My intention for this next entry was to show you lovely pictures of some nutritious & tasty dishes I've created using the amazing wild wonders that I've foraged this week; the scrumptious ramps, the delicious dandelion buds & leaves, watercress, & lambsquarters. Well.....it's been non-stop rain, wind, & cold for the past week. A few days ago on FB I was accused of being a "sissy" for not getting out there and planting my peas. Yes - it's true...I'm a big "sissy" when it comes to cold weather - I don't mind the rain - but rain + cold = big fat sissy. So the wild edibles, garden gossip, and pretty food pictures will have to wait until next time.
Instead, what I did this morning felt like a preparation for getting out into nature again after this loooooooong winter. Like many people, I have a lot of different interests and sometimes this can feel quite overwhelming. However, I find that they are all relative to each other and someday I'll figure out how to incorporate them all together in a manner that will feel a bit more cohesive. Well this morning - I felt that perhaps I was a bit closer than the usual just on my way to discovery path.
It began last night when i went upstairs into my "studio". A neglected space full of half finished projects, interesting gemstones, beads, metals, tools, wire, boxes, found materials, books, and photos - all of my favorite "things" that I will someday get back to again. The reason I went up there in the first place was not to start or finish a project, but to find some of my gemstones.
I recently had a guest at the B&B who is what I like to refer to as an intuitive - someone who picks up on the energy of people, places, & things. Well one of the "things" she told me was that everything I need is right here and also that I should bring more of the outside inside. Since then i kept thinking about these gemstones I have and their healing properties and I just wanted to put them in some little bowls of water and place them all around my house with candles, rocks, & flowers.
After I found them, I was then reminded of the time when I was studying gemology. I so excited to discover the amazing beauty and miraculous way stones are created. The precise conditions that must be present to create each individual stone and their characteristics & properties (just like plants & people!). I loved looking through the microscope at all the "imperfections". To me the more "imperfect" a stone was, the more interesting & beautiful. Although beautiful in their own way, I was never really interested in the "flawless" diamonds who's claimed "rarity" makes them cultishly desirable. In my opinion, there were so many other amazing and much more unique stones with much more to offer in the way of character & beauty.
Before I even began placing the stones around the house, I became sidetracked and jumped on the computer to begin searching for some info to help jog my memory about the history & lore of gemstones. As usual, I ended up spending a great deal of time researching, reading, getting even more sidetracked and then wondering if i should enroll in the home study crystal healing on-line courses I accidentally found.
Ok it's true, and I have been accused of having too many interests, not focusing on one thing; so in my mind I kept trying to justify further exploration or I should say re-exploring this topic. How would/could this relate to what i'm currently doing with food?
Then this morning, since it was STILL raining, I decided to try and do some searching in another neglected space in my house - my bookshelves. What happened was I came across all of these books about gem lore, magic, nature, religion, spirituality, meditation, food, herbs, healing & art. I pulled out some of my favorites and cleared a shelf especially for them along with some of my special "things" including the gemstones in water. As I began choosing and arranging these books, I realized that they were such a huge part of who I was years ago when I actually had time to sit, read, write, & create. Well, realistically, it probably won't be any time soon that I will be able to actually read them all again, in fact there are some that I still have never even read. But.....just rediscovering and perusing through them was truly inspirational.
I read a page by Gary Snyder in 'The Earth Speaks" and found a couple of my edible wild plant ID books which made me realized how fortunate I am to be living in a place abundant with water, trees, plants, & flowers. I found Andy Goldsworthy & Eva Hess books, two of my favorite artists, and felt inspired to start creating art again. Books about organic gardening, flower fairies, spiral dances, fortune telling, Hopi & Zen meditations, architecture, alchemy, symbols, language, the earth, the sky, faraway places, and the secret life of inanimate objects - all tying together the connection between the earth, nature, healing, living, conditioning, humanity, & art - and all right here on my bookshelves. Crazy as it may sound, rediscovering these literary treasures helped me to realized that everything I need really is right here. BUT.......I'm not giving up on my dreams for sunny warm weather and lots of fascinating travel.
And I promise next time...food & wild edibles will be the topic...along with some pretty pictures.
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