It’s A Lavender Season! Lavender Association of Colorado

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

The cultivar of the Month

Lavender coloradoJune 2020 Cultivar of the Month
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote Pink’

Hidcote Pink is another versatile lavender grown in Colorado.  It is an excellent culinary variety.  It produces an exceptionally sweet oil that several growers use in conjunction with other lavender essential oils to make unique blends.  Planted with purple lavenders, the pink flowers make the purple flowers “pop” in the landscape.
Hidcote Pink is not really good for crafting as in drying it loses its pink color and dries to a brown.
Hidcote Pink plants are 30-40″ tall.  Stems are in the 6-10″ range.  Spacing the plants 36″ apart should allow them to remain separate over the years.
Hidcote Pink was developed by Major Lawrence Johnston in Gloucester, England, and became available around 1958.  It is hardy in zones 5-9.  It blooms once in the spring.

lavender dilution

Dilution The Key To Using Essential Oils Safely

We…

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Matt Kahn | Releasing Fear

In the beginning, a spiritual journey is a transition from living in various states of denial to discovering an insatiable love for truth. When living in denial, your focus is more concerned with anticipating fearful possibilities, while making choices to avert the very fearful things that only you may be imagining. Most of the time, even if something you fear becomes a reality – the experience itself is never as scary, daunting, or hopeless as it was imagined to be.

When run by fear, your self-worth lives and dies by the outcomes you face or how others view you, while responding to life in a distrusting or defensive manner. In denial, you are unaware that each moment was created to assist you in opening up and evolving to your absolute potential. When this truth is denied or overlooked, happiness and fulfillment is imagined as fleeting moments in time when life goes your way.

In essence, denial means that you are choosing to see life in a way that denies you the right to consider a greater divine source within you that ensures the perfection and completion of your journey, no matter how different it seems from the way you want it to be. As a love of truth opens up within you, you begin to question, “Is my view of life the way it actually is or just my personal version of it?” Once everything can be seen as a subjective version of absolute potential, there is an inner sense of permission to consider other viewpoints with the courage to select a point of view that is less fearful and more supportive to the evolution of the whole.

While a love for truth creates an initial spark of inner spiritual exploration, it is certainly not the end-all-be-all of your adventure. It is actually just the beginning. When confusing the beginning of your journey with any imagined end point, you tend to rely on knowledge instead of love throughout your encounters. When this occurs, spiritual concepts become extensions of ego to defend against those who oppose your view or seem uninformed. This can even lead to the impulse of needing to constantly correct those, who in your perception of experience, are clearly out of touch with reality.

They may be as asleep as you sense them to be, but when relying on knowledge, you tend to be life’s exhausting rescuer that unknowingly attempts to rob them of their journey. You may even wonder, “How do I know the difference between being a rescuer and serving the evolution of someone’s journey?” The answer is astoundingly simple: when you are meant to pass along your knowledge to another, they will ask you a direct question.

If you are offering your knowledge before someone has personally asked you to be their bearer of higher wisdom, some form of projection or rescuing is occurring. If you see someone who can benefit from your knowledge, but hasn’t asked for it, maybe it can become a moment where you ask yourself: what are they here to teach me? What if I became the one who acted upon the very advice I’m waiting to dispense, instead of assuming my role in someone else’s journey?

When not relying so heavily on your library of knowledge, you become a living blessing of love. From this space, you are free to honor how each character in your play provides you opportunities to act upon your best advice as a way of making your love even more unconditional and potent in power.

When being rooted in love guides you beyond the love for truth, each fight against injustice, or judgment towards those who aren’t as knowledgeable as you, becomes a living prayer for the salvation of every heart. As this occurs, the unsavory actions of others can inspire a more powerful response of blessings and conscious action for the well-being of all.

Those who rely on their knowledge often imagine hypothetical circumstances to justify why loving what arises seems too passive in response. They are the ones who insist the people of this planet come together in greater conscious action, while being too consumed in righteousness to act upon the very suggestions they project. One who is rooted in love, feeds a hungry person in sight. One who relies on knowledge believes they are helping by trying to rally others into the very actions they have yet to choose.

This is why for some, loving what arises is the ultimate leap of faith one must take in order for attachments to knowledge to be living transmissions of heart-centered wisdom in action. In heart-centered consciousness, we don’t love instead of help. Instead, we help from a space of love by allowing love’s infinite wisdom to determine how our help is offered.

Relying on your knowledge also acts as a double-edged sword: when good things seem to happen, you may think you are being rewarded for what you know. Equally so, when you interpret your life circumstances as “bad”, “adverse”, or “wrong”, you may believe that if only you knew more than you do things would’ve been different.

At certain stages of your spiritual journey, you can be so knowledgeable, while still living in subtle realms of denial. When this occurs, there are reasons why your life happens that are superstitious, creative, and intriguing, while unrelated to the greater good of life’s eternal truth that only brings forth experiences to assist you in making more room for love to emerge.

This is why, further along the spiritual journey, a love for truth must transition into the truth of love, in order for the spiritually-hungry mind to merge into emotional oneness with the actions and integrity of an open loving heart. Once this merging occurs, truth is no longer something to know, keep straight, argue with others, attempt to defend, or in need of being remembered, but a fully-embodied expression of your highest self in form.

Inevitably, truth is not what you know, but how often you love. This is today’s moment of insight.
– Matt Kahn

Daily Words of the Buddha for June 30, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for June 30, 2020
aniñjita — immoveable, undisturbed, unshaken, without desires

Selo yathā ekaghano vātena na samīrati,
evaṃ nindāpasaṃsāsu na samiñjanti paṇḍitā.

Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm,
even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame.

Dhammapada 6.81
The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom, translated from Pāli by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Botanical Brews – An introductory guide to using tropical specialty ingredients in beer

The Herb Society of America Blog

By Amanda Dix

(Blogmasters’ note: Experiencing craft beer is a high point for many connoisseurs these days. While beer in its various forms has been around for millennia, today’s brew-masters have taken beer to a whole new level by adding unique flavor combinations to their recipes. Capitalizing on that trend, many gardens and arboreta are incorporating special tasting events into their program repertoire that highlight the herbs that make each brew unique. Below are some of horticulturist and brewer Amanda Dix’s suggestions for upping your botanical beer game. Even if you don’t brew yourself, these might inspire you to try new things and understand how herbs are woven into this timeless beverage.)

Many culinary dishes and beverages are abundant with tropical herbs, spices, and fruit. Beer is no exception, and using unique ingredients alongside barley, hops, and yeast is very common these days.

When formulating a beer recipe, be sure…

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NIH Centers for Advancing Research on Botanical and Other Natural Products (CARBON) Program Announce New Research Awards

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) initiated the Centers for Advancing Research on Botanical and Other Natural Products (CARBON) Program in partnership with the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)external link disclaimer in 1999, in response to a Congressional mandate.

The purpose of the CARBON Program is to promote collaborative, transdisciplinary research on the safety, effectiveness, and mechanisms of action of botanical dietary supplements that have a high potential to benefit human health and to support the development of methods and resources that will enhance the progress of this research.

The CARBON Program includes Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Centers (BDSRC), two Centers focused on enhancing methods and resources for research on the health effects of complex natural products, and pilot projects collaborating with the Centers. All the Centers are jointly funded by ODS and NCCIH, with additional funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for the 2020-2025 project period…

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Daily Words of the Buddha for June 28, 2020

Carañce nādhigaccheyya
seyyaṃ sadisamattano,
ekacariyaṃ daḷhaṃ kayirā;
natthi bāle sahāyatā.

Should a seeker not find
a companion who is better or equal,
let one resolutely pursue a solitary course;
there is no fellowship with the fool.

Dhammapada 5.61
The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom, translated from Pāli by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Astrology | June 27, 2020 – Mars in Aries

Mars is the planet the rules Aries and + was the traditional ruler of Scorpio and is the planet of determination, aggression, war. In Roman mythology, ars was the God of War Aries represents new beginnings and is the sign that starts the spring.

Mars being in its home sign will boost our physical energy and heighten our drive, ambition and also for some of us, aggression.

Mars represents the yang, masculine force, so in Aries this can trigger this aspect of ourselves. We also need to be mindful that we are in a retrograde phase with many planets, so some energy will be slowing us down as well.

Mars in Aries energy is great for starting a new workout and exercise practice as well as moving forward with our intentions and goals. However we need to mindful of how we do this and not let our Ego be the driving force. Mars and Aries are about our identity and our physical form, so we can easily get caught up in our own needs and instincts.

Practice mindful movement, be aware of your energy and how you go about achieving your goals.

Hau’ōli aloha Pō’aōno

Aloha Kākahiāka a me Hau’ōli Aloha Pō’aōno a pau. Kā hopena pule, ‘ua ʻaneʻi pela ke hoike nei i kekāhi leʻaleʻa i loko ō kā lā me kā ‘ōhana a me nā hōa aloha. Ō kā maluhia nō me ʻoe.

Good morning and happy aloha Saturday, everyone. The weekend is here so lets have some fun in the sun with family and friends. Peace be with you.

La’au Lapa’au | What Is Bulbine?

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Bulbine frutescensB. latifolia (syn. B. natalensis), and B. narcissifolia
Family: Xanthorrhoeaceae (syn. Asphodelaceae)

INTRODUCTION

Bulbine species are geophytic (plants that have a subterranean storage organ known as a corm), aloe-like succulent perennials with rosettes of fleshy leaves. The amount of water stored above ground (succulence) in Bulbine species, however, may be more important for survival than the amount stored in the corm (geophytism).1 The Bulbine genus includes approximately 78 species2 with a highly disjunct distribution,1 occurring almost entirely in southern Africa,1,2 but with six species in Australia.3 This article concerns the most widely used African species: B. latifolia (syn. B. natalensis), known as broad-leaved bulbine,4 and as rooiwortel (“red root”) in Afrikaans due to its red-orange corm5B. frutescens, known as stalk-bulbine,6 burn jelly plant, cat’s tail, and snake flower7; and B. narcissifolia

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Meditation Moments

”Every day you look into a mirror to observe your face and body, because you want to look your best before others. Is it not even more important to look daily into the inner mirror of introspection, self-analysis, to insure the proper visage of that which is behind the superficial appearance?

All outer attractiveness derives from the divinity of the indwelling soul. And as even a little scar on the face spoils its beauty, so are there psychological disfigurements of anger, fear, hatred, jealousy, worry from the uncertainties of mortal existence, which mar the reflection of the soul. If every day you strive to free yourself from these defacements, the beauty of your inner being will shine forth.

Human troubles are threefold: those that afflict the physical body, those that attack the mind, and those that occlude the soul. Disease, old age, and death are the difficulties of the body.

Psychological maladies invade through sorrow, fear, anger, unfulfilled desires, discontentment, hate, any fever of nervous excitation or mental cancer of emotional obsession.
And the soul sickness of ignorance, which is the most injurious of all, is the underlying condition that makes possible all other troubles.

Try constantly to improve yourself. Seek out good company, company that reminds you of God and of the noble things in life. Be conscious every day of how you are going to change your bad habits; how you are going to schedule your day; how you are going to hold your calmness.

Start the morning in meditation and praying deeply to God; and after you have meditated, ask God to guide your life and all your noble efforts.

Determine to be better in every way that day. If you start in the morning and keep on working at trying to hold on to your calmness, or trying to put into effect some good habit that you want to acquire, thinking of God all the time, then when night comes you can go to sleep knowing that you have put the day to good use. You will know you are making progress.”

– Paramahansa Yogananda