Just over a week ago I was asked to join the board to finish out her term. After much contemplation and discussion I have accepted the offer to join the board and in doing so I have chosen to stand up and actively participate in the problem-solving required to ensure the health and wellbeing of the organization. I believe in my heart that the American Herbalists Guild is worthy of this nurture.
There is no other sight in these feral woodlands of Southeast Ohio that makes me feel the way that Blue-eyed Marys do. It is the warming of unconditional acceptance…like being held in the arms of Mother Nature herself as she kisses me on my forehead and reminds me that I am worthy of her love.
Just over a week ago I was asked to join the board to finish out her term. After much contemplation and discussion I have accepted the offer to join the board and in doing so I have chosen to stand up and actively participate in the problem-solving required to ensure the health and wellbeing of the organization. I believe in my heart that the American Herbalists Guild is worthy of this nurture.
One of my greatest sources of strength - that which provides me with the capacity to continue showing up in my work as a clinician, mentor, and colleague - is my morally-guided, internal sense of professionalism. But like every well-intentioned self-reflective herbalist, I have a duty to continually reevaluate my rationale and beliefs surrounding my core values - and ‘professionalism’ is most certainly one of these core values.
I pry myself open to a greater philosophical meaning: American Beech is the only species in its genus here in the United States, but yet it is so incredibly common. And then the voice of Henry Ward Beecher enters my consciousness reciting his famous optimism: “The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”
Against all odds, the white trout lilies here on these creek banks are thriving. How they came to be here after such devastation is nothing short of miraculous, even if their future here remains uncertain. I have found deep meaning in my daily observations of them, as it has become ever clearer to me how much of our human selves can be found in the stories of these plants – stories of patience, discovery, preparedness, tragedy, community, reciprocity…and resilience.
Another fascinating species that likes to live on the edge, and the subject of today’s enchantment, is the American Dittany. Historically, the plant was classified as either Mappia origanoides or Cunila mariana, with folks finally settling on a combination of the two resulting in its modern Latin binomial, Cunila origanoides (L.) Britt. Over the years the species has also enjoyed several other names including Maryland Dittany, Stone Mint, Wild Oregano, or for those who still believe…’Fairy Skirts’ (although thoroughly explained later on in today’s tale, now is the moment to note that the latter will forever remain the species proper name).
The aromatic distillation workshops that I lead are, therefore, an attempt to foster a deeper relationship with the plant kingdom, a relationship full of metaphor, story, and personal myth, while simultaneously developing deeper relationships with ourselves and our unconscious. As the plant material is transformed into hydrosol and essential oil, we too are transformed. In this regard, each distillation provides a platform for self-discovery and exploration of the natural world and our place within it.
In the end, I always strive to participate in Goethean plant studies with the awareness that the process is not as much about Self as it is about selflessness. It is not about some end result, it is about staying present in the resplendent moment. It is not about how much I already know, but all that there is still to observe. It’s about learning to perceive the wholeness of a phenomenon with an ‘even and quiet gaze’. It’s about learning to listen with soft eyes.
The only thing I can think of to do is to share with the world some of the beautiful plants and places that I encountered while exploring the forests, wetlands, swamps, and lakeshores of your beloved homeland. Perhaps in some esoteric and impossible way this celebration will reach you and bring you some homegrown comfort.
I can’t really pinpoint the moment when my relationship with plants changed...when I stopped actively listening to them and in turn stopped learning. What I do know is that I have been frustrated and burned out on my herbal journey for quite some time, which if you make a living as a teaching herbalist, is not a comfortable realization.
In hindsight, the unforeseen disappearance of essential oils from my life and my clinical practice wasn’t so much that I had ‘forgotten’ about them as it was perhaps a reflection of the culture of aromatherapy and aromatic medicine here in the US. From an ‘outsider’s’ perspective, it is as if there is a gaping wound between the herbalism and aromatherapy communities.
"Even as a ‘rational’, scientifically-minded clinical herbalist, I am not in search for pharmacological truths today. I am less interested in ‘how lemon balm hydrosol can be used for my or others benefit’ and more focused on the meaning and intention that lemon balm brings to the ritual and prayer of this distillation. Although this is herb and I have worked together before and I know where and how it likes to grow, its uplifting citrusy-sweet aroma, even its clinical applications, I am open to the reality that perhaps I don't know this plant at all. Not in this capacity, not in ritual or prayer. It is from this place that I search for supportive meaning."
