The Earth is calling. Will you answer her?

A guest post by Building your Home Apothecary for Beginning Herbalists instructor Letty Chichitonyolotli Martinez.

Pandemic times have got a lot of us thinking about what skills we have, what are we proficient in? What can we offer to our community? How do we build for these uncertain times? What does the future look like?

It’s overwhelming and it’s scary. In scary times I turn to nature. To the plantcestors, to the 4 legged and the winged to the water dwellers for queues.

Connection to nature is grounding, it’s replenishing and nourishing for our nervous systems. Connecting sometimes isn’t enough though. Like interpersonal relationships with people, it is much more rewarding to be in reciprocity when in relationship.

Why do we treat our relationship with the Earth any differently?

Indigenous teachings tell us there is a more holistic way to be in relationship with the Earth, with nature, with the land.

Cultivating a garden, growing food and medicinal plants in and of itself is rewarding. Learning to balance a small ecosystem can teach us about ourselves and our other relationships. Harvesting from our gardens is a reward like no other, knowing you can tend to a plant and help them grow and thrive and flower and fruit, it’s is like being a magic practitioner!

Making food, making herbal remedies, extending that work and effort farther, sharing a meal, making tea for yourself and your loved ones... It’s the kind of thing that makes you stand a little taller, feel a little more certain, and helps us to shift from the place of scarcity to abundance. Who doesn’t need a reminder that there is abundance? Who couldn’t benefit from the affirmation that tending to the land can offer us?

The Earth is calling us back to her. Will you answer the call?

Register today

Letty Chichitonyolotli Martinez is the instructor for Building your Home Apothecary for Beginning Herbalists, starting February 1. Find out more.

It starts with self-reflection and turning inward. What do you need? What are you willing to give in return to have those needs met? How will you help others get their needs met?

Building an apothecary is like starting a small savings account of remedies, tools, gifts, for yourself, for your family, for your larger community, for future generations. I acquired my first herbs from a Prepper who was moving. For real! I have 50 one-gallon jars of herbal medicinal plants dried and labeled. I knew nothing about any of those plants except for a few I was growing in my garden. My brilliant witch friend encouraged me to go to herb school and learn more. I hemmed some but definitely thought about it. And eventually, I did take a course. And though I appreciate the dried herbs and have used them and redistributed the ones I didn’t feel comfortable using and gifted many to Standing Rock Water Protectors. Those plants encouraged me to grow more plants, learn about them in their lives and environments so that I could make better medicine and really know the power of those plants.

If you don't grow them? How can you know them? This is something my farm colleague Xochitl Garnica of Chalchi Farm says. And she’s right. Learning botany is helpful, learning plant constituents is vital, but knowing a plant and being in a reciprocal relationship with the plants changes everything! I want to share that with you. I want to invite you to take this leap of faith for yourself. Recommit to the Earth. She has all you need and more. She just wants you to spend time getting to know her.

Join Letty for Building your Home Apothecary for Beginning Herbalists, Mondays from February 1.