asked at the time to sign the usual waiver for our uses.

2011 TWHC: Sept 16-18th

Finally, response has been so encouraging that we’ve made the commitment to try to make this work again in 2011, September 16-18.  We’re going to try for a balance of well received teachers from this year, along with an approximately equal number of other leading herbal healers and speakers.  We’ve already begun the selection process, based on numerous factors including freshness of ideas, quality of presentation, practicality of material, attendee’s preferences and needs, and especially our need to see certain topics covered.  Let us know if you have any recommendations, or if you would like an application to present.

Finally

Thank you, to everyone who is registering, and thereby making this event possible in 2010 and beyond.  And thank you as well, to all of you who aren’t coming, but who have done so much to help spread the word.  You’re great!

Warmly,
Jesse Wolf and Kiva Rose, TWHC

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Hello from the wild canyon, in one of the most jungle-y green Summers ever!  Wild grapes are puffing up, the storms have everybody green and growing (as our friend Walkin’ Jim Stoltz sings!).  I’ve really been enjoying getting into the river every day while the sun is still out, even though it is brown right now from the runnoff, and I love floating backwards downriver as some of you well know!

Rhiannon has been busy making dolls for the first 4 people that asked her for ones.  She’s really putting a lot of sweet personality into each, especially since she knows or has a feeling about each person getting one.  And our dear friend and Sponsor, Resolute, has just announced that she is grandmother again.  Congratulations!

By the way, I way appreciate all the sweet comments and encouraging letters that came in because of my wild grape leaf recipes post.  Yes, I really am doing a cookbook, but it is taking longer than expected.  When I lost some of the work in a computer mishap (some of our laptops are pretty old), I realized that I had changed a lot and so had my preferred meals.  While I still love to bake breads in the woodstove and make pies and so forth, we have really been enjoying the benefits of a diet with a lot fewer carbs.  And my voice is more earthy no I think, with more of the backwoods woman vibe needed now than when I was writing for a different audience.  What I want to say in the few hours I want to give to being on the computer, is something I’ve been thinking about.  And I know Wolf wrote a friend about that recently too, hoping he will make it into a deep-sharing piece for you here on the blog.

We didn’t get much response to the solar piece, we hope that doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting or valuable to you all.  Wolf had been wanting to include more real life instructional material along with the historic, inspirational and so forth, talking about ways to make the philosophy and ethics real in our everyday lives.  When we get new sites going, it will be a pieces that belongs on the homesteading one, but I also thought it would be good for a everyone.  He will be running an even more specific third part next week on the actual pieces of a system, in case any readers are considering going for it (even if you have city power, you can sell power back to them you know!).

The Solar Fund that Rhiannon started has been a little slow, but we know that hardly anyone can spare any help in these hard times.  I know it effected other donations we get too, even while Wolf and Kiva have needed to give most of their time to the conference organizing instead of articles and consultations that bring money in. Big thanks go to Dio and Danu, for the $150 we now have to put towards one of the solar parts.  If anyone else is still wanting to give, please be sure and put a note on any paypal or snail mail donation.

I wouldn’t feel okay ever asking for assistance with projects, except that we are doing so much of this work for nothing money wise.  The donations we get for books and courses, and our few beloved regular Sponsors somehow make it possible to give the writings away to magazines and things for the benefit of their readers, and giving almost all our latest writing away on this free blog.  There’s a donation button next to this column, not to charge for this but just to make a way to give back.  We’ll keep you posted on fund raising, as well as on how the system shapes up.  We sure do need it working to do this work.

Speaking of the latest writings appearing here, below you will find one that Wolf just did on the amazing monsoons we have here and other parts of the southwest, which we all hope you will enjoy.  I next want him to tell the story of a discovery Rhiannon made this morning, involving a lion and its dinner… and ours!!  You will just have to keep wondering until then!

Sending you our love and thanks always, for being a part of this place and purpose!

-Loba

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Solar Power Fund Appeal

by Rhiannon (in Fairie green!)

Hello Everybody!  Today I’m writing a special appeal for help with making our Solar Electricity work.  It’s the only electricity we have and it hasn’t been working right so it looks like we have lots of things we have to buy and then put together.  Papa has traded the old Willys Jeep we loved for an electrical person’s help putting it all together, but we still have to come up with the parts like more panels, a controller and monitor and things.  The sun is what powers everything we have and do, especially the computers and emails but my music and lights for Mama Loba’s kitchen also!

We’re lucky to have a great place offering to give us the equiptment for just a little bit above their cost because they support the work we do and understand how little we ever have to spend because of working for donations and all.  They are called Northern Arizona Wind and Sun, and thanks to them we should be able to make this all happen and keep the internet going!

We haven’t even posted the appeal yet and we already got a donation from sweet Dio, a woman who raises bees and a garden and has been a champion for Mother Earth for a long long time!  She’s  a friend of Papas and wrote us that she wanted to be the first to start a “Solar Fund” (with an “o” for Sun!).  Thank you Dio, we love you!  So any amount you might be able to spare would be great!  You can send it in the mail or send it using the donations button that says “Pay Pal”, but make a note that it is for solar power so it is sure to be used for that okay?  And if you don’t have anything to spare, we appreciate just getting your wishes and love!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Have a very sunny day!
-Rhiannon Cadhla Hardin

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Our Traditions In Western Herbalism Conference, Sept. 17-19, is blessed to have not only 20 of the most respected and cutting-edge teachers of herbal medicine… but also two nights of live music featuring bands we know our registrants will love.  Perhaps the most energetic of these acts, Rising Appalachia, will be doing their Afro-Appalachian soul-twang punkabilly forest-activist boogie thing on Friday night, following our longtime friends Carlos Lomas and Gioia Tama of FlamencoWorldCompany and their heartful Nuevo Mexicano flavored Flamenco song and dance.   Saturday night is planned to include the truly enchanting psych-folk couple Arborea, though they are having trouble finding a ride here (see below).  Given the chance that they may not be able to make it, we did an extensive local band search and are pleased to have found and hired Taos musicians Tina Collins and Her Pony to play.  Tina and her partner Quetzal play mostly original tunes, a mix of vocal harmonies, cello and guitar, propelling a contemporary woman’s take on old time mountain style.  Click on the bolded names above to be directed to song samples on Amazon, or do a search on iTunes to enjoy their many recordings… you’ll likely be delighted you did.

Above we have a photo of the deft Carlos and evocative Gioia, FlamencoWorldCompany.

Above is a photo of Tina Collins and Quetzal Jordan of Tina and Her Pony.  And below, a montage of Chloe and Leah, the core of Rising Appalachia.

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Round-Trip Ride Needed

From New England to The TWH Conference for Our Band

ARBOREA

Shanti, Buck and their child

Musicians, on the whole, have seldom been fairly treated in this country, with even the relatively few high paid performers having to deal with predatory labels and management fiascos.  Indie groups in the age of file sharing have an even harder time making a living, selling CDs at small venues while often at the mercy of undependable booking agents.  Like musicians for centuries, Buck and Shanti of our conference band Arborea have faced unforeseen difficulties, without losing their drive to share their creations with attentive listeners.  Like their peers and predecessors, they do what they do for the music first and foremost, out of service to the muse, and in honor and celebration of green energy and the magical natural world.

RIDE SOUGHT

We’d like to find someone in the New England area planning to drive to and back from the upcoming Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference, that  Shanti, Buck and their child could ride with to and from the event.  We’d need you to have a vehicle large enough to hold them and their instruments, and most importantly, feeling honored and happy for the opportunity to be of help in this way.  They would need to arrive on or before July 16th.

If you are interested, we would need to know no later than Aug. 3rd, for their sake, but also to know whether to include them in the Booklet being printed for every attendee.

Thank you much.  Look forward to a most wonderful conference and music.

-Jesse Wolf and Kiva Hardin

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Why I’ve Become A Sponsor:

A Message From Tina to Anima

What follows are the beautifully evocative and ever so kind words of our most recent Sponsor/Supporter.  It feels especially timely given a reduction in financial support and our current program and site expansion, but it would feel great any time to have the involvement of someone with this kind of energy, abilities and determination to be a blessing to the world.  We’re honored to be of assistance to her as well, her friends and fellow travelers on the purposeful earthen path.  Thank you Tina… and from everyone involved in any way, “Welcome!” we must say!

“Frequent dreams of the Anima Sanctuary and canyon are what prompted me to apply for and commit to the Medicine Woman course.  I have since begun a marvelous unfolding, filled with joy and tears and laughter and magic.  I want to support the Sanctuary, School, and folks who work so hard in dusting off our memories of being sacred wild men and women.  Since starting the Medicine Woman course, I have discovered that I have already been a Medicine Woman, and that I am now reclaiming that life which has pulled on me and called to me in so many whispers and fervent cries from Spirit.  Being a supporter of Anima is one way of expressing my appreciation, and going through the sometimes messy process of fully awakening and sharing my inner radiance with others is perhaps the most sincere sign of my gratitude I can offer.”
-Tina

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Sweet Tina signing on as an Anima Sponsor, and an unexpected first donation to our solar fund from dear ally Dio, both come just as we’re rewriting the description of our School economics and personal Sponsorships for the website.  Below you’ll find the new text, approximately as it will appear.  Read it if you’ve ever wondered how we can “afford” to do this work while living here in the remote wilds… only by both spending little and wisely, and welcoming the help of people like you.

The Gifting Cycle:
Anima Sponsorship and Alliance of Purpose

The Gifting Cycle is the Anima term for the necessary receiving and purposeful giving that is one of the most fundamental systems of the natural world.  It is the grass in essence giving of itself and its energies to the deer, the deer becoming a gift to the lion, and all giving to the soil when they die.  It is the exchange of gases between plant, animal and atmosphere.  The joy a parent gets from providing for a child, and the blessings that they in turn provide.

Donations and Sponsorships are gifts in the purest sense, neither disbursed as wages nor demanded in payment, forced by law nor required by convention… ideally helping make it possible for the recipients to give back to those who have helped them, while crucially increasing their ability to give to both earth and others.

The Economics of Anima School and Sanctuary

Anima School is not yet, nor may every be an official nonprofit organization, though it has largely functioned as one since its inception in the 1980’s… minus the tax advantages that such status might offer.  All services are provided regardless of any financial benefit to the School or its staff – for the intended purpose of healing both land and people – and with only a necessary, modest amount of economic support from grateful students and folk who strongly believe in the School’s mission.  Contributors can be sure any such donations go directly to the development and implementation of effective restoration and teaching projects, given that none of the directors/staff are paid wages at this time, much of the food consumed is wild and gathered, and the Anima property was fully paid for and secured thanks to 15 years of difficult payments.

Remaining and ongoing needs include annual land taxes, wilderness restoration costs such as tools and seeds, satellite internet service, website hosting, laptop and program upgrades, promotional printing costs and outreach, the self publication of Anima books and recorded materials, cooking fuel and solar system repair and improvement, as well as water system, guest cabin and vehicle maintenance.

Donations and Support

Anima School and Sanctuary subsists almost entirely on voluntary donations from students and participants, along with the vital support of a few, committed individual Sponsors.   Contributors are absolutely essential to the teaching, counsel and restoration work, with almost none of the hundred or more helpful magazine articles submitted and published each year receiving monetary compensation, and with none of the directors/instructors having any savings, insurance or supplementary incomes of any kind.  In addition, much of the Anima work is done for free, and nobody applying for courses or retreats or requesting counsel or books are ever turned away for lack of money.

Unlike with the vast majority of schools, every Anima book, blog, home study course, counsel session and retreat are available to anyone who can benefit regardless of their ability to contribute financially in turn.  The School sets a sliding scale donation amount for each service, to be determined by how much they personally value what they’re given, but also by their present economic situation.  What’s asked for is a commitment to eventually send at least the minimum donation – in installments of any size, or even in barter –  yet we serve a third of such folks without any compensation besides the satisfaction of doing all we can to inspire, assist and equip them for a more natural, meaningful, effective and actualized life.

It is because of this that our never plentiful Supporters have been so crucial, from our earliest and longest lasting aides and friends Nick and family to devoted Resolute, and both the smallest and the most recent of Sponsors.  And ongoing, nationwide economic stress has reduced the number of such Sponsors, making each commitment all that much more valuable to our efforts and shared aims.

Individual Sponsorships

Sponsors are private individuals pledged to assist with consistent donations, whether monthly, quarterly or annually… integral partners, further affecting the world through the Anima work that they personally support.   Regular contributions of any size make it much easier to plan the extent of our projects and limits of our budget, and help to avoid suspended service accounts that could really hurt our work.

You too can become a Sponsor, for as little as $50 per month.  This can be in the form of a simple, scheduled donation via PayPal or postal money order, or you can opt to sponsor and take part credit for the success of a specific project, such as:
• Paying for the publishing of any of the Anima manuscripts waiting to see print
• Covering a variety of onetime purchases such as an upgraded laptop, an improved solar system or a rain water catch and storage system, etc.
• Underwriting riparian restoration projects, including purchase of rare plant starters
• Assuming responsibility for a regular bill, such as for a mailing list service or Post Office box fees
• Arranging to provide any regularly needed service or product, from sponsoring ad placement in magazines to monthly shipments of fruit, organic meats or other needed foods
• Or covering specific emergency costs as needed, such as vehicle or computer repair, or even an unanticipated medical or dental expense

Those who have followed our evolution, know that Sponsors are what we used to call “Supporters,” the new term denoting the enabling of projects and events rather than merely “helping to hold up.”  Sponsorship is an opportunity and means for a purposeful alliance of intent, through which allies far and wide can feel good about working together to carry this meaningful work forward.  No matter how you make your income, an Anima Sponsorship is a way to transform some of your labors into the the products and services we offer, and thereby to the purposes of educating and inspiring, inciting and empowering, healing and helping.

There are many ways to assist, from much needed help with outreach to volunteer labor at the Anima Sanctuary, and a wide range of ways to contribute to the good of the world from teaching and the arts, to civil disobedience and resistance to injustices.  Some may at first glance appear more glamorous or exciting than a financial Sponsorship, and yet there can no contribution more valuable, versatile or timely than simple monetary donations, being both a means for – and the fuel and propellent for – nearly everything that Anima does.   There could be no blogs or books, magazine articles or Home Study courses, wildlife reintroduction or willow plantings without you… and your strong determination to give.

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If you are considering becoming a Sponsor, please download, fill out and return the

Sponsor Application

For more information or to read about current Anima Sponsors, go to the soon to be updated

Anima Website Support Page

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Those of you who know me, know that I shy away from birthdays, feeling that my mother deserves the credit and attention for my own birth, and preferring to surprise my loved ones with gifts – instead of Xmas and birthdays when they are customary and expected.  That said, I love to see birthday lovers enjoy theirs, not only youngsters like Rhiannon who will be having her 10th on August 4… but also Kiva, wise, respected, potentially formidable adult who still lit up like a child as her 30th was honored last week.

Here we see her with the vest I painted with the TWHC logo, knowing that anything leather – and anything plant related – was sure to be a hit.

Most precious, though, was the fantastical painting of her name that Loba did for her, and the wonderful Velvet Rose doll that Rhiannon made for her with Mama Loba’s help.  Rather impressive, don’t you think?

So much did Rhiannon enjoy making her first doll, “Velvet Rose,” that she worked hard making another to send as a thank you note for a much appreciated gift… and now she is nearly finished with another that she hopes we will sell for her online or at the herbal conference.  She wants to do a series, among all her other planned and hoped for projects.

Loba’s parents are visiting for a week, after years of her not seeing them.  Parent/child relationships are seldom free of expectation and disappointment, and whatever effects that has, but time apart brings to the forefront what’s most dear.  I’m happy she has this time, connecting with them not around shared lifestyles or even interests so much as shared love and caring that is deeper than differences, founded now more than ever on unfiltered regard and lasting affection.

We continue to face a few thousand dollar upgrade of the solar system, in order to be sure of being able to do this work through the Fall and Winter, and to not further damage our expensive storage batteries.  We will start a solar fund soon that anyone can contribute to, giving me a chance to write a piece about our solar adventures, setting up a system, and the latest in grid and off-grid technologies.

On a related note, we extend our welcome to new basic level Sponsor, Tina, whom we hope to acknowledge and profile here and on the site soon.  The costs of this expanding work have gone up even as the number of folks able to afford to contribute has gone down, so thanks to Tina and our devoted supporters now more than ever.

Lastly, Loba just finished a new recipe for you that we will post shortly.  She can’t wait to share it.

We thank you for birthday and other wishes that have come in lately,

-Wolf

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Greetings Again to our devoted readers and dear friends.  The long holiday weekend has just come to an end, with Kiva driving guest Resolute back to the nearest large airport 4.5 hours northeast of here.  She takes with her a stained and etched glass owl that I got as a reminder of the needed return not just to the places of connection but to self and purpose.  It is the focus on mission and purpose, on the gifts we each have to give, that can bring the deepest sense of fulfillment.

The unbearably hot weather this time last year has been replaced this time around with a remarkably pleasant Summer.  While the NE of the country swelters and southern Arizona bakes, the wild Gila is having moderate days that are cooled each afternoon by daily monsoon pattern clouds.  No rain to speak of yet, and lots of small wildfires in the high country, but the most wonderful weather and a choice lushness of animal and plant life.

We had a great 3 day event here, with Kiva teaching a plant walk, Loba leading medicine sweat, and me doing a couple of sessions.  It was instigated and prompted by the participants, even after we had canceled the Shaman workshop over lack of time to promote it.  Their desire for what’s offered, and insistence on continuing to learn and grow and manifest in their lives, their dissatisfaction and in some cases deepening connection to this canyon are the seed and root of what was a very personalized intensive.  The first teaching involved exactly what they needed and not what I might have otherwise planned, discussion about the false dichotomy of being versus doing, a call for Burden Basket work and a letting go of the traps of schedule and obligation long enough to ascertain authentic self, direction and purpose.  Like the cliff swallow in the story I often tell, it can be more harmful to hold back than to make the scary leap into limitless sky.  Thank you Sati, rather than thrusting new tools into your hands, I have placed some along the path for you to pick up for yourself.  They can make things clearer, though not easier.  Melissa, thank you for continuing to come back here, stronger and more determined each time.  Please believe me that it is time for you to own your calling as well as already existing knowledge and abilities.  You will learn ever much more, but the time to wear the mantle and hang the shingle is now.  Jenny, many gifts and lessons await your belief in your ability to follow-through.  Decisiveness and commitment are what will serve you best, as you find the strength to shed of the rest.  The intentions of you three are as good as can be, we hope your connection to us and this land serve those intentions fulfillment in every way.

Loba and Rhiannon started the special weekend by surprising Resolute with what Rhiannon called an “Owl Grape Leaf Fairy Celebration” or some such thing.  Adding to the excitement for this soon to be 10 year old imp, was word she was being given a music and video player as a gift by such a sweet supporter, spinning around and around and shouting out her thanks.

Power for our computers and satellite internet has become an issue, after finding out our problems with it have to do with mismatched panels and batteries that were donated over time and cobbled together.  We will be forced to somehow cover the costs of system renovation, the conference, our courses and submissions all dependent on it.  I’ve begun writing various solar companies to see if there are any donation programs, discounts etc. for low income conservation or public service entities such as Anima.

We heard from one of our conference bands, the awesome couple Arborea, that they have had trouble with their agent and label and can’t make it now without a ride.  We will be looking for someone coming to the conference from New England who might be happy and honored to drive them, can’t imagine not having their magical contribution.  Nevertheless, to be safe I did a great deal of research and found another amazing act, two really powerful women who play original songs in our favored, emotive Appalachian style.  We are determined to make a slot for them even if we’re able to get dear Buck and Shanti of Arborea here, so look for an announcement about them soon.

Today’s featured blog article is another that I wrote as much for magazines with a “general” and non-alternative audience as much as for my progressive and always understanding blog subscribers.  Once we are publishing several focused online magazine sites, this piece on my years as a teen runaway and the danger of fitting in would likely appear in the ReWilding and Libertarian focused one.

This Runaway post contains the first ever publicly published photos of me when I was a youth.  Note that while I was happy in military school, I was even more blissed out after I split… a true fact, in spite of the typically teenager look I demonstrate in the later pics, either too cool to smile, exuding seriousness or hinting at distaste.

Blessings from all of us, and have a great week.

-Wolf

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Mornings remain surprisingly and delightfully chilly this first week of June, but the afternoons have for the first time qualified as “Summer hot”.  Clouds move through to shade us, odd for June, and the Gila has reported its first lightning caused fires.   The canyon is a veritable jungle at this point, the willows and cottonwoods thickening and splaying on both sides of the trail so that it feels like driving through parting curtains to enter a magical place.

Today we hope to haul water up from the river since it hasn’t rained in awhile, and stop writing articles, students, student curricula and emails long enough to run to town in the 1946 Willys Jeep that we traded for yesterday.

Note how much yellower the creek rocks are in this pic, than in our river, the result of mining upstream in the 1800’s.  On Saturday we traveled 35 miles away to the little town of Glenwood, where I had been asked to speak at a fundraiser for the local public library.  Sold a few books to folks who were primarily new arrivals to the county, proselytizing about value of wilderness, books, and acting on one’s beliefs.  With local appearances every so often, I present my real self for residents to ponder, lessening the amount they will need to imagine or make up, and I have a chance of doing what I wish I could do for the entire world, which is affect them at least as deeply as I am able to affect you.

In the above photo you see some Chiming Bells in streamside gravel.  While in the Glenwood area, we took a little time to visit nearby Whitewater Creek… a reminder of our need to head up what they call the Catwalk in order to survey the native flora.

Kiva was like an exuberant 5 year old, scrambling up banks and thrusting her head into bushes, all in pursuit of experiences of plantdom.

As beautiful as anything were the lovely yellow Columbine, above, so sensual and articulate, and growing up to 4 feet in height!

The Sumac bushes were in full fruit, a delight to the birds.

Most excitingly, we saw two plants we couldn’t immediate determine the exact species of… including this one, above.

And a white desert rose, without a trace of pink, that can’t be found in any of our many field guides for some reason.

And no matter how common or to us unknown, each find is both pleasure and treasure, and another connection to Home.

Until next time, live deeply.

-Jesse Wolf and Family

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Since my post about the Spring greening, we’ve had a little over another two weeks of verdant growth, the cottonwoods completely leafing out, grape vines that dangle over the trail have gone from bare to covered and are beginning to waft their own sweet grape scent.

We noticed a scarcity of blog comments – and email responses – to the piece I wrote with my defense of rodents and the ecospiritual as well as pragmatic nutritional value of Pack Rat cuisine.  I’m not sure if this is to some degree an indication of reader discomfort, but if so there will be an advantage to having material like this appear in the future on its own dedicated Anima site and newsletter, in this case geared towards folks with an interest in rewilding, survival bushcraft, homesteading and primitive skills.  My current Old Guns & Whispering Ghosts website for my history and firearms book of that title, will morph into a history, arms and hunting venue connected to our other Anima sites, with a seditious degree of deep ecology, conservation and tribal values and insights for an audience unlikely to read my work on healing or self change.   The Anima Healing site and newsletter will deal with the subject broadly and deeply, while the Medicine Woman Herbal will be herbal specific.  The Nature Awareness and Shamanism site and periodical will be subscribed to by a certain number of herbalists and homesteaders for sure, but will also be a place for folks to go who have limited interest in the ways of the hunter or the specifics of herbalism.

Kiva continues to work on the new and more interactive sites, between working on her first video herb course, enjoying our visitors, doing media research for the conference and tending to this event’s many daily needs.

Note that we’ve extended the deadline for getting the early bird discount on Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference registration by 24 hours, to MIDNIGHT of JUNE 1st. If you plan to attend but haven’t registered yet, now would be the ideal time cost-wise.

A portable hard drive lost Loba’s recent cookbook additions, which was heartbreaking for her. She is determined to replace them with even more exciting material, now that her vision for the book’s tone and audience is more clear than ever, and her cooking having moved further towards wild and primal diet fare.  No doubt she will still include her amazing if carb-heavy baked goods, in offering a full range of her talents and the culinary possibilities.  She really appreciated all the encouragement that has recently come in, for her to complete and release it next Winter, and thanks everyone who put their name on the book’s waiting list.

Those close to me know that I have a daughter in New Mexico who is having difficulty in spite of the best fatherly advice I have been able to provide over the years, as well as offspring I have never met and wouldn’t even ask for let alone find ways to apply what would be my counsel.  It is likely due to such experiences that I am extra sensitive to the feelings of Rhiannon’s blood father, a man who has been supportive of her need and personal request to be out of contact for now.  As much as I am honored and gratified to be the source of her focus and sense of security, I will be relieved when she can give him at least the minimal amount of acknowledgment and honest/healthy interaction that I would have hoped to have had with the kids who chose to grow up apart from me.

Anyone who has children knows the feeling of wanting to keep them close, and the tinge of panic that comes with witnessing how quickly they grow up.  It seems they are never close to us long enough, even when they wait until age 18 to leave.  Rhiannon’s rapid evolution is inescapable and undeniable, measured both in her fast lengthening legs and developed mind… a mind that already grasps the complexities, subtleties, twists and contradictions of humanity and life.  And yet as her new blog post below demonstrates, she still takes great pleasure in the simple satisfactions of home and family, friendship and (yes!) childlike play.

I know we have readers who are going through challenges recently: the death of a loved dog and passing away of a mother; the likelihood of someone we care about losing money on a business he’s built, in order to be rejoined with his wife and young daughter; the painful end of a woman’s cherished marriage, as she struggles to see it as a chance to strengthen and create a new lifestyle with her kids that depend on her.  To you whom we know about, and to those who have kept their pains to themselves, please feel our love and support.

And thanks for this chance to share with all of you, the unguarded feelings and purposeful activities of our healing school and wild canyon lives.  Continued blessings all-ways.

-JWH & Family

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