May Day, Dandelions, and Fabulousness! Dandelioness Herbals Spring Update

Happy May Day!!!  I can't wait til the festivities!!! After May 1 March for Health & Dignity (info here) at the VT Statehouse at noon, and then at Sovversiva Open Space for an open house, BBQ, and showing of the new film about the life and community organizing work of United Farm Worker Union co-founder Cesar Chavez!!! More info here. 

Hooray for workers rights!  Universal health care!  Anti-biased policing policies!  And all the cross-pollinating happening between individuals and organizations on May Day and everyday, across communities and across borders!  May we all channel the powerful energy of spring into fabulous projects, good medicine, and gorgeous art!

In this Update
-Report Backs
-Dandelioness Herbals Remedies: Green Tech, Fabulous To Go, Activist Self-Care Kit, & 
  Spring Tonic
-Recent/Spring Dandelioness Herbals Blog Posts: Penquins, Self-Care, Creating 
  Herbal/Emotional Support at Marches and Demonstrations
-Upcoming Teaching /Events: Decolonizing Herbalism, Empowering Herbalists (aka 
  Intro the Herbalism for Social Justice), Herbalists Without Borders,  and more!

REPORT BACKS
I was so happy to part of the Migrant Justice/Vermont contingent at the Not One More! Stop the Deportations march and rally in Boston, MA on April 17th, protesting the Obama administration's deportation of over 2 million of our community members and loved ones.  19 community members – both undocumented and documented -participated in a civil disobedience and were arrested, while throngs of supports marched for hours.  Those locked up at the detention center also showed their support through the bars/windows.  There are videos of this event posted here, and photos posted here. 

I was also really glad to attend the annual Reproductive Justice conference in early April.  I attended fabulous workshops: The Revolution Starts with Me!: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, & Resources for Activist Self Care with Adaku Utah and Nicole Clark (check out their websites, SouLar Bliss  and Nicole Clark Consulting), The Politics of Adoption: Race, Identity, and Our Families' Lives about transracial and transnational adoption (check out Land of Gazillion Adoptees), and a workshop on supporting kids and caregivers, co-facilitated by a co-author of the book: Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities.

...also at this conference Wake Robin Botanicals and Dandelioness Herbals unveiled their latest three fabulous collaborations, which are now available at…

DANDELIONESS HERBALS' ONLINE ETSY SHOP
-Activist Self-Care Kit: Supporting Change Makers for the Long Haul Dandelioness Herbals, Wake Robin Botanicals, and Mandala Botanicals have teamed up to offer the following three herbals: Speak Truth! Throat Spray, Sacred Basil Glycerite, & Solidarity Salve

-Green Tech: Herbal Support Kit for Students, Activists/Organizers, & Writers
Many of us feel the demands of long hours using technologies that can be draining or wearing on our bodies, both physically and energetically. These remedies support us to not only function, but to thrive while we meet demands and deadlines feeling focused and collected: 
Sharp Thoughts Herbal Tea, Stay Ready! nourishing elixir, Ache Relief Salve, and Calendula Violet Eye Serum. 

-Fabulousness To Go: Helping our real fabulous nature shine through with Brilliant Lip Shimmer, Fancy Glitter Crème, Fabulous Transformation Flower Essence, Fabulousness In A Bottle.  This basket contains all kinds of flower-mermaid-unicorn-rainbow-hippocamp-and-kitten magic.

-Also NEW: Spring Tonic - a blend of fresh roots, leaf, and sap that provides nourishing support during the transition from winter to spring. 





RECENT/SPRING DANDELIONESS HERBALS BLOG POSTS
-Arnica drops and Lavender Spray: Creating Herbal/Emotional Support at Marches and Demonstrations

-Hope! Because Sometimes We Need Some Help: another Wake Robin Botanicals and Dandelioness Herbals collaboration penguins, poetry, & dance routines

-The Sweet Truth About Bitters
-The Dandelions Are Here!!  the whole plant is medicinal - flower, leaf, root, and sap!
-St. Patrick's Solidarity   Mexico/Ireland solidarity!
-In Case of (emotional) Emergency: self-care form to fill out to fill out when you’re feeling grounded, supported, calm, inspired, etc.  to read when you’re not.

                                      

UPCOMING EVENTS

-Sandra Lory of Mandala Botanicals and I will be teaching 'Decolonizing Herbalism, Empowering Herbalists' (aka Intro the Herbalism for Social Justice) at the following event, as well as presenting in the evening about Herbalists Without Borders projects:

URBAN MOONSHINE HERBAL CONFERENCE 
Sat May 24th 2014, Coach Barn at Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, VT 
Inspiring day of herbal classes, walks, talks, & connections, followed by an evening including fresh dinner fare, music, cocktails, dancing, & festivities! We are enthused to offer classes from wonderful teachers: 7 Song, Mary Bove, Guido Mase, Larken Bunce, Betzy Bancroft, Jeff Carpenter, Melanie Carpenter, Sandra Lory, Brendan Kelly, Megan Godfrey, Leyla Bringas, Mary Niles, and many more to be announced! One hundred percent of the proceeds will benefit the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism's community herbal clinics.  More info to come here.  Facebook event page here.

-The Plainfield Farmer’s Market will be starting up in a few weeks, so you can visit the Dandelioness Herbals booth to taste remedies, purchase products, and chat.

-Interested in growing medicinal herbs for community health projects?  Members of Herbalists Without Borders are coordinating the growing of medicinal plants to distribute via community health projects near and far.  Interested in growing herbs for teas, salves, etc?  Please be in touch.

-I’m excited about hosting herbal medicine making days for community empowerment during the growing season, when the plants are most vital.  Learn to harvest in a good way, learn/share medicine-making skills, create remedies for community health projects, and create a kit to take back to our homes/communities.   All experience levels welcome.  If you have questions or ideas for venues, please be in touch.

Take care,

dana

dandelion778 (at)  yahoo  (dot)  com

Please visit the Dandelioness Herbals Facebook page for info about upcoming events, photos of medicinal herbs, blog posts, links to good projects/resources, and more!

Til next time...

Images from the top:  
Migrant Justice represents! * Activist Self-Care Kit: Supporting Change Makers for the Long Haul

Participants of the civil disobedience at the Not One More Deportation! Boston Rally * As we march by the detention center, dandelion stays rooted beside us, embodying persistence and resistance, sending forth its seeds across borders and prison walls.

They send their love and support through the glass and prison bars.  To our comrades, brothers, fathers, cousins, husbands, grandsons, friends: you are not forgotten! * Green Tech: Herbal Support Kit for Students, Activists/Organizers, & Writers

Basket full of dandelion blossoms

Celebrating after the rally!  We Did It Before, We'll Do It Again! Power to the People! *  Dandelion roots  * Fabulousness To Go: Helping our real fabulous nature shine through 

St. Patrick's Solidarity

In grade school, I dyed my bangs green with food coloring on St. Patrick's Day.  That same green the Chicago River is dyed on that same day.  This day didn't have great significance to me.  I'd never been to Ireland, though I'd wanted to go since I was little. 

This year, though, St. Patrick's Day has a special meaning.  Not only because I've now been to Ireland and have heartstrings-attachment that isn't just a faraway 'someday...' wish to visit this ancestral homeland.  Today I'm thinking about the St. Patrick's Day celebrations today in Mexico.

What's Mexico have to do with St. Patrick's Day?!  Well...

Only a week after giving a Travel Talk on Ireland at Sovversiva Open Space, sharing stories and images of medicinal plants and wild foods (like seaweed!), urban gardens, the Famine/Starvation, and Sheela Na Gig from my various trips to the island, my compañerxs were in the Vermont statehouse, testifying and speaking out against injustice.  Grassroots community organizations have fought for an anti-biased policing policy by the VT State Police.  Though many communities are targeted and racially profiled, the group I'm most connected with is Migrant Justice, a grassroots organization of migrant farm workers in VT, and their allies. (The majority of migrant farm workers living in Vermont are originally from Mexico, with smaller numbers hailing from Guatemala and other countries.)  Despite the anti-biased policing policy, law enforcement officers continue to racially profile people of color - and continue to call Border Patrol when they stop people that they assume are undocumentated. 

I've often heard people claim that their family came to the US "the right way," whether that was in this lifetime or many generations ago, and that other immigrants should "get in line. (For more on this myth: here and here and here and the image here)  At a hearing addressing discrimination and bias a VT Representative asked a Latino speaker if he was a US citizen, after he *didn't* ask this of a previous white speaker from the same organization.  Another VT Representative claimed that he was part of the Irish community and basically said that they are all documented.  

Well, I'm not going to delve deep into Irish history, but I would like to recommend the film The Wind the Shakes the Barley to understand a bit about the British occupation of Ireland and the people's resistance.  I'd also like to recommend the book Famine Diary: Journey to a New World by James J. Mangan/Gerald Keegan for a personal account about the very intentional starvation of the Irish people by the British government/landlords, who stockpiled food and sent ships full of food to England while the people starved, were incarcerated in huge numbers, or were forced to flee the island.  The Irish that crossed the Atlantic and survived the journey, found more discrimination.  The NINA (No Irish Need Apply) sign below is just one example: 

Multiple times when I've been in Ireland, I've noticed a strong affinity and sense of solidarity with the people of Palestine.  This photo was taken in a Dublin pub, of the Irish and Palestinian flag hung side by side:

I didn't know until recently about the history of solidarity between the people of Ireland and Mexico as well...

La canción con subtítulos en español aca.

Mexican music by St. Patrick's Battalion Pipes & Drums 

"Banda de Gaitas del Batallon de San Patricio"

When I've been in Ireland and spoken with people about Migrant Justice, I've been told by people there that they have sons or cousins or other loved ones that are in the US without documentation.  Though they may be less targeted because Irish people tend to blend in with the racist idea of what a US American looks like and who "belongs" here (read: white), still people without documentation are forced to live with the constant stress of being deported and being unable to visit loved ones back home for fear of not being able to re-enter the US.  More about the 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the US here in "America's New Irish Immigrants."

While mainstream "honoring" of St. Patrick's Day often looks like wearing loads of green plastic and getting drunk, I'm reflecting on solidarity across oceans and human-made borders.  I'm grateful for all those who have resisted colonization and questioned racist ideas of who the enemy and scapegoat is.  To honor my ancestors and their struggles, learning more about how they were received and later the privileges they were given and we still are given, as well as what we lost, I'm standing in solidarity for racial and immigrant justice within what is now known as the US and beyond.  As descendants of those who survived -  whether it was crossing the ocean, a desert, mountains, or being from this land since the beginning (and I'm not talking about 1492 or 1776!) - we owe it to each other to end the cycle of dehumanization and work for the rights of all peoples.


For more info about Ireland and (im)migration, please see:
(Im)migration and Lip Balms for Social Justice?!

Talking Plants/Talking Justice: Plant Medicine and Social Justice Interview with Dana Woodruff of Dandelioness Herbals

I was recently interviewed by Ann Armbrecht, co-creator of Numen: The Nature of Plants!  You can check out the full interview here: Plant Medicine and Social Justice with Dana Woodruff. Ann Armbrecht also interviewed folk herbalist and food activist Sandra Lory of Mandala Botanicals here.  Thank you, Ann, for supporting grassroots community herbalism!


Plant Medicine And Social Justice With Dana Woodruff

From the first time I met Dana, I have been so impressed with both her knowledge of and dedication to the plants and herbal medicine and her willingness to talk about topics that herbalists don’t tend to talk about: healthy sexuality, gender identity, social justice and power, and more (you can read about some of those on her blog!). I have especially been interested in her work in prisons and with migrant farm workers, teaching them about herbs, learning from them, and helping them get rights they are often denied. Like Sandra Lory’s work (with whom Dana often teaches workshops), Dana is doing incredibly important work educating about self care and building community health and making sure that this knowledge is accessible to whoever wants it. I was thrilled to finally be able to hear about Dana’s work. Dana’s blog, Dandelioness Herbals is an incredible resource with recipes, resources, reflections and more. Dana also sells her herbal remedies at her Etsy shop. Check them out!

Ann: To start, I’d love to hear how you first got interested in herbal medicine, a bit about the training that you’ve had, and the focus of your work with plants.

Dana: Like so many raised in the US, much of my ancestral lineage has been lost by the process of assimilation.  My childhood in Central Maine wasn’t infused with the plant medicine traditions of my ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, and England. Living rurally, though, I was surrounded by plants.  My mom took us out on wildflower walks, in the spring Grammy and Pop-Pop took me to harvest Dandelion greens. We’d eat fiddleheads and we’d eat out of the gardens in the summer. I grew up in a family with a history of being healthworkers, crafters, and farmers.

Click here to read the entire interview...

Honoring ALL Mothers: Mama's Day Our Way

What does Motherhood in a just world look like?

Walking into a store around Mother’s Day, one would think from all the greeting card images that all mothers are white, able-bodied, middle-class, straight, feminine and female-identified women in nuclear families.

This narrow view of who a mother is excludes so many of us - Immigrant women raising their children in bilingual homes, Transgender moms with disabilities, Masculine-identified women raising their nieces and nephews, Incarcerated mother maintaining connection through barbed wire and concrete walls, Indigenous women honoring both their children and Mother Earth in the struggles against colonization and tar sands, Women of color serving in the military and parenting from overseas, Breast-feeding working-class queer mamas, Survivors of sexual violence who are transforming pain and trauma into creating a safe home for their little ones, Mothers working as domestic workers - separated from their own children to raise the children of upper-class families, Mothers of all skin colors and their little ones who may or may not be the same color, Teen mothers taking good care of their babies, Single moms and multi-generational households, Mothers that cross borders and endure separation from their families in order to provide for them, Mothers by blood, adoption, and chosen-mothers.  

This year, let’s honor all mothers! 

Let’s celebrate midwives, doulas, and other birthworkers!  Let’s take this day as an opportunity to learn more about our own birthstory and send some love to uteruses all over the world!  Let’s support motherhood and parenthood as a whole, and create and nourish culture/communities where families are included and valued.

    To all those who help build strong and resilient communities by creating inclusive,     
    multi-generational spaces-  

    To all the mothers and allies working collectively for justice in the realm of  
    motherhood/parenthood and  other aspects of community justice – 

    To all artists who are creating vivid reflections of families in all their vibrant, simple,   
    complicated, and loving manifestations -

THANK YOU!

Please check out Strong Families -"a home for the 4 out of 5 people living in the US who do not live behind the picket fence—whose lives fall outside outdated notions of family, with a mom at home and a dad at work....We see the trend of families defining themselves beyond the picket fence—across generation, race, gender, immigration status, and sexuality—as a powerful and promising development for the US, and we want to help policy makers catch up.  Our vision is that every family have the rights, recognition and resources it needs to thrive.  We are engaging hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals in our work to get there."

    -and their Mama's Day Our Way  campaign - beautiful and free e-cards here, created by   
    a network of artists and organizations.  Some of their cards are included below.

More resources:
Art of Favianna Rodriguez and Dignidad Rebelde
Radical Doula
The Shodhini Institute
Campaign for Prison Phone Justice  - please sign their Mother's Day petition here.
Brown Boi Project
The Native Youth Sexual Health Network
National Day Laborer Organizing Network

You can click on images below to make them larger.

"My mom would cross 100 borders to give me a better future."

Please sign the petition here.

"Our souls are so much bigger than this"

V-Day: One Billion Rising and Man Prayer (Un Billón de Pie y Oración de un Hombre)

One Billion Rising
One In Three Women On The Planet Will Be Raped Or Beaten In Her Lifetime.  One Billion Women Violated Is An Atrocity.  One Billion Women Dancing Is A Revolution.


All over the world people are coming together this Valentine's Day to dance and speak out against violence against women and children.  

While this global effort is truly beautiful and moving, let's not forget that survivors are not always women and perpetrators are not always male.  When talking about violence in intimate partnerships, it's important not to assume all couples are straight or that people's gender identities can be determined through assumptions.  It's important not to erase people's experiences by viewing all women as victims/survivors  and all men as perpetrators.  Physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual trauma can affect any relationship.  In creating the world we want to live in and creating services, projects, and resources to facilitate the healing of trauma, it's important that we are honoring all survivors, not only female-identified cisgender (non-transgender) women in straight relationships.

I am really inspired by the expanding conversations, workshops, and movement-building around healing and preventing sexual violence in our communities.  Movements sometimes shy away from addressing relationship violence and violence within families, as if these are personal issues that don't have very real and hurtful effects on our communities.  I'm really heartened by Keith Smith's 'Boys and Men as Survivors of Sexual Violence' and other similar workshops that focus on masculinity, healing, and how male-identified people are impacted by violence.  I'm inspired by the visionary work of Generation FIVE, looking forward far beyond this lifetime, to end child sexual violence within five generations.

This V-Day Eve Ensler, creatrix of the Vagina Monologues, has sparked One Billion Rising/Un billón de Pie, with flashmobs taking place all over the world this Thursday, Feb 14th.  It's not too late to get involved.  There are at least 11 groups planning flashmobs in Vemont, US alone!  The videos below are of the Break the Chain/Romper Las Cadenas.




You can learn the dance moves through the instructional videos here and here, and once you have the moves down you can practice them straight through here (in a mirror image, so you can move in sync with the other dancers).  If you'd like to download these videos so that you can get together with friends and practice, you can do so here.

Eve Ensler has also written this poem "Man Prayer", filmed by Tony Stroebel.  The words of the poem are included below, with Spanish translation.

I love that this poem includes voices from so many languages, including sign language.  I was raised as a white, English-speaker in the US.  As a child surrounded by mainstream culture, included limited exposure to mainstream feminism, I was raised to look at other cultures and countries, especially people of color's, as less-than.  I was raised to believe that 'Americans' (read: white, English-speaking US citizens) are smarter, more capable, more beautiful, more worthy, etc. than all others.  Daily, I can see the way this rarely-questioned complex infiltrates the minds and activism of even those of us who consider ourselves leftist/liberal/radical.  It manifests with condescending side comments about 'those poor women in...(fill in the blank of some faraway country).'  It rears it's ugly head when people talk about machismo in Latin American countries, while sweeping US misogyny (women-hating) and domestic abuse under the rug.  

This perspective perpetuates the conquistador/colonizer/missionary mentality where people who believe that their culture and beliefs are superior enter communities they are not a part of in order to teach/convert, ultimately destroying culture through assimilation.  This perspective may not be intentional, or even conscious.  Until we intentionally break this cycle, this learned attitude will continue to affect our personal conversations and infiltrate our workplaces, our homes, our communities, and even our movements of social justice.  

To those of you raised in the US, to those of you raised with privilege (white, male, cisgender (non-transgender), able-bodied, speaking the dominant language, middle-class, and/or straight, etc), this V-Day, this February, this year, please take the opportunity to reflect on the often-unquestioned lessons we've been taught from the media - the magazine's we looked at as youths, the tv shows we watched, the music we listened to, our schooling, in the home, and the experiences that helped shape our view about our place in the world and people from other backgrounds.  

Deep winter is the perfect time for reflecting on, sorting through, and releasing ideas that we know in our hearts are untrue.  It's time to unlearn oppressive ideas we were raised with.  Only once we are liberated from these misperceptions can we join with people from all over the world in true solidarity.

"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." - Lilla Watson, Indigenous Australian visual artist, activist and academic

Man Prayer
May I be a man
whose confidence comes from the depth of my giving
who understands that vulnerability is my greatest strength
who creates space rather than dominates it
who appreciates listening more than knowing
who seeks kindness over control
who cries when the grief is too much
who refuses
the slap,
the gun,
the choke,
the insult,
the punch
may I not be afraid to get lost
may I cherish touch more than performance
and the experience more than getting there
may I move slowly, not abruptly
may I be brave enough to share my fear and shame
and gather other men to do the same
may I stop pretending and open the parts of me that have long been numb
may I cherish, respect and love my mother
may the resonance of that love translate
into loving all women and living things


Oración de Hombre por Eve Ensler


Que sea yo un hombre
cuya confianza proviene de la profundidad de mi dar
quien entienda que la vulnerabilidad es mi mayor fortaleza

que genere espacios en lugar de dominarlos

que aprecie escuchar más que conocer
quien busque amabilidad sobre control

que llore cuando el dolor es demasiado

que niegue la bofetada,
la pistola,
la estrangulación,
el insulto,
el golpe

que no tenga miedo de perderse

que valore más el toque que el rendimiento
y la experiencia más que llegar

que mueva lentamente, no abruptamente

que sea lo suficientemente valiente para compartir mi miedo y vergüenza
y para reunir a otros hombres para hacer lo mismo

que deje de fingir y que abra las partes de mí que llevan mucho tiempo adormecidos
que aprecie, respete y ame a mi madre

que la resonancia de este amor
se traduzca en amor a todas las mujeres y los seres vivos



(Muchas gracias a Hana Tauber para su ayuda en la traducción de este poema.)

More Valentine's Day-inspired posts (and some others...):

-Love is a Verb: A Valentine's Post
-CHOCOLATE EXPLOSION!
-Valentine's Aphrodisiac Recipes
-Love & Migration: Migration is Beautiful, Natural, and Inevitable. So is 
 Solidarity.
-So You Want to Learn Spanish?! Hooray! English-only, No Way!
-The People's Spa: Reclaiming Relaxation and Cultivating Collective-Care!

Love & Migration: Migration is Beautiful & Natural. So is Solidarity.

Febuary is here and with it, a month to celebrate Love in it's Many Forms.  While February is sold as the month for romantic love, there is no reason to limit ourselves to this one form.  There's self-love, community-love, family-love (chosen family &/or blood family),  community work/labor-of-love, and global/universal/solidarity-love, to name of few.  These forms of love are not separate and exclusive.  There's overlap.  Our romantic and/or family love can feed our community work/labor-of-love.  Our self-love is vital in order for us to be fully engaged and healthy in that community work.  And that global/universal/solidarity love feeds our day-to-day community activism love.  And there's so many ways to celebrate these all - ie. reflecting upon and appreciating the love in our lives, cultivating more, sending love notes to friends and family near and far, breaking bread together, creating a culture of love.  

I strongly believe in Khalil Gibran's quote "The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."  I take great comfort knowing that a broken heart is an open heart.  And a vital way for my heart, in all it's battled and bruised glory, to keep open, and for me to be and feel fully alive, is being part of movements for social justice.

In celebration of Love in it's Many Forms, let's focus on the global, take-action! love.  We're beginning with migrant justice, a movement that's near and dear to my heart.  I am so heartened by the courage and creativity of everyone in this movement that are working not only to change policy, but to liberate our minds from racism, xenophobia, and other divisive forces that create a climate of violence, target communities, separate families, and break hearts.

Favianna Rodriguez is a fierce creatrix of community and art.  She's co-founder of Presente.org, is a national organization that amplifies the political voice of Latino communities (on Facebook here).  Migration is Beautiful: Voice of Art is a recently-released program that shows how artist-activists are creating a culture of resistance and transforming conversations and perceptions  around (im)migration in the U.S.

 Also, check out Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration between Oakland-based artist-activists Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes, as well as the art of undocumented, queer artivist Julio Salgado.

I love when artists, actors, musicians, politicians and others use their influence to send a powerful message of truth and solidarity.  Wisin & Yandel take a romantic-love song, 'Estoy Enamorado' (In English: I'm in Love), and using powerful images, create a video that's a call to action.  While mainstream US culture often clumps all Latin@ cultures together, I think it's important to note that while the images in the video are most likely of people originally from Mexico and Central and South America, Wisin & Yandel are Puerto Rican.  Mainstream US culture often portrays Puerto Ricans in "those people" terms, and many people don't realize that Puerto Ricans, either living in the US or on the island, are US citizens.  Sometimes Puerto Ricans and other Latin@s with US citizenship/papers are pitted against others who lack documentation, or are perceived to lack documentation.  For this reason, Wisin & Yandel using the video to send a clear message about inhumane immigration law in the US is a blatant refusal of divide and conquer tactics and beautiful act of solidarity!




The message at the end of the video is: 
"Creemos en la protección de los derechos de todo ser humano. La Ley SB1070 representa una violacion de esos derechos y una injusticia contra la integridad de nuestras comunidades. En nuestra unión esta la fuerza. Unámosnos. Recuerda en este mundo TODOS somos iguales!"

In English: "We believe in protecting the rights of every human being. (Arizona) SB 1070 Law represents a violation of those rights and an injustice to the integrity of our communities. In our union there is strength. Unite. Remember, in this world, we are ALL equal!"


Activists and artists are making it so easy and so beautiful to become educated and get involved.  Through this movement, I am continuing to unlearn racism, reclaim my humanity, and know true solidarity.  As a white, English-speaking U.S. citizen, and with respect for my ancestors and their journeys from Ireland, Scotland, and England, I feel so blessed to be on the right side of history and part of such a creative, beautiful, loving, and fierce movement.  


Please see National Day Laborers Organizing Network's arts and culture page for more powerful videos (in English and Spanish).

image by Julio Salgado

Other good resources:
Drop the I-Word
No More Deaths/No Más Muertes
(Im)migration and Lip Balms for Social Justice?! blog post

Justicia Migrante/Migrant Justice 
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
Puente
Standing on the Side of Love

Heart Elixir: to open, heal, and protect the heart   Info here

Other Valentines-inspired blog posts:
Valentine's Aphrodisiac Recipes
Love is a Verb: A Valentine's Post
V-Day: One Billion Rising and Man Prayer (Un Billón de Pie y Oración de un Hombre)

The People's Spa: Reclaiming Relaxation and Cultivating Collective-Care!

When you hear the word 'Spa' what do you think?  Privileged people with tons of money wrapped in white towels, relaxing while throngs of people tend to their every wish and smear them with mud and honey?  That's what I used to think a spa was.  Til I went to one with a friend.  And then another.  I've been to two and we *worked it*!  $40 a day may seem pricey if you don't have loads of money kicking around, but if you go for 8 hours, that's only $5/hour!  And if you go with friends where everyone brings a homemade bodycare product or two for the group, gives each other shoulder massages, and brings food to share (I recommend finger food over soup and crumbly chocolate cake!), then you can get a full spa experience on the cheap.  

But you can only get to the spa so often.  And that's what we were brainstorming about, at the spa in deep winter when just being in a 70 degree space felt luxurious, even without the cucumber water and warm waterfall.  How can we take the spa out of the - well, spa, and put it (back) in the hands of the people?  So many folks we know that really should be there can't take the time off work or school, get childcare and transportation, spend the $40, etc.  And that's when the People's Spa was born.  We brainstormed a spa based on mutual support and respect.  Accessible and affordable - maybe even free?!  Where everyone serves and is served.  Where ingredients come from ethical sources, from the abundant plants growing in gardens and fields close to home, or from farms far away where the people and land are treated well. Where the relaxation practices are grounded and culturally respectful (rather than recklessly profiting off of the cultures and resources of communities of color near and far). Where all body shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and abilities are welcomed and honored.

I see the People's Spa, practiced collectively or in solitude, as an important aspect of encouraging a culture of self-care, collective-care, and community health.  I do understand when people say that we need to take care of ourselves in order to be able to take care of others.  That we need to put the oxygen mask on ourselves (to use the airplane analogy), before helping others with theirs.  But this message just seems to reinforce that some people are meant to be care-givers and endlessly put their own needs last.  I don't want to feel that I have to justify taking an evening for myself to unwind and give myself a foot bath, by saying it's so that I'll be able to work harder tomorrow.  I think it's important that we value self-care for self-care's sake.  Obviously I'm not going to just stay home forever and indulge in a 24-7 herbal spa. But I don't think the far-too-common flip side of this, of not knowing how to stop, of going non-stop and not taking time to celebrate our victories and accomplishments, of tending to everyone else's needs first, is healthy either.  Giving ourselves and each other the space and encouragement to take a rest every now and then, and having the self-awareness to know when we need a break, can help us to rejuvenate so that we can be in it for the long-haul.  Yes, it makes us better community organizers/ activists, herbalists/health care providers, parents/caregivers, etc.  And it also steps away from the capitalist, ableist, workaholic culture where time is money and there's never enough of either, we're forced to work far beyond our physical and emotional limits, and the meaning of life is to be productive every waking moment.  

Cultivating a culture of care extends beyond our personal good-feelings (being grounded, relaxed, inspired, etc), and builds stronger community organizations and neighborhoods, and allows us to be more present with each other and ourselves.  Nurturing an atmosphere that balances work and play, that values relationships and the process/journey (rather than just numbers) helps to prevent burn-out and sustains us for the long haul.

We don't need to pay loads of money to go to a fancy spa or take a trip far away at a resort in order to relax.  We don't have to wait til the revolution comes, or even til the next big event/ campaign is finished.  We can take a moment this evening, or maybe even right now.  Using supplies that we may already have access to, we can create a simple spa right in the space that we're at.

Here are some recipes for relaxation concoctions that you can make yourself, or get together with some friends/family and do it together!  (You can also purchase some of these products through my online DandelionessHerbals Etsy shop).  These recipes are intended to spark ideas, not be requirements for your at-home spa!  Feel free to keep it simple.  Water is healing, nothing more is needed for a relaxing footbath.  Open your cupboards and spice rack and experiment with what you have.  Get together with friends and family to make relaxing creations together, or come to a hands-on workshop tomorrow and bring some spa items home with you!

Along with the recipes, there is also a report back with photos from our first People's Spa held in Spring 2012 in Montpelier, Vermont (U.S.).

Spa Recipes (aka Spaaahhhhhh Recipes) :

-Bath Fizzies 
-Bath Salts and Salt Scrub
-Eye Soothers: cucmber slices, chamomile tea bags, and chilly spoons
-How to do a Foot Bath or Hand Soak


Bath Fizzies

1 cup Baking soda
½ cup Non-GMO Cornstarch
½ cup Citric acid (often available at coops.      and pharmacies)
4 tablespoons Coconut, Grapeseed, Almond,
   Olive, or another oil
2 tablespoon Distilled Water or Hydrosol  
   (flower water)
Essential oils, 10-20 drops
Dried herbs, optional
Flower essences, optional

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl, mix liquids, and then drizzle onto dry ingredients little by little, slowly while stirring together.  Fizzy!  If the texture is too crumbly to stay together, add more of the oil/water mixture, little by little, until it holds.  Shape into balls or press in oiled molds.  Let them sit on waxed paper for 2-3 hours, reshape if needed.  Let them harden 24-48 hours, depending on the weather.  Store in a closed container.  Use a fizzy in your bathtub or footbath.  I like to use coconut oil in this recipe, which in this climate, usually needs to be warmed to turn from solid into liquid.  The balls seem to harden faster than with other oils, and it leaves your skin feeling really silky.  If you'd like to use dried herbs, such as rose petals (in the photo above), I've found that it's easier to form balls if you moisten the dried herbs in the oil/water mixture and incorporate them when adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  (You may know Bath Fizzies as Bath Bombs.  Demilitarize our language!  Demilitarize the Border!  Demilitarize the Bathtub!)

Bath Salts and Body Scrubs

Love It Up! Rose Salt Scrub with Sea Salt,
Rose-petal infused Coconut oil, Jojoba oil

You can make your own bath salts with sea salt, Epsom salts, baking soda, and herbs, individually or in combination.  People have bathed in these minerals for many generations for their soothing, cleansing, and drawing properties.  It’s really nice to prepare bath salts and keep them in a jar near the tub, so that after a long day when you need to slip into a bath or unwind with a footbath, they are ready and waiting for you.  
  
Crush, grind up, or leave whole your favorite bathing herbs and add them to your salts.  Add two to four tablespoons of dried herbs per cup of salts.  If using fresh herbs and flowers, simply layer the plants and salts.  Chamomile, Calendula, and Roses soothe and soften the skin.  Ginger, Rosemary, and Peppermint relieve sore muscles and are potent, especially when dried, so start with less in your bath.  To use, simply add a handful or two of your herbal salts to your bathwater, and relax.  When you are finished with your bath, it’s best to bundle up and keep warm.  

(Do remember that everyone’s body is different, and these salts may be drying and the herbs may be powerful, so if you have sensitive skin, or a sensitive constitution in general, begin by using just a tablespoon or two of your herbal bath salts at first.  If the herbs are messy or you have sensitive drains, you can sift out the herbs from the salts (after they’ve infused for a few weeks) or put your bath salts into a pouch or sock.)

Relaxing Bathing Salts
4 parts Sea Salt
1 part Baking Soda
Lavender essential oil (10 drops per cup or so)
Fresh or dried whole Calendula flowers or Rose petals (optional)
Flower essences, optional

Put sea salt into a glass or ceramic bowl and add in the lavender essential oils.  Add in the baking soda and mix it all together, also stirring in the Calendula flowers or Rose petals.  If you’re using fresh blossoms, place them between layers of salt and let infuse for a few weeks before adding in the other ingredients.  Add a handful or two to your bath.   (Note: 4 parts Sea Salt can be 4 tablespoons, 4 handfuls, 4 cups, any amount.  This recipe is included to give you a starting point for proportions.  Feel free to experiment!)

Body Scrub
You can create a Body Scrub by placing sea salt (or sugar) into a jar, and pouring in olive, sesame, almond, and/or coconut oil.  Some like to add just enough oil to moisten the salt or sugar, some like to pour the oil to the top and have a really oil-rich scrub.  It's up to you.  Experiment and see what you like.  You can add herbal infused oils (see directions in the (Im)migration and Lip Balms for Social Justice?! post), dried herbs (such as rose petals or a bit of ginger powder), or keep it simple with just the sea or sugar and oil.  

Scrubs give us the opportunity to massage ourselves, make tick checks fun, and help us to reconnect with our bodies, especially when they’re buried beneath winter wool and long johns.  Scoop out a fingerful of the scrub and rub it all over your body, starting from your extremities and moving in towards your heart and back out again, avoiding the sensitive skin of your face and breasts.  Chests are okay to gently scrub.  Rinse off in the shower or slip into a bath.  The salt/sugar exfoliates your skin and is rinsed away by the water, and the oil moisturizes, especially with the shower’s heat.  

(Glass jars look nice, but if you’re concerned that it may break in the shower, use a plastic container.  Note that oil is difficult to contain, even when your jar is sealed closed.  If you’re traveling with or mailing body scrub, use less oil when making it or place the jar in a sealed plastic bag so that it doesn’t make a mess.  Using a blend of oils that is primarily coconut oil will give you a more solid, less spill-y oil base (unless you live somewhere where the temperature is consistently over 76°F, as this is coconut oil's melting point).  Whichever oil you choose, do make sure you use soap to wash the oil off the floor afterwards so that it isn’t slippery!)

Eye Soothers
To soothe tired, irritated, or overworked eyes, put a cooling Cucumber slice or a moist Chamomile tea bag on each eye.  You can also place four teaspoons into a mug of ice water.  Place a spoon over each eye, with the rounded part of the spoon facing out.  When these spoons warm up, replace them with the spoons in the ice water, and continue for up to 20 minutes.  

To the right are hand-made eye pillows - silky material filled with flax seeds/rice and dried lavender.  These eye pillows can be used at room temperature or put in a resealable plastic bag and kept in the freezer to cool hot, irritated eyes or to place over the forehead to ease a headache.


    
How to do a Foot Bath or Hand Soak
If submerging yourself in a full body bath is not possible or desirable, you can make yourself a foot bath or hand soak.  Pour hot or warm water into a container (metal pot, glass bowl, plastic bucket) that's big enough to fit your hands or feet.  No containers big enough?  You can use two smaller containers.  Add a handful of your bath salts.  Be sure not to burn your paws!  Have some cold water handy to add in case the bathwater’s too hot, and if you like long soaks, you can keep a full hot kettle handy for when the water cools down.  Hand soaks are especially relaxing for those who type on computers and work with their hands all day.  They are also a kind and comforting gift to those who are bedridden.  Calendula is soothing to dry, irritated, or cracked hands.  Peppermint both invigorates and soothes tired feet.  Lavender and/or Rosemary foot baths help relieve headaches, drawing your energy down.  Treat your hands or feet to a massage with oil or creme after their soak for deeper relaxation and more restful sleep.

Ideas for relaxation: unplug the phone/computer/television, have an electricity-free evening (if possible), light a candle, surround yourself with good smells (fresh plants, massage oil, scented candle, home-cookin'), massage: back of neck, hands, ears, jaw  - where do you hold tension?,  make a big batch of relaxing tea and then drink some and soak your feet/hands/whole body in some as well, smear some honey on your face and relax for 10-20 minutes before rinsing it off with warm water (honey is good for all skin types and promotes circulation).

Not sure where to track down certain ingredients?  Check out your local herb shop or food Coop (Central Vermont resource listing here), or mail-order through Mountain Rose Herbs. 

Putting it into Practice: 
The first ever People's Spa!

This spring a group of herbalists and other community healers/healthcare providers collaborated to create the first People's Spa in Central Vermont.  Our communities had recently faced very trying times, with tropical storm Irene in the autumn, and May floods before that, damaging homes and businesses.  Mobile home parks, often located in flood planes, were hit particularly hard.  Flood survivors and recovery workers had been working for many months not only save what was left of their homes, but also battling with public officials and insurance agencies for their basic rights and needs.  Through their community organizing, the Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality and Fairness was created, and with support from the VT Workers' Center, they achieved great victories.  Our group of herbalists and healers came together out of a desire to give back to our community members who'd been through so much, to show our support, and to share relaxation techniques and herbal remedies.  

Not victims, but SURVIVORS!  Press conference organized by
the Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality and Fairness

Many survivors and recovery workers had been experiencing respiratory and immune issues, trouble sleeping, and other negative effects of the storm and the stresses following it. From the beginning, our group was clear that we were coming together in solidarity, not charity (thank you for the phrase, Commonground Health Clinic of New Orleans, LA).  All the practitioners that were part of organizing the People's Spa watched the film Strength of the Storm, which documented the impact of hurricane Irene and the grassroots organizing by those most affected.  Here are our guidelines for those who wanted to be practitioners at the People's Spa:

1)    See the film “Strength of the Storm” which was made by the residents of the Weston Mobile Home Park and the Vermont Workers Center. The 2011 flood survivors are the inspiration for the first People’s Spa event. The community activism group that emerged last year, Mobile Home Residents for Fairness and Equality, operate from a social justice and community organizing framework.

2)    Health justice, body justice and “solidarity not charity” are central to the People’s Spa’s baseline mode of operation. What that looks like and exactly means we will create together, with intention. The second expectation of practitioners is to participate in the People’s Spa organizers meeting, where we will be planning the event and coming up with ground rules and The People’s Spa Manifesto.   

We created guidelines for our time together, so that the space could feel safe, inclusive, and relaxing for all participating, and posted it for the event:   

People arrived to a table filled with snacks.  We had an array of food - including hummus and chips/veggies for protein to prevent blood sugar crashes, as well as decadent chocolate-raspberry bark (thank you Suki!) and herbal adaptogen balls (thank you, Marie!) for the spirit.  (Adaptogens are a class of herbs that help the body adapt to change.)








We also provided herbal teas made with relaxing herbs that not only nourish and calm the nervous system, but that also support the immune and respiratory systems, such as Lemon balm and Tulsi (thank you, Joann!).  On the left, Tulsi-Chamomile-Lavender tea and to the right - People's Spa Tea: Tulsi (aka Holy Basil), Milky Oats, and Lemon Balm.








Folks then entered the main room, where we had placed comfortable chairs in a circle, with extra blankets and pillows accessible.  There was relaxing music as people settled in.  We went around with introductions and shared a bit about the medicinal plants we'd brought into the space that day, and the remedies that would be going around.  There were Evergreen branches and homegrown, hand-harvested Rose petals for the foot baths.  There was Lavender essential oil to add to the bath or simply breath in, for its relaxing and immune-supporting effect. Fragrant Peppermint, Rosemary, and Fir foot cream could be massaged in after the baths.  And there were sprays made with essential oils and flower essences.  (We kept the fragrances plant-based - no synthetics - and did check in with folks to see if anyone was sensitive to scents).  As people sat in their chairs, we brought tubs of warm water and various ingredients for the bath water - Sea salt, Epsom salt, Plants, and Essential oil.  We also brought trays of food, as well as cups of the herbal teas, for people to enjoy as they soaked.  We returned with rounds of more food and warm water (especially in cool weather, you want to be sure to keep the foot baths warm so that people don't catch a chill), and when they were finished with the bath, we came around with the foot cream to offer for self-massage, or to receive a massage from one of us.



In addition to the footbaths, which folks really enjoyed, there were art supplies out for all to use.  There were pastels, colored pencils, and images for collage.  People could create a protective symbol, an affirmation, or anything else they'd like to make and take home with them.

We also brought in some other show and tell items:   Herbal/health books.  Shown here: Dr. Jarvis' 'Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health' which sings the praises of the people's folk remedies, namely apple cider vinegar, and Susun Weed's 'Healing Wise.'

We also introduced and passed around a few relaxing and grounding remedies.  Here with the books is Rescue Remedy - flower essence blend for anxiety and trauma, great for home and first aid use!  

To the left: Post-Trauma Stabilizer flower essence blend for trauma, grief, relief work.  Heart Elixir (with an alcohol-free version) to open, heal, and protect the heart. Ladies of the Mist (by Fearn and Genevieve) healing sprays for body and space - blends of essential oils and essences of flowers, trees, mushrooms and gems.  And last but not least, the powerful, gentle Lavender essential oil - to waft under our nose for relaxing aromatherapy, to add a couple drops to our foot baths, to massage a drop into each earlobe, the uses are endless! 



And we bagged up some bath salts for everyone to bring home with them so that they could do another foot bath, and share it with their partners, parents, kids, and others in the community.
  

Our hope is that relaxation spaces such as this will sprout up in other communities as well.  This first People's Spa was truly a labor of love and solidarity - volunteers coming together to support other community members in the spirit of mutual aid.  The event was free, thanks to the generosity of the organizers, as well as others who couldn't physically be with us for the event, but shared food, medicinal herbs, and more.






The Co-creatrixes/People's Spa Mavens are Sandra Lory of Mandala Botanicals,  Dana L Woodruff of Dandelioness Herbals, and Laura Macieira. Co-collaborators of the first People's Spa: Joann Darling of Garden of Seven Gables, and Christina Ducharme and Ellia Cohen of Starting Over Strong Vermont, Suki Kapinao Ciappara of Suki Healing Arts, and Fearn Lickfield of The Green Mountain Druid Order.

A special Thank you to Montpelier Community Acupuncture for generously donating their beautiful space to hold the first People's Spa!  Also, thank you to Marie Frohlich, Golden Flower Chinese Herbs, and Hunger Mountain Coop for their generous donations. 

Please feel free to be in touch by commenting below or sending an email to dandelion778 (at) yahoo (dot) com with additional ideas, recipes, thoughts, feedback, report-backs...  

Like to make herbal concoctions in community?!  Come to a hands-on workshop and bring some remedies home with you!

Happy spaaaaahhh~ing!!!