Bespoke Herbals @ Backyard Botanics

At first there were polite exchanges during which  I imagine – I tell myself it must be true – you thought no more of me than I did of you.

But again and still you came, seen by all, not obvious to me.

Somewhere the tide washed up further onto the shore, overtaking my knees and making me gasp and run for higher ground

It had to do with you standing closer then usual.  Your eyes probing, penetrating.  I looked up and  bit my lip and hoped

That no one had seen.  But of course they had.  the air was thick, your proximity a landmark.  And I was caught, flipping about in the receding tide.

If breath leaves me now, or if the gracious sea wells to swallow me again it is one in the same.  Every mer-maid knows that the shining pebble of desire wears no more or less than a reflection of one’s own heart.

When I set out to write The Seventh Sister it was out of some sense of duty to a dear friend who had been a victim of domestic violence.
Fast forward about 6 years to today and the book has been published (albeit imperfectly). Her story is out … sort of. Lots of folks read the book, passed it around, told me they enjoyed it and finished it very quickly. It even got a write up on Good reads – all on its own merit, I like to think.

And lots of people have asked me if I made money … How many copies did I sell? The answer is some money, not much. And the book paid for its own production costs. But I did not do any marketing for it all. And here is why: It would have been wrong to profit on my friend’s story.

Although the book is a work of fiction it’s based on a true story. The main character is very real. In fact, all of them are. And so are many of the events the book describes.

This week my step daughter Gabrielle told me she really enjoyed reading the book and asked if I had a Facebook page for it.
No, I don’t have a Facebook page for it. But an idea occurred to me. What if I did? What if I gave any profits that sales of the book make to a non-profit that combats domestic violence?

So that’s what I’m going to do. I am going to create a page for the book on Facebook and give proceeds from its sale, if it sells at all, to the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. (http://www.nhcadsv.org/) …
Wish the book luck!
I am hoping that Eva, knowing this, would smile and say “well, at least something good came of it all…”

http://www.nhcadsv.org/

September is late for basil. My patch, still fragrant, overflowing now with flowers, is finally abandoned by the bumble bees who spent the summer cheerfully denying me access to it. When I bend down to breath in the summery scent, though, I can see the bottom-most leaves spotting, turning yellow.
And so, it is time to trim the leaves, make the pesto, and freeze it for winter…

In the last Quarter of a lunar cycle those of us that pay attention to lunar cycles plow under our psychic crops. We shed what we can no longer use, those things that are vestiges of past growth, using it for compost in our next cycle.

Leo, the sign the moon is currently in, is the sign of ego, the sign of who we are, of where we find our strengths and express our selves.  Leo rules the heart.

… so Leo in the third quarter is a good time to notice who you are under the activities and facades you’ve tried on over the past weeks or months. Perhaps you won’t find you have a choice in the matter – you might find your self foisted back on you, if you aren’t paying attention.

The Rider-Waite Fool

The Fool is the first – or, if you like, the last – card of the Tarot’s major arcana.  Bearing the number zero, the fool represents the spirit, the soul in search of experience, connecting the end with the beginning.

The fool is the dreaming self – the filmmaker – of our dreams.  His Associations are many:  the jester, the god of the grape and divine revelry Dionysus, the beggar, vagabond, the wild-man, the eye of the dreamer dreaming secretly.  Perhaps you are acquainted with him.

Traditionally, the Major Arcana is a map of the journey through life, through life’s mysteries, through cycles of growth, through becoming, to self-realization.  Each card is an elaborate portal to the mysteries, and the Fool is the journeyman.  He is each of us; he is the representative of our divine selves journeying through life.

If you draw the fool in a reading, know that he is pointing you toward some new experience, likely one that mixes up the everyday world with the world of imagination and creativity.  Having the power to see through the accouterments of the material world to what truly inspires, the fool points toward meaningful abandonment, or perhaps folly, if the cards surrounding him are ill-aspected.   Whatever company he is keeping in your reading, he represents your inner journeyman pointing to an experience your heart desires.

A suggestion associated with this card:  Be open to and respectful of your heart’s desire.  Explore your deepest desires lovingly, with care and humor.

Once in a younger-years dreaming state I saw

great dark pillars, mountainous clouds from the window of an airplane

Grown high, endlessly high

from a puffy and senseless cumulus cloud

into dark towers that reached farther into the heavens than I could see from my airborne seat.

Ominous, foreboding, supernatural.  Like the castle of Malificent.  Floating fortresses of doom.

Dad called them thunderheads.

They were obviously full of villains, angry gods, lightening.  And Thor.

Made harmless because when I was with my father nothing could ever hurt me.

Just to be sure, I put on the red cowboy hat Dad had bought for me at the airport.

The engines of the airplane droned on.  My father patted my hand.

The towers became giant figurines in my mind.  Powerless against my father.

If only he were here.