I had a pretty magical weekend ( not counting the death of a goat   )  and am very excited to meet with you all on Wednesday.  I will bring the tincture for the meditation and jars.  What you should bring

Prayer For This Land
by Dana Lyons

Won’t you please hear my prayer for this land
Won’t you please hear my prayer for this land
And you know that I’m ready to do my part
I’m just standing by waiting for that wave to start

Only the moon can turn the tide
Only the moon can turn the tide
So I kneel and I pray at the ocean side
And I watch for that wave, that great green wave to rise

There’s a sparkle of hope in every eye
There’s a sparkle of hope in every eye
And when those eyes sparkle at the same time
That’s the time when that wave, that wave of love will rise.

Be Love, Kiki

My friend Crystine of Uprising Seeds shared this with us. The full 50 minute video can be found here.

“Pay attention to the tears you might shed and then do something. Plant a garden for goodness sake!”

Thanks Crystine……..and thanks for the dedication to us, the bees and the seeds.

Rise up among the flowers, kiss the grass, contribute to your colony.
Love, Kiki

The good news is that as a practitioner, this provides ample opportunity for “research.” I always feel better when I can test out an idea on my own body before asking some one else to be the trial run on one of my inspirations. Herbal Medicine has some wacky moves; some are hilarious……some can be dangerous. What’s amazing to me, is that what all of these years of experimentation have consistently affirmed is that with the right presentation and application they tend to work!

The remedy of the day, however is neither absurd nor intimidating. It is simply DELICIOUS.

It was the night before Thanksgiving and we had a blustery snow falling hard on the island. I got home late to the sweet surprise that my neighbors had come over to turn on the fire for me and toast up the cabin. The big “Yes!” I felt when the warm air hit my face suddenly flipped to a holy “Oh No!” when with robust swing to pull the door snug from drafts, I landed my thumb right in its hinge. Now, my cabin was built in the 70′s by artistic, idealistic hippies. They had artistic, idealistic building skills and nothing says this more than the doors of my cabin. They are GORGEOUS 6″ thick slabs of buttery wood with light beam madalas and hand carved handles…..that have no locks and leave enough gap to fit a tambourine through.

So, basically, I destroyed the tip of my thumb. I can’t in 37 years remember ever hurting myself to this degree. It was gory. Halloween level gore. The bad news: my 3 days ski blast on Crystal mountain was instantly cancelled. The good news: it was the night before Thanksgiving and the family already had enough wine in them to not pass out at the sight of me.

We cleaned it well but I was done in. The entire base of my nail had been pulled out and I had a deep crevasse of soft human parts that had lost their form entirely. It was impossible to tell what would happen. Once my shock settled, I crawled in to bed to nestle my nerves. Long story short, over the next few days, there were consults with surgical nurses and hand specialists but the prognosis was vague. It was an awkward messy wound with not much to do but let it be until it showed it’s own fate. I kept it clean with a mix of colloidal silver and triple anti-biotic cream. I soothed it with lavender and helichrysum oils. I evolved from your average clumse to a four fingered klutz.

Two weeks later, nothing much had changed. All of the tender skin was still slashed open and exposed, the nail was lifted and protruding. I have to admit, I was a bit hopeless by the lack of healing. After our holiday lotus party, I was up late cleaning and when I finished my routine of care and I was moved to try something new.

I have a shelf of raw honey for my patients that I recommend as the first step of treatment for heartburn and reflux. There is research being done in New Zealand which suggests that honey is inhibitory to the bacteria h. pylori (which is the primary cause of heartburn). For about 85% percent of my patients, it has been a silver bullet and has allowed them to go off of antacids within 10-14 days of therapy. I have another patient, Irmagard, who is an 86 year old woman who has a slow healing leg wound that she has dressed at the hospital 2-3 times per week. The hospital is currently using honey bandages.

(My apologies.) There was a “before” photo but I found even glancing at it on my phone provoked nausea! This is the “after” picture. Ok, it is admittedly still horrific but that fresh line of clean pink skin at the base of the thumb was simply gorgeous to me. That skin was grown by honey alone! It was fast. It was clean. And within 2 days of applying honey at night and in the morning, hope had returned. Happily 2 months later, I have full use of my thumb and even the healthy start of happy new nail to protect it.

So many remedies can remain “something we read” until we have the opportunity to learn from experience. Keep your fingers clear of doors and rely on my earned wisdom:

Some wounds do heal.
Much love, Kiki

I wish I could take credit for this,  but I can’t, a friend of mine named Jodi who I met in a wildcrafting class gifted us with this idea that she came up with on the spur of the moment.  It does require a piece of equipment,  but its a kitchen item many of us already have or can purchase for under 40 dollars.

What is it?   A wheat grass juicer!!!

Let me share with you Jodi’s experiement;

I took 4 cups of drained St John’s Wort plant material (I drained and pushed on it with a spoon to get as much out as is possible)

The material was still wet and glossy.

The ran it through the wheat grass juicer and the results were…… Ta Da…. drum roll please!!!!!

1 whole more cup of tincture

2 cups of bone dry plant material…. Impressive!!

Here are her pictures to prove it.

4 cups of St. John's Wort plant material, drained of menstrum

Before running through the juicer

After running through the juicer

I cup extra tincture, 2 cups plant material!

And so our trials are over,  we can all now have ensure that  we are getting every bit of medicine from the plants that we so dearly love.

If any of you would like to send lavish gifts of thanks to Jodi to thank her for her brilliance,  let me know  :)

Green Blessings.

Kate

will be like Fall;

wrinkles will be

not signs of wear,

but colors of age.

In Fall,

excitement is mingled with relief.

In Trees,

red and yellow are the

accumulated remnants

of what the plant could not use.

Perhaps, when we die our pains will blaze like sunset.

Like colored leaves;

those of us left to watch the process

will get to view the demise in glory.

RED.
Gold.
yellow.

BARE…

and if you ever have a day when you are feeling cynical……please watch it again.

Sporatic love, EKG

These photos were taken in the Bastyr University garden last summer.

Unfortunately, the interview gets cut off at the end but the mask is stunning and it is beautiful to hear Ralph talk about his expression and the intention that it carries. I think some people will dig it. So here it is:

Love, Kiki