I'll Lend You a Calendula: Herbal Salve-A-Tion

 

 Beautiful, clean-smelling calendula blossoms, picked late on a sunny morning and steeped for a few weeks in olive oil, infused the oil with their healing properties. We strained away the plant matter, warmed the oil, and mixed in 3-4:1 parts oil to melted beeswax.

Then we poured our fresh salve into small containers to restock our winter supply and to sell to neighbors and friends. Hurray for no more chapped hands, cracked fingers, itchy vaginas, and sore noses!

Brother Energy in the Red Tent!

We welcomed in the New Moon and the New Year by setting up our red tent in the woods at Isabella Freedman....

 

where we sang songs, shared stories...

rolled with our brothers like a pile of puppies...

patted out the mother rhythm on each others backs...

walked around Lake Miriam...

and joined the greater community for tashlich/casting our regrets and shortcomings into the water...

so that we can start the New Year refreshed, inspired, burden-free,

and enLIGHTened!

Heads up!

Of this new moon, Rachel wrote: It is Rosh Hashana, literally head of the year, in the Jewish Lunar calendar. One of the Rosh Hashana traditions is Tashlich, a casting away of crumbs into moving water, along with sins or feelings that we'd need washed away to start the new year.

Here is a Tashlich story to get in the spirit of the gathering, and perhaps encourage you have your own impromptu tashlich gatherings as the weather turns. Besides being a story of the digital age, this little essay also has some mom ideas to ponder - like Magda's clarity that behavior that wouldn't qualify for "sin" in most relationships was sinful in her relationship with her mom, and like the author's remark that he turns to his mom for religious guidance because it is easier than looking in the Torah and she speaks his language! I wish for the forgiveness to flow between mothers and daughters, even if I don't always FEEL it. I envision us tossing our collective crumbs in the Hollenbeck at the Sadeh and whatever feelings arise, so be it! ...

Some of the "crumbs" we tossed were the need to have things our own way, and the need to follow tradition in the same way every time.

Sound the Horn! Rise Spirit Rise!

Happy New Year! shana tovah u'metukah!  One of four Jewish New Years, Rosh Hashana celebrates the creation of the world, people, animals and legal contracts. We usually get together on this new moon and eat the sweet treats of creation: apples, almonds, and honey. This year we are deeply in the world and only pause to celebrate our hopes for the future expansion of farm camp Camp Eureka, to "smudge" clean ourselves of negative attitudes with white sage smoke, and to light candles welcoming in the light of new beginnings.

Shana Tova

We danced in the Jewish new year... 5772!

x

Baked moon cakes for the first time.

Served tea

and feasted!
We'll be making more moon cakes next month on Oct 26, and as we near All Hallows Eve and the thinning of the veil between worlds, we'll put on masks to try out other ways of being, so we can
... decide
Which is right
And
Which is an Illusion*
(Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin)

Rosh My Blues Away

In honor of Rosh Hashana, we threw bread in the stream to represent washing away anything we don't want in our lives any more... old emotions, habits, problems that no longer serve us well. Rosh Hashana is one of at least 4 Jewish New Years. Rachel tells us that, that way we get many chances to start over! We also talked about forgiving each other for anything we may have done to hurt the other during the past year.

Back at the house we dipped apples (from trees in Rachel's yard!) in honey and ate them for a sweet year.

This was the first evening of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year and the holiday of Rosh Hahanah. In New England, this new moon will wax into the Harvest Moon. Gardeners will literally be reaping the fruits of their labors; drying, freezing, and canning our harvests for winter use.

ALOHA!!

For September's New Moon, we joined in an Hawaiian Luau at Jean's retirement village home.



We
celebrated
our
creative
spirit
by
dressing up...











and
by
dancing
to
the
music








We
nourished
ourselves
with
the
home's
banquet
buffet



And relaxed with an outdoors stroll and by reading to each other.