Nature's Healing Herbs

When I left Calgary, Alberta to "Go West" I truly had no idea where I was headed. So much so, that all I carried with me in my faithful little Honda Prelude were a few clothes, my journal, some books, two huge pottery bowls, my daft black Lab "Magic"... and ALL my pots of herbs. To Vancouver Island. The warmest place in Canada. From Calgary. Where it has been know to snow every single month of the year. Really.

Much of this was due to my ignorance of the place I was planning to make my new home, but most of it was to do with the connection I have always had with herbs. Regardless of wherever I have lived, for as long or short a time as possible, for as long as I can remember, indoors or out... I've grown herbs. Not flowers, seldom food (although that is changing) but always, always herbs.

There is something comforting about a herb garden. My dream has always been to create a medieval herb garden with as many variety of medicinal and nutritional herbs as possible. I would have separate areas of herbs for tea, for cooking, for salves and tinctures. For calming, soothing, relaxing...

For a few years now I have been wanting to learn about the nutritional and healing properties of herbs and the plants of the region that I live in. Nature has given us so much to feed, sustain and heal ourselves and I have often felt that it is a greatest insult to her that we seldom take the time to harvest and use what is so abundantly and unconditionally given.

This year I made a commitment to change this, at least for myself. Not sooner had I made that decision (as often occurs if the timing is right) the opportunity presented itself in the form of a series of weekly Herb Talks here on the little island where I live. Tuesday was the first evening and I came away inspired and excited about embracing the mystery of nature's gifts. I know this learning is going to open up for me a whole new way of living upon this earth. I'll be sure to share here what I discover..

 

My mother, Kathleen, at eighty, resting after repotting all my herbs.

Tides of Life

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart..."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Letter to a Young Poet.

Years ago someone observed that quite often, women, when asked the question: "What does the tide do?" reply: "It comes in!" Men, on the other hand, generally reply: The tide goes in and out." As always with generalizations a lot of people tend to disagree, but given some quiet introspection many women have admitted that indeed, we are seldom comfortable with the times in our lives when the tide is definitely on its way out, and at best, we barely tolerate it.

Even harder to bear are the times in our lives when the tide seems to be neither coming nor going, when life itself seems to have come to a halt. When nothing appears to be happening, nothing is moving. We are impatient, we fret that things are not going as planned... that something is blocking our way... we were so sure we were on the right track...

Tides of Life I

Yet it is when it appears that absolutely nothing is happening, that everything is. It's in that time when everything seems to have stopped, that the most is going on. Could it be that it is the unforseen forces in our lives that are at work? As is, almost it seems, that same force is getting its ducks in a row? And once everything is in place, things can then unfold?

Tides of Life II

May we learn to love the pauses in our lives. It might be nature's way of reminding us to take a breath, letting us catch up with ourselves, rest awhile... and be ready to welcome the treasure that the incoming tide is bound to bring us.