Their Ancient Song On a late July hike in the Appalachian Mountains, I was suddenly surrounded by an explosion of white blossoms on 15-foot-high bushes, and the air around me became so quiet and SOFT. I felt myself transported and floating; lifted by thousands of cotton ball-like hands, each made up of 20 or more …
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 of living on this planet we share. Comprehending that flowers are created out of the fire-food of the sun only truly happens in my heart, …
A six-part story honoring the Sunflower’s journey through birth, death, and rebirth. Part One: Glory in the Garden Watching the blue jays stuff their throat pouch with the seeds from the weighty bowed heads of the Sunflowers, I wonder how many will be dropped and become seed or food for others, or will he be …
As a small child, I thought everyone laid on the grass with their dad in the yard to watch the clouds. I can remember feeling so special laying side by side with him, our heads touching, sharing the magic of the rivers of clouds floating in the deep blue water of the sky. We played …
Early one morning as I stepped outside on a recent visit to a friend’s farm, I was swaddled in the soft hug of a morning fog, feeling like I was stepping through a veil into another world. As the sun began to creep over the hill, its pale luminescence began to brighten the blanket of …
On a recent hike in the woods, the smell of honeysuckle pulled me into old childhood memories so quickly it was as if I had stepped through a door. Coming upon a clearing—likely an old homestead site—the sweet scent of the Honeysuckle in bloom wafted like an invisible cloud over the entire glade. Their vines …
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 they held something much older and wilder as well. They had a story to tell. Generations of stories, I was to learn, pulled up from …
Continue reading Wildflower Medicine for the Land – a Story of the Once-Was Town of Douglas, WV
Waking to the morning sun, her petals thoroughly sprinkled with pollen, Bee Balm radiates satisfaction like she has spent a night with a mythic lover. Opening her blossoms to the day with their spicy, heady aroma, the bees and butterflies have their way with her, diving deep into her tubular nectar-rich flowers, and dancing all …
The audacity of the red seeds stopped me, and I couldn’t take another step. How could a seed be THAT red? Solid, bright fire engine red. Pure unadulterated red if there is such a thing. Few plants have both an incredible flower and an overwhelmingly amazing seed pod and seeds. But our magnolia does. These …
On a recent visit to my favorite forest and stream, just past the autumn equinox, the feeling was one of satisfaction, of waiting, of being balanced. An in-between time, quiet. Even the sun felt still. No leaves were falling, they were just waiting, happy to be basking in the early autumn sunlight. The air, no …
The late summer wildflowers - wild being the key word - they tug at my soul. They are not the carefully tended beauties in my garden, and they are not the vibrant, low-to-the-ground delights of the spring forest wildflowers that burst forth with the return of the spring sun before there are leaves on the …
The giant sunflowers are the matriarchs of my garden for sure. And I daresay, they are an archetype of a flower’s journey for the entire flowering world because they are so very BIG. Bigger than life, so strong and bold and prolific, bringing joy and beauty and food, to us, to the birds, insects, and …
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 berry brambles so thick you can’t see through them, the cucumbers and sunflowers and beans all intertwined, tomatoes spilling over the ground because the suckers …
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 ostentatious or excessive display of pity or concern for others”, and it has even become a political term. Most people want to be known to …