Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

The leaves, the flowers, and the root are all used medicinally.  I’ll see if I can get a picture of the flowering spike.

Hoping to be short and sweet today.  Also, as always, hoping to have something of worth to say.

Last Saturday morning I woke up and I had that moment where I was like – what time is it, do I want to?  I like to go to yoga Saturday mornings.  I adore yoga – it soothes my spirit and it strengthens my body.  Recently I found a class that resonates perfectly with what I, Anne, am looking for in a yoga class.  But I had had a crazy late night and I had a client meeting at 10:45 and a full day after that and it was already 8:10 and class is at 9 (and the other times I’ve been it was a packer so if I was not early it might be hard to find a spot).  What to do.

In the end I leapt out of bed, threw on my t-shirt and bottoms and headed into Ottawa.  Ran around like a maniac cause we were going out Sat. night and I needed my dress and shoes and did I have any pantyhose or would I have to add buying pantyhose to the to do list.  Enough.  The yoga Gods were smiling on me because when I arrived there was plenty of room and I found a spot.  The class began and I am here to tell you that you that rarely have I been such a baffled Barbie.  In literal truth if we were meant to facing forward I ended up facing backwards, if we were moving right I alone was moving left, over instead of under, etc.  I think even the teacher was confounded by my….  And I had a moment where I realized that I had not realized how much I do watch the teacher for cues because I was off to the side (in my Anne selected spot) and I really could not see to follow.  There was no balance and just the entire class was a struggle.  I also was 100% not present in the class as I was thinking about what was next, what had to be crossed off the to do list, why could I not relax, and so on.  At one moment we were lying on our mats and I in my baggy t-shirt, zillion year old ratty sports bra that I cannot give up cause I can’t find anything as good, yoga pants that are pilling on the inside of the thigh and I observed the class.  A class full of gorgeous and lithe yogis and yoginis all of whom I was certain could tell left from right.  All of whom can no doubt get their heels down in downward dog.  

Fortunately for me sense prevailed.  I had a moment where I thought – Anne!  Stop the hamster brain.  You know nothing about any of these folks and each and everyone of them all have their own story.  Who knows what is going on in their lives underneath the surface.  That woman ahead of you at the cash who is slow counting out her change?  Maybe last year she had a stroke and now struggles with cognitive issues.  The awesome bartender at the roadhouse?  His Mom died 1 year ago today and it’s backing up on him but he’s at work making sangrias cause what are you gonna do.

All of us are dealing with joy and with darkness.  As humans we much prefer the joy.  There is always darkness.  Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain both killed themselves this week.  

They killed themselves.  

On the surface – both were people we might assume were living lives of joy.  Darkness does not care if you are professionally successful, have huge bank account, have a partner who loves you. The darkness just whispers incessantly in your ear.  Not worthy, not worthy.

“Fuck these shadows and the lies they tell, whispering to gentle hearts in their own voice, skewing reality, weighing down spirits, until their body becomes the burning building their soul must jump from.  How do you battle an enemy made of your skin that wears armour made of your skin and scent?  One that knows your secrets and has a map of your unhealed wounds?”  Bunmi Laditer, @HonestToddler

We seem to be living through times of upheaval and strife.  If you are reading this, do something nice for someone today.  Would you?  If you see someone and you think maybe – maybe the darkness is whispering extra loud for them – reach out to them.  Be a human.  Good character and a positive outlook doesn’t cure diabetes and it doesn’t cure mental health issues either.  If you need help and can reach out for yourself.

Ottawa Crisis Line

613-238-3311

Longer term

http://www.herbgeek.com/herbs-for-depression-eight-herbalists-share-strategies/

Several years ago I was in a car accident.  It was minor but I still remember it because it happened to be Easter Sunday.  In my time as a driver I’ve been involved in three car accidents (none of which were my fault – just sayin) but this was the only one where I had a police officer as a witness.  On this particular morning there was a paid duty officer directing traffic out of a church parking lot.  The specific details aren’t relevant but I remember that as I was standing roadside and getting/giving info to the constable I said I was sorry.  He immediately told me that the accident had not been my fault.  I said I knew it wasn’t but I was still sorry (oh Canada).  Without missing a beat the officer said “Well, it’s Easter.  Forgiveness and redemption right?”

I don’t think I have ever heard the themes of Easter elucidated quite so clearly.  I think that this cop may have missed his true calling; perhaps justice needs warriors with the souls of priests.  What does this have to do with herbalism?  Where am I going with this?  I have have been struggling with this post for over a month.  I started from a place of recrimination and retribution.  Lately I have been keeping that constable in mind and trying to hang on to the idea of redemption.  It will be hard for anyone to appreciate the points I am making if they are worried for their safety because I am foaming at the mouth.

This is a lady’s slipper.  To be specific it’s Cypripedium acaule (aka moccasin flower). Herbalists do not use lady’s slipper anymore (great nervine) because in the mid 1900s folks went crazy for it and just dug them up until now they are endangered and far far too rare to be used.  This is also complicated by the fact that orchids (lady’s slippers a member of this family) are notoriously challenged when it comes to reproduction.    There’s a good chance that in twenty years there will be no more frankincense.  There will be no more ghost pipe.  There will be no more ____________ fill in the blank.  We humans will have been the cause.  We and our grasping greedy inability to say no to ourselves.

“We live in a culture that has objectified and commodified everything.  And in which the sense of our entitlement is magnified and the sense of our impact on the living world is diminished.”  Sean Donahue

Over the years I have interacted with a lot of folks who remind me of no one so much as Tolkien’s Gollum.

“We wants it.  We needs it.  Must have the Precious.”

They have become fixated on a certain herb.  They are positive that it is the answer to their problems. They have to have it, they deserve to have it.  If there are any sustainability issues – well they are “special” and those concerns do not apply to them.  I am here to tell you that 100% of zero is still zero.  A 1000 people ethically wildcrafting an herb can be enough people to decimate a population. Sometimes the only ethical wildcrafting is NO WILDCRAFTING.

Are we the top of the food chain? Apex predators who deserve to have whatever we want whenever we want it?  I think our grasping grasping selfishness is motivated by our culture’s dirty secret.  It isn’t actually a secret but boy do we wish it was and we do everything we can to forget that we do know the truth.

We are going to die.

Let’s do a thought problem.  Purely hypothetical.  There’s a plant that has been proven to cure early onset dementia.  You choose your personal benchmark for proven and I am telling you this herb is there.  Proven – beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Trouble is there is only a single specimen of this herb left in the world.  It is living out its days in a greenhouse at the New York Botanical Garden.  With me so far?  Now imagine that your husband or your son or your best friend has been diagnosed with early onset dementia.  What do you do?  Do you head on down to New York and go all Mission Impossible on the greenhouse?  Harvest that root?  That leaf?  That seed?  Is it too late for me to get a masters in philosophy?  How do we weigh the value of human life against the survival of an entire species?  There are currently 7.6 billion people on the earth.  Far too many of us for us to carry on with our wise-woman fantasies of harvesting herbs with a woven basket by the light of the full moon.

We need to think about this now.  Compromises will have to be made.  We need to switch to growing the herbs that we want to rely on.  Growing herbs does not always work.  Plants that have been grown in a pampered monoculture are often not as fierce as their wild friends.  Many of the plant constituents that are responsible for the medicinal effect of herbs are what we call secondary metabolites.  Plants make these metabolites in response to stress.  So how will we stress our debutantes?  Growers have had some success growing medicinal mushrooms on different mediums. The challenge though is that if the betulinc acid content of chaga is playing a role in the medicinal activity of the mushroom then what happens if you are not growing it on birch trees?

I started down the path of recrimination after I read a ridiculous Facebook post by a woman who was using magical thinking to justify her ongoing use of chaga.  It is great that you know your supplier. Does not matter.  Contributing to the mass popularization of a hard to grow herb means contributing to its death.  I was so angry I wanted to set fire to the internet.  Sticking our heads in the sand will not help anything.  Is the earth as a whole resilient?  Maybe.  The planet will, most likely, survive an extinction level event that takes out mankind.  The real question is how many species will we take with us before we go?  We humans aren’t exactly known for our ability to engage in long term thinking.  We stand outside smoking in our twenties and cannot see down the years to our sixty year old self suffering from COPD.  If we know that our ankles are weak we buy shoes with extra support. We need to develop our critical thinking skills instead of convincing ourselves that if we do it – it’s ok.

I attended a lecture on chaga.  There were about 11 people there I think.  I was keenly interested on the speaker’s thoughts on the exploitation of chaga.  This was long before chaga had even became the “it” herb of the mushroom movement.  He never mentioned it.  I failed to speak up and speak out. Those 11 people wild harvesting chaga in and around Ottawa would be enough to decimate the local growth of this plant.  When I put the words “chaga, buy” into the search engine I get 729,000 results. But sure – there’s no problem.  These conversations aren’t easy; they are complicated and full of shades of grey.  For herbalism and healing to carry forward into the future we need to have them.  It is essential that we have them.

“We are stewards of the earth, and we live in most integrity when we are protectors of these plants, not vehicles of their exploitation. If we don’t have ethics and integrity, we have nothing.”  Renee Davis.