~Yesterday I attended a rather interesting and informative festival of sorts. The Bluestem Earth Festival celebrates and brings attention to various environmental issues & topics such as recycling, water conservation, fair trade and endangered species. One group that I had a particular interest in was Citizens Against Ruining the Environment (CARE). They had various flyers on the table which included information about the group itself as well as information regarding organic farming, GMOs and steps needed to be taken about banning the use of plastic bags.
The woman whom I spoke with, Jenifer, was very kind and happy that I had shared a similar interest of caring for the environment. We had first discussed bees and what flowers to plant to attract them. I’m planning to plant bee balm and Echinacea later this summer. She said that bee balm is a beautiful plant and that bees especially love them. I told her about the blog and that I’m planning to blog about bees and what we can do to protect them. I gave her my card and exchanged friendly goodbyes, not before I signed a petition to ban plastic bags in the Joliet area and signed up for their volunteer list.
There were also educational workshops and wellness activities such as chiropractic care and the more unusual ear acupuncture. Since I have a huge needle phobia I stood clear of that lol. But nestled in that wellness corner was a woman named Amber who performs reiki on animals. I don’t know that much about reiki to begin with, but I get the gist of it. She told me a little about what goes into it and I was happy with how well the animals responded to it. I worked with a veterinarian that was a certified acupuncture and how I got to work with her during acupuncture treatments. It was seriously amazing and I really miss working with her! Since I’ve seen first hand that Eastern medicine works well on animals, I’m going to try to push for more utilization of these methods at work. Amber was very encouraging of my goal and applauded me for paving the way and being an advocate for the animals.
Last but not least, the goodies I bought! There was a stand selling natural soaps and body products (lotions, shower gel, deodorant, etc) where I purchased 2 tubes of chapstick (sweet citrus and tea tree & peppermint) and a small bottle of Moroccan argon oil. But my favorite thing I got was an essential oil diffuser necklace! It had a small black lava rock (where you place the oil, it’s very porous) and perched atop it was a small pearly white stone, all wrapped together in copper wire. It was so beautiful that I couldn’t leave the festival without it. Now the only question is which oils will I use first!
The Garden Goddess 