2020 is an intense year. The SARS2-COVID19 and the movement for BLACK LIVES has rippled across the globe. Friends and family have died and I am in grief off and on throughout any one day. While I return to the days of old when I was more actively out on the streets, I research so I can recommit myself to bringing justice along with light into the world... but I also need peace and that is why I travel to my garden.
Plants and plant medicine is like an old friend
moving in and out of my life. Growing up in Berkeley, California exposed me to
the aromas of essential oils while wandering the streets with my elder cousins.
I fell in love with plants as a teenager while living with my Grandparents. I
learned how a plant’s spirit can soften one’s heart, as well as bring daily
comfort and joy.
I turned to Acupuncture and Chinese herbs when
my annual struggle with allergies affected my job performance as an artist and
educator in my twenties and thirties. I also tried using a variety of Western
herbal medicines with my youngest daughter. She struggled with insomnia, back
pain and other ailments while she was a teenager. But with 4 urban children and
a full-time job I had little time to care for plants.
My nephew rekindled my love of growing plants when
he lovingly revived our neglected backyard. While traveling with friends
through the Pacific Northwest, Grandma Dottie, a Makah elder of the Coast
Salish people, introduced a small group of friends to her ceremonial practices
and the gathering of medicines. She had us pray while gathering Usnea and then
making tinctures. She then sent us on a search for Columbine and instructed us
to plant it in our yards. That year, along with my nephew, we revived our
garden in San Francisco. I focused on medicinal herbs and flowers. He planted
exquisite succulents.
Grandma Dottie sparked my interest in making
tinctures and planted the seed that made me daydream of gardens while I was
teaching art in the public schools of San Francisco. I began studying herbal
medicine part-time. After years of teaching, I followed my dream of immersing
myself fully in the world of plants and plant medicine.
Fast forward to 2020. I wanted be an organic
farmer. Yet not having land or additional helping hands led me in a different
direction. When my school offered the Clinical Program I immediately signed up.
It was love at first client! Connecting with people to share the magic of
plants and the ability of plants to heal continues to be fulfilling. Teaching
never left as I've taught in a variety of settings in the San Francisco Bay
Area. I also mentor budding herbalists through my annual Intern/Mentor program.
In
early 2020 I was obsessed with researching SARS2-COVID19 and
shared what I learned with my Interns. The Stay-In-Place orders brought the
gift of time to return to my garden. It has been the gift of balance,
reciprocity, order, harmony, timelessness and joy. It is a time of great grief
over deaths and the global response to police brutality. Yet I am greeted by a
bounty of roses and other flowers. The mini-forest of bay, pine, fir, CA
buckeye, oak, and cedar trees bring peace while the storm of life roars around
us. Visiting birds enjoy the cherries and other fruits while singing greetings
to the sun each morning or welcoming the coming dusk. Whether I am weeding,
helping new seeds germinate or just basking in the silence of my garden I am
thankful to get dirt in my fingernails, feel the sun on my skin, listen to the
wind or raindrops and bask in another day of life, thankful to breathe.
