A couple weeks ago while up in the mountains, on the early morning rides to the trailhead, and the exhausted ones back to the base camp, Greg and I became enthralled with a podcast on survival stories. Tales of people sliding down ice faces and getting lodged in crevices on Mt. Rainier, getting buried by rock slides, and mauled by grizzlies. It’s admittedly a kind of disaster porn, gripping ...
Carly’s Blog
Oatstraw was one of my first herbal loves. In 2009 I spent a year getting acquainted with plant spirit medicine under the tutelage of Sage Maurer at the Gaia School of Healing. Every class we would sip strong infusions in a circle, sit quietly, and notice where we felt the herbs move in our bodies, how they spoke to our insides. When I did this with oatstaw, I remember feeling swaddled in ...
I usually sneeze with abandon this time of year but fortunately, goldenrod can help me overcome an allergic response to the molds and mildews that thrive in this damp autumn weather. Often scapegoated for the very reaction it remedies, a tea of goldenrod flowers will help dry up a runny nose or weepy face and bust through congestion. The purposeful, tall flowers decorate fields as flaming ...
While I know most of you are far from standard, if you're like me sometimes you have nights when you eat popcorn for dinner. Or perhaps you struggle to get enough variety or find time to cook from scratch.In fact, micronutrient inadequacies are fairly common in the U.S. even amongst people who consider themselves models of health. Even slight micronutrient deficiencies may create a general ...
Terminator Two came out when I was 7, and has been one my favorite movies ever since. I think it’s in part the strong female lead, Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), a misunderstood warrior tasked with saving humanity from machine take over. It’s also T2’s critique of science as an ambiguously constructive tool, capable of tremendous life saving feats and inciting existential disasters. It’s ...
A most earnest message from my 24 year old self...I have a terrible sense of direction. I’m one of those people who lives very much inside herself and though, while in some contexts this is adaptive, when navigating it’s not in service to my survival. Of course, with the advent of “way-finding for dummies” like google maps, and now smartphones, my already minuscule aptitudes have further ...
Last weekend I got to visit my family in Rhode Island in celebration of my mother’s birthday (which is actually today, happy birthday mom). The highlight was crabbing. Blue crabs would be my preferred last meal, and my mother’s too. She’s part crab both literally-- born and raised in Baltimore, her cells pulsing with 62 years of countless crustacean meals fragrant with Old Bay---and in her ...
Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life. Thus contests for land can be—indeed, often are—contests for life. -Patrick Wolfe The world had to be disenchanted in order to be dominated.--Silvia Federci, Caliban and the Witch Common myths of Empire: The world is dead and inanimate. Food is a mere obligation of our fleshy machine bodies. Plants and animals are here to serve us, and ...
(pictured left to right: purslane, lamb's quarters, milkweed buds, daylily, wood sorrel, bee balm petals)We're in full swing summer now, the deep greens and radiant pinks say it all.I missed writing these weekly emails and look forward to getting back into the rhythm of cooking and musing on nature's delights with you. This week's a slow re-entry as I'm at the trimester's end and that means ...
There are amazing things happening everyday.These times are extraordinary. An activist I follow under the name "Queer Appalachia" posted this today, reminding everyone that all of this momentum is making waves. It's working.
I don’t know about you but I can’t keep up.The news, social media, podcasts, 10 steps to be a better human lists, demonstrations, phone calls... My ...
Todos o Nadie, Everyone or No One: Tracking White Supremacy Back in 2007, I was living in a small rural village in Ecuador for a few months. Something that really struck me then that continues to inform me was the cultural norm of sharing. If you wanted an ice cream, you bought one for everybody. If you bought a bag of nuts to snack on, you were expected to pass around this bag of nuts ...
Lately, when staring quizzically at my biochemistry text, I imagine I feel similar to plants with whom I’m unacquainted, staring at forest’s edge. Forms in every shade of green possible, all blending into each other. How do you tell them apart? Where do I even start? When I’m new at something I feel overwhelmed, totally unrelatable, I know. The codes and patterns all seem incoherent and ...