Nourished Self

01/07/2025

20/11/2023

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature ... the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter."
Rachel Carson

Maxfield Parrish - Daybreak, 1922.

26/03/2023

“Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.”
Louise Erdrich - Advice to Myself.

Andrea Kowch

05/03/2023

Note to self…

08/11/2022

“Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass.”
Confucius

Shiro Kasamatsu – Title: Rain at Shinobazu Pond, 1938.

04/06/2022

“At the end of the day, tell yourself gently: 'I love you, you did the best you could today, and even if you didn't accomplish all you had planned, I love you anyway.'”
Anonymous

Adrian Scott Stokes - Sunset, 1920.

19/03/2022

Perfect read for right now. 🙏🏼

“This is the true meaning of prayer. To clear an emptiness in our lives where the holy can enter. To prepare a place in our home, in our lives, in our hearts, where magic can feel welcome. And while nothing happens for an uncomfortable amount of time, we can adorn that emptiness with the humble images of our own longing. The carving of a wild wolf that ate from my hand in a dream; the painted stone that houses an elder’s prayer for my well-being; the snakeskin shed at a time of essential loss. Choose those few sacred items that ring like a bell from a timeless place where spirit showed itself to you, and act as a summoning that it may do so again. And day by day, hour by hour, the debris of outer influences evaporate like a fog from your bright, new horizon."

From the blog “Clearing the Fog” by Toko-pa Turner (toko-pa.com)

Photo of light streaming in through windows to illuminate an empty room with earth coloured stone floors.

13/02/2022

Thanks for this wonderful recipe Tamara! 🌿🫖🤗

I show and discuss some of my favourite herbs for a soothing nervine tea for stress, anxiety, agitation and depression. While I talk about the herbs, we watc...

11/01/2022

😋

Freshening up the Pantry white board and information boards in preparation for reopening tomorrow, Jan 11 at 9:00 :)

08/01/2022

❤️

It's madness
to hate all roses
because you got scratched with one thorn,

to give up all dreams
because one of them didn't come true,

to give up all attempts
because one of them failed.

It's folly to condemn all your friends
because one has betrayed you,

to no longer believe in love
just because someone was unfaithful
or didn't love you back,

to throw away all your chances to be happy
because something went wrong.

There will always be another opportunity,
another friend,
another love,
a new strength.

For every end,
there is always a new beginning.....

“And now here is my secret,
a very simple secret:
It is only with the heart
that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince, 1943.

03/01/2022

👂