October Meeting Announcement: Hydroponic Gardening

On Tuesday, October 4, Agnes Traynor, Master Gardener, will demonstrate different ways of growing your own greens and herbs indoors year-round. She will have a hydroponic garden on display and green, nutritious samples to share. This will be a terrific opportunity to learn how to garden indoors when it is too cold outside! She will also discuss microgreens growing. Microgreens are seedlings that have not yet developed their true leaves. Packed with nutrients, they provide a colorful and unique punch to salads, soups, and sandwiches. Some common varieties of microgreens include broccoli, kale, beet, amaranth, and arugula. You can harvest these homegrown greens within 7-10 days of planting and can enjoy them year-round.

Agnes Traynor is a Master Gardener and Wildlife Habitat Steward with the National Wildlife Federation. She owns Home Food Gardens, a local business promoting hydroponic gardening and supporting local kitchen gardens. Agnes demonstrates her commitment to urban agriculture by growing food for her family in their suburban front yard garden while supplementing each season with produce grown hydroponically indoors.

Our “Hydroponic Gardening and Microgreens Growing” meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 4, from 7:00-9:00 pm in the Community Room downstairs at the Takoma Park DC Public Library. The Takoma Park DC Public Library is located at 416 Cedar Street NW, Washington, DC 20012. There is street parking, and the library is also metro-accessible from the Takoma/Red Line stop.

September Meeting Recap: Shamanic Healing

Our September meeting with Contemporary Shaman Beatrice Pouligny was a great success. Beatrice spoke about shamanic healing and how it works, and about her role as a Shaman. She shared what she has learned about helping children physically and emotionally from her role as a Shaman working with children, adults, and families. She also showed us some simple practices and exercises we can do with our children at home to keep them grounded. Thank you Beatrice for an amazing evening. We also thank the Takoma DC Public Library for our new meeting space and look forward to seeing everyone in October!

September Meeting Announcement: Shamanic Healing

On Tuesday, September 6, Béatrice Pouligny, Shamanic Healer, will discuss her work as a contemporary shamanic healer and the work she does with babies and children, which ranges from sleep and behavior issues, to sicknesses that doctors cannot understand, autism, and ADD. Béatrice will talk about how her experience as a shaman as well as a volunteer baby cuddler with babies in great pain have led her to understand key elements that are crucial in her work with kids and that can inform the way parents can relate to their kids and handle different kinds of emotional, mental and physical issues. Béatrice will share concrete exercises, rituals and tools that kids like and respond to, and are beneficial for the whole family, including adults. Her insights and very concrete tips can help mothers to help their kids on a daily basis.

Béatrice Pouligny is a contemporary shamanic healer. She was introduced and initiated to shamanism in different cultures while she was working as a peacebuilder, trying to identify local resources that could support people’s resilience capacities in the aftermath of widespread violence. She was told repeatedly that she was a shaman and needed to “remember”. Béatrice did her apprenticeship in the U.S., with a contemporary shaman, and was given the name “Allowing the Light” because of her deep connection to the Light as the main source to facilitate healing and transformation. She has completed her training with indigenous shamans in the Andes and Amazonia. She has also received some training in cranio-sacral therapy and holotropic breathwork as well as mindful (Vipassana) meditation, which she practices on a daily basis and teaches. She has also been a volunteer baby cuddler at hospitals with babies who are struggling with great suffering in the early phase of their life. She considers her role as a contemporary shaman as one of a facilitator, assisting each person in her own self-healing, self-discovery, and self-opening to new avenues of transformation, growth, and creativity. She pays particular attention to the needs of each person and creates a safe, sacred, and loving space for each session. Béatrice also holds a PhD in political studies and has been working on conflict resolution and peace building all over the world for the past 25 years.

Our "Daily Practices to Support Your Children: Insights from a Shamanic Healer" meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 6, from 7:00-9:00 pm in the Community Room downstairs at the Takoma Park DC Public Library. The Takoma Park DC Public Library is located at 416 Cedar Street NW, Washington, DC 20012. There is street parking, and the library is also metro-accessible from the Takoma/Red Line stop.

August Meeting Cancelled

Our August 2011 meeting was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. We hope everyone is safe and we will see you in September!