At first glance, Oregon grape looks a lot like holly, until you see the bright yellow blooms currently scattered all over Vashon and along the coast from British Columbia to southern Oregon. Later in the season, the flowers will be replaced by edible blue berries.  The stems and roots of Oregon grape are yellow under the…

The extraordinary gift of a human body. It affords us many experiences, and supports our happiness. As a Buddhist, we believe a human body is as rare as a 200-year-old turtle that surfaces the ocean once every hundred years that, as it comes to the surface, pokes its head through an oxen yoke floating by. Needless…

Grief often comes with many misconceptions. One prevalent idea is that grief is to be gotten over or resolved, as if it’s a binary on/off state of being. The damage this does shows throughout our culture’s level of grief illiteracy. So if we want to change this landscape at all, how do we start? Well,…

NeurOptimal® is a brain training method that helps adults and children develop self-regulation, flexibility, and resilience. Here’s how it works: While seated in a comfy recliner chair, sensors are placed on your ears and scalp. The sensors read the electrical signals of your brain at a rate of 256 times per second. No input goes…

Spring is the ideal time to cleanse. A cleanse is a process of removing toxins from the body by eliminating certain foods and environmental toxins for an extended length of time. This practice allows a deep, physiological rest of the digestive organs, and the energy saved goes into self-healing and self-repairing. By eliminating obstructions, by…

The blessings of flowers cheers us immensely, but kerchoo! Their pollen has us sneezing our heads off! What can we do? Plenty, really. Nature provides antihistamines. Nettles can sting you, but also provide an antihistamine, so make nettle soup! Take a paper bag and scissors, find a roadside rife with nettles, or a patch of…