Hi there Reader, Each month, students have ongoing opportunities to connect with us and with each other. Here's what's happening in October: Live Schedule — October 2026 All times are Pacific. 🏵️ Bach Flowers in Contemporary Practice 4 with Kathleen and Ruth Thursday, October 1, 8, and 15 @ 10:00 am (Sessions 2-4) Open to registrants 💐 Client Care with Ruth and Kathleen Wednesday, October 7 @ 10:00 am Open to Client Care mentoring and Essence Deepening members 💬 Live Chat: Cultivating...

Reader, do you ever notice yourself holding back? Maybe you have something meaningful to say, but hesitate to say it. You trust your intuition, until someone else disagrees. Or you find yourself masking, minimizing, undervaluing what you do, or waiting until you feel just a little more ready. I’ve become deeply interested in a question underneath these patterns: What if some of what we carry didn’t start with us? Over the past year, I’ve been researching inherited trauma, patriarchal stress,...

Bright flower greetings Reader, It’s Monday morning. You know what you need to do. It may even be written down in a tidy list in front of you. And yet, somehow, you cannot get yourself to begin. Hornbeam is famously associated with the “Monday morning feeling”—that sense of looking at the day ahead and wondering where you’re going to find the energy to get into gear. Hornbeam Carpinus betulus Photo: Ruth Toledo Altschuler But what kind of “I can’t” are we actually experiencing? Is there...