“You had one of these in your backyard growing up.”

We were standing beneath a sassafras tree - one stop on a walk identifying medicinal plants in the woods near my hometown.

My childhood friend Marian had spoken up - and I was sure she was mistaken.
But then I wondered, would I have even known?

I wasn’t raised to know the Earth in any intimate way. And the sassafras is not tall or showy. No one had shown me to rub one of its three (!) different-shaped leaves to release its unforgettable root beer fragrance. Or told me that its bark, leaves, and roots were medicine.

I don’t remember that tree - something so generous, growing steps from my childhood bedroom - because I didn’t know her.

I hadn’t yet learned to see the living treasures all around me.

These precious green teachers are too often invisible to us. Their gifts are unknown to so many.

Forgetting has been incremental.
My life’s work is remembering.

We are forever students. We are good relatives - to the Earth, to our communities, and to ourselves. We remember that we are meant to belong to the cycles that hold us.

I am devoted to passing this knowledge forward - to help cultivate and guide those who will steward the invaluable wisdom and living magic of the natural world to those who arrive after us.

The plants are generous teachers. They are always communicating. And each generation is called to listen.

If you feel that call, you are not late.

You are right on time.

Author of Healing Magic - A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living, The Gift of Healing Herbs - Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life,  The Young Green Witch’s Guide to Plant Magic - Rituals and Recipes from Nature, and A Green Witch's Pocket Book of Wisdom-Big Little Life Tips.