Chanchka Remedios

Harmonizing Relationships between Plants and People

Yarrow in the Wild Community

By Deb

When I walk in the forest, my heart blossoms more with each breath.  My blossoming heart attunes, and then beats in rhythm with my surroundings. My senses activate. My nose inhales the smell of the musky forest. The gentle breeze touches my skin. My eyes focus amongst the abundant wild flowers and their tantalizing magic.  My lips taste the essence of the wild plants and berries as I forage. I hear the call of the red tail sending shivers down my spine.  Saying prayers and giving offerings, I walk.  As I offer Tobacco, I remember what Tobacco told Doug, “I am the translator”.  This offering has been giving by the people for so long because tobacco facilitates the communication so we can each hear the translation better.  I request from the unseen world that I can continue to hear better.

 

Yarrow in the Wild Community

The trees tower overhead, they dance, beckoning me to an open meadow satiated with life. In the open meadow, the rain passes and reflects the light of the sun upon on the stunning, vivid white Yarrow flowers.  I acknowledge the relationships people spanning across the continents have intimately shared with this plant for thousands upon thousands of years. I contemplate the depth of this relationship between humans and this plant for such an extended period of time. My thoughts are drawn towards my personal relationship with Yarrow and the many experiences we have shared over the past 15 years. As I feel into the connectedness of the larger web of life, I am reminded of how small I am in the midst of the larger web of life  Yarrow is one of my very first plant relations that I began building with intent and consciousness.  This gives me a reference point of how relationships are sustained and consistently nourished over time.  One of Doug’s philosophies of why we are here on earth is, “to learn to become better relatives”.

Doug reminds us that, “Everything is alive. All the stones, the water, everything, and we have the ability to communicate with them.  It is only because of conditioning that we question that or think that we don’t know how.   It’s really very simple, and time is what gives us the confidence and experience.”

Being in relationship to my surrounding, wild community motivates my actions to become a better relative to my human community. Each time I return to the wild places, the experience encourages me to deepen my approach to create more sustainable relationships. I am ever grateful for the wild places on this earth where we can come home.