Pine Needle Tea

Known to be a great source of vitamin C, white pine needle tea makes an excellent remedy to fight the winter cold. It is easy to identify by its brush like cluster of needles and is the only 5 needled eastern pine. To make a tea, simply gather enough needles to fill a large mason jar. After stuffing the needles into the jar, fill the jar with boiling water and let sit for several minutes. The tea will turn a light yellow/green. Strain the tea and add honey for a healthy, warming tea. You may refrigerate any left over tea for later use. Enjoy!

Composting - a divine process

This is the time of year that I crave green. I crave the color and especially the smell of fresh, green grass. As beautiful as the snow is, I can feel that my body is needing green in other ways than eating a plate full of collards or kale and we won't really see spring up here at Hawk Circle until mid April.

I have two remedies for those of you who also feel this way. One is making fruit shakes and adding a heaping tablespoon of PaleoGreens. It's the best supplement that I have found. It contains a variety of organic vegetables and best of all, it has a lemon-lime taste that is actually enjoyable and can easily be added to shakes for your kids with out them ever noticing. Unlike the powder supplements that you have to plug your nose while drinking because they are so horrific.

The other remedy to bring green in to my home is to plant grass. I will find an old planter, fill it with dirt and sprinkle it with grass seeds and then stick an apple or willow branch in the middle. The grass grows quickly and smells so good while the branch's tender leaves begin to unfold. You can also grow the grass in pie tins that will fit inside your children's Easter baskets.

Composting - a divine process

Often times we think of the Divine as what looks beautiful, feels good, and is pure and holy. I've begun to have an appreciation for the Divine that is forever present in things that don't always look beautiful and at times can even feel repulsive. Take the process of the compost pile. Bits of rotting food scraps, grass clippings, some dead leaves, manure, and you have yourself an incredible compost pile where everything is breaking down, falling apart, transforming into what will someday be beautiful, nutrient rich, life giving matter that will feed new growth and healthy new plants.

Is this not what we are experiencing right now in our country? A complete breakdown, a crumbling, decomposition of what no longer serves us. Our food scraps that no longer provide us with the nourishment that we need. It is the Divine process of transformation and change. It doesn't always look pretty and it can be so uncomfortable and scary and repulsive all at the same time. But the possibilities of what may grow out of this breakdown are endless and exciting to say the least.

I've watched my family go through breakdowns. And believe me in the moment, I can easily forget that this is a Divine process, a natural process. It feels scary and feels like such an unwelcome upheaval, and an ending that is sure not to have a new beginning. This is often what our teenagers offer us - a human compost bin. The struggle that we often observe with teens is their attempt to breakdown old family structures so that they can grow beyond the family container. It's not a fun process, but what is being asked of us as parents is to let go, not completely, but to let go and allow for the expansion. When the old patterns that no longer serve us are fully decomposed and I watch the new growth begin to take place within myself and the rest of my family, I am reminded of just how Divine it all is. TRUST the process!