slow | These Light Footsteps

A couple weekends ago we made a trek across Pennsylvania to attend the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Herbal Conference. It was inspiring to be in the company of so many like-minded women and I was especially grateful to finally meet one of my favorite herbal mentors, Rosemary Gladstar. I’ve been an online student of hers for some time, but hearing her speak in person really reaffirmed how wonderful it is to call her one of my teachers.

She has an amazing way of synthesizing the big picture on the interrelatedness of herbs, health, happiness, and our connection with nature into an easily accessible and moving message. I hope I can be like her when I grow up!

On our way home, we planned to spend several days in the Western part of Pennsylvania visiting old growth trees in Cook Forest. Serendipitously, as we traveled along the road to our lodge we passed a sign for “Quiet Creek Herb Farm”. Continue reading →

Recently, I signed up for The Abundant Mama’s #BanBusyChallenge.

It has been a good reminder for me to reaffirm what I know to be true — deliberate, intentional, and slow living allow us to savor and enjoy life instead of rushing through it. As the Abundant Mama reminds us, we are often obsessed with “busyness” because we are afraid of failing. We want to prove ourselves over and over again by filling our time with more, more, more.

When we slow down someone might see us as lazy, we might have to face our own imperfections, and we feel that we might miss something. Ironically, we miss out on life’s sweet moments by becoming overly busy. And also, we are our own worst critics – no one else is judging us as harshly as we judge ourselves for what we are or are not doing. Continue reading →