This one is for all those folks out there who have survived another holiday season. Kudos to you my friends.

Here at Hotel New Hampshire the last two guests will check out today. No doubt it will be after they leave sixteen more dirty dishes in the sink, but nonetheless, it will be a bittersweet moment.

I love all the guests at Hotel New Hampshire. I love being innkeeper to the motley crew that fill the beds. I love their noise, their games, their intensity about Whist which spills over from the games themselves to many days of discussion about the probability of certain hands, their music, their rough and tumble. I love the whole scene. They can even make puzzling assembly into a contact sport.

However….. this year I was humbled by the hoards in a completely unexpected arena of innkeeping: dining services. After thirty five years in the kitchens here at Hotel New Hampshire, it was a challenge to feed my guests.
Once upon a time there was one guest who had special dietary restrictions. This year every guest spoke to me in advance of necessary dietary requirements and the mindset behind their food regimes. Several spoke of gluten issues. One explained food combining with venn diagrams . Others outlined the finer points of their vegan diets. Some spoke of a corn/dairy/ white flour/ sugar issues. Some desired red meat if not combined with grains. Others wanted whole grains but only certain kinds of grain. Fish seemed to be okay for some but not others. One person said they would check out from Hotel New Hampshire if branade, a french dish combining salt cod with heavy cream and olive oil was not served. Others abhorred the thought of cream passing their lips and asked me to stock almond and hemp milk. Dairy in general was a hot topic. Embraced by some and shunned by others. Kale seemed good except for those who loathed it. Sausage was a no go unless made without pork, beef or poultry, except for those who wanted pork breakfast sausage each day. In light of these conflicting requests, I decided to prepare the masses for menu changes and plead for mercy as I scrambled to think of what to serve each beloved guest.

I texted my expected guests to talk about food items I thought met the requirements.

Big mistake. Big.

The texts that flooded in shattered any illusions I had that one or two foods were acceptable to all the arriving guests. After this barrage of information, I wasn’t even sure water worked for everyone.

Did I run for cover at this point and sensibly give people vouchers for MacDonald’s and tell them the kitchen was closed? No, instead I dove deeper into the quagmire of my own creation and texted them specific menu ideas.

This was a red cape to many bulls.

My soon to arrive guests took to the phones to respond to my sample menus. From near and far the traditionalists weighed in that possible items like roasted beet soup in acorn squash or grain loaf with mushroom tamari gravy were not going to cut it. Roast beef, yorkshire pudding topped off with English trifle LIKE ALWAYS was the cry from the hearts of the traditionalists.

I felt a bit of a pang then. I had been ready to serve sawdust grain loaf to please the masses, but here were beloved house guests pleading for heavy cream and butter as usual. I hadn’t expected to hear from them. I thought they would at least pretend to agree that sawdust grain loaf was better for our health. In fact, I had banked on it and had made the loaf already.

I ate said loaf by myself for six meals in a row. Yum. Yum.

After this menu hoopla, I decided there was no solution but to serve everything. Everything I could think of and more that is. Think groaning tables of side dishes with sticky notes giving ingredient lists.

For the last month, I have plunged into each meal determined to offer the usual Dickensian fare, the gluten free baked goods, the roasted root vegetables, the kale salads, the seaweed, the tempeh, the tofu. And yes, the rice. Each day I have made an enormous pot of rice. Rice was the one food we agreed on. I suspect Grace now thinks of Grandma’s house as the House of Rice. She runs into the kitchen each morning and asks for a big bowl before we begin our mornings together.

And what have our mornings been this last month? A picture is worth a thousand words. It takes a lot of trips to the grocery store to feed vegan, meat eating, paleolithic, food combining, white food free, sugar free, junk food loving, dairy free, butter and bacon loving beloveds all at the same time.

I have been fortunate enough to work in partnership with the Angels and Elementals for almost thirty years. Our work together is tied to the seasons. Within this cycle there are four days in the calendar year that are particular opportunities to celebrate, give thanks and take our partnership forward with new plans. These four days are the Autumn Equinox, the Winter Solstice, the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. Right now I want to talk about the Winter Solstice with a quick look back at the Autumn Equinox.The Autumn Equinox begins the natural cycle of the seasons. It is a time to lay to rest what happened in the previous growing season, take stock and ask for support for the next year’s growing cycle.

The Autumn Equinox is almost always the day that the Angels and Elementals wrap our joint project to create a new Venus Garden Essence. The Venus Garden holds a very high vibration here at the farm and is regrown completely from the ground up each season.
This garden is one of the main places where the Angels and Elementals bring down the high vibration energies that will help us humans move forward spiritually and electrically in sync with our evolving planet. The Angels and Elementals lock these energies into the Flowers grown in this garden then transfer the vibration the Flowers create together into the year’s Venus Garden mix. This transfer into a readily available Flower Essence mix makes it possible for anyone to access this template for change. The work done in the Venus Garden is the most cutting edge work done at the farm. It is always an effort to make ready the vibrations you will most need to grow and evolve in the years ahead.

The Venus Garden Essences over the years have included Phoenix Rising, The Sunflower Spiral, Love Prevails, The Alignment Garden, Don’t Worry-Bee Happy, Loving What Is, Gratitude, The Eight Garden, Balance in a Blue Moon and this year’s Effort and Grace.

The Autumnal Equinox is a time to harvest what we have learned and acknowledge what still needs to be learned. It is also a time of letting go to the wisdom of our Angelic and Elemental partners about what is needed next. Over the years my requests for help have morphed from me presuming I know what I need to simply asking for help. After thirty years together, I realize the Angels and Elementals know better than me what I need to solve my own difficulties. In other words, I try not to ask for a shiny red Maserati because I am sure it will make me happy but instead ask for help to make the vibrational shifts that will make me happy whether I have a shiny red Maserati or not!

After releasing my hopes and concerns into the hands of the Angels and Elementals at the Autumn Equinox, I turn my attention to the Flower Essences made during the previous season to see who wants to step forward to be shared with all of you.

The new Essences always feel like a cohesive group, and because the Angels have the advantage of REALLY seeing things in overview, they always have ready Flower Essences to specifically help us navigate the vibrational times we find ourselves in. In case you haven’t checked out this year’s introductions, here they are.

Once these new Flower Essences are launched, there is a bit of a lull as I wait for the Winter Solstice. As you may recall from previous blogs, the Angels are the architects of form. They design and the Elementals implement and make manifest the design. Here at the farm, the Angels create a plan for all the Green Hope Farm gardens. These designs are ready for me to receive tonight, the Winter Solstice. They are not available for me to download before this moment, but after the Solstice they will be available at any point throughout the growing season. If I fail to get some detail when I first transcribe the plans, I can go back and get clarification later.

While tonight at the Solstice I can begin to transcribe the designs and specifics for all gardens at the farm next summer, I probably won’t get more than a little bit on paper. Instead, we’ll celebrate!

Because this night is all about the Angels part in creation, I usually drag everyone at the farm out into the snow to light candles in the dark and sing all the songs we know about Angels. Despite some eye rolling before they are out in the snow, everyone ends up loving this moment.

I am particularly grateful to the Angels this year. So many have had a difficult year. It has been a bumpy ride for humanity, but always the Angels have been with us. And they will remain with us ever reminding us that we are not alone in the dark. Angels and so many other beloveds are helping us cross the thresholds to a new humanity. And not only are the Angels there with us, but they know humanity is going to make the necessary shifts. Their presence restores our hope. Love will prevail. Our better selves will prevail, and thank Divinity, the Angels will be with us every step of the way.
I hope you have a blessed Solstice and that you too feel the love of the Angels filling your life with their love and support!

What energetic shifts we have navigated this fall! And the shifts keep rolling!

The Angels describe the energy as like a tornado hovering over our inner landscape uprooting everything that needs to go. Some days it feels like everything that needs to go is literally everything.

To put it mildly, this is one heck of a complex energetic shift we are making!

My understanding is that we have at least a few more weeks until this particular energy push eases and another kind of vibrational encouragement is felt. I thought it might be helpful to mention the Flower Essences that have been flying off the shelves to support our alignment with this planetary energy work.

Wing Span of the Senses and Golden Armor
Good boundaries are a must for all of us right now. We have a right to have our energy field respected. In addition to the support that Golden Armor gives us to maintain the sanctity of our energy system, Wing Span of the Senses supports us to find clarity about our interactions with others, especially if we are in caregiving/service/ teacher/healing fields. This Healer’s Toolbox gem has been the GO TO to for this work as it helps us maintain our energetic integrity even as we stay in the trenches supporting others with kindness and compassion.

Zucchini, Charles de Mills Rose, Vitality, Recovery and Austrian Copper Rose
This particular energy shift has been very exhausting for many. These Flower Essences have been particularly popular to help us feel refreshed and restored during these shifts.

Zucchini is one that we are paying attention to because so many of you all over Earth are sending for it. This is always a sign to us that an Essence is addressing the particulars of a planetary energy shift.

Charles de Mills Rose is one of the Angels introductions for this fall. The New Essences are always tied in to energy shifts the Angels know we have to navigate.

This is what one of you said to us about the New Essences in a letter to us today, “I celebrate the timeliness and extraordinary gifts of the New Essences for 2014. They have been included in every custom blend I’ve made since the package arrived. I feel the flowers and their essences in this group are availing deep benefit to each individual who takes them which is also benefitting the collective.”

Vitality and Recovery are two tried and true Essences that are calling to many of you right now. Recovery has many Tree Flower Essences in it that help us feel strong down to the very fiber of our beings. Austrian Copper Rose is another one of the new Essences showing surprising versatility. It is deeply restorative.

I haven’t connected with anyone during this time who isn’t navigating a lot of change and dealing with a lot of interpersonal drama in the wake of the everything these energy shifts are precipitating. All this rapid fire change can be very disorienting. Here are a few different groupings of Flower Essences that help us with this situation.

Indian Pipe, Anxiety and Arbor Garden–
These three help us with the underlying “What the heck is going on?” feeling. While Anxiety remains our most popular Flower Essence remedy, Indian Pipe has been particularly popular as it anchors us to an experience of elemental peace and brings home the truth that peace is the reality beneath the surface tumult.

The Arbor Garden helps if the changes include the loss of beloveds. It helps us feel the oneness that connects us even to those who have died.

The animals also love these three Essences as they are feeling these changes intensely as well.

Grounding and Rosa Gallica
So much rapid change can make us feel ungrounded and disoriented. Grounding not only helps us stay present in the now of our life just exactly where we are, but it also helps us feel strong enough to stay the course. Like Recovery, it has many Tree Essences in it. These always support us to stay rooted, even as we are blown about by the winds of change.

This fall the Angels brought forward Rosa Gallica from its long time quiet presence on our Additional Flower Essence list. This very ancient Rose helps us ground to the heart of the Earth. This is different than simply being grounded to Earth. Since Earth is a sentient being, when we ground to the Earth in general we loop into everything on the surface of the Earth. This is a mixed-bag needless to say! However, when we anchor to her heart we connect to the timeless, eternal, love reality of our planetary home. This helps us too live from a place of clarity about what is eternal and what is temporary.

Among the Flower Essence collections that people gravitate to in intense times is the Irish collection. This collection also taps us into our eternal identity beyond temporary circumstances and helps us navigate things falling apart with equanimity. Omey Island and Thyme from Omey are among two of the Irish ones that have been very much in demand. We have also noticed a lot of Common Knapweed going out the door.

It is important for us to be kind to ourselves during this sort of upheaval. This energy shift is global, but it affects us in the particulars of change and oftentimes loss. Common Knapweed helps us be kind to ourselves and not fall into a mind trap of “I am doing something wrong.”

I also like the new Venus Garden Essence, Effort and Grace, for this, as it reminds us our effort is enough no matter what does or does not happen.

With so much turmoil and change, there are many Essences for helping us deal with our grief. Grief & Loss is joined by a new Rose Dainty Bess which helps us when we are laden with griefs we wish to lay down.

I thought it was interesting that the Angels chose this time to introduce Golden Hedge-Hyssop. This is a Flower Essence that supports us when we feel shame about how much we are feeling. There is a lot going on. There is a lot to feel. Shame just gums the works. Golden Hedge Hyssop helps us see our feelings as guideposts on our path not liabilities.

In the comfort of Flowers and their Flower Essences, the Angels remind us that they are ever with us, helping us through this time. They know this is a lot to navigate, but they stand ready to help us in each and every moment. These many Flower Essences are one of the many ways they are caring for us as we awaken to a more expansive understanding of ourselves.

Here is a story of some back and forths I had with a Green Hope Farm friend who emailed us this week. Whenever I say Green Hope Farm friend, please know that it might be the first time or the fiftieth time I have connected with someone but always, it feels like you are friends. I say this because I want everyone reading this blog to feel included in my use of the word friend.

Here is a shortened version of this Green Hope Farm friend’s email request, shared with her permission.

” I would like Flower Essence custom mix for my healing business. I am a channel, teacher and healer. I have a small practice that I cannot get off the ground. When I sit in meditation, I can see and feel all the people I would like to help but it is like I am invisible as if there is something blocking me from reaching people and people reaching me. I feel this is the right path- but now, after so much struggle, I am starting to doubt. It seems like nothing works out- no opportunity presents itself. I need help. I want to be able to financially support myself with my spiritual gifts but perhaps I have a block about abundance. A lot of these issues feel really old. I am sure there is a lot I am not seeing- the Angels know more than I do 😉 and I would love their help with this mix.”

I felt very connected to this woman’s request as I have had many experiences of things not flowing and me wondering what I was doing wrong. I appreciated her deep vulnerability and felt connected to her through her sharing.

When I received Flower Essence suggestions from the Angels for her, I felt lifted up even more. As is so often the case, the Angels’ suggestions for her helped me too because, while the Essences were very practical in their support to connect her more deeply to potential clients, the suggestions also carried an energy that she was not doing anything wrong and that there were factors in play that had nothing to do with her gifts or her efforts- I found this comforting.

As I wrote down the list of Angel Essence suggestions, the Angels said to me, “Don’t equate purpose with outcome.” Later as I was mulling over this comment, they added, ‘Outcome does not define effort or value.”

These comments and the purposes of many of the Essences chosen suggested we might find it easier to be kind to ourselves if we really accepted that there are A LOT of factors beyond our control that explain why our efforts sometimes don’t go where we’d hoped. Karma is too simplistic a way of talking about this. Conversations of karma can devolve into “an eye for an eye” ideas about energy balancing that just make us feel shame and are only a small piece of the puzzle.

Maybe the notion of “good news, bad news, who knows?” better represents all this. After all, this phrase serves to remind us that there are a myriad number of reasons why somethings work out and some don’t AND that sometimes what looks like working out is not a positive but what looks like failure is actually a positive. For example, I started my speaking career on the same circuit as Carolyn Myss who went on to have an enormous career in the public eye. I am ever so grateful that is not how it worked out for me as I don’t think I have the electrical system to handle that kind of limelight. At the time I could have experienced her trajectory versus mine as a failure on my part, but I was just so relieved to not be speaking to larger and larger crowds that I could feel the grace in my circumstances and take to heart the Angels remarks that it simply wasn’t my path or the best direction for my life to go.

In all exchanges with the Angels, there is a feeling of love without judgment and the bottom line of them having our best interests at heart. The Essences in this healer’s mix encourage this same vibration. “Yes, we are going to give you some wonderful Flower Essence friends who can help with manifesting your dreams, but we are also going to give you support for feeling your wholeness no matter what does or doesn’t happen.”

All this reminded me of one of my most favorite dreams which I have described here before- In the dream, I examine a diorama that says “Molly’s Life” on it, and I realize all the pieces in the diorama cannot be moved. Then I notice that the diorama itself is being held up by a being I recognize as God. As the dream ends, God winks at me! I don’t mean to weigh in on the issue of fate here with that dream reference, but there was much about this mix that reminded me that FOR OUR OWN GOOD loving forces are managing our lives- our divine self, Angels, divinity itself- and that our effort is enough regardless of outcome- Outcome is in divinity’s wise hands, effort is in ours.

While I linked all the Angels’ Essences suggestions below to their definitions page on the website- all except Yellow Rose of Texas which doesn’t yet have its own page- I have also added some possible reasons why the Angels chose these Essences for this Green Hope Farm friend’s mix.

Turk’s Cap Cactus– This Essence helps people get us and puts us on their maps.

Inishbofin– This Green Hope Farm friend mentioned that this issue felt really old. Because Inishbofin helps us bring forward strengths from other incarnations, I feel like it might move forward her own momentum to solve the heart of her concerns whether it is to reframe her understanding of what she actually is doing or have her practice expand.

Spiddal– This one helps us see painful circumstances in this life or past lives from an empowered place of perspective and helps us release all lingering damage these circumstances might have caused.

Queen of the Night– I love how Queen of the Night acts like a flashlight to illuminate exactly what we need to see if we feel “in the dark.”

The Eight Garden– A powerhouse of manifestation- This garden helped get Green Hope Farm Flower Essences rolling, and its Essence keeps on helping with manifestation of all sorts.

Flow Free– You have heard me sing the praises of this one ad nauseum- but heck, it deserves the praise for helping keep our energy system flowing on every level. I lean on it to help me release shame and self criticism when I fall into a circumstance of assuming that “things going wrong” mean I am not enough. I AM ENOUGH!

Yellow Rose of Texas- This long time beloved Rose from the additional Essence list often comes to the fore to help us untangle a knot or problem. It is a joyous, wise and profound friend.

Belerephon of the Open Door– If a door needs to be opened, this is the one to reach for- a profound and unwaivering friend.

Box Briar– This one supports a release from old troubles when other approaches to the problems have failed to bring results.

Effort and Grace( described in the previous blog) – With this Essence begins the turn in the Angels’ suggestions as this one is all about doing our best, knowing this is all that we can do and then seeing the grace in whatever does or doesn’t happen.

Love it and Leave it– This is such a good one to pair with Effort and Grace as it reminds us to give up on outcomes as nothing defines us but God.

Carry Less– We view the world through filters that lead us to think we know what success looks like- well, I do anyways- and this one helps us release these filters so we can experience our situation with a lot less judgment and more clarity.

All Ego Contracts Null & Void– I read this quip recently where someone said, “I learned shame from other people then learned how to do it all on my own.” This one is another powerhouse for releasing all those negative judgments we lay on ourselves. It also helps us release ideas and rules we hold that no longer serve us but instead bind us to see ourselves, our situation or our course of action in limiting ways.

Fragrant Ladies Tresses– Helps us feel safe in letting go and letting God.

Nodding Ladies Tresses– Another untangler of knots, this Flower Essence helps us release ourselves from the mental, emotional, spiritual as well as physical knots that bind us.

Omey Island– Sometimes the natural course of things for our life is quiet, a time of being cut off from the hustle and bustle and plunged into a simpler rhythm- a place of being in the world but not of it. Accepting that this is alright and more aligned with our purpose than what we imagine our path can be a complex challenge. This Essence combination from this tidal island in Ireland helps us do this.

Here is a story about the task that Omey Island supports us with.

I was a very social person in my youth. Well into my twenties I had a pack of friends and was ever in a whirl of many social activities. I even managed to make my night out at a meditation class end in a very social time at a local soda fountain. I can remember the meditation teacher exhorting us each week not to go empty our full buckets of energy with a lot of socializing after class. We would tear out of there to our weekly gathering at the soda fountain laughing our heads off!

When I began Green Hope Farm I naturally made it a place bustling with people and gatherings. In those early years, the Angels also had me travel a lot and speak at many conferences about what we were doing here at the farm. Then abruptly, my inner guidance sent my life in a very different direction. After a time in which I was out on the road speaking each weekend for months on end, I received word that I was done with that and would be staying home.

It took me a very long time to understand exactly what the Angels guiding me meant by staying home. While the road trips stopped immediately, my suddenly quiet life became even more quiet over the years. Even the gardens became much quieter as the Angels asked us to close them to visitors. Of course, I have thought a lot about the whys of all of this, but I have no real answers. In surrendering to what we are asked to do there are no guarantees or necessarily any explanations, but my quiet life has taught me one thing for certain: nothing is unimportant.

In a world spinning so very fast with so many events packed in, we can think there is very little going on in a small simpler life. But living in a smaller life, I am aware how significant each encounter with another person, animal or Flower is. It makes me aware that we really have no idea the healing things we do. In a busy life, someone’s kindness to me might feel unimportant to them, but if it is my only trip off the farm that week, this person’s act of kindness is not unimportant to me.

I now am firmly convinced we will never know the most healing thing we ever did because we really have no idea what others may need or how we have helped them in simple ways we haven’t even thought were important. My pared down life made me experience this Green Hope Farm friend’s query about a Flower Essence for her healing practice as a healing gift to me. It made me feel she was doing much more healing work than she was aware of.

After all, her brave and vulnerable request for Flower Essences on this topic helped me, and she thought she was asking for my help!