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#FridayPlantHappyHour

Cyclamen Underfoot Clears Energy Circling Around You

*IF* you believed in magic. And *IF* your precious heart needed to rest its autumnal eyes on some calming #flowerpower uptick, (especially after *this* full moon, whoosh LMTY), you’d pay close attention to sandy soil forest understory for a sip of Cyclamen.

It blooms in the fall ’round here in this hemisphere. I’m talking the wild kind, of course. The cyclamen that makes you wonder if the flower is looking up or looking down. The flower’s remedy will help clarify: it’s looking all around! How’s that? The name comes from the Greek work kuklos which means circle. Cycle. The magic of cyclamen, metaphorically speaking, attunes us to the cycles of life and opens portals to the sacred, universal, nature. Think cervix and you’ll understand the root chakra power of this flower.

Serve me up some of that for this #FridayPlantHappyHour, huh?

In #sanctuarydesign applications, I often add this flower (back) into outlying natural areas. I adore the idea that it carries with it the essence of clear-headedness. Circling a home with the offerings of accessing inner wisdoms, knowledge, KNOWing, rooting. In a potted container brought inside, the plant helps to circle up knowledge and helps us store it for future applications. Hmm, like an external hard drive.

The root (rhizome – turnip tuber looking “bulb” but not a bulb) is said to be used as medicine for ailments from head to toe and all around inside. (Note of caution – consult your witch doctors, medical personnel, gurus and guides before you try anything with this plant, k?).In the personal design of my new sanctuary studio, cyclamen will be used to clear energy from construction and to foster my work of circling into deeper levels of being of service, healing and nurturance.

As I cast my vision for creating #TheSanctuarySalon membership in 2020, Cyclamen’s empowering energy assists to bring this circle, this community of #highlysensitivepeople, deep feelers, keepers-of-all-moving-parts together — those of us wanting to heal, root and earth in our intention to grow a sense of sanctuary space in

ourselves.

our work.

our lives.

our jobs, businesses.

our gardens.

our families.

and for sanctuary to become the place of acceptance of our true nature.

A place that nurtures and SEES our caring nature and vulnerability as our strongest power – one that encircles so many in our lives..Oh! And I so dig the heart-shaped leaves that cyclamen offers. But, you know as Annie The OpenHearted, I’m a sucker for such natural things.

Want more soothing, #restorativenature #thrivingoutsidehealinginside serenity boosts like this to help you #BeYourOwnSanctuary?

Sign up for The Sanctuary Salon membership waitlist and we’ll notify you when the garden gates open for our next seasonal enrollment!

Sanctuary Salon Wait List

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Lamb’s Ear is Like Flannel PJs For the Senses and Your Sanctity

Lamb's ear hand Sanctuary

I needed something tender today. I’m a solider today. A warrior. Out in the field. I found a bit of softness to settle my thoughts ONTO to move my attention out from my head and throughOUT my body.


I reached for nature’s tenderness. In the form of a leaf.


At peak moments of taking in saturated information that comes from all points of command (uh… stress anyone?), touch, e.g., creating with your hands, especially if you have a kinesthetic processing style, can help heal the sense of separation between your busy head and your BIG heart. Your busy mind processing data points about caregiving, business-running, co-parenting, project management, traffic, schedules, what’s for dinnerandYOU – your precious self. Your sanctity.


Like, where’s the comfort, huh?You’ll find that comfort you seek as you allow for the perceived space of separation that makes you feel “bad” to be instead a pathway. By using your hands, you switch “railways” in your brain and tap into more constructive processes. Funny huh? That’s what a leaf can do. That’s the higher frequency that is creativity.


For me, I’m blessed with being an HSP (read: highly sensitive peep). I’m grateful, though the road to this appreciation hasn’t been easy. Story for another day. Yet, as a HSP – deep feeler type, the simple act of a tiny creation with my hands can be transportive. Meditative. A time for communion, connection, calm. I come out of the “battlefield” changed. Evolved. Clear.
A simple leaf did the trick for me. Not any leaf, but a very soft, special leaf. That of a Lamb’s Ear. Yes. That’ll do. Let’s me serve you up some #FridayPlantHappyHour goodness about a Lamb’s Ear leaf.

Often found in hospital #healinggardens, especially for children’s facilities, Lamb’s Ear is a joy. Have you had the pleasure of holding this plant’s leaf in your hand. Ask ANY kiddo. It.Is.So.Soft. Velvet. Felt. Plush. Think: flannel PJ’s, your puppy’s or rabbit’s ear.


So soft that it has been used historically as bandage – wound soother and protector and banisher of bad dreams. Said to have anti-inflammatory/antibacterial properties built into the leaf, when mashed, it helps with insect bites/stings and is absorbent (pardon me, I’m super potty-training aware right now). As I manipulated the leaf in my hand, I could feel the emotional “stings” of my mind soothed. Like sanctuary in the palm of my hand.


Stachys byzantina reigns in zones 4-8. Sorry desert dwellers, but there are alternatives (contact me for a consult to find a matchy-match for your locale). SUPER low-care needs with high sensory benefit. Yep, serve this plant up as a “beauty with benefits” brew for me and you. It’s hardy and geez, the bees be happy too. I love designing Lamb’s Ear into serenity gardens where I know there will be kids AND adults who will are encouraged to be wild and curious – using touch as a vital part of processing the world inside and out. Critical in connecting the dots back to ourselves.

I love the groundcover “skirt” as a border plant and a design gesture that moves the eye (much like it moves your thoughts upon touch). It plays OUT with its natural, flowing character, and oh my, the plant outfits made with silver foliage star Lamb’s Ear – from the sister blue-grey tones of Santolina to the deep burgundies, Lamb’s Ear grey can act as a secret sauce bright light (white-ish) sheen or that sophisticated sage green “quieter” for modern style venues.

As for my tiny creation, after caressing the leaf like a rosary bead, I paired it with a heavily dissected Japanese maple leaf and made a quick-like boutonniere. Tucked into a button hole of my coat, I had my reminder that tenderness, sensitivity and creativity is both our magic and what makes us so courageous.


Note: do not eat this plant. Consult your eastern (or western) medicine practitioner for appropriate extracts / supplements, ya dig?


Want more soothing, #restorativenature #thrivingoutsidehealinginside serenity boosts like this to help you #BeYourOwnSanctuary? Sign up for The Sanctuary Salon membership wait list and we’ll notify you when the garden gates open for our next seasonal enrollment!

Sanctuary Salon Wait List

What to Plant in a Sanctuary Garden to Please Caregiver Souls

The Athena of trees is what will please the caregiver’s soul when planted in a garden sanctuary.

Kicking off National Family Caregiver Month here in the US and wearing my heart on my sleeve.


Make that my favorite tree’s heart-shaped leaf on my sleeve. Come closer as I tell you a tale of 2 Forest Pansy Redbud trees for your Plant Recipes for Sanctuaries consideration. One stood outside the kitchen window to delightfully distract me – to please and dance in the breeze as the storms of responsibility loomed in caring for my aging parent.

One stood outside the would-be nursery, reminding us, fortifying us through infertility that the day would come that we’d become a 3.

These 2 trees with their heart-shapes leaves, hugged our home and formed a halo of hope and love over our needs. Of play. Of comfort. Of a place for Xmas light display.


Hummingbirds perched. Camouflaged in the canopy. Safe haven below for me to go. High branches for hummer’s pre-flight of joy medicine. Forest Pansy Redbud. A dear tree-friend to me.


Cercis canadensis is “her” latin name. Yes, diva female energy for certain, aligned with multidimensional goddess power and wisdom – both soft and intensely strong. I recently described her as Athena of trees. She IS a tree one needs plant close-into a living space to fully learn lessons, and be an immersed self while sitting with her fine, delicate dichotomy: bloom-to-branching architecture AND scrappy survival instincts.


Truth be told, if I were a tree, I be a Forest Pansy Red Bud. I am both a mother and warrior. I’m intensely soft-sensitive-feminine and powerful beyond all measure. Given my experiences with #caregiving / caredoing / caring all my life, I’m not ashamed to claim the title in my life as the most courageous person I KNOW.


Bold you say? Why yes. Bold and beautiful. That’s how I’m growing myself to BE. And I bet you too.


This is why I planted these 2 trees. These 2 trees helped us heal our shame and timidity. This tree grants waiver over our sense of loss and grief. My trees stood by rooted in truth. The truth of personal strength. Tender and tenacious. Yes. You are both, too, too?


I often cast my healing design magic using Forest Pansy when I sense this sort of healing is needed. Stabilization that comes with a hug. Which is a blessing into a garden and into one’s sacred space around and within.


Forest Pansy grows to eave height plus a bit more. Glory is found in the rounded canopy where the “bones” (branches) show in a silvery-cinnamon armor (I know, is that combination even possible?). Just wait for spring and you’ll see just.exactly.why. this tree is known as a spring-time harbinger of hope.


Adorned with bee-laden necklaces upon necklaces of pea-like, little pinky-lavender blooms she snows down on upon the garden floor and garden heart. Native tribes found the blossoms delicious and the wood bow-making worthy. (See the Athena reference again?) This tree is poetry. Shooting straight to my sentimental-intiuitive-sensitive-earth-empath heart. Her wood is known to promote new love, after all.

Especially the canopy – in autumn. A canopy of heart-shaped leaves marbled in burgundy, caramel, green. A crown of color. Royal. Those heart-shaped leaves like gemstones – each unique.


You’re finding that I’m speaking of these trees in past tense, huh? As I gaze out mid-fall carnival onto the Bloodgood Maple standing sentry out my office window, I’m reminiscing over these 2 trees. When we chose to move to our farm, these 2 trees stayed behind to offer their healing to the next family. To be warriors for their healing. To hug them through the seasons. 
After all, these trees are as their leaves advertise: love.  So, drink it up and hug it up.

Note: do not eat this tree. Consult your eastern (or western) medicine practitioner for appropriate extracts / supplements, ya dig?


Want a sacred space that is more than just another pretty place? One that soothes your senses, digs deep for your wellbeing and helps you set that stress down and instead grow #BeingSanctuary?

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