“Tell me what you plan to do with your one wild precious life?” – Mary Oliver. I end all my emails with this thought-provoking quote. My hope is to encourage folks to contemplate how they are living out their lives. Are they doing what they love or dreamed to do? What is their story? My Octogenarian father is a gifted story teller. He is a quiet modest man but once he leans forward in his chair, eye alight we know a story is coming and wait with anticipation. My father lives his life a poem by finding joy and laughter in the most ordinary encounters in life. As a child, he was my personal alarm clock. He would pop his...
A Look at Herbal Hair Care While many of us happily refrain from using chemicals in our gardens, eating organically grown foods, cleaning our homes with natural products, etc., what about our self-care habits while caring for our hair and skin? We may be so accustomed to shopping for hair and skin care products made by big commercial companies because they are convenient, plus it’s what we’re expected to do in a consumer-oriented culture. But if you really look into the ingredients in most of those products, you will understand how toxic many of them really can be. At the very least, our skin’s natural oils are often stripped, leaving our skin and hair too dried out and requiring...
We reached out to one of our local, recently graduated Clinical Herbalists, Shelly Olson - owner of SO Herbal, to help define general health complications among the sexes. Shelly and I were in the same herbal courses, taught by local Herbalist Nicholas Schnell through North Star Herbal Studies program located in Four Winds Natural Healing Center. Early on, I had to stop my herbal courses, however my education continued as my wife is also a Clinical Herbalist and I will forever be exchanging theory and ideas with her, learning and being pulled deeper into the Herbal world. Shelly continued her education through the 3-year intensive and has now received the official title as Clinical Herbalist - ready to change the world...
Generally speaking, men and women have very different, yet similar, health concerns. The state of imbalance does not favor one sex over the other, however the different sexes may be prone to certain imbalances based on diets and expected social standards. The environment in which we live in (and grow up in) has a high impact on our overall well-being, especially mental health. I always believe that the first step in a healthy approach to living is a healthy mental-state of well-being. My mom, who has been a nurse of many kinds over the years, has always told me “If your perspective towards life is happy and healthy, then your physical health will follow” and I believe this whole-heartedly. My...
Spring is here!!! I can hardly contain my excitement. While I’ve grown to appreciate all of the seasons, I can’t resist picking my favorite – yes, it’s SPRING!!! Perhaps it’s my fondness of tiny fluffy bunnies and chicks, or early spring bloomers like tulips, crocuses and bloodroot, or maybe that my birthday is in spring. In a rare moment, the vernal equinox arrives on the prairie with unusually warm temps and sunshine. I start this special day with my morning ritual of coffee and quiet on my back porch. Geese fly overhead, pairs of cardinals are joined in song by a few brave robins, who’ve returned to their summer home in my back yard. The connections to the natural flow...
