[Sacred Succulents] updates and shipping delays

[Sacred Succulents]

	_We currently have a mountain backlog of emails we are  trying to get
through. Please do not respond to this email unless it is  order
related. We deeply appreciate your thoughts of support but  additional
emails offering your condolences, etc. just add to the  daunting task
of of sorting through correspondence right now!_ 

	Greetings, 
	We hope this finds you all well. 
	Our Grandmother, Edna Elsie Ghan Callahan, passed away  early May.
Tending to a legion of family matters including the sudden 
necessities of homeschooling our daughters during the pandemic has 
consumed most of our time and energy the past month. This has made it 
extremely challenging to keep up with both email correspondence and 
shipping orders. We have fallen painfully behind the past few weeks. 
We've also barely had time for plant propagation and care let alone 
describing the many new offerings we have in the works. We know that 
many of you are waiting on orders placed 3-4 weeks ago and we are 
grateful for your ongoing patience.  
	With no extra help for for the foreseeable future we have decided
that our best option to get caught up is a month long hiatus on
shipping new orders: 
   All new orders received between June 6 and July 7 will be shipped
on a first come first serve basis beginning after July 7. 
All currently pending orders and those received before June 6 will be
shipped as soon as we can manage during the month of the hiatus. 
   Thank you for your understanding and support. You are welcome  to
place orders during the hiatus, just know they won't ship until after 
July 7.
	Please note: For the course of the pandemic we will only be making
trips to the the post office 1-2 times a  week. This means that even
once we are caught up we will still be a bit slow to both receive and
ship orders. The postal service itself is also running slower than
usual so we all must have patience during these tumultuous times.  
	Specimen Plant Auction-  We had planned on holding another plant
auction in April or May but  current events have seen otherwise. Many
of you are eager for the  auction we get a steady stream of inquiries.
If we are able to get  sufficiently caught up during our shipping
hiatus it is possible we may  hold an auction the second half of June,
otherwise expect mid to late  July. 

	Wishing you all best of health and peace of mind, 

	Ben
 _____________
	Here's a link to the otherworldly images from the Microcosm project
we contributed plant material to: 

	https://www.flickr.com/photos/slu-art-gallery/albums/72157713729253121?fbclid=IwAR1hcD5VN9kgrzBaJyT8OM9Ghpn2eCwwE5QOcpPQReRPTcRrcZUU2pxQbGo


	Microcosms: A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas:
Confocal  microscopy, also known as confocal laser scanning
microscopy, is a  specialized optical imaging technique that provides
contact-free,  non-destructive measurements of three-dimensional
shapes. In this case,  plants considered sacred by indigenous groups
of the Americas were  scanned at St. Lawrence University’s Johnson
Hall of Science. The  procedure facilitates gathering information from
a narrow depth of  field, while simultaneously eliminating
out-of-focus glare, as well as  permitting the creation of optical
sections through biological samples.  Images are built over time by
gathering photons emitted from fluorescent  chemical compounds
naturally contained within the plants themselves,  creating a vivid
and precise colorimetric display.
To pay  homage to sacred plants revered by indigenous groups
throughout the  Americas is a way of honoring the entire world in a
time of  environmental emergency. The exhibition—at the juncture of
art,  technology, and science—magnifies life in ways that may alter
how humans  perceive other living entities from our shared and
threatened biosphere  in more egalitarian terms. The plants reveal
themselves as 21st-century  extensions of biomorphic forms that were
the genesis of abstract works  by artists such as Wassily Kandinsky
and Paul Klee one hundred years  previous. Some of the plants contain
the most potent psychoactive agents  on the planet and serve as
intermediaries that have enabled native  communities to communicate
with their ancestors, wage war on the enemies  of their land,
conceptualize entire cosmogonies, and maintain a nearly  impossible
equilibrium. Perhaps each stoma, trichome, grain of pollen  and
patterned fragment of xylem and vascular tissue in these vital 
portraits is not only a way into previously unseen vegetal realms, but
 also a way out of our collective crisis. 

	 -Jill Pflugheber (Microscopy Specialist, Department of Biology)
and Steven F. White (Professor of Hispanic Studies)
St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York
Sacred Succulents
 PO Box 781
 Sebastopol, CA 95473 USA
 http://www.sacredsucculents.com
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