Remembering our place in the world
I invite you to slow down and spend time immersed in the plant life around you.
You don’t have to get it right or do it a certain way. Plants don’t need you to be perfect, they will be delighted you showed up to say hi.
Often when people find out about my work with plants they ask: “Can you teach me about wildcrafting?” And the answer is yes… But before we dive into harvesting plants I think there is a step that must be taken first. The first step is deepening our relationship with plants and the natural world through direct observation and immersion.
You see I don’t think that when people ask me about wildcrafting, that their first priority is to extract phytochemicals in plants to have effective tinctures on their shelves. What is behind this desire to learn wildcrafting is a need to connect with the natural world in a way that is deep seated in our bones. Humans and plants have been relying on each-other for all of human history. Jumans have been integrated into plant communities in ways that nurtured the growth of plants just as they nurtured our growth. Part of our being human is intrinsically linked to being with the plants.
We experience a deep severance in our psyches, bodies and spirituality when we follow the culturally embedded paradigm that we are separate from nature. This separation has created the belief that we can take whatever we want from the earth. It is time that we re-construct this foundational cultural belief system. This paradigm of “takers” that we now find ourselves in is destructive to the earth and to our spirits.
There are many amazing herbalists & plant people who wildcraft in integrity because of their in depth relationship with the ecosystems that they wildcraft in. These practices bring deep healing to people and the planet.
And… Unfortunately there is a huge extractive industry, and many people who wildcraft without first cultivating this relationship. When we extract plants without tending to their communities, without planting more etc. we end up with dramatic declines in populations of these life-giving plants everywhere. The United Plants Savers list of at risk species is astounding. It is long and full of plants many people use often.
Are we going to continue to “use” herbal medicine without being a part of herbal medicine? I hope not, for there is deep healing not just in the use of plant medicine but in the interactions we have as we re-integrate ourselves into this community of life.
Plants don’t take with-out giving back to their community. All plants are medicine for the earth, they play incredibly important roles in their environment to keep ecosystems healthy. All the plants you see around you are connected through a complex web of mycelium. They are constantly exchanging information, nutrients so they may be healthy.
We too used to know how to interact as a part of this web. I would offer that it is time for us to remember this relationship, this community we are inherently apart of. It is time we start to interact in ways that give back rather than just take.
Perhaps this is the medicine we need most now. To re-engage in this web of life in a life-giving way.
So I invite you… You don’t have to get it right or do it a certain way. Plants don’t need you to be perfect, they will be delighted you showed up to say hi. Take some time out of your daily life to slow down and go be a human with the plants. Develop a Sit Spot where you can observe daily, sit with the plants, observe what plants like to grow together, get to know plants personalities not just their common or scientific name. Plant a garden with some medicinals and watch the way they grow throughout the year and what kinds of pollinators come to visit.
Perhaps when we start to re-integrate into the wild communities we will find we need less “medicine” because we will be more in balance as people in the first place.