Welcome to the Nurture podcast/ blog.
Let’s create the beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
How to make Pumpkin Spice Chai
Our Pumpkin Spice Chai mix is made with real air dried pumpkin powder and fresh tea and spices. It is much easier when you see how to make it on this short and fun little video!
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The Fall Equinox. Finding Balance
Finding Balance
I used to think of balance as the toe point of a ballet dancer. One leg in the air while the other finds it’s mark on the ground- holding her body in exquisite control and balance.
There’s no doubt that we have these moments in life. When our hard work and sweat come together for the applause of a crowd.
It may take suffering to get there, but damn it feels amazing.
Those peaks moments are often followed by valleys, which is another a form of balance, though that part rarely gets praised.
Balance is something we’re always striving towards yet find impossible to keep.
We all want a balanced life, relationship and bank account.
Yet try as we might, at what point do we actually have our all parts of life “in balance”?
And why do we care?
Who determines what balance really means after all?
Enter the Fall Equinox
The Equinox is moment in time when we are in a kind of cosmic balance, whether we realize it or not.
The Sun is shining directly on the Earth’s equator, resulting in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres experiencing exactly the same amount of day and night.
This moment of balance between the our planet and our Sun only happens twice a year (the other being at the Spring Equinox in March).
The Equinox is different from a ballerina.
One is a result of the natural rhythm of the universe. The other is a moment created by physical effort and control.
If we strive for perfection in life- it takes large amounts of energy.
If we relax and flow with nature- life gets easier.
Which will you choose: Be the Equinox or the Ballerina?
Letting Go
Fall Equinox signals the edge of the winter season. From this point forward the nights will be longer than the days. Night continues to deepen until the longest night of the year at the Winter Solstice in December.
This is the harvest time.
When the crops that grew from seeds we planted in spring have reached their maturity.
Nature balances it’s growth with the ebb and flow of sunlight. Our lives are determined by this rhythm of seasons.
Balance in the Northern Hemisphere means that life slows down in response to less sunlight.
Trees drop their leaves and rest. Animals hibernate or migrate. Plants drop seeds and die back.
To escape being affected by the seasons- we’ve designed lighting, fuel, entertainment and food systems that act the same year round.
We call this stability and balance.
But like the ballerina, this act of balance takes a tremendous amount of effort and control over resources and people to produce.
Imagine what could be brought into larger ecological balance if we acknowledged and worked with nature’s cycles and slowed down in the fall?
Consume less.
Conserve energy.
Rest and restore our bodies, minds and spirits.
The Scales & The Spiral
The Fall Equinox is also when we enter the astrological sign of LIbra. The symbol of Libra is the scales- which are used to weigh things in balance.
Because of this Libras are normally seen as being well rounded and easy to get along with. They are good at keeping things in life balanced and tend to value rest as much as work and the arts as much as the science.
Libra reveals another way to perceive balance.
The 50/50 rule.
Using the Scales- a balanced life would be equal parts good days and equal parts bad ones.
This way of looking at things allows for half of our lives to fall into the “this sucks” category.
If we accepted this as balance how would life feel different?
Imagine living through your hard days and not judging them as “bad” but simply as balance to your easy days.
In fact, your days are just a series of events and emotions unfolding. Your mind is the one that categorizes them as good or bad.
What if every set back, illness, fight and disappointment is necessary for you to experience a jump forward, health, calm and happiness?
What if when you looked back on your life you discovered that there probably were equal parts “good and bad” times -and that even the bad times eventually led to good ones, until new bad times came along restored life to balance.
What if that is all life is really about?
Just scales tipping back and forth, a natural ebb and flow of known and unknown, struggle and growth.
It would take no effort on your part and there would be no way to do it right or wrong.
You could trust that all things balance out in the end.
The Spiral
In the ancient world they thought of balance beyond equal amounts. They felt balance as rhythm; expansion and contraction, ebb and flow. They used a symbol that repeats itself in nature, the spiral, to represent balance in a moving and changing world.
In truth-the Fall Equinox is not a fixed point on the calendar but a dynamic dance between two cosmic bodies hurtling through space inside of a swirling galaxy in an ever expanding universe.
In that sense, humanity is but a teeny part of a much larger picture.
All of our worries: pandemics, climate change, war, politics, health, injustices are playing out in balance with the larger laws of the universe.
Even our resistance and our struggles to change things are a part of it- as is our indifference and failure to change.
In the spiral there is no beginning or end. It’s creation and destruction in endless motion.
Life is rhythm and we are part of the dance. Not like a ballerina performing but like an ancient Goddess dancing life into creation.
In the spiral- we are the creators.
We don’t have to focus on balancing the scales in our favor because in the spiral every action has a dynamic balance. Every thought and action shape the whole.
No act is too small to create spirals of kindness. No loving thought or vision is lost.
You can let go and trust that you are enough.
Your being exists in perfect balance to what is and what will be.
Happy Fall Equinox!
I hope this helped expand your idea of having a balanced life:)
Stir vortexes in your tea, peel spirals of apple skins, watch leaves dance in the wind,
xoxo
Ginger
ps- please leave me a comment about your reflections of balance!
Does it help you to think of it in other ways?
Are you a ballerina or scales or a spiral today?
Summer Seed Setting- What we can learn from naked flowers.
Not every flower in my garden is in bloom. There are flowers with dropped petals, with browning stems and drooping heads. A tidy gardener will go through and dead head these spent blooms to encourage the plant to keep looking it’s best and prolong the growing season.
But by late July the heat and dryness of summer is signalling plants to shift from growth to seed set. Blooms can’t be forced forever and soon the prettiness of the garden gives way to the practical need for next year’s seed supply.
We don't quite understand how a flower turns out a seed that is more resilient, more adaptable and stronger than the season before- but they do. Everytime a flower grows it becomes better at surviving. That is why the plants we label weeds (who set seed and regrow many times in one season) are better at survival than most others.
Normally when we talk about plants we think in terms of growing and expansion: planting seeds, growing starts, blooming flowers and harvesting bounty. But none of this would be possible without the liminal time in late summer when the seeds ripen and form. This very important moment is often overlooked all together because well, it’s not that “sexy”.
In a culture that worships at the altar of beauty and youth and endless growth- those worn out flowers going to seed are just seen as having outlived their purpose. Maybe as a woman nearing 50 I can identify a bit more with late summer flowers than I did in my early 30s when I started farming.
But in 2021 I feel our whole culture is in a kind of seed set mode. We have just been through a global pandemic, economic shut down, extreme political polarization and as I write, fires of climate change are burning through Southern Oregon months earlier than last year.
Many of us are simply exhausted. To jump back into blooming again from this point would be to skip one of the most important steps on our journey.
Late summer was known to the ancient Irish as the time of Lammas (or Lughnasa)- and it marks the midpoint between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox. It is traditionally a time of less work for farmers as the spring planting is done and the big work of harvesting grain the fall is still to come. County fairs held around this time are remnants of the Lughnasa celebrations of old.
Lammas is the time of seed set. Most finished seed is not ready to harvest but the magic of creating seed is underway. During seed set plants are no longer trying to grow. Instead, they are quietly taking stock of all the information the bees have given them about pollination, about how much water was available, what minerals were lacking in the soil, how cold spring was and a billion other factors. They are storing all of this information in a tiny hard drive called a seed. Poppy flowers can create tens of thousands of seeds per square foot. Each one with a full store of knowledge about how to be a more resilient poppy in the season ahead.
As humans we also go through “seed setting” cycles in our lives.
Times of personal seed setting could show up as feelings of disconnect from your past self while still being unsure on what’s next. It could be a time of realizations but not action, or maybe even depression and grief as parts of us that no longer fit start to drop away.
It’s deep work of letting go and turning inward to find resilience. It also means stopping growth for a while.
Because seed setting is not the most comfortable of times many of us may prefer to skip over this process to what feels more fun and exciting.
We live in a culture that is always in a hurry to get to the next thing. There seems to be no time to process and reflect.
News outlets bemoan the fact that people aren’t rushing back to work and that economic indicators aren’t rising as fast as they could. The culture yells as us- Grow! Grow!
I think many of us see where this constant focus on growth has gotten us.
To grow a new culture we need to a new set of seeds. We need to feel into how we can truly live as resilient, loving and connected beings on the planet. We need to tend to our areas of depletion, grief and imbalance. We need to let go of growth for deep reflection and visioning for our future.
Lammas is the perfect time to drop into seed set mode. Many of us are already there anyways- so perhaps just fully give yourself permission to go deeper. Release the need to keep “doing” in favor of listening to your own heart. Resist the urge to dead head your own flowers and find the beauty in this process of life.
Never fear that seeds will eventually begin the growth cycle again. If we let them fully mature with the wisdom and healing we have earned they will rise up beautifully to create the world our hearts know is possible.
Journal Questions for Lammas Time ( I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below too!)
Check in with your inner flower power. Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a flower in the garden. What does it look like? What stage of life is it in? What does that tell you about where you are right now?
What seeds are you setting deep within for your future self?
What do you need to finish or fully ripen in your life in order to harvest the rewards?
Enjoy this beautiful late summer time while it lasts! Eat peaches and go swimming.
Take a break from the hard work and rest a while.
xxoo
Ginger
Summer Solstice Guide to Magical Sun Teas
Why celebrate the Summer Solstice?
Summer Solstice (aka Midsummer’s Night Eve or Litha) is a celebration of the longest day of the year, where the Sun is at its full zenith. It’s a time to celebrate our life-giving Sun and the Earth’s bounty. Look around you- there’s colour, beauty and life buzzing everywhere!
Summer Solstice is a turning point in the year; from this point on the light will wane towards the Winter Solstice (the shortest day) in late December. This solar turning point is a perfect moment to set intentions that are all about you.
How can you show up for yourself every day with loving kindness? Is it time for you to be recognized more fully in your business or career path? What intentions do you have for your health and vitality? How can you open to more joy in your everyday life?
Whatever your intentions are this Summer Solstice, let them be ones that makes your deepest soulshine sing! You’ve got the power and strength of the Sun behind you at this moment to be and do anything!
Midsummer’s Sun Tea
The big bright energy of the Solstice sun brings extra oomph to your Sun Tea Brewing! Set your personal intentions and let them steep with your Sun Tea. Just follow these easy steps and believe.. (because Midsummer’s Night Eve is known for it being a time for fairy rings and magic!)
Supplies:
A mason jar/glass jar
Enough water to fill the jar
Fruits, herbs + flowers to put in your jar*
Tea of your choice
Sunny crystals like: Pyrite, Citrine + Clear Quartz (optional)
Pen + piece of paper
*I recommend using fruits, herbs or (edible) flowers that are in season or in your garden. If you can get to a farmer’s market or a grocery store that supplies local food, pick whatever you feel called to. I’m including a few recipes below for inspiration, but by all means get creative and do your own thing!
Oregon Strawberry Rhubarb:
a small handful of strawberries, sliced
1-2 stalks of rhubarb, sliced
rooibos tea
1-2 teaspoons of honey
Sunshine in a Glass:
Want these crafty iced teas at your next party?
Choose a bunch of fruit and herb flavor combos and brew individual assorted jars of iced teas instead of one big jar. It looks great, is healthier than sode and allows everyone to enjoy their favorite flavors!
half an orange, sliced
half a lemon, sliced
half a lime, sliced
black, green or white tea
Summer Pollinators Delight:
a small handful of lavender sprigs
a small handful of sacred basil (tulsi)
rose petals
mint (with the flowers if you have access)
chamomile based herbal tea
1-2 tsp of honey or a sprinkle of bee pollen
Brewing up the Magic
Ideally you can make this Sun Tea on the day of the Solstice.
Solstice morning or day before, spend time in nature (even if it’s in your own backyard) to connect with the elements and energy of the season. If you find anything on a nature walk you can take home with you (wildflowers, water from a stream, soil, rocks etc) to decorate your tea brewing area.
Set up your Tea brewing area with flowers, crystals (sunny colors like citrine, pyrite, tigers eye, yellow or orange calcite are great) and any other art, colors or items that make you feel powerful and shiny.
Calm your mind and energy by taking deep, slow breaths and feeling your connection with the Earth.
Ask yourself what intention you can make that will allow you to shine as your brightest, most expansive self.
Once you feel very clear about what your intention is, WRITE IT DOWN on your piece of paper. Be CLEAR + SPECIFIC.
Place all your ingredients in your jar and top with water. Place your jar with all your ingredients either outside IN THE SUN, or in a sunny windowsill, with your intention paper under or tied around the jar or your intention written on the brew jar in marker. If you’re using crystals, place your stones against the jar so they can infuse their energy into your sun tea.
Once your Sun Tea has steeped in the sun for at least 3 hours (but ideally all day), STRAIN + DRINK your tea over the course of the next day or two. With each sip feel the magical energy of the Sun and let your intention vibrate in every cell in your being!