These times bring many challenges with smoke inhalation from all the wildfires in the US and Canada as well as catastrophoc losses from the fires.

Breathe has been a life saver for many dealing with the smoke and we have sent off countless bottles to those affected by the smoke.

Today however a GHF friend said she had been led to use Phoenix Rising and Flow Free along with Breathe. I was so grateful for this GHF friends sharing. Of course I love Flow Free for everything so that felt so helpful. I also felt how powerfully PHOENIX RISING can serve us right now.

I started to describe the whole mysterious story of how Phoenix Rising was created, then I realized that it would be better to share the original description of this Essence which feels more relevant than ever. So here it is in full.

Phoenix Rising is for situations of burnout, illusion busting, fiery cleansings and recovery after firestorms. It shares with us the wise overview and deep faith of the bird kingdom and the knowledge that fire purifies even as it seems to destroy

The Angels tell us, ‘The promise of the firebird and of this precious Essence is that you are not alone in your suffering or in a wasteland of purposeless burning but in a fire of purification. A new life awaits you. Let these fires bring their gifts, and you will be set free. Let this Essence ignite, soothe, comfort and restore.’

The Phoenix Rising garden was planted with seven concentric rings of orange and flame colored Flowers: orange Snapdragons, Calendulas and French Marigolds in many shades, Apricot and California Poppies, Salmon Osteospermum, Serafina and orange Spider Dahlias, Nasturtiums and Bright Lights Cosmos to name only a few. Purple flowers shot through this abundance of glorious orange blossoms in the form of seven rays. The center of the garden was a pillar of brilliant orange Torch Flowers encircling a planter of purple Morning Glories perched 5 feet in the air.

When we planted the garden, the Angels had us tie strands of jute over the seven rays of purple Flowers. We thought the Morning Glories were meant to clamber along these lines, echoing the purple Flowers below. Instead, it was to be feathers that danced in the wind over this garden. Everywhere we went, we found feathers. Woodpeckers, blue jays, chickadees, crows, turkeys, pigeons, sea gulls, ducks and geese were just a few of the blessed bird friends who gifted us with their feathers. Sometimes we would walk out of the office and a feather would fall from the sky, the bird owner calling from nearby to announce its donation to the project. All these feathers were tied above the Venus Garden.

Wonderfully, many of you responded to the feather theme by sending feathers that you had been given. Feathers came from many tropical birds and from as far away as Australia.

During a very dry summer of difficult fires across the globe, this garden, with its Flower flames and dancing feathers, was a completely joyful firestorm.

The birds’ involvement was a particular blessing though a mysterious one. Eventually, the birds told us that the electro-magnetic stresses were affecting them particularly. They wanted to support the transmutation of this stress, which the Venus Garden represented. The birds explained, “We want to help, but we too need your help.”

At the close of the season, there was a shift from fire to rebirth. During this transformation, we began a beautiful but complicated dance of Flowers and bowls of water. On September 20, 2000, the Phoenix Rising Essence was born.

The Angels explain, “These fires of purification takes you to a new life, and an experience of greater closeness with your Creator. This fire burn the strangers from your heart. What are these strangers but all things that are not one with your Creator and your true self. This is the housecleaning you have asked for and have been given. It can be painful work, but it is worth the pain. Your willingness to be housecleaned of everything your Creator sees as unnecessary, not what you see as unnecessary, makes all the difference. A new life awaits you.”

This Essence supports the purification process in the most harmonious of ways. When your system needs a little more burn to get rid of a big piece of illusion, Phoenix Rising helps to accomplish this. When you need a tangible buffer during turbulence, Phoenix Rising can serve in this capacity. When you need uplift, currents moving you into an updraft of hope, peace and acceptance, reach for this Essence.

Phoenix Rising carries all birds’ wisdom of overview and conscious connection with the beloved Creator. It carries all birds’ confidence that you can and will sail home to the full realization of who you are. Phoenix Rising also carries the firebird’s knowledge that fire purifies even as it seems to destroy. It carries the essential firebird truth that what is most precious can never be lost to fire. It knows that the fire of God’s love is necessary to find this most precious treasure of all; your eternal self.”

This summer is Cousin Camp which means ( among other things) playing in brooks with grandpa, trading animal cards and watching several dads race in a triathlon…..so WHAT was happening ten years ago when all these beloveds were but a twinkle in their parent’s eyes?

Ten years ago tomorrow, August 6th, Emily and Charlie (now parents of three boys) got married in Kennebunk, Maine.

Sarah (now married to our son Will and mother of two boys) and Lizzie (now mother of two, then the mother of one) helped me grow the Flowers for the wedding.

And that was QUITE the adventure.

For a full report, check out THIS BLOG with the full story of Flowers for the wedding, written at the time of the event!

Let me share a few images here to tempt you to look at the earlier blog, and let me take a moment to thank Sarah and Lizzie once again for the summer that was!

The summer began as most summers do here with much planting of baby plants. That year we focused on Flowers that would be good cut Flowers. We gave a lot of attention to planting things at the right time so they would bloom for August 6th.

We were not completely successful in our timing efforts. The Snapdragons came and went too early, but Sarah had volunteered to do Flowers for another smaller wedding so that we could practice our bouquet techniques. The Snapdragons and the first blush of our summer harvest went to that wedding.

When the time came for us to start our days of cutting and conditioning Flowers, the men in the family found that they needed to go to Maine to play golf as part of the pre-wedding festivities. This left Sarah and me cutting Flowers night and day while the men….. frolicked? Jim’s funny expression says it all.

By Friday when our own departure for Maine loomed, the downstairs of our house was filled with Flowers

There was time for a quick cup of tea, sort of.

In this photo we have begun to make the table arrangements. We made twenty two of them to pack off to Maine fully ready to go. It proved to be a good thing that they were done of Friday, as we were straight out Saturday with other Flower projects we had to do ( like the bridal bouquet!)

Ever the engineer, Sarah figured out a system for transporting the Flowers in three cars to Maine.

Here is Lizzie packing one of the cars. We covered the windows in paper and blasted the air conditioning to keep the flowers as fresh as possible.

Somehow or other ( with me taking a wrong turn only once), we got the Flowers to Maine on Friday evening. We settled them into a friend of Charlie’s family’s garage. It was quite the garage as it was fully air conditioned and paved in brick!

Here are a couple of our larger arrangements ready for delivery on Saturday morning to the outdoor venue for the wedding.

We had eight bridesmaid’s bouquets, one bridal bouquet, twelve boutonnieres, a half dozen corsages for various mothers and grandmothers to make on the day of the wedding. We also made these big ones on the day of the wedding.

Dear friends Michael Dutcher and Catherine Boorady (beloved Green Hope Staffer emeritus) arrived from Brooklyn to help with assembly and Flower transport from garage to church and reception. Catherine is now with the Angels where I am sure she is keeping everyone laughing. Michael is with her too. We miss them both very much.

Here are Michael, Jim and Sarah loading a car for the trip from the garage to the reception hall on Saturday morning. Note Jim flexing his muscles in a demonstration of how strong his Friday golf game made him.

Time for the ceremony! Here is Lizzie with the other bridesmaids and Flower girl Grace then three years old.

Here is Emily waiting with her crew. Sarah and I arrived at the last minute without a moment to spare. In the pictures we look like we just blew in, and we did!

Jim and Emily about to walk down the outdoor aisle to the ceremony by the sea.

Our dear Emily and Charlie. Little did they know of the gang of three heading their way and with a gaggle of cousins too!

Jamie, Wim, Etta, Lola, Ernest & George. missing from the photo: Henry, Hector and Grace

This growing season our newly fenced vegetable garden is overflowing with produce. The season is young, but already the garden is a cornucopia of bounty. At every meal, I prepare as much produce as possible, yet my counters are covered with more. I planted two fifteen foot rows of peas. Every night finds us shelling peas. Yesterday four grandchildren shelled and ate raw peas for an hour, and still there were more to shell and eat.

Oddly enough, this has left me thinking a lot about when things DON’T go well. I am NOT a better gardener than I was last year, but it’s tempting to think I am. Last year deer and groundhogs took down every crop except the garlic and onions. I didn’t get a single zucchini or pumpkin. I harvested six string beans. The entire pea crop was eaten, leaves and all. This explains why I planted so many peas this year. I had no idea what a garden free of deer and groundhogs would actually produce.

Here is photo of four of the six beans harvested.

While I tried to keep up my spirits with silly blogs from the point of view of the plundering groundhogs, this seige really sapped my confidence in myself as a gardener.

This was what the garden looked like a year ago. It was a low point, but the erosion of confidence happened slowly. This was because the assault on the gardens began slowly. When I first started the gardens here, there were fewer deer and no groundhogs. However each year the gardens were damaged a little bit more as more animals moved into the neighborhood. To begin with, there were still vegetables to harvest. By last year however, the assault was total. We had to build a fortress with wire fencing all the way to bedrock and eight foot high above ground fencing or give up growing vegetables.

Here is the view of the garden now, looking past the free standing screened porch we call “the Peloton”

Here beloved Sheba makes the garden even more secure.

Here is inside the garden looking towards the peas in the back corner. Is anybody surprised that my vegetable garden is full of Flowers too?

So back to my thoughts on outcomes. It’s very hard NOT to let outcomes define us….. BUT… it’s worth trying to do, because outcomes DON’T define us. Things that go wrong are sometimes on our watch but often not. Things that I have worked very hard on have failed to thrive, and the reverse is true too. While both successes and failures give us opportunities to grow, the failures often give us more opportunity to grow than the successes. We all know this, but it’s still hard to accept.

This July I’m having fun with a vegetable garden that has vegetables in it. It gives me delight to walk through the double locked garden gate and look around. However, the total decline of the garden over the last decade made me take myself less seriously and work on my sense of humor. It was humbling to be a “local farmer” frequently buying up every vegetable in sight at the local farm stand. But if what we are REALLY here for is to lose our egos and find our true identity in Divinity then this sort of wearing down helps more than triumphs.

I guess I should be TOTALLY grateful that life is still sending me humbling circumstances OUTSIDE the vegetable garden….but I must say that at least this growing season, I am enjoying eating fresh tender delicious green shelling peas along with my humble pie.

Flowers call out to us when they can help us.

Flowers call to us so we can learn from their healing electrical vibration (as well as savor their beauty). We can work with any Flower calling to us in a variety of ways. We can spend time with the Flower out in Nature. We can gather a bouquet of blossoms and keep it nearby to soak up the vibes or we can get a bottle of the Flower’s Flower Essence for long term work with the vibrational energies of the Flower.

If you find yourself noticing a specific Flower again and again, check out its energetic description here on our website and see if it might support you in whatever is going on in your life.

One way I notice how precisely Flowers and Flower Essences call to people is with my grandchildren. Most of them are too little to read, yet they always pick out Flower Essences for themselves that feel relevant to what they are going through.

Most visits conclude with them coming into the office to pick out a couple of Flower Essences for themselves. I love their affection for Flower Essences, and I love setting them loose to pick what they need. In a room of hundreds and hundreds of different Flower Essences they quickly zero in on a few bottles. Usually they get to pick three. Their choices are always spot on. I enjoy this so much. They do too. Their parents fuss that the kids usually drink their bottles, but I remind them they did too when they were four.

To bring forward a group of Flower Essences than might serve ALL OF US right now, we “randomly” picked from a bowl that holds the name of all our Flower Essences. Here are the three we pulled and a brief description of their gifts. They felt pretty darn helpful for right now. What do you think?

The Sunflower Spiral– This Flower Essence was created in the high vibration Venus Garden. I usually think of it as helping us feel connected and valued in our communities, but today I was struck by how it describes itself and its support, “Don’t lose faith. Help is here. Things are going better than they look. You are doing better than you think. Keep shining your light. You can do it. You are doing it. Feel the energy underneath the chaos. Yes, healing is happening.”

Beau Narcisse Rose– I recently heard a pundit calling our time the “Age of Comparison” because of the relentless comparisons forced upon us by social media. This Rose addresses this dynamic as it helps us to see the core truth of our circumstances and move beyond surface preoccupations and cultural obsessions to penetrate the Essence of things. Beau Narcisse Rose describes itself as helping us find purpose beyond any material preoccupations that have held sway and helping us live in a way true to what we really believe matters. I say, “Yes to that!”

I AM my deepest truths seen, owned and realized. I AM one with the eternal verities of life.

California Poppy– This is an eventful and chaotic time on every level. During this spiritual roller coaster ride, we can use a great deal of help with discernment. California Poppy helps us anchor in our heart as the ultimate authority. Grounded in our hearts, we can sort out what matters and what does not. California Poppy is particularly helpful when the side effects of one’s spiritual awakening involve weird symptoms and unusual psychic events. California Poppy helps us keep our eye on the prize of our spiritual growth and not get caught up in phenomenon that doesn’t matter.

I AM a chalice of God.

PS The Grandchildren are ALSO enjoying garden produce protected by our new fencing! This makes a refreshing change from Chuckie Hogbottom and his crew of bandits eating all the vegetables as in recent year’s past.

Summer is a season of soooooo much. One way to process this season is to look at the whole enchilada through a spiritual filter.

Yes, we need Flower Essences for pragmatic things like keeping the bugs off ( Flee Free & Golden Armor), or managing the bites when the bugs get us anyways ( Outburst & Beautiful Skin). We need Essences for the sunburns ( Healthy Coat and Outburst), the tourista ( Digestive Woes), the heat (Summer Snowflake) and the daily logistical complications of living a different schedule than the rest of the year (Flow Free for flexibility and Omey Island to help us align with the natural rhythms of the season that can help us manage the “too much” of the season).

We can also consider a couple of the deeper issues that surface.

NOSTALGIA- Summer can bring up great nostalgia as we recall that expansive feeling of freedom we may have had when we were children. Our adult lives generally don’t get less complicated in summer, so this can be a difficult thing to recall let alone reclaim.

Honeysuckle helps us not get lost in the memories. Gratitude returns us to the now and helps us recognize the gifts sometimes hidden in the present. Boundless and Wild Rose can help us have that inner experience of expansion even as we can’t return to our childhood version of summer.

DESIRES Versus REALITY- Social media everywhere would have us believe that the way to recapture that summer feeling is to drain our bank accounts. Social media would have us believe EVERYONE is having the best vacation ever in the perfect AirBNB because they moved from the bad AirBNB and now have one that has four infinity pools and caviar provided by the host.

Most of us work during the summer. For parents with children, this is a great complexity as they must continue to work and also take care of their children. For most everyone, summer is not perfect.

Let’s drop kick media induced FOMO and turn our attention to the unexpected and simple pleasures of summer and the sweetness of everyday life. The fragrance of cut grass always gives us an opportunity to savor summer. So many small things do.

Loving What Is and Amor Fati are big picture Essences helping us accept the challenges and disappointments of our lives with grace. They help us in summer too when the big adventure is in our neighborhood and not at Machu Picchu.

REMEMBERING WHY WE ARE HERE- Social Media would have us think the reasons we are here have to do with being the best, having the most, going the most places, eating every meal out and never aging. If we sit quietly for even a few minutes, I doubt any of us would say we really believe this. Love is the reason we are here. The Venus Garden Flower Essences and the Roses in particular support us to know Love is the only real thing.

The message the Iranian soccer team left in the locker room after their world cup soccer game this past weekend reflected them living this truth: “From the ancient Persia of thousands of years ago to the civilized Iran of today, the spirit of Iran remains alive and steadfast. We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor, and leave with dignity. Thank you Los Angeles for your hospitality. And thank you to every Iranian who gave their heart, voice, and soul for Iran throughout these 180 minutes. May peace, respect, and friendship prevail among all nations. “