Editorial
Volume 29 Issue 3— September/October 2023
by Melva Armstrong

Welcome to the autumn issue! I trust you have all enjoyed the beautiful and warm summer days and that you ventured out into Mother Nature as often as possible. It’s important for good health to soak up her healing and nurturing energies.

Maybe some of you went camping and roughed it a little. That’s always fun. I think it was really good weather for outdoor activities of all kinds. We prairie folk have to pack as much outdoor activity as we can into the warm days we are given.

I did mostly local getaways in this eastern part of the province, and always enjoyed the interesting sights and sounds that are part of country life. I did get to Duck Mountain Provincial Park a few times, and it is filled with delightful natural gems to enjoy. I have seen very few wild animals this year, compared to other years, which isn’t as much fun. Overall, I did my share of spending time in the great outdoors and inhaled every bit of nature’s fragrances that I could.

Now we will soon find ourselves in the midst of the autumn season, and with that come the blessings of harvest time. People will get to reap what they have sown. This province is blessed with many local farm families who grow an abundance of food crops to sell to the people in their communities, as well as to others around the province.

In this issue, Lisa and Ben Martens Bartel write about their farm family in their article, Eating the Abundance (p. 8). Let’s face it, there’s nothing better than home-grown produce and making your own meals from scratch. Lisa and Ben are part of a group of local farm families who operate under the name, The Farmers’ Table. There are a large number of families in the group, and TFT is therefore able to offer a lot of choices to local Saskatchewan customers. And they deliver around the province. There is so much abundance grown right here in our province, you can have many of your food needs met and you are importantly supporting local farm families.

It’s been five years since Catherwood Organics had their last article in WHOLifE, and Betty Hamm wanted to update the WHOLifE readers on their latest offerings in her article, Standard of Living and Quality of Life Are Not the Same Thing (p. 10). They bring in their bounty (various kinds of meat mentioned in the article) to the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market every Saturday, year round. They also have an online store and an on-farm store where you can purchase products directly from their farm, 45 minutes west of Saskatoon, and you can have a tour to see where your food is raised. This is another great opportunity to support local family farms.

Jade :||: Cathy Chicoine has come to appreciate this harvesting time of year from a unique angle. In her article, Season of Change (p. 16), she writes, “While we joyfully celebrate our [harvest] success, we may also look at the many endings that have occurred in our lives, and make space in our hearts by honouring and processing these losses.” She suggests acknowledging the things we planted that have grown well, and also to honour those things that didn’t grow well and that represent losses. When we are able to grieve our losses, she suggests, we are able to move forward in life more smoothly. Jade offers lots of ideas for creating ceremonies around grief and loss to honour and accept these things that are part of our human existence.

When I saw Node Smith’s article title, The Power of Kindness (p. 14), I knew it would be a welcome gift to have in the pages of WHOLifE. Who would not benefit from kindness?—no one! I believe if we had more kindness in our world, it would be a better place. Node says we each have two internal voices inside us and one is negative and the other is the voice of kindness. He points out that we have the power to decide which voice we want to listen to. He emphasizes that, “Our voice of kindness is the voice that guides us into ourselves, that we may learn what we need to learn to become whole.” He also recommends a mirror exercise to help people find this kind voice inside themselves.

May you read this issue from cover to cover, and may you keep well and happy!

I wish everyone a Happy Autumn Equinox for September 22, 2023. Equal day and night, in balance. Blessed be!

Namaste
(The spirit in me honours the spirit in you.)