Archive for the ‘Blessings’ Category

Sometimes

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Sometimes the nourishment and warmth of drinking tea is just what I need to change a grumpy day into a gift. But today, I just noticed my tea mug sitting by the keyboard, and realized the tea is cold now, and I  hadn’t even sipped it yet. Having that beautiful hand-made mug by the keyboard was all I needed to create my “sitting down to write for a spell” reality, and stay on track.

…but sometimes? Sometimes the act of picking out dried medicinal herbs, filling the iron teapot with filtered water, watching the steam rise and smelling that first burst of yummy that comes when the hot water hits the tea leaves… Sometimes it is the act of making the tea that tells me I am special, and today is special. It reminds me to appreciate what is, to look for the beauty I’ve been too busy or too stressed to notice (a whole flock of tiny grey Bush Tits all a-flutter in the tree nextdoor). It reminds me of all that I’ve worked to hard to become in the past few years.

You see, learning to make herbal tea from raw dried herbs as medicine was one of the first skills I gained in my efforts to take control of my own health and well-being. I was tired of needing someone else to make me well. I was tired of living on the edge between healthy and unwell. Now, I  have herbs for headaches and bodyaches, herbs to improve my immune system or give me added nutrients and vitamin-C. I have herbs that smell and taste delicious, and that sooth my stresses or boost my confidence. I have herbs for sore throats and dry nasal passages. Herbs that cleanse, that break fevers, promote loosening of flegm, heal burns and sooth strained muscles. I have a whole arsenal of natural wellness, and I get to brew it on my own stove, whenever I know I could use the support, at my own discretion, and IT TASTES GOOD. It’s tea.

So for me, making a cup of tea is a bit of a spiritual act. It’s proof that I think my own well-being is worth the effort. It’s both relaxation and medicine. It’s community and independence. Self-expression and an intimacy of connection to the Earth herself. Like I said, sometimes drinking tea can be a healing act, but sometimes, I just need to sit with the herbs and the hot water and the clay mug, and remember who I am.

Be Well.
ps– If you’re interested, I’m currently on a Chamomile-and-Parsley kick.

| Posted in Blessings, Resources, To Your Health, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | No Comments »

YAY ME!

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Today, for the last four or five hours, I’ve been updating things. It’s about time. Here it is JANUARY ALREADY, and I didn’t even have all my workshop offerings on the web calendar for THIS MONTH– JANUARY!. But you can relax. I’ve done that now.

So hey– help  me celebrate. Go to my website (www.BeWellmedicine.com) and check out the online calendar of upcoming workshops and classes. You can click on any offering there for more information, OR you can go to the “Workshops” page, and click on those links for even MORE information. Because– YAY ME!– I updated the workshop descriptions today, too. That’s what actually took most of the four hours.

Okay. Now, I’m taking the dog for a walk, and staring at something that isn’t a computer screen for a while. I might even get really outrageious and have a big yummy organic lunch or something. And read a book for a while. After the walk, that is. Need to stretch my eyes and my legs, and wear out the dog so I can have more quiet time again this afternoon. Oh yeah, and I want to send out an email to let folks know what they’re signed up for, and what they’re missing out on if they DIDN’T sign up for anything! YAY ME.

As always, and especially in the new year…
Be Well.

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The Shaman’s Journey

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Andre Lorde once said, “I am still learning– how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed.”

Meridel le Sueur acknowledged, “Women know a lot of things they don’t read in the newspapers. It’s pretty funny sometimes, how women know a lot of things and nobody can figure out how they know them.”

And Anne Wilson Schaef explained, “Growing up and claiming our own lives is partially a process of listening to our own voices and distinguishing them from the crowd inside us, especially when the internal committee is a group of addicts.”

And I must also agree with Cornelia Otis Skinner, who admitted that, “Women keep a special corner of their hearts for sins they have never committed.”

Have I ever told you that I yearn to participate in a tomato-throwing fight someday? And I’d really love to learn to surf. And knife-throwing holds a particular appeal. But mostly, I hope I learn how to be me– gracefully– while there’s still time to enjoy it. I think that as we learn to recognize our true Selves, and to embrace and appreciate who we are, and what we are capable of accomplishing in this lifetime… we encounter a kind of awe, an awareness of what we COULD DO with all that ability. And therein lies hidden guilt.

In my case, I sometimes stop what I’m doing long enough to acknowledge what I’m doing. And in those moments of quiet, I feel quite overwhelmed by the blessings and support I receive in the course of my work. Seeing peoples’ truths, their “how I got here,” and often knowing how to give them tools that will make the rest of this particular journey easier– more enjoyable– better. Offering life-shifts that will change how an individual interacts with the world from now on– and thus changes their lifetime for the better. Listening to both what is said, and also what is being ignored because it is too painful. Making room for hope, possibility, joy, healing, wellness.

An acquaintance, Avery Energy, told me about Shamanic expert Dr. Michael Harner, president of the Center for Shamanic Studies here in America. I visited his website, and found an article he’d written many years ago. The article defined various aspects of Shamanic Practice. Not only was it interesting to read, but it also brought me face-to-face with large parts of the work I do in the world. Things I hadn’t really let myself recognize. They were too big for just-me to be doing.

Things like knowing- and not just believing. Things like performing miracles. Talking with plants, animals, and rocks, and all of nature. Journeying to nonordinary reality. Soul-retrieval. Extraction. Seeing illness in a client’s body as if with x-ray vision. Conducting lost souls. Spiritual Healing, Seeing and Divination. I utilize all of these in the course of my work. And these, plus a few equally amazing skills, are all the tools of a Shaman.

So really, I’m not doing this alone. I have a lot of help from energies that know so much more than I ever will. The challenge is in letting go of my fear, and being available to that knowledge. Being grateful for what is, and letting go of my desire to fit in– to be invisible among the many. That isn’t my path. I’m here to do something greater with my life and my energy. It is a hard road, and the lessons can sometimes be harsh. But then, as I open to learning new things, I discover so much that I already know. That I already am in the world. And there is room for celebration, and an awareness of Grace. Grace and good intentions create hope. Together with spiritual support and an openness to positive life-shift, they forge miracles.

Today, I invite you to welcome miracles back into your life. Maybe you begin with a little miracle– getting to the post office before it closes. Finding baby’s favorite teething ring before bedtime. Making it home safely from the company party. Miracles are everywhere, just waiting for us to notice.

Doris Lessing says, “That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”

And Marian Wright Edelman clarifies, “If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.”

Adrienne Rich says, “When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her.”

So, having spoken my truth about learning and being for the day,
I leave you with a poem from M.C. Davies:

Iron, left in the rain
And fog and dew
With rust is covered.
–Pain rusts into beauty too.

Be Well.

| Posted in Blessings, Research/Info, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | Comments Off

Hope Bags for the Holidays

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

I’ve been wondering what to give my little group of heart-friends this winter, in acknowledgment of how much I appreciate having them in my life. I don’t like giving out tons of STUFF just for the sake of giving, and every time I try to mail out Christmas cards, I find an overlooked stack of them months later. It finally occurred to me that what I want to give each of these beautiful souls is hope, blessings, and confidence as we march into the new year.

And, HEY! I can GIVE that. Because I’m actually pretty good at making Shamanic Healing Bags, filled with specific energy and intention for the recipient. So there’s a plan now. A good one that I’m actually really excited about. I’m going to make Hope Bags for all my heart-friends. Filled with blessings, and expressing my confidence in them. It’s going to be a great  new year.

Be Well, reach far, hug often, and hold Hope in the palm of your hand.

| Posted in A Wish For Tomorrow, Blessings, To Your Health, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | Comments Off

Blathering On

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

Can I tell you how much I LOVE Christmas Lights??? LOVE THEM! Seriously. Little twinkly bits of light where you least expect them, and they cast a really soft glow over everything around them. And they come in COLORS! It’s like a box of crayons scattered all over the house. And WHITE– like mini candles that won’t catch anything on fire, even your favorite window curtain. (Or gather them up in a little glass jar for effect, since I can justify having this kind of decoration year-round!) LOVE THEM.

Of course, you’re also talking to someone who is more likely to sing Christmas carols in July, and hum “happy birthday to you” in December. I try to spread the love. Because really? Birthdays and family holidays are –at their core– about celebrating the love we have for one another. In a brotherly and sisterly and friendly way, overlooking that  one habit of Aunt Edna’s that makes you cringe every time she does it. And we cringe, and ignore, and give hugs anyway because that’s what love is. Accepting a whole person, not just the bits we particularly enjoy. That’s family. And if your blood relatives don’t accept you for YOU– go find some chosen family who do.

Be Well this season.

| Posted in Blessings, To Your Health, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | Comments Off

Words to Live By

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

As I continue the process of learning who I am in the world, I realize that this exploration will be life-long. I never stop growing and changing and exploring yet another hidden chamber of my Self. So there will always be more to learn. And for each new discovery– or at least, each new uncovering of what is– I find there are some key words to help me remember the joy and the lesson of this particular leg of my journey.

The list is not too long, but it is intense. Words like “Simplicity.” And weighing it against its more direct cousin, “Simplify.” Words like Abundance, and Integrity, and Nourish, to name a few. My latest words? Generosity and Gratitude.

It isn’t that these are new concepts, new ways of being in the world. Rather, I now use these words to consciously acknowledge things I find true about the way I am (or at least, the way I want to be) in the world. I’m not one for crying at the drop of a hat– but I have to admit I cried over these two words.

You see, I’m still working my way through this awesome book, Making Peace with Money, by Jerrold Mundis. I would love someday to meet this man, and tell him about all the parts of myself his book allowed me to reclaim and to celebrate. This time, it was Chapter Seven. Yeah– the “Generosity” chapter. In this chapter, he explains that Resentment (defined as an abiding anger) is a form of self-destruction, and a crippling cause of under-earning. And here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the resources at the back of the chapter:

At the deepest level, there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient… only the universe rearranging itself.
–Henry David Thoreau

He who learns and does not teach is like a myrtle which grows in the desert: no one receives enjoyment from it.
–Rosh ha-Shanah, 23a

And a story:
The devotee knelt to be initiated into the discipleship. The guru whispered the sacred mantra into his ear, warning him not to reveal it to anyone. “What will happen if I do?” asked the devotee. Said the guru, “Anyone to whom you reveal the mantra will be liberated from the bondage of ignorance and suffering, but you yourself will be excluded from discipleship and suffer damnation.”
No sooner had he heard those words than the devotee rushed to the marketplace, collected a large crowd around him, and repeated the sacred mantra for all to hear. The disciples later reported this to the guru and demanded that the man be expelled from the monastery for his disobedience.
The guru smiled and said, “He has no need of anything I can teach. His action has shown him to be a guru in his own right.”
–Anthony de Mello

You see, friends, I cried because I finally saw that even without having money to share, I have so many resources to be generous with. I finally recognized that even without money, I am generous. I have SO MANY workshops to teach, tools to explain, recipes to share, and healings to offer those who cross my path. I cried because even without money, I live generously, and I am grateful.

Be Well.

| Posted in Blessings, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | Comments Off

Timing and Tempo

Monday, November 28th, 2011

Wisdom’s Feast this year was amazing. We had such a gorgeous diversity of presenters and of folks who came to attend the workshops. I wanted to be everywhere and participate in everything, and couldn’t because you do have to pick one workshop for morning session, and one for afternoon. Our keynote speaker was fascinating in her skill at weaving her life story and her spiritual awareness of The Great Something.

Wisdom’s Feast this year was also a lot more work for me than usual. Because I live farther away this year, and was unable to attend many of the planning meetings, I worked harder to support the event energetically. I also had bigger challenges collecting the information I needed to create this year’s program hand-out because of that distance. And while I usually do offer a workshop, this year I also held and offered the closing ceremony at the end of the day.

It took up a lot of my awareness this past few weeks. Add in my regular schedule of clients and workshops, trips to and from Portland, Corvallis, Seaside, The Dalles, Hood River, White Salmon, and points East… well… I took this last week off to recover. Oh, and to enjoy Thanksgiving with about 14 of my extended family members. Thank goodness they only asked me to do the veggie tray, and someone graciously brought both a normal apple pie AND a GLUTEN FREE PUMPKIN PIE!!! Thanksgiving was just wonderful this year.

I hope you’ve had time to celebrate, time to travel, time to be still, time to rest up, time to watch football (the Seahawks and the Chiefs came SO CLOSE!!!)… and time to rediscover yourself amongst the leftovers of the season.

Be Well.
S.Brooke

| Posted in Blessings, Events, authored by: S. Brooke Elliott | Comments Off

Inner Workings

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Basically, the cost of being highly sensitive (as in: empathic, oracle-like, intuitive, etc) is that I’m sensitive in ALL areas of my life. Which is a pain in the ass, really. But when I think about the healing work I’m able to do in the world since I’ve been working to embrace my sensitivity, I think it’s a fair trade.

This month, that has been the weight of my personal inner work. I am working to accept just how sensitive I am –and thus how unique my healing and shamanic/channeling gifts are in the world. It’s scary to become visible to the world at this level, I think. For all of us. To have your personal abilities become relevant, publicly. At one point, I told a friend that the things I’m having to acknowledge that I do– well, they’re things I attribute to the ancient Oracles and Healers of Delphi. The wisemen and wisewomen who live like hermits in stone temples on some distant mountain peak, waiting to be consulted. In Greece. Or Switzerland. Or some kingdom that stopped existing thousands of years ago. I do not attribute these abilities to the modern stumblings of Staci. In the Gorge.

And my wise friend said, “Don’t you want to open a Healing Sanctuary on some mountain near Hood River? It’s just a different mountain.”  Umm. I guess I need to get over my insecurities and get on with my lifework, then. After all, my lifework has nothing to do with soothing (or boosting) my ego. I’m on a mission from God, to quote the Blues Brothers.

And why does it matter? This acknowledging just how big and impressive my gifts, skills, and support system are? Well– I believe in taking personal responsibility for my actions. And I need to know exactly what I’m capable of, and how those skills (etc) might effect the people around me, so that I can BE responsible for my actions. So that I can take appropriate actions. Especially when it comes to my healing work. I channel a lot of Knowledge, and a lot of Energy. Doing so with integrity and awareness is rather important.

I actually hurt somebody once, a while back, giving them a major Chakra Energy Healing that they weren’t actually ready for. They hadn’t finished the personal work that would allow Energy to flow appropriately in that Chakra. It hurt her, what I did by unblocking and realigning the energies in her body… and I had to undo it. Everything in its own time. I am not the expert. I am the Listener. The Channel for something much greater than I will ever be.

And so, while it is easy to honor and appreciate the amazing strength and Energy and presence of All-That-Is and the Great Something, who manages it all (which I connect into, and channel for the well-being of my clients), it is much harder to acknowledge that I carry this rare and extreme gift for channeling, listening/seeing, interpreting, and healing. To acknowledge myself and what I can do as significant. And not just to myself, but significant in the world. And to do so with a humility that recognizes how much spiritual support I have, to be given such a gift. And how much bigger the Great Something is, bigger than I will ever be. Thank goodness.

I’m telling you this, hoping that you will not compare yourself to me. Hoping instead that you will find the courage to see your special skills and gifts, and to acknowledge your own significance in the world. Find the courage to be seen –and to see yourself– as you truly are, at your best. Wow.

Be Well, Wonderful You!
With Gratitude,
Staci B.

| Posted in Blessings, Staci Says... | 1 Comment »

Season’s Harvest

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

This is what we pulled from our little raised-bed garden this afternoon. First, we took the dog for a walk. The sun felt so good on first our faces, and then our backs. Then, we wandered into the garden with a pair of scissors and a bowl. I had to go and get a bigger bowl. And this photo was taken AFTER we shared some of our bounty with the neighbors!

We’ve already pulled a ton of onions from the garden, and quite a few carrots and sweet little green pea-pods, too. (See top right corner of photo…) But today, my partner was finally convinced that the tomatoes might be ready. You know, the first batch. All those dark red little Cherokee Purple Heirloom cherry tomatoes. SO SWEET! And a few of our big heirloom green tomatoes, too. We’re all set to try our hand at “Fried Green Tomatoes” tomorrow night. Wish us luck!

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Break On Through

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

This Full Moon (Midwife Moon, on my calendar!) has been a gift. I met with my sacred community of women last weekend. It was healing, beautiful, nourishing, lovely. And even better, they all had the opportunity to meet each other. I am truly blessed with amazing friends. And this was only a few of them!

This week, also, my MCS skin allergy rash thing finally disappeared. I have a management plan that WORKS! It is such a relief to have my body back. And it turns out that New Seasons has a TON of lovely soaps with no actual soap and no sodium lauryl sulfate in them. (Two things the dermatologist wants me to avoid.) New Seasons also provided me with a wonderful alcohol-free lotion (tons of yummy ingredients in their Borage Butter Cream by Wild Carrot Herbals– and it feels all lovely going on), and a shampoo I actually look forward to using. My conditioner came from there, too, but all from different companies whose products I don’t find other places. And all free of sodium lauryl sulfate, and most other sulfides as far as I can tell. Which isn’t far.

And this week, many people have taken a few minutes to tell me what a difference I have made in their lives. I am myself every day, so I forget how important my work can be. (Especially when I’m not taking horrid medications that don’t actually help my rash. Which I’m glad to say, the treatment that works does NOT include horrid medications. So I’m back to normal.) I feel like my birthday came early because of all these great insights into how my healing work and Empathic Tarot readings have positively affected peoples’ lives. Lives I care very much about. One client even told me that she still refers to a Tarot Reading I gave her two or three years ago for insights and guidance. Wow.

So thank you. Thank you friends, thank you Dermatologist, thank you clients and even strangers whose lives I have touched– and from whom I learned so much about myself. Thank you Universe, and Great Something that fills everything with Energy. It has been an amazing week.

I’ve also had some insights about how I want to be more present in the world. How important it is to make the healing that I channel and the knowledge that I hold more available. For example, I have some great new workshop ideas. So I’ll be making some changes to my website (www.BeWellMedicine.com) over the next week to reflect those insights. I’ll definitely post a message here to let you know when the changes are done. (For now– I find that Change is one of the few constants.) Let me know what you think!

I hope you experience your own breakthroughs, your own moments of pure joy, your own feeling of having an important place to fill in your community, family, or work this summer. I hope you choose to share those moments with me. Happiness is contagious, you know!

Be Well.

| Posted in Blessings, Staci Says... | Comments Off

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