Although I have a 40 hour job, my path and purpose is to help people remember how to grow their food and medicine. I first found the site through one of Kiva Rose’s essays on a particular plant medicine. I love those essays, and I plan to get the Medicine Woman book, but I love Jesse Wolf- Hardin’ thoughtful essays most.

I can’t think of a specific way the blog has changed my behavior, but in the last few season’s the Anima writings and Steven Harrod Buhner’s work has spoken the truth I’ve known all my life about direct communication with the living world. Hearing (reading) that truth spoken aloud has made me realize that I’m not broken or crazy for knowing it and now I can speak my truth too. Thanks.

I subscribe in google reader.

I’m less interested in the stories of the center and the canyon, because I live in a very different bio region. I do enjoy the photography, it is a reminder that this is a beauty way full of creativity.

I would like to read more about your environmental restoration work and ways that we can restore and improve the fertility of the Earth. I am interested in gardening and farming in harmony with the wild; I know y’all don’t do much of that but if you did I would love to hear about it.

I found your site around the time I planned to revisit a place I knew I had lived in the past. I dreamed a place and was blown away when I saw your canyon as it resonated with all I felt and saw in my dream. So thankful you are there to caretake and love her.
We did end up buying some land in New Mexico and visit from Hawaii when we can. My heart stays there year round. I love the pictures you share , as it brings into my home the beauty of the area and your thoughts as you tend it.
My day job is at a Natural Food Store so I get to work with people trying to improve and maintain their health, I love the exchange of energy of dealing with other people I meet and helping them have a better day for it. On this note , in our current world situation, I find our business improving as I think people who never used to venture into a Health Food Store are doing so, taking back some of the responsibility of caring for their own health and life. Your attention to this is vital and I love that.
My real passion is living a life in the here and now and connecting with others like you who are doing it and empowering woman here to come together and share that which makes us whole and real.
I’m a mosaic artist, love working with rocks, crystals, and earth centered medicine. We are also active in the music scene here, gathering to dance and celebrate life. Active in our local PowWow, yes we have one in Hilo, Hawaii!!
Your sharing gives me hope that more people can learn to live close to our source without so much to sustain us. In emergencies I see people come unglued when they dont have electricity overnight. We dont live in the Waikiki Hawaii so many think of but the rural area of a rainforest on lava rock roads, with catchment water. I feel all we can do to be self sufficient will help us face the future whatever the state of the world or economy.
You can of course use any part of this , I could not download survey. I mostly just read your emails, have dial up and slow old computer so dont spend alot of time in front of it but so thankful for the world this technology provides us with, connecting people and ideas. Thank you for sharing yours, Aloha, Karin

Hi there:

I’ve been meaning to fill this out for ages – just got to it.

Your name: Christina

What is your work, path or purpose? In the material world, I work at UNM’s School of Medicine, in the Human Patient Simulation lab. I hang with manikins all day – it’s actually quite cool. But that’s my income-work. In my personal life, I’m an herbalist, a shamanic practitioner, and a Pipe Carrier in the Native American Tradition (Lakota, Cherokee, and Ojibwa). My purpose, and the declared purpose of The Feathered Serpent Lodge (my teaching lodge here in Albuquerque), is the education and enlightenment of all peoples through intimate spiritual connection to the Mother Earth and honoring of the Sacred Feminine in each of us.

How did you find this blog, and what causes you to keep reading (or stay subscribed)? I don’t remember how I found your blog/web site, but the exquisite posts I get from you – all of you – are what keep me coming back.

How has this blog influenced how you think or act? Can you describe any particular instances of something you read here affecting the quality, tenor, depth and meaning of your day to day life? Jesse’s posts on wild/wilding/re-wilding spoke to something very deep in me – I heard a psychic echo the first time I read one of his pieces – and I’ve been chewing on that subject ever since. I’m an audial person, it’s all about how things sound (rather than look) for me, and it’s difficult for me sometimes to advance my thinking on a particular subject until I’ve found a hook to hang it all on. Jesse’s writing often provides that hook. I can only describe it as “nibbling around the edges of a subject” – the way you eat hot tomato soup, you know? taking little sips from around the outside of the bowl? – and then I’ll read something of his (and it’s not just him, really, you all do it in different ways) and suddenly I’m right in the hot middle and it’s all clear and I can proceed.

Are you a subscriber? Yes.

Which of the categories do you enjoy posts from the most (see the Archives category list on the left side of this blog page)? I’m interested in virtually everything you communicate – life in the Canyon is particularly appealing, and I LOVE the pictures. You are living the life I began dreaming of for myself back in my 20s.

What topics might you like to see written about from an Animá/nature perspective, that haven’t appeared here already? Nothing that I can think of.

What else might you like to see more of here? Anything else that you’d like to tell us? Just that I think you are grand, and have the greatest respect and admiration for you and what you’re doing “out there.” I wish I could support you more regularly (I work at UNM, and you know what that means in terms of salary…), and I hope one day to visit in person. “Seven rivers to cross…”

Do we have your permission to excerpt from your responses, for printing on the blog (by first name only, without your address)? Yes – go ahead.