It’s Autumn Equinox Let’s Go on an Autumn Weed Walk and Meet Goldenrod!
(Originally posted as a newsletter 9/21/21. If you are not signed up for my newsletters, signup here!
IT’S AUTUMN EQUINOX ...
Let’s go on an
Autumn Weed Walk and meet Goldenrod!
Hello Friends!
I am wishing you a beautiful autumn equinox (or spring equinox in the southern hemisphere). At this time when the length of the day and night are in perfect harmony, it is a profoundly helpful time for centering yourself...for dancing with both the dark and the light within you. At this time gardeners and farmers are focused on bringing in and preserving the final gifts of the harvest season, so it is a beautiful time to give thanks for whatever you are receiving, be it tomatoes, apples, squash, or kindness from a friend!
If you don’t have a meditation practice, this is a wonderful time to begin one. It will bring more peace into your daily life. I suggest twenty minutes, but start anywhere and your practice will grow.
On Equinox, light a candle and reflect on all you have to be grateful for, and on how to bring more peace and pleasure into your daily life. This brings healing into the world, too.
AUTUMN WEED WALK coming up!! – September 30th, 3-5pm
And if registration fills up, a second walk will be held on October 1st, 3-5pm
Register HERE!
A Story to Share
“Is that a valuable plant?”
The kid who was mowing what little bit of lawn I haven’t planted with
medicinal, edible herbs asked me this question about goldenrod.
Younger me would have launched into a litany of goldenrod’s gifts.
Current version of me smiled and said, “Oh yes.”
“I’ll mow under them then,” he said,
satisfied he’d gotten all the information he wanted.
“OK, great!,” I replied, but thinking better of it, just in case, I gathered up about 15 stalks of flowering goldenrod that the rains knocked to the earth. The apprentices and I could cull what was worth turning
into medicine later that afternoon.
Meanwhile, across the street a local landscaper and his workers were filling the air with gasoline fumes and the loud noise of their weed whackers and mowers. The owner of the company, a local guy who has helped out at our educational native and wild medicinal plant garden for years, leaned wistfully on my fence, eyeing the kid’s almost silent electric mower. He later told me he will begin researching the possibility of getting new equipment! YAY!
Wherever you are on the continuum of healing yourself and contributing to the healing of everyone on Earth, a weed walk wakes you up to the value of common weeds, and teaches you to identify medicinal plants you are buying in the herb shop, and simply awakens your senses, including a joyous sense of belonging to the earth!
Take goldenrod (Solidago spp.) for example: just as a start, it is amazing for the respiratory system. I turn to an infusion made from dried leaves and flowers for the flu. I use homemade goldenrod honey to help folks with allergies, and I use goldenrod vinegar in my cooking to aid my immune system, as well as to enjoy the delicious taste.
I’m so eager to offer my first weed walk in a long while! It’s going to be held at the beautiful Laurelwood Arboretum in Wayne, NJ. Space is limited and we are almost full already, so we’ve decided to offer a second walk the following day on October 1st if registration fills up.
Come learn about the plants! Meet them in person …
They have so much to offer, and the joy of kinship is powerful medicine, too.
Register HERE!
Green Blessings and love,
Robin Rose
~*~