A surprise summer
Katherine’s monthly natural health diary
I have been in a phase of deep fatigue and look five years older in the mirror. I’ve even started having hot flashes, which I never expected to have and which are somewhat intriguing, not what I thought, more like the room getting hotter than something happening from the inside. I suspect that once through this tiredness, the hot flashes will disappear. I’ll let you know.
Summer has been one huge learning curve with two unexpectedly intense healing house guests (see ‘Healing House Stories’ below). Holidays got cancelled, plans got derailed and my usual control mode was challenged to the hilt.
At first I was irritated, then accepting and now I feel fortunate and blessed. My passion for the Healing House Project has been immeasurably confirmed and my experience of the details on the ground will be invaluable for continuing to develop the HH training program.
We have a new naturopath (see intro to Laura Stark in the new posts section) who will help me with my patients for the year that Kealy is on maternity leave and a temporary general manager who will relieve me of enough duties that I’ll be able to write, hopefully finishing the book on German New Medicine by Christmas.
Kaia continues to facilitate our eco-community and David Shackleton is project managing the new houses being planned for the centre with our grant from CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp), as well as building a new cabin beside our little spring-fed pond for healing house guests and volunteers.
Speaking of volunteers, Amanda, the guest who left earlier this month, inspired a whole group of family and friends to descend on the centre to groom the gardens and paint the 3 sleeping cabins.
Grandson Felix remains as delightful and loving as ever, has just turned three and has started full-time at the Forest Preschool! My relationship with partner Stephen improves in leaps that parallel my insights in therapy. The final challenge is to improve my relationship with my daughters, which is tense and full of issues just waiting to be resolved. I remain hopeful. . .
My work with therapist Deb Boldt continues as she leads me into murky parts of my subconscious and then safely out again, ready to face the world a little more present and with increased energy for daily life after each weekly visit. Without this process I couldn’t even begin to imagine being able to handle the stresses of the last two months. In the past I would have dissolved into paralysis, bad habits, irritation and an inability to function, followed by trying to blame my situation on anyone but myself. Not pretty. I’m amazed at and grateful for this level of calm and being able to function when incredibly tired. The best part is being able to keep an open heart in the middle of a constant barrage of demands. I love this, it feels so wonderful!
I should mention that our homeopath, Dr Veronika Zhmurko, also gave me a remedy for keeping my cool when overtired and my German New Medicine mentor, Ilsedora Laker, helped me at the beginning of the summer when I couldn’t seem to stop feeling resentful that “my” summer was being ruined! All of this gives me a HUGE appreciation for people who are nursing others on a long-term basis and how I can give them more support.
Mariah, our Healing House patient, has returned home to the states and I will miss her. At the same time, I look forward to being able to recharge, clean up my home, focus more energy on family and get back to that book.
Our planet is currently a place of rapid growth, not usually a pleasant process for humans. Let us hope that this pressure cooker convinces us to let go of our old paradigm of survival through fear and aggression in favour of faith and collaboration in order to clean up our messes and move toward a better world. Using the idea of critical mass: if enough of us make these shifts, it will spread like wildfire to the rest of us.
May we notice and enjoy the early fall in the middle of our intense lives!
~katherine
