Pregnant Princess

Model E.B. Location: White Cedar Swamp Photographer: Pandora Peoples

Wartime Love Letters

Eight Months Pregnant Model, photographer: me, Pandora Peoples

Healing Wisdom Podcast on Divine Synchronicity and Meditation

http://www.womr.org/podcast/tracey-crowell-of-masjah-studio/

Dainty Camping

Camping in the woods alone with a six-year-old child on Sunday night, brought up some primal fears and maternal instincts, but mostly the desire to trade in my modern kitchen for an old fashion Merchant's wife hearth with a large iron cauldron. Cooking stew over an outdoor fire pit with a grill was magical.

[The Stew is under the plate with polenta waffers]... It wasn't exactly roughing it, with deli meat, a jar of pesto, and a pre-made polenta roll, to add to our roasted bell pepper appetizers, but I did keep three sharp knives next to my sleeping bag for protection, before we were joined at 10pm by my husband. Although, this type of behavior isn't divergent from my normal keep-an-ax-by-the-bed and a Japanese-sword-under-my-pillow safety regimen! I considered sleeping in my Doc Martin's kick-ass knee-high boots, because they make me feel like a warrior, but opted for bare feet instead. I've found bare feet to maneuver with haste remarkably well along an earthen floor. We did have some nearby neighbors left at camp a quarter mile down the road on each side.

I think I slept better among the pines on the firm ground, than at home on a futon. Must have been the warbling lullaby of the skunk who paced our campsite through the night, the chirping crickets, and the moonlight. Also, I prefer peeing outdoors, it's a basic human need to connect with the earth.

On Being a Mom

Being present with your kids and educating them sounds like a no-brainer, but sometimes you get dropped back into your life in a deeper way, and realize your child needs more from you than they are getting. Children are sponges, but they need constant reinforcement to remember and deeply learn concepts. You definitely can't expect that lessons they had three years previously will stick, even if they had something down packed. So excited to be doing homework with my son, as it is a wake up call to take time with him, to teach him lessons, and take opportunities to expand his horizons. Stress made me lazy. No more summer let-my-kid-zone-out on the computer mama, I have a child to raise, and he needs as much attention as my clients and career do. I think ADD may sometimes stem from too much technology, and too little practice with reading and listening comprehension.

September in the Garden

Here's some catnip, lemon balm, culinary sage, basil, and beans that were growing in our neglected, but happily untamed and autonomous garden. Catnip is relaxing to the nervous system, lemon balm relaxes exhausted adrenals, sage prevents wrinkles and helps protect you from colds and flus, and basil has a wonderful diaphoretic property that improves the skin.

Hero and I are going camping this Saturday with a bunch of lovely families, my hard working husband will join us Sunday night. Looking forward to getting back to nature. My own parents were big campers, and I grew up camping several times a year. Now, I've only been camping two times in fifteen years, so I can leave my new Eva Gabor persona behind. Hahaha. I don't think a girl who went to her high school classes barefoot with bells on her ankles and liked to walk barefoot in the snow, could ever really be a hotel camper at heart. I think gettin' military with it, because our air mattress has a leak...but we have sleeping bags and a tent. First stop a campsite ten minutes from our house, next stop Sundance.

Upcoming Guests on Healing Wisdom

This week on Healing Wisdom is Mwalim "DaPhunkee Professor" Peters, is the Director of Black Studies as well as a tenured professor of English at UMass Dartmouth, a playwright-in-residence at New African Company in Boston, and a former filmmaker-in-residence at WGBH. He is the keyboard player and a vocalist for The GROOVALOTTOS, an N.D.N. Soul-Funk band based in Mashpee. He is a Ahanaeenun of the Wampanoag tribe living in Mashpee, Ma. We'll talk the real origins and scoop on the first Thanksgiving, and more.

Another upcoming guest is Lesley Tierra, LAc, AHG, co-founder of the East West School of Planetary Herbology, alongside her husband Michael Tierra. Lesley Tierra is author of The Herbs of Life, A Kid's Herb Book, Healing with the Herbs of Life, and Healing with Chinese Herbs. In part I we will discuss practical herbal projects with herbs from the garden and in part II we will discuss her latest book, Metaphor-phosis: Transforming Your Stories from Pain to Power.

Find Your Serenity Space on Oasis Wednesdays

Tracey Crowell and I are excited to lead week two of our meditation series which combines movement, breathing techniques, Crystal and Tibetan bowls, mantras, mudras and guided meditation to bring more awareness back into our bodies as we near the Fall Equinox. This is a great time to begin health regimens and to bring ourselves into a state of balance. Instant Alchemy Meditation has been called "amazing". 7pm Wednesday in Harwich as the Masjah Center.

Testimonial:

"I have to share something pretty cool with you... At class the other night, we were asked to think of an obstacle/block that we needed to get past, up and over the mountain... I chose the end-of-summer invoicing and paperwork and inventory that has been piling up around my work space and in my house. It has been overwhelming to me and I cannot seem to focus long enough to plug through any of it, so I keep avoiding it. Well, when I came home after class, I started & finished a couple of smaller things. And, since then, I have been kicking ass on all of it. I have had such incredible clarity. I know that once I've completed all of these tasks and have cleaned it all up, I will feel as giddy and joyful as I did dancing and moving and chanting during your class! THANK YOU THANK YOU so much!!!!"

"Warm Beer, Cold Women"

Sometimes your inner lesbian needs sustenance so your underdeveloped animus can stop trying to externalize itself in outward manifestations. It's such a relief to own your animus, and not project your inner masculine onto other people. Why watch lucha libre videos, when I can get my inner wrestler on the floor at some boxing class? I recently realized that my husband's lack of organizational skill in some areas may reflect my own. For a while it seemed easier to let paperwork get messy, than attempt to put everything away only to be yelled at when things are filed. There are some people who prefer piles, I like to put piles into places. Eventually, I just became a piler, because being blamed for missing piles can feel like WWIII, having grown up with a rage-o-holic father. I guess my perfectionist self needed a mighty long vacation. Watch out world, now "shit's gonna get done".

Anyway, my point is that individuals must remain true to their needs and not change healthful, highly functioning behaviors, just to get along. It's much easier to change yourself than someone else, if you want to. Don't wait for your partner to wash the car, change the light bulb, wash the dishes, do the taxes, whatever it is, just do it yourself.

A note on a concept I am deeming, the inner lesbian. For women, I see the inner lesbian, as the self-loving part that can appreciate the beauty in another woman, instead of feeling competitive or jealous of other women. If you've ever had a girl crush or a BFF you call a wifey, you've got an inner lesbian. One needn't be a feminist to have an inner lesbian, one needn't even be born female to have an inner lesbian, one needn't even be particularly deep to have an inner, anything. But having grown up in a figurative hippie commune of proud and tumultuous Mary Magdalenes exploring the spectrum, my Swiss Alpine retreat is jumping into feminist dogma and lounging on my makeshift wooden raft grafted together by meself from shipwrecked boats, adrift in a sea of selkies, strapped with binoculars and gifted with a love of raw seacatch. For me my sexuality and my feminism are connected. Some of my feminist manifestos have went the way of floppy discs, privacy and constitutional rights. Some of my early feminist tenants have proven impractical and even undesirable. I long ago traded in spiky hair, a Bitch Magazine subscription, and puncture-yo-face jewelry in for high heels, full moon love baths and checkbooks with little cherubs dancing in the clouds.

My aura has Mary Wollstonecraft's post-humus biker alter ego tattooed over my right bicep, with "Warm Beer, Cold Women" calligraphied underneath it. Thank you to the woman with the Wollstonecraft quote on her back. The Zeitgeist in SF, not just for Warm Beers anymore...there are lots of multitasking clear liquors and hardworking Valencia Street digestifs to keep your heart warm and juicy. http://www.zeitgeistsf.com/

On another note, it is very difficult to assuage the unsympathetic, and therefore, I'll believe no war with Syria when I see no war with Syria and only time will tell. There are many faces of war, and many methods by which battles are won and lost in this modern age. Waltzing into another country to check their weapons is provocation, on whose authority is it sanctioned? 'Lift your ladies' skirts please, we wanna make sure we like what we see'. The presence of war can be as destructive as a typhoon, as accidental as a tsunami, and as calculated as a game of poker. It's easy to predict the reactions of an unwilling majority these days, and plan accordingly.

Wowzer of a Meditation Class Tonight

Between Tracey and I we packed a lot of movement, stretching, guided meditation, deep breathing, mantras, mudras, and sound healing into one class. We traversed dimensions, we raised our frequencies, we created a sacred space. Great synergy. Terrific students, so warm and receptive. I'm proud to say I had the whole syllabus for the series, hand-outs, tea samples, and brewed tea ready. Of course, we extemporized the meditations instead of relying on ones we wrote, and that's what made them so alive and so much fun.

The following list of no-nos is for my own happiness and peace of mind. Wheat and dairy have been wreaking havoc in my digestive system lately. My metabolism slowed to an alarming rate, because I've been rather sedentary, and eating mostly animal products.

Things I'm saying No To for the Fall:

No more wheat-anything, no exceptions
No more eating ground beef every day. I won't faint from iron deficiency. I can live without large mammals slowly sludging through my digestive tract
No more bacon, it doesn't smell good on my face in the morning.
No more eating past 9pm. Bed-crumbs make my skin itchy.
No more drinking coffee instead of water, all day long.
No more eating because I'm supposed to, when I'm not hungry.
No more eating in the bathroom...
No more eating to make myself feel better.
No more cheese. Okay, I'm not there yet. No more eating cheese on every meal and snack.
No more ice cream. That means no more espresso tequila vanilla ice cream floats.
No more potato chips. They still count if they are soggy from my kid's lunchbox.
No more corn chips, except with nachos...mmm Exceptions are the spice of life...or something like that.

Things I'm saying yes too:
Salads with hummus and avocado.
(Sesame seeds in tahini is mood lifting.)
Brewing my kombucha family again. (Kombucha is good for your cellular integrity.)
Aloe juice. (Detoxifying, pulls out toxicants, purifies tissues.)
Herbal teas all day long. (for the 12 systems of the body)
Fresh vegetable juice, whole vegetables and Fruits. full of enzymes, vitamins, minerals and pigments)
Dandelion greens. (lithotriptic, alterative, heptic, diuretic)
Burdock root. (blood cleansing)
Quinoa. Barley. Rye. Funny colored rices. Lentils. Split peas. Nuts. Beans. Mung bean noodles. (nutritious, and not-wheat)
Collard greens. Okra. Swiss chard. Beets. (alkalizing, rich in iron)
Flaxseeds. (good for your brain, anti-aging)
Evening Primrose oil. (Skin elasticity)

Visiting the Temple of the Heart, Instead of the Packie Store

I think many people use addictions to cope, to "get through" a difficult time, or to block their awareness to both personal and collective pain. I've found that replacing unhealthful habits with rituals that have meaning, moves us towards our goals, replacing avoidance and numbing with positive action. The engine of the soul will get you through, the dependency of the mind.

Good Meditation is miraculous. Meditation connects us to our soul's wisdom and to Source. When we are filled with divine love, acceptance, and appreciation, we can gain a renewed resourcefulness.

If you're on Cape, join our Instant Alchemy Meditation class tonight at 7pm at the Masjah Center.

Making Peace With Cats

So, I finally admitted to my self that I love cats, almost as much as people who have them do. It's taken years of eavesdropping on their people's therapy sessions (my work as a medium), to realize this fully and truly. They've always warmed my heart. But years of living with a wonderful man who happens to really really not like cats at all, along with having an allergy to them that makes me sneezy and rashy, and a memory of a cat lady from my childhood who loathed my piano playing...and I just became one of those anti-domesticated fur balls kinda gals, one of those cat-love deniers. Well, my heart cracked open, and I have plenty of room to love cats, AND my studly delightful husband that almost hates cats. We can always share a dislike for watching sports on TV.

Silliness aside, my point is two-fold. Sometimes in long term relationships, we forget to nurture or express parts of ourselves because of a comfort level that happens when people grow together. Sometimes it even means adapting a bad habit or an idea that isn't our own to "get along", because it makes things seem easier. But because of this ability to be empathetic and try on someone else's perspective [even if it be a phobia or a neuroses], it can also go alongside a deep closeness and bond.

The other thing that makes committed relationships work, and so triumphant, is that you've gotta eventually take responsibility for that which you project onto the other person, good, bad and everything in between. Relationships are partnerships, both delicate and strong. You've got to be consciously co-creating it together, and be open or diligently demonstrative in communicating. Any day can be a honeymoon, or at least work towards being one, if you want it to. Happiness ebbs and flows, but contentment runs deep.

Angels and Spirit Guide: Methods and Magic

Assume your angels to have more forgiveness, and your spirit guides to have more of a sense of humor than you can imagine. Soulful guidance is their job. Compassion is their modus operandi. Wit, poetry, melody and wordplay are their calling cards. You can reach them through metaphor, a boat that carries important messages from the heart to the brain to the soul and back again. Rhythms dance with soul, melody speaks to the heart and lyrics give vision to the mind.

As the wheel turns, the proverbial pendulum swings closer to the Autumnal Equinox. Now, we find the desire to reclaim balance in our lives stronger. For many, the drive to excess wains. Vices of the party season are left behind. For many, this is a time to come back within and restore a focus on health and spiritual well being. It's a great time to get a health consultation or an angel reading, as well as a great time to set health and career goals. The Autumnal Equinox acknowledges the fruits of our labors, reflects on what works and what doesn't, and begins to lay plans and groundwork for the coming year. Additionally, in Pagan speak it's Mabon, the last of three harvests before Samhain also known as Halloween.

Addictions can be replaced by rituals of meaning, which work for your highest good and help you work towards satisfying your soul.

Picture is Aeval, Celtic Queen of the fairies who held a midnight court. Model Cindy Sauers.

Instant Alchemy Meditation Class

Oasis Wednesdays at 7pm at the Masjah Center's Om Studio, Masjah owner Tracey Crowell and myself will be guiding a meditation class. Find peace. Breathe. Recharge. Bliss out. Get Clarity to-go. Find your 'Serenity Space'. We will employ ancient mantras, mudras, and breathing techniques to keep you in centered and moving toward your goals. Weekly handouts will provide de-stress exercises. This is a progressive 6 week class, that will culminate October 16th. Find your Midweek Wednesday Oasis to keep you calm, peaceful and moving forward with optimism and feel good vibes.

Tracey Crowell is a fitness, yoga, and dance teacher, massage therapist and energy healer.

Pandora Peoples (that's me) is a certified Chartered Herbalist, nutritional & spiritual counselor, psychic medium and sound healer. Owner of Pandora's Garden, providing organic teas, Goddess cards, misters and magical readings to Cape Cod and beyond.

Soul Health with Dr. Katherine T. Kelly on Healing Wisdom

This Thursday morning at 9am on Healing Wisdom, Dr. Katherine T. Kelly, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., discusses her book, Soul Health: Aligning with Spirit for Radiant Living (Balboa Press, January 2013). Her work presents a Soul Health Model, which integrates and defines ten aspects of our lives creating our mind-body-soul health.

Renowned author and physician, Dr. Larry Dossey remarked,

“In Soul Health, Dr. Katherine Kelly restores the concept of our soul to its rightful place in our lives. This important book will give anyone insight into a more fruitful, fulfilling life.”

Katherine T. Kelly is a licensed practicing psychologist, consultant and speaker. She has authored several nationally‐published academic and holistic health articles and provides consulting, workshops, seminars, and retreats concerning Soul Health on local, regional, and international levels.

Here is the podcast! http://www.womr.org/podcast/katherine-t-kelly-part-1/