Balance and Harmony

 While I was studying my Natural Health Consultancy homework today, something hit me like a ton of bricks. One of the key things that every tribal, alternative, new age, eastern, native american, natural medicine (and/or religion), seeks to find is harmony, that balance of things in life.
Even my own faith is about restoring the balance and harmony between God and man which was lost at the Fall .
If it is a common thread which flows through all life, that we need to restore balance and harmony, then there must be a unified subconscious understanding with in humanity that things are out of balance and in disharmony...


In Christianity, that unbalance and disharmony is called sin, and unlike many other traditions, it can be dealt with by confessing the wrong doings (disharmony/unbalance) to God, but (and this is where many fail) one must also turn from the deeds which cause the unbalance and disharmony in the first place for the balance and  forgiveness to truly work in our lives.


Examples:

• "Your sins are forgiven; go, and sin no more." ~ Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ
• "Should we sin that grace should abound more? God forbid!" ~ Paul of Tarsus

If this is true, and the expression of this is loving God and loving others as we love ourselves,then this restored balance and harmony should echo into every part of our lives...

It is a testament against us, when we compartmentalize our lives: Spiritual, Family, Work, Hobbies.   No, if our faith truly restores harmony and balance, it should be rippling into every part of our lives and reconnecting it.  Thusly, it should be effecting how we worship, how we work, how we treat ourselves, how we treat others, and, thusly, how we treat the earth where our fellow humans, and God's other creatures dwell.

If harmony is restored (even if imperfectly, till Christ's earthly return) and forgiveness is accepted, then our lives should be screaming it...  

God help me, for this is new to me...and I never realized just how deeply it should be echoing through each part of my life...

~ Morria

PS: I have studied Celtic traditions, am married to an Appalachian mountain man, have lived and worked among the Navajo, was raised near the Cherokee and Choctaw, have friends who have lived in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and Australia, besides studying Natural Health, Herbal Medicine, Celtic Christianity, and Modern Christianity.  I dont claim to be an expert, just exposed, and this sight is for expressing my personal journey and discoveries. ~ MMN

Herbs, Spices, and Teas!

So, I am 32 years old, and well on my way to being a full fledged herbalist and natural health consultant.  Not that I am a master herbalist by any means at this point.  No, I am an apprentice, though I have been studying and using herbs myself since the age of 13, I only formally began August of 2014 receiving "formal" training and earning the right to call myself an herbalist.   Thus, now 6 months into my official training I am starting this blog.


One might ask, why an herbalist and why blog about what you learn?  I was raised around plants and medicine my whole life.  My mom was a cancer survivor and master gardener.  My grandma was a cancer survives and RN of nearly 40 years.   I myself had survived nearly dying after a antiflactic shock to lidocain given me to ease the pain of a brown recluse spider bite (only one in 333,000 people have reaction to lidocain like I did at just 9).  This left me unable to use most topical pain relievers, and exploring the natural medicine stores my mother visited for other options.  It was there I discovered I could grow and make my own meds.


Not many young women, by age 16 had made there one witch hazel and lavender ointments, nor lavender bath salt, or hyssop oil, but those were my hobbies along with writing.  My high school horticulture project?  Raise and maintain an herb garden, which I might say I was able to keep till I moved out at age 24 (my dad still has been unable to kill of my mint, hee,hee!).   Most places we have lived, I have grown at least mint and aloe, if not more.  Now, living in a second story apartment, with good windows, and studying my herbal curriculum, all my at home experience are beginning to come together.  Who knows what the years and months a head may bring, as I live among the tribes of the Desert Southwest, am of Celtic descent, and am a Desert Gypsy Gal, but I know my herb blog will be unique, that is for sure.

~ Morria