Where you land on issues in this volatile time of needed change and upheaval is important. Resist the urge to follow the herd and repeat the "narrative" (a word I used to like as a writer but now in a repetitive echo chamber of media hacking it has become irritating) anyway, don't just follow the crowd. If everyone blacks out their social media on a day but you feel like that's not your trajectory, it's okay to sit this one out. Silence really is Golden. It doesn't mean you don't care, it means that you don't feel you need to add your voice to the NOISE. 

Pick your battles and other cliche. 

People who are knee jerk reacting to BLM are finding out that the movement has been ripped off by the Democratic political party who is using millions donated from well meaning folks into the pockets of politicians. So maybe wait before you align if you don't have all the answers. Celebrities who read bad scripts from their iPad at home with yoga hair and say how much they feel for the movement are cringe worthy and thirsty. Politicians who don African cloth to kneel ODDLY (and not be able to get up from the position) are pandering at best.

Companies who didn't provide masks and sick leave for their employees for months into the pandemic lockdowns who NOW require customers and staff to wear a bee keeper's suit to scan groceries have doubled down in the worst way. And they're losing business. Consumers are fickle, but they'll remember. 

My best advice is to adapt. Admit you aren't a microbiologist, but take a few extra moments to read some CURRENT information on transmission, hygiene (which you should know already if you're in food handling or body work, no?) and taking the consumer pulse. Offer CHOICE. If guests want to wear a mask, that's their choice. Forcing customers to wear a mask to buy a bag of lemons? No choice. That's where you're on the wrong side of history. That's where money walks out the door. You must be dynamic in decisions and not just hold the line for one form of "policy" that turns out to be false in 2 days and you're still trying to sell tomatoes behind a plexiglass screen for no apparent reason. Beyond PR disasters, I can see a lot of looming legal action boiling on the stove. A recent post from a farmers market lifted the mask requirement because high 90s temps, lowered oxygen and lots of people spells heat stroke. Common sense prevailed. 

What are we protecting ourselves from? Even the flip flopping CDC has changed their mind on 'droplets' vs. airborne and have now shown that this doesn't live on surfaces nor transfer from asymptomatic people to others. So the mask has become a virtue signaling device of rule following and another divide of Us vs Them. It's bullshit and from a science standpoint really doesn't help anything, but it makes people feel better about their decisions. I made a stand. See? I'm a do gooder. And like white girls spray painting buildings to "support BLM"? It's NOT RECOMMENDED. If you align yourself with one side are you willing to lose the revenue from the other? It's the difference between spraying down your counter tops and cleaning credit card machines in between clients or just spraying the guest in the face with bleach water. Don't be reactive. And make sure your policies make sense. Talk to people. Ask the staff. Ask your customers. Be adaptable.

So as you open your business, sit and really think. If we're in the middle of an actual active pandemic, would the drive thru at the burger joint still be open? If you are not ill, why are you wearing a face covering? If you ARE sick why are you out in public with a tissue over your face touching raw produce? Is your staff phoning it in with a mask and gloves and using the same gloved hand to take a credit card, touch a key pad that hundreds have touched before them and then reaching in to grab a cookie from the case with that same contaminated gloved hand? (this just happened to me yesterday after I watched her use her gloved hand to scratch her face because her mask is hot and uncomfortable...I said nothing but I won't return to that bakery for sure) not because I'm afraid of cooties, but because I know that they're not REALLY up to speed or concerned with health code much less viral load vectors. Or they don't understand how contamination works. So in my mind I wonder if they're using the same cutting board to cut raw chicken that they use to cut prepared food. See the slippery slope?

​They're doing it for the optics. The kitchen staff hanging their faces over the sandwiches they make aren't wearing masks, so why the cashier? It makes no sense. Don't fall in line with this "new normal" crap because it changes every ten minutes. Use your brain, your immune system and your liberty of choice. If you're giving a facial and are 6 inches away from my face for over an hour, yes, mask. I don't want to smell your breath nor worry about mine. That's always the protocol where I've gone. But dress shops? Feed stores? Home Depot? It's ridiculous. 

Stop. 

It's been a minute since I've tended this blog or the site. I've moved. Sold the farm. Traveled around for 6 months and have relocated. I'm still making Practical Mystic Momma Daisy Oil and Bug B Gone, don't worry. I've been dipping my toes in other waters as well work wise. Some I like better than others for sure. I miss the hacienda, but not the upkeep. I miss my chickens, but not the egg laying noise and the sadness of losing a flock to hawks and coyotes. It's fun to live in a city again but I don't really handle noise and large crowds so well anymore...or ever. 

​The energy feels like there's a shift afoot. Do you feel it? 

Salt. The most misunderstood, maligned and misused element can be a cornerstone of your healing and detox. Anti bacterial, pulling, detoxing, cleaning, soothing---

salt bath? sleep like a baby
salt gargle? cure a sore throat
salt soaks and salt rubs can heal the skin and draw out toxins

To be clear I speak of Sea Salt with minerals. Celtic Sea Salt. Not table, kosher, "sea salt" from wherever. I buy big bags of Portugese mineral salt (look for bags with the mineral content on the back) Celtic gray is readily available in grocery stores. If you want to go deep, you'll want to buy 25# or more

And a big part of the flush in liver detox and healing the gut is salt water flushing your bowels. I would alternate with epsom salt flushes but I can be sensitive to sulfur, we need it but not all of us do well with it. I use Magnesium Salt in my bath instead of the go to Epsom. I feel better afterwards. If Epsom Salt doesn't make you feel as great as you anticipate, try Mag or just Sea Salt. 

Sea Salt Flush is an early morning before you eat anything and when you have a couple of hours before you leave the house sort of errand. And maybe alone time. Or people who have multiple bathrooms or have been married a long time. You're going to need privacy.
​
I do 2 teaspoons of sea salt in a small glass of water and shoot it down. Then I follow with two 16 oz glasses of clean water. Then just walk around the house. Put your laundry away, remain upright, stay close. I've made the mistake of going for a walk thinking I 'had time' and that is a fast bolt back to the house. Sometimes multi tasking isn't all it's cracked up to be. Breathe, meditate, picture any sneaky metals and toxins clinging to your colon walls letting go.  If you can have a BM first thing in the morning and THEN drink your salt even better. You can make a Sole water (dissolving sea salt in water until it is such a high concentration that it no longer dissolves) 

This isn't for constipated people, though it will certainly help. This is for active detox so get a schedule. Like every Sunday, something like that. In the midst of the method and protocol you want to eliminate your bowels 3-4 times a day to prevent the metals from recirculating and just changing neighborhoods in your body. When in Doubt, Flush it OUT is my mantra.

I don't dig a coffee enema like some people. But I don't drink coffee either so maybe that's why. Coffee is a dubious substance in my opinion. I think the jury is still out on that and if you have a mold sensitivity or mycotoxins backing up (for sure you do if you're toxic) or are detoxing heavy metals? Or are Type O blood? Switch to green tea, moringa, shavegrass. Our over consumption and demand on the bean has forced growers into some less than savory practices and storage can build up mold/mycotoxins pretty fast. Multi billion dollar industries are rarely squeaky clean. Just maybe take a look at how you feel off of it. I did not have the withdrawal you always hear about. I feel like that is something perpetuated by the industry to keep you drinking it. Like telling smokers they'll get fat when they quit. Also bunk. I lost more weight when I stopped smoking. Toxins make you inflamed and puffy. It's not that extra cookie. Some people do get a coffee headache if they've been drinking 5 cups a day...go slow. Wean. Don't cold turkey. But remember, we're all different. Listen to your BODY, not the pundits.