JOURNAL
The Summer has begun and with it a desire to be more connected to an authentic voice, an expression of our deepest truths, to share pieces of ourselves safely and willingly with those who feel resonant. It's been a while since either one of us has written here for the journal. In reflection, we can see that this past Spring truly asked us to consider deeply the “why” and “how” of our healing work. In a time when social media feels like the only way to “connect” we had real feelings about that not being the way we wanted to relate to our business, our medicine, ourselves or to you. The wheel of “content creation” left us, well, feeling trapped, disconnected, and out of integrity. Moon Canyon was created in the spirit of radical service to an inner listening. From a belief that our bodies hold the wisdom to guide our way into communion, into healing, into purpose, and inevitably into one's sense of belonging. So in that same spirit we feel called to share here more, as it was alway intended to be. So on this beautiful July morning, I sit to write from the heart and without any other reason than to express and connect.
Sarah and I have been dreaming, creating and writing a lot lately. One thing that has been clearly revealed to us in this creation process is that we hope to teach and be guides for others on their journey back home to themselves. Back to an earth-centered embodiment, and back into wholeness. (More on all that soon!) Co-arising with this desire to create a container to support folks on their healing journey have been memories or reflections from our origins, from our own journey thus far. As with all intuitive steps taken, this big expression and expansion is asking us to embody so much more of our own healing - asking us to walk more deeply into the medicine that we are evoking within. Reflecting on how we got here, one major question has been brought to light… what is needed in order to take those first few steps on the healing path? What calls someone to say yes? To leave behind the world of comfort and begin the pilgrimage home to themselves. One answer that has arisen thus far is permission.
Permission is such a huge part of who we are as healers, it is foundational to our medicine and is something that when felt, has the power to soften the most rough and tough walls built up around our hearts. Permission is something we can give to ourselves, it looks like acceptance, a welcoming of who we are and what is, with no self criticism. When we receive permission from others it feels similar, it hits our bodies and awakens within a deep sense of safety. Many of us didn't come from homes, families, or a culture where being uniquely ourselves was fully accepted. The very idea of being seen and nurtured with attunement from a grounded other is like a fairytale. And yet, we see so often in our 1:1 sessions that when offered, when we can just be with what is, offer permission and mirroring, slow it all down, the body knows, it softens, opens, and releases. I want to say this next sentence in all caps (read screaming it from the rooftops) to really drive home the magnitude of the sentiment. EVERY SESSION WE HAVE WITH A CLIENT, WE SEE A WOUND THAT HAS BEEN CREATED BY THE BLOCKING OR HOLDING BACK FROM ONE'S INNATE KNOWING, BY DISCONNECTION FROM THE POWER OF THEIR TRUEST NATURE. Every session.
What has us all closed to ourselves, to our magic, medicine, creativity, power, purpose and life force? We can’t fully say for sure, but in our experience, we see that our western culture does not set us up to be in our true nature. There is so much here and we will dive more deeply into the harshness of the nightmare that is the Western Industrial Growth Complex soon, but for now, what we see are the wounds it’s created, spread wide and deep within our collective. It's a long history of denial of who we truly are as humans, of death to those who dare to speak up, of trying to survive under threat, of conforming, of distraction, and gaslighting (just to name a few). So when we sit in a space with someone, and give permission to their feelings, give permission to their body, that the sensations it feels are exactly right. When we see in them their wild and magical self, it is healing. Offering permission is like watering the soil of self. Once felt, even just a little, the seeds of our inner landscape know it's time to grow. It looks like unconditional welcoming of any and all parts to be seen and accepted.
For us, healing into deep communion with the land, the plants, and the more-than-human world has been a huge part of our journey. We can see the patterns of denying this part of ourselves and this earthly experience run through familial, societal and cultural wounds we carry. I remember saying to a friend a long time ago…"I think I can hear the plants talking to me,” and feeling the shame and disbelief well up in my own body. Years later, I had a mentor say to me, “Maybe you do hear the plants. Maybe they are calling to you. Can you share with me what you hear?” Just like that, I wept tears of relief. I didn't feel insane, or scared, or in a fog. I felt relief and clarity. My channel opened and I spoke words that I had been choking down my whole life.
First steps happen more than once. There are so many different paths to go down when on the healing journey and at times it can feel like we are starting over, at the beginning again and again. With each new path the map opens more fully within, leading us in the direction of home. Our individual mytho-poetic story reveals to us that from our wounds comes our medicine. We are not alone here, not even a little bit. We see you and honor your voice, your experience, and the wisdom that lies inside your body.
So much of our own healing paths have been about stepping more fully into the medicine women we have always been, about discovering who we really are as healers, and being voices of the Earth. The wounds we carry may look similar to or different than those you carry. For us, it was vital that we found others who held this medicine.
Sarah and I have been sharing with one another stories of permission. Permission feels like being truly seen by someone, when who we are is enough and welcomed. In my own healing journey, it was the permission I received from others that helped me hold myself in deeper curiosity and gave me the strength to see I wasn't “wrong,” rather, that how I felt was exactly right. Let's not confuse permission with agreement or group think or self abandonment. Permission hits differently.
We want to ask you, when you read the word permission, what do you feel in your body? Does your breathing change? What sensations arise within? Do you feel a freedom come over you? A softening, an opening? You may feel the opposite, a tightening, anger, or hopelessness. We are not wanting to shift the sensation felt, only allow your awareness to notice it. In essence, we are giving permission to whatever is, whoever you are in whatever space you are in to be welcomed and seen.
Consider what permission is and what possibility it holds for you.
Over this past year, seeing in our clients the needs necessary to begin traversing the landscape of the healing path has led us back to our origins. Where did we start? What were the first steps taken on this journey we are still on back home to ourselves?
When we began Moon Canyon both of us were very open to anywhere this journey would take us. The medicine line took us years to build, and was our creative expression of the larger medicine we were holding. Each product in our line holds within it our belief that healing is relational. That when we are able to heal alongside the plants, an ancient part of ourselves steps forward - a part that may feel lost in today's world. Nature is our primary teacher and our bodies, an integral part of nature, know innately how to heal, how to regenerate, how to compost, and how to be in relationship with the larger ecosystem they inhabit.