Magnolia’s Journey Out of Deep Time
A note from Mary: This rather long essay was originally written in 2023 while I was deep in the research and writing that became The Flowers Are Speaking: Listening to…
Born of Fire
Every time I think about how plants eat sunlight, I am transported out of my animal-body understanding of the world; and become more aware of the plants’ completely different way…
Wildflower Medicine for the Land – a Story of the Once-Was Town of Douglas, WV
The niggling feeling in my body was so strong. Vibrant wildflowers were dancing around me as I walked, filling me with glee and delight, and yet I had a sense…
Our Stag and the Winter Solstice
What does it mean when you find a dead 11-point buck deer in your backyard 7 days before the winter solstice? It took me a few days to even begin…
Skimming the Surface for Trust
My very favorite bird on the Florida coast is the Black Skimmer. They are strikingly black on top, white on the bottom, and have a large wingspan and a very…
The Great Warrior Rose
It is quite magical to come upon a blooming rose bush in the middle of the forest with a shaft of sunlight shining on her sweetly scented flowers through a…
Magnolia – Ancient Crone of Flowers
The magnolia flower is OLD. I mean really OLD. She is thought to be one of the “most primitive” of the flowering plant families, with fossilized specimens around 95 MILLION…
Not Matching
The creative process is a funny thing. The most intriguing thing for me is that it allows my intuitive self to step in and suggest things that my logical mind…
Motherwort – Another Many Handed Mama
What’s in a name? Sometimes everything! Wort is an old-fashioned word used in many plant names like lungwort, bladderwort, spiderwort, and it is from the Old English word wyrt, which…
Smelling the Remembering
Some herbs have been cultivated and used for so long by their human companions, that they are part of the human family, so to speak, rather the way dogs and…
The Mighty Pregnant Mustard
I like my garden best when it gets rather wild, with the plants spilling over each other, finding their own space, going to seed, rabbits burrowing under the comfrey, the…
Say Nothing At All
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, say nothing at all.” How many of us have heard this over and over growing up? Perhaps it was a southern thing,…
Extended Family Indeed!
When I came upon the sea of mottled green and purple leaves with a chorus of delicate yellow flowers bowing their heads, my jaw dropped open and I felt such…
Through the Veil and Back Again
As I drive to our city park that has forest trails in its valleys, my mind is paying attention to the road, checking off mental notes on my never ending…
Rabbits, Fear & Our Heart’s Desire
One minute I was Mr. McGregor. The next minute I was Peter Rabbit… I have a garden that is fenced to keep out the deer, and one day recently I…
Bleeding Hearts
The term “bleeding heart” has become quite a derogatory term in our culture and refers to one who feels “too much”. Dictionary.com says it means “a person who makes an…
Breathe
I love watching their arms reaching down for the rich brown, wet, primordial muck at the edge of the bay, their fingers outstretched with dark brown tips almost like nipples,…
Waiting
When I was a young girl, we always went to my grandmother’s house for Christmas eve. She had a lot of magical old-fashioned decorations and we would gather in the…
The Taproot
We have had a flowering bush called Clethra for years that flowers with these rather unremarkable white flower spikes made up of lots of smaller flowers. But the fragrance of…
Accepting
Accepting Emerging from the wood,and the ancient sea, Embodied Beautybringing an offering from the root of time-A seashell, an acorn, a flower.Today’s offering,a giftfor us to acceptand be held in…
Waiting
Waitingin that still space,between the rising and waning,waxing and setting.Waitinguntil the heartbeat of the earthreaches up into her corewith its raucous, teeming, wild, ragged beauty;its roots crackingthe hard stonejust enoughfor…
Trusting the Knowing
Trusting the Knowing In the teeming forestthey standembodied in shadow,the ones who know,holding the wisdom of generationsthat is imprinted in my bones.They are intuition,myself, but not only myself;Love, Beauty, Sophia,They…
Bringing Forth Beauty
Bringing Forth Beauty Awakening,I standbetween the cocoon of the night,and the unfolding of the day,connected by my rootsto the vast aching beautythat is Creation herself.And while my rootshold me and…
Dancing with Trees
Dancing with Trees The late summer heat shimmers on my leaves, my sap pulsing and throbbing in my limbs, Beckoning to you in the breeze, come dance with me. Set aside your…
Trees Dancing with Me
Trees Dancing with Me Until I found your buried rootsI had forgottenthis dance of lifecoursing in my blood like sap.Your strengthstands tallwinter after winter,hardened to the cold.Yet at your core,you…
The Edge of the Moon
The Edge of the Moon The endless music calls from the dark green depths Softening the edges and absorbing the burning brightness from the day. The incessant voice of the…
Dragon Fire
Dragon fire licking the edges of the night, igniting in me Ancient Wisdom. Illuminating radiance prancing between trees, stars and my heart. Sacred matter and sacred spirit forged by the…