Photo courtesy of startribune.com

A Report from Ruth Altschuler

FES made donations to several providers to aid those affected by the firestorm which overtook the Santa Rosa, California and surrounding area in Sonoma County. One such donation was made to Farmacopia , alternative health clinic and natural health store, that is organizing events to serve the public.

Read about women and a young teen who were helped by Ruth at the Sanación del Pueblo clinic.

This is a message to express our deep gratitude for your immediate, timely and generous offering that is already impacting many individuals and families.

Today, I write this message in the name of Amy Charnay (herbalist and flower essence practitioner), Lily Mazzarella (owner of Farmacopia) and myself, Ruth Altschuler (flower essence practitioner, teacher and educator).

Left to right: Lily Mazzarella, Amy Charnay and Ruth Altschuler

Thanks to Amy Charnay, who worked at Farmacopia and facilitated this, for offering me the opportunity to join Farmacopia's aid efforts, and to Lily Mazzarella, who has brought in her business structure to offer these important health events in support of the community. This has allowed the ones in need to be invited in and many essence combinations are now in the hands of those who need them.

Through Farmacopia’s initiatives, I so far have participated in helping to offer essences to people in need at two events.

A Community Support Event at a Local Library

This was at the Roseland Public Library, a neighborhood that has a large Spanish speaking population. I was instrumental at the flower essence table offering essences to non-English speakers!

Many individuals were helped by the Farmacopia team (a total of 68, we were told by the organizers), and we gave away the essences we had at the time, also adding some sprays of essences to many herbal combinations, as this was what we had available for that event.

Ruth Altschuler providing flower essence consultations at the clinic	Amy Charnay at the clinic
Amy Charnay and Ruth Altschuler at one of the clinics	Ruth helping people at Farmacopia

Farmacopia Health Event

This was an event organized and promoted by Farmacopia, held within the indoor and outdoor premises of Farmacopia, located at the heart of the town of Santa Rosa, to which people were invited through social media, word of mouth, etc.

For this one, we had the FES donation of prepared essences readily available to give to people, and this is a brief attempt to describe the significance of your offering.

The clinic at Farmacopia

Our Common Humanity in Times of Collective Trauma

Our experience has been that, in times of collective trauma, we are all fragile and sensitive human beings, no matter the kind of house or brand of car we had, or still have. The ferocity of sudden disruption that recently occurred in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County affected people of all social levels and has a strong resonance throughout the whole community. And it certainly did not spare individuals of medium to higher income. And this is what we saw while helping people with the essences in this particular event.

Helping the Helpers

A snapshot of the situation of a couple (Jacquie & Michael) who are now being helped by the essences:

Jacquie’s business involves caring for elderly people throughout the community. Since the fires happened, she and her husband (lending her his help) have been going from house to house to check on each one of those elderly individuals to see if they had survived, if they were safe, and how their basic needs were being met. Whole areas were evacuated, most were out of power for days, etc, so there was an immense amount of help needed.

This has been an overwhelming task for them, as not only they had to go into places that were very close, or right within the destroyed areas, but they also saw the impact of the disaster on these individuals, as well as on so many of their social and family connections.

When they came to the Farmacopia event, they were very tired and overwhelmed by the grief and sorrow of the ones who experienced major loss, as well as by the size of the task they had taken on and still have ahead of them.

Michael, besides extending himself to provide major support for Jacquie’s business of caring for the elderly, also has his own job related to the Santa Rosa Junior college. That now involves circulating within and checking many of the destroyed areas, dealing daily with both the emotional impact and loss, as well as the toxicity of the places within which he has to perform his work.

They were both helped with Post-Trauma Stabilizer , Grief Relief and the Yarrow Environmental Solution (YES) formula. In a special way, the YES formula was recommended for constant use in his water bottle, for the weeks and months to come.

This is one of the many cases, for which I saw the look of gratitude and relief in people’s faces, as they saw their soul needs recognized and addressed.

The devastating destruction as a result of the firestorm Photos courtesy of Dawn Justice

Saving a House, Caring for Life, Facing Uncertainty

Another couple, Mahrya and Mike, and their son, Evan, are now being helped by the essences. Their house is located in an area that was almost entirely burned to the ground, the Coffey Park neighborhood.

When the fire came, the family left the house (wife and son), while the husband stayed watering the house, the roof, and the outside with a hose. He eventually also left for a while, only to come back hours later and find the house still standing, after the fire had ravaged through the whole area. In face of the uncontrollable, he seems to have found action he could take. While firefighters were still trying to contain the remaining points of fire, he watered and watered, even more so when better water pressure became available. While their beautiful organic garden, all fences and outdoor areas have been destroyed by the fire. However, the house was still there, so he continued to care for it, also caring for the neighbor’s cat, caring for the hummingbirds who came over for feeding, caring for the life that was still present there, while so severely disrupted. In the meantime, the wife stayed at the house of friends with their son, worried about the husband while knowing he was OK.

And, while this family still has a house standing, it is now in an area where everything else has burned down, where the ground is toxic, where removal of debris is yet to happen and reconstruction plans are yet to be defined. They don’t know if they will be able to, or will even want to live there, and everything right now is uncertainty and a post-trauma state, except for the fact that their belongings are still intact within the house. This family is now taking Post-Trauma Stabilizer and the YES formula.

Displaced, Still at a Shelter, Waiting to Go Back to a House that Survived in a Traumatized Area

This couple is still living in a shelter, knowing that their house has survived, amongst very few of the houses around theirs. They are waiting for permission to go back in, to see what the situation is and what now surrounds and has become their changed living environment. At this time, they are still living side by side with many in the shelter who have lost everything.

They are also taking Post-Trauma Stabilizer and YES formula, with a special emphasis on intensive use of the YES formula when going back into the house and area damaged by the fires.

Photo courtesy of iq.intel.com

Reliving Trauma, Grief and Loss

One woman had recently lost her mother, and while she was spared from major loss during this fire, she has been living around many who have experienced great loss. For her, this experience has brought back in a very vivid way, the grief she was still living through. She is now taking Grief Relief and Flora Sleep .

Many Stories; Huge Gratitude for the Essences

There are many more stories and situations. We are hoping we can collect them for you, and that this will contain not only the stories of their needs, but also testimonials and impressions from those who received the essences on the help they provided.

One thing is clearly a common thread throughout all these conversations: the expression of gratitude for FES generosity in giving these out, for the validation of their feelings, emotions and trauma state. And, for the reassurance of knowing they were taking with them something from nature, that will help them through this great life challenge.

An Opportunity for Education on the Existence and Role of Flower Essences

During the weekend, the first information individuals were given when approaching us was that this was a donation from Flower Essence Services that has for decades, been helping populations, giving flower essences when there was need for support and relief in situations of collective disasters, earthquakes, flooding, hurricane destruction, etc.

It was surprising to see how the immediate need helped people “get it” and more immediately see the significance and relevance of this modality. While most of the individuals helped this weekend do have access to natural health modalities, for many this has been the first time they really looked into flower essences as something they could and will use.

In practice, what we found was that they were directly touched by the actual names of the Flourish Formulas . As they looked at the different bottles displayed, they asked about the one or two that called to them. And, we would start a conversation.

They all really wanted to take the brochure to learn more. I could see how this was a moment of connecting with how the essences can provide significant support for them, at different times in their lives.

Everyone is touched by your generosity and support. It means a lot for this community.

With immense gratitude from Ruth, Amy and Lily

Read about women and a young teen who were helped by Ruth at the Sanación del Pueblo clinic.