💙✨️⚛️♾️

Most of us were taught that strength means needing nothing. We armor up, we become self-sufficient, and we quietly file warmth under weakness. But a heart that learned to close can learn to open, and sometimes the teacher is not a person at all. An animal does not ask you to be healed, accomplished, or impressive before it loves you. It leads with love and waits for you to catch up. So notice who, or what, is already waiting at your door. Notice where you have been mistaking guardedness for strength. Presence is the way in: when you stop living in the next deadline or the last wound, you can feel the love that has been standing there all along. Being open to love is not softness. It is the strongest thing you will ever practice.

Please join me in wishing @Phoenix Wilder a very Happy Birthday today!!! If you have not had the opportunity to meet him or read his work, I highly recommend you do so. He has a fascinating and superb way of connecting spiritual concepts and extending and offering agape love to those around him. You can find some of his older posts on here and more of his work on IG: https://www.instagram.com/phoenixrylanwilder/ Phoenix, I truly appreciate your beautiful wisdom. Please keep sharing it with us!! May grace and favor surround you today, filling your heart with joy and your year with abundant blessings! Happy Birthday!!! One Love, Dana ✨🤍🌍🖤✨

One of the most common questions I am asked is, "How do I prepare this herb?" That is a good question, but the first question I ask is, “What part of the plant are you using?” Once we know the part, the preparation often becomes much clearer. Leaves and flowers are usually infused as tea. Mineral-rich herbs like nettle and oatstraw often benefit from a longer infusion. Roots, barks, berries, and hard seeds are commonly simmered as a decoction. Aromatic seeds such as fennel and cardamom are often lightly crushed before use. Mucilaginous herbs like marshmallow root may work best as a cold infusion. Resins such as frankincense are often better suited to tinctures, powders, oils, rather than a simple tea. Old school recipes used herbs in cooking not always for taste but also for our health. Herbal learning becomes much more approachable when we begin grouping plants by the parts we use. A simple notebook can be helpful: - Herb name - Part used - Preparation method - Steeping or simmering time - Taste - Notes and observations - Safety considerations - Over time, that notebook becomes a personal herb guide built from real experience. What herb first made you realize that not every plant is prepared the same way?

https://youtube.com/shorts/2yzN2l70D18?is=IierzBGyp8vcR8wZ