A Wildwood ViewI think it was Henry David Thoreau who said, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." All I know is... MY preservation is dependent on the wildness that surrounds me. My physical, mental and emotional states depend on the herbs that grow wild (and cultivated too), and on the solace and rejuvenation I collect from it every day.
My forest is one that has been ravaged by a ruthless woodsman a few years ago. Slowly, it is trying to heal itself, hiding the scars with green growth and grasses. I look upon the result and I am so thankful for Gaia's powers. Her regenerative powers elevate my consciousness, inspire me to re-new myself as she does. To start over, to re-commence a long-ago journey that is still very fertile and alive in my heart.
Here, then, is a meditation I wrote yesterday, looking upon the spot of green outside my window, the view from my new writing-craft room.
Fall in AbundanceThe dance of the leaves:
joyful reminders
Possibilities
Nature creates multiples of itself
A million times over
Year after year
Never any want, any need - no scarcity mentality there
Abundance throughout Her web of Life
Why is it that I “want”
It’s all there - already
Just reach out and do, take, feel, write, be, create
Fall into the freedom and let go
Sway as the branch and dance as the leaf
I will be blessed
As I fall into the abundant forest
Right outside my door
All I need to do
Is go out and
Embrace the dance
Copyright 2009 Stella Raymonde Savoie Johnson
The Balsam Poplar ~ the plant for which this blog was named ~
Populus balsamifera, has come through again for me, great healer that it is. I had a raw sore inside my upper lip and suffered for three days with the pain every bite or sip of drink caused. I went to Balsam because it contains sooo many wonderful little healing phytochemicals: antibiotic, antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, and topical healing, among others. Isn't it just a WONDER-drug, this lovely tree?
The Mi'kmaq of this region used it for so many healing practices and I can see why. It's not just the unopened leaf buds that contain healing magic, also the bark and the leaves themselves. My sore was gone after just two applications! I also used it on Colin's foot after he developped a deep open wound from walking in wet mud that seeped into his boots when he was helping Val to make our Spring connection to the house. It was evident after only one application that the Balsam Poplar tincture was working its miracle magic on his skin, and I was so happy. Up until that time, I had only used it for earaches and sore throats, but this proved to me that it can heal anything!
How did I acquire this magic for myself? We were coming home from St. Maurice after our visit to the folks who now live in the house where I grew up, and I remembered what my father had told me. I was relating this to Colin as we were driving along the St. Maurice road. He had told me long ago that the tree that used to grow in our front yard {
A HUGE Balsam Poplar} when I was a little girl, swinging on the swing attached to one of its big branches, that tree came from ... this place that we were just at that very moment passing by, so I asked Colin to STOP! And he did. I got out of the car and oh, my,
I inhaled the most blessed scent of balsam ever to whiff past my nostrils! It was here and yes, there they were: a stand of Balsam Poplars, some growing right on the edge of the road, shading the shoulder with
their coppery leaves. I was thrilled!!!
I saluted and thanked this stand of trees for being there as I was growing up, providing me with so many hours of pleasure and shelter. I asked it for some healing power and I cut off several branches to take home with me. Each one had big fat buds - next year's leaves - on them and that is just what I was looking for. Arriving home, I put them in a huge jar with water in it, to keep them fresh and alive for as long as I could. That night, I made the tincture that healed my darling and myself. Since then, I've used them so many times!
Oh, and the branches? They brought me so much joy by growing ROOTS on their tips!
I've planted all of them in their individual pots and intend on saving them over winter. The forest will protect them, I'm sure. I'm planning a great Wildwood day, just writing my articles and living a juicy day. Thank you, SARK, for "Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper."
This is my FALL IN ABUNDANCE.
