SANTORINI, GREECE
My time in Santorini was complicated. I felt hopeless, wandering with no purpose. I didn’t feel the place was spiritually grounded and in that moment, I didn’t feel I was either. I floated unhappily through my visit, unsure what I was doing, where I was going and how things were meant to work out in my life.

Looking back I believe this trip was when I arrived at clarity about my circumstances, though on the surface all was confusion. During my time in Santorini, I was beginning to take hold of what I really needed to do to bring my life into balance, but I wasn’t quite ready to completely look at what being asked of me. The Essences from Santorini were Flowers that called to me in this period of my spiritual journey.

Red Flower from Santorini
The volcano that comprises Santorini erupted almost four thousand years ago and completely altered the landscape of the island through a massive explosion. The mass of the Island now arcs around a caldera filled with the Mediterranean. Adrift in its center of the caldera stands a barren rock island, the mouth of the volcano. On this windblown, exposed, and inhospitable rocky island this Flower has spread like wild-fire.

Red Flowers on the volcano

As a Flower Essence it serves to strengthen, support and encourage our own inner resolve. The wisdom of this Essence is about adaptation to new circumstances with strength and courage. It supports our ability to thrive after things erupt and fall apart in our lives. This Flower is fearless and supports us in digging in for the real fight, the real challenges with a fire energy that is not destructive but sustaining, creative and adaptive.

I AM the manifestation of my new life with creativity, strength, fearlessness and adaptability.



Tree Medick Medicago arborea
This Flower in both its physicality and spirituality is composed of cups of light. This Essence demonstrates how to hold and radiate light from internal sources when external forces have made our lives hard and heavy work or we feel bogged down spiritually and emotionally. This Flower reveals how to hold and radiate the abundance of light within us.

I AM imperishable light.

Sicilian Wild Sweet Pea Lathyrus odoratus “Francis Cupani”
According to plant historians, this Sweet Pea is considered the mother of all Grandiflora Sweet Peas. It was first collected for domestic cultivation and hybridization in 1699, and there are now 250 varieties of fragrant and beautiful old-fashioned Sweet Peas that come from this plant. And here it was, having made a bit of a Mediterranean leap from Sicily to Santorini yet still carrying its Sicilian wisdom.

This Flower Essence creates a direct and forthright space for us to see and experience the realities of where we are in our journey and asks us to face these truths. It brings our reality into focus and encourages unimportant surface ideas to fall away. It both guards and reveals the divine plan for us, encouraging us to dive in and align our will to the plan. It offers a backdrop to these essential truths but more importantly supports us to come forward and embrace the work head on.
In calling us to this work it strengthens us for the next step in the journey: moving purposefully on from this moment of truth towards greater alignment with divine will.

I AM open to the truth of my situation and ready to begin a process of harmonious change.



Purple Viper’s Bugloss Echium plantagineum
This Flower Essence is a soft place to fall in times of great upheaval, transition, and spiritual change. While the leaves and stem are rough and coarse, covered in delicate spikes, the blossoms themselves are soft and delicate with colors that are warm and supportive. This Essence is a safe embrace. It will hold us and take care of us when everything else feels turned upside down.

I AM safe.



Fodder Vetch Vicia villosus
Fodder Vetch has a true sense of self. Its elegant blossoms rise up in a graceful column, each looking forward, unafraid of movement, change or what lies ahead. This Essence supports us to let go of fear as we continue forward. It helps us find and recognize our true course and then supports us in moving forward in confident alignment. Even in a strong wind, the blossoms don’t swivel or change direction. They stand strong and true in their course and help us do so as well.

I AM sure of my way forward.

Amphitrite
On my last afternoon in Santorini, I walked out to a series of rolling grassy hills near where I was staying. I felt drawn to one particular area of a field behind a large stonewall. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I could feel that on the other side of the wall there was blue. I’d never had an experience like this before. I couldn’t see blue. None of the Flowers filling the fields were blue, but I knew blue was there. After I climbed over the wall, I found this lovely lone blue Flower whose energy and presence had called to me.

This wise and ancient Flower had an immense energy and tremendously clear sense of itself and its strengths. It supports us to know these truths about ourselves. This Flower with its eternal blue core helps us let go of surface ideas we hold about ourselves to uncover deeper truths. It helps us to understand that this release and movement forward will alter the surface of our lives but not change our souls. Instead, this change and growth will only allow us to connect and embrace our essential selves more easily.

I AM in the flow of my essential self and purpose.

LA ROCCA, CEFALU, SICILY
In late March, my brother, Ben, came to visit me in Sicily. Together we traveled to Cefalu, a beautiful old city on the northern coast of the island. On our first day we hiked up La Rocca, an enormous rock mountain that sits right on the coast, with the city of Cefalu curving around its base, nestling into its roots. The trail up La Rocca climbs and loops. It covers a vast amount of diverse landscapes, each offering a unique and breathtaking panorama of the surrounding sprawl of Cefalu, its mountains and coastline.



Scarlet Pimpernel from La Rocca, blue variation Anagallis arvensis foemina
This was the first Flower I found on La Rocca and one of the most powerful. Having just climbed high up on the mountain, I walked away from Ben out to a ledge overlooking the nearby mountains. Everything was green and lush, but this small blue Flower yelled out to me louder than the beautiful view. Its piercing blue color with a direct yellow core reflects this Flower’s deep and true sense of self as well as its great strength. This Flower despite its size is understated but not weak, small but not unimportant.

This Scarlet Pimpernel Essence helps us overcome feeling small and overwhelmed in the shadow of all the work that needs to be done and all the spiritual movement that is being asked of us. This Essence supports us to know our own strength and feel our personal power. Being one with God means that none of this work can be bigger than us; we can do the work, we do have the strength.

I can do all I AM called to do.

Tree Germander Teucrium fruticans
The Tree Germander is an incredibly intricate and interesting Flower. Its icy blue petals, great reaching stamen and deep purple veins are unique, elaborate and elegant.
As our surface lives and circumstances change, there are aspects of our souls that are constant and eternal. As part of our journey towards being our truest selves, Tree Germander facilitates a retrieval of our unwavering strengths and unique soul qualities so we can express and relish them. These gifts may be from past incarnations, and they may come to us as unexpected facets of ourselves. During this process, it is important to re-access truths about ourselves in a positive way and back ourselves up, own our strengths and courage from past incarnations and enfold them into our current journeys, situations, and lives. This Essence allows us to bring hidden and often unsuspected treasures from within us to the surface and shows us how to express these gifts with true abandon.

I AM self knowledge expressed with true abandon.



The Letting Go Flower
The architecture of this Flower doesn’t hold things in. The petals are soft curves forcing things out, off and away. They are not defensive angry points but soft bends that calmly support us to let things fall away that are no longer part of our journey. Although it is sad and hard to let go of things and people, if they do not serve to support and encourage our growth forward as souls or to fully be ourselves and own our authentic lives, we have to do the hard work of moving forward without those ties that hold us back. This Flower supports in a kind and gentle way, this process of letting go.

I AM unburdened.



Mediterranean Thistle Galactites tomentosa
Mediterranean Thistle Flower Essence is about the full expression of self in a framework of appropriate protection. If we have done the work of going within to know who we are, then we are ready for the balanced and clear self-expression that this Flower Essence supports. In particular, this Essence supports us to expand outwards into new parts of ourselves, unafraid and unedited. This expansive dynamic helps us own and actualize our true inner desires, thoughts, and emotions.
In addition, it helps us protect ourselves from outside forces that would serve to slow or stop us during this branching out and articulation of what we really need for our souls to grow and be happy. It helps us know how to defend who we really are and what we really want.

I AM the beauty of self articulation.

LA MARCHESA, SICILY
La Marchesa is a place where the water and rocks meet, a world in between agricultural fields and the sea. It is an expansive coastline; open, fresh and vast.


Flower from La Marchesa
Having let go of known territories and all the things we thought were set definitions of self, we find ourselves in a sort of in-between world like La Marchesa, no longer where we were but not yet where we will be. This Flower looks out in all directions with an inquisitive yet centered peace. This Essence supports us in being open to possibilities in all directions. It teaches us to delight in the unknown, to feel the expansiveness of moving forward and to appreciate the openness of being where we are in the process.
This Essence supports us to let go of fear and worry related to not knowing where our lives and journeys are headed but instead feel the positive in this moment, the open, exciting, adventurous place our lives find themselves.

I AM open to the gifts of the in-between worlds. I embrace the gifts of the unknown.

THE WEST
Reaching the end of my time on the island, I traveled through the west of Sicily where I saw breathtaking landscapes and landmarks and felt an increasing connection to this incredible land.

Wildflowers on Motia

THE ISLAND OF MOTIA, SICILY
The ancient Phoenicians transformed this tiny island into one of the most affluent cities of the ancient world. In the fight for Sicily during the 6th century BC it was a stronghold of Phoenicians and Carthaginians against the Greeks. In 379 BC the tyrant Dionysus the Elder from Siracusa destroyed Motia. The island is now empty of human inhabitants.


Italian Sainfoin Hedysarum coronarium
In the dry harsh salty climate of Motia, this brilliant red Flower stepped forward as a survivor. As a Flower Essence, it offers wisdom about constructively holding our energetic and emotional response when something explodes in our lives or we experience violation or violence against us. Italian Sainfoin encourages us to find a state of emotional balance in response to these intense energies. It supports us in not being passive, lying down and just accepting these events. It also supports us in not being reactive to violent upheaval thus just continuing the cycle. It encourages us to bounce back with strength and to make use of experiences that feel like a battle by organizing our reactions in creative directions.
First, Italian Sainfoin helps us acknowledge and own the full range of what we have experienced. This is necessary to rebuild our sense of wholeness with grounded acknowledgement of what happened.

Second, when we are on the receiving end of violent behavior, it is vital to transmute the energy we have received into a different form, thus breaking the cycle of violence. Energy that is hurtful is still energy and can be transmuted into something good. Being reactive to violent upheaval just continues the cycle, but suppressing the energy within us just moves the violence into a place within us. It is important to let the energy move and shift into a different form then channel this energy into life affirming inspired directions. Italian Sainfoin helps us use experiences that feel like a bloodbath by shifting the energies into something constructive, beautiful, inspired.

I AM the creative transmutation of all violence directed at me.


SEGESTA, SICILY
The beautiful ruined city of Segesta was invaded by Phoenicians, Athenians, Carthagenians, Romans, Vandals, and Normans among others, yet Segesta still has a fresh, clean, expansive and authentic vibration of self. Throughout all these upheavals, it was known as a place of harmonious blending of influences, peoples and cultures. Today Segesta is a popular tourist destination and archeological park, but it has not lost its strong sense of place. Segesta shines through as a genuine place with a true sense of its unique self, unaffected by transitory surface ideas, cultures or values.


Segesta
The Flowers encircling the ruined city had bright intoxicating colors. The combinations were incredible: fluorescent oranges, purples and yellows. The Segesta Essence made from these Flowers is about identity. This Essence, in homage to the strengths of Segesta, supports us in finding our authentic selves amidst cultural pressures and shifts. It helps us be our authentic selves in a fluid and complex way, owning different facets of ourselves while remaining grounded and true to our core identity.

I AM my authentic self no matter the culture that surrounds me.

MORGANTINA, SICILY
During my visit to Morgantina, I soaked in the place. I’m not sure, even now, that I can articulate what I was taking in, but I felt like a sponge absorbing Morgantina’s profound vibration of ease and harmony. It was an experience of being in a place that felt like where I wanted to take my life. In that moment in time, Morgantina represented all that my essential self craved.

On the day of my visit, Morgantina was lush and green with rolling hills surrounding its heart. It was both simple and beautiful. Mist hovered over the whole area but not in a containing or closed in way. Instead, it made me feel present right where I was. Rays of sunlight shone down onto the land, cutting through the gentle mist and drawing my eyes to certain hills in the distance. Nothing beyond Morgantina mattered or felt real. The whole world, its worries, outside people and places disappeared, and I was just there. I felt overwhelmed by a deep love for the place. It felt magic and also like home. It was a still place paradoxically moving in the right divine direction. It helped me feel on track and also able to own how I felt about my life in an articulate and tangible way.

Eruca Eruca sativa
The simple white petals of the Eruca are direct with strong purple veins. The Flower is understated but clear, calm, and assertive. It is sure of itself and open. The deep purple veins of the Flower cause the petals to look transparent, demonstrating the Flower’s truth, honesty, and forthrightness. This Flower is not harsh and aggressive but direct and strong in its truth. It supports us to be this way with our own truth. This Essence is about letting go of illusions in order to see a situation for what it truly is. It is about seeing and owning the pure, white truth and the real light of what is happening.

This is who I AM and I AM this truth.

Mallow-Leaved Bindweed Convolvulus althaeoides
The bud of the Mallow-Leaved Bindweed is curled up tightly, while the blossom is open and welcoming. As the bud twists open, it throws its arms out in embrace and spins finished business and all negativity off and away. This Essence supports us in throwing off old burdens and opening our arms to the joy and possibility of all that is now available to us. It allows us to relish in things that are now in line with a more true sense of our spiritual journey, to feel wide open and willing to take in love and learning as we move forward.

I AM wide open to the joyful life awaiting me.

Tassel Hyacinth Muscari comosum
This Essence is about accessing the different layers of movement forward and allowing ourselves to feel many things on many levels. It encourages us to understanding what we are feeling and how it is connected to different parts of ourselves.

For example our personalities may feel sad and hurt by unfolding events, while our souls may anchor within us a vibration of calm certainty about the divine order of what is happening. Tassel Hyacinth helps us hold a simultaneous awareness of these levels while also experiencing their purposeful unity. This Flower supports us to see ourselves and the work we are doing in overview. It also helps us not to beat ourselves up about out different responses to the same events.

This movement forward often feels more like waves of forward and back, forward and back, but in truth the momentum is forward, and Tassel Hyacinth helps us know this. This Essence helps support us in fully engaging in the whole multilayered dynamic. By giving everything, every emotion, every reaction its place and acknowledging all, we can let go and be fully open to the process of living. This Essence helps us accept that we are still one even in our diverse reactions. When we open to the many layers and pockets of our true selves we engage more fully with the intricate nature of our true self and purpose.

The profound strengths of this Flower are indicated in its structure. With this Flower there are three distinct realms blending harmoniously. The bottom is reflective of our personality and the mixed dynamic of articulation and assimilation on a surface day to day level. The middle represents the underlying dynamic of balance and connection between what can feel like two distinct realms; physical life and spiritual reality. The top represents our expanded self as it exists as one with something bigger. The pinnacle of the Flower is about our oneness with divinity.

In the diversity of creation, I AM the unity of Life.

Star Clover Trifolium stellatum
This Essence supports us in ascending towards a higher purpose and aligning with our real path and destiny. The petals and energy of the Star Clover funnel from deep pink and red up to white. The whole Flower faces up, seeking God’s wisdom and guidance. The Flower’s base is covered with protective spikes that keep personality and surface ideas at bay during this search for realities of higher meaning.

I AM one with God’s plan for me.

As with all our Flower Essences, each Flower Essence in this collection is available in a half ounce bottle for $7.35 as well as in a two ounce bottle for $25. A set of the entire Sicily and Santorini Flower Essence collection of 21 Flower Essences in a half ounce size is available for $136.50 plus shipping. Please contact Green Hope Farm Flower Essences, POB 125, Meriden NH 03770 603-469-3662, green.hope.farm@valley.net for more info.

From the beginning, healthy hair (and fur for that matter) has been a focus of our work with Flower Essences. Yesterday, when Thembi, our new staffer from Zimbabawe, came to work shorn of the dreadlocks she had worn for 15 years, I knew it was time to ask the Angels to help me with a post about hair.

Thembi’s dreads were beautiful but very heavy. Hanging to her waist, they seemed always a complication and a burden, something she had to continually fuss with to keep out of her way. I could not quite imagine how they didn’t cause her headaches.

When she came in with her dreads gone, she looked as beautiful as ever, but she also looked unburdened, and her energy sparkled. She was so much lighter in spirit. Had I known her language I would have sung her a song of celebration. As it was, we all hugged and cried. It was a great moment because all of us knew the haircut represented more than just a haircut.

Last week the Angels nudged me to send Thembi off at the end of her work week with some Grief & Loss, Alex Mackenzie Rose and Borage Flower Essences. I have lost places deeply loved, but the places I have lost are dwarfed by the places she has lost. What must it be like to lose a whole life of places? I hoped this trio would help with her mourning process and all that was being demanded of her as she helped her four sons adjust to a new life here.

This winter, as the snow piled up and the temperatures stayed bitter, all of us could see Thembi struggling to remain upbeat. There is truly almost nothing of Africa in the landscape and community that now surrounds her, and her losses felt palpable to all of us. When I think about my own experience losing the place in the Adirondacks, there is a narrower band of smells, sights, landscapes, activities and people gone. And sometimes, I am fortunate enough to stumble into an evening of song that feels like a night at Cranberry Lake or blue water that feel like a north storm day on Cranberry Lake. But for Thembi, Meriden is truly a moon landscape.

What must it be like to lose the ALL the smells, tastes, sights, colors, air, dreams, landscape, community of a whole continent, the one that had been yours from birth? And what does all this have to do with hair?

From the moment we made our first Flower Essence for healthy hair, the Angels have linked hair with memories, explaining that our hair is a physical manifestation of our memories. For Thembi, her hair was a record of her African life. To begin with, these memories probably sustained her and gave her a feeling of continuity and connection to something familiar, but as she explained to us, this winter she had begun to feel the weight of her hair. She told us that her mother always described dreads as a tangling of memories. That was something the Angels had long told me about tangled hair. I was fascinated that her mother had told her this too and that now this wisdom had encouraged her to unburden herself of memories that were weighing her down, literally.

And I was never more happy for her or more in awe of her than when she walked in yesterday shorn of her hair. I knew it meant she was saying goodbye to what was and turning to commit herself more fully to the divine plan for herself and her family in this alien land. She was burning her boats after arriving in a new world.

We now have two staff people who have lived in Africa. Sarah Callaway lived in Port Elizabeth, South Africa last year while working for Grassroots Soccer and of course Thembi has always lived in Africa, first in South Africa and then in Zimbabawe. From both of them I have heard a lot about how people make the best of things through song, dance, celebrations and just plain being together. As we have heard tell of the kinds of singing, dancing and visiting with friends and family that filled Thembi’s African days, New England has seemed a very poor substitute. So Thembi’s courage to let go and go forward with this unexpected new life feels pretty amazing.

As she explained it, between when she left last week and when she returned, she had a profound moment of surrender to God’s plan for her and her family. We all shared in her feeling that the haircut was a significant way to cut herself free to dive into her new life without as much energy tied up in looking back and trying to recapture the impossible, a life now gone from her.

To some degree we all struggle with these issues. I certainly do. And I was so very glad that the Angels’ choice of Flower Essences helped give her the courage to do what she needed to do. Borage and Alex MacKenzie Rose are both about courage with Alex Mackenzie’s particular gift a wisdom about finding the courage to do what we need to do. In this case, she felt it helped her finally make that first snip after months of standing in front of the mirror trying to find the courage to go for it. How right it felt that her moving forward in her new life here was marked by letting the old life fall away with the cutting off of her dreads.

THE ANGELS ON HAIR HEALTH

“Hair health is a reflection of many things, but the events unfolding in your life are as much a factor as nutrition. Flower Essences for hair work on the etheric or memory body first and foremost to help people organize their memories, sort and release them. The result is healthier hair. This is the crux of all Flower Essences and other vibrational work. The healing work is done on the non-physical energetic fields of the body before the physical body can reflect this work in greater vitality and well being.

When assessing the health of your hair, know that no energetic changes can be made in the structure of existing hair. This is why haircuts can sometimes be a great help when the energy of your hair holds memories of difficult times or traumatic loss. This is also why sometimes keeping your hair can help anchor within you a supportive vibration. If there was a recent time in which you felt close to divinity and aligned to your purpose, this energetic alignment will be manifest in your hair and keeping this hair can help you stay tuned to this higher vibration.

This offer a general guideline for when to cut your hair, but we suggest you always follow your own heartfelt promptings as almost everyone will evolve beyond the wisdom of their current hair and benefit from an occasional haircut.

Using Flower Essences to untangle emotional, mental and memory tangles will result in healthier hair but more importantly, your electrical system will work with more efficiency, clarity, vibrancy and radiance. Beautiful hair becomes a bonus, a nice one we know.

THE ANGELS DISCUSS SPECIFIC FLOWER ESSENCES FOR HAIR
COTTON ( photo above)- You might ask why Cotton Flower Essence offers such excellent information about healthy hair. Cotton is a plant that has been refined and hybridized by human intention for thousands of years. The intention of this hybridization process has been to create a plant that can produce the most luxurious, generous and healthy fiber. This wisdom is embedded into Cotton. As a consequence, Cotton knows more about manifestation of healthy hair than any other plant including Flax. Cotton is an example of profoundly successful cooperative endeavour between the nature kingdom that holds the divine plan for all plants and humankind which in this case worked in concert with nature to align to this plan. When you work with Cotton Flower Essence you tap into everything Cotton learned during its evolution in harmonious partnership with humankind and the divinity in nature.

BOG COTTON– While this plant has not been hybridized by the human community, it offers excellent vibrational wisdom as a Flower Essence because this plant has had to manifest its cotton fiber in a micro-climate so extremely inhospitable that its wisdom offers anyone within a difficult gene pool or with constraining challenging circumstances to manifest the healthiest hair possible.

CEDAR– Cedar Flower Essence offers information about how to cleanse the mental and etheric/memory bodies of the human electrical system. These are the energetic constructs linked to the physical body that wire the human body to think and remember. Cedar knows how to clear out anything that interferes with the full manifestation of the purest most evolved version of each person’s mental and etheric body. The end result is not only clearer mental capacities and an untangling of confused memories but also healthier hair. This is because hair is memory made manifest and therefore a clearer thinking and a clearer memory system will result in healthier hair.
HEALTHY COAT– Created as part of the Animal Wellness collection at Green Hope Farm, this combination helps people and the animals in their lives with hair and fur related issues. The recipe used for this combination mix was created by us, the Angels overlighting Green Hope Farm, in the hopes that this mix would serve animals and people with all challenges of skin, fur, hair, allergic issues and inflamed tissue of any sort.

Many people ask the staff at Green Hope Farm why we would combine so many Flower Essences in one remedy. It is important for you to fully understand the profound capacity of your electrical systems to read, learn and otherwise be affected by large quantities electrical data. Your entire life experience is a moment to moment reading of complex electrical data. In Nature this data is largely in service to your spiritual evolution and growth. In the creations of your modern world, there is much dissonant and counterproductive electrical data. No matter the quality of the data, your system is reading this data all the time. In sharing our perspective on this matrix of complex electrical data we want to reassure you that you are well equipped to read and learn from a Flower Essence combination remedy that holds many strands of electrical data from many evolved Flowers.

The second thing we would like you to understand is that because of our involvement in the creation of Healthy Coat, we can bundle Flower Essences offering the optimum healing vibrational wisdom to serve issues of hair, skin or fur. Because the people at Green Hope Farm look to us to guide them in which Flower Essences to use for each combination remedy they make, this is true of all the combination remedies that are offered. We guide them to Flower Essences that we know will offer the most helpful information and unbeknownst to them, we often create remedies containing significant healing wisdom that will serve in evolving ways as the needs of humanity shift and change.

Our overview of the electrical wisdom available from Nature and the needs of an evolving humanity put us in an advantageous position to create the best possible Flower Essences for humankind. We continue to design gardens at Green Hope Farm holding the plants we know will be needed in matrixes that make these plants particularly vibrant. We continue to send staff of Green Hope Farm on necessary Flower Essence making missions. The partnership we have with the humans at Green Hope Farm combines our strengths. In the case of these remedies for hair, this
means that we can offer you Flower Essences with a refined wisdom that your electrical system can read and use to clear and revitalize your etheric/memory and mental bodies and thus help you in the manifestation of beautiful healthy hair.”

When it comes to birthdays, some of our gift giving has become as ritualized as a court dance at Versailles.

For example, when Ben’s birthday rolls around in November, I elaborately wrap up two movies for him; “Torn Curtain”, an Alfred Hitchcock thriller with Julie Andrews and Paul Newman and “My House in Umbria” starring Maggie Smith. Then, when my birthday occurs in January, he returns the favor and gives these movies back to me.

Usually at some point during our birthday galas, we pop “Torn Curtain” in the machine and watch the infamous bus chase scene. It is perhaps the most ridiculous chase scene ever filmed. Not even old Alfred could make one bus racing after another across 1950’s East Germany seem anything but absurd.

With “My House in Umbria”, we don’t even watch the movie. It’s not a bad movie, but that has never been the point of this gift. The point of the gift is that it gives us a few moments of complete silliness as we all talk about…….. what else but……. My House in UMMMMMBRIAAAAAAAA.

Ben in particular can roll this phrase off his lips with particularly pomposity and can keep us all laughing about said house for a good twenty minutes.

Which brings us to the topic of today’s post. Today I broke with tradition and defaced the “My House in Umbria” video cover then anonymously popped it in the mail addressed to Ben.

You may or may not care to ask why, but I plan to tell you anyways.

Before I explain my grievous break with tradition, I want to back up for a moment to talk about last year’s gardens and in particular, the Eight Garden.

The first time we planted an Eight mandala was 1993. Three friends joined me in creating about a dozen gardens of vegetables, herbs, flowers all planted in unique mandalas. Each garden had a different name and a different energetic purpose. Each brought its own gifts, but the garden that had the most radiant energy and caused the biggest stir when we opened the gardens to visitors was the one we called the Eight Garden.

From the beginning the Angels told us this garden was about moving things in and out of manifestation ie moving energies that no longer served out of manifestation and bringing in new healing energies and experiences. As the summer unfolded, there seemed no end to the wonderful healing experiences people had in this garden. As far as Green Hope Farm was concerned, the garden appeared to jump start our mail order business in a big way.

We began the garden season with no mail order business and no thoughts of a mail order business yet ended the season a few short months later with daily UPS pick up for orders we were shipping all over the world. I know there are so many factors involved in the manifestation of anything, and I have certainly seen things I hoped to have manifest not happen, but somehow the Eight Garden came to represent to me the magic of when we step into something we are well and truly meant to do, and everything flows.

As the years unfolded, I have loved how generously the magic of this garden has continued to share itself. The vibration of the Eight Garden lived on in many of our Flower Essence combinations that contained some of the original Eight Garden Flower Essence in them. Via the Flower Essences the garden continued to support radical transformative and healing change in so many lives.

As 2010 began, it was with considerable regret that I saw our stock of this remedy dwindle down to a cherished few bottles, and I wondered what our remedies would be like without the Eight Garden vibration informing them.

I didn’t have to wonder for long as the Angels told me then that it was time for another Eight Garden. This was thrilling news. Not only would the Flower Essence combinations get to keep their Eight Garden wisdom, but a new version of the garden after a seventeen year learning curve might hold even more evolved information about transformative change. Plus, I suspected this new Eight Garden would mean magical changes were coming to the farm, the same kind that had happened in 1993.

Would these changes come out of the blue as so much of the change here had or would these changes have a meant to be feeling? I wasn’t sure what form the Eight Garden magic would take.

A year later and one piece of manifestation has revealed itself to us. Green Hope Farm just got a whole lot bigger in a farm sort of way. It’s been a bit of an out of the blue thing but also a meant to be one.

Hence the reason for defacing of the “My House in Umbria” DVD cover…..because Ben’s riff is about to change from My House in Umbria to My House in MERRRRRRRIDENNNNNN as Ben has just bought the farm next door.

Okay, so maybe the house is the size of the tool shed at Maggie Smith’s place, but it is a house and it sits on some beautiful land!

And its a joyful full circle moment for all of us as 25 years ago I would sit in this tiny little cottage with my dear friend Teddy and look out across the field where our farm now sits and dream of living next door to Teddy and her husband Malcolm.

Now Teddy is in her 90’s and is living in Kauai with her son Kalani while her husband, our dear friend Malcolm is in a nursing home. This fall we have watched their house sit empty and wondered what was coming next. It was quite a surprise to all of us when in a big whoosh of activity, it was suddenly possible for us to help Ben buy this house and the beautiful 37 acres that come with the place.

When we planted last summer’s Eight Garden, we knew it was going to bring change as it had the first time we planted the garden in 1993, but we didn’t see this coming. As things fell in place, we were all so happy that it was Ben that was meant to live in this house. We knew it would feel right to Malcolm and Teddy, and we knew it felt incredibly right to all of us.

So now Ben has a house in Meriden right next door. He takes over the helm of the place in March but is already enjoying homeowner activities like shoveling three feet of snow off the septic tank top for a septic inspection and now I hope it will be practicing his riff on his house in MERRRRRRRRIDENNNNNNNN.