Have you ever had a traumatic experience that colored how you see the world?
Trauma can put our nervous system on high alert that lasts for far longer than it should. Over time, we can start to see the world through a distorted lens of that trauma.
Sometimes it takes a kind heart, a thoughtful action, and the smile of a friend to bring us back to seeing the beauty that also exists in our world.
That is exactly what we needed a few weeks ago.
It’s no secret that we’ve had a hard summer in particular during a year that’s been hard on all of us. After Dad passed and my husband and I relocated to live with Mom, we began to make ourselves at home. For us this meant making ourselves some gardens because growing food and flowers is at the heart of our self-care practices.
There’s a strip of grass on the side of Mom’s house that gets amazing morning sun and was like a blank canvas to us gardeners. My husband worked hard during the hot summer months to create the beginning of what we were calling a “food forest” stocked with papayas, yucas, edible hibiscus, moringa and more.
We enjoyed getting to know the neighbors by sharing with them what could be eaten, inviting them to grab a few leaves of moringa for some soup. A few were waiting to get some yucas when they were ready to harvest.
But then one day we went out to check on it and well … apparently someone on the street had a problem with what we were growing.
Walking out to find your garden has been poisoned was heartbreaking. Especially after our hearts have only started to mend from our great loss this summer.
I felt violated. I felt unsafe. I felt like I couldn’t remember what it was like to live in a world where there is goodness.
After sharing about this on social media, which is unusual for me since I prefer to send light and love in the world, I received an incredible amount of support. Some wrote comments, sent me messages, called, and a few decided the best medicine was more plants.
One of the messages I received was from a woman who had been a regular in my meditation and aromatherapy classes over the past few years. She found me not too long after she lost her husband and was deep in the grief process. I actually had thought a lot about her over the past few months, having been someone I knew that “has gone through it,” someone I got to watch heal from one of life’s hardest experiences.
In her message she wrote that she was making healing garden for me and she’d let me know when it was ready. So a few weeks ago I stopped by her place to pick it up. It’s got lavender, chamomile, and rosemary (two of which were from cuttings she grew!), all aromatic herbs that I can use for tea when they get bigger.
Now everyday I go out to check on it (safely located within our fence line) and rub my hand over the soft and feathery chamomile leaves. I pinch a little of the lavender if I need to calm down, the basil or rosemary if I want to perk up.
Everyday it reminds me of her thoughtful action and the gratitude she expressed for finding me and my business during a dark time.
There’s something so beautiful about not only that she’s returning to me what I gave to her but also that the roles have reversed — she’s the one giving ME aromatic plants for my healing.
It’s a small garden but it’s made a huge impact.
It’s a visual reminder that the world is bigger than just the plant-haters that apparently live on our street.
It’s a reminder that healing can happen.
It’s a reminder that the plants are here for us and though they can’t move themselves, they have human angels who can deliever them to where they are needed.
So, I want to know:
Have you ever had a plant come into your life in a time that you needed healing? Have you ever been the bearer of plant gifts for friends going through a hard time?
I’d love to hear your stories. Leave me a comment below.
My first plant friend came to me long before I knew about the healing power of plants. That summer found my young self guiding on the Rogue River, a job I was terribly unsuited for. As an introvert, the constant need to engage and entertain passengers wore me down into a pool of depressed confusion. I didn’t now about introverts; I chastised myself daily for being a bad guide and others were fairly disgusted with me as well. While I loved the river and the wild edges we enjoyed, I couldn’t bear the job and was sure I was a failure as a human being for such a transgression.
During a rare time of privacy, I went for a short hike and was randomly pinching plants and smelling them. Suddenly one of them cleared my head, had me smiling and calming my nerves. What was this plant with grey green leaves and a soft underside to its leaves? I stuffed my pocket and continued to inhale the sort-of sage like smell for the rest of the day and put the remnants in my pillow.
I asked one of the other guides about it and was told it was mugwort.
Once home I read all I could find and was happy to learn it was common and easily found. I continued to carry bit about and to put leaves in my pillow case.
I am an acupuncturist now and mugwort is also an important herb in the Chinese pharmacopeia.
As one of my Chinese teachers told me, “Mugwort is your very good friend.”
Wow! What an incredible story of your first last ally. Sometimes plants come to us when we come to them. <3 Love how this medicine found you, right when you needed it. They are talking to us all the time if only we learn how to listen.