We are in the season of green. I’ve been really trying to notice this whole world of green that seems to be endlessly expanding as this season continues to unfurl. Green is the colour of healing. It is the easiest colour for our eyes to see; requiring less strain and giving our vision a moment of rest. Our eyes are also capable of seeing more shades of green than any other colour. When you consider that our senses were developed for living in nature, amongst the great green world of plants, this adaptation seems obvious. But now we carry on very different lives - largely indoors and filled with artificial lighting. Getting out into green spaces is a way to come back to center, to ground, and to bring a sense of ease to the body.
On a more new age-y level, green is the colour related to the heart chakra and symbolizes unconditional love. To me this means: green is like coming home. We have always been intertwined with nature and we always will be. At this current point in modernity it appears that we have drifted rather far from that sentiment. The disconnection so many of us feel is real (and) sad. I think it’s important to consider how recent, how new, this way of life is. You wouldn’t have to go back many generations down your lineage to find ancestors that communed with plants, lived with the seasons, and on some level or another, worshipped the sun. For thousands of years these practices were standard parts of life on earth. They are ingrained in us. Our new “normal” way of existing is in fact very abnormal in the greater picture of human life. All that to say: if you’re feeling disconnected, alone, anxious and hopeless - turn to nature. Once you start noticing the cycles and patterns of nature around you it is hard to feel truly alone. When you can return, year after year, to that one hawthorn tree to greet it’s springtime blooms or it’s autumn fruit, you find yourself in relationship with something larger than life. It’s a feeling of belonging that can never be taken away from you. After all, we are nature.
Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart - Robin Wall Kimmerer
I had a friend recently send me a text saying, “saw this and thought of you”. What a special thing it is to be seen and to feel understood. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself here, but I feel that so much of life is just this struggle to put your authentic self out there and to be received in the way you wish to be. Genuine belonging and understanding. When I read the above quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer that’s what I think of. The earth presents itself in gifts like flowers and sunrises and all we have to do is just witness! Paying attention is caring, and it’s this reciprocal relationship that we are being invited to partake in every single day. I saw this video on IG this week that really sums it all up. There is a vast, vibrant world that is asking to engage with us - an open invitation - and so many of us are actively choosing to reject the invitation and ignore the call. Personally, I think that’s a hell of a lot crazier than talking to plants may seem.
Next week I am departing on a two month trip to Europe, starting off in Ireland. I recall a newsletter I wrote last winter:
And it’s been getting my wheels turning to the point where I am now looking up work visas for the UK and Ireland, sheep farm workstays, and housesitting gigs in the Hebrides. This website with all the ancient pilgrimage routes in the UK is also beckoning to me. I picture myself collecting water from holy springs, just like I imagine my ancestors who lived there once did. I don’t know if this is a “this too shall pass” moment, or if I need to strike while the iron is hot, so for now I am simply indulging in daydreaming about this fantasy life where I live as a crofter in a thatched roof cottage in Devon.
The moment did not in fact pass, and here I am with an itch that will hopefully soon be scratched. My boyfriend and I will be traversing the emerald isle before heading off to none other than a sheep farm for a workstay in Herefordshire (if any of you out there are also Escape to the County diehards, I hope you’re as excited as I am). After that: Scotland. On the checklist for the trip are: holy springs, pilgrimages, megalithic sites, seaweed bathhouses and absolutely every apothecary we come across. If you have any recs please do share.
I’m on my quest for remembering. An attempt to learn more about who I am by connecting more with where I came from. In a sense, this grounding in place and ancestry is much like finding connection in nature - it’s all about being in relationship. We all have these deep, rich wells of our pasts to explore and as we become increasingly isolated and disconnected from nature it feels more important than ever to find those ties to our past. So, as we welcome Beltane today - one of my personal favs of the pagan cross quarter days - let us remember our place on this great, green earth and all the lives it took to get us here.
a little update:
I had an incredible time at the Second Nature spring market early this month. For those that couldn’t make it, I have created a little site to house some of the offerings I have available! Find out more here if you’re interested in getting your hands on some Back to the Land tea, Holy Bitters, or my Dew of the Sea hydrosol. Also, I have an exciting new ~subscribers only~ deal in which a yearly “angel member” subscription will get you a limited edition Healing Arts Press hat and a bag of Back to the Land tea! Trust me, you don’t wanna sleep on these hats!!
Lastly, I am going to do another edition of Ask a Herbalist here soon, so if you have any burning questions, please drop ‘em in the comment section or send me an email. Can’t wait to connect!
Big beautiful Beltane blessings to you all!!
Cannot wait to hear about this trip. Working on my UK citizenship by descent at the moment :)