# Patricia Damery

> Author, Jungian Analyst, and Biodynamic Farmer


## Posts

- [The Dark Light of Budapest](https://patriciadamery.com/the-dark-light-of-budapest/): The lights on the Danube enchant, ripples of light dancing as if no dark history has ever touched this place. Yesterday, we boarded the river cruise boat, our room facing the waters of the Danube and Buda Hill. Filled with joy from the lights and the joy of gathering with my sister and her husband, Bruce and I were excited about our upcoming voyage on waters and through lands we’ve never explored.  But there was also a somberness. Today we had toured the old Jewish Quarter. Our guide, a young Jewish woman, explained that her parents had endured the Russian...  Read more »
- [Love, MOB, and Valley Oaks](https://patriciadamery.com/love-mob-and-valley-oaks/): What do we truly understand about falling in love? Some say it’s like a lightning strike, but to me, it feels less sharp. It’s as if everything melts into a warm, radiant sphere of presence that expands our hearts beyond what we knew. Suddenly, reason, if it remains at all, is infused with an essence beyond time. Any plans we might have held are gone, leaving our legs weak and our solar plexus punched—except when we’re with the Beloved. Then, we vanish for a while, merging with that comforting joy of timelessness. I am certain that when I die, this...  Read more »
- [Wake: Eulogy for a Small Farm](https://patriciadamery.com/wake-eulogy-for-a-small-farm/): Judy couldn’t remember where the key was—or wouldn’t. She claimed that the leaking roof made the house unsafe. Our second cousin now owns the family farm, which has belonged to us since the early to mid-1800s. Our great-grandfather, Thomas Pope, built the house in the 1890s after a good corn crop. His wife, Matilda, and their 12-year-old daughter, Della, died shortly after from the Spanish flu. In the early 1900s, Thomas died of a kidney stone following surgery on the kitchen table, and soon after, their second daughter, my grandmother, moved in. After my grandmother died in 1973, my parents...  Read more »
- [Politics in a Traumatized World: Dystopia and the Creative Imagination,  October 18-20, 2024](https://patriciadamery.com/politics-in-a-traumatized-world-dystopia-and-the-creative-imagination-october-18-20-2024/): “If human life is unsustainable as we have become accustomed to living it, it is likely up to survivors—people who have stared into the abyss of catastrophe—to imagine and enact new ways of living.” ..Robert Jay Lipton, author whose subject has been holocaust, mass violence, and renewal in the 20th and 21st century. How do we find meaning in the outrageous chaos of the current election year? Does “mayhem pave the way to the White House”? What is democracy’s future? Join those who view this season’s chaos as a unique opportunity to broaden our awareness of the cultural issues before...  Read more »
- [Goddess Speed, Norma Churchill!!](https://patriciadamery.com/goddess-speed-norma-churchill/): Norma Jean Churchill, a cherished member of our family for the past three decades, departed from this world in the early hours of April 10, 2024. At the age of 92, she passed away in the comfort of her own bed, in her home by her beloved Las Gallinas tidal creek, just as she had wished. Her body may have worn out, but her spirit remained strong. On her last afternoon, when my daughter-in-law Melissa woke her, Norma spoke of traveling a long road. She was smiling. Norma was born in Santa Barbara, CA, in 1932 and grew up surrounded...  Read more »
- [Ode to Kali](https://patriciadamery.com/ode-to-kali/): This Spring’s beauty has never been greater. I know, for some of us elders, this is how it feels every spring—a green fuse filled with fire of blooming: California buttercup and shooting star and purple cups of Douglas Iris and now spires of lupin, tiny whispers of trillium, and blue-eyed grass. Such delicate, sturdy presences invite calm and quiet. They resonate with the state of consciousness known as goatsong, in which a sacrifice must be made of our passions and cravings for the essence of life. The liveliness and the angst of these times co-inhabit the fresh scent of finished...  Read more »
- [Sea Change in Napa County?](https://patriciadamery.com/sea-change-in-napa-county/): It has been three weeks now since that day we sat in the Napa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) chamber for the appeal hearing by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) of the Le Colline Vineyard project—the day that the Board of Supervisors crossed a line into a new world for Napa County. The CBD challenged the Planning Department’s permitting of a vineyard in the Ag Watershed Open Space lands. The proposed vineyard was in the headwaters of Conn Creek, the watershed of Lake Hennessey, the primary water source for the City of Napa. The project threatened a contingent beloved...  Read more »
- [Wild and Feral Harbingers of Hope](https://patriciadamery.com/wild-and-feral-harbingers-of-hope/): While visiting Cologne, Germany, this month, I was surprised to see flocks of wild parrots skimming low over the waters of the Rhine before roosting in the large trees along the river’s edge. Parrots are not native to Germany but are probably descendants of pets that have escaped or been deliberately released, naturalizing in this region for 50 years. Still, I was shocked yet delighted to see them that evening and was reminded of my first encounter with wild parrots years ago in San Francisco on a cold Christmas Eve. That morning I had just exited Beyond Expectations, a coffee...  Read more »
- [Mother's Day Memories: Sweet and Bittersweet](https://patriciadamery.com/mothers-day-memories-sweet-and-bittersweet-2/): I am reprinting one of my favorite Mother’s Day posts. More and more I realize how much my mother’s and my grandmothers’ influences reach my own grandchildren today and perhaps, one day, their own. Mother’s Day Memories: Sweet, Bittersweet Every year Mother’s Day brings two big memories, both when I was a preteen, one sweet, one bittersweet. Both were formative in becoming a mom myself. The “sweet” one first: My younger sister Judy and I decided to bake our mother a cake to celebrate Mother’s Day. Although not experienced in baking anything more than chocolate chip cookies, we decided to go all...  Read more »
- [I am Unmarrying](https://patriciadamery.com/i-am-unmarrying/): An addendum to the epilogue of Fruits of Eden: Field Notes Napa Valley 1991-2021. I am “unmarrying” — a term different from “widowed.” “Widowed” is a dead end. Un-marrying is a fluid process. Donald and I were married for 27 !/2 years, years we grew together, combining our households, finances, and children, then building a home and learning to work together. To that end, we discovered that we loved to travel, eat out, and that we enjoyed farming together.  It is hard to overestimate how extensive this growing together goes. The mycelium of love stretched as our children became “our...  Read more »
- [What happened to the old Farm Bureau?](https://patriciadamery.com/what-happened-to-the-old-farm-bureau/): The following was first published as a Letter to the Editor in the Napa Valley Register on March 21, 2023. Twenty minutes into the Farm Bureau’s membership Zoom session on Groundwater last week, my screen went black, and then a message appeared that the “host,” in this case, the executive director of the Farm Bureau, Ryan Klobas, did not permit me to join. A call to the Napa County main office revealed that my membership had expired six days earlier. Despite my futile online attempts to renew our decades-old membership, I kept getting the message, “you do not have access...  Read more »
- [Acting for our Future Generations](https://patriciadamery.com/5185-2/): Was 2014 only my awakening to the need for environmental activism in Napa County, or was it also a considerable citizen shift in consciousness? 2014 was the year Walt Ranch hit the public eye. I learned about Walt Ranch only when I sought help after new neighbors decided to plant vines in an ancient oak savanna we share and upon which, with the former neighbor, we had placed a protective tree easement. I learned this threat to the forests and oak woodlands was happening all over the county and that others were organizing to protest impending development threatening the environment...  Read more »
- [A Crystalline Hike in a Ancient Sparkling Forest](https://patriciadamery.com/5164-2/): Last week, my grandsons Wesley, Sabien, and I visited the Petrified Forest near Calistoga, CA. We are in what Rudolf Steiner called the crystallization period, that fallow time between January 15 and February 15, when Earth is quiet and most receptive to the energies of the cosmos. Although I had not planned this timing, it was a magical time to visit a crystalline forest! The term “petrified” betrays the energy of this ancient forest of redwoods and pine. 3.4 million years ago, Mount St. Helena exploded, dropping ash over the mature forest. Then, over millions of years, the ash became...  Read more »
- ["Christ"](https://patriciadamery.com/christ/): Early in Donald’s and my marriage, we got a couple of pygmy goats, Natalie and Boris. As animals do, they stitched Donald and me into the fabric of our land. Each day we followed these little black psychopomps (yes, they led the way!) along deer trails through the oak and bay forest and into the stretches of oak savanna where we came to build our home. This experience of the Joy of Absolute Presence was the root beginning of my writing Fruits of Eden, I wrote a series of poems about our experiences. The following is one of my favorites....  Read more »
- [Raising the Alarm: Charlie Toledo on Aquifers and Riparian Corridors: The disconnect](https://patriciadamery.com/raising-the-alarm-charlie-toledo-on-aquifers-and-riparian-corridors-the-disconnect/): Below is a reprint of excerpts from a 2014 interview with Charlie Toledo, Executive Director of the Suscol Intertribal Council. What continues to be alarming is how our governing bodies override scientific knowledge in the face of perceived industry needs. We have witnessed this process over and over in Planning Commission and Board of Supervisor meetings. That famous lament from Supervisor Dillon during the appeal of Walt Ranch: IF ONLY WE KNEW THEN WHAT WE KNOW NOW.   WE KNEW. WE TOLD YOU, EVEN WAY BACK WHEN! How long will it take us to effectively KNOW the science and the...  Read more »
- [The Art of Dish Washing with Charlie Toledo](https://patriciadamery.com/the-art-of-dish-washing-with-charlie-toledo/): Have you ever washed dishes with Charlie Toledo? You learn what Water is Sacred means. She wipes the dish using as little water as possible with soap that will not contaminate the water and then carefully rinses. You do not wash: you witness. She does the work, making sure Water is properly treated. How would things be different if we all adopted practices that respected Water? Washing dishes with Charlie has changed my way of treating water in my home, and just in time, too! The drought and the continued pumping and drilling of wells around us have drained our...  Read more »
- [Great News! When Citizens Stay Onboard!](https://patriciadamery.com/good-news-when-citizens-stay-onboard/): Great news! In a time that feels like misinformation, ignorance, and greed rule, something outstanding has happened! On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, citizens of Napa County will witness the fruits of many years of well-informed protests, advocacy, and legal action. The Board of Supervisors (BOS) will vote to rescind the use permit for Mountain Peak Winery! How this came about is a story of perseverance by a group of citizens. Part of that story is chronicled in my just-released book Fruits of Eden: Field Notes Napa Valley 1991-2021. The Mountain Peak Winery site is near the dead-end of six and a half mile,...  Read more »
- [The Sentience of All Life](https://patriciadamery.com/the-sentience-of-all-life/): Twelve years ago next month, I published a blog about the death of our goat Sophia entitled “Goats and Grief.” There is seldom a day that that blog is not read, and usually at least two or three times. I have been curious why this blog, among the hundreds of others I have written over the last 12 years, has been the most popular. People love or hate goats. That may be part of it.   But I suspect the title holds the key. Animals break open our hearts in ways that bring us to our knees. Through our love...  Read more »
- [Dementia and Distillation](https://patriciadamery.com/dementia-and-distillation/): Shortly after Donald and I learned that our ranch was at risk of being seriously impacted by a development next door, Donald was diagnosed with mild cognitive decline. Within two years, this diagnosis changed to Alzheimer’s Disease and vascular dementia. This was an unknown path neither of us had anticipated. Grief is a theme that runs through Fruits of Eden: Field Notes Napa Valley 1991-2021, whether that be grief for the loss of a beloved spouse or oak savanna, or the familiar climate we have always known. The following is an excerpt: Dementia is a long slow death, one that...  Read more »
- [Napa Bookmine: Joint Event](https://patriciadamery.com/napa-bookmine-joint-event/): I am happy to announce that I will be doing a joint Napa Bookmine Zoom event with Louise Dunlap on Thursday, September 29. Both of our books have been released this month. We share common ground. I first read a draft of Louise Dunlap’s Inherited Silence: Listening to the Land, Healing the Colonizer Mind as I returned from the Midwest on the California Zephyr. The train crawled most of the way from Galesburg, Illinois, to Martinez, California, its tracks under repair, which gave me plenty of time to witness often troubled landscapes once tended by peoples who lived in more of a balance with...  Read more »
- [Fruits of Eden: Preparations for the Release!](https://patriciadamery.com/fruits-of-eden-preparations-for-the-release/): My book Fruits of Eden: Field Notes Napa Valley 1991-2021 is about to be released, so I contracted with Janna Waldinger of Art & Clarity to take some photos. This is one of my favorites. Each day some of my dear animals walk with me. (Here, Petunia, the goat, and HIjo, the llama.)  For almost 30 years now, I have walked the trails of our ranch, getting to know all that live here: the valley oaks and coastal live oaks, the madrone and bay, the coyotes, bobcats, and yes, the mountain lions too. Often we will hear the thrashing of deer...  Read more »
- [Writing Group, July 23](https://patriciadamery.com/writing-group-july-23/): We—this group of women I have written with for 39 years— start writing at 2:47 pm, when I usually nap. Not sure how this will go! This morning I read a journal entry from 30 years ago.. 30 years ago today, the writers’ group met at my Valley View Court condo. Cincinnati, my standard poodle pup, was 11 months old. I had barricaded the open French doors to the west so he couldn’t get out. I mentioned in that freewrite that Ben, Jan’s youngest, was the age of my oldest son Jesse had been nine years before when I first...  Read more »
- [Napa County: "Another Beautiful Violence?"](https://patriciadamery.com/napa-county-another-beautiful-violence/): Last week I returned from a rafting trip on the San Juan River in the Four Corners area of Utah. We floated through steep canyons on thick brown water for seven days, immersed in beauty. From the sunrise to sunset, the kaleidoscope of golden to deep pink-red cliffs guided us, their petroglyphs and pictograms offering mysterious stories of ancient peoples. The Bureau of Land Management and Glenwood Canyon National Recreation Area manage the land to the right side of the river; the left side is part of the Navajo Nation. Our two river guides came from historically contentious groups: Kevin, of...  Read more »
- [Sweet Fruits](https://patriciadamery.com/sweet-fruits/): Fruits of Eden: Field Notes: Napa Valley 1991-2021, to be published by Dancing Raven Press, an imprint of Analytical Psychology Press, includes photographs bearing witness to my daily walks these last 30 years on our ranch.  I have walked our trails almost every day with our small herd of goats and dogs. In the early years, my late husband Donald joined us.  I take a camera. The photos record the oak savanna in February and late July and again after the first rains green the grasses in the fall. They log the increasing tree mortality among the oaks and madrone and also...  Read more »
- [Sheep, Grass Management, and Happy Events](https://patriciadamery.com/sheep-grass-management-and-happy-events/): I like to think it was an omen. Just as we arrived to meet Christopher, the shepherd who had brought over one hundred sheep to the pulled vineyard waist-high in cayuse oats, vetch, and various perennials, I spotted a tiny black lamb.  It stood with its mother apart from the herd at one end of the fenced area. Christopher said it had been born an hour or so ago. My son Casey pointed out the lamb to his two sons, Wesley and Sabien, aged 11 and 9, and my granddaughter Grace, aged 2, as Christopher and I discussed the business...  Read more »
- [Phase One  of Implementing Our Forest Management Plan](https://patriciadamery.com/phase-one-of-implementing-our-forest-management-plan/): My friend Norma says the forest looks like a painting with its lithe, dark trunks of oak and madrone silhouetted against the sunlight. The crew has thinned out young bay laurel and the bushy, tall stands of poison oak and invasive Himalayan blackberries. Yes, I always thought of the forest as verdant, but the over-the-top growth was strangling the oaks and madrone. Besides, the ladder fuels reaching into the treetops and tangled brush below created a fire hazard.  For the first time in the 30 years I have lived here, I can see the undulating contours of the earth itself....  Read more »
- [His Last Song](https://patriciadamery.com/his-last-song/): Many years ago, my friend Karlyn gave Donald a saxophone that had been her father’s during the Big Band era. Her father had played with Spike Jones when they were in college. That beautiful instrument has a historical lineage, which I am sure Donald felt. Donald had it restored at a small shop in a funky strip mall outside Sebastopol, CA. They replaced several of the bell keys and gave it a general cleaning. Donald did not attempt to learn to play it for at least another decade. Then, in 2018, a few years after his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease,...  Read more »
- [Tending Trees](https://patriciadamery.com/tending-trees/): When I spoke with Charlie Toledo last week about the forest on our ranch, she said she was always concerned about the overgrowth. First People would have kept the forest thinned with cultural burning so the stream would be accessible to deer and coyotes, so there would be reeds for baskets and the acorns, healthy.  The forest plan for our ranch done by NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) is coming into focus. It will be spread out over three years, beginning, weather permitting, in January. It includes weaving willow along the eroding gully below the goat barn and removing and...  Read more »
- [Nature's Inescapable Demands](https://patriciadamery.com/natures-inescapable-demands/): It takes two inches of rain to awaken the annual grass seeds in the savanna, and we definitely got two inches of rain last week. It started slowly, with 0.6″ on the first day followed by 1.5″ on the second. I was overjoyed. The dryness of the drought chokes the land. We were all suffering. And it’s increasingly rare to get two inches in October. And then, the main event– the atmospheric river– began! The next day it started raining in the evening, and it did not stop for the next 36 hours. Each time I turned on the courtyard...  Read more »
- [We Protect What We Love](https://patriciadamery.com/inspiriting-land-use-activism/): I have worked before with Dyane Sherwood, the publisher of Fruits of Eden: Napa Valley 1991-2021 (which is currently being typeset. Dancing Raven Press, an imprint of Analytical Psychology Press).  I know her propensity to mix visual imagery with the written word, a process quite different from the written word alone. “Take pictures of the oaks in all seasons,” she suggested and continued with talk of tiffs and pixels, a language I will never learn. But she got me started on the long process of sorting through photographs of the last thirty years here on the ranch. Yes, I have...  Read more »
- [Foreword to Fruits of Eden: Deborah O'Grady](https://patriciadamery.com/foreword-to-fruits-of-eden-deborah-ogrady/): Sometimes meaningful patterns of life’s events are revealed only in hindsight. What guides our lives? Is there a subterranean stream that carries us—if we let it? Such is the case in how I came to meet fine art photographer and videographer Deborah O’Grady. These many years later, I am delighted she has agreed to write the Foreword for Fruits of Eden: Napa Valley 1991-2021. I first met Deborah when the two of us participated in a conference by the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco celebrating the upcoming UC Berkeley Cal Performances of Olivier Messiaen’s From the Canyons to...  Read more »
- [The Beginning of the Writing of Fruits of Eden](https://patriciadamery.com/the-beginning-of-the-writing-of-fruits-of-eden/): Fruits of Eden: Napa Valley 1991-2021 has been copyedited for the final time and is on the way to the typesetter at Dancing Raven Press, an imprint of Analytical Psychology Press. I now have to summarize the book in 2-3 sentences (for the back of the book), a little longer in 4000 characters (for Amazon), and a more extended version for the publisher’s website. The book is entering yet another passage into the world of publishing. I began writing the book six years ago in Guanajuato, Mexico, visiting Dianne, a dear friend, former writing group member, and an expatriate. Dianne...  Read more »
- [Guardians](https://patriciadamery.com/guardians/): Mishewah Wappo descendent Alyx Howell said that his people call poison oak “guardian oak” and, as a result, have a better relationship with the plant. When you call it guardian oak, you are less likely to get an itchy rash. Alyx knows stories about the oaks that I have not heard from any other source.  But I remember this about guardian plants from biodynamics too. Thistles and prickly plants are plants that come in when soils are disturbed and need to rest. “Thistle is inherently discriminating,” a commentary on ARAS (Archives for Research in Archetypal Symbols) states. “ Evoking one who...  Read more »
- [A Fantistical Opossum Story](https://patriciadamery.com/a-fantistical-opossum-story/): The story starts with taking out the trash about 8:15 pm Wednesday, an unusual thing for me to do. In fact, when have I taken out the trash in the evening? It involves driving the 3/4 mile driveway to the trash cans at Dry Creek Road, and who in their right mind would do that on just a whim? But it is part of the story. I passed the first curve when my cell phone rang. I answered it on the Prius screen (so strange!), and it was a mayor of a local community. Could he put a journalist in...  Read more »
- [Go-Bags and Exit Plans: Navigating the New Normal](https://patriciadamery.com/fire-and-water-go-bags-and-exit-plans-navigating-the-new-normal/): The ranch is fresh green, the Mexican daisies and Spanish lavender in full bloom, and the birds courting. We’ve had a fraction of our average seasonal rainfall. I find it harder to enjoy the brilliance of April, one of the most verdant months here. The valley oak leaves are large and still that first green-gold. The grasses have yet to burn off in even the sparest spots. The winds that ripple the grasses in great waves and shake the boughs of the ancient oaks are not yet worrisome—but they will be. Climate change is here. The winds are reckless, the...  Read more »
- [Arrival of the Beloved Dog, Bramble Berry](https://patriciadamery.com/arrival-of-the-beloved-dog-bramble-berry/): We picked up our labradoodle Bramble Berry three years ago this week, on April 16, 2018. He was just 8 weeks old. He arrived at a difficult time for us, with several challenges initiating me into overseeing everything my husband Donald used to do as his health declined. Donald and I drove to Fair Oaks, California, to pick Bramble up. We had had to fill out forms that would rival any human child adoption process; the breeder chose which puppy would best suit us. She said Bramble Berry was the calmer of the puppies, liked to cuddle more than the...  Read more »
- [Returned from the Forest](https://patriciadamery.com/returned-from-the-forest/): Recently she reappeared, this figure the height of my grandson who stands solid and white on the western-most reach of our 100-foot defensible space about our home. She was given to us by Donald’s youngest daughter, Genevieve, a gifted ceramicist, when she moved from her Sonoma home to a smaller space. I have always liked her, her skirt covered in dragonflies and exploding novas and suns with dancing rays, her bare breasts and body bejeweled with planets. We placed her between a coastal live oak and madrone, but toyon and poison oak took her back into the nature of themselves...  Read more »
- [Lineage of the Christmas Stocking](https://patriciadamery.com/christmas-lineage-of-the-christmas-stocking/): My cousin, about the age of my mother, knitted the stockings for my younger sister Judy and me when we were very young, and I have knitted the same pattern stocking for each of my children, their wives, and their children. When my daughter-in-law Melissa, Grace’s aunt, reminded me that it was time to start Grace’s stocking, I realized that the stockings have come to mean something to her too! The pattern is a vintage pattern from the mid-1940s. As a child, I thought it was the most special pattern in the world. Each Christmas morning, our stockings would be...  Read more »
- [Wind--and Fire](https://patriciadamery.com/wind-and-fire/): This latest round of fires began in the early hours Sunday. I wrote this that morning before the flames would spread over the mountains east and west. As I write, we are notified yet another red flag warning may be issued tomorrow.  We are all on alert. Yes, this is climate change, California style. It has its own version everywhere. We have to make climate protection top priority or we may be faced with large sectors of unliveable earth. Sunday, September 28: The wind is from the north, the direction of the fire that started about 4:00 AM this morning....  Read more »
- [Chaos](https://patriciadamery.com/chaos/): I like to think I have a lot of tolerance for chaos, but in this time of wildfire, pandemic, and political maelstrom, I’m being tested. Here we are, “we” being my family, sequestering in place together, and holding a pretty strict protocol. We have had very little direct outside contact for eight months now. Groceries are delivered. I attend meetings on Zoom only, and forays out are limited. We are okay, not suffering, as so many in our country tragically are.  Being an introvert, this has been a briar patch kind of experience. It still is to some degree. Although...  Read more »
- [Art and Land-Use](https://patriciadamery.com/art-and-land-use/): Casey and I ran across the stone one late autumn day in 2016 as we were hiking the trails of Austin Park in Napa. We stopped in surprise, examining a   haiku pasted to its side. “grass greens bright/long slow drizzle/ flowers prepare to POP”.  We photographed the stone and continued down the trail. Just as we were about to forget it, we ran into a second stone. “dance    dance/ dance   dance/ little   little/ snail   snail.”  And then a third: “high autumn days/ the morning glories open/ to whatever comes”.   The stones brought mystery in their...  Read more »
- [The Caldron of Sheltering-in-Place](https://patriciadamery.com/the-caldron-of-sheltering-in-place/): Sheltering-in-place, five months now, has become a kind of caldron, one in which I contemplate things about my life I had not had time to notice. The pace has slowed, reminding me of my midwestern roots in rural Illinois. Why does time seem larger and longer on those grids of flat farmland? Is it because there is no traffic and the distances are shorter? There seems to be less complexity, but would I feel that way if I lived there now? I don’t know.  The forest floor announces summer’s end even in July. By the beginning of August, poison oak’s...  Read more »
- [The Overstory:  Trees of Life](https://patriciadamery.com/overstory-trees-of-life/): Never read The Overstory, a beautifully written, transformative novel by Richard Powers, about trees and people and the earth, before going to bed. After reading another section last night, usually a great prelude to sleep, I couldn’t fall into that blessed state. When I must have accomplished some version of that, I slept fitfully, waking at 2 am for almost an hour. From there on out, it seemed I was awake more than asleep. Yet, when I rose through the ethers to check the clock (4 am), I realized dreams were the venue and that I had been sleeping. Nevertheless, I...  Read more »
- [Reflections on Ancestral Home While Sheltering In Place](https://patriciadamery.com/reflections-on-ancestral-home-while-sheltering-in-place/): My ancestral home, which my great grandfather had built in the late 1800s after a year of a good corn crop, was situated on two, park-like acres. A man named Botoner built the East Lake style house with its five bedrooms, kitchen, dining room (always used as a living room), and parlor. The kitchen was the main event. You entered the house into this enormous room through the back porch door.  Windows surrounded the room on three sides. Directly across from the back door was the front door, seldom used but always open in the summer. To the left were cabinets...  Read more »
- [Arrival of the Serpent: A Treasure?](https://patriciadamery.com/arrival-of-the-serpent-a-treasure/): Before this all began, I dreamed of snakes again. In one dream, a fat black, rather short snake was above my closet on the wall and fell to the floor. I was considering putting a laundry basket over it so it didn’t escape into the house. Ten days later, I dreamed a snake had woven a small house of snakes for me, and in the confounding way of dreams, the snake was then a man doing the weaving, the house the size of a basketball, woven of small snakes. Five days later, I saw a serpent on our bedroom wall...  Read more »
- [Sheltering-in-Place Drama](https://patriciadamery.com/sheltering-in-place-drama/): Yesterday we had a near catastrophe with Bramble Berry, our pup, and Hijo, our guard llama. Hijo started it, managing to escape from the goat pen when the latch didn’t catch when I entered to feed him. He saw the opportunity and ran full speed out of the pen. When I walked back to my studio, he was grazing by the west windows. Bramble Berry was waiting for me inside to return to the house. I grabbed the tray with my teacup and teapot and  Bramble Berry’s leash to go back to the house to start the day, not thinking...  Read more »
- [Masking up for Earth Day 2020](https://patriciadamery.com/masking-up-for-earth-day-2020/): A dear high school friend makes a Facebook dare: Post a picture of yourself in a mask. Her smiling eyes peer over her navy blue, star-studded mask, her head wrapped in a scarf. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy but her spirit sparkles. I scroll down. There are men and women, all of a certain age, some with masks improvised from scarfs, most homemade. We were very young adults that first Earth Day 1970, and now we are of that group they say are most at risk should we contract the virus. We are told masks are less about self-protection than...  Read more »
- [The Span of a Life](https://patriciadamery.com/the-span-of-a-life/): Donald has been obsessed with mandalas for as long as I have known him. In fact, mandalas inspired his book, The Geometric Wholeness of the Self, a book that is brilliantly creative, although almost unreadable. He is a retired architect and philosopher and has sought the meaning of life in every structure he has designed, including our home. Even as dementia claims his brain, a mandala still catches his eye. He told me that he wants to grind down and sand the old stump of the huge valley oak that fell next to the little house on our property where...  Read more »
- [Thoughts While Sheltering-in-Place](https://patriciadamery.com/thoughts-while-sheltering-in-place/): We have been through emergencies before: floods, the earthquakes of 1989 and 2014;  the devastating fires of recent years which burned whole towns, shrouding us in smoke for weeks. Now each late summer and fall we live with days of no electrical power as PG&E proactively turns off major power lines to avoid another fiery catastrophe. But the Covid 19 pandemic is different. There is no literal shaking of the earth, nor flames, nor smoke. We have electrical power. Things seem almost normal. There is only the unseen threat so minuscule we only know its impact. This virus is so...  Read more »
- [Generations](https://patriciadamery.com/generations/): We planted Califonia poppies in our vineyard in 1999 after our Biodynamic consultant prescribed a list of wildflowers to seed between the rows.  My son Casey and I mixed the various seed with sand in a wheelbarrow, some, like the poppy seed, as small as a period, some the size of a pearl. After stirring with our hands and then our arms, we then loaded the precious companions into the cone planter which I then pulled behind the 4-Trax. It was late in the afternoon. Deep blue clouds rose from the west. I knew that I had little time before...  Read more »
- [Cruising](https://patriciadamery.com/cruising/): The following is one of a series from a trip we took this past month, beginning with the Portuguese Camino, then northern Italy, and ending with a cruise through the Greek Isles and Croatia. The month span of the trip not only gave me a vacation from the news but also brought home how much we are connected and need to consider who else is on the planet. I begin at the end of the trip, the difficult part of the journey for me. This week Donald and I have been sailing on a cruise ship on the Adriatic, Ionian,...  Read more »
- [Climate Strike, Napa Style](https://patriciadamery.com/climate-strike-napa-style/): For many of us attending the downtown Napa Climate Strike yesterday, the event was energizing if also poignant. Such enthusiasm! I could hear cheering and chanting from several blocks away as I parked and walked down Main Street to Veterans Park, the beginning of the march. We’re students, united, we’ll never be divided! We’re students, united, we’ll never be divided! As new groups of students arrived carrying signs and chanting, they were greeted with raucous cheers and clapping. So much excitement! So much optimism. That’s where the poignancy comes in. We older folks stood in the back, in the shade....  Read more »
- [Using a Quill](https://patriciadamery.com/using-a-quill/): My youngest son Casey made this quill fountain pen for me. The point of the pen slows my writing down, but I also like to think it brings something of the spirit of wild turkeys into the written word. Casey has always been unique in his pursuits. When he was still in the early years of elementary school, he started collecting swords, two of which he wanted to be mounted over his bed in an “X”. “No mom would allow that in earthquake country,” I told him. He was annoyed but complied. I am sure he understands now that he...  Read more »
- [Pilgrimage](https://patriciadamery.com/pilgrimage/): In two and a half weeks I fly to Lisbon and then on to Galacia, Spain, to join ten other women in walking the Portuguese Way Camino. The path has been traveled for centuries by pilgrims, a path weaving through myth and legend, fiction and fact. Preparation for this journey involves walking 4-10 miles a day, as prescribed by our leaders over the four months preceding the trip. This particular week consists of an hour and a half each weekday and about 3-4 hours at least one day on the weekend. I  have been a walker for many years. When...  Read more »
- [A Mountain Lion's Death](https://patriciadamery.com/a-mountain-lions-death/): A Mountain Lion’s Death Last night or early this morning a landowner shot a 13 month old mountain lion cub, a lion that had recently been pushed away from its mother and was out hunting for himself. Only four nights before I had watched scientist Quinton Martins’ team trap this lion, sedate him, and then collect biological samples of his blood, feces, and DNA. They weighed him, took his vital signs, measured his tail and body, studied his teeth and claws, and then collared and tattooed him. They would follow him over his lifetime to understand more about the habits...  Read more »
- [In Celebration of 19 years! Thank You!](https://patriciadamery.com/in-celebration-of-19-years-thank-you/): The biodynamic process has changed both Donald and me, weaving us into the land in a way that nothing else could have. Biodynamics is good farming, yes. You learn to watch the crops, to walk the land every day (“the best fertilizer is the farmer’s feet”). 
- [The Holy Nights](https://patriciadamery.com/holy-nights/): The Holy Nights A blog from three years ago, but the sentiment endures! I know! Many people are happy when the days lengthen, but I am always a little sad when the morning light comes earlier and the sunset stretches the day into the evening.  I love the festiveness of Christmas and then the contrasting quiet of the  short days after. Naps happen spontaneously, even while reading the book I never get to. The air is crisp, and the earth on the trail, slippery with the latest rain. Early evening often gives way to a long winter’s sleep. These twelve days of Christmas from...  Read more »
- [Return of the Light](https://patriciadamery.com/return-of-the-light/): Return of the Light Note: This was originally published three years ago, but its sentiment still holds. May you too celebrate the returning of the light on every level! The longest night of the year is over. The light is returning. The pause is to be noticed, like the moment between the inbreathe and the out; the out breathe and the in. Celebrating this time joins us with all who have done so before, including those not so immune to the dark and the cold. Yes, we have the illusion of control of the dark with our electric lights, and...  Read more »
- [Yule Goat](https://patriciadamery.com/yule-goat/): Yule Goat Another of our past postings, first published three years ago today! Somewhere in our psyche we know these things. Evidently Santa Claus is the result of a long development of the original legend of the Scandinavian Yule Goat.  The  Norse god Thor’s chariot was draw across the sky by two goats, which Thor killed  and fed to the other gods for the winter festival. But the next morning he had great remorse and resurrected them with his hammer. In the convoluted way that stories… and goats!… move, the Yule Goat appeared before Christmas in various ways throughout Scandinavia to check up on preparations and...  Read more »
- [Letting Go](https://patriciadamery.com/letting-go/): My Feldencrais practitioner told me that the human nervous system  is organized around two bipolar processes at birth: Pushing and being pulled; and latching onto the nipple and letting go. He said the most difficult action is letting go.  Letting go of Harms Lavender business has been a saddening process. We have received wonderful e-mails from you, our loyal customers,  you whom we have met through e-mails, at open houses, through packing your orders. Some of you are our neighbors. We do want to explain some of the timing of our decision. The biodynamic certifier in United States, Demeter USA,...  Read more »
- [New Eyes on the Ranch!](https://patriciadamery.com/new-eyes-ranch/): New Eyes on the Ranch! First published March 9, 2016. Casey and Melissa and their two sons are living on the ranch with us. Both boys know where the sweetest blackberries grow, when to pick wild strawberries and where. They have helped with the lavender harvest every year and they continue to be a joy in the rediscovery of everything else that also lives here. Donald and I are delighted that our youngest son Casey, our daughter-in-law Melissa, and our grandsons Wesley and Sabien, are joining us on the ranch!  In the next months they will be  taking over the lavender...  Read more »
- [We Are Closing Our Business on December 31, 2018](https://patriciadamery.com/we-are-closing-our-business-on-december-31-2018/): We Are Closing Our Business on December 31, 2018 With some sadness, we wish to announce Harms Lavender will be closing our lavender and aromatic business on December 31, 2018. We have loved growing lavender and distilling lavender and then, in more recent years, helichrysum italicum and rose geranium. Working with these lovely, medicinal aromatics has been humbling and instructive in learning to listen to the earth and the plants it supports. Every time I package an order, I imagine the energy of the plant and of the soils and air in which it grew traveling to you, spreading the...  Read more »
- [Old Growth Lavender: Lot#Toyon17](https://patriciadamery.com/old-growth-lavender-lottoyon17/): Old growth, gnarly vines produce fruit which in turn results in prized wine, but seldom do we hear of old growth lavender. We have a small acreage of lavender that we decided not to replant, but we didn’t pull it either. Its short stems are good only for our still yet so short they are difficult to harvest. But the work is worth it!  The distilled essence of those ancient plants is ebullience! It has all the tones of the earth it grew from and the resonances of the sun which blares hot in the afternoon. The earth there is...  Read more »
- [Pause on Pulling a Vineyard](https://patriciadamery.com/pause-on-pulling-a-vineyard/): Pause on Pulling a Vineyard The last of the vines were ripped from the earth this week, the vines that were planted the same year Donald and I were married 24 years ago. We both feel sadness in their departure. Piles of vines and trellises punctuate the middle of the vineyard. The earth is disturbed where they grew only days ago.  They had to go. Weakened by the five year drought, they had been infected with two viruses. They were also Chardonnay grapes. We sold them for almost as much as it cost to grow them. The economics didn’t work....  Read more »
- [Measure C: the Next Steps](https://patriciadamery.com/measure-c-the-next-steps/): Measure C: the Next Steps The aftermath of the loss of Measure C (the watershed initiative that would have offered some protection for oak woodlands and water supply) by 641 votes out of the 35,700 votes cast, has the quality of the quiet just before dark clouds rumble on the horizon. Soon the winds pick up, whipping treetops. Lightening bolts flash. When I was a child, we were taught to count from the moment we saw the fire serpent until we heard the explosive crack. One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, four-one thousand, five-one thousand. Each five seconds was a...  Read more »
- [What Big Decisions Are Being Made in the Oak Woodlands?](https://patriciadamery.com/what-big-decisions-are-being-made-in-the-oak-woodlands/): What Big Decisions Are Being Made in the Oak Woodlands? There is a difference in crowds when the immediacy of the issue will impact them profoundly. James Conaway, author of the trilogy on Napa County agriculture and particularly the impact of the wine industry on the community, has been reading from his book to standing room only crowds in Napa County since its release last Tuesday, March 6. The Napa Main Library reading on Saturday turned large groups of people away because the room was packed. At the League of Women Voters and Sierra Club sponsored panel discussion on Measure...  Read more »
- [Grace in a Flock of Goldfinches](https://patriciadamery.com/grace-flock-goldfinches/): Grace in a Flock of Goldfinches This morning: a flock of American goldfinches chattering in a still dormant valley oak by Casey and Melissa’s house. Fresh feathers bright yellow against blue, blue sky. Over two inches of rain the last two days, and everything sparkles, air as crispy as goldfinch chatter. It’s been almost 10 months since I posted here! The shoemaker’s children always go barefoot!—This week I crossed my fingers and finally submitted Fruits of Eden: Napa and the Quest for a Conscious Activism to three agents! Another phase. But the goldfinches remind me: celebrate! The sun reveals prisms in raindrops as...  Read more »
- [Mother's Day Memories: Sweet and Bittersweet](https://patriciadamery.com/mothers-day-memories-sweet-and-bittersweet/): Mother’s Day Memories: Sweet, Bittersweet Every year Mother’s Day brings two big memories, both when I was a preteen, one sweet, one bittersweet. Both were formative in becoming a mom myself. The “sweet” one first: My younger sister Judy and I decided to bake our mother a cake to celebrate Mother’s Day. Although not experienced in baking anything more than chocolate chip cookies, we decided to go all out and make a layered chocolate cake. We got a devil’s food cake mix and managed to get through the first steps of mixing the batter and baking it in two round layer cake...  Read more »
- [Lavender and Memory: Evocative Pleasure!](https://patriciadamery.com/lavender-and-memory-evocative-pleasure/): Lavender and Memory: Evocative Pleasure! Lavender is a paradox: the scent  brings you into the immediacy of the senses, and this experience evokes memory.  Lavender has provided an unexpected  journey to my husband and me over these 20 years since we planted it. Casey was still in high school when we first planted the 3500  tiny lavender plants. He and our friend Andy placed irrigation for the lavender and  then weeded, over and over and over! Now Casey’s wife, our daughter-in-law Melissa, and their sons, Wesley and Sabien, help harvest and process the lavender that you receive. Three great surprises in my life are...  Read more »
- [Eulogy for Bethel : Light that Endures](https://patriciadamery.com/saying-goodbye-to-bethel-what-endures/): Eulogy for Bethel: Light That Endures Two weeks ago I received a letter from the district superintendent of Bethel United Methodist Church, in whose congregation I grew up. The country church is being closed January 1, 2017, and I was asked where I would move my membership. I was given a few choices.  My Irish great grandfather Richard Damery was one of the founders of Bethel in 1870. He and most of my ancestors on my father’s side are buried around the church. As children we played “ghost”, a variation on tag, in the cemetery. My childhood social life revolved around Bethel.  A few years ago an...  Read more »
- [Path of Man and Path of Salmon](https://patriciadamery.com/2041-2/): Path of Man and Path of Salmon Fern Creek rose in the night with the punishing rain. The log jams are now dams pouring water, bruising, but still navigable— for a coho salmon. Walking along the trail that traces Fern Creek, I watch for the iron fish, each with a number. I have seen as many as three, up to the number 6, but because the fish are rusted, they blend in and are hard to see.  At first I thought an artist had decided to leave a message with his or her installation, but then I realized this is...  Read more »
- [Deforestation Storm in Napa County: Denied Appeal of Walt Ranch](https://patriciadamery.com/deforestation-storm-in-napa-county-denied-appeal/): Deforestation Storm in Napa County: Denied Appeal of Walt Ranch. We are in a deforestation storm in Napa County, and it has only begun. And yet, the sun rose at 7:15 this morning, the trees in the west glowing orange against the storm clouds moving in. It was one of those moments of grace when I am derailed — opened to the magnificent beauty of Presence. The valley oaks’ tall and gentle forms caught the rays. They still have their leaves, but the next storm may well finish them off. The grass’s golden green almost hurt my eyes. And then...  Read more »
- [The Sacred and Land Use Issues:Remembering The Whole](https://patriciadamery.com/sacred-land-use-issues-remembering-whole/): The Sacred and Land Use Issues:Remembering The Whole When we exited the Napa County Administration Building for the noon break of the Walt Ranch appeal hearings, I was surprised. Upwards of a hundred people rallied on the lawns holding signs of protest. Walt Ranch is an ambitious project seeking to cut almost 15,000 mature trees for 35 lifestyle tract vineyards in one of the most biologically diverse areas of Napa County. Four environmental and citizen groups are appealing the Planning Commission’s approval of this project to the Board of Supervisors, based on a very questionable Environmental Impact Report. But that is not the topic...  Read more »
- [Water, Trees, Mistakes: Watershed Health](https://patriciadamery.com/water-trees-mistakes/): Water, Trees, Mistakes: Watershed Health Napping was not only from exhaustion; it was also defense to the weight of what I was reading, Alice Outwater’s Water: A Natural History, not nap time reading! I knew discrete facts of the history. How early 18th century explorers skilled off many fur-bearing animals, especially the beaver, important to watershed health throughout our country. The massacre of millions of buffalo in a few short years of the early 1840’s, buffalo, whose wallows  collected waters and allowed slow seepage into the ground, restoring aquifers. And the prairie dogs, whose tunnels provided passage for water for ground water restoration, yet annoyed ranchers...  Read more »
- [How an Oak Helped Me into the World](https://patriciadamery.com/how-an-oak-helped-me-into-the-world/): How an Oak Helped Me into the World When I was six, I met my first oak. I was a shy child, having grown up on a small farm in central Illinois. When I entered first grade, I had little experience being away from my mother, grandmothers, and little sister Judy. I was not used to the social rigors of being with a group of kids my own age. Our socialization to that point consisted of playing tag with several boys in the cemetary after Sunday School. My grandfather died within days of my first day of school, and my mother and...  Read more »
- [Lessons from Serpents and Goats](https://patriciadamery.com/lessons-from-serpents-and-goats/): Lessons from Serpents and Goats Life’s stories, heeded, have their lessons. Writing this next manuscript educates me about my own stories, yet another zen whack!  Most accounts of the Garden of Eden creation story leave out the details of the Serpent. The Old Testament tells how the Serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the one tree  from which God forbade them to eat, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. You know the story. The Serpent appears and tells Eve it is okay, she’ll become wiser, as goddess? Eve succumbs and then feeds the fruit, which some translations say is a pomegranate, to Adam. God...  Read more »
- [Lavender Harvest is Over. Now We Collect for Acorns to Oaks Program.](https://patriciadamery.com/acorns-to-oaks/): Lavender Harvest is over. Now We Collect for Acorns to Oaks Program. Wesley, Sabien and I collect valley oak acorns from the oak savanna by our home for the Acorn to Oaks program in Napa County. School children will plant them in a program to re-oak the Napa Valley. We collect perfect acorns, count them and put them in labeled bags. We note the number and kinds of acorns, and the date and place they were collected. Both boys are astute at distinguishing black oak acorns from valley oak; valley oak from coastal oak. The bag in this photo contains acorns from one of the highest oak savannas...  Read more »
- [How Napa County Mirrors World Concerns:United Nations Dialogue](https://patriciadamery.com/how-napa-county-mirrors-world-concerns-united-nations-dialogue/): How Napa County Mirrors World Concerns:United Nations Dialogue Our land use issues in Napa County are those addressed in the 2016 United Nations Harmony with Nature virtual dialogue. The purpose of the dialogue was “to inspire citizens and societies to reconsider how they interact with the natural world in order to implement the Sustainable Development Goals in harmony with nature.” 120 experts from 33 countries represented eight disciplines. I was honored to participate in the philosophy and ethics section. Other disciplines included holistic science; Earth-centered law; ecological economics; education; the humanities; the arts, media, design and architecture; and theology and spirituality. The recommendations made can...  Read more »
- [Finding Conscious Activism](https://patriciadamery.com/finding-conscious-activism/): Finding Conscious Activism I go back and forth about the working title for my current manuscript. At first I called it Fire and the New Consciousness: Finding a Path to a Conscious Activism.  It morphed into The Uninvited Guest: Finding a Path to a Conscious Activism. The first had an introverted tone to it; the second was more outgoing, like an intruder in a dream who announces something new. But now in this lineup is Eden and the Serpent: Finding a Path to a Conscious Activism. The subtitle remains steady, but the title itself shifts. I contemplate what this means....  Read more »
- [Peter Pan, Pirates, Neverland—and Grandsons](https://patriciadamery.com/pirates-and-grandsons/): Peter Pan, Pirates, Neverland—and Grandsons One of the pleasures of grandsons living on the property is getting to witness magical moments like this: Wesley and Sabien’s preparation to attend the Pirate Festival in Vallejo. We have been having a lot of pirate activity here since five year old Wesley discovered Peter Pan. It started with the Lost Boy song. Wesley watched a You Tube video version of the song by Ruth B. over and over, memorizing the words. (Since then, to his grief, the video version, which went viral, has been blocked.) Soon three year old Sabien was also captivated. My son...  Read more »
- [Fire and the Danger of What We Exclude](https://patriciadamery.com/fire-and-the-danger-of-what-we-exclude/): Fire and the Danger of What We Exclude In writing The Uninvited Guest: Finding a Path to a Conscious Activism,  I have to work in fits and starts. Is it always that way when you are riding the edge? I am working something through. This morning I realized there is an underlying myth that’s been tailing me for ages, like a recurring dream. More on that later. This is an excerpt from a story living me with mystery of an unknown ending. I have a litany of visitors who have arrived uninvited, all of them changing my life in some way. In the spring of 2009...  Read more »
- [Arrival of the Uninvited Guest](https://patriciadamery.com/arrival-uninvited-guest/): Arrival of the Uninvited Guest Today I submitted my application for a two week residency next fall at Mesa Refuge, Point Reyes Station, California. I worked over the weekend summarizing my project, a manuscript that has been resting in the dark ground of my imagination over the last year. I had to write a one sentence description as well as a brief, 500 word summary. It took me all weekend. The title has changed from The Uninvited Guest: Fire and the New Consciousness, which I still like, to The Uninvited Guest: Finding a Path to a Conscious Activism. Who knows...  Read more »
- [Activism: Ego Challenges](https://patriciadamery.com/challenges-in-activism-ego-self-axis/): I remember sitting on the splintery, wooden pews of our country church, listening to scripture.  The minister’s monotone voice competed with the drone of the microphone, “Look at the birds of the air… Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Matthew 25: 26-30). Our farming fathers were duped by the interpretation of this scripture. They were Irish men who loved the earth, trusted her rhythms, knew the poetry of wind and work. Within a decade or so of those...  Read more »
- [Land Use and Spirit](https://patriciadamery.com/land-use-spirit/): Land Use and Spirit When was it that we stopped considering Spirit of Place first, and use of the land only in concert with Spirit? My family came from Ireland and Wales a couple of generations back, and land was and continues to be a presence that endures, like a good mother. Everything stems from her and through her. Tending to that spirit of her means being rooted in time and space and feeds our very souls. But when land became economic opportunity, many of us forgot this relationship. In fact, many have never had it! This is stunning to me, having grown up on...  Read more »
- [Another First: May Day-ed!](https://patriciadamery.com/another-first-may-day-ed/): Another First: May Day-ed! I was napping in the back room when a loud rapping came at the closed door. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! It was hot and we had been out to the Napa Home and Garden Show, so I was pretty out of it when this rapping occurred. Knowing my young grandsons were out and about, I drifted back into a sleep. Almost immediately again:  Bam! Bam! Bam!!   “Grandma’s sleeping,” I called, as I sank back into the floaty space of afternoon slumber. When I woke 20 minutes later and opened the door to rejoin the world,...  Read more »
- [Earth Jurisprudence: UN Harmony with Nature Project](https://patriciadamery.com/earth-jurisprudence-un-harmony-nature-project/): Earth Jurisprudence: UN Harmony with Nature Project Starting Earth Day, April 22, 2016, I am participating in a two month Virtual Dialogue on Earth Jurisprudence with the UN Harmony with Nature project.  Those of us participating are from various disciplines: Earth-centered Law; Ecological Economics; Education; Holistic Science; Philosophy/Ethics; the Arts, Media, Design and Architecture; and Theology/Spirituality.  My own discipline spans analytical psychology and Biodynamic farming, Jung and Rudolf Steiner, so I have chosen “Holistic Science”. The focus of this dialogue is “on how to reshape human governance systems to operate from an Earth-centered perspective, so we are all guided to live as responsible members...  Read more »
- [Private Property Rights and the Commons, Ego and Self](https://patriciadamery.com/private-property-rights-commons-ego-self/): Private Property Rights and the Commons, Ego and Self Earth Day, April 22, 2016 Recently I became editor of Eyes on Napa, the newsletter for Napa Vision 2050. This citizen watchdog group is composed of representatives of 14 different citizen groups who are concerned about what is going on in their neighborhoods. My own group, Dry Creek Road Alliance, formed when a neighbor proposed a custom crush/event center next door in the Ag Watershed protected lands.  In Napa we have a unique protection in place, the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve, established in 1968 by the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission....  Read more »
- [Tall Grasses and Goat Trainers](https://patriciadamery.com/tall-grasses-goat-trainers/): Tall Grasses and Goat Trainers by Melissa McLaughlin I have been spending the early mornings and evenings pulling weeds in the lavender while the boys play various games throughout the large lavender plants. I work my way up the rows, clearing out the tall grasses within the plants so that, when we harvest, the bouquets will be clean and grass-free. It feels like summer and the work has been pleasant. The boys run to pull the California Red Oats out of the aromatics, as they know that it is a favorite treat of the goats. They run down to the pen and...  Read more »
- [Snake Mind: The Serpent and the Ally](https://patriciadamery.com/snake-mind-serpent-ally/): Snake Mind: The Serpent and the Ally Yesterday a beautiful garter snake stretched herself between two awakening lavender plants. She was quiet, absorbing the April sun and preparing to shed her skin. Although I stood within a foot of her, she did not move. April is the month snakes return from their winter haunts in our area of California. Seeing snakes always stops me, brings me into the present. I used to panic. All my female relatives (okay, not all! Not my sister Judy, a biologist, who was disgusted with our reactions!) screamed when we came upon a snake, and would...  Read more »
- [Lavender and the Ice Cube: Preparation for Life (and Birth)](https://patriciadamery.com/lavender-ice-cube-prenatal-preparations/): Lavender and the Ice Cube: Preparation for Life (and Birth) by Melissa McLaughlin From the time I was pregnant with our first child, lavender has been a part of our “toolkit” for surviving and thriving through birth and parenthood. Over time I will share some of the ways we have used lavender as parents. Our first experience with lavender and parenthood came at our Birth Education class about a month before the birth of our first son. The childbirth educator led us through an exercise to demonstrate our ability to manage intense (perhaps painful) experiences. I highly recommend doing this activity...  Read more »
- [Ag or Business Community?](https://patriciadamery.com/1865-2/): Ag or Business Community? The following is a Letter to the Editor of the Napa Register posted this last week about the sold-out April 1, 2016, Forum on a Tourist Economy. What is interesting to me are the negative comments (comment section of online newspaper) that come when you question capitalistic agendas. It is time that we all question these assumptions in ourselves and in the decisions that our governing officials are making at every level of our government. One of the biggest take aways in the recent Napa Valley Vision 2050 Economic Forum was a statement  from Boston University professor and...  Read more »
- [Spring and Lavender](https://patriciadamery.com/spring-and-lavender/): Spring and Lavender Our son Casey, daughter-in-law Melissa, and grandsons Wesley and Sabien, join us on the ranch with the lavender and aromatic cultivation and marketing. They will be sharing their experiences over these next months as they weed, harvest, and distill to get the lavender to you! By Melissa McLaughlin After a week of heavy rain which soaked the fields, the ground has finally dried up again, and we are finishing the final weeding of the Sophia lot of lavender. In Biodynamics, we carefully track which field crops come from for the ultimate system of traceability and respect for terroir. The new growth...  Read more »
- [Ticks and Aromatics](https://patriciadamery.com/ticks-and-aromatics/): Ticks and Aromatics by Melissa McLaughlin Winter is receding and Spring emerging. It means more time outdoors–time spent picking wildflower bouquets, time hiking in the fresh green of Spring. For the lavender, it is a time to weed all of the opportunistic weeds and grasses that have grown up under the freeze cloth, which means wading through fields of tall grasses. It is also a time when tick nymphs emerge and are especially plentiful. Because ticks are the carrier of numerous diseases, it is important to do all we can to protect ourselves when we are in high tick areas....  Read more »
- [Seeking Common Ground](https://patriciadamery.com/seeking-common-ground/): Seeking Common Ground Okay, I will be be honest. The blog denigrating me and my most recent Letter to the Editor in the Napa Register impacted me more than I wanted it to. I know character assignation is a way to diminish an opponent’s position, and I (smuggly!) console myself: I must have hit the mark. But I also have to ask myself: Was I unnecessarily provocative? I am a proponent of common ground. Finding common ground means not provoking the other— doesn’t it? So I started thinking: what are the conditions that promote common ground? Just this last week our neighborhood group spoke with...  Read more »
- [Elizabeth Herron: The War On Trees](https://patriciadamery.com/elizabeth-herron-the-war-on-trees/): Elizabeth Herron: The War On Trees Finally, watersheds have advocates!  Workers are getting signatures to put the Water, Forest and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative on the November ballot. The Initiative will give enhanced protection to our watersheds,  forests, and oak woodlands.The wine industry is poised to stop the initiative  before it gets before voters. Consider donating even a small amount to move this initiative into the public eye. It makes the voluntary protection of forests and oak woodlands, key to the health of our watersheds and water supply, mandatory. Please make sure you sign the petition if you are a Napa County resident. If you have...  Read more »
- [Retirement: Eulogy for a Beloved Professional Life](https://patriciadamery.com/retirement/): Retirement: Eulogy for a Beloved Professional Life After 40 years in private psychotherapy practice, today is my last day. I am retiring from doing analysis and analytic psychotherapy. It’s not an easy thing, for sure, taking down the shingle that I worked so hard to establish. It brings memories of that first “client”, a family that a fellow student and I met with early in our training. During class we worked before a one way mirror while our supervisor directed us through an ear piece. The family never returned. Our kind supervisor consoled, Don’t worry. The important thing is that you learn.  As with most things...  Read more »
- [Sante Fe Presentation: Messiaen's Symphonic Work and the Land](https://patriciadamery.com/sante-fe-presentation-messiaens-symphonic-work-and-the-land/): Sante Fe Presentation: Messiaen’s Symphonic Work and the Land On Tuesday, June 28, Photographer Deborah O’Grady and I will be presenting our work on Messiaen’s piece, From the Canyons to the Stars at the 2016 Jung Society for Scholarly Studies Conference, Earth/Psyche: Foregrounding Earth’s Relations to Psyche (Sunday evening, June 26-Wednesday evening, June 29, 2016). Deborah was commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony to create a multimedia performance to this Bicentennial creation of Messiaen, which was inspired by Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park. Her work provides a ritual entry into the soundscape of these desert landscapes, emphasizing man’s participation in...  Read more »
- [When did Farming become Political?](https://patriciadamery.com/when-is-it-that-farming-became-political/): When did Farming become Political? —When industries decided to redefine agriculture for financial reasons!  This is happening in many communities. When my husband and I visited his hometown of Plainfield, Illinois, he barely recognized the environment. The once small farm community with its rich topsoiled lands had been sold to developers, and housing tracks stretched as far as the eye could see. Chicago’s suburbs were on the march! Our version in the Napa Valley is with the wine industry. In the 2010 Winery Definition Act, tasting rooms and event centers with visitation and “food pairings” to all hours of the night have become so-called “accessory uses” of...  Read more »
- [Everyday Surprises](https://patriciadamery.com/everyday-every-year-surprises/): Everyday Surprises Happening across the unexpected always stops me in my tracks. It feels like a message from the Lords and Ladies of Creation, as my spiritual teacher used to put it. Open your eyes! Look what’s here! Life is precious! One of those surprises happens each January when I enter the garden to find the yellow jonquils, which I am pretty certain that I did not plant, popping into bloom. I suspect one of my daughters-in-law, Lisa, or my friend Elizabeth, but neither is fessing up. This makes it all the more mysterious. I question myself! Did I planted those bulbs some years ago, and...  Read more »
- [Change on the Ranch](https://patriciadamery.com/change-on-the-ranch/): Change on the Ranch The meditation that I have been doing on Headspace these last days has been on Change. The concept is to allow space to not know, to tolerate uncertainty—mystery. In the meditation one is directed to witness shifts within the body and emotional self, realizing the connection. Focus is on the beginning and the end of an emotion while resting on the rise and fall of the breath within the body. Slowly one feels the rock of the inner witness. Everything changes. That is true on our ranch as well. This year Donald and I are making big changes: we are living...  Read more »

## Pages

- [Get the Newsletter](https://patriciadamery.com/newsletter/)
- [Press Release: Fruits of Eden: Field Notes, Napa Valley 1991-2021](https://patriciadamery.com/press-release-fruits-of-eden-field-notes-napa-valley-1991-2021/): PressRelease_FruitsofEden_082222
- [Contact](https://patriciadamery.com/contact/): Connect on:
- [Media](https://patriciadamery.com/media/): Media This page is for the media, booksellers, bloggers, or anyone looking for Patricia Damery’s information. To request bookmarks, bookplates or other promotional materials or to schedule a media interview, book a speaking engagement or workshop, please email Patricia via the contact form. Press Release: Fruits of Eden: Field Notes Napa Valley 1991-2021  
- [Events](https://patriciadamery.com/events/): Events   October 2024 Presidency Conference at the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and on Zoom. My talk, Earth Over Wealth: Napa Citizens Take on Big Money, at the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco 2024 Presidency Conference, October 18-20, 2024 addressed our activism work in Napa County. To listen, click here.  International speakers  addressed the psychological dimensions of our political landscape.   You may listen to this event here. Season Two – Event One: Song of the Oak Patricia Damery with moderator, Deborah O’Grady Song of the Oak Sunday, February 5th, 2023. 4pm EST/1pm PST Gaia...  Read more »
- [Blog](https://patriciadamery.com/blog/)
- [Books](https://patriciadamery.com/books/)
- [About Patricia Damery](https://patriciadamery.com/about/): About Patricia Damery Short Bio: Patricia Damery is an author and a retired analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute in San Francisco. Her life has been about seeking the divine in everyday life and is reflected in her writing. Patricia’s writing concerns remembering instinct, becoming more conscious of our personal psyche and our relationships to the animate and inanimate world. She believes this necessitates a shift in consciousness, “re-membering” an older way while also valuing our intellect, and that this shift is critical to the survival of life as we know it. Long Bio: Patricia Damery is a retired...  Read more »
- [Marked By Fire](https://patriciadamery.com/marked-fire/): Title: Marked By Fire Genre/Keywords: Non-Fiction Length: 183 pages Publisher: Fisher King Press Release date: April 15, 2012 ISBN-10: 1926715683 ISBN-13: 978-1926715681 Extras: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks Book Summary: A soulful collection of essays that illuminate the inner life. “This life is the way, the long sought after way to the unfathomable which we call divine.” —C.G. Jung, The Red Book When Soul appeared to C.G. Jung and demanded he change his life, he opened himself to the powerful forces of the unconscious. He recorded his inner journey, his conversations with figures that appeared to him in vision and in dream in The Red Book. Although it would be...  Read more »
- [Goatsong](https://patriciadamery.com/goatsong-book/): Title: Goatsong Genre/Keywords: Literary Fiction Length: 168 pages Publisher: Leaping Goat Press Release date: October 9, 2012 (ebook) | October 6, 2012 (paperback) ISBN-10: 1926715764 ISBN-13: 978-1926715766 ASIN: B009O74OSY Extras: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | B&N | iBooks Book Summary: What happens when you lose everything: a mother, your home, your right to live alone? What happens when society calls you undesirable? When best efforts make it worse? Three women and a child, each alone. Nature heals . . . opens hearts . . . Nelda’s small herd of goats and her wisdom, Ester’s willingness to pay attention, Dee’s caring action. These are the gifts from three unlikely women to the child Sophia. To know the...  Read more »
- [Farming Soul](https://patriciadamery.com/farming-soul-book/): Title: Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation Genre/Keywords: Non-Fiction Length: 207 pages (ebook) | 184 pages (paperback) Publisher: Leaping Goat Press Release date: July 15, 2014 (ebook) | July 4, 2014 (paperback) ISBN-10: 0991309820 ISBN-13: 978-0991309825 ASIN: B00M9NYG2O Extras: Goodreads Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks Book Summary: Farming Soul questions theories and assumptions that date back to the days of Freud, assumptions which separate spirituality from psychology. Patricia Damery finds answers through unconventional teachings and her relationship to the land–answers that are astonishingly intertwined. In Patricia’s individuation process she learns the importance of being rooted in a particular place and guided by the tenets of Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamic® agriculture. Her professional journey to...  Read more »
- [Snakes](https://patriciadamery.com/snakes-book/): Title: Snakes Genre/Keywords: Literary Fiction Length: 170 pages (ebook) | 192 pages (paperback) Publisher: Leaping Goat Press Release date: August 27, 2014 (ebook) | July 3, 2014 (paperback) ISBN-10: 0991309804 ISBN-13: 978-0991309801 ASIN: B00N48VKV8 Extras: Goodreads  Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks Book Summary: Angela Tyler has spent the greater part of her life in suspension between the world of the small Midwestern farm she grew up on, and her current life in Northern California as the wife of a college professor and mother of three. When her father dies and the family farm is sold, betrayals both small and large are brought to the surface. Angela faces these betrayals and finds new ground to...  Read more »
- [Welcome](https://patriciadamery.com/): Never has it been so crucial for us to develop an awareness of the interaction between the natural world and the power of consciousness, both individual and collective. The continuance of life on our earth depends on our capacity to understand and support the streams of energy that interconnect us with each other and with all levels of the cosmos. My work as a Biodynamic farmer and as a writer allows me to reside in the lively intersection between the visible and the invisible realms of matter and spirit, to nourish those interconnections that thrive with our attention. Please take...  Read more »


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