Relax, Don't Worry
I've mentioned it before, but I wish to mention again the wonderful essence we made with
Rhododendrom griffithianum, here in Achamore Gardens on Gigha. Making essences with plants which have never ben made into essences before is always quietly exciting, the opportunity to explore something that nobody has encountered before. It is one of the things that drives me in this work, that quiet thrill. It is simply so much more interesting to explore than to follow other's tracks.
Rh. Griffithianum's essence qualities are deeply calming and relaxing, bringing a sense of peace. It is one of the 4 components of
Gentle Sleep.
It wasn't until I began experiencing this essence while being massaged that its most powerful quality of relaxation became clear to me. Apply a few drops of the essence to tense muscles, and the tension simply and more or less instantly disappears. A massage therapist, Laura McKenzie, comes to Gigha every 2 weeks, and she now chiefly uses the 30 ml stock-strength spray form of
Rh. Griffithianum. Two or 3 shorts bursts of the spray onto the tense muscles of the back, and her job is far more easily done - and the client is all the happier with her work!
Reading
I don't have a great deal of time for reading these days, but in the past 9 months I have read several books which I have found fascinating. These are all books that have nothing to do with flower essences: they are my attempt to keep abreast of what goes on in the wide world. I read two books about Google; 2 books about the finacial crisis of the past several years; the biography of Steve Jobs; and am currently reading the Life of George Stephenson, the father of the railway locomotive. This latest one is hard to explain, and seems an uncharacteristic subject for me to find absorbing, and yet it is.
How our world was changed in almost the blink of an eye by the advent of the railways is a story worth learning about. No other technological development of the 18th and 19th centuries had as much impact as the creation of the rail network around the world. In the 20th century it was rivalled and then surpassed by cars and roads, but in the 1850's and on for several decades, peoples lives were utterly changed by this development.
Perhaps at some point all of this various reading will make some coherent sense, but in any case, I am enjoying the sense of perspective they convey.
