Immersing Yourself in the Landscape

After a cool, moist spring we've be thrown into instant summer and the foliage feels like it emerged in the blink of an eye! All the while, I've been exploring the Cook County Forest Preserves around Chicago to see what is popping up where and paying my respects to the spring ephemerals during their brief emergence.

Each place I go carries a different combination of spring plants, trout lilies here, pedicularis there, garlic mustard everywhere… Navigating through each landscape, I'm struck by how it informs the way I see and engage with the world. The longer I spend in each place, the more I feel I become a part of it, and the smaller I feel.

Have you noticed this? Have you noticed what happens when you allow yourself to become fully apart of the landscape that surrounds you?

You feel small in the best possible sense of the word, able to blend in, a microcosm of the place you inhabit. And through this you experience the vastness of living space through your body.

You begin to tap in to the animality of your being: the smells, the patterns of light and shadow, the moisture in the air, and the creature-esque movements of your limbs merging with the contours of land.

You enter into a frame of mind/being which is also the foundation for humility, openness, vulnerability, and beginner's mind. Here, our senses are tuned-in to learn directly from the land, fading out the incessant chatter of intellect.

We can see the landscape for what it is: alive unto itself, an ancient organism to relate and share our gifts with. From this point of view, control over nature is nothing other than harm unto ourselves.

We are immersed in a landscape whether we find ourselves in a meadow, forest, or city. Some of these landscapes are more accommodating to this frame of mind, some seem to stand in our way. But if we can find this smallness, this humility, this beginner's mind, we can see the landscapes we inhabit for what they are: in the forest, how do I offer my gifts for the well-being of this place? In the city, listening for the pulse of land still attempting to thrive in such inhospitable conditions, how am I complicit in this human invention gone awry, and how do I live in such a way to restore balance and life?

As an herbalist, I work on multiple levels to support you in reconnecting with your body and initiating you on a path towards well-being to thrive in your life, community, and the work that you do. Whether you are experiencing chronic health issues, or just feel a sense of disconnection with your body, I am here for you, and will support you in making safe, educated decisions around herbs and lifestyle changes to support you on this path.

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