I met Elizabeth Taylor when I was 17.

I met Elizabeth Taylor when I was 17. My friend Ramona told me she wanted to get veggies at the market and we went down with baskets. Elizabeth had a variety of greens set out at her table. She looked a like a wild mountain woman, she had a knife and sheath at her waist, she had bare feet and her jeans were earthed with soil. She had a child like innocence and a quick witted intelligence and when she offered me a taste of the greens she started to translate their character as if she knew their unique personality. I was a kid and eating greens didn’t ever seem as romantic as she made it. She took out her knife and sliced a piece of Napa cabbage, with her thumb and forefinger put the cabbage to my lips and said “taste this one, she tastes like fresh snow.”

I started working for a farm and at their stand at the Moscow Farmer’s Market. I would see Elizabeth there across the way. One day I was waiting tables and Elizabeth called me, she asked me to work at her stand, selling veggies with her. That day changed my life. I started going to Elizabeth’s farm. She paid me 5 bucks an hour, so it wasn’t for the money. I started going up on the weekends and learning from her. We became sisters and now I consider her my adopted mom. She is a curious open lover of life mountain woman. She had been gardening since she was a teen, she was 40 when I met her, her and her husband Jeb had milled the trees from their land and built a 3 bedroom cabin next to a creek in Santa Idaho. She was proud to not have electricity nor running water. Her acre and a half garden was enough to produce a family of vegetables and that’s how she spoke about her community... of veggies, as her little people.

Ramona and I had been friends since the 4th grade. I always remember her thick black hair in side braids, she had a round face, she was Nez Perce and her big almonds eyes shined as bright as her smile. She and I became close and she would always come round my house with a basket of delicious treats she had home hade cordial, a jam she had made, with muffins fruit juices, cookies and teas. She was an earth mama and she was over joyed to share.

We made our way one afternoon in the early summer up to thru the mountains to camp and end up at the end of our journey at Elizabeth’s house. We had hitched a ride with Elizabeth, and rode up in her farm truck an old big 1950’s chevy truck named Jingles. Elizabeth dropped us off at the summit of the mountain and from there it was a 5 hour hike to her house. Ramona and I jumped out with our bedrolls and a nap sack filled with provisions. And we set off down a trail and into the forest.

Ramona was teaching me to see. She believed in the spirits of the woods, she believed in magic and she would playfully call my imagination to be open to seeing with her. I have had a very christian beginning, and there was a strictness that had shut down my sight. I remember seeing as a child and being told that these things were not real. At first her invitations felt threatening, and that I would be doing something wrong or even against god if I pretended like this. She softly spoke to me about how when we are children we have exuberant imaginations and that we were made to imagine. We are full of surprise and curiosity, this spontaneity is our creative life force essence. We can create worlds. And we, can slowly shut down our play, in exchange for the reality of the real world. That playfulness can seem like we are crazy as adults and that when we shut our inner children off, we become disconnected from our essence, our youth and ultimately our vitality.

We. Walked for hours along the ridge and through the trees and found a dark thicket, a bramble and she said “there can you see?” She asked me to look without completely focusing from the peripheral into the dark patch in the space in-between the branches. As I looked a mirrored sheet of water appeared and shapes and colors began to dance. There I saw a vision, and it became more defined as I watched I was surrounded the growing darkness of nightfall. I saw a woman she was a forest being and both Ramona and I saw her. We wandered out into a clearing in-between the two ridges and fell asleep in the fullness of the moon and to the songs of coyotes... not far. When I woke up I was surrounded by wildflowers. I had a pink little 60’s thrift store dress on with blue flowers covering it. And I had about 30 bees that were covering me. I stayed still the rest of the morning with my sketch book, drawing bees. I was fascinated, their movements tribal, a dance of purpose. They felt at home, they were reverent.

I wanted to bring you to one of my happy places. To gently remind you to remain fascinated in this world and to bring the nectar of these moments that are a gift. Ramona and I would hug trees together, we would sing songs and birds would come to sing solos atop our melodies, we would take long pauses at rose gardens smelling and bathing in the beauty and perfume of the flowers. We would praise the creative force offered by the maker as we delighted in the creation that was made. We walked when we were young. It was not an uncommon day that I would walk 7 miles. I walked 2.5 miles to school and then from school. And yes, it was up hill both ways. We roamed and found places to write, to draw, to picnic and sleep outside often. Under the stars, her questions are simple, what do you see? What words feel right, she would coax the me out of me. We would go to make fires in the deep necks of the woods and float in streams and waterfalls, we would chant and sing. We would howl at the moon and roll on the ground laughing. We would forget about everything and in that, it felt like we were remembering everything.

I have a family I have been praying with for 23 years. And I call them family because that is what we are to each other. In this community we meet and we sit, we each offer a prayer at the beginning and the end of our circles they last about 14-16 hours each day. We begin by wishing well to the circle for ourselves, our families, each other, this world. For the plant people, for the creatures, in the water, the sea, on the land and those beside us. We offer gratitude for our children, for our future, for clean water, food and for health and vitality. We pray together for the life that all of our relations interdependently share, that creates and sustains this world, that it be held sacred and holy for the good of all. We sing and we pray together for days at a time. We talk about our challenges and failures, our hopes and dreams and through it all this family holds a space of unconditional love. Each one of us has cried, and shown our pain to each other many a time and each time we are built up with an honor that is like a balm wrapping me in care. We hold each other in acceptance and forgiveness. Our voices and these songs help me to feel a frequency and vibration in my body that cleans and heal our waters. Sound and frequency heal the body and mind. Love heals the heart.

May All Beings Be Happy and Free!

I am so grateful to be able to help people get out of pain and back to their true purpose. I work with people who need to fix their chronic pain patterns. If you or a loved one has had injuries from accidents if you suffer from past traumas MFR can help. I help people get free, and feel more peace and ease in their body. So much of suffering is optional, and sometimes we think there is no way out of pain, sometimes the fear created from pain can create more pain. I practice Myofascial Release because I see people healing on my table everyday. I watch people hunched over get taller and straighter. People who want to be exercising, to be able to make the long drive, to be able to sleep at night, or not have a constant migraine, heal on my table. I work with people who’ve had back pain for years, who’ve bee uncomfortable with severe scoliosis. And those wanting to create lasting positive structural change and feel better in their body.

Myofascial Release is a gentle safe highly specialized form of bodywork that alleviates pain, restores mobility and eliminates inflammation. Your fascia holds every one of your cells, and restrictions in the fascia can lead to cellular disfunction. Tissue that is hot, hard, dense, knotted and sensitive means your tissue has restrictions. Fascial disorganization creates adhesions and scar tissue that can further limit mobility and spread to other areas of your body. This is why sometimes you’ll be feeling pain in one area of the body and then it moves to another completely different area. Your fascia is intelligent and it holds your consciousness which is why your stress is reflected in your body. In fact every one of your memories is held in your body. These pain patterns often stick around because it is more than just physical.

My teacher Lee Joseph believed we could, by knowing intimately the anatomy and kinesiology of the body and thorough the medium of bodywork, access and heal the consciousness. And through this pairing we can hold space for the part of ourselves that still carry the traumas in our bodies.

We can be in a better relationship to these sensations, thoughts and feelings and ultimately when we become present in the moment, healing is just a few breaths away. Lee Joseph taught me to be present and to listen and see carefully. In this way I can look at your unique body and feel what is architecturally askew. I will listen to all your symptoms, your issues and help you navigate into a better more aligned posture.

One where you feel grounded and supported by the earth. That the segments of your body are natural holding in a more vertical integrated way. In your body where you feel a deep sense of belonging, feeling at home, connected and safe. We want you to have a steady sense of balance so you can be agile, flexible and strong.

With Presence Centered Awareness Therapy and Myofascial Release, I can help you achieve your potential.

Your body deserves to be happy, healthy and feeling free.

Angela is a Myofascial Release Therapist and an Injury Specialist. She works with clients of all ages to help you get out of pain and back to doing what you love. She has studied architecture and has years of experience drawing both for fun and technical drawing.

The ways she was taught to measure when drawing are very similar to the ways she body reads. Her eyes measure sizes, shapes, and asymmetry presented in your body. Tracking these patterns helps her treat your specific symptoms as she then relieves the pressures that are throwing you off.

Gardening is also likened to bodywork, because the internal landscape of the body is similar to the earth elements.

As in farming we are softening the soil of the earth of the body, we are hydrating the tissues, and we are weeding out the adhesions, removing the boulders and reorganizing you. So that life can grow a new.