cottonwood clarity
Let’s pretend we are sitting under the cottonwood tree together. She’s the tallest tree for miles around, with 4 big trunks opening like a flower. Her leaves are just starting to let go. It's nice to imagine doing so, with so many of you that I know...
I woke from a dream this morning with a start. I was in a busy place, trying to help a frantic woman who asked me to give her some herbs for her ailments. We kept having to move to find a spot to sit and hear each other, there was so much commotion everywhere. I went to my apothecary to get the herbal formula i’d written down, but it listed herbs i’d never heard of. “I have to give her something” I kept thinking, and then I saw some eggs sitting in a pile of hay near the chicken coop. I grabbed three and gave them to her, knowing they were just what she needed somehow. While drinking my tea this morning I started to ponder, what’s the medicine of 3 fresh eggs? At first I thought about the nutrients, the protein and iron and such, but that didn’t seem right. Then I remembered they were fresh, and fertile. If she waited with the eggs, kept them warm, she’d have chicks to grow up and give her more eggs. ‘Waiting’, I thought...just being, that’s the medicine she needed. To have to sit and watch – pay attention to the embodied present – it’s the medicine that so many of us need in this day and age. But can we even still do it? No tea or tincture can actually make us slow down, but any plant that we choose to notice can make us stop completely. What have you noticed in your neck of the woods?
hops. wormwood. tobacco. echinacea. mugwort. elderberry. cattail.
from my side of the great web to yours,
frieda kipar bay