I'm dogsitting for a friend, so today had 3 walks. I took 'em both out this morning, and got home just as the sun was lighting up the porch. It sounds romantic, but it was about 35 degrees! This evening, after playing toss with the purple foam ring in the backyard, they went for separate walks because they like to go in different directions, and have MUCH more spunk as the day goes on. It was really a lovely evening. They live in Philadelphia, which is several weeks if not a month ahead of where I live only about 20 mins away. It's amazing how much of a microclimate the city can be. After both walks I sat on their deep front porch and savored the air. It's warm, but as I cooled down I felt the damp chill that is spring underneath the warm. The traffic is nonstop, people are forever calling and yelling to each other, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I don't live in the city full time. It's not for me. And on a related note, here's what it looks like when I try to take a picture of the season's first daffodils while on a dog walk!
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Well, it seems like the Arctic has broken it's iron grip on the East coast, at least around Philadelphia. Yesterday we had a few inches of snow, today it rained this morning and now the sun is shining and it's above 40 degrees! "It's a veritable heat wave!" as I heard someone describe it yesterday. However, this is the PERFECT time of year to learn the lessons of our elders. Do you know what happened to Laura that afternoon, when she was hot and scratchy in her flannels? "Laura went crossly back to school and sat squirming because she must not scratch. She held the flat geography open before her, but she wasn't studying. She was trying to bear the itching flannels and wanting to get home where she could scratch. The sunshine from the western windows had never crawled so slowly. Suddenly there was no sunshine. It went out, as if someone had blown out the sun like a lamp. The outdoors was gray, the windowpanes were gray, and at the same moment a wind crashed against the schoolhouse, rattling windows and doors and shaking the walls. ... The blizzard was scouring against the walls, and the winds squealed and moaned in the stovepipe." The forecast is still calling for single digits next week, and we've had significant snow in March (and April) before. Keep your flannels handy! Winter hasn't given up quite yet.
The internets are full of "what to do" about a cold. Here's a snarky little list of "things to avoid" instead! Every season, I meet people determined to catch a cold and keep it. I see people begging the flu virus to take up residence. I watch people roll out the welcome mat and fluff the pillows for a lingering cough and phlegm. Here are 5 hard-and-fast rules to getting sick, to help you guarantee many more months of misery! 1. Not feeling well? Indulge yourself. Who wants to cook when you're under the weather? Don't! Order pizza! Eat ice cream! It's Girl Scout Cookie season! It’s a well-known fact that dairy increases mucous. And since flour really acts like sugar in your body, you’re getting a one-two punch with pizza- sugar shuts down your immune system for up to 6 hours at a time, so after inhaling all that snot-forming cheese (ooo, get the stuffed crust! Go for broke!) your defense system is helpless to respond, well beyond your next mealtime. Plus, a sick body needs food that is easy to digest, like soup, so what energy it does have left can be routed to fighting back the invaders. So picking a dinner like pizza, that’s heavy and greasy and gummy, and following it with something totally junky for dessert, makes sure you have absolutely nothing left for the fight. Bonus: Go ahead and feel virtuous- no matter what veggies you order as toppings, or what useless labels like "natural" you find on the carton, they won’t mitigate the complete lack of any redeeming value here. Organic junk food is still junk! Party on! 2. Start taking Echinacea at the start of the season Echinacea is an immune stimulant, so constantly stimulating your immune system from the very start of cold and flu season is a great way to wear it out and make sure it can’t handle any illness once you do catch something. Avoid immune builders, too, like vitamin-dense fruits and vegetables, herbs like medicinal mushrooms or adaptogens, and mineral rich bone broths. Elderberry is another great one to mention here. Since it needs a constant presence in your body to glom onto the mace-shaped flu virus and nullify it, enjoying elderberry syrup in fits and starts assures that the virus will be able to shake the elderberry’s sticky presence, mutate, and resume bashing open your cell walls with its little spikes just for the fun of it. 3. Keep On Truckin’ There’s a war going on inside you. But you have obligations! And deadlines! And commitments! And a life! So keep pushing through, keep working at the same breakneck pace that got you here in the first place. Stress hormones depress your immune system (seems evolution didn’t rank killing a bacteria very high compared to the tiger that’s trying to kill you now). If you can keep up the stress load, all those illness-causing microbes will be able party like it’s 2099, and probably until then too. Besides, stress absolutely destroys your supply of B vitamins and other nutrients, which are essential for energy. You’ll be extra good and exhausted during all this, as well. Whatever you do, don’t listen to those strident demands for extra sleep that your whole self is making. 4. Coffee. CoffeeCoffeeCoffee! And wine. Your immune system has managed to mount some kind of response. It’s battling the bacteria and viruses that are trying to take over. The casualties of this fight are being swept away by your blood stream, filtered into your lymph system, broken down in your liver, strained out by your kidneys. You need help washing away all this debris. Don’t give in! Coffee is a diuretic, removing water from your system. It also stimulates those poor, overtaxed adrenal glands on your kidneys, taking away some resources from the kidneys themselves. AND it stimulates the digestive system, one of those less-than-necessary functions during an immune response. Triple Whammy! Don’t forget the alcohol, also a great diuretic. Go ahead, break the seal. Just make sure there’s no good, clean water to chase it. Alcohol also beats up your liver and kidneys MMA- style, so this a super time to go all out on them. 5. Go to the doctor at the first sign of anything Last but not least, get rid of your symptoms all together, why don’t you? What an inconvenience a runny nose is, that chest congestion rattling around is, your pesky fever is. Go get yourself a prescription. Fever suppressants, cough suppressants, decongestants (really anti-congestants, since they don’t help your mucous flow but rather just make it stop producing), antihistamines- begone, annoying symptoms. What happens to the mucous when it doesn’t come out? Who cares?! Antibiotics for a viral infection? Who cares?! Why do you get a fever, really? Who cares?! I don’t care about being sick, so long as I feel perfect now. Those symptoms are the signs of a healthy immune system that is able to fight- shut that DOWN! Obviously, people, serious conditions need medical care. But so do all your other minor conditions! Go sit in that office, bring your copay and leave your face mask at home. You'll probably pick up a more exotic bug than the one you originally came in for. Have a merry cold and flu season, my friends! The difference between Attention and Intention is subtle and dramatic. Like the difference between listening and hearing, your entire experience will change with an application of focus. Two years ago, something moved me to create an intention for the year. I don't now remember how or why, if it was audibly suggested or some sort of spiritual guidance, or where the words even came from. But on the inside cover of my list-making notebook, I wrote: Mean What I Say and Do What I Mean Very frequently, several times a month, I would see that phrase, all by itself on that white page. It would remind me to act consciously, to choose and to speak consciously. No more promises to others that make them comfortable, at my expense. No more carrying over list items from day to day until I get tired of looking at them, and just not writing them down again. It was time to be responsible for my words and actions. It changed my habits and my year. Last year, I chose a single word to represent what I wanted to reach in 2013: Balance Lots of people asked me about a New Year's Resolution last year, and lots of them laughed at me when I revealed my goal. It seemed an uncomfortable topic for many, almost like they didn't want to acknowledge their own unbalancedness, and would really rather I not suggest they think about it, thank you very much. I did stop talking about it early in the year! However I didn't stop thinking about Balance, and I found myself trying to choose my actions, my reactions, the people in my circle, even purchases I made in terms of my inner scales. Again, it changed me! This year, I'm in Witch Camp and we have an Intention Workbook (try it!) to set up our New Year. We are supposed to choose a word to describe the year we want to have, then apply it to categories like family life, relationships, work, heart, soul, and so on. I chose: Satisfaction While I was filling in action steps for each of the Intention categories, Discipline also made an appearance in every one of them! That's an uncomfortable word for me, Discipline. It sounds so small and mean, about denial and hardship. I don't like to use the word and I don't like to act on it, either. Yet I have spent quite a bit of time recuperating from a a hard time, and now it's time to get my new, stronger, healthy me back on track and I know that Discipline is the way to reach my goals, and to be Satisfied with where and who I am. Attention energizes, intention transforms. What's calling out for your attention, and how do you intend to respond? I have a confession. First, let me say I am NOT a high-maintenance girl. I don’t get mani-pedis, my hair is really long since it doesn’t get cut often, I don’t wear makeup daily. However, I have realized that in wintertime, my routine (such as it is) totally falls apart and I stop really taking care of myself. I think the reason has a lot to do with the fact that it’s cold, and I simply don’t want to stand around dry-skin-brushing before I get in a hot shower, and I don’t want to wait around after a shower to oil or lotion or polish. Instead I get dressed quickly in long pants, long sleeves, socks, go to make tea, notice the dishes that need doing, sit down at my computer… The first night I visited my parents for the holidays, I took a bath. It was the best bath I’ve had in a LONG time! A deep tub, Eucalyptus and Spearmint Epsom salts, jets, a shell-shaped inflatable pillow, ice water, it was fantastic. I remembered feeling that great just a couple months ago, and the gradual dropping off as the weather changed. Do you see this pattern in you, too? How do we add back in some of the self-love we all need in the dark winter months? Here are a few ideas I’m trying out: Slow the Flow I know that we’re supposed to use low-flow shower heads to reduce our water consumption. To be honest, I switched for two other reasons. One, it makes my hot water last longer. Two, it has a shut off feature. My shower features the classic two-knob setup, and fine tuning the temperature can be tricky. So mid-shower, when I want to take a break from the water, I can flip through the spray options on my new shower head and turn it off completely. This lets me take a few minutes to pumice my feet, to scrub my hair, to put a clay mask on my face, all without being rinsed before I’m ready. This means I have a chance to do a little in-shower pampering, when I’m already warm and content! It also gives me a chance to cool off, which is good too… Hydrotherapy Hot and cold, yin and yang, night and day- we all need to cycle through the extremes to get to the other side of things. While I love me a good hot shower, one of my teachers (Jill Hoffman) recently explained the benefits of using some cold water in terms of our immune systems, lymph circulation, and core heat. The temperature change stimulates the pumping action of our lymph system, which cleans out the debris from a hard-working immune system. It also drives the surface heat created by the hot water to our core, warming us from the inside. Before I tried hydrotherapy, I had a sense that the cold water would ‘wash away’ the heat in my arms and legs. What I actually experienced, however, was my body saying, “Nope, nope, that heat’s MINE,” and a sense of it drawing in- condensing instead of dispersing. This is important to me because often when I feel cold, the surface of my body is actually quite warm and I’m losing heat rapidly through my arms and legs. Jill told us that the secret is to turn the water to cool, then back to hot for twice as long- say 30 seconds then one minute. Starting with cool, rather than full on cold, was the key to me continuing the therapy! And I really have been feeling warmer, especially when I’m sleepy and prone to chills. “Oil on the Inside, And on the Outside!” This is one of my all-time favorite quotes from Gilmore Girls, and it really holds true. When the weather changes, I start craving oils, and I give in readily. I have a lavender-infused almond oil that is really nice on those dry spots on my arms and shins, I use coconut oil on my face (after I apply it as deodorant!), and I don’t mind making a little mess of the olive oil on my hands when I’m cooking. Oiling the inside is even more important to me. I’ll put extra coconut oil in anything- oatmeal, greens, even hot tea. (I find it very light when it’s melted, so I don’t feel like I’m drinking grease.) Collagen and gelatin are also super necessary to my typically cold digestive system. This early in the season I make stock from chicken or turkey (I collect bones after Thanksgiving, it’s super!) A quick supper for me is to cook soba noodles in a small pot of stock with fresh ginger and garlic, and add a nice glop of sesame oil. Soon, when it gets really cold and dry out, I’ll keep my crockpot going with a beef shin bone in it. I’ll drink a mug of broth in the morning and again at night. Bone broth is one of those amazingly seasonal things. At no other time of the year does it seem remotely appealing, except at those times when I really need it. Then I can’t get enough. I’ve got some ideas for more small steps to make my winters more comfortable, and I’ll be experimenting as the days begin to lengthen and the cold begins to strengthen. What do you do to stay happy in the cold? What a beautiful day! Staying in the present, appreciating the “now”, is a difficult practice for all of us. Myself, I tend to fluctuate between the ticker-tape in my brain of to-do tasks that I haven’t finished yet, and the schedule and tasks I have set for tomorrow. Today, I was dog sitting and took my charge out for her noontime walk. It is truly fabulous outside! Here, in southeastern Pennsylvania, we’re about midway through autumn. We’ve had some nights in the upper 30’s, some days in the mid 80’s, and some days of torrential rain and wind. About half the trees are mostly or all the way empty of leaves, and there are still plenty left that are completely green. As we walked, I had started out thinking about how different today is from the middle of summer. The sky is blue, but it’s lighter than that deep, dark blue you see in July. The sun is warm, but without the intensity that beats into my skin and feels like it is shining on my bones. Then, since I was walking barefoot for maybe the last time this year, I crunched through some warm leaves. The next step, I was on soft grass that was warm on top and cool underneath. The driveways we crossed were smooth and hot, the curb was coarse. A brisk breeze, maybe a wind even, kicked up. It had a beautiful cool edge, and a wild sound thanks to the dry leaves up high in the trees all around us. I soaked in the light, the air, the sounds and smells and freshness that that walk held. I know that summer is over, along with its everlasting promise of warm and humid. I know that the near future holds cool, cold, dry, and rather uncomfortable weather. But for those 10 or 15 minutes, I knew what it was to be like to just Be. Rebuild Yourself During the Harvest Many, many of the people I've talked to this week have been extra tired. I have a theory: that this fabulous weather is invigorating, inspiring, and motivating, and we're all doing much more than we were last week. In the absence of the hot, humid drag that summer can have on our to-do lists, we're suddenly presented with the both an ideal environment to accomplish tasks we've put off, and the foreboding of more inhospitable weather- of the cold, icy variety. It is worth it, however, to take some time and consider what this season is about. Flowers that have been lazily bobbing about all summer are suddenly putting out seed. Fruits that have been taking in the scenery, slowly ballooning in size, are suddenly ripening and falling. Animals that have been dozing on hot afternoons are suddenly out at all hours, munching away and putting on their winter storage. This last flurry of activity is all about preparation, building up, maximizing, optimizing, and storage before winter- a season that's all about hunkering down, being quiet, resting and restoring. This makes Autumn the perfect time of year to heal! (Keep an eye out, I'll make the same argument for the next 3 seasons, too. It's all relative :) ) Enjoying the bounty that Autumn brings us signals a shift in our eating patterns- from summer salads and crisp-tender veg and quick grilled meats, to long-roasting, stewing, souping, and crockpots. It also allows our bodies to shift from the quick, light fare that cools us in the heat, to heavier, warm, sweet foods (in an Ayurvedic Tastes sense) that also imbibe us with the energies of the earth as it goes through it's own storage rituals. Root vegetables hold all the promise of next years' growth, stored in their sweet layers deep in the comforting, supportive earth. Seeds (including nuts) hold that same promise, and hold a sense of fresh air, sunshine and youth in their tight shells. Mushrooms wait all summer for the cool dampness September brings, and help to bridge the gap between layers of the forest, between freshly fallen leaves and rich, dark hummus underneath, in the same way that they work with your body. Squashes, with their hard rinds perfect for outlasting the whole season, yield a melting, soft, sweet interior, and gift us with all those qualities too. Here's an example of a whole day's meal plan, based on this transition time between full-fledged Summer and outright Autumn:
Natural Support During the Changing of the Seasons Autumn is a beautiful time in Pennsylvania, full of color and smells and textures. The sunlight is already changing by mid-August, a reminder that at the Summer Solstice, the sun came as close as possible and we began our descent toward Winter. The air changes, becoming dryer and crisper and full of stories about ripening and harvesting and dying. The insects and birds change their tunes, too, and even the thunderstorms seem less enthusiastic without their hot, humid, summertime energy. These changes outside bring changes to my inside as well, and not all of them are welcome! While ANY drop in the humidity is wonderful, it immediately signals dry hands and lips. Then too, the very fact that the air isn’t oppressive and stifling anymore encourages me to get out and work more, do more, to prepare for the future and to maximize my present. My birthday is in early September, so I have a clear marker as I think back over the years and see that, consistently, this time of year always brings upheavals, major shifts, and nostalgia to my world. In the spirit of all these changes, all these signals that time is moving on again after the long, lazy(ish) days of summer, here are my Five Favorite Fall Fixes: 1. Oil As Miss Celine, Emily’s ancient stylist, shared on Gilmore Girls, “Olive oil on the inside, ahnnnd on the outside!” Personally, coconut oil serves me well. I like how it tastes, and how it absorbs into my skin. I use it as a deodorant, as a moisturizer, and as a cooking oil because it has a higher smoke point than olive so it’s harder to burn. I also keep a small plastic jar in my shower and oil cleanse my face a few times a month. It'a amazing Anytime the weather turns dryer, I start upping my oil intake. I’ll add a dollop of coconut to a mug of tea, or make popcorn with it. I splash good olive on all sorts of dishes as a dressing. The local Home Goods sells metal, cylindrical containers of nice, fancy oils like Toasted Hazelnut and Grapeseed, that make their way into all sorts of meals. Good quality fish oils also make daily appearances and do a LOT for me and my mood! Avocado counts too, and I love to make a quick mash with lemon and Tulsi as a side salad or spread on top of anything that will hold it. 2. Roots Grounding, nourishing, strengthening- root vegetables give us all the same qualities they need to do their rooty jobs. In Ayurveda, sweet tastes are building, and roots are classic examples of sweet. Plus, they cook up so soft and warm and delicious, in a heavy, substantial way that just isn’t desirable when it’s warmer outside. In addition to common vegetables like beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, rutabagas,etc, I like herbal root powders as well. Marshmallow root powder, combined with honey and bananas and coconut butter and sesame seeds is one of my favorite breakfasts. I sprinkle Licorice root powder into hot chocolate, or on a Mediterranean style rice pilaf with raisins and cinnamon. Dandelion root is a wonderful way to nourish the liver, especially as it works harder with denser fall foods, and I keep a jar of Dandy Blend at my desk for when I can’t simmer a proper tea for 10 minutes or so. 3. Adaptogens Adaptogens are a class of herbs that help your body respond to stress and the environment in non-specific ways, rather than hitting one body system directly. They commonly have immune, nervous system, adrenal, and digestive effects that are calming, normalizing, or nourishing. Many of these herbs are familiar to areas like Northern China and Siberia, so we Westerners are only learning of them recently because, seriously, their research is only recently being translated out of Russian and Chinese! It shows how ingrained the internet is in my understanding of the world, that I was surprised that not everything is available in every language, or at least the major ones. That’s slightly embarrassing... Several of Ayurveda’s popular herbs are also considered in terms of their ‘adaptogenic’ qualities and are expanding the materia medica available to us. Eleuthero, Rhodioa, Ashwaghanda, Amla, Ginseng, Astragalus, Tulsi- these are all adaptogens. Each has its own personality, there's never "One Perfect Herb For [enter your condition], and David Winston’s Adaptogens is a good starting point for learning about each. Another great resource is Avena Botanicals youTube videos on specific herbs, like Ashwaghanda or Tulsi (aka Sacred Basil). 4. Bones In my view, quality care, quality lives, and quality slaughter leads to quality animal products, and I shop for my meat, bones, and raw dairy at a local family farm. Bones, specifically in the form of bone broth, are a wonderful, rich source of gelatine, that softens and protects my digestive system. I traditionally am very dry and cold, so in the winter I suffer even more. I usually use chicken or turkey bones to make soup, or to cook rice or grains. But in the dead of winter, I will make a beef broth in the crockpot that simmers non-stop. I have a mug straight up in the morning, and at least one more during the afternoon or evening. Every time I take out a mugfull, I add a mug of water back and just keep it going. Usually, I just use water and a shin bone, and it lasts several days before starting to chip and losing flavor. If I have veggie trimmings or a Reishi mushroom piece I will throw them in too. A splash of Apple Cider Vinegar helps pull minerals out of all bones and into the broth, as well. 5. Wool and silk Fall is a sensory experience! The smell of crisp leaves, ripe apples, frosty mornings, the crinkle of your nose in the dry chill, the whisper of cool breezes on your face, the comforting feeling of a down quilt in the morning. I knitted a long striped cowl scarf out of some yarns I found in a clearance bin. They are mixtures of merino wool, cashmere, and raw silk, and the smell of those fibers just says AUTUMN! to my nose. A wool jacket, a silk undershirt- I just love love love it. Fall is a chance for me to really change things “on the inside, and on the outside” and prepare my body and my mind for true winter, true cold and short days and staying in more. Let it serve as an actual transition between the energy and exuberance that is possible in summertime, and the quieter, slower, indrawn resting that marks nature in winter. *Please note, some links are to my Amazon Affiliate Account, where I'll earn a few cents off any purchase you make. Thanks! What a lovely morning! (By that I mean hot, muggy, buggy and hot.) Truly, though, I really love living in a temperate climate. Our summers are very hot and VERY humid, our winters cold and wet (last January we had a windy day that was 12 degrees, and a night that was 9. Couldn't even breathe!) But that's just it. I love the changes, the shifts, the adjusting. Going outside after a thunderstorm wouldn't feel so clean and fresh if it weren't for the humid day that led up to it. The crisp, cool, dry mornings of Autumn are best enjoyed after the baking we just endured for the last several months. So even though I would love to see a night time temperature in the 60's, I relish this heat knowing that I won't have it soon enough. My Tomatoes are relishing this heat too, as are the Chamomile and Red Clover blooms. There's a St. John's Wort oil just beginning it's second solar infusion to make it double strength, the single Calendula plant is giving out flowers one at a time, and the Dill and Cilantro have started to flower. I love this time of year.
I have been flipping endlessly through a mental catalog of summertime plants- Lavender, Calendula, Hibiscus, Rose, Tomato (that one almost won) and just couldn't decide on the one that best cried out, "Summer is finally here!"
In early June, I was driving one day and it suddenly struck me- it's hot, I have the windows open, there are birds everywhere, and it just looks like summer. I grabbed my phone and started snapping pictures whenever I was stopped in traffic. Not many were in focus, and they don't do the green shades and shading justice, but I did get a few shots that demonstrate our summer, and it was my fervor to document this landscape that led me to my answer for this prompt. Finally, I had hit upon the plant, or at least the category of plants, that to me at least best captures the essence of summer in my native Pennsylvania- the deciduous forest of the Northeast! Years ago I was visiting my family in Florida late one spring, and I drove myself back to PA. Tooling along Interstate 95 gave me hours and hours of opportunity to observe the changing landscape of highway plantings. Somewhere through North Carolina, I think, there were long stretches of trees planted on either side of the road, almost encasing us in a tunnel of dark, endless green. As I got farther North and entered Virginia, I started noticing some major color changes happening. I realized that in the South, where it's hotter, all the trees and really all the plants need protective measures against the sun. These include thicker leaves and waxy coatings to preserve moisture, and this gives a darker and more uniform shade of green to the forests. As I entered my familiar North, I began to see many more shades of green, and many more textures in the leaves. And, as I formally left the South behind, I also left behind their early summer and returned to more late-spring activity. Some trees were fully leafed out while some were still getting there. In just one hour I could see an entire color wheel's worth of hues. Since that drive up the East Coast, I have observed season after season that the trees mark time for me. And in the summer, they're beautiful. The dappled shade, the deep shadows and electric green that the sun creates- there's almost a glow that comes from inside groves as photosynthesis works its magic. There is something unique and specific in the quality of the light and the air that I can recognize as distinctly summer. Whether you're driving through it, walking through it, sitting outside in the shade at a family picnic, or looking at it through a window, you just know it's summertime This also means that early in the season, when it gets hot too soon, I just don't count that as summer, but as an over-enthusiastic spring. And similarly, the 'dog days' of summer as September ends are the beginnings of Autumn, not a last gasp of beach vacation and summer camp time. It just doesn't look the same. Those trees tell us the truth. |
Fun Fact: I'm an herbalist and a movement coach. Not a doctor, or a pharmacist, and not pretending to be one on TV.
This is a public space, so my writing reflects my experiences and I try to stay general enough so it might relate to you. This does not constitute medical advice, and I encourage you to discuss concerns with your doctor. Remember, however, that the final say in your wellness decisions are always yours- you have the power to choose, you are the boss of you. And, some of my posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them I'll earn a few cents. Thank you for supporting my work. This website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical, mental health or healthcare advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, heal, cure or prevent any illness, medical condition or mental or emotional condition. Working with us is not a guarantee of any results. Paula Billig owns all copyrights to the materials presented here unless otherwise noted. Categories
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