In baseball, the umpire makes the call for the pitches: foul, strike or ball. Coaches and players can argue all they want but the umpire has the final word.  As umpire Bill Klem said: “It ain't nothing until I call it.” Our brains work the same way: an experience takes place and your brain immediately goes to work to make sense of it by creating a story. This story is colored by previous experiences and perspectives. Our brain makes the call: good, bad, hurtful, welcoming, etc. This story becomes the basis for our actions and quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Action follows thought.

Late Summer is starting to look more like Fall. For me, there’s always a touch of sadness as the bright and long days of Summer fade. Part of me looks forward to the introspection that Winter brings, a way to recharge after all the energy expanded during the long days. Transitioning from the season of the Heart to the season of the Lungs is about releasing grief and letting go of those things that no longer serve.

The descriptions are scary: “invasive exotic gone feral”, “noxious weed”, “persistent”, “invasive”, “out competes and displaces”.  The reality? As with many “bad” (substitute any of the above adjectives) weeds, that’s a judgement call on our part.

Often in herbalism you’re told to “go sit with a plant”. What does that mean?

These sunny, hot summer days call for some special reading material when it gets too hot to move.  Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer is one I like to revisit.

Last week we invited 32 children from the Montessori Summer program to visit us at the store for an hour of plant-based activities including drawing a Mullein plant …

Summer is the season of Joy and the corresponding organ is the Heart, in Chinese medicine. But what if you’re not feeling joyful or expansive? …

break in my last year of nursing school I visited Richmond and fell in love with all the blooming Spring flowers that were still yet to be just poking their heads above the ground back in central Ohio.

You can feel the energy of Spring: building, persistent, energetic, bold, lusty, exhilarating… and exhausting.  How do the plants do it?

If you have been tending your garden this Spring, you’ll have encountered the PROLIFIC Purple Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum). NOTE: it is NOT related to Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica).