The Oasis

The Wild Redeemer

Well, summer is officially here. This year, I am trying something new...I'm making herbal medicines. My background is entirely in the allopathic medical world, and a few years ago the idea of herbal medicines was something I just couldn't bring myself to consider.

But with age and experience, fortunately, comes another point of view. I am decidedly against the idea of using medicinal herbs as a simple replacement for Western pharmaceuticals. This commonplace viewpoint negates the whole world of herbal medicine and is just too simple for me.

And yes, I don't pretend, even though I have over 20 years experience as a mid-level medical clinican, to know much about herbal medicine. So I am embracing beginner's mind as I study and observe and enter into this ancient universe of plant medicine.

The writings of renowned herbalists Matthew Wood, Stephen Harrod Buhner, Michael Moore (of the Southwestern School of Botanical Medicine, not the filmmaker!) and others light my path. My mullein and mimosa tinctures sit in a cool, darkened closet, awaiting decanting. Goldenrod leaves lie scattered on a screen, drying in the warm summer air. I taste the partially dried leaf...sensations of green, slightly bitter, aromatic anise fill my soul.

Stephen Harrod Buhner says that "eating the wild" is one of our greatest fears. But with this wild communion we can invite the Wild Redeemer in to cleanse us of our civilized ways and we can taste nature once more.

Heads Up!

This week, June 5-11, is National Headache Awareness Week. People suffer from many types of headaches, including tension headaches and pain brought on by sinus problems. But the focus of this awareness week is the type of headache known as the migraine.

People who are plagued with migraine headaches actually suffer from migraine disease. Migraine disease is a severe and many times debilitating disorder that affects 33 million people in the U.S. alone. And the disease is not "just a headache" but a complex neurological disorder that is in some ways similar to epilepsy.

Migraines may be triggered by many factors, including some foods, bright or flickering lights or even changes in weather, although triggers for migraines vary among individuals. Stress, while not a trigger itself, seems to make people who suffer from migraines more susceptible to their triggers.

You can learn more about migraine disease at a new informational website, Fighting Migraine Disease.

The Terminator Strikes Again

The "Terminator" is going after his most awesome and worthy foe.

No, it's not some monstrous three-headed creature from another planet but a real enemy who has the potential for the devastation of life on planet Earth as we know it.

The enemy's name...global warming.

Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger, the staunchly Republican governor of California, announced yesterday that he plans to target greenhouse gas emissions from industry in his state in a big way. His plans call for the development of technologies that will help to accomplish his goals and which will simultaneously put California at the forefront of the coming worldwide demand for such technology.

He has astutely tied global warming to the health of California's citizens as well as to her economy.

In another bold move, which he calls his Solar Initiative, Governor Schwarzenegger is calling for the installation of one million solar systems in his state over the next 13 years.

Hopefully, Governor Schwarzenegger's plan will influence politicians in other parts of the country to follow his lead. Why not consder writing to the governor of your own state to ask what he or she is doing to help your state compete with California?

If you ever wanted to get into show business, there has never been a more auspicious moment!

Google Drops the Ball!

I'll bet you didn't know that today is World Environment Day, did you? Neither did I, until I got a notice from Dr. Andrew Weil this morning telling me all about it. World Environment Day is celebrated each year on June 5th and the day is designed to increase worldwide awareness about our environment.

After I read Dr. Weil's note, I became curious as to why I had not heard of World Environment Day prior to now, as I consider myself environmentally savvy and I follow events like this with much interest. I jumped over to Google, sure that the folks over there would have some clever Google graphic to commemorate the day, just like they do for the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Earth Day and even Leap Year.

But I was disappointed. Goolge's page remained unchanged.

Then I checked the Google news headlines and stories, CNN, MSNBC and a host of others. No mention of the World Environment Day there either.

Now I was really getting curious. I went to the World Environment Day website. One look and I had my answer...World Environment Day is sponsored by the United Nations.

In the current political climate, no one dares mention anything favorable about the U.N. (Not that World Environment Day would be looked upon favorably by any Republican worth their salt anyway, even if it weren't sponsored by the U.N.)

A shame really...when are we going to open our eyes and understand that our environment does not stop at the borders of the United States? That global warming is truly global?

And on a more individual level, what will it take for us to understand that we are all interconnected and interdependent, not just with an on each other, but with the Earth? No borders, no boundaries.

I pray we will awake in time, not only for us, but for our children.

Nature Deficit Disorder

I was listening to NPR recently, when I thought I heard the program host mention attention deficit disorder, commonly known as ADD. At first I didn't pay too much attention, as stories about this worrisome malady are relatively common these days. But then I realized that the host wasn't saying "attention deficit" at all. He was talking to author and child advocacy expert Richard Louv about his new book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

Mr. Louv contends that disconnection from nature is having profound effects on our children's physical, emotional and spiritual health. He points out that the reasons for this disengagement with the outdoors is multifactorial, and includes such things as fear of Lyme disease, parent's fear of harm from strangers, lack of access to natural areas, more emphasis on homework and increasingly restrictive convenants in residential areas, that in some cases prohibit children from playing outside!

But there is hope and that hope is literally on the horizon. New research shows that outdoor based therapies, environmental education activities and simple play in a natural, green environment can help to heal children with depression, obesity and even attention deficit disorder itself.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder is published by North Carolina's Algonquin Press.