KitchenCosmologyNourishing Engagement with the Living Universe

Some Questions You Might Ask

Is the soul solid like iron?                       Or is it tender and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?   Who has it, and who doesn’t?                   I keep looking around me.                   The face of the moose is as sad as the face of Jesus.                                          The swan opens her white wings slowly. In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.                                 One question leads to another.           Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg? Like the eye of a hummingbird?       Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?                                          Why should I have it, and not the anteater who loves her children?         Why should I have it, and not the camel? Come to think about it, what about the maple trees?                                       What about the blue iris?                        What about the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?                                     What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?                                    What about the grass?

~ Mary Oliver

     In late 2006, I stumbled upon Stephen Buhner's incredible book, The Lost Language of Plants. I had become interested in expanding my relationships beyond the food plants and was led, in early 2007, to begin studying herbal medicine at the California School of Herbal Studies, which happens to be just minutes from my home.

     What does herbal medicine have to do with my passionate interest in changing our relationship with food? Everything! In a sense, it's simply an extension of what I talk about under Radical Cooking.

     In just the same way that we have given over our power to feed ourselves to people we don't know and who have no necessary interest in our well-being, so have we given over our power to care for ourselves. The pharmaceutical companies, insurance industry and, unfortunately, even many doctors are more intent on bottom line profits than they are on healing. And for our part, many of us have become addicted to the quick fix that a pharmaceutical drug can provide rather than being willing to make the kind of far reaching changes in our lives that would lead to real healing.

     The current health care industry is at least as environmentally damaging to the planet as global corporate agriculture -- and as damaging to our bodies as the fast food many of us disdain. By choosing organically raised and sustainably produced herbal medicines and body care products we help reduce the poisoning of our beautiful planet, and of our own bodies as well. Remember, your skin is the largest organ of absorption that you have. Everything you put on the outside of your body affects the inside as well. If you can't eat it safely, you don't want to be using it on your body!

     Coming to know our allies in the plant world offers tremendous benefits on all levels. Plants work at a subtler, sometimes slower, and always more wholistic level than drugs. The vast majority of medicinal plants have now been tested scientifically. We can name the chemical constituents and properties  that provide their medicinal value. But plants are also more than these constituents. As living beings, they also connect to us at a vibrational or energetic level.

   Out of my own desire to work more closely with these wonderful plants, I have begun to formulate a number of herbal products, from facial scrubs and creams to seasoning blends and healing tinctures. My goal has been to support myself, my family and my community with helpful products that nourish not only our bodies but also our relationship with the larger web of life.

     At its heart, herbal medicine is about awakening to the aliveness of our world and to our great interconnectedness with all beings. It's been a great gift for me to come to know these allies in the plant world. Less and less does nature appear to me as "green wallpaper". Instead, everywhere I look I see individual plants ready to share their healing powers with us. I hope I've inspired you to explore your own relationship with the herbal world.