Dreaming of Freedom dream pillow and drawer sachet

Our Dreaming of Freedom dream pillows and drawer sachets are one of our new collaborations between Handmade Palestine artisans and Ritual Mischief herbalists. The front of the sachets have lovely hand embroidery by Palestinian artisans who live in the West Bank. Their part of the proceeds support families there, keeping traditional crafts alive, and planting trees there too. When we receive the pouches, we fill them with freshly dried botanicals that we ethically gather or grow, dry, and curate here on Whidbey Island at Ritual Mischief. Our part of the proceeds support families here, keeping traditional herbalism skills alive, and helping us move gently and work in harmony with beloved plants, forests, land, and people here and everywhere. We stand with you in dreaming of freedom from violence and oppression for all.

Dreaming of Freedom dream pillow and drawer sachet ingredients (and their traditional uses): Hand picked and dried Whidbey-grown lavender, hops, mugwort, motherwort, and yarrow. All grown here at Ritual Mischief. 

Possible ideas for use:

• Before you rest or sleep, squeeze these sachets near your face, inhale the scent of the plants within, set your intention to dream of freedom from violence and oppression for all. You can then tuck into your pillowcase or set the sachet where you can see it from bed.
• Send your dreams of freedom out into the world regularly. Set them on your desk or dresser or bookshelf or home altar or any other place you see regularly, so you can be reminded to send well wishes, dreams, ideas, prayers, funds, etc. to people who need them most--depending on the day that might be you, a loved one, a neighbor, or to people being exploited or harmed in war zones, genocide zones, prisons, and others in need.
• Tuck into your yoga mat bag or gym bag to keep them smelling fresh and to support you in dreaming of freedom for yourself, those you love, and all beings as you move.
• Tuck them into dresser drawers to keep clothing smelling fresh (socks, pajamas, delicates, workout wear, work-from-home-wear, garden wear, and protest/good trouble wear all like to share drawers with herbal sachets).
• Hang them between clothing on hangers in the bedroom closet or tucked into the linen closet to a) add scent when you move hangers or linens around and b) remind you to return to dreaming of freedom within everyday moments.
• If, like us, you have Palestinian friends or a love for the Palestinian people and sense of solidarity with their plight, consider pairing these with our other Handmade Palestine hand-embroidered sachets or with the olive wood soap rest made by Palestinian artisans that we now carry. Or, visit the Handmade Palestine website for even more options. So many beautiful offerings! 

Weight and packaging: Each sachet weighs at least .6 ounces. The small drawstring bags came to us from Handmade Palestine and have hand embroidery on the front created by Palestinian artisans. 

Our history of friendship. We’ve had Palestinian friends for decades—friends we first bonded with online by exchanging recipes and commiserating about the apparently global experience of smart women with great ideas often being ignored or talked over by the men in the space and so women turn to each other to do the truly important work of life-long relationship building and healing across old boundaries. So, here at Ritual Mischief we don’t get to stay silent or look away from the ongoing genocide happening in Gaza right now. Cities across Gaza have been flattened, more than 2 million people impacted, people moved around again and again to exhaustion like abused cattle, more than 100,000 people dead, wounded, or missing. Our hearts break daily here as we watch kids, elders, women, doctors, nurses, teachers, reporters, first responders (which is now everyone), and civilians from all walks of life cruelly treated and unnecessarily suffer, starve, and die. The artisans of Handmade Palestine live in the West Bank where many can currently feel a little bit safer than people in Gaza, but we witness them being terrorized daily too via brutal apartheid policies such as check points to move across their homeland, intimidation, random land and home seizures, price gouging, walls built to keep them out, random road closures and destruction, roads Palestinians aren't allowed to travel on at all, physical abuse, land and food market destruction, and worse. Carrying some of their beautiful work and supporting people we love during horrific times like these is a remarkable honor. We stand with our Palestinian and Jewish friends--both here in the U.S. and with those who live in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza--in dreaming of and working toward freedom for all beings. 

Our history of herbal sachet making: My Grandma Kane was a wise herbalist, although I never heard her call herself anything but a farmer, teacher, gardener, mom, or grandma, and she taught me to make sachets. They kept clothing and drawers smelling fresh--which mattered a lot to her in her home surrounded by husband, three boys, farm hands, farm animals, and later, almost a dozen grandkids. They repelled insects too--which mattered a lot in a drafty old farmhouse like hers.

Like us, our sachets are all about the plants themselves. There are no fragrance oils and no essential oils included in our sachets, although you could add them if you're so inclined. I find a good squeeze of the sachet is more than enough scent to make all our sock, pajama, underwear, and workout wear drawers smell divine. I re-squeeze them a couple of times a year to reactivate the scent. I can't yet speak to how long these will last, but I will say that I still have lavender sachets I made with my grandmother more than four decades ago. So, I expect them to last quite a while. :-) You can also open these sachets in a few years and add more of your own local dried plants too, if you're so inclined. Whidbey locals, I will refill the plants for half price, as needed--I tend to have all the dried plants on hand each autumn. 

Warning: Keep sachets out of reach of young children and pets. Although the plants within are all edible, when dry these plants can be a choking hazard for young children.