wow!

i've just returned from the greatest learning experience that i've had in a long time! i spent 3 days in beautiful north carolina meeting and hearing awesome herbalists such as rosemary gladstar, kathleen maier and patricia k. howell and spending time with fellow herbalist blogger maria.

i am more inspired and very moved by this experience. rosemary is such a lively sprite, her laughter and ability to laugh at herself contagious. i am honored to meet the first formal teacher i gained knowledge from through a correspondence course. she is a treat. sadly, i will not be able to study with her in the future as she is hanging up her teaching hat.

kathleen is my new mentor. unfortunately, she does not offer correspondence courses. i feel deeply drawn to her though and attended 3 classes with her including an intensive and wished i could have spent the rest of the time learning from her as her style is very resonant with how i feel.

patricia is very down to earth and has a great dry sense of humor. she and i kept running into each other in the same area of the camp as i hauled my little ones to/from childcare between classes and meals.

all these herbalists recognized me by my 'two little ones.' nice to know that i stuck out in a crowd of 400 women.

and now, i have a huge list of books i must order and read immediately!

maria was just as i imagined her. i look forward to meeting her again someday. her husband and daughter were great too. kaia made us fruit pizzas for our return to her house after the conference.

now i must go through my notes, order books and make sense of the tidbits i recorded from the classes.