Lovely Lavender

I travel nearly every year to the Okanagan Valley to visit with family living in Penticton, British Columbia. If you haven't been, or if you haven't been since you were a kid you've really got to go. In the last 15 years the whole look and feel of the valley has been transformed. Where apples, cherries and peaches used to dominate the landscape, wineries abound. The feel of the valley is morphing from down home to upscale as people try new cultivars of grapes suitable for making quality wines.

It is not just the big players who are experimenting though, hobby farms are also getting in on Nappa North and trying their hand at growing crops which are newer to the area. One such crop is lavender. While traveling, Ok wine tasting, our way through the Naramata area recently I stopped to visit a local grower of the aromatic herb, Forest Green Man Lavender.

The place is beautiful. A field of purple, the sound of thousands of busy bees, and a smell that is just heavenly. Forgetting for a moment that you are in Canada, you can be temporarily transported to the fields of Provence. I was given a wonderful lesson in the cultivation of lavender by one of the owners, Doug Mathias, and allowed to wander the field to soak up the smell, check out the little gift shop, and bask in the wonderful atmosphere.

Lavender has been used for centuries to promote relaxation and healing. It can be used for mild space clearing and to engage the sense of smell in our interior spaces. It is particularly wonderful sprayed on a pillow a little bit before going to bed to help with insomnia.

In an upcoming newsletter I will expand on lavender's uses in the interior landscape. For now though, I will think of Forest Green Man and be transported.

Welcoming Water

Without water there is clearly no life on this planet. A fundamental building block of life, it is largely what we are made of. All ancient cultures revered water and included it in their categorization of the elements. As one of the five elements in Chinese culture, it plays a very important role in Feng Shui. The very name Feng Shui means wind and water.

The use of water in the Feng Shui of our landscapes is essential, particularly if we live inland and do not have access to lakes, rivers or the ocean. Dynamic water features provide movement to delight the eye, sound to encourage relaxation, and they increase the air quality by charging the surrounding air with negative ions. Each of these benefits will add to the positive chi of your outdoor spaces and create a stronger connection to the natural world.

Your front door is considered the 'mouth of chi', the place where energy enters your home from the surrounding environment. Creating a water feature at the front entry to your home is a great place to start. Water is symbolic of money as well as your social status so placing water at the front door encourages prosperity and an active social life to enter your home. An added benefit is that the gentle splashing of a water fountain will help to mask any traffic noise, creating a buffer zone between the neighborhood and your home. It is important that water runs either toward the home or straight down and not away from the home as we want to encourage prosperity and friends to flow in to our lives.

Water features do not need to be large or expensive but it is best if they are moving, or if they combine both moving and still water. An example would be a fountain which ends in a small pond of still water. This combination represents overflowing abundance which gathers and stays around for a while.

For those of us who either don't have the space or the resources for a large water feature even a birdbath can add life and movement to the front yard by attracting our avian friends and beneficial insects to the garden. Just be sure to keep the water very clean, preferably changing it daily preventing stagnation as well as mosquitoes.

Kindness and Prosperity

As all Feng Shui practitioners know, some of the most commonly requested cures are those which enhance the prosperity of our clients. Everyone wants prosperity. Money makes the world go round and most of us don't think we will ever have enough to buy, or to do all of the things that we want in life.

As the world consciousness is shifting though many of us also realize that abundance, like any other physical reality, is first a state of mind. The universe is in a constant state of yin and yang, a state which Walter Russel called 'Rhythmic Balanced Interchange'. What we put out there (yang), comes back to us (yin) in a non judgmental and perfectly balanced way.

So before we look to change our prosperity only through Feng Shui adjustments in our environment we must remember that this is only 1/3 of the equation. Our destiny and our actions make up the other 2/3 of the formula. We may have little control over our destiny but our actions are completely within our reach. Professor Lin Yun has advised all of his students that the key to prosperity is kindness. If we want to change the world economic situation his most sincere instruction is to encourage each person to do one good deed per day.

While it is easy to see the nobility in such an act, many will have difficulty understanding how this can contribute anything real to an economic situation. However, when we understand Rhythmic Balanced Interchange it becomes plausible that a simple act of kindness can make an impact. When one does something good, solely for the benefit of another, the reality is that both benefit. When many do something good, many benefit. If we would all just do one small deed in service to another we all benefit.

Coyote Kirtan

About 4:30 am this morning the quiet was pierced by the cry of a lone coyote. The sound he made was very distinctive and unlike the howl that most associate with the canine. It struck me as a very specific message sent out into the night. After only a few seconds I could hear the call answered. Quiet howls responding from a seemingly impossible distance, and from many directions. Clearly something had been said, in a language that I had no access to. A sort of prairie Kirtan, call and response.

All creatures communicate with each other in some way and humans have the most complex of all languages. Even then we often run into trouble. Misunderstandings are common and good communication skills sometimes elude us.

In Feng Shui, the gua which is associated with communication is Dui, or Lake. This is also the area which is connected to creativity as all creativite endeavors use a specific medium to get across an idea, express a feeling, or answer a problem. If you are having trouble getting your ideas across to others, feeling that you are not heard, or that you could use a little creative spark then Dui is the gua to enhance in your home.

This gua can be enhanced through the use of metal, particularly bells, chimes or gongs which ring out in a clear and resonant tone. The color white and spherical shapes enhance the metal element of the area while fire, red and pyramidal shapes should be limited or avoided. Earth tones and design elements can also be used to enhance the metal nature of this area. Be sure to display your creativity in these areas as well whether it be through art, music, poetry or another media.

These simple changes can help to bring your Feng Shui into alignment. You may find that like the lone coyote your message will be clearly heard, and you will more easily hear the quiet responses received through the stillness of the cosmos. Listen carefully to the answers within.