There Is Another World
Just beyond our struggles, there is another world, one where peace and solace prevail. In this world, all endings are beginnings, spring comes after winter and no catastrophe ever goes unhealed. This wider world is not a part of our world— we are a part of it. The wider world called nature is a place you belong. And the trees, the flowers, the creeks, and the stones are calling you home.
From a young age I had a feeling the world I had been handed was a bit too small, but I wasn’t sure how to stay connected to that wider world, especially when being human got hard or I was stuck inside.
When I first moved to New York City, saying goodbye to the gentle green of the Hudson Valley, I thought I was leaving that world behind. Without long walks in the forest how would I feel this wider, wiser world? But in the city I learned that the living world doesn’t just exist in pristine corners of nature. It lives in every single tree and weed. It lives in the pigeons and the rain on the concrete, and it lives in me.
I still vividly remember walking down the streets in Brooklyn— something I did a lot as a full-time dog walker— feeling like I was living in another world altogether. I wasn’t stepping on concrete, but strolling on rivers of poured stone shaded with maple trees. The abandoned lot across the intersection wasn’t an empty chain-linked place, but a haven where wild spiderworts and dandelions grew in. No matter how hard life got, or how distant I felt from my path, I could look out my single apartment window to the pine tree next door and remember the larger world to which I belonged.
We may feel alone at times, but the wider world never leaves us.
Every day during this pandemic the wider world has been my solace— a place of meaning and direction, comfort and guidance. When I touch this world, I remember the roots of my own endurance. When I see nature go about its business— birthing flowers and unfurling leaves— my hope blooms as well. When I slow down enough to hear this world speak, I can trust that there is a wider wisdom and rhythm to things.
In the biggest moments of challenge, we are nearly always asked to look to something greater. In the hour of your deepest need, the Earth will come to hold you. On the days I think I’m alone everything can seem hopeless. But when I reconnect to this wider world, talking to the plants, journeying to a flower, making herbal medicine or planting a start in my garden, anything seems possible. I become as strong as an oak. As brave as a dandelion. As wise as a willow. As patient as a rose bud.
The resiliency that arises from being connected— to the plants around your home, to the trees, to your own inner knowing, to the you that is connected to everything— is, perhaps, the most deeply needed medicine of all.
Do you want to feel how profoundly the wider world is holding you? To find solace no matter how complicated things get? To let nature show you why you are here, and understand more about the incredible gifts you have to share? (because if there is anything this time is asking of us, it is to recognize that we were made for this era)…
Come join me for Intuitive Plant Medicine, a life-changing online class experience in plant communication, nature reconnection and rediscovering your unique medicine.
Our unprecedented Intuitive Plant Medicine sale ends May 29th. So, if the wider world is calling your name, I’d love to journey with you there.
