MorningStar Celebration and Color!

Yesterday was MorningStar's 30 year anniversary celebration.  Thank you to everyone who came and all those who sent well wishes and prayers via email, snail mail, phone, text, and silently in their hearts.

It was a fabulous gathering with sacred circle, stories, and blessings all around.  The food was awesome as always.  This special cake was made by a former Sistery member.

And the participants made the day, BUT it never occurred to me in the moment to ask permission to share people's pictures on the internet, so... check out the COLORS!

By the Medicine Wheel...

On the road to the wailing wall, cosmic walk, and labyrinth...

Oooooo...

Ahhhhh...

WOW!!!

 Blessed rest.

Wet Wild Weird Weather!

Yesterday, the first official day of Autumn, was one strange weather day.  We started with a beautiful sunrise on a wet world from storms the night before.  That haze you see is actually steam rising from the ground.

Then around 11 am, the sky turned black as it would in winter if we were expecting a blizzard, and there was a downpour.

 Afterward, the sun returned.

 

This was repeated three times and then HAIL!

And sun again...sort of...

 

And today, bright blue skies with not a cloud visible anywhere, for now.



I have lived in the Midwest all my life, so I think my whole being is attuned to the changing seasons that occur here and the tumultuous weather that ensues during the changing of those seasons.  It's a part of me, and I LOVE it!  I am so grateful for the diversity of weather.  Such an amazing mystery!  What will be next?  I suspect an explosion of color!

Honey Beez

 Here is our beloved beekeeper, Amanda, back in 2007 when she first brought her hives to MorningStar.  And Julie helping.  I take pictures.  I get less sticky that way!

We affectionately and playfully misspell "bees".  Somehow, "Beez" is just more fun!

There have been plentiful years and lean years for honey, trouble with bee illness, weather, and animal predators. Now we have a fence.

This year, the weather was very warm very early, then not enough rain, then too much.  The wildflowers, especially the spotted knapweed, did not bloom on their regular schedule, and therefore, the bees didn't have what they needed to produce well. But the bees themselves seem healthy.

What they did have in abundance this year was goldenrod.  This gives the honey a dark color, but I like the taste just as well as the light colored honey from knapweed.

Even though there is no honey available for sale at MorningStar this year, I am still very grateful that the bees seem healthy.  And I'm thankful to Amanda, Julie, and especially the bees, for all their hard work.  We hope for a better harvest next year.  Love you, Beez!

Three Pinky Purples

Or Purple-y Pinks!  These three beauties captivated me. I love the color and the variations even within each flower from pink to purple.

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Red clover is a member of the bean family and not native to Michigan, but it was introduced long ago and now is found all through the United States.  Since it is a nitrogen fixer, farmers often use it as "green manure" to increase soil fertility.  Red Clover is also used to treat effects of menopause.  I love not only the color, but also the shape of the whole flower and intricacy of each tiny part.
Want to know more?   Red Clover

Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)

Spotted Knapweed is another non-native species, but this one is considered invasive since it takes over and muscles out the native plants.  Along highway right-of-ways, great swatches of pinky-purple abound.  It is gorgeous and the individual flowers extremely airy and delicate looking, and honeybees do love it. But it's not good for cattle to eat, and it easily can take over a field.  Want to know more?  Spotted Knapweed

Pinkweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum)

Pinkweed is a type of knotweed, part of the buckwheat family.  Native to my part of the world, it was used by Native Americans to calm diarrhea, sooth hemorrhoids, and stop bleeding.  I've seen butterflies, moths, hoverflies, and bees visit these flowers.  And they grow along the steps to my house, so I am blessed each day this time of year with their wonderful color!  Want to know more?  Pinkweed

I am so grateful for the abundance of pinks and purples this time of late summer.  The color makes my heart sing!

Black Cherry Artwork

This old Black Cherry got roughed up this spring with the heavy snows and high winds we had.  One branch had split and broken partially; a little alive and mostly dead, nearly touching the ground.  Since I had my chainsaw out for other reasons, it seemed timely to remove the branch.

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

Here's the fabulous artwork I found once I cut off the branch.

I counted the rings as best as I could and discovered this branch alone was at least 50 years old!  Outrageous!  Looking at and pondering these Black Cherry trees draws me to feelings of strength, faithfulness, steadfastness, and perseverance.  What a gift!  And the intricate beauty of the end cut of the limb led me to cut a slice that I can fashion into an art piece...being that it is already natural art.  Thank you, Mother!

More on Black Cherry Trees

Kitty Love

My sweet cat, Itty-Bitty, usually prowls outside all night in the summer so I can sleep undisturbed.  If she stays in, she wakes me around 3 am by gently pawing at my face and/or sticking her whiskers up my nose, the darling!  At that time she seems to want to go downstairs, have a little snack, and then go outside which is why I usually send her out before my bedtime instead.

BUT, yesterday I spent the day outside splitting and hauling wood, and Itty-Bitty spent the day chasing moths and grasshoppers, stalking crickets under the tarp I had used to cover the splitter, and racing around near me while I worked.  So, this evening I turned down my bed before showering and came upstairs to find this very tired kitty.

An unexpected bed mate

As much as I didn't want to be awakened early this morning, I just couldn't throw her outside for the night.  Seeing her sleeping like that just brought up such feelings of serenity, peacefulness, and loving kindness in me.  I felt compelled to care for this little being.  I wanted to just press my face into her side and take in her warmth and softness and the sound of her purring, but I couldn't bear to disturb her.

This furry face stirs compassion and caring that I feel deep within my body.

What I felt reminded me of how I felt holding my children and grandchild when they were babies.  I connect with the vulnerability of a sleeping animal or child or someone very old. It feels like a pureness; I am in the presence of the Sacred.  It slows my breathing.  I can feel it lower my blood pressure. And it helps me feel more gentle and compassionate with myself as well as the one who stirs the feelings.  It feels like the effects of meditation, but instantly.

And there is evidence that offers a scientific explanation for what I experience.  Our bodies produce a hormone, oxytocin, when we see or touch gently/pet an animal, child, or anyone/anything vulnerable.  This hormone is an anti-stress hormone which lowers blood pressure, promotes relaxation, and speeds healing.  It can give relief from depression and increase feelings of trust.  Cats produce oxytocin too when petted, and it also lowers their blood pressure!  Win-win!

How fabulous that we all have this innate ability through our natural chemistry to connect to this pure, sacred place within ourselves prompting us to care for the vulnerable.  What a blessing that we've developed this inter-species way to care for each other.  Thank you, Itty-Bitty!  And, yes, she woke me at 3 am...

Here are some more great pet/people pictures:  27 ways pets improve your health from WebMD

Goodbye Mullein :-(

7/24/2012

This giant Common Mullein has been growing in front of my garage door all summer. five days ago it suddenly lost its perkiness.  I couldn't detect any change in conditions: I didn't crash into it, it wasn't extra cool or hot, extra rainy or sunny.  It was fine in the morning and by noon it looked like this.

9/4/2012

And today, well, I think death has definitely come.

9/9/2012

Considering where this mullein decided to take root, it has become a summer companion.  I couldn't go in or out of the garage door without scooting around it, touching it, or saying "Hi!"  So when I saw its sudden decline, my heart sank like I had lost a friend.  Well, I had.  I just hadn't realized how attached I had become to this sweet giant plant.

In my grief I didn't notice until later in the day that there was a new friend growing very nearby.

This mullein is in its first year having grown from a seed dropped last fall.  Next summer I anticipate that it will send up its second year stalk just as my giant friend did this year.  At least it's a couple more feet away from the garage door.  I'm grateful for this year's giant friend and grateful that I will probably have another next summer.

Chicory and friend

Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus)

I don't know the type of insect that was visiting this chicory plant and taking a nice drink, but it is exquisite as is this chicory flower.  I know chicory is not originally native to the U.S., but it seems that people liked its roots as a coffee substitute so much that it has spread throughout the world.  Young leaves are also a nice addition to a salad.  It's a cousin to endive.

Here's as much of a close up as I could get on this lovely, multicolored insect.  Does anyone have an idea?  It seems to have a distinctive pattern on its abdomen.  I'm guessing it may be a type of fly since it seems to have only one set of wings...or maybe not.


Regardless, I delight in the color and intricacy of the chicory flower and its mystery guest.  I am so grateful for all the color and designs of nature.  Mother, you are outrageously creative!  Thank you!

The Sacred in the Ordinary

I received a request from a reader (Thank you, Betty!) to re-publish the article from the MorningStar Spring 2012 Newsletter that was seed for my blog.  In the spirit of rest from labor this day, I will gladly oblige.  Rest well!

On Dayspring Path:

The Sacred in the Ordinary

On the last day of winter 2012, an unseasonably warm and windy day, I hung my laundry on the line.  I don’t think I’ve ever been able to begin that ritual this early in Michigan.  For me it is a deeply satisfying and wonderfully sensual experience.  It connects me psychically to generations of women doing the honorable work of caring for self and family and the earth. It connects me to my own history/herstory. 

I find hanging clothes outdoors is a full body experience.  I revel in the feel of the sun and wind on my skin.  Each piece of clothing, damp from washing, has a particular fabric feel.  I smell the warm pine needles under my feet and the moist, clean scent of the newly washed clothes.  I hear the birds, the wind snapping the clothes, the insect near my ear, the silence of meditative work.  So much pleasure in the colors and shapes flapping in the breeze; the orderliness of it all: like-with-like, yet rainbows of color.  The sight of sheets sailing high with the help of a homemade clothes pole brings me delight.  I feel fully alive! I drift into timeless time, and then I travel…

I am 5 again…

Grandpa Jim, a retired milkman, is stringing the clothesline on “wash day” from the brick two-story house, across the postage stamp sized backyard, to the side of the white-washed garage that runs along the alley in Chicago.  Back and forth he walks, pulling tight the lines in preparation.  He sets out the self-made clothes poles, and he hooks the cloth clothespin bag on the line.  Now he even strings a small piece of line really low, so I can be Gram’s good helper.

In the basement, Gramma Gertie moves the wet laundry from the tub through the attached hand wringer.  My job is to be sure each piece drops into the wicker basket and not onto the floor; important work for a 5 year old…

Sliding forward in time…now, 26…

As a young mother in the late 70’s, I make sure my yard has a clothes line.  Sunny spring morning, the baby in the playpen, and a line full of white, cloth diapers: Heaven!  A little too young to be part of the hippie movement, but old enough to have taken an active part in the first Earth Day as a high school senior, and being a young woman trained in the sciences, I am aware of the mounting evidence that our choices are impacting the earth. Disposable diapers are all the rage!  Fierce love for my children’s health and well-being and for the environment they will grow up in, the scientific evidence of the time, and everyday common sense, leads me to breastfeed my children, make their baby food from scratch, recycle everything possible, and wash their cloth diapers letting the sun sterilize them and the wind make them soft.  I do not see myself as an environmental warrior; I am just doing what makes sense to me and what I love to do.

I am home again, in the now…

Bending low, I pick up the next clean treasure from my basket and snap it from its crumpled form to a line-worth state. Bending again, I gather two clothespins from the bucket and, stretching high and tall, even to tip-toes where the ground dips away from the line, I clip the piece smooth and taut.  The first batch of clothes is already dry, and I begin to remove and fold them and place them in my basket.  Seeing the clothes clean and neatly folded, I feel a strong sense of satisfaction in the work completed and in general.  Life is good!

That evening, crawling into bed, the whole experience rushes back into my being as I breathe in all the outdoors trapped in my pillowcase.  I know that hanging clothes outside to dry is a definite benefit for the environment and for my body.  And, maybe more so, a true delight for my soul!

Farmers' Market

From 9-1 every Saturday in our little village, an empty space is transformed as if by magic (but really by good, hard work) into a colorful bizarre!  I am intensely and immensely grateful for the LeRoy Farmers' Market! 

During the season that it is open, I can reduce my trips to a standard grocery store to less than 2 times per month.  I get wonderful, locally grown produce from farmers I know.  And the food is super fresh and has been transported only a few miles.

It is definitely a win-win-win situation: The customers get excellent produce and community/social interaction, the vendors get an outlet for their goods locally, and the community keeps local money local and builds connections among citizens.

The varieties of goodies seem to increase every week.  And over the course of the years, the farmers have chosen to bring exciting, new offerings according to requests from their customers. Farmers are now growing more heritage vegetables and using more chemical free methods to bring even higher quality foods to market.

Our market master keeps things running with the help of a board of directors.  Thanks, Brian!

And our whole community gets awesome, seasonal foods.

I love it all, not just for the delicious and nutritious reasons, but also for the variety of color!

And if all this were not enough, many of the vendors are artisans.

Jewelry, decorative lamps and sculptures from recycled products...

pottery and handmade wooden bowls and aprons...

And even soaps and incense!

 
Each week there is also a presentation of some type.  This week it was instruction on how to make your own herb infused vinegars. Other weeks it is is music or games or a demonstration - from woodworking to sheep shearing!

If you haven't been to a farmers' market near you yet, I strongly recommend you try it.  It's like a miracle right around the corner: good for your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational health, good for the planet, good for your community.  Can't ask for more!