Nursing mothers are notorious for their disinclination toward sex – and no wonder when for most women, giving birth is not the ecstatic culmination of nine months of foreplay. For most women childbirth is a painful ordeal – so why repeat it again so soon by inviting another conception through sex? I believe the desire for sex after giving birth is mitigated by how the baby was born, but there is more to the mystery. (1) Even in the non-traumatized population of mothers having babies at home, most nursing mothers feel burdened to some degree for their mates’ sexual desire is usually more frequent. This has been explained hormonally – that a lactating woman has a baby and does not desire sex because her lap is already full with the biological imperative actualized. The message (hormone means "messenger" in Greek) is, why have sex now when the consequence of intercourse is already here?

The diagnosis of cancer unexpectedly blew blustery winds of change into our lives.
The prognosis for the illness was being measured in a handful of weeks, maybe months if you were lucky they said. I wasn't quite sure what “luck” would mean in this particular circumstance. But all those casual assumptions I held about time--about there always being plenty of it--were suddenly called into question. Death was close by. And death has a way of clarifying things. There came an urgent invitation to get very clear about how I wanted to live, how I really wanted to be, and what I wanted to share with you in the precious time left.

“How many ways of being are there, sweet friend?” asks Grandmother Growth in her warm way. You sense this is a serious question, and you fear you don’t know the right answer. Between the yin and the yang, between the dark and the light, between normal and abnormal, there are infinite shades and numberless ways of being. Without lines, they arise and change, drift away or settle in, some promoting your well-being, some eroding it. An erosive change is almost upon us daughter. How will we meet it?

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Sedona was surely lying on my back on Airport Mesa, feeling the reverberations of the drumbeat of our guide, an “American born Toltec,” coming through the rock right into my body, passing down from my eardrums as far as my toes, hearing the coyotes call back, the warm sun on my body, colours dancing in front of my closed eyelids. A raven flew right over my head as I lay there, and called to me. I felt as if I were one with the raven, shape shifting into that powerful symbol of magic and mystery, ready to fly off the edge of the high rock mesa.

"Dear woman," Grandmother Growth's voice seems to float in the deepening twilight, echoing, reverberating, ringing in your ears. "Bring me your soreness. Bring me your pain. Bring your aches to me. Bring your burdens. Bring all you can no longer stand, can no longer bear, can no longer carry, can no longer shoulder, can no longer be responsible for. Give it to me. Put it down. Let us sit in council together and listen to the stories your pain tells. Menopause is a journey which requires you to pack light. Heavy things--bitterness, regret, vengeance, clinging to pain--will make your travels wearisome and bring you down. Take only the stories. Leave the rest behind. Burn the soreness in your hot flashes. Let it leave you. This is the Change. Let it change you, dear woman; let it change you."

AUGUST
August 5-8: Findhorn Foundation, Scotland
August 12: Shamanic Herbal Apprenticeship, Late Summer Group begins
August 18-24: Green Goddess Apprentice Week
August 22: Moonlodge

SEPTEMBER
work learn days
September 5-7: Womens Mysteries with Z Budapest, Santa Cruz CA
Sept 9: Shamanic Herbal Apprenticeship, Autumn Group begins
Sept 12: Moonlodge
Sept 13: Hands-on Herbal Medicine/Autumn, At-Home Day with Weed
Sept 14: Chronic Problems, At-Home Day with Weed
September 19-21:Green Nations Gathering (802-293-5996)
Sept. 27: Saugerties Garlic Festival