Blog

Reaching the Next Era in your Life

When I was a teenager with chronic pain and felt like I would never see the other side… When I decided to leave my whole life behind in NYC and move down to Appalachia to study herbalism… When I first started teaching and wasn’t sure anyone would show up for my classes… When I decided to live alone…

Continue reading

How to Work with Plants in a City

I snuck into the office and closed the door.  Maybe “snuck” isn’t the right word, since my job as a plant waterer gave me access to every room in the building. But I still felt like I was doing something illict. The office building was in the middle of Manhattan. To get there I had…

Continue reading

Your Destiny as a Human

I walked up to the gap, the wind nudging me from behind. In the space between the budding tulip poplars I could see out to the mountains beyond. They were blue and beckoning, full of promise, hope and homecoming.  I could feel the Earth beneath me. And I could feel my place on her lengths. And…

Continue reading

Nature as Divination Deck

Omens are everywhere in nature. Before tarot cards or runes, we knew how to read the oracle of the natural world. The pattern of the clouds. The bird you heard when you first woke up. The flower growing by your doorstep. The answers you need are already in the world around you. They’re simply waiting for you to…

Continue reading

Contemplation as an Ancestral Skill

Years ago someone asked me a question that I’ve never forgotten. “In your ideal world, if you could get paid to do anything….what would you do?” I was still young when I was asked this, but my immediate answer was: “I’d get paid to walk outside in nature, to think, daydream and ponder.” To me, that sounded like…

Continue reading

What Does this Spring Hold for You?

Lately, I’ve been waking up every morning to listen to the dawn chorus. The songbirds have returned—along with the flocks of spring flowers—and it’s thrilling, comforting, promising.  Every spring I find myself embracing a tender belief in new beginnings. The flowers open and the hope I’d nearly given up returns like the songbirds. There is newness on…

Continue reading

Is This Your New Beginning?

We’re in a “beginning time” right now. Some days I’m not even entirely sure what that means, but I can feel it. The other side of the pandemic. The other side of a passage we can’t quite name yet. The other side of a huge multi-year, multi-layered transformation for our spirits.  I took my daughter to the pool for…

Continue reading

Most Beloved Blogposts

What your Favorite Flower Says About You

I hadn’t stepped foot outside in weeks. Freshly post-partum, I’d been nestled in bed since my daughter’s birth. Since that time we’d already seen several snows, and at least one night when our pipes froze solid, but today the sun was shining. Today, the first daffodils were blooming, and every fiber of my body was yearning…

Continue reading

You are a Flower Essence for this World

For those with sensitive hearts, the problems of this world can often feel too big. And with every challenge on earth amplified this past year, it’s enough to wonder: how can one small, sensitive person make a difference in such a big world? But when we look to flower essences— and the ancient wisdom…

Continue reading

When Violets Speak

I first moved to these mountains in spring. Early spring, when things are still raw with beginning. It felt fitting. I had left behind my entire life in New York City— my relationship, my community and career— to start anew in Appalachia. I brought only what would fit into my car, leaving space for…

Continue reading