This year (2020) on March 8, I was invited by my wonderful friend to her home for a gathering of amazing women. I knew only a few of them - and sometimes that is my favourite thing.

We stood around her beautiful kitchen, tea and coffee brewing, home-made food spread on the table and I had a tiny awareness around the virus that was out and about - and for the first time was far more aware of where my hands were and what they were doing.

Oracle cards on the table, woollen hand-made creatures tucked into nooks, boots at the door, coats hung about, a guitar tuned with potential in the corner - the atmosphere was warm, cozy and calmly energized - the way it feels to drink a warm chai tea.

Once most of us had arrived, we moved outside into the warm-cool spring air…the land still covered in icy old snow. The sounds of the spring birds, the puddles on the dirt road and the dog’s shedded under-fur blowing in the breeze - all signs that soon we will be readying our gardens, planting seeds, and cleaning our fingernails for longer than usual.

We checked on the goats, connected with the horses, smiled at the young cats and had a quick chat with the bees - some of whom were exploring the world just outside their hive.

I noticed that each of us was having her own moments - moments of solitude and connection - a moment with a hand on a horse’s brow, a pause in the snow to look up at the sky, a hand reaching out for the beige grass that still danced in the air since last fall. Some of us were chatting, others were walking alone and one was holding space for the old dog whose legs had fallen through the crumbling ice layer of snow.

That dog was happy as can be.

There was magic in the air.

This all felt VERY Familiar.

We have done this before.

I could feel it in the drips of clear water falling from the corner of the barn, I smelled it in the smoke from the fire we had gathered around, I felt it in the poetry we read and heard it in the guitar songs composed by a beautiful songwriter..

Earlier that day I had opened my oils drawer and closed my eyes to feel what oils I would share - my hand - my heart was drawn to Citrus Bloom and Cypress.

This feminine rising, these grass-root rhizomes are not about a takeover.

WE ARE NOT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM ANYONE.

THIS IS CREATION.

We are harmonizing.

Our voices are required.

What we EACH have coursing in our hearts, or hands, our wombs, our souls - is meant to come forth. It is needed.

We are meant to harmonize with each other.

As with birth — there is a grounding - a low roar - a vibration - a presence of solid, unwavering, sure power.

It was calm, quiet and fierce - the gathering of women that day.

When I shared the oils I chose intuitively that morning, I closed my eyes so I could just “hear it” before I spoke.

In one hand a drop of Cypress- tree oils, grounding, taking only what they need from the Earth to rise and as the seasons change, the trees give back to the Earth again.

Cycles.

In the other Citrus Bloom - oils of citrus, lavender, magnolia - flowering, opening, rising, looking up, each flower opening in its own time, in its own unique petal formation.

An invitation to experience each oil separately first and then to rub their hands together and take three slow breaths with their hands cupped near their faces.

Eyes closed, three breaths.

Ground. Bloom.

Yin. Yang.

Harmonize.

It’s time to sing.

I believe that is what’s happening here.

Women’s Day 2020.