Traditions in Western Herbalism 2011

Thank you ~ It's not enough, there aren't really words, to accurately express how I feel about all that Kiva Rose and Jesse Wolf Hardin are doing for our community.  It's so nice to feel that we have a community, when we are usually scattered to the winds.  To feel understood, accepted and heard when I usually wonder if any of my friends think of me as the healer that I am.  

I came to this year's conference thinking it would be my last year, as I am moving to Ohio soon.  I left realizing that I must always find a way to come back.  I intentionally did not pour over the schedule in advance of registration.  I didn't plan my experience, and yet everything I needed to coalesce the filaments of my longings, dreams, and desires into a cohesive goal was offered, and received.  Grassroots, edgy, and exactly what I needed to satiate my thirsty soul.  This Conference, this movement, they are like gravity.  The law of attraction is vividly at work here, answering the spoken and unspoken pleas of grassroots healers.  

It was a blessing to reconnect with those familiar to me, and meet new kindred spirits.  I am so grateful for life changing experiences such as this one.

Howie and Kristie taught me about teaching in tandem and keeping what could be a dry topic alive and interesting in their Adrenalin Stress class.  

Sean Donahue gave my exercise-induced asthma a new perspective when he said that "Breath is the thread that connects us to the world."

I learned a few tips and tricks from Juliet Blankespoor's class on Growing At-Risk Medicinal Plants.

Susan Leopold from United Plant Savers provided a new face to an organization I've been interested in joining for a long time, and is a goat farmer to boot!  I am looking forward to learning from and joining their Botanical Sanctuary Network.

Rising Appalachia gives a welcome flavor to the soundtrack of my life.  There is a nostalgia to their sound that speaks to my soul in ways I didn't know I was missing.

I shared my first office with Lisa Ganora, and am so pleased whenever I have an opportunity to learn new things from her.  She always has something to offer, new layers to add to what I already know.  The world needs more teachers who teach from a place of love instead of ego.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sean Donahue's Plants of the Underworld class.  Part of it was experiencing a teaching style that was comfortable, and knowing that I could do that, too.  Part of it was that you don't get topics like this at other conferences.  He took us on a journey, and shared it in a way that made the experience accessible, real, and inspiring.

Wolf's talk on the Wild Herbalist, Tips & Tools for a more intensely effective & satisfying life and practice is the hardest for me to turn into a pearl.  Wolf delivers his messages in a compelling and thought provoking way.  I dare not blink or cough, lest I miss a vital point of messages spoken directly to my Wild Soul.  We Herbal Outlaws, we are not alone.  

Lunar Fire kept me awake and moving long past when I would normally have hit the hay.  I stepped outside and marveled at the wondrous beauty of the heavens whilst feeling the deep, earthly connection of their percussive sound.  

Jim McDonald's Teaching Herbcraft was the lynchpin for melding together my desirous filaments.  Yes, I can do it, and here's how!  

The conference end was a bittersweet event.  I am one of many who found themselves moved to tears multiple times during this conference.  I am so very grateful to have time to spend in community, with others who hear a similar call, and speak similar languages.  Plant people, with dirt under their nails, stars in their hair, and roots growing out of their sacrums.