Writing has always been my refuge, my creative sanctuary, my sanity.  But for the past year—actually for the past 15 months or so—I have not been able to get to the page. This is where death has taken me.

HOW TO MAKE A WILD FORAGED COUGH & COLD SYRUP ~ Did you know that all of the medicines you need for soothing and healing inflamed throats and lungs grow right from the land in this Front Range area? Here’s my recipe for how to make a wild foraged medicine for coughs and colds.

TREES AS MEDICINE ~ Mid-June is linden tree time. Besides being a super handsome and amazingly scented tree, linden flowers are medicinal and powerfully healing energetically as well. Quite often (and very popular in Europe) folks make linden tea with the dried flowers. But you can also make the best honey ever with their flowers. Learn how to harvest and make this insanely good treat for yourself.

HEALTH, RELATIONSHIOP & RECIPROCITY ~ One of my favorite ways to slow down and reconnect is to do a little thing I call “tree breathing”. It just takes about 5 minutes to do. And the practice does wonders for your health and, I believe, for the health of the land too.

HOW GETTING LOST ISN’T THE WORST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED ~ We get lost. It is a given. You are not a total failure to feel lost. In a way, perhaps you are even right on track to be questioning and questing. Sometimes getting lost is the exact medicine we need in order to truly find ourselves.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN TEA FOR NERVOUS SYSTEM HEALTH ~ Learn how to create a powerful tea blend that helps calm, sooth and rebuild the nervous system so that you can help yourself through these days of mental and emotional stress.

As the ground of our country shakes and seems to break open, I am called to pause and listen. To acknowledge and try to truly hear the voices and the painful reality that my Black brothers and sisters have experienced and are continuing to experience in my community and around the country. This is my commitment to listening more, to educating myself, and to taking action where I can—and a sharing of some anti-racist resources that I’ve found helpful.

FINDING & CREATING TEMPORARY STRUCTURES ~ One thing that can help significantly when our regular lives have become suddenly irregular is to create new structures in our day to find a sense of normalcy and regularity. Here are some ideas for how you might create some structure as you adjust to your new norms.

8 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO KEEP YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM STRONG ~ There are some amazing and truly powerful things you can do right from your very own backyard to boost your immune system and help keep you healthy and strong. Read more to learn 8 ways.

AN ANTIDOTE TO POISON IVY ~ Grindelia (or gumweed) is indigenous to the Americas and has been used throughout the ages to treat afflictions of the lungs including bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma, and to relieve skin irritations of all kinds. Learn more about this often overlooked plant and how you can use her medicine on the spot, especially as a remedy for poison ivy.

WALKING THE EDGE BETWEEN FEAR & TRUTH ~ The truth is we have but moments in this fragile life. And within each one is the potential for us to share love, connection and create beauty with each other if we recognize it. This is part of what I learned six years ago on that hospital bed.