Hello lovelies
THANK YOU for being part of this community, how are you? The rain here has continued and the wind is wild, which I kind of love when I’m warm and by the fire. The blackbirds and the robins seem to be loving the worms that the rain has brought to the surface and my beans are getting bigger and bigger.
I often marvel at the raindrops that lie on the leaves and sit in the centre of blossom. Once they were ocean, rolling with whales and the thrill of tiny silver fish and the soft waves of salty weed, before they became part of the sky, dancing in clouds. Floating on wings before landing in my pear blossom, on my nettle leaves to be drunk by the dark soil, to drench into mycelium’s threads and to soften a worms head.
It seems everything is woven together, everything is entangled, bound together through journeys, make up and wildness.
It leads me to remember the great and wondrous reciprocal web we are held in, even if we feel we have moved so very far away from engaging in the wild world around us, even if we aren’t aware anymore of our place in the wild world, still, it offers itself to us in beauty and care, still it wraps us up in kindness no matter who we are.
The more stories I have learnt about the ways in which we are cared for both within and without, has certainly helped me to sink further into body and land and come home in feelings of safety and soothing.
One of the most simple and everyday ways in which we are held is the simple and everyday habit of breath. A habit we cant help but do, yet a habit that so clearly enmeshes us within the wilder world. We hold so many natural tools that help us to come back home.
Our breath is a way in which we see, if we take a moment to notice, how we are cared for by body and earth, how reciprocity exists within us, for us. And how exists outside of us, for us.
As we breathe, we can change our sense of grounding and peace instantly, just from a few deeper breaths, we can feel more expansive and still. This feeling is heightened even more, when the breath we breathe comes from wilder spaces, the forest, the ocean, the swell of river, the soft flower meadow.
But what I love about the very breath that moves within our bodies, is its relationship to the wider and wilder world. How in its very essence, it is a give and take relationship, a reciprocal event.
Not only is the breath a sign of how the body cares for us, it is a sign of how the earth cares for us.
As we breathe out, we breathe out carbon dioxide, which the plants and trees love and need. They absorb and hold what we breathe out and transform it into oxygen which they breathe out for us to breathe in for we need it to survive and thrive.
The very essence that filled us, that touched and moved within bone, skin, blood and feeling, is being held in leaf, root, bark and plant medicine. What is held in plant and tree, ends up being within us. We are in a flow of exchange.
We are supporting and being supported by the green and rooted allies amongst us. From the natural rhythms of our body, we reach out to nature in every moment, for life, for care, for support.
I have found it a beautiful thing, on realising this, to head out and become aware of breathing in this wild care and support and also, in my very breath out, offering care and support back.
This may be one of the many reasons why house plants do better when we talk with them, when we breathe on them.
I imagine, that as we breathe out into the world, oak, nettle, daisy, primrose, ash and hazel breathe us in, holding and tasting our story, our fear, our worries, our grief, our joy, our gratitude, our love.
As we breathe in, we breathe in the strength, the medicine and the groundedness of oak, willow, dandelion, bluebell and holly.
We fill ourselves with the wild breath that contains the feeling and memories of plant and tree, holding feather, birdsong, wind, leaf, bee, season and butterfly in its essence. The breath we breathe in has also been through fox, hare, wolf, squirrel, hedgehog and bear. Holding within the air is a wild and ancient bacteria that is anti inflammatory for our bodies, and volatile oils from green leaves, from cedar, birch, lemon balm, rosemary, birch and grass drift into us, settling the nervous system.
When I practise this in nature, by becoming aware of this exchange of breath in nature for my joy, for my health for my connection, I let the potency of these wild ones touch my bones, my heart. Letting it stroke my body with ancient wild stories of growth, connection and alchemy that is held in within our wider more than human community, and so in the air that lingers around it.
I let it fill me with care and beauty of the land, I let it fill me with hope, with recovery.
As I breathe out, I let myself be known by the wild ones, letting ivy, hawthorn, yew and foxglove hold my tiredness, my pain, and let them turn it into support and nourishment.
It is a beautiful thing, to realise and remember how held we are in each moment, by body and earth.
I wonder, can you feel a sense of gratitude for the land and your body, for this give and take dance, for this reciprocal connection?
Perhaps when the world feels edgy and unfriendly, seek the friendliness of plant and tree and soil. Seek the simple comfort of breath and the holding we receive in each miraculous moment.
Breathe and you join the cycle of life
Breathe and you know that flowers are breathing you in too.
Breathe for yourself and you breathe for the forests.
Breathe and be one with the plants that grow
Breathe and be one with the birds that sing
Breathe and you dwell entwined in the land
Breathe and oak knows your story
Breathe and renew every cell in your body
Breathe and you feel the gratitude of reciprocity touch your heart.
Poem
The house of belonging
This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.
This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.
There is no house
like the house of belonging.
- David Whyte
Things of interest
According to Eckhart, even in closed spaces and secluded areas where we don't have access to nature, we can still connect with nature through our breath.
Claire Ratinon is a food-grower, speaker and writer, she released Unearthed, a powerful memoir about understanding what it is to become a custodian of the earth as a Black woman, and how the process of doing so helped her gain a sense of belonging in a post-colonial country.
Valemon the Bear: Myth in the Age of the Anthropocene,” featuring mythologist Martin Shaw.
Roots and All, the Seeds Sistas, Fiona Heckels and Kazzla Goodweather talk about their latest book ‘Poison Prescriptions’.
How to grow a herbal tea garden With Chestnut herbal medicines
Todays Online Gathering!
We are gathering today if you can make it.
We will explore together the meaning of hawthorn, the coming Beltane and its medicine and metaphors held for our own journey of being human.
Bring your favourite brew, bring your journal and pen or pencil. You don’t need to be a writer, you don’t need to present a certain way, you don’t need to share if you don’t wish to, this is just an exploration.
We will all say hello in the beginning with the camera on to get a feeling of togetherness, and then you can turn it off if you wish.
I look forward to seeing those of you who can make it. If you cant make it, I shall write up what we did and send it over to all who didn’t come and to those who did.