Curating Lucidity

08/08/2023

Thank you mother for your abundance and eternal love🌱🦋🙏

08/08/2023

Yesterday, I hiked into the national forest by my house where I enjoy dawdling and soaking in stillness, and came home with a bounty of edible mushrooms! I love to harvest medicinal herbs up there too. Thinking I'll go back today. What do you want to learn about and crafting? I have a kids Botany Basics class coming up next week! Get signed up!

07/16/2023

Yesterday's kids foraging safety class was fantastical! We learned how to read a plant key, to always ask an adult to confirm identification, and how to respect plants and not take more than we need. We also did a little plant walk and identified salsify, coral mushroom, strawberries, raspberries, yarrow, and lomatium. Thank you to all the parents who are amazing and getting your kids out into nature!

06/06/2023

New class announcement!

Get signed-up ASAP, my last class completely sold out.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/plants-as-teachers-plants-as-allies-tickets-650135561967

06/03/2023

Crystalline solutions to the life experiences that woe us.
Alchemy. From downtrodden and into expansion, joy and passion.
For those especially triggering days where everything seems to be going wrong and our minds are on the fritz.

06/03/2023

Creating products with fresh, high quality, highly energetic herbs is so important to me.
That's why I am SUPER excited to be growing many herbs this year that will be used in formulas for clients.
So much love and intention goes into my plants. All organic soil, organic seeds, watered with spring water.
In the fall I'll be ready with nervous system, respiratory, womb, heart center blends and more. All fresh from my garden.
I am growing the herbs I work with most frequently. This is my 4th year of gardening and I can't wait to watch it all unfold. 💕

05/19/2023

I wrote an article for Kind Publishing Co. addressing the power of herbalism and its connection to our ancient roots in bringing communities together. Check it out. ⬇️
"A love of plants remains a missing link in today’s society, though with a grand resurgence of allyship with the natural world, society is growing closer to reclaiming our intimate connection with nature; that which in turn teaches us how to connect intimately with fellow members of society."

Discover the joy of reclaiming ancestral roots and the power of herbalism to bring communities together. Find the path to connection and interdependence.

05/03/2023

A pattern I see time and time again is clients seeing their bodies as broken beyond repair, or a reflection of their own "failures." This view is very common in the holistic world, where people purge, detox constantly, and try and rid themselves of any disharmony.
I approach every client seeing them as a WHOLE being. When we see the body as an enemy, we risk soul loss and disintegration. Your body is highly intelligent, and if you're at war with it, it's going to shut you down. Symptoms will be pushed deeper into the body via the psyche. Ruminating on depletion will cause more depletion.
You are whole. Your body is whole. Wholeness is where the healing journey truly begins.

05/01/2023

Beltane Blessings!
'N sun gabhaidh Craobh na Sìthe le freumh
Is sìndh geugan gu ruig Nèamh
Gah àird le sèinh-mheas 's geal-bhlàth.
Bidh ceilar èibhinn run 'na meanglain
'S daione le'n cloinn A's sealbhachadh
Toradh 's saothair an làmh gun mhaoim
Fo dhubhar caomh a dearbh sgàil.
Translation:
"Then the roots of the Tree of Peace will take firm hold of the Earth's depths and its branches will stretch to heaven, delicate fruits and white blossoms extending in every direction; the merry music of birds will sound in its branches, with families settling, the produce of their labour unfailing under its soft shadow."
-Reverend James McLagan

04/25/2023

Bee Balm or Wild Bergamot (Mondarda fistulosa) is fantastic for deep nervous system disorder or debility. For those with dysautonomia, this is one you're going to want to incorporate into your life.
It is a nervine. It coaxes the Central Nervous System back into wholeness.
These special flowers were harvested outside of the Lost Creek Wilderness last summer, and as I walk through a POTS flare for the first time in many years I am astonished at how much this helper has brought me closer to feeling normal again.
What else is connected to the CNS that Monarda will help bring order to? Digestion. Respiration. Reproduction. Flow in the systems that we run subconsciously in the parasympathetic nervous system. Many dysautonomias are an overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system, and that's how Monarda fistulosa corrects towards harmony.
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04/22/2023

These last few snows give mountain people a very certain type of appreciation. After a few warm days, we are freed from waiting or hoping for Spring to come. The snow melts and our hearts overflow with joy and gratitude and our brains pump out oxytocin and dopamine. It's an intense and beautiful experience, year after year.
Then it snows again. And we see what we are leaving behind. Cozy pajamas, nights by the fire, excessive amounts of soup, quiet laughter. And we revel in the transition of it all.
Each season, both necessary and magical in its own rite.
So, in these last few snows before a transition is complete, I am soaking in the utter silence of the forest and soft snow falling. I will make one last warm soup meal before it's too hot to use an oven. I embrace this goodbye. I'll be living in the heat and bounty of Summer weather so very soon. 💜

04/18/2023

Heya lovely people!
My body is telling me to take a little rest period before gearing up for a super busy summer of classes, products, adventures, and more!
I will be shipping or delivering current orders out today, then will be back in about a week and a half. So if you order in that time, it'll ship when I return from rest.
Thanks for all of your support and I hope life gives you space to rest, as well. 💕💕

04/17/2023

What is life without community?
Share a moment together with the ones you love and serve it up all summer long over chats, laughter, or tears.
Tangy and sweet you'll feel your cup refilled after enjoying Friendship Tea together.
Order link in bio!

04/14/2023

More herbal products dropping on Beltane!
Thank you to all who come back and buy from Curating Lucidity time and time again. This wouldn't be possible without amazing customers! Love the plants, they love us!
www.curating-lucidity-apothecary.myshopify.com

04/14/2023

Let's talk about of sacred practices!
This is going to have a different hilt to it than most of the appropriation arguments we hear.
Appropriation of indigenous practices is a PROBLEM right? We know that, it's 2023.
The underlying cause of appropriation, aside from outright disrespect and theft, is the fact that many of us were colonized way back in the 10th-14th centuries and so we have no oral recollection of spiritual practices of our own people passed down.
For example, my paternal lineage are descendants of the Mackenzie Clan in Scotland (yes, that's the Clan on Outlander.) Even though there are many historical records of the Mackenzie Clan, the indigenous knowledge and information from my searches is lacking.
Why is this?
For one, historical resources are scarce because most healers were female and passed their knowledge down orally. Finding resources on Scottish Indigenous Healing methods is tricky. "Medicine of the Highlands and Islands" by Mary Beth is a personal favorite.
Most Scots who write about their history are incredibly knowledgeable and it will take fortitude to dig through and read these resources because man it goes DEEP. Scottish history is pretty crazy...
Anyways, it is hard for people to trace their own indigenous practices. And yes, at one point in time, we were ALL .
How do we fix this tendency for to appropriate, and how do we learn about our own lineage and practices? Dig deep. You're going to have to go very very far back to get an idea of what genetic memory might be running through your veins. Intuitive processes can help you get closer to where you need to look.
You can do this. We don't need to be appropriating others practices anymore. I've been guilty of this when I was new in the spiritual world (which gets real crazy and toxic by the way!)
Anyways. There's my soap box. Do you know your lineage? And what are you doing to get in touch with it and heal genetic memory? What strength do you receive from your ancestors? (Notice how I said receive NOT take.)

04/10/2023

What is seasonal eating and what does it have to do with herbalism?
For those who didn't know, in addition to being an herbalist, I am also a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. I tie what I learned from my coursework into what I do as an herbalist.
I am certainly not a fan of diets, and I support people eating what they feel is best for their bodies and lifestyle.
I also believe eating seasonally is what we are primally coded to do. Just like plants and herbs come in specific seasons at certain times of year, our food is at its prime for freshness and nutrient content when it is in season.
Eating seasonally balances the energetics of the season we are in; cooling foods in the heat of summer to prevent excess heat in the body (which ultimately can lead to illness.) It also optimizes hormonal function, since at different times of year we produce different amounts of hormones.
Do you eat seasonally?

04/07/2023

A little excerpt from the book I'm writing. 💕

As society grows and changes, our relationships change too.
In 2023 we are reclaiming what is ours as mothers; The Village.
It's time to shift the narrative. We have what it takes.
The Village we can Build.

03/31/2023

Yarrow is one of my most beloved allies, if you've been hanging around for awhile you know that.
I've used it for so many things, warrior energy, fevers, COVID, menstrual cramps, postpartum bleeding, decreasing excess heat in the body, and more.
But this was the first opportunity I had utilizing it to stop excessive bleeding from a wound. I had surgery a few days ago, and upon arriving home I was going through gauze in under 10 minutes. My husband helped me make a Yarrow poultice (water+herb+mortar+pestle) to make a paste to place in the gauze.
This stopped my bleeding IMMEDIATELY. Literally. No more blood ever since it was placed.
It's easy to find, fairly easy to identify, and also beautiful in bouquets. A great herb for women and mothers.
I love yarrow...get to know this herb. 💕