Personal Stories

The Birth of Blessed Herbs

An article by Michael Volchok, Co-founder, Blessed Herbs

It was Fall of 1986 and we had no jobs and no income. As our life savings dwindled, we struggled to find another home business that would allow us to stay together as a family. Eight month before we had moved onto one corner of a three-thousand-acre piece of property, owned by a Trappist Monastery and deep in the Missouri Ozark woods. We had never lived so far from society.

We needed to earn a livelihood and it had to be by mail order to keep our family lifestyle intact. We were down to zero cents, no job, no prospects. A little white rice and veggies still left and hope hanging by a string, when a knock came at the door. It was a local herbalist. He asked us to pick some fresh Mullein leaf that was growing on the monastery's property because he didn't have the right to enter their land. He offered us $10/lb and off we went to get some. We were a family of six and were barely scraping by. We got $30 for our collection efforts and then went off to the store and bought groceries.

After we ate, we asked him what else he needed and he showed us Black Cohosh root and we picked a little of that too. We were starting to get the hang of gathering herbs in the wild. Martha had always used herbal remedies to treat our family and it didn't take us long to realize that there were names of herbal companies right on the bottles in our medicine cabinet. We started calling these companies and soon we had our first order. At the time it was our biggest order ever, about twenty pounds, and off we went, all six of us plus backpacks. We waded across the local creek and went up into some Missouri oak woods to locate plants. We all had a marvelous time, laughing and playing and looking for the Black Cohosh. We found several large patches on a hillside and way up at the top of the hill was the grandfather and grandmother plants of the clan. Huge, large, majestic plants from which, or so it appeared to us at the time, had given birth to generations of this plant. Those patches still thrive to this day.

After that experience, we were hooked on the woods, the plants and being able to feed ourselves by selling wild medicine plants. All the while, keeping our family together. It really felt neat. Herbs came to us as a blessing and "Blessed Herbs" was born.

Below is a list of various books, herbalist, and magazines that have recommended us over the years.

Planetary Herbology, Michael Tierra, CA, ND

Herbal Preparations and Natural Therapies, Debra Nuzzi, MH
Healing Wise, Susun Weed

Foundations of Health, Christopher Hobbs, LAC
The Aromatherapy Book, Jeanne Rose
The Herbs of Life, Lesley Tierra, LAC
Live and Be Well, Joan Wilen & Lydia Wilen

Healing with Whole Foods, Paul Pitchford
Valerian, Christopher Hobbs, LAC

Natural Health Secrets, Glenn Geelhoed, MD, et al.

The Cure for All Diseases, Dr. Hulda Clark

The Ginsengs, Christopher Hobbs, LAC
Herbal Medicine, Dian Dincin Buchman, PHD
Ancient Healing Secrets, Dian Dincin Buchman, PHD
Herbs for Health and Healing, Kathi Keville
Breast Health, Susun Weed

St. John's Wort, Christopher Hobbs, LAC
Medicinal Herbs, Lee Sturtevent
Herbal Remedies for Women, Amanda McQuade Crawford, MNIMH
The Herbal Medicine Cabinet, Debra St. Clare

Herbal Antibiotics, Stephen Buhner
The Woman's Book of Healing Herbs, Sar Harrar & Sara Altshul O'Donnell
Prevention, magazine

The Cure for All Cancers, Dr. Hulda Clark
Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog, Wendy Volhard & Kerry Brown, DVM

Living Beauty Detox Program, Ann Louise Gittleman
Website, Michael Moore, Southwest School of Botanical Medicine
Newsletter, Sam Biser
Health Wisdom for Women, magazine
Prevention, magazine

Real Food for Real Folks, magazine
Holistic Primary Care Magazine, magazine

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Drying our First Herbs

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

Twenty-five years ago, when we first started Blessed Herbs, we lived in a 20X40 cabin we had constructed on the grounds of a Trappist Monastery. It had no ceilings but was open to the roof with the beams exposed. To dry our herbs we stapled plastic under and over the beams and when we had herbs to dry, we leaned a ladder up there and I climbed up and spread out the wet herbs and roots while someone else climbed up and down handing me more plant material.

That system dried hundreds of pounds of herbs and worked pretty well, except for the fact that when we climbed up to harvest the dried herbs and placed them into boxes and bags, we always had a tremendous shower of herb particles that rained down onto our living quarters, covering our whole house, bedroom, kitchen and all. I think we were all so healthy because we spiced up our life with a hundred and one herbs! We’ve come a long way since then. We now operate in a modern, certified organic facility with forty-five employees.

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Our First Powder Machine

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

The first time we bought a machine that could powder herbs, it was a very big deal. We went to Chicago and when the man turned it on, it sounded like a jet airplane was taking off in the room. We loaded it in our truck, not exactly sure what we were getting into, and brought it home.

The first time we powdered anything it was Echinacea angustifolia. Our son, Japa, ran the machine because it really appealed to him. The roots were powdered and put in a cardboard drum for the night. Well, I am not really sure what happened, but somehow there must have been a small rock and a spark which created a smoldering coal and we awoke to the smell of broiled Echinacea. We ran to the drum, took it outside and dumped it and I proceeded (in my bare feet) to stomp out the burning embers. It seems pretty funny now, us out their in our birthday suits, in the night, dancing around and stomping the Echinacea like we were making grape wine, afraid we would burn our house down from hot Echinacea embers. Don't try it, there are better ways to get the Echinacea into your immune system.

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Our First Liquid Extracts

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

We started to make liquid herbal extracts (called tinctures) very early on. Some folks in Canada wanted extracts made from the fresh plant (not dried plant). The herbs could not be sent into Canada fresh, so they asked us to make the extract for them. They taught us how and we just went ahead and made them what they wanted.

Our eldest son, Japa, took an interest in this process and became our 'lab manager,' overseeing all production and bookkeeping. Now we’ve been making extracts for over fifteen years, and currently make over 200 different fresh and dry plant extracts. Bark, root, seed, flower, berry...all can be extracted, and their medicinal properties preserved for several years in grain alcohol and water. It doesn't always taste good; but, you can get the medicine down fast and it often beats nursing a bitter cup of tea.

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About My Wife Martha

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

Martha has been fighting infections, body pains, broken ribs, immune disorders, disease of the blood and various illnesses almost all her life. She fell off a horse when she was twelve, and her liver and intestines were crushed when the horse stepped on her as it got up. This accident alone almost killed her, and certainly the interior scar tissues have only complicated her other health problems.

As a family, we have been dealing with her pain and suffering all these years, which has strengthened us all in various ways, and made us all bond close together. It hasn't always been easy, but it truly has been a blessing, sometimes in disguise.

Through all of these illnesses Martha has primarily relied on natural healing remedies: acupuncture, meditation, liquid diet, all raw food diet, wheat grass, colonics, internal cleansing, prayer, fasting, saunas, massage, flower remedies, herbs, nature and very huge doses of love. She has stayed positive, optimistic, always with a smile on her face, and a good and kind word to everyone. Her example of how to quietly suffer, while still looking and listening to the needs of others, has not gone unnoticed. She continues to be an inspiration to all who meet her, and has always had good insight into the healing needs of others.

When you watch someone else remain so peaceful and loving, in a situation where you know you would be the biggest whiner in the crowd, it does something to you. Slowly but surely, all of us who know her continue to try to raise our bar of behavior, stretching to be a little better, a little more patient and kind to others we come in contact with. It is hard to allow oneself the so-called freedom to "do one's thing," when you see your own selfishness exposed in the light of someone who always cares for others.

It’s time we grow up and recognize our call to give, to love, and to care for one another, shaking off the natural tendencies to look out for oneself. Is this preaching? I don't know. But being as we are all one human family, it is a crying shame we haven’t done a better job of making life more bearable for all. I only know we should really try to remember that each step we take for goodness is a step towards holiness, and each of those steps lead to all that is good. Do you want to like yourself more? Then, like someone else a little more. Each and every day look for an opportunity to extend a kind word or gesture to someone else...it will make your day.

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Thirty Years of Love

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

I first really saw Martha the night she was playing the Japanese instrument called the Koto. She was in another room but her music floated throughout the house and stirred my soul. The next day I told her how moved I was by her playing and sat down beside her and we played the instrument together. What started as a simple soul singing out in love has become 30 years of the most wonderful and precious relationship two people can have. Our love for one another was visible from the beginning and it was a love that was fanned from invisible worlds we could not see but could touch and feel and know without doubt we had been called to come together not only to nourish our own minds, bodies and souls but those of our family and friends.

Martha has always had a gift of generosity, love and compassion... a person with no guile and a "heart of gold" as they say. Her continuous love and acceptance of me and my idiosyncrasies over the years has slowly but surely, been the strongest force in my life to soften the hard places and make loving others meaningful and important. Her ways are the ways of healing and peace. She knows the meaning of love and a tender heart and is always there for those in need.

When we started our family she was the one who always knew what the children really needed to nourish their souls while at the same time grounding us all in this world. Our family loved to love and having home businesses made a lot of sense. In or near our homes, we had a small painting company, a natural food, soy-based bakery, a sprout farm and finally Blessed Herbs. Always putting family first, we worked together, shoulder to shoulder, night and day if need be, to keep us all together as a unit.

When Blessed Herbs took off, we knew it was the grace of God that provided us with such a grand opportunity to be involved in something so wholesome and natural orientated. Over the years we have struggled to keep our family values intact, all the while, running a growing business and tending to the needs of the business.

Whenever business gets too hectic or anyone starts to panic about the state of affairs, Martha is always there to remind us of our birthright of love. It is said that love casts out fear and I have witnessed this to be true.

Of course, sometimes the fear is so great, that we tend to forget all about love, but if we work to stay focused on the things at hand, and not climb too far out on the limbs of the fear tree, we can remember the ways of love and maintain enough sanity to pass through the storms of life.

Martha has been sick a lot in her life and has always listened to her body, applied her mind from study and been able to find a natural solution to most all situations. She cared for all four of our children naturally and has developed over the years an intuitive sense about well-being and imbalance which she applies to her medicine making formulations. All her formulas are based on trial and error and experience and this usually started with working on herself. She just works with people and the herbs because it is who she is. A healer and a lover of humanity. I would say I was a sincere seeker and a listener and a good student but she has been the guiding force for our business and our life. That's been the best natural health formula for me. Martha is one of God's jewels.

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Go Lightly, Go Simply

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

During the course of the last thirty-five years, since that first day I wrote in the sand on the beach, "Who am I?" I have been searching and seeking and been deliberately watching my behavior as it relates to myself and others around me. Over the years I have become painfully aware of the suffering that we cause one another as we live our lives mostly in our separate cocoons of reality, only now and again making any real and deep connection with others.

There are many different ideas we share in these pages but I think they all come down to the same thing and that is that we are all interconnected in very subtle and real ways and what happens to one of us, really is felt by all of us the whole human body.

It is a process. We have religion or we have no religion, we study, we read, we play, we indulge, we avoid, we love, we seek, we find, we give up, we work at it harder, we take and we give and we eventually find that there is someone inside of us that is worth loving and caring for and genuinely feels compassion and concern for not only themselves, but for the whole human family. Our spiritual paths, our longings, our sincere crying out to give love and receive love finally takes root (probably we always had the roots but just needed the water to blossom.)

I now believe we have the capacity to heal ourselves. We need to accept ourselves, forgive ourselves and to recognize that we are not our problems, that we are bigger than our problems. When sharing with our loved ones we can say together, "We are not our problem, we are bigger than our problem, we are more than our problem". Breathe deeply together, let the anxiety and pain flow out and away. Breathe in love. Believe that the Creator of our Universe sustains us all in good times and in bad times.

Let us not take ourselves so seriously that we suffocate ourselves in our personal growth processes. Yes, growing up and becoming a more responsible and loving individual is serious but we have every tool we need inside each and every one of us. Let us relax and let the goodness flow out. We have spent long enough running after our old mental loops of –I am not this, or I am not that. Where has it gotten us to? We feed ourselves the same negative messages way too often. It is high time to give ourselves a very big break and lighten up!!

We know we want good. We know we do not support bad. No one and nothing will ever be perfect. All is just as it is and when we cooperate with each and every moment, slowly, and with trust in our innate goodness, we can deal with whatever comes our way in a healthy, meaningful and righteous fashion. We can do right.

Let us pray for one another along our way. Let us remember we are all interconnected in the most deep and profound ways possible. Let us support one another in brotherly and sisterly love. We all make mistakes in judgement. It is human. Let us forgive and forget and hold in our mind and hearts the image of the human race, all over the planet, standing side by side, in harmony and love. Allow ourselves the freedom to be.

Martha wrote this small poem which I think is appropriate now,

Go lightly, simply.

Too much seriousness
Clouds the soul.

Just go and
Follow the flowing moment.

Try not to cling
To any experience.

The depths of wonder
Open of themselves.

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Our Burning Desire for Health

by Shalom Volchok, Marketing Director & Son of Co-Founders

Two decades ago my parents listened to their own craving for harmony with life. Without knowing their path or what that even meant they started a search, followed their hearts, and trusted themselves. They made mistakes along the way. They raised a family and started a business. My mother home schooled all four of us. She was the herbalist, the visionary, the one with a great spirit. She had a deep intuition and a burning desire. She never even knew for what she was searching or what was leading her. What was leading her family.

My father saw her spirit, trusted her heart, and had a great and powerful will. Together he protected her from the world, he manifested our lives and dealt with the outside, something told him it was right. He trusted. He didn't know where any of it was leading. But he felt it was right. He knew it was right. Together they created their own lives. Created a spot to raise their children. Laughed at by the world. Judged by family. Still they trusted themselves.

Martha could feel what was right. She raised her children away from it all. They wanted to produce children that were individuals. Children who could shape their own lives. Children who would trust themselves. Children who would question what felt wrong. Children who would trust what felt right. Does life ever go to plan? No, life is difficult. But it always goes on.

In 1979 they had their fourth child, me, Shalom. I now sit here, blessed with my Mother's spirit, empowered with my Father's will. The next generation. I now see. I now feel. I understand why they chose the life they did. It's actually really cool. Through my high school and college years I had cursed them. Oblivious to why. They gave me something. I'm not completely sure of what it is or what it means. But I know the path I am on and I feel that path is leading me to share our lives and vision with you.

As I write this article the year is 2002 and I’ve just started to get a mental grasp on what their intuition has been leading them to do. Somehow I seem to be able to put that into print. I don't know exactly how but on this website you will see the result of our lives.

Between 1995 & 1997 we experienced three huge boom years. The entire herbal market was falsely inflated by an influx of companies looking to take advantage of this new boom called "herbs".

During this time retail sales of herbs in the United States went up. However, it did not nearly match the increase of new products and companies. A correction was imminent and it came without warning in 1998. Our company went from grossing 4 million dollars in 1997 to grossing 1 million in 1998. The fact we survived that first year is amazing and a great testament to the determination of my parents and the loyalty of our retail customer base and employees.

Countless companies filed bankruptcy in 1998. The entire natural product industry suffered a similar correction. A 75% decrease in sales created some hard years for everyone. It wasn’t until 2001 that the surviving companies, which generally were the ones that had been around for while, started to pick back up. It was slow, but real.

During the last four years my parents have put a lot of energy into Blessed Herbs. It almost stopped being something they enjoyed. It became a grind just to get by. Martha's health, always weak, suffered even more. She wasn't able to give her own body the attention it needed. She fought T-Cell Lymphoma in her blood and Sarcoidosis in her lungs: both severe and life threatening diseases. Yet, she still gave any extra energy she had to Blessed Herbs, she had to. They supported Blessed Herbs with their own personal savings. There were often many months that Blessed Herbs could not even pay them. Yet they always found a way to keep it going.

In 2001 I graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design, in Georgia. I had majored in Graphic Design but really had no idea what I wanted or could do with my life. I lived at home for that first summer and worked at Blessed Herbs.

It turns out I've found a home in Blessed Herbs and I'm still here. When I came to work we were still searching for a way to turn Blessed Herbs around. In 2002 all of our energy was directed towards the Internal Cleansing Kit and the Colon Cleansing Kit. Martha spent eight months formulating them. Eight months fighting her own cancer and fighting to keep Blessed Herbs alive. My Father had been buried under the stress of trying to maintain what Blessed Herbs already was. Without their total effort it would have surely died back in 1998. (It’s now been some years since we introduced our internal cleansing program and it has become a huge success with thousands and thousands of satisfied customers.)

I bring new energy and new life force. My parents desperately need a rest and it is on me to give that to them. This website is the beginning of that new phase. It is my intention to openly share our lives and Blessed Herbs with everyone I can reach. I am starting to understand my parent's vision. I hope to convey that to anyone who reads these pages. When I was a child, Blessed Herbs was formed as a way to support us in a way that was beneficial to the world. I now feel called to share with the world what my parents and Blessed Herbs have shown me. What I call, Desire for Health.

Just what is "Desire for Health"? Webster and I define that as, a longing, wish, or craving for pure inner harmony. Desire for Health is a litany of clichés about finding oneself and following personal dreams.

Has anyone ever reached a state of "pure inner harmony"? Who knows! It doesn't matter! Really one can never "reach" anywhere. Because wherever one is, they simply are! It REALLY doesn't matter! The fun part is getting there. I hope I never reach the end, but I'll still try my hardest to get there. In trying I feel wonderfully alive. Every day, I find out something new about myself!

I'm always changing, adapting, learning, growing, and experiencing. It's not always painless. But I look at painful experiences as a way to learn more about myself. If I find out the problem within myself that is causing the pain or fear, then I can move on to the next thing.

And I always find something to move onto next. It just doesn't end. And I LOVE IT. I REALLY REALLY love it. Sometimes I just jump up and down because I can hardly stand how amazing I find being alive. When one learns to listen to what is right for them, they begin to feed their own Desire for Health. When one begins to feel this desire burning within them, they are alive. The more it burns the more alive they are.

I just gotta use one little cliché, as my mom used to say, "let your light shine, shine, shine". Ok, mom it BE shining and it's getting brighter and brighter everyday. And my eyes just watered writing that, not because I'm sad, but because I'm so - and words just don't convey it - I'm bursting with life. Sometimes I cry just because I'm in total AWE of life. Not just my life, but life in GENERAL. Just that we can walk across a room. That we can even have a room. Ok, just EXISTING is so totally cool. And there have been times in my life when I pondered suicide. I was trapped under emotions, boxed inside myself, hiding behind self imposed walls, unable to even KNOW that I had a light. Now, wowzer (if I was dead I couldn't make up words!) anyway, WOWZER life is constantinopily, unfathomably, zingo, bingo, bongo: WOWZER. What can I say? That is how I describe my Desire for Health. In this website I want to have fun.

I want Blessed Herbs to be fun.

I want EVERYONE to have fun.

I want it to be REAL.

This IS me. This is my life. Share it, take it, reject it, use it; I'm just having a great time.

I LOVE life and everyone out there. Because, I think people are bingo, bango, zingo, wowzer. Ok, I'll get practical. Desire for Health is really a way of looking at life. It's an operating model that is extraordinarily adaptable to the individual. It allows for all beliefs and all ways of thought. Whatever one's religion or background may be, whatever their current or future way of life. It will fit in this model.

This model is a combination of two things. All of it's content comes from the vast wisdom and experience Martha has gained through a life of natural healing and following her intuition. The second is the actual structure of this model which is a product of my intuitive understanding of my mother's teachings presented in a way I feel expresses her and can be understood by all.

All of this is encompassed by the simple phrase: Desire for Health. Thanks mom & dad!!

The most important part is learning to feel and trust one's own body and inner voice. We feel the first step on this path to health is to free one's inner energy with the Colon Cleansing Kit and the Internal Cleansing Kit. Once this energy is freed one will be much more in touch with their own inner voice and connection to all of life.

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Reflections as I Find My Way

by Shalom Volchok, Marketing Director & Son of Co-Founders

I'm the youngest of four. When I was growing up we lived in the Ozarks of Missouri. The world was very far away and as a child, it seemed even further. It was just my family, living and working, amidst miles of country woods. We were all home-schooled and my parents worked there too. My mom's health was weak and she was too sensitive for modern medicine. Somewhere out of the midst of this, evolved Blessed Herbs. It was all part of my parents’ way of life: our way of life. Growing up, I didn't know anything else.

It was hard having such a sensitive mother. It was hard to have our lives shaped around what she needed, around her health. It was hard living a totally alternative lifestyle. One selected by my parents, one I did not understand. Without their perspective, it often made no sense. I remember being lonely and bored. Sure, my brother, sister, and I were involved in the herb company. But not in a way I could ever relate to. It just seemed like labor. Labor I didn't understand.

When I graduated from college I came back to work for the summer, with plans to save money and move to Argentina. One day, towards the end of that summer, it was mid-afternoon and I was on I-95 north, driving to Maine for the weekend. I was thinking, just thinking and I started to cry. I hadn't cried since I was a kid. I never cried. At some point in my life I had just bottled it all away, not knowing what to do with it. I cried for an hour while I drove and I realized I loved my mom. Before that, I didn't know if I cared about anyone. I didn't really feel anything. But I could feel her and I remembered how nice she was. I called her from my car and told her. Of course she was happy.

I was far from finished though. I also realized I hated my dad and felt totally repressed by his presence. I didn't know this was something I could change inside myself. I thought everything was his fault. (Of course that was not true.) That summer, living at home with my parents was a very rough time. Yet somehow, at the end of the summer they still wanted me to stay (even my dad!!). I got an apartment in Worcester, MA. It had a one-year lease, but I thought: after this I am definitely going.

As I write this, it's been almost a year and a half and I'm still here (well, actually that was way back in 2001 and yes, I’m still here!) In that time we have argued, fought, cried, and laughed. More than once neither of us really knew why I was still working. The line between quitting and getting fired was thin and I usually tested just how thin it really was. Yet something kept us together.

It was around the same time I moved into my own apartment, that we started to put together our internal cleansing program. At first it was going to be simple. We were just going to put together some of the formulas we already had in a little brown box. Yet Martha kept revising the formulas. She must have spent 7 or 8 months on the formulas alone! They had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect. Michael, Martha, Todd, and I, we would have at least weekly meetings. Sitting around my parent's kitchen table: Martha and I robustly discussing how it should be and Michael getting upset, that I wouldn't "just listen". Of course Todd would just sit there and be entertained. (If you know Todd I'm sure that doesn't surprise you!)

Once the formulas were done my frustration only increased. I was the graphic designer and Martha was constantly changing something. I just wanted to get it done and sell it! We would come to a meeting and she would have 6 different kinds of Psyllium for us try. With ginger, without ginger, with apple juice, with grape juice, with water it never ended. What herbs tasted good? Which tasted bad? Would people really take this? Would it be too hard? How would they feel? I thought the formulas WERE DONE!!

When we finally got to the labels and the box and the manuals: she would change something, I would correct it. She would change it again. I would disagree. We would discuss it. Michael would read it. Todd would read it. I would change it. She would change it. For a year this went on. Amazingly it always seemed to work out in the end and we kept working together.

Besides the difficulties of working together, we had daily emotional drama. I always had something new to complain about my childhood. How I couldn't function because of it. I couldn't get a date (I’m now married with an adorable little girl of my own). I didn't have any friends. I was lost. Eventually, I started working from my apartment and making my own hours. My dad would get upset about paying me. Was I working?

When my lease was up in Worcester, I moved to Providence, RI. I had taken up Argentine Tango and I was beginning to have friends that danced in Providence. I started to find and express more of my emotions. I began to share more with people. I was starting to get connected. Through tango I was able to express myself in a non-verbal way. I was able to share what was in me. To communicate with someone in a way I didn't know I could. I hardly realized what I was doing; yet people responded to me in a way they never had before that time.

I was beginning to feel the energy that was in me. That it was connected to the energy of the universe. I started to feel it was in everything and everyone. I slowly stopped trying to be someone I was not. I started to accept the way I was and even appreciate it. I could feel other people. I could tell what they were feeling, how they were doing. I liked them. I liked everyone. I started to feel everyone had the same life force in them.

I felt my spirit and realized it was far wiser than my mind. Far older. I began to realize I had nothing to prove. I could just be Shalom: that was enough. That was all I could ever be. Then one day, or maybe gradually, it hit me: I could feel because of the way I was raised. It wasn't that I had ever stopped feeling; I had just stopped trusting that feeling. I realized I didn't care what happened in the past. What my childhood was like or if it could have been better. I had parents. I had brothers and a sister. I had a family. I could feel that: they were part of me.

I started to look at my parents, to feel what they were now. To feel what they had done. I started to feel Blessed Herbs. I felt why they raised me the way they had. Why they had chosen the lifestyle they had. It was for me: for all of us. I could have had more friends as a child or spent less time bored: but, I am here now. I feel connected to life, and I feel it will lead me, as long I keep trusting. That was how my parents did everything in their lives: based on feel. Of course they made mistakes. Of course it wasn't always easy. But they listened. They built Blessed Herbs on that, and I could feel it now.

My parents have been asking me to design a new retail catalog since I graduated. I've never really known what to put in it or how to "sell". I've tried all kinds of ideas based on mainstream marketing and "figuring out" people. Of course my parents rejected them all (little did I know)! But this week it came to me that all I need to do is share what we are. That is what I will try to present in this catalog...oops, website. I have asked Michael to write stories about the past and about Blessed Herbs, which you will find mixed with pictures from the last 18 years. I hope that in my sharing this, you will be able to feel Blessed Herbs. And that by feeling us you will have a greater connection to the products you buy and the lives behind them.

Blessed Herbs is a company founded on feel and connection with life. We exist to bring this to everyone who comes into contact with Blessed Herbs. Through the beauty of natural healing we wish to help others learn to feel and trust themselves. Although the words may change and the people may change, Blessed Herbs will always strive to keep this pure.

If any of you ever want to talk, I'd love to know all of you personally. I am not an herbalist, but I feel and often that is all we need.

Enjoy Life,

Shalom Volchok

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Where We Are Today

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

Blessed Herbs has allowed us to keep our family together. We home schooled four children, ran the business, and grew in our love for one another and for our Creator. It has been a blessing in our lives and in the lives of our employees, and their families. We maintain a loving and caring atmosphere at work. No games, no head-trips, just genuine concern for the well being of one another, and also for our customers.

Martha and I have been watching over the development of Blessed Herbs since 1985. It has been an exciting and intense experience. We have always been very grateful for the chance to "do our own thing" and work in a field where we can feel good about what we do. When you own your own business, it is a 24/7/365 deal as they say. We definitely have started to slow down a little and those treks through the fields and woods looking for just the right plant with the hopes we'd stumble onto something we'd never seen before, are getting a little more difficult to manage. Martha still spends hours a day doing the herbal research and I sometimes hardly have a life outside of the office, working to stay on top of our good herb sources and just managing the day to day responsibilities. Basically, we were getting a little pooped out when our youngest son, Shalom (who has always worked alongside us from the beginning) decided he wanted to dedicate himself to continuing the work of Blessed Herbs. He not only wants to see the high quality and integrity which has been laid down continue, but has eyes to the future to insure that the legacy of this company continues. Blessed Herbs will continue to be one of the best resources for all your herbal needs.

Currently we continue to develop our overall cleansing program we call "Desire for Health" and are recreating our website to be more user friendly, offering even more questions and answers to guide you along your individual healing path. Martha and I will still be here working alongside everyone, and always invite your questions, comments and concerns. You are all part of our extended family. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts.

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Sharing my Personal Pain & Hope

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

I feel like I have been in pain most of my life. I remember as early as grade school feeling no one liked me and that I didn't like anyone. I am not sure what my problem was. I did not know what to do and somehow started to isolate myself from the feelings of others. I retreated into my own small world, where I could ignore any sense of rejection. In fact, I started a habit of rejecting people before they had a chance to reject me!!

I did make some friends as I was growing up and proceeded to make friends through college; but, I always felt to a greater or lesser degree, that I was on the outside looking in. I still showed up at all the parties, and I still went on dates. But, if I was not in control of every situation I was unable to get comfortable with myself or my surroundings.

The first time I felt like I was "in love", I was in college. The girl liked me but did not feel about me the way I felt about her. It was a summer thing and when it was all over I had an ache in my heart that I had never felt before. I looked around at my life and saw many areas of myself that suddenly felt deficient. I felt hollow and shallow and afraid of interacting with people, but now that I could see these things, I wanted to do something about them.

I was 21 years old and I remember I was starting to have my first original thoughts. These were thoughts of self-reflection on the state of my behavior, including manners thoughtlessness, selfishness and the realizations of the depth of my shallowness when it came to dealing with other people. It was not that I did not really like other people but that I had just not really given much thought to anyone outside myself.

I came to see that I was lonely, lost and confused. I have since found this was not such an unusual state of affairs and that many (maybe most) people eventually come to see that they are living their lives in such a way as to ignore what is really going on right in front of them. All the while totally caught up with their own inner drama of life, by only seeing things from a very narrow perspective.

After college I moved to California and one night on a San Francisco beach I wrote in the sand, "Who am I?" It was really the beginning of my search for meaning in life and for my own true self. Whatever that meant!

In the years since writing in the sand, my search has taken me through a commune with a quasi-non descript spiritual community, practicing Judaism, practicing Catholicism, practicing Asceticism, and practicing Buddism. I have practiced and practiced. Always trying to be a better person, someone who looks out for others beside just himself. But this has always been a hard thing for me to do.

I have been happily married for thirty years and have four children. I enjoyed being a Father when my children were younger. However, as they got older it became harder for me to relate to them as people, just as it had when I was younger. I have lived most of my life trying to control my environment. Always with some sense of impending doom or at the very least a deep uneasiness that never allowed me any real lasting peace.

Since my children have all left the nest, I have had to watch, more closely, my behavior and my reactions to what takes place in my life. I have seen that my up and down personality, the unending restlessness, and my personal anxiety have not only kept me from being at my best; but, also have contributed to my wife's illnesses. Just when things would calm down, I would reject the peace that I worked or prayed so hard to come to, only to find myself agitated again, which fed into my wife's already weak condition.

My love for Martha has always given me the inspiration to try to better myself, to correct my behavior and to see things as they are. Not through my own fogged lenses of reality. Even for all the years of meditation and prayer, it has been my caring for her that has really been my reason for coming face to face with what sometimes seems like a life-long depression of sorts.

A struggle between the peaceful goodness that was actually always present inside of me, and some inner disturbance I have become so accustomed to that I could not put it down for the life of me.

I have sincerely worked hard during the course of these past thirty-five years to shake my inner feelings of desperation and the dull ache I felt inside. Maybe this will be a life long struggle; but, more and more I get glimpses of myself at peace. More often I am able to step aside from my feelings of inadequacy and loneliness and I find myself accepting, forgiving and being satisfied with the present moment. I am finding that I have hope, despite these old and crusted patterns of behavior, that play like tired records looping and relooping through my brain. Through the struggle of years of a hard labor of love, both toward myself and my wife, I have begun to see a crack in my armor. A letting go, of God only knows what, that I have been clinging to from the very old days of my youth when I formed these protective layers from others.

Today I have a new found recommitment to a daily practice of meditation. Just sitting and breathing, I watch these old patterns come and just let them go with my breath and by repeating the names of God throughout the process. In doing this I have begun to notice a more gentle space inside where the old pain does not seem to have taken root.

I wish to permit myself more than ever to accept this as something new and as a gift from my inner greater self to the aching Michael I have become accustomed to all these years. It is fruit, I believe, that has been borne of perserverence and dedication to wanting to live by the principles of the Spirit. I have waited a long time to feel this feeling of an inner freedom, and I glady accept the opportunity to relax into it. It is still a work, but I can notice an acceptance of self and moments that the inner anguish I have nursed all these years is waning.

I am grateful. I do not want to forget to give thanks for the good things in my life. I want to, once and for all, acknowlege the good I find in myself.

May my pain be turned into a song of joy.

May my joy be turned into a song of love.

May I never forget myself

May I never forget others.

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Why I like the Woods

by Michael Volchok, President & Co-Founder of Blessed Herbs

The woods feel good to me because the thoughts of humankind, the pressures of our small mindedness and the vibrations of our busy lives have not been laid down and there are no obstructions to stop us from feeling the beauty and peace of this creation we call Earth. We now know that there is more to our world than what we can see with the naked eye. There are molecules making up everything; do we see the molecules? No. Light travels very fast, do we see the light moving? Not usually. Energy, vibrations, thought, love...all can be known and felt with some sense we do possess.

In a peaceful, natural, undisturbed environment we can feel and know these "invisible" things and these are stuff dreams are made of. This pure, untouched, giving and breathing reality of warmth and goodness that assures us of a world that is ours for the sharing if only we can slow ourselves to the pace of this goodness. Relax in the wilderness, in nature, with a loved one and trust that good can prevail. The plants know this and offer their very lives that we may live more fully. Life asks the same of each of us. It is truly better to give than to receive. It is in giving that we receive. Isn't that something? You can learn to trust in the woods. Practice makes perfect.

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