Monday, February 29, 2016

Preparing for spring...

It's been 19 years since we ran the program "Medicine Wheel Garden" under the auspices of the aboriginal healing grants. This was way back in Wolverton Ontario when we were newly married, childless and expecting to spend our retirement years teaching the traditions  we love so much. It was before the farm, before contracting with corrections, before Angeni...  Little did we know that in addition to lots of wonderful plant foods and medicines  we would end up with a 5 lbs. 8 oz. screaming bundle of child, all courtesy of some well-timed plant-based hormones.

So we've decided to once again run the gardening class but in a different format. There are no funds available from any of the granting agencies this time so we're not going to actually build gardens or supply the plants. We will provide the knowledge and help people with the sources of plants and teach them the how to's of planting by the moon cycles, dowsing for medicine wheel vortices, companion planting and all those good things.  I'm quite excited to do this again and I'll be equally excited to visit all the gardens that people come up with by the end of the summer!

I juxtapose the Medicine Wheel Garden teachings with "Psychospiritual Development" which runs again starting this Thursday, |March 3rd.  This is the course we facilitate most often, and I would imagine (if memory serves me) we've had at least 50 classes of it in the last 35 years.  What goes around comes around I guess...

Preparing for classes takes me away from my focus on health issues. I ended up in hospital again last Wednesday after speaking with my doctor who wanted to rule out whether I was having a coronary. It was not a fun day and I still bear the bruises and scars of all the extensive workup in the trauma room. I am grateful to the Creator that I was not having a coronary but suffering from a very serious virus that was causing cardiac distress.

It's my birthday on March 2 and I'm really looking forward to a quiet day of working on some purses in my studio. I've also got some orders to finish for healing bracelets, turtle rattles and a couple of shamanic wands.  This is the first birthday I've spent in a wheelchair, but better that than not being around at all. 

I also plan to work in a newsletter for the spring and summer courses now that I've let the proverbial cat out of the bag regarding the medicine wheel garden program. It will be fun to change things up.

Have a blessed transition into the month of March. May this change of weather put a "spring" in your step... 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Changes

Wow...  what a month...  pneumonia (possibly twice - about to find out) and consultation with an orthopedic surgeon after an 8.5 month wait.  It took me 8 months to conceive and deliver Angeni!  So I've been away from my blog and I apologize for the disruption...

We're off school and work today (Wednesday) because of a nasty storm threatening to blanket us with ice for the next 36 hours.  Even our doctor has changed our appointment from in-office to Skype!  I love automation...  it's nice for Brian to not have the chore of loading my electric wheelchair into the van.  He needed to do the on/off loading thing when I saw the orthopedic surgeon last week, along with another doctor.  I believe in all he on/off loaded it 5 times in 8 hours - that's hard on a guy turning 70 this year.  However, according to the surgeon, I am in this wheelchair for life.  He cannot do any surgery on me to repair/replace/rejuvenate or otherwise get me walking as I used to do.  This life change requires more permanent renovations to our home in an effort to accommodate.  I am still processing all the implications.

More to come - can't keep the family doctor waiting!