Questions About the New Perelandra Garden

Machaelle's Summer Solstice announcement and gallery introducing the new, notably different Perelandra garden caught the attention of most Perelandra customers.

So many of you responded with thoughtful words of encouragement and appreciation. A few of you took note of the learning opportunity and shared your decisions to re-evaluate and change some of your own DDPs. (Way to go!)

And a number of you were brave enough to ask two questions we suspect may have occurred to many more of you. We're going to answer them here.

Question: Will this mean a change to EoP? Or will there be a new version, EoP2?

Answer: No. The EoP (Essence of Perelandra) pattern was never based on the DDP. The basis of EoP is the balance resulting from Machaelle's work in the garden. The pattern was designed from the very beginning to be broad and take into consideration the changes in balance and evolution of the garden.

Question: How will the change to the Perelandra garden DDP impact the Perelandra Essences and Solutions? Will they need to be changed or updated?

Answer: The change of DDP does not impact the patterns of any Perelandra Essences or Solutions. And they are not being changed or updated. All eighty-nine patterns needed for the Perelandra Essences and Solutions are secured and available for when more tincture needs to be made by Machaelle's trained staff.

Those of you who have read Machaelle's memoir, Pivot, may remember the answer to this question from Chapter 29, "The Linen Closet Between Two Realities."

Our other most-frequently asked question:
How are you all doing there at Perelandra?

First, thank you for your many calls and notes throughout the past 16 months, asking how we are doing personally, sending your kind thoughts, support and appreciation. We share your messages of kindness and support with Machaelle and all of the staff, and you have helped us all keep moving forward at tough times, more than you'll ever know.

We really are doing okay. Better than okay! We're excited about the changes to the Perelandra garden, and how that supports and affects the Perelandra business. We are grateful that we were able to continue to work in a safe, healthy and supportive environment through 2020 and this first half of 2021.

We've maintained a stable team of fifteen staff who stayed strong and committed through this time and who now form a solid foundation from which we are building and expanding. We've spent more months than we liked with most of us juggling responsibilities, wearing many hats, moving between departments as needed and holding down more than one job here. But we did it! (Most of it, anyway.) And we all remained Covid-free, kept Perelandra free of infectious diseases, and kept our households and families safe. We're breathing easier now that the majority of us are vaccinated. But we are still maintaining many of our safety protocols, like masking and distancing in shared spaces. And we are still being smart and cautious when moving about and re-engaging with others in our personal lives outside of Perelandra. We know the pandemic hasn't ended and that many places around the world and some in the U.S., are currently experiencing some very tough surges in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. And we are prepared, should our protocols here at Perelandra need to tighten again.

You may be aware that we've had a number of staff changes through the past 16 months, and had some temporary staff helping out when we could. You've heard some new names, had a new voice or two on the other end of the order line and seen new faces if you follow our photo galleries. But Machaelle and our solid fifteen staff are still going strong, and we're here for you.

This month, we've begun to fill some critical openings at Perelandra and have welcomed three new folks to our team. But we're still about four people short of what will get us back to the efficiency level of "normal" operations. Through many of the past 16 months, we were working with half the number of staff (sometimes less) than we normally do, while processing considerably more orders and twice as many special requests or inquiries. And of course, we also managed that planting of "eleven trees, fifty-five bushes, a large sweetgrass patch and ten wildflower areas" in the main garden and a few more bushes and plants around the business areas as well.

Unfortunately, not everything went perfectly. There were some ordering and shipping hiccups, missed or mixed messages and slower processing times. If you've been a Perelandra customer for more than the past year and a half, you may have had some experiences that are not what you're used to from Perelandra. If you're a new customer, we want you to know that's not our norm. We apologize for those hiccups and promise you, we are working hard to get our service level and shipping times back to what you expect from Perelandra (and what we expect from ourselves).

We are actively searching for enthusiastic, hard-working, friendly folks to fill roles in our customer service, shipping and production departments. So if you like to call in your orders, you will soon be hearing new voices on the other end of the phones. And those new voices will have heard our many praises of you. (So they'll have high expectations too. ;-) We always share how wonderful Perelandra customers are, how many of you are like old friends, and how kind and patient and helpful you are with our new staff. Many of you "regulars" have helped to teach many of our staff over the years!

The weather in Virginia has been good to us. Last week was particularly lovely, which we appreciated all the more knowing how hot it's going to be this week. Finally, you have also been good to us.

So. . . that's how we are. Grateful for you. Grateful for our health. Grateful to be working at Perelandra. Thanks so much for asking.