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Plants Have Your Back

The Athena of trees is what will please the caregiver’s soul when planted in a garden sanctuary.

Kicking off National Family Caregiver Month here in the US and wearing my heart on my sleeve.


Make that my favorite tree’s heart-shaped leaf on my sleeve. Come closer as I tell you a tale of 2 Forest Pansy Redbud trees for your Plant Recipes for Sanctuaries consideration. One stood outside the kitchen window to delightfully distract me – to please and dance in the breeze as the storms of responsibility loomed in caring for my aging parent.

One stood outside the would-be nursery, reminding us, fortifying us through infertility that the day would come that we’d become a 3.

These 2 trees with their heart-shapes leaves, hugged our home and formed a halo of hope and love over our needs. Of play. Of comfort. Of a place for Xmas light display.


Hummingbirds perched. Camouflaged in the canopy. Safe haven below for me to go. High branches for hummer’s pre-flight of joy medicine. Forest Pansy Redbud. A dear tree-friend to me.


Cercis canadensis is “her” latin name. Yes, diva female energy for certain, aligned with multidimensional goddess power and wisdom – both soft and intensely strong. I recently described her as Athena of trees. She IS a tree one needs plant close-into a living space to fully learn lessons, and be an immersed self while sitting with her fine, delicate dichotomy: bloom-to-branching architecture AND scrappy survival instincts.


Truth be told, if I were a tree, I be a Forest Pansy Red Bud. I am both a mother and warrior. I’m intensely soft-sensitive-feminine and powerful beyond all measure. Given my experiences with #caregiving / caredoing / caring all my life, I’m not ashamed to claim the title in my life as the most courageous person I KNOW.


Bold you say? Why yes. Bold and beautiful. That’s how I’m growing myself to BE. And I bet you too.


This is why I planted these 2 trees. These 2 trees helped us heal our shame and timidity. This tree grants waiver over our sense of loss and grief. My trees stood by rooted in truth. The truth of personal strength. Tender and tenacious. Yes. You are both, too, too?


I often cast my healing design magic using Forest Pansy when I sense this sort of healing is needed. Stabilization that comes with a hug. Which is a blessing into a garden and into one’s sacred space around and within.


Forest Pansy grows to eave height plus a bit more. Glory is found in the rounded canopy where the “bones” (branches) show in a silvery-cinnamon armor (I know, is that combination even possible?). Just wait for spring and you’ll see just.exactly.why. this tree is known as a spring-time harbinger of hope.


Adorned with bee-laden necklaces upon necklaces of pea-like, little pinky-lavender blooms she snows down on upon the garden floor and garden heart. Native tribes found the blossoms delicious and the wood bow-making worthy. (See the Athena reference again?) This tree is poetry. Shooting straight to my sentimental-intiuitive-sensitive-earth-empath heart. Her wood is known to promote new love, after all.

Especially the canopy – in autumn. A canopy of heart-shaped leaves marbled in burgundy, caramel, green. A crown of color. Royal. Those heart-shaped leaves like gemstones – each unique.


You’re finding that I’m speaking of these trees in past tense, huh? As I gaze out mid-fall carnival onto the Bloodgood Maple standing sentry out my office window, I’m reminiscing over these 2 trees. When we chose to move to our farm, these 2 trees stayed behind to offer their healing to the next family. To be warriors for their healing. To hug them through the seasons. 
After all, these trees are as their leaves advertise: love.  So, drink it up and hug it up.

Note: do not eat this tree. Consult your eastern (or western) medicine practitioner for appropriate extracts / supplements, ya dig?


Want a sacred space that is more than just another pretty place? One that soothes your senses, digs deep for your wellbeing and helps you set that stress down and instead grow #BeingSanctuary?

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A Gingko tree to help you remember your hope, vitality, and endurance.

Remember who you are.

Need help? Remember from all that you came.

Need a sign? Remember why you are here, now.

Listening for an answer?


AdORE yourself. I do. At this time of year, your golden ORE is, well, like butta’.You are a Maiden. Like me.


You are over 300 million years old. If time is even a measure. And earning that badge of living fossil, well you’re timeless, baby, timeless. Time sure looks good on you.


You’ve been through a wide range on conditions. You’re not all together fussy about it either. Just looking to stand out in your field. Despite all sorts of bombs, diversions, distractions being dropped around you.
Your reach is glorious, broad with age and a safe haven to many that encounter you.


Come rest beside me, you say. Come relish in the dapple display of light beams and let your imagination play.I love your easy, breezy Yin/Yang manner. You assure me of mine.
Hey, that’s Ginkgo talking.
Listening?


Wanna come closer in – into remembering all the lovely things glowing in you, showing up from within you in the world around you? I’ll help translate.


Ginkgo will deLIGHT you all the way. Like the yellow brick road, his or her (yes, dioecious!) leaves light the way. Yep, in the case where a walkway, high use area, etc, you’ll want to employ the male version of this tree for a cleaner and less odorous experience as the female “fruit” is “distinct”, (unlike The Force which I do agree with most Star Wars fan, *is* female, the male rules planting design desirability – dang it).


Turning your brain to the wellness gains of Ginkgo beyond his breathtaking appearance and energetic connection to prehistoric times (yes, fossils of this tree date back 200 mil years ago), the healing essence of this tree is used in extracts and supplements aimed to prevent dementia (#takethatdementia) and claudication (hustle on up there blood flow).


Nature is talking to you. Hope, vitality and endurance are the messages from Ginkgo: 170 of these sacred, healing giants kept standing – survived – the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Get it yet? You are part of this bigger family. This bigger us. Timeless. Bridged. Peace. Resilience. That’s all you really ever need to understand.


Given the zonal availability (3 – 7) of this tree’s reach, as you take your soul strolls, getting outside to the wide open, serene green scenes, watch for Ginkgo. Cast the heart of your eyes up into the branches and down to the sea of leaf “rain” afoot. Stand a second in the golden gloriousness. You can’t help but feel connected, huh?


That’s what planting your own medicine does for you. It helps you rememBEr just how precious you are.


So, tell me, who are you and why are you here, now? What have you come to share?


* Note to toxicity – do not eat any part of this tree. Instead consult your eastern (or western) medicine practitioner for appropriate extracts and supplements, ya dig?


Want a sacred space that is more than just another pretty place? One that soothes your senses, digs deep for your wellbeing and helps you set that stress down to #BeYourOwnSanctuary?

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Woman holding maple leaf

Do you know your sap?

Acer and everything nice when considering plant recipes for creating sanctuaries.


Though we find a sense of sanctuary in our escapes in the garden, the field, and/or flower. Our journey of healing OUR nature is about tapping into the hidden wisdom that makes us, us. That sweetness deep down, rooted in soul soil.


My grandmother, Althea (yes, her real name) taught me a lot about digging deep. Adopted at the age of 4 from an orphanage, moved to live in DC to grow up humbly. Graduated the planet in wealth uncommon for someone of her originating “circumstances” (read: because “she was a woman, for starts” – gag). She chose her life. She demonstrated to me BEing the Soul Owner of her life. She knew her sap.


When hiking under and through the canopy of Big Leaf Maple (Acer sp), her message is lent: shift attention to your dreams, draw from deep, be sharp in focus (and sometimes in tongue).


Own your dreams and tap into what needs to rise. Be fearless. RISE THE SAP UP.


I’m headed for the meadow once this posts. Big Leaf Maple stands there. She, the “Grandmother” of all trees cloaked perfectly for the season’s Ore, reflecting “her” outstretched “arms” to await me. They offer shade and protection when needed, peacefully mighty and relaxed. Statuesque silhouette of assuredness on the banks of rapid spiritual and emotional growth.


Not a tree for small spaces nor small thinking.


“Grandma” calls to me to dig deep AND play. Toss those whirlygigs (samaras) unto the air. Take serene pleasure in the twirling, dancing, lightness, swirl. Play, girl, play. Feel the joy. Be golden like the leaves afoot.
And be fearless. Fall back into positive visions. Fall into Sanctuary. Know your sap.


Benevolent is Acer’s nature. The visual and intuitive sip on this #FridayPlantHappy Hour of tree wisdom sap helps us to #BeSanctuary growing from scared to sacred. Thank you Grandma.


Want a sacred space that is more than just another pretty place? One that soothes your senses, digs deep for your wellbeing and helps you set that stress down to #BeYourOwnSanctuary?

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