As a young woman I walked across some vineyards in a remote part of Southern France. By my side, a man 47 year my senior, my grand father. He stopped to take in the sights and exclaimed, filling his lungs to the full "See, this is what I am doing all this for, look at this beauty! Can you just smell this air? And the birds, they are coming back and so are the butterflies. Life is coming back!". I stood on that rich red earth, on the top of that hill, totally intoxicated by the palpable scents of thyme, rosemary, pine trees and lavender, merging together under the sun rays and exuding a completely unique aroma, the smell of the "garrigue". Baudelaire & van Gogh came to mind, potent yet still feeble reflections of the passionate overflowing Beauty around me.

What he meant by 'doing all of this for' was converting the family vineyards from conventional agricultural methods over to organic methods. He himself had been converted to organic farming while visiting an old friend whose grapes dazzled him with their evident unusual vitality. The reason? Well, said our friend, obviously organic farming, The Way, The Truth, The Path to maintain the health of the vineyards, the earth, his employees, their children and the generations to come, while producing great fruits and obviously great wines!

So my grandfather went home and at the ripe age of 75 years decided to pioneer yet another cause. He loved our ancestor's land too much to let it be slowly destroyed by the conventional post-war farming methods. He had promoted human health throughout his life as an exceptional physician and now he would expand the range of his activities, pour his healing talents into our earth with the belief that its fruits could only be better and more alive for it. He bravely faced ridicule and potential financial loss yet he still marched forwards. His vehicle had changed but his basic commitment to the Hippocratic oath remained constant "First do no harm".

He soon enlisted me in his campaign. How could I say no when he asked me to help him market the fruits of his labor and passion by importing our family property wines into the USA…Actually this fit quite well into my own life's path. I too was a healer at heart, much like all of the men in the family, all 7 of them physicians. Structural Integration otherwise known as Rolfing, was my chosen profession to help human beings towards balance and well being. It fulfilled all of my needs, personal and professional and I thought I could add importing our wines to my daily work schedule, no problem. This would only be a hobby for me; to help out the family, promote organic farming, & permit wine lovers who like myself, got headaches from conventional wine to enjoy it again. Just as important, it would allow me to express my abiding love and respect for the earth at large: indeed, while promoting organic wines, hopefully I would make a contribution to our mother's present & future health…

Little did I know how much work and sacrifice this so-called hobby of mine would in fact turn out to recquire. For instance, a few years down the line, I realized that I could not integrate being a healer and a businessperson within the same day. So I temporarily gave up the practice of Rolfing, my beloved healing art in order to take care of the Company. But I felt the loss of my healer self, it demanded my attention more and more- I was split between my spiritual and emotional aspirations and the demands of the business world.

For years, I tried to integrate my spiritual values in the running of the company but had not really succeeded to my satisfaction. There were times I seriously doubted whether I could ever reconcile these two worlds. Though I talked about it a great deal, wrote about it, preached it, still it was not clicking within. So, my strategy became: "OK, I will do the business thing for another 5 years, then I will sell or delegate the company out and THEN I will finally be and do what I really and want to be and do" … Alas, this still was not enough to get me out of bed and zestfully run to my office.

This conflicting lifestyle was painful and I knew that something would have to give. It was not going to be my spiritual values, but neither could I walk away from a 20-year-old investment and just chalk it up to experience. I had struggled for years to write the perfect 'mission statement' but I could never get it right. None of the standard or (appropriate) description of my objectives really meant anything to me- no I am not an importer of wine, how boring, no I am not a supporter of organic farming, how trite and trendy even if I had been of the founders of said trend. No, something essential was missing and I could no longer tolerate it.

My longstanding belief that those who ask surely receive, I decided to try to "Be still and know". I lit a candle, covered myself in Essential Oils from Biblical times, Frankincense, Myrrh and Cedarwood and then focused my inner mind on the land of my ancestor's begging for Higher guidance. I remained in silence for a while and suddenly "it' hit me deep into my bones. The scents of the oils reminded me of the scents of the 'garrigue', our earth when it is passionately alive, something visceral and transpersonal at once was rekindled in me and suddenly I 'saw' our reddish land and I 'heard' a voice in my head saying: " The purpose of your company is to provide healing to everyone it touches, EVERYONE! Wine is a sacred beverage, it was good enough for Jesus to unify his disciples and celebrate life and death with them; it ought to be good enough for you as a vehicle. You indeed are not the importer of a commodity, nor the founder of a politically correct movement, you are a healer and so is your company"….

Home | About | Order | Service | Links