HARDCORE HOMESTEADERS

     One of the South Shore's great treasures is Mirella Rose Farm.  When my family first moved here we were desperate to find high quality organic pork and chicken, and we found it at Mirella Rose Farm.  Orrin and Tracy Murdoch are so into the quality of the food they grow, they won't even feed their dogs commercial dog food, as their poo would taint the land.  Now that's what I'm talking about.

Anastasia: I've always wondered why you chose the name Mirella Rose for the name of your farm.

Tracy: Naming our farm was really important to us, and it took us almost a year of being on our farm to come up with the name that felt right for the place. When I was pregnant, we had this idea that we were going to have a girl, and this is the name we came up with - Mirella Rose. Mirella is the name of a character from one of our favorite all-time movies called "The Best of Youth". Rose was my mothers middle name, and also our favorite flower (and the flower that Orrin wooed me with when we were first dating). Since we had a boy and never got to use the name, we kept coming back to it for naming our farm. And since the earth is generally considered feminine, this worked for us. So it's kind of like having a daughter too.

Anastasia: You're both from the West Coast.  I've noticed there are quite a few families migrated to the East Coast, buying land and doing the homestead/farming thing.  Why did you choose to come here, and why do think others are doing the same?

Tracy: We moved to this specific area because Orrin's brother and family live in Mahone Bay. I don't think we ever would have been brave enough to move all the way across the country (especially with a 1-year old!) if we hadn't known someone here. We wanted to buy property and start a farm, and prices here were literally 10% of the price on the west coast. It meant we could follow our dream and not go totally broke doing it. I imagine the price is the reason why others are coming here too.

Anastasia: Your CSA offers some premium goods.  Any new products for this year or suprises you have in store?

Tracy: We don't have anything new coming up. We will continue to work on improving our soil to increase the health of our food, to give our family and folks in our community the most nutritious food that we can. 

Anastasia: People love posting quotes from famous people on Facebook.  Do you have any sayings or phrases that you've coined that I would want to post and share with others?  (If not, make one up :) )

Tracy: A  quote that I saw on facebook a while back that resonated with me is "Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be." I have no idea who said it.

Anastasia: What do you wish was available on the south shore that you can't find or buy?

Tracy: Thai food - although I hear that a restaurant is in the works. And public transit. I so wish there was a bus that could get me back and forth to Halifax on the occasions that I spend weekends there. 

Anastasia: If you won the lottery, how would your life change (or not) and what would you do with the money?

Tracy: I don't think much would change, as we are doing what we believe in and are passionate about. But it would sure take the pressure off! We'd probably use the money to pay off our mortgage and help anyone in our extended family or friends who might need some support. I would also use some of it to pay to have my yoga studio finished that's in progress on our farm.

Anastasia: What was the last book you read?

Tracy: "Voyager" by Diana Gabaldon, from the Outlander series.

For more information about Mirella Rose Farm or to join their yearly CSA visit www.mirellarosefarm.ca

BLISS UNFOLDING

In the latest instalment of Hear ye, Hear ye, I interview Vera Nadine Bóinn of Bliss Unfolding about the amazing work that she does as a spirit channel and energy healer, as well as her excitement about participating in the upcoming "ultimate bliss" retreat for women called Mothering Retreat that I will be hosting this May at Second Paradise Retreat in Lunenburg.

Anastasia: So, from the moment you heard about the Mothering Retreat, you were crazy excited. Why is that?

Vera: I just think it's very important for women to take the time to give themselves care. We have a tendency to care really well for others but to push ourselves off and put our own needs by the wayside. And I've learned, in the last few years, since I became a parent, that it's essential for you to refill your own cup. They often talk about filling your child's cup with love, as a way of maintaining their attachment to you and helping them to have better behaviour. But, how can you fill someone else's cup if you're constantly feeling depleted or as if your own interests are not really part of your life anymore? It's important to remind your self that you are an individual, and to care for that individual, so that you can care better for others.

Anastasia: Now, you are going to be offering Reiki healings and meditation at the retreat. When was the very first time you actually, consciously, tried to meditate?

Vera: I first tried to meditate when I was about 16 years old. It was something that I came across in a book about Earth religions and I was infinitely interested in that, especially reading about other people's experiences. But my first attempt, and several first attempts, were really total failures. What I've figured out now, after I have been meditating for about 19 years, is that it's not really something that you can learn from a book or even necessarily from an audio tape. It's very important, at least in the beginning, to have a real live teacher in front of you who has experience and can explain things. Meditation can seem very is surreal, especially when you've only read about it. Having someone who is experienced, and has kind of traveled that path, explain it to you, makes it seem so much simpler. People usually have an ah-ha moment and they realize it's not as hard as they thought it was or it's not as abstract as they thought it was. That way you can have early success and become confident with the process and really embrace it in your life, which totally changes your outlook, day-to-day and in the long term. It's worth it!

Anastasia: What do you think of the notion of meditation in motion versus sitting meditation?

Vera: It's a really interesting concept, because there are so many different schools of thought about meditation, depending on how you come to it, whether you're coming to it because you're really interested in Buddhism or Hinduism or some other religion that promotes meditation or whether you might be coming to it because you've seen a doctor or therapist who's told you that you're very stressed out and could use meditation in your life. I think meditation can benefit anyone, no matter what form it is. But, you have to find the form that's comfortable for you. And, so, I often begin people with either a guided meditation or breathing meditation.

Anastasia: For me, a guided meditation is more like meditation in motion. In that, you're creating images in your head but you have to stay present with them. Versus, say, just following your breath. Do you agree?

Vera: I guess you could look at it either way. Most people would say it's not meditation in motion because you're physically not moving. I mean you can engage in walking meditation, which I find to be one of the much more difficult forms of meditation. That may just be myself. But, I think even following your breath is an active meditation. Because, it is the movement of your lungs. It is the place where the spirit and the physical connect, you are bringing the ether into your physical body order to keep yourself alive. It is a movement, even though it may be a subtle movement.

Anastasia: So, it's still an action?

Vera: It is an action and I think mindfulness, itself, is not a static thing. Paying mindful attention to what you're doing is an action, in and of itself. So, mindfulness is not a static, kind of, deadpan thing. It is life happening and you using the mental organ to be completely present with life, as it is happening. That is meditation. I always say that all meditation is a point of focus. It doesn't matter if it's your breath, or doing the dishes, or walking. You know, it's just about your focus on the present moment.

Anastasia: You've been doing channeled readings, meditation and Reiki with people for several years now. What has been the most profound experience thus far?

Vera: Well, that's a hard question. I think it would be hard to choose, because there have been several moving experiences while I was channeling for people and offering healings. I guess it would be when a woman came to me to try to gain closure after the death of her sister. And this was three decades after the death of her sister. She'd been, sort of, making the sadness of that experience into her life story for so long. And, she came to me for a life purpose reading but, rather than her life purpose coming through, her sister came through and talked about, you know, how her death was due to her own choices and was never meant to affect the lives of anyone else. She really spoke about her onward soul journey and the plans that she has for her next life. This helped her sister to forgive herself. She'd always felt like she had some responsibility in that occurrence. I only relate the story because it's really about the energies we carry. Most of our worldview, on a day-to-day basis, and how we take things that happen to us or around us, or how we let them affect our health and our relationships, is often about stuck energy. So, hearing this message helped the woman to, almost immediately, shift her energy. It's really about her energy.

Anastasia: Interesting. So, tell me about the Reiki energy healing's that you do.

Vera: Reiki works along the same basis. It is healing with energy. In the Japanese tradition that it comes from it is considered eternal life force energy. You are channeling it through your hands, into another person, to help them shift old patterns, shift illnesses that might be stuck. It's about turning negativity into love, I like that phrase. Some people call Reiki either divine light energy or even God's love energy. So, it's about putting this ultimate compassion, ultimate love, ultimate nonjudgmental light energy into people and letting their subconscious, or their soul, decide how best to use it. That way it can heal psychological issues, it can heal emotional issues, it can heal physical issues, it can even heal unseen issues that might be stuck in your aura from past lives. It's pretty powerful stuff. And, I find working with it, for every little healing that I do, to be very profound and humbling. Just allowing this energy to come through me as a channel, or allowing information to come through me as a channel, teaches me and heals me in my own life. It's like I'm healing others and healing myself at the same time.

Anastasia: What do you do when you feel that you need to be mothered, or you need to refill your cup, in your own personal life? What's the first thing you do?

Vera: The first thing I do is to get out of the norm. For me, it's not a form of running away, it's just taking a pause. It's almost like taking a breath, but physically taking a breath. Removing myself from my work and my chores and my children and my husband, everybody and everything for which I naturally have some responsibility. I don't need to go far away, just go down the road to the library or the café and take an hour and a half to really kind of centre myself. And, if that's not possible, finding a space in my house, whether it's the backyard or the bathtub or even a closet. *laughs* Literally. And just being able to embrace a few minutes of meditation. Connect myself to the earth with my feet, or my butt. Just having that moment to pull back into my awareness of myself. So often we are focused on the external. Even if we are a homebody, and we're home, we still tend to focus on the things that are external to us: our children, the dishes, doctors appointments, whatever. And, then from there, I will usually receive some sort of intuition or message that says, "This is what you need. You just need a vigorous walk or fresh air. Or you just need to sit down for a little while and write about your feelings to get the last few days, weeks and months of information downloaded out of you, so your brain can have a little space." So, yeah, for me it's just about giving myself a little bit of time and awareness away from responsibilities and then following on with what is suggested to me so that I can feel inspired again and energized again and look more brightly on the future.

Anastasia: What's one of your favourite books? The first one that comes to your mind?

Vera: The first one that comes to my mind is really deep, not surprisingly. It's a channeled book of messages from a group of light beings. It's called Oneness, by the author Rasha. And, it's not just because I'm a channel. It's because it's the only book of channeling I've ever read. It's a pretty amazing book about the journey of individuals in our current time to reach their highest and most pure self. Just reading it shifts you, subconsciously, in a profoundly positive way. I, as a general rule, do not read other peoples channelings, especially because I'm publishing.

Anastasia: You don't want to be influenced?

Vera: I don't want to be influenced but, also, some people can only channel one specific spirit or one specific group of spirits. They work in a dedicated way like that. I am lucky, and/or cursed, in that I can channel anything. I can channel any group of entities or any spirit. If you ask me to connect to something, and that thing truly exists, I can bring it through for you. And so, if I am to read other peoples channelings, I'll often then start to get interference on my radio channel, so to speak, when I'm trying to connect to the groups of beings that I have chosen to work with. That's why I don't often allow myself to read other peoples channelings. 

I do have clients and people who read my writings sometimes come to me and say, "This is nearly identical to what this other group of entities said 30 years ago or to what this new group of entities is saying through another channel." And, it's because most light beings basically all have the same intention and the same message, really. They want to help us evolve into a new human species. They want to help us, not just honour our planet and save our planet, but evolve to the point that we can become part of this community of intention that exists throughout the universe. One where we are all able to create with our minds. In order to do that we have to become pure enough and have enough integrity to be creating positive things with our minds. We have to be in control of our mind, that's what meditation is helpful with.

Anastasia: This might be off topic or totally unrelated, but what you've been saying made me think of it. What do you think of aliens and the idea that people say that they are going to come to earth, en masse, and help us?

Vera: Um, I think that is a misunderstanding. Just like, quite often, when people are trying to develop psychic abilities, they say, "Oh, I'm not seeing anything." Or, "I'm not hearing anything." And it's a misunderstanding about the way that people who have sixth sense abilities speak about those abilities. We'll say, "I'm seeing something" or "I'm hearing such and such." But it's only because we don't have a word or a verb that pertains specifically to that sixth sense. It really is a feeling, it's not that you see it. You see it in your minds eye. You see it in your mind or you may feel it in your energy. So it's the same thing with the idea of the aliens actually coming to earth to help us. They're not going to physically come here to help us out. They're already coming here. They're coming here as consciousness. When they feel like it, they come to us through the consciousness of channels or, what I would call, hypersensitive individuals. Individulas who were born with this hypersensitivity. (And that can be really bad or good by the way, you can be hypersensitive in a way that really annoys the people who live with you. Or, you can be hypersensitive in a way really benefits people. But, usually you get both.) So, they're coming through these hypersensitive individuals and giving messages. They're saying, "You know, we've been here before, where you are as a species. We've been at this, sort of, point of no return, where you can tip one way or the other." And they're trying to help us see the light, not to be too ridiculous about it, and move in that direction. They've succeeded where we may fail so they're trying, just out of pure love and altruism, to help us move in that positive direction that they've succeeded in moving.

Anastasia: Yeah, but, what about UFO sightings and people who say they've been abducted?

Vera: Oh, I don't doubt that there are some aliens who actually come here. But you have to understand that they're not the same type of aliens I'm talking about. There are just as many species of alien in the universe as there are animals on our planet, probably more.

Anastasia: That also leads me to the question of, what's the deal with crop circles?

Vera: Ironically, I actually wrote an e-book about this, that you can download for $.99 from Amazon, called Ancient Alien Chronicles: Of Orange Aliens and Crop Circles. And, the crop circle, interestingly enough, is a message, an energy signature. However, it's not for us. It comes from an ancient time, you might call that a lower dimension, of our Earth. And it's being vibrated there, it's being sent from there, to what you might call a future, or a higher dimension, of our Earth. It just happens to burn its way through the crops as it's passing through our current dimension. So, it's not intended for us, it's an accidental appearance. There are certain beings, of a certain mindset, as well as certain technology, in the future that receive that message and decode it. I won't give it away, what it is, but for us it's just incidental. Yet, if you go and sit in one of them, you can feel the energy, because all time is actually now. (That's another one of these deep and long topics that I actually cover in one of my workshops about spiritual awareness.) It's actually being vibrated by ancient humans. They're using sound and movement, something to us that might look very shamanic…

Anastasia: But, we don't want to ruin the story. You have to go and get the book, right? To be continued…Alright, what would be your last chosen meal? If you had to choose your last meal, what would it be?

Vera: Wow, this is a very deep question. And here I thought we would be talking about workshops and different types of things like that.

Anastasia: No, no. We've got to cover it all.

Vera: My last meal. Hmm... Well, I'm currently on a healing journey from your standard American, 1980s junk food diet, that I grew up on, to something that raises my vibration and helps me to be even more in tune with energy and awareness. So, I'll give you the old answer and then I'll give you the new answer.

Anastasia: Okay.

Vera: So, my old answer would have been a very greasy, double, triple cheese layered lasagna with the full gluten pasta and the full-fat beef and all of that. I just loved that kind of stuff! But, I have to tell you that I'm really jiving right now on this specific, spicy sushi that they make at Sushi Fang in New Minas. It's called the Acadia roll, which you cannot get by itself, off the menu. You have to pay for the dinnertime all-you-can-eat, but the beautiful Acadia roll is totally worth it! It has these really lovely thin slices of avocado wrapped around it and this wonderful, spicy Japanese sauce on top called yum-yum sauce. It is truly delicious! So, there you go.

Anastasia: Okay, some people aren't into regret. But, if you aren't one of those people, what would be one of your biggest regrets?

Vera: I'm really not into regret as a blanket thing. Because, I often look back at mistakes I made in my life, especially in terms of people that I chose to associate with when I was younger that were really just time wasters. And, I look back at that and I see how certain experiences or certain people that were, on their face, quite negative, led me to so many positive changes in my personality or led me to really great people that I've met who've become a big part of my life. So, I feel like you really can't change things or regret things because then you risk erasing all the good things that also came from that.

If I did have a regret, it would be that I spent too many years looking for my self-confidence outside of myself and really hinging my opinion of myself on the perceived opinions of others. And, now that I'm kind of older and wiser and have been working on myself in a conscious way for 15 or 20 years, I definitely realize that it's all an illusion. The only thing that's really true is your connection to your spirit, to who you really are, who you came here to be. As long as you're being true to what makes you feel good then you can't possibly be doing anything that is wrong. And, it doesn't really matter what other people think.

Anastasia: What would you consider one of your superpowers?

Vera: Let's see, other than talking to aliens, disembodied spirits and past lives, I would say my superpower is… I'd say I have two. One is the fact that I can knit, which is so terribly old school, and do it really well. Like, cableknit sweaters and tricolor hats and things that I think a lot of people aren't really into anymore, especially because it costs way more to knit it now than it does to just buy it. But, anyway, other than that… Being a mom. It sounds pretty stereotypical, but, actually, it is the hardest job on the face of the planet. I think it's impossible to do it perfectly and it requires a lot of consciousness. It requires you to keep pulling yourself back from the brink, of anger or exhaustion, or distraction. And it really requires you being present and doing it as well today as you can do it and hoping that that will be even better tomorrow.

Anastasia: What excites you the most? (And I don't mean sexually!), but the first thing that comes into your head.

Vera: This is a really broad question.

Anastasia: Just the first thing that you can think of.

Vera: Well, I get really excited about the idea of seeing and meeting new people. And, specifically I mean going to other countries and learning about other cultures, other levels of society, other foodways and other histories. Because, we often tend to look at food and culture and history from whatever point of view we were raised with. And yet, there are totally different points of view on history. It's not set in stone. There are totally different points of view on health, based on different people's cultural experiences. There's just so much to see and do in this world. Different music. Different styles of dress. Different things that make people laugh. I just really hope to meet as many different types of people and different age groups, different cultures, different locales, as I can in my life. I think it's great to embrace your life and see it not as a static thing that's set in one setting and can never change. It's really important to step outside of your comfort zone and be excited again about something new.

Anastasia: Alright, then on that note, what would be your dream vacation?

Vera: As a complete antithesis to everything I just said to you, is the fact that I have a tendency to get really comfortable with things that I already have experience with. And so, I tend to say places that I've already been. *chuckles* Like, I really loved Ireland, I really loved Scotland. I very much enjoyed Guatemala. But, if I had to choose somewhere new for my dream destination, I think it would either be Italy or Thailand. Two completely different ends of the spectrum, I know. But, they're cultures that I find really interesting and that have really kind of spicy, exciting history and I would love to go there and feel it in person.

Anastasia: You could be like the next Eat, Pray, Love only with Thailand instead of India.

Vera: Well, actually, I've been collecting stories as I've traveled. Whenever I go somewhere ancient, I often find spirits that have been stuck there for a very good, long time. And, they often approach me, because they realize that I can see them and that I can hear them. So, I have a series of stories that I wrote on my old blog, called Medium Adventures. I actually turned them into e-books a couple of years back. And, I'd love to keep traveling, maybe when my boys are a little bit older, so that I can keep collecting these stories. I'd really like to put out a book called Medium Adventures: Travels with a Spirit Channel. So, keep your eyes open for it a decade from now. *laughs*

Anastasia: Well, thanks Vera for hanging out, I really look forward to spending time with you at Mothering Retreat in May.

ANCIENT CHINESE SECRETS

     Steve Biancolin knows all kinds of ancient chinese secrets.  If you are interested in that sort of thing and don't mind having someone stick a bunch of needles into your body, then he's your man.  I recently visited Steve at his newly opened clinic - South Shore Acupuncture, a sweet little spot in Downtown Bridgewater.  He's got lots of tricks up his sleeve besides acupuncture - he is a crazy alchemical zen master really.  During my acupuncture treatment I became a human incense burner as Steve used moxibustion on me - which is the burning of mugwort at acupuncture points to strongly influence qi, to warm the body and to stimulate specific functions of the body.  Oh and the secrets don't end there!  He then used fire to create a vacuum induced suction for the application of glass cups which he applied to the surface of the skin on my back.  Apparently "cupping" draws blood to the surface of the skin which is used to move stagnant blood from adjacent tissues.  Seriously.  You've got to check him out.

       

              

HYHY: So Steve, what do you think of Here Ye, Hear Ye?

STEVE: I LOVE the idea of your new blog!!!!

HYHY: (awe he's making me blush) Are you nervous about being the first person featured on the blog?

STEVE: I am excited, but not nervous about being the first person interviewed

     

 HYHY:  What got you into Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture?

 STEVE:  I got into Acupuncture and TCM through a culmination of travel, concurrent illness and a lifelong intrigue with the workings of nature which led me here… realizing after many years of ignoring its call, I finally listened and responded.  I really do feel it’s a path that chose me so to speak.

 HYHY: What was the most dramatic healing you've witnessed or experienced in your practice thus far?

 STEVE:  The most dramatic healing I’ve witnessed thus far has been a woman in her 80’s who was suffering from leg pain as well as asthma and had been for a large part of her life was able to breath after receiving acupuncture for the first time… Il never forget the second visit when she lit up like a 3 year old grinning ear to ear about how thrilled she was to be able to breath  with ease.  She said it made the pain seem like peanuts. 

  HYHY: What is your favorite part of "the job."

  STEVE:   Helping people feel empowered about their health.

  HYHY: What are your particular areas of interest when it comes to health and healing?

  STEVE:  I am especially interested in working with emotional heath, preventative health & wellness, and children’s health.

  HYHY:  What do you worry about most these days?

  STEVE: When I worry it’s about a few things, but overall I worry most about the health and wellbeing of our world and all of its living inhabitants.  I worry about this because I would love my child(ren) to grow up in a clean and healthy world where people are kind to one another and the environments they live.

  HYHY: If you were 80 years old what would you tell your child?

  STEVE:   Whether 38 or 80 I'll always tell my child to listen to nature and the stories they tell and follow their heart.

   HYHY:  What were you up to 3 hours ago?

   

   STEVE:  3 hours ago I was waiting for a patient who ended up mixing up her appointment time (Anastasia!J)

   HYHY:  (oops sorry about that Steve!  Probably shouldn't have asked that question.)  What is your favourite thing to spend money on?

 STEVE:   Travel and anything that brings about new life experiences and expands awareness and the soul.

  HYHY:  If you were to invite me over for dinner what would you make?

 STEVE:  If you came over I would prepare some backyard poultry and potatoes along with some freezer garden greens… at least this would be the winter menu!

      

 HYHY: Sounds great Steve, can't wait for my next visit.

      South Shore Acupuncture

      410 King Street

      Bridgewater, NS

      (902) 298-0265

      www.stevebiancolin.com

     or visit Steve at Liverpool Chiropractic 22 Market St. Liverpool, NS (902) 354-3644