About
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About Deborah
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At age 5, I was fascinated by what words could do and knew my desire was to be a writer.
I also underwent the first of many surgeries for a bladder tumor that year, and was diagnosed with numerous allergies. So I began a quest for healing. The surgeries and painful allergy testing and shots that were the best that my doctors could offer often caused injury. But I experienced a deep sense of healing while playing under the crabapple and walnut trees in our yard, and exploring the wilder places of the neighborhood with my friends.
By age 13, environmental activism had become core to my being. Writing, visual art, and drumming were all activities to which I devoted focused attention. I also planted the first of many gardens, in the small strip of earth between the parking lot and the apartment building I lived in.
In college, I made a decision to focus on research rather than journalism or the arts, as how I would work to affect healing of our relations with the earth. I combined studies in biology, systems ecology, educational psychology, and social psychology before leaving the academic world to heal from chemical sensitivities and chronic fatigue.
I began studying wildcrafting while working as an herb buyer for Cambridge Food Co-op in Boston, and one of the first things I did upon coming to the Sonoran Desert was to make a tincture from creosote bush (chaparral).
My healing work with plants now centers on flower essences. I began working with flower essences for my own healing, and then studied to become a practitioner. I now also make kosher flower essences, including one of brittlebush (above).
I'm thankful to the energy work practitioners who encouraged me to see that within my experiences of chemical sensitivities and chronic fatigue, there was a sensitivity to energy that was a gift that could be developed for healing. With their support and guidance, I began making essences and studied to become an energy work practitioner myself.
For me, making mezuzahs and other art is part of energy work on spaces, a part of helping people create sacred space.
I made my first mezuzah case for a friend to celebrate her new home many years ago. It was made of unfired clay, and shaped to help her find her personal connection with God. Over the years, I've made mezuzahs from many different materials, exploring how we mark the boundaries of spaces.
When I started working with cholla, I felt there was something special, a way to celebrate the unique qualities of this Sonoran Desert. But I hesitated to sell items crafted from cactus or other relatively fragile plants, out of concern that it could contribute to people seeing the desert as just a warehouse of materials for trendy craft items.
As I visited friends and walked among the cholla near their homes, I saw that offering items made from materials gathered with the respect that I had been taught as a wildcrafter could be a healing thing--a way to talk about how we can sustainably live among the plants and animals of the region we love.
I enjoy leading workshops focused on aspects of healing, and working with individuals to help them heal themselves and find their pathway in the healing of the earth.
In my own writing, I primarily explore health and healing, healing spaces, Jewish culture, and cross-cultural topics. My journalism writing has appeared in Spirituality & Health, the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Lifestyle, Piecework the Arizona Jewish Post, and the Tucson Weekly, and my poetry and personal narrative has appeared in a wide variety of publications.
Articles by others about my work
City Week: “Art Works,” Tucson Weekly, Oct. 12, 2006, p. 27: My Healing Through Art workshops were featured as a pick of the week.
“Power from the desert,” Natural Awakenings, Tucson edition, Sept. 2006, p. 6. Features my flower essences, with an emphasis on using them to facilitate creative expression. “Crafting mezuzot brings meaning and joy to local artists,” Arizona Jewish Post, Sept. 5, 2003. featuring me and another local mezuzah maker.
Environmentally responsible practices and eco-kashrut
Many orders are shipped in reused boxes with reused packaging. When we need new packaging materials, we get those that are as environmentally friendly as possible, such as the mailers by Caremail that are made with recycled materials. Rather than buying bubblewrap, we use Caremail's Greenwrap. We also use their zero-VOC packing tape.
We use recycled paper for printing, and you may notice our pastel-colored post-it notes made of recycled paper. We use paper towels and toilet paper that contain recycled paper.
Dishes and glassware are washed in an environmentally-friendly detergent. Cleaning is done with environmentally-friendly products. We use zero-VOC paints for maintenance, and environmentally-friendly art supplies at workshops.
We remove weeds manually or with an electric weed whacker. We ask bugs and rodents to stay outside, and when we need to remove them, we do so with a humane trap or manually.
Our landscaping consists of low-water use native plants, and also plants grown for food use.
The roll-up for our Sacred Space Kit™ is made with an organic cotton/hemp exterior, and an interior of reused fabric.
Living in central Tucson allows us to take packages to ship via bicycle. When we need to use the car to purchase supplies or to take materials to events, we combine errands as much as possible.
We offer a clean air discount to people who ride their bike, walk, take the bus, or carpool to sessions and workshops. Our location isreadily accessible by public transportation. The number 1 route runs down Glenn. The nearest stop is at Edith, half a block away. The number 17 route runs down Country Club. The nearest stop is at Country Club and Glenn, which is 2.5 blocks away.
We use environmentally friendly detergent for washing the sheets and pillowcases for sessions. We use an energy-efficient front-loading washer. Weather permitting, sheets and pillowcases are air-dried, and the electric dryer is energy efficient.
We offset our carbon usage by planting native trees.
Disability access
Our environmental practices (see above) increase our accessibility to people with environmental sensitivities.
When meeting in other locations, we work with building services to increase access for people with disabilities. When the Fountain of Peace is set up, we use enough space to be wheelchair accessible, and include those instructions in the Fountain of Peace booklet.
This website was designed to be more accessible to people with disabilities, in accordance with the Web Accessibility Initiative. Readers who cannot use a mouse can move across the menu bar by using the tab button on a keyboard (you can see the buttons highlighted yourself when you tap the tab button). Images have text descriptions (place your cursor over an image to see the description). The formatting on the page was done to increase access for people who use screen readers and related technologies.
Privacy policies
We're concerned about privacy. If you subscribe to the E-News, we will not share your information with anyone else. You can cancel the subscription at any time by following the link in the E-News.
If you contact us via email, you will receive only the information you requested. You will not be added to the E-News list, and your information will not be shared with others.
When you place an order, we will use your information only for fulfilling your order. You will not be added to the E-News list, and your information will not be shared with others.