My Herbalism Journey
Now that I feel like I have a sorta kinda grasp on this virus and the way it works and what we need to do to prevent the spread, I have started to limit my news intake and focus more on the new questions arising around what is next. I have accepted this new Rona reality and am moving into an action phase. I realize that I am lucky to be on my family farm during this hectic time of quarantine and because of this privilege and support I am set up to be able to serve during this time.
Every morning, I do what I call my morning pages, it is basically a free writing exercise for 10-20 minutes. This week, during my coffee time on the back porch I began to ask myself some questions mostly given to me by my smart friend Dr. Alysondra Duke.
How will I give this time a purpose?
What will I tell my grandkids about this brief time that forever changed the world?
How can I serve?
when I look back to this time, what will I remember?
How will I emerge?
After I took some days nursing my own grief here are some things that came to mind:
Make a line of hand-sanitizer for the public and donate to front line workers (Coming soon to the Thatch Shop and local hardware stores in KY)
Offer herbal health consultations to my broader community with a sliding scale (More on this below)
Grocery shop for my grandparents and older friends and family to limit exposure
Help my mom sew masks (she is on a roll!) Apparently we all need them now in public!
Support small businesses as much as I can
Donate items to our local food bank
Help start and tend a veggie garden to provide food to my family and community
Check on friends (especially healthcare and essential workers) and cultivate online community
Share what is beautiful, blissful, and joyful in my day. When I see people making things and sharing their beauty, it is a glimmer of hope and joy
Challenge myself to create something daily even if it is small
Share what resources are helping me and others during this time
about my herbalism journey
When I was a little girl, I would roam the woods behind our house looking for magical plants and I would create potions for my friends to try. I have always felt connected to the wonder of the healing properties of plants and after a nutrition class in college, I launched into learning about natural healing remedies and started my herbalism home apothecary. My friends and family knew they could call when they were sick for remedy ideas. My community of folks calling for suggestions started to grow beyond my inner circle and I knew that somewhere along my path, I would do this professionally. For the past few years, alongside of running Thatch Floral, I have been actively studying and pursuing a profession in Herbalism by attending a two year program. Maybe some of you have watched my stories last year and started noticing a shift with me creating tinctures, teas, and salves in Bellingham, WA with Wildroot Botanical School.
Through working with botanicals for design, my curiosity about increasing my knowledge of the healing properties of flowers and plants was ignited in a way I couldn’t ignore. Even though I had a thriving design business that I love, my curiosity was taking in me in a new direction. I tried to keep herbalism at bay as a hobby, but my hobby kept taking up more and more of my time and space in my home. After years of self-study and online courses, I decided to commit to two-year herbalist program at Wildroot Botanicals in Bellingham, WA.
It has been my intention and desire to start working with the public through herbal health consultations, and with this shift and my time being more abundant, my teachers are encouraging me to step forward with their supervision to begin working with clients.
I am leaning into my own truth, and offering the plant wisdom that I have gathered over years to support people on their unique health journey through herbal health consults and custom tinctures and teas to my broader community.
I hope I see some of you in my zoom farm office with chickens clucking in the background! My dog Penelope is bound to make an appearance :)
If getting deep into that type of herbal self-care isn’t your thing, that’s cool, visit my last entry for resources that might be more your jam!
How are you all making this time meaningful for yourselves? What is inspiring you? Leave a note below!
XO,
Sarajane