Yin deficiency is a common pattern at this time of year. Summer is full of Yang energy– lots of activity and output during the long days can deplete Yin. Common Yin deficiency signs include dryness, inability to maintain a comfortable temperature, vertigo (or easily becoming light-headed), insomnia, and irritability. Yin tonifying herbs can bring repletion by allowing the body to hold more moisture in the mucosa and other tissues of the body.

It’s clean up time – and I’d love to introduce to you one of my favorite weeds. Cleavers is a weed that nestles in, and sometimes dominates, the spaces of the herb beds in early spring and then removes itself by the time the perennials start taking up more space. I like this tidy spatial dance that it does, which echoes its action in the fluids of the body. 

As Midsummer nears, the days are blanketed by a penetrating heat. The hopeful optimism of spring is over, and it’s time to start doing the work of tending - culling pests, pulling weeds, and harvesting the growth. […] whether we are feeling marginalized, fearful, uncertain, or holding collective grief, we need resilience in our nervous systems. We must have steady uplifted resolve.

A garden, in sweet and steady ways, can echo a soul’s path. The state of the soil, the building of ecology, and the flourishing blooms are a mirrored experience in our own internal ecology and seasonal rhythms.

Spring has launched us into bright, full days and the energy is high. The plants are exploding with growth. I recently left for two nights on the river, and in that short time the roses had budded and started blooming…

Spring Equinox is here! Irritants, big and small, seem to pile up in this season of quick change. On the Colorado Plateau we experience dramatic spring temperature swings and ever-present winds…

Heartache is in the air. People are losing sleep. We are global witnesses to war and inhumanity, and our sense of security for ourselves and our loved ones is being threatened on many fronts. I like to set an intention to care for myself first, so I can be the strongest mother and ally moving forward…