Two Years Ago & Re-Connecting in Coming Back Home Again...and Again

Two years ago, I had found an article written by Scoot Kloos at "The School of Forest Medicine" called Plant Teachers in our Own Land -- and remembering what I had written as a response about Coming Back Home Again.  To my 'Self'.  My bioregional place of upbringing.  The simple Roots of why it is so important in studying the Spirit of the Land I live on here in our property in Michigan.

Here was my response:

Shami's Herbal Musings
Monday, 14 March 2011

Many thanks and blessings for this beautifully written piece of art!  It is in the Spirit of ALL that we should always find our way back home, our bioregional place of upbringings. 

I had been blessed and I truly believe that many of the trees, stones, flowers, birds, plants, animals — each of the Spirits in these inanimate and animate objects and creatures — has worked their way through me over the past years I’ve been away from home, coursing through my very veins like blood and rivers

flowing…and granted one day, I was brought back to where my roots had first given birth and connected me with the Land I once lived and played on. Living back with those roots and being re-connected with the land once again, I know I am on a life-time commitment to these various plants and herbs of healings that are found around our area and on our property — 

and it is in my true heart and soul in listening to all they have to share with me, and sharing my experiences with those who will listen like the way I had listened when I was “Called Back Home to My ‘Self’.”

Thank You again for this article, and in hopes it brings others who study plants and herbs and flowers back to the land lived on -- for it doesn't matter where you live, you need not be planted in an exotic land or pure wilderness.  For: 

"The love of your own land is a place where Spirit remains with many Mysteries awaiting to be unveiled.  Step outside.  Breathe in the Air of the Great Spirit.  Let the Flow of Life flood through your very Veins.  Ground and Center your Self -- and become Aware of what it is yet to show you."

BLESSings xo,
   )O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds

Sinuses ... BE GONE!!!

NOTE:  In response to Rosalee de la Forêt's featured herb article at www.herbmentor.com on GOLDENROD ~ September & October 2012:  Goldenrod (posted 09/01/12)...THANK YOU WITH SO MUCH GRATITUDE, Rosalee, on your beautifully written article here!

Sinuses ... BE GONE!!!

Last night was the very first time that I’d taken
Goldenrod Tincture in a glass of water!
My story lays here…..


Fall has bloomed here finally in our state of Michigan, and our Goldenrod patch is full of lucious yellow flowers as well as mostly White and Purple Asters — I don’t have many allergies from the outdoors (other than from mold and dust, which living on the backroads, can get immune to it after many years of inhaling it!), but last night my allergies from inside the home were driving me crazy from all our animal fur (three cats and three dogs) and the changing of the season into Fall has dried out my nose passage tremendously!


I was beginning to feel tension in both my temples, then it went over to the left side of my face and I could feel in my nose it was near my sinuses. It didn’t bother me all that much, but irritated me enough after I tried clearing out my nose and couldn’t. So I took two dropperfuls of the Goldenrod Tincture I had whipped up last September (containing the Flowers, Stems, and Leaves) in a tall glass of water — I’ve always taken the tincture straight under my tongue, but since being that I also get dehydrated more in the cooler weather and am bad at keeping water in my system, I tried it out.

The tincture, at first, didn’t seem to do anything but bring out the tension in my sinuses in my nose. “I’m not going to let my Goldenrod fail me this time!” I’ve worked with it in many ways before, experiencing with it, but this was the first time I worked with it in this way with allergies.


I let Mother Nature’s plant do Her work and ignored the funny feeling I felt in my nose. Sometime later that night, I realized that my allergies I’d been feeling before I took the tincture, had went away! My nose felt so much better and I didn’t get that feeling that my sinuses were stuffed anymore. It had balanced itself out with the other side of my nose, and my temples were back to normal again!


Hail to Goldenrod this Fall! I cannot wait to work with Her ‘Roots’ later in the season…..

Blessings,
   )O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds

Plants Teach Us What We Need to Know -- Their Secrets Kept Are Sacred When Revealed to Us

I just got done reading a post my friend Meekah had posted on her profile page, and realized that Plants and People have such a connection with one another, that over time and patience, both come together and reveal their secrets.  The quote was from Herbalist Sean Donahue:

"Plants and people reveal their secrets over time, when met with patience and sincerity.  Remember that, and the world will teach you all you need to know."

My Revelation Tonight ~
In connection with some light pink-flowered Yarrow that I found growing in our backyard, I had worked and received messages about it that I had not known before.  I had learned through other plants their very own secrets they shared with me -- but yet another small tidbit was revealed just now to me as I read this quote by Sean.

We only had two Yarrows that grew on our property this year, the white-flowered one, in which I harvested and made a bug-repellant with for the very first time.  It was tall.

The second one were the bunch of close-to-the-ground pink Yarrows that asked if I'd pot and try to grow to re-plant them.  I put it in a pot with love and cared for it, watering it lightly when it became dry, moved it out of the Sun when it was shining directly on it...then I neglected it for some time, and we hadn't had any rain and the weather became unexpectedly scorching hot.  Now in the ground, I noticed it lived naturally and seemed to take care of itself; in the pot, I realized, the care for it was depending on me instead of pure Nature, to tend to it.  It had dried out completely and by the time I finally had gotten around to watering and caring for it again -- it looked dead.  Browned leaves.  Wilted.  

It looked bitterly at me and scolded me.                          

I moved it over my Mullein plant for some time, closer to the water hose, reminding me to begin tending and caring for it again.  Nothing doing.  The Yarrow stood its ground and played dead on me.  It taunted and challenged me to the point where I was just going to take it out of the pot and put it back in the ground.

Instead, I moved it again to its original place I'd had it potted at.  The weather cooled back down again, rained some, and in came our Fall-like weather...and it was about a week or two after this, after both I and Mother Nature nourished it, the Yarrow sprouted green leaves and came back to life again -- it was still ALIVE!

Amazing how in connection with this plant, how we as people of the Earth are like this.  When we get neglected by those whom love us, we find ourselves saddened and sometimes angry at them, and ignore or cause grief on their behalf, somehow finding ways of getting back at them.  And we learn, sometimes, that through this, it may not been that they were not paying attention to us because they were in a rut of their own and needed to nourish themselves back to normal.

Like my Yarrow needed love and care tended by me, I have felt like I needed more from others in the loving and caring department.  I felt, like the plant, that I was dependent of others giving back to me -- and when I was not receiving that, like the Yarrow, I looked in at what I needed from my Nourishing Mother, my Goddess Patron, my own Intuitive in guidance and care.  I needed to tend to myself, like the Yarrow, since ignored by me, needed to care for itself, and become nourished 'Naturally' without others helping.

The Yarrow is once again ALIVE, and so am I once again.

I can RELAX now, knowing that if I take care of my Self and nourish my own needs without the aide of others, I can in turn, give back in a more healthy state of mind to the ones I most love.

Blessings xo,
   )O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds 

Remember to Enter Into Gaia's Gift of Milky Oats!...

Oh, the season of our Late Summer here in Michigan has been extremely hot, humid, and dry -- quite nerveracking to my body as I have grown older and get too exhausted from not being out in the sunshine and being able to take the heat as I had as a child, when our energy level was in high and full-swing nearly 24/7 if we could, LOL! 

As well as some of the nights I've been unable to sleep well.  And getting a good night's rest is great for anyone's body in order to function when there's work to be done around the house, as well as in the job force.  I cannot explain enough just how important it is for the body to be in balance and function well when one has so many ongoing activities throughout the day, and have been searching my Self as well as with Herbs just what could aide in helping me sleep better to lighten my moods when I wake up in the morning. 

(((Photo above of the lovely Darcey Blue from her site, Gaia's Gifts)))

I was cruising around the web and found myself at Kristine Brown, site of her Herbal Roots zine For Kids! and landed at the article of a free giveaway of Darcey Blue's Milky Oats top Elixir -- reading a little about how it ".....is great for taking whenever you need your nerves soothed, help with memory concentration, to help with insomnia, treating exhaustion and adrenal burn out." 

(((Photo from HerbalRoots zine -- don't forget that JULY'S ISSUE IS READY here)))

Unfamiliar with Oats in the herbal world in general, I found this very interesting -- and the bottle contains the very elements of its uses for what I've been craving for over this past Summer!  I trotted over to Gaia's Gifts in search of what more Darcey had written about the Oats here, and did a google search on the internet and found more interesting general facts here at Numen -- The Healing Power of Plants.If you're interested in learning more about Milky Oats yourself, find out more through research, or see if you have it growing on your land for up-close experience with it!  Until then, don't miss out on applying for the FREE GIVEAWAY over at Kristine's site!  Enteries must be included before Sunday, July 22nd -- and she will be drawing the winner on the day of her giveaway on Monday, July 23rd 2012.

(((Photo byJames McIntosh Patrick, "Stobo Kirk, Peeblesshire" (1936) )))

When Oats Were Reaped

That day when oats were reaped, and wheat was ripe, and barley ripening,
The road-dust hot, and the bleaching grasses dry,
I walked along and said,
While looking just ahead to where some silent people lie:

'I wounded one who's there, and now know well I wounded her;
But, ah, she does not know that she wounded me!'
And not an air stirred,
Nor a bill of any bird; and no response accorded she.

Thomas Hardy, Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925).
*~Sited and Referenced at:  First Known When Lost:  "When Oats Were Reaped", Sunday, March 25, 2012~*

Blessings of Oats!
   )O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds xo

Mullein Has Something In Store for Each to Learn.....

Visions of MULLEIN Dancing In Our Hearts This Summer
I have to say, that is one huge giantic Mullein plant that my friend, Dawn, shared with me today on Facebook!  (Photo on the left)   I bet she'll never see anything like that again in this lifetime, amazing how it grew from jsut one small rosette into this King Mullein Plant!  Each plant is so unique and special, just as we humans are, no two are alike and/or the same.

I had actually never even seen a Mullein plant before last year, heard of it and had bought its dried organic leaves once for a mixture I was making to help me quit smoking -- but I had never before that knew what the actual plant looked like (didn't have internet then, nor any books with Mullein photos in it) and was amazed when I found only the one last year growing. 

This area where my last year's Mullein is (Photo on right), for one, I really have to work hard on getting the area cleaned up and would love grouping things together.  We are trying to get the house in our name, and depending on the procedures we have to take (have to research it more) -- this area is seen by people driving by, and most Herbalists knows  as well as this beginning Herbalist does, just looking at the long stalks of the Goldenrod there, to most people they are just 'Weeds' and rarely anyone back here may consider them 'Medicinal Plants'.  If we ever have any 'investigations' on the house, you know how picky those people are...and so I may be on a two-year journey in getting our yard a little more presentable looking. 

To my dear friend, Colleen, another Michigander I know -- most of what is back here in our woods, is all 'Natural'; only a few of the flowers had been planted by my Mom when she was alive and I grew up here with both my parents, and we have (in the past) got a lot of seed droppings of new wildflowers and the such here and there that amaze me when something new pops up in the Spring. 

 So there are most things I let Mother Nature provide where She wants them, and others, like those Mullein seeds from last year's plant, that She's teaching me using PATIENCE with.

Until then, I shall meander around my lone Mullein plant this year (Photo on the left):  talk with Her, sit and listen to Her -- and absorb the lovely stories She has yet to share with me this Summer until I harvest Her.  If that is what She intends me on doing with Her.
)O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds xo

Learning Patience After Planting First Echinacea Seeds

Plants have surely taught me much 'patience' in the little time I've been learning about them. Funny as you grow into an adult, and your patience either weakens and you become much too eager for things to happen -- or it gets stronger and ...you find taking things one step at a time easier in learning. Recent things that have been happening in my life have tended me to go off the deep end and become impatient -- and is why I turn to plants and learning about them, they have helped that balance in being more patient, remembering that Egypt didn't become a city overnight, so as the plants seed in the ground don't spring up the next day after planting.

I've learned much, I've noticed, about patience though Echinacea; I bought some seeds some time back and have planted them, tended and nourished and talked with them each day I pass by the area in which I planted them at -- and different things  have popped up in the same area, and not knowing what Echinacea looks like when it first sprouts up from the ground, I've taken pictures of this area

     (PHOTO taken by Indigenous Shamanic Winds, first planting of "Echinacea seeds")

 

every now and then and will see how the area grows in time. So it's taught me that I must do the same in my life, look at a situation, and treat it gently with truth and respect, and be patient even if the outcome later isn't what I expect it to be.

I'm guessing the Universe has been recently tried teaching me PATIENCE in many different ways, other than just the Echinacea -- and I won't be initiated into the next level of my growth until I plunge through the trying and good times, and learn the lesson it's trying to teach me.

Blessings,
   )O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds

Reminder of Article to Read On "Cultivating a Sense of Place:....."

Just a NOTE and reminder here for myself and any others new to Herbalism and finding that 'Sense of Place' in one's studies...gotta take a look at and read Lisa Rose Starner's article called Cultivating A Sense of Place:  Becoming a Forager and Land Steward! 

Will write up more on this at a later time and post a Blog xo! 

)O( Indigenous Shamanic Winds

*(The beautiful photo I'd found that led me to Lisa's article here!)*