If I Had Balls..they'd be up in the air.

Girl has got her priorities on straight.

It all started a week ago when I decided I wanted to stop being invisible.  In my business and in my life.
Not hide behind "fear of success", " fear of failure"...just plain fear.

I made a call to Indie Business Network owner  Donna Maria and signed up for her "Stand Out Sister" one-hour phone consultation.

She blew me away.

She shined the light right in and there I was looking at my business Aromatic Traditions™ from an entirely different perspective.
I was excited, I was stoked, I was ready to roll out the new website and prepare to launch...

then it happened....the fear...
 it
 came
   back.

Things started falling apart.

The self-sabotage mechanisms started working.  My old familiar patterns started to kick in.

AND

At the same time, orders started to roll in.  Old accounts called asking for new lines.  New accounts wanted to launch sooner than later.  Customers started to text orders.
Something had shifted just enough  to allow room for the next step.

I took it.

Yeah, I made one batch of product three times as I worked through the issues.  I'm a little behind my schedule (getting this blog out is part of it).  My dishes are pilled high in the sink.

Oh well.
And the self-sabotage part of myself - I took it and my son to a ballgame this evening and then to dinner.
Priceless.
I'm going to be working with this fear for a long time, might as well bring it along for the ride and focus on what really counts - making memories with my family.

Love to y'all.

Gardening is an Instrument of Grace

Floating Garden    Aromatic Traditions 2015

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.  Gardening is an instrument of grace.

-Mary Sarton

When all else fails - I go to the garden.

Picking my first red, ripe tomato.  Boy, I had to be patient waiting for just the right moment to pull this one off the vine.  P-a-t-i-e-n-c-e.

I still grow tomatoes. So does my father.  His father, my grandfather, did too.  He would walk every night to his tomato plant down the hill step by step until his last day.  I often wondered if he planted that far away as inspiration to get up and move.  To remain a farmer.

Gardening is in my blood.

Before I moved to Portland, I fantasized about building a floating garden like the Aztec gardens you read about when you were a kid.

I salvaged an old swim platform and began to plant.

The first to thrive - Calendula Officinalis, a major ingredient in my products. (Check out this blogpost for a Calendula Infused oil: http://aromaticpassport.blogspot.com/2015/07/deep-in-their-roots.html)

The blossoms were huge.

We both found a home to be nourished and thrive.

Grace.

Self-Care Ritual Box: Water Renewal

Self-Care Ritual Boxes              Aromatic Traditions 2015

So what is Self-Care?

Self-care is any intentional action you take to tend to your emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well-being.  Buzz word -- intentional.  We need to initiate something for ourselves.

Not so easy for most of us, don't you agree?

Like the "shoemaker's son" I am guilty of putting off my personal needs for the needs of others; family, neighbors, customers, etc. and find myself at the bottom of the barrel.

The bottom is dry - not juicy.

The bottom feels empty - not full.

The bottom seems dark - not light.

Creativity gets stagnant - lacks flow.

Have you noticed that doing one small thing a day can turn these feelings around?

Something as simple as lighting a candle and soaking in some fine bath salts.  You know that "Ahhhhh..." when you slip into the water and feel your muscles sigh in relief.

You let go, you surrender.

And with surrender, your heart opens and into it flows all the juiciness, full-filling and lightness the world has to offer.

Here is a postcard which is included in one of my four Ritual Boxes:

Feel free to substitute any of the products that you have around your home and create a Water Renewal Ritual for yourself.

Blessings to YOU!

We've launched our first box -- Renewal, Elemental Water Ritual -- check it out here:

http://www.aromatictraditions.com/collections/organic-holiday/products/birch-pearl-botanical-soap-sampler

Shhhh...each box contains a one-of-a-kind talismans designed by artist Linda Lee of Dragonhill Studio

Little Altars Everywhere...

Sacred Space     Aromatic Traditions 2015

“Sometimes I wonder if any of us are cut out for the lives we lead.” 

― Rebecca Wells, Little Altars Everywhere

Really!  If you told me a two years ago that I would be where I am now - living on a floating home in Portland Oregon - I would have felt a little overwhelmed (to say the least).

It was a real push to pack up my home, lab and part of my family and move across the country.  As soon as we unpacked, we began to renovate from the water up.  Yes! We replaced the float system of old growth logs underneath or home, put in a sub-floor, later flooring, electricity and plumbing.

I am also living a bi-coastal relationship.  There is nothing easy about it.  You miss the cues, the little things your senses pick up about your partner.  There is nothing physical about it.

Today was a really difficult day.  We all have them.  Sometimes we have them more than we care to.  Today the sun came out and shown through my kitchen window illuminating my greenhouse and statue.  A gentle reminder to stop, slow down, and take the moment IN.

Ahhhhhhh....

It is time to be grateful to everyone and everything that brought me to this moment.
Sometimes I feel like I am not cut out for the life I chose because I forgot to be grateful for everything that got me here in the first place.

Thank You!

I am grateful.

And I Sometimes See a Falling Star...

Rose hip harvest.    Fall 2015

It is December in Wicklow:

Alders dripping, birches

Inheriting the last light,

The ash tree cold to look at.

A comet that was lost

Should be visible at sunset,

Those million tons of light

Like a glimmer of haws and rose-hips,

And I sometimes see a falling star.

If I could come on meteorite!

Instead I walk through damp leaves,

Husks, the spent flukes of autumn,...

-from "Exposure", Seamus Heaney

Commonly known as Dog rose, Dog Brier, Brier Rose, Rose hips always remind me of the coming of Fall.  As a young woman, wanting to "live off the land", I would collect bright red rose hips, grind them and make a Vitamin C packed tea.

Here is my simple recipe, I hope you enjoy!

Rose Hip Tea

-Place fresh or crushed dried rose hips in a mason jar.

-Pour boiling water over them and steep, covered for 10 minutes.

-Add honey, stevia to sweeten

What's In A Name...

White Sage by S. Varga   2015

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

-William Shakespeare

It began in 1998 with my first farm to face company.

Lillly's Essential Products blossomed from a small plot of land and a renovated mudroom. The first product came to me while driving across the Berkshires.  I remember opening the glove box and grabbing a scrap piece of paper and writing:

Blue Pearl

Evening Primrose Oil

Lavender

Rose

I heard these words whispered as I rode along absorbing the scenery.
Blue Pearl has been a bestseller ever since.

Fast forward 13 years...after a career pioneering Oncology Massage my heart broken from another loss my husband asked - "if you could do anything right now, what would it be?".

Aromatic Traditions™ was born in that moment.

My passion for aromatics and need for a tradition of self-care rooted in Mother Earth birthed a brand dedicated to the beauty way. To walk in balance with all things. 

Today may I walk out in beauty.

With beauty may I walk.

With beauty before me, may I walk.

With beauty behind me, may I walk.

With beauty above me, may I walk.

With beauty below me, may I walk.

With beauty around me, may I walk.

It is finished in beauty.

-Navajo Beauty Way prayer

The Way to Get Started...

Easy-Bake Oven, circa 1960's

"The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing."

-Walt Disney

Tucked inside my bedroom closet. No adults please! Just grounded and my brand new chemistry set removed from my room - I create.

This is how Aromatic Traditions™ began...

Out of the box go the baking mixes.  Into the pans go my mixes. 

Crayons, candle wax, flower petals from my beloved Peonies.

Somewhere in my heart, I knew what I came here to do.

Didn't you?

I would love to hear about YOUR earliest passions...

and how you stay true to them.

Let's start a list.

1. Follow your heart. Listen to the voice that whispers to you (HINT: it never raises its voice).