February, the second month in the Gregorian calendar, was originally named after Februalia, the Roman festival of purification. Though, even before the oppressive Romans, it was the month (in the lunar calendar) of Imbolc. Imbolc was traditionally held when the season changed (because the ancients sense of time was based upon nature's patterns), though it is now defined as falling on February 1st or 2nd. It is a time of home and family, gathering around a fire and healing. The sun will shine it's brilliance longer and brighter and slowly enter into spring ....Making sure that we provide ourselves with self-care right now is invaluable. Not allowing ourselves to get caught up in petty games with ourselves, twisting our brains around with stress, working hard without respite will utterly drain us and only render us unable to fully give ourselves to the next adventure. It's the time of year that the animals begin waking up...groundhogs seeing their shadows, so as you begin to awaken from your wintry slumber, take the time to nourish yourself.

Self-Care Tips for Late Winter

*Bundle up! Don't allow yourself to get too cold, if you come home and have trouble warming up, take a hot bath or shower and burrow under the covers.

*Drink ginger tea! Ginger is a thermogenic (heat producing) herb that will not only warm you up but will boost your immunity, settle your stomach, and decrease inflammation. The Traditional Medicinal's Ginger Tea is wonderful but I like to make ginger tea with fresh ginger root:

~peel/chop skin off of root

~Began to boil pan of water

~chop peeled root into thin slices 

and add to the water.

Boil for about 1/2 hour.

The tea should be a lovely golden tonic!

*Get enough sleep and have a balanced sleep/waking cycle. I believe that staying in tune with the morning sun is an excellent cure for depression and other ailments...Certainly as the seasons are changing, it will help regulate our hormones, and keep our bodies on a natural cycle.

*Avoid processed food...even if you just don't want to cook for yourself,

buy some soup from the deli or whole foods. Make sure you're supporting

your physical and mental health through the nourishment in food. Late Winter is

an excellent time for soups, stews, grains, green and leafies, eggs, and meat (if you eat it.) 

*Especially in Colorado, this time of the year can be exceptionally harsh, cold, and dry.

Take daily baths or showers and moisturize your skin with a nourishing oil

or lotion. This will keep your skin soft, keep bumps and rashes away, and will

also warm you up. It also protects the skin from aging...

Almond oil is an amazing oil to use, as it is quite gentle but extremely nourishing.

*Blessings

Chaos; Within seeming disorder, magnificent patterns emerge

    The universe has a fractal nature, complete order beneath the chaos of our everyday adventures. From every aspect there is to look at it, there is an inherent flow, twisting and turning, becoming still and frantic. In the midst of this we see no stability, caught in the raging waves of life we cannot see the beautiful chaos cyclical dance....And here I am, finding my grounding as a healer, my shakti/feminine essential energy with my fiance, creating sacred art, hiking, singing, cooking, nannying, reading, photosynthesizing, praying and finding my center. Finding my shanti, my unmoving peace and solitude, silence within the disorder. Remembering we are both the beginning and end....