A new Green Hope Farm friend emailed to ask for Flower Essence suggestions. Her life had taken a violent turn in an unexpected direction. All her plans for her future were gone with the wind. In the aftermath, she works to accept what happened, even as the life she had envisioned continues to feel more real to her than the one she now inhabits. She seeks a thread of meaning and purpose in what happened. She wants to find peace but also not throw in the towel, despondent and without hope. She wants to rebuild knowing her personality is not in charge but hoping for the best.

Her brave letter made me think about the concept of Amor Fati. A few years ago I began to write about my life to sort out what happened to me and make sense of it. In hashing things out for myself, I hoped to release any lingering anger or bitterness about “what people did to me.” I wanted to be in my life with gratitude for everything.

As I began to write, I stumbled on the notion of Amor Fati, the attitude in which we see everything that happens to us, even suffering and loss, as good or necessary. To keep this idea in my mind I began the document with the following description of Amor Fati. Every time I opened the document, I would reread this.

AMOR FATI

Whatever needs to be healed within us, calls to us in events we call fate. Fate brings matters to our attention. Fate serves our process of finding our authentic self.  Fate calls us to unseen and unknown parts of ourselves.  Instead of being bitter about our fate, love it, embrace it, see it as the perfect gift in service to us, to our wholeness and holiness. 

What do we do when we realize the ego is not in charge? Do we give up? Do we turn and embrace our fate and love our fate just as it is?

So back to this Green Hope Farm friend. When she wrote, I suggested I sit with the Angels and assemble a mix that supported her, holding Amor Fati in mind. She too seemed intent on accepting her fate and finding it meaningful. She also wanted to reconcile herself to living in hope that the new life coming towards her was going to be one of grace, including some of the dreams that had recently been stripped from her.

The Angels suggested these Flower Essences for a custom mix. (After I posted this blog we got more requests for Amor Fati mix so it is now available to one and all)

Coralita, Flower from the Gardens of Taormina, Effort & Grace, Equanimity, Don’t Worry-Bee Happy, Love It & Leave It, Loving What Is, Purplemat, Redwood, Flow Free, Jade, Zubiri, Blackberry, Canary Island Broom, Fragrant Orchid, Alignment Garden, Gratitude. Through Angels’ Eyes

As I looked at the Essences they chose, it was a bit of a Eureka moment for me. The bulk of these Essences are VENUS GARDEN ESSENCES. Each Venus Garden Essence takes a year to create. First the garden is designed by the Angels in the dark of winter. Then in early spring I grow the plants for the garden with the Elementals help. Then early in June, when the danger of frost is past, the entire garden is planted while following precise directions from the Angels. Come the fall equinox, the garden becomes a combination Flower Essence mix offering timely support for our collective spiritual journey.

Even when I had never heard of the concept of Amor Fati, the work of helping us live it had been the Angels and Elementals’ focus as embodied by the Venus Garden for more than thirty years. Now all of us can get support to love our fate by choosing from the different Venus Garden Flower Essences that address this challenge over and over in different ways and from different directions. If there is interest, I will make this custom mix into one available for one and all (now available as there was interest! ).

In that Eureka moment, I realized support for Amor Fati has always been a big picture, long term and integrated project for the Angels and Elementals here. I have long thought of each Venus Garden and Essence as building on previous gardens and Essences, but I don’t really think I grasped the overall theme until now. Perhaps later there will be another big picture theme that will shimmer into view. All I know for now is that we are all getting a lot of support if we want to embrace our fate and love it.

Before I close, I want to ponder the way Amor Fati and Hope cross paths. Some might say that embracing one’s fate means hope has no place. This isn’t true. We dream our fate into being before we incarnate when we have more of an overview of what we need to learn. Our work becomes accepting what we planned even when it is not what our we consciously want now. However things turn out, we still need hope. We need to hope for our spiritual growth and to hope for the fulfillment of our destiny to know we are one with Divinity. Trust comes in when we accept that how we get there is not always easy or something our personality would choose.

If looking for Flower Essences to keep hope alive, on our Resource page there is a document called Flower Essence Suggestions for Common Concerns. This document took years to create and is a great place to go if you are looking for Flower Essence support for a specific issue or concern. Usually a topic will be followed by general suggestions then more specific suggestions for variations on the concern. You’ll see what I mean below.

Here is the listing for HOPE.

Hope: Phoenix Rising, Through Angels’ Eyes, Queen Anne’s Lace, Swamp Candles, Fragrant Orchid, Borage
Light at dawn after dark night of soul: Ragged Robin
Hope when life looks devoid of life: Epimedium (additional Essence list)
Embracing hope as a way to move towards the Golden Age: Through Angels’ Eyes
Help to bring hopes and dreams into form: Inkberry, Nicker Nut, Lady’s Mantle, Biting Stonecrop, Belerephon of the Open Door
Moving away from despair and hopelessness: Gorse, Pink Grootendorst Rose

Sometimes when looking for support for a topic I will look up its opposite so looking up DESPAIR these are the suggestions

Despair: Borage, Crab Apple, Feverfew, Gorse, Milkweed, Giant Milkweed, Montbretia
When stuck in childhood despair: Inner Child, Abandonment & Abuse

If the suggestions in this document do not feel right, there are so many other ways Flowers and their Essences call to us. Sometimes the name of the Flower will call out when we see it. Sometimes when we go to the description, a phrase in the description will feel particularly relevant or powerful. The Angels choice of words is always intentional and deeply layered. When the words resonate, the Essence will most likely bring you a helpful vibrational energy.

We also are called to Flower Essences by the appearance of the Flower. That appearance is a signal to us as well as the insect and bird kingdoms. Flowers indicating their purpose through what they look like is known as “the doctrine of signature” When explaining this concept, I always think of Snapdragon as a particularly good example as the Flower Essence is concerned with issues of the mouth, jaw and teeth as well as the spinal column. Each Flower can be plucked and made to open like a mouth. A lovely moment last summer saw a pack of little people in the Venus Garden playing with Snapdragon blossoms. The Flowers encircle a straight stalk which particularly with White Snapdragon (which is the color we use to make the Flower Essence) resemble a spinal column.

This email exchange and resulting Amor Fati Flower Essence mix happened before the LA fires though now it reads as if she could have been from LA as she too lost the life she knew. Our hearts and prayers and thoughts go out to all concerned in this sorrowful time and all who are experiencing devastating life events..

With love and hope.

Here is an email exchange I had this week. Note that the GHF friend comes back to me with questions that really improve my explanation. Thank you K.B. I appreciate so much the questions you all ask and the ways you help me understand things better and also understand how I have not been clear.

QUESTION: I feel like I’ve been having some resistance to the new energy that’s coming in.  I have no idea why because it’s time for a change, but there’s upheaval going on in the world, and in me. The doctor tells me there’s nothing wrong with me, but I’ve been exhausted a lot, and light headed, like not being ground.  And irritable.  I’ve never been irritable!  When I went to see the acupuncturist I see on and off, he said all my meridians were out of whack. Any flower essence suggestions are welcome.

MY ANSWER: Yesterday someone sent me a snapshot of the Schumann Resonance for the planet right now. While in the past there has been varying amounts of incoming energy from day to day, and the picture of the Schumann Resonance is one of intermittent light waves, right now it is almost a solid experience of immense incoming energy, because nonstop light is entering the planet for us to assimilate.  This is a lot for us to accommodate, so I am not surprised by your reaction!

These steady waves of incoming energy can leave us feeling very ungrounded and anxious even irritable as this energy often sits in our crown and upper chakras where it is hard for us to manage and leaves us feeling ungrounded.  I suggest to people including myself that when we feel these symptoms of irritability, headaches, anxiety and a feeling of being ungrounded or overwhelmed, we pause and move the incoming energy down from our crown chakra to our hearts, so it can move out through our entire energy field from there. Grounding this energy in our hearts makes a huge difference.

The fact is that all of us must do the work of accommodating this incoming energy right now. Some of us may be feeling symptoms that call us to this work and some of us may not. But again, all of us have to assimilate this light energy just as Earth herself has to do so too.

Today the Angels mention Hollyhock for helping us move this energy down through our chakras.  I would also check out all the Flower Essences listed for working with aligning all the seven chakras  to see if others jump out at you. These will help you move the energy down to the heart then out to all parts of your system along the meridians of your chakra system. 

I do not feel you are alone in feeling all these things- in fact I know you are not alone!  I hope these thoughts are helpful!

GHF FRIEND’S QUESTION IN RESPONSE TO MY ANSWER: I just now briefly read about the Schumann Resonance. Some call this the “heart beat of the earth.”  So the incoming energy you are referring to is coming from the earth?  I have thought (it seems like erroneously) that the “uptick” of energy you have written about, came from elsewhere. Where I didn’t know.  But it’s from our planet?  This may be a question that has no answer:  Is there a plan, a reason for this?  Is the earth our guide, helping us evolve?  

ANSWER: Oh that is so good your wrote back for clarification- The energy is coming from the central sun to Earth- It is part of the process of shifting up the vibration of the Earth- Yes the Schumann Resonance is the heartbeat of the Earth, and it is a reflection of Earth’s vibration. The spikes indicate an uptick in vibration- Earth itself assimilating the vibration of the incoming energy. Additionally we are going through a part of the universe we have never been in- one that is higher in vibration so that too calls Earth and all of us to raise our vibrations.

TODAY’S THOUGHTS: Okay, so in rereading this GHF friend’s second email, I realize that I didn’t answer the final part of her email. I think I got distracted because I was so glad that she had asked follow up questions that were going to make for a better explanation. This GHF friend asks if there is a plan and if the Earth is helping us. So here are my thoughts on that.

It is my heartfelt experience that there is a plan. Much as I often do not understand the whys of this plan or the ways it manifests, I feel there is a plan and my job is not so much to understand but to seek in my heart what is my role in helping the light flow in. I also feel that the Earth is very much helping us. By assimilating the incoming light energy, Earth gives us an energy grid that is holding this light. This gives us a role model for holding the light too.

If you go to a place in Nature where mankind isn’t holding onto the old energies, you can ground to this rising vibration more easily. If this is not possible, our Flower Essences bring the rising vibration of Earth to you.

One of the reasons why we do not have visitors at the farm and often are asked to stay out of the gardens ourselves is because it leaves the Flowers and gardens free to hold the light energy and rising vibration of Earth without our accidental interference. By following the guidance to stay out of the gardens and do only the garden jobs asked of us, we work to help create Flower Essences that hold the highest vibrations grounded on Earth.

In closing, here is a description of Hollyhock, the Flower Essence the Angels mentioned as particularly helpful right now for moving incoming energy down from our crown chakra to be accommodated by our entire energy system. Hollyhock Flower Essence has been in the Additional Flower Essence collection section of our website, but today the Angels asked me to move Hollyhock to the main line up, because it is so helpful right now with issues of assimilating the incoming light energies.

Hollyhock– Alcea The single Flowered Hollyhocks used in this Flower Essence help us to smooth and balance all our chakras and enhances our receptivity to the incoming divine energies in all the chakras. Its overall balancing support helps steady us as our locus of consciousness moves upward. This combination of encouraging an overall balance of all the chakras while simultaneously encouraging our evolutionary upward journey through our chakras is a rarity in Essences.

On my evolutionary journey, I AM the coordinated, smooth and balanced function of my electrical system.

One more P.S. Your beloved animal companions must make these vibrational shifts too. Flower Essences help them so much to access the vibrational information they need when they are unable to move around freely in the natural world. These constraints on their movements are something they do in service to us and with their whole hearts and beings. We can serve them back by either taking them into Nature or sharing Flower Essences with them.

Final P.S. I promise. Children need support for these shifts too.

Early yesterday morning I made a list of Flower Essences to support all of us through what can be a challenging month. I then spent the day helping to ship orders. This clarified what Flower Essences I should highlight here, because you all ordered Flower Essences that were clearly chosen to support yourselves and those you love through this month.

First of all, we sent out a great deal of Anxiety Flower Essence. Together we must contain the immense shifts the planet is making, the things that appear to be backwards steps, the mysterious forward motion that somehow pulses beneath the chaos and the unknown of the territory ahead. Anxiety is a calming, centering friend as we work to stay present and at peace during this whirlwind. I can’t recommend Anxiety too highly for you and your beloved animal companions, and many of you are gravitating to this remedy already. We have sometimes considered changing the name to something else, but haven’t settled on an alternative. Just know Anxiety Flower Essence helps RELEASE anxiety not bring it in.

Anxiety also helps us release the pressures of the culture to meet the expectations of others about holiday festivities, meals and gifts.

Yesterday saw us sending out a lot of To Thine Own Self Be True. Your wisdom always impresses me and I was impressed by this choice. All Ego Contracts Null & Void is another combination remedy that tackles the territory of freedom from the expectations of others. This is the heart of our work during this month.

Not only must we release the bindings of the culture, but the holidays bring out the stuck baggage of expectations from our families that needs to be released too. I was so glad to see so many Family River Trios go out the door. This is our trio for the work of untangling the strengths and weaknesses of our family rivers and releasing what no longer serves while seeing more clearly the strengths of our family.

It is okay to simplify your holidays. Its okay, often vital, to say NO. It may not please everyone to make your own choices about what you do or don’t do this December, but that’s okay. Their displeasure is not your problem.

The most important thing is to keep our vibrations high. Believing the hype and trying to meet the expectations of others makes this very difficult. To Thine Own Self Be True , All Ego Contracts Null & Void and The Family River Trios help us stick to our budget for how much time, energy and money we have. I also like Goldenrod for supporting us to have the spine to say, “No thank you.” And remember all the new forgiveness Flower Essences described in this blog for forgiving ourselves and everyone else during this challenging month.

SLEEP! We sent off so many Sleep Trios yesterday, and we’ve heard from so many having sleep issues right now. The planetary vibration is shifting so rapidly that it is a lot for us to assimilate. The Angels tell me that we are doing so much work that even at night, we can feel overcharged and unable to wind down. The vibrational work we are doing to accommodate the rising vibrations is set against the background of much external turmoil. I am just grateful we have the Sleep Trio of our beloved Sweet Pea, Ladies Bedstraw and Irish Ladies Bedstraw to offer you to encourage sleep.

Some other concerns that crop up this time of year with a suggested Flower Essence or two:

Loneliness: Whether we are alone or amongst people, this is a time of year when we can feel alone in our lives. The Roses such as Agnes Rose with its affirmation, “You and I are not we but one.” and Sarah Van Fleet Rose with its affirmation, “I AM the balm of Gilead.” bring comfort and help us feel the reality that we are all one in Divinity. Arbor Garden is another vastly comforting Flower Essence. It is a great solace if the holidays remind us of those we have lost.

Then there is that nostalgia and the feeling that our best holiday seasons were in the past or perhaps never happened for us. The media that has so infiltrated our lives spins the illusion that everyone else is having a Hallmark holiday season. Spiderwort, bringing its energy of discernment, helps us not get caught up in that illusion. Honeysuckle also helps us from falling into the emotional trap of believing this media spin.

Our light is needed on the planet right now. Our energy is needed in the present and not caught in memories of the past. The most important moment is now, and it doesn’t have to look like a Hallmark moment to be valuable. It is not easy work to stay present. Corn helps us keep it simple and ground ourselves in practical, wise ways. Grounding also has many Flower Essences to help us be here in the now.

We have been talking a lot in the office about how AI pushes us to be less human and align with things that are not alive and that cannot hold the transformative fire of LOVE. We have the choice to embrace the natural world and our humanity instead of loveless machines. Flower Essences sourced from the natural world and held by human hands help us turn from AI and reside in our humanness, that messy but marvelous place of LOVE.

No doubt I will return to this discussion of Nature vs loveless AI again as we feel pretty passionate about this, but in the meantime, all of us at Green Hope Farm appreciate your unique and vital humanity and all the love and wisdom you share with us. We send you our love and are so grateful for you and so grateful we have these Flower gifts from the wisdom of nature to share with you.

Yes, its time for my annual discussion of what friends, Staff Goddesses and strangers I accost on the street are serving for Thanksgiving. I have a tedious endless fascination with this topic. Everyone I ask says, “The usual.” then proceeds to describe a meal that almost always has a twist or two. It is the twist or two that pull me into each family’s story.

Another reason for my abiding fixation interest in this meal? My family of origin Thanksgiving menu was so bizarre unappealing unique that I am still puzzling over the menu sixty years later. There was rice. Rice was king. And also Queen. There were peas in a boiling bag from Green Giant and also corn in a bag. There was a spicy fruit compote. There were blueberry muffins from a box mix. There was a dry turkey. However there was no gravy, no mashed potatoes, no stuffing and no pies. For a family that never missed dessert and also sported some very good cooks, the whole thing was odd.

Joining Jim’s family I relished the inclusion of the regular suspects: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and pies. Jim’s father particularly loved mince pie, and I made this for him with a green tomato mincemeat I canned up each summer. However his Aunt Ruth’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie was the real star of the pies on offer.

The one puzzle in the Sheehan meal was the appetizer of black olives from a can and celery sticks served in a cut glass dish. I could not imagine wasting space in my stomach on these options, but they always vanished at a Sheehan Thanksgiving. Later I learned this was a very traditional southern New England Thanksgiving thing. Go figure.

After thirty plus years hosting Thanksgiving, the baton has passed to my children, and I am free to put my energy into asking even more people about their Thanksgiving menu.

At my granddaughter’s last soccer game of the season, I asked various spectators what they were serving. One woman’s menu included moussaka for her grandfather from Greece. Another spectator described Thanksgiving as a warm up for the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. Fish dishes are sampled at Thanksgiving to see if they make the cut for the Feast. One man I asked, someone I have known for many years who therefore was probably not too surprised by my odd question could not recall what they ate last year or any year. Some people really don’t find this a topic of general interest.

Turning my attention to Staff Goddesses, one who returns to her childhood home in Connecticut each year said her mother always serves roasted vegetables including broccoli and cauliflower as well. Our roast vegetables include butternut squash, carrots and parsnips so these cruciferous veggies were a new idea. As with my Connecticut family of origin, they also have frozen corn as a side. Her family also has no pie except for pumpkin now added in because her husband missed it. Apple crisp is the dessert du jour which suggests to me that her mother knew my mother as this was the kind of dessert we had in lieu of pies.

Staff Goddess Sam had a southern dad. She spent her childhood Thanksgivings in North Carolina, and the meal included cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pecan pie. As Sam grew up in puritanical more restrained Massachusetts, the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes was the thing she remembered most as she had never seen marshmallow fluff on a vegetable. As an adult Sam either cooks from her amazing vegetable garden or she and her mom’s family get Chinese take-out as her mom is from Hong Kong. She stressed that after they stopped going to North Carolina when her grandma died, the menus became very free flowing from year to year. Turnip pudding with Chinese mushrooms and hoisin sauce are one of the few dishes that make the cut each year.

Another Staff Goddess participates in enormous family Thanksgivings of forty or fifty people. Mushroom Wellington sits alongside the two turkeys. There are a few rules for the gatherings. Rule #1 is that there will be petit pois a.k.a. little peas WITHOUT onions. Onions are for Christmas which is a meal that also must include a peppermint roll cake which this Staff Goddess loathes but which the family cannot live without. I haven’t mentioned her name as I don’t want her to have to go into the witness protection program because she told me that she hates this dessert. The pies are the focus at her Thanksgiving and the list of pies is long. Maple Cream Pie takes center stage . I am hoping for the recipe. Rule #2 is that pies must be made from scratch. There was a problem with jello instant pudding used in a chocolate cream pie recently, and everyone hopes that was a one time thing. Rule #3 is that there must be cranberry sauce from a can with the ridges still on it AND fresh cranberry compote.

Staff Goddess Emily grew up on a dairy farm in Walpole NH and now is married to a dairy farmer in our town. She goes to her grandmother at HER dairy farm in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. Emily is usually given the assignment to make rolls and some years this has involved making eight, ten, twelve dozen rolls.

Em’s Grandma keeps a very tight rein on the menu, and this year she has given Emily the assignment of BOILED carrots. She told Emily there is to be no roasting of vegetables. The carrots can be served with butter but NO ROASTING. The meal begins with a relish tray that includes gherkins. I could not pry out of Emily what else went on this relish tray. Like the Sheehan black olive and celery dish, it’s clearly a dud. There are mashed turnips, mashed potatoes mashed without the skins thank you very much, turkey, gravy, boiled creamed onions, sausage stuffing made with Pepperidge farm stuffing mix thank you very much and big rolls. While her husband’s family likes small rolls, Em’s family likes big rolls. She noted that they like big everything. Emily makes such amazing bread that I know from experience her rolls are beyond delicious whether big or small. I am not clear why Emily has been set free from roll duty this year. It is good news for Em but bad news for everyone else.

All in all, respect for Great Grandma who is so clear about what she wants and deserves at her Thanksgiving table.

I have still got another week to accost people and ask them what their Thanksgiving menu is. Wish me luck! And please email us your menu and family Thanksgiving meal traditions. I love hearing from you! This is a holiday we all share and I love that about it!

So many beloveds are dealing with challenges including health crises, unexpected changes in relationship and life circumstances, illnesses that linger longer than expected and a general feeling of being in a pressure cooker situation. Here are some Flower Essences to support you in self care during these challenges. I’ve listed the concern and a Flower Essence or two which will bring support.

FEELING UNSAFE: Golden Armor, Sanctuary, Safe Passage

FEELING HOPELESS: Gorse, Equanimity

LINGERING ILLNESS: Vitality, Wound Healing, Recovery

UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES: Emergency Care, Maltese Cross

ANXIETY: Anxiety

NEED TO REMINERALIZE AND RESTORE: Vitex, Ethereal Fluidium Super Glue

FEELING CAUGHT IN SAME DRAMA: Cherokee Trail of Tears, All Ego Contracts Null & Void

GRIEF & SADNESS Grief & Loss, The Mary Rose , Grief & Loss Rose Trio

EMBATTLED: Mary Queen of Scots Rose, Indian Pipe

FEELING ALONE: Arbor Garden, To Hear the Angels Sing, The Sunflower Spiral

HARD TO STAY PRESENT: Grounding, Black Hills

NOT SURE HOW TO MOVE FORWARD: The Way Forward, Vision

FEELING BURDENED: Carry Less

OUT OF BALANCE: Balance in a Blue Moon, Sacred Feminine & Sacred Masculine

KNOWING THIS IS NOT THE END: Santiago, Fisterra