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

Down the road a bit is a single persimmon tree growing in what appears to be a remnant yard of a now abandoned farm house.

She’s close to the road. Lovely in shape tho rather non-descript most of the year, flowing through the seasons quietly.

Until this “5th season”. That bridge time between summer’s end and fall’s cornucopia when yellow-ish green ingenue fruit appears almost out of nowhere. Then, in just a short while that fruit, with the right conditions, turns a coral orange. Matured.

Unless you’re a rabid persimmon fanatic, you wouldn’t be inclined to give this tree’s transformation much attention. Especially this part of the PacNW US. There aren’t many persimmon orchards, you see, instead hazelnuts, blueberries, grass and hemp cover most of the farmland in this valley. So come this 5th season, when this tree unveils her journey of transformation. She BECOMES illuminata with fruit. With maturity.

She reveals the truth of work that goes on unseen for most of the “year”. If you harvest too soon, her truth is not fully formed – its bitter, acrid, immature. Yet, waiting and welcoming the maturity, you’re rewarded with sweetness and wisdom of what she bears.

Her fall blush of fruit pairs so well with her foliage drape. A cape of all the warm autumnal tones causes me to stop. Admire. She is temple-worthy. Often found planted in sacred places of worship and devotion in Asia, Persimmon carries a divinity in spirit in the ordinary flow of life. She is known as a tree of illumination and when she appears, her wisdom suggests making choices that allow our dreams to ripen and mature – sweet and wise.

Her fruit is a perfect offering on my autumnal altar inside – a little shrine time. Outside, I choose to remember the sanctity of my good nature’s pace of transformation. We need more reminders of the power of maturing choices that ripen the Sanctuaries of ourselves.
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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Eat your vegetables. Eat your dahlias? Originally classified as a veggie, dahlia’s edible tuber fed a great many during France’s potato crop devastation in the mid-1800’s. France? Interesting, I know, because this solar radiant reminiscent symbolic flower (say that 10x fast) finds its roots (ha!) in Central America known for donning the royal garb of the ancient Toltecs and Aztecs; and balancing blood sugar levels (tuber), and treating skin infections (petals) by native Mexican tribes in the pre-Spanish era. It was the Spanish “explorers” who brought this flower’s beauty and benefit to Europe. This is a plant with quite the passport over the centuries. She sure has traveled.

And she helps us as we travel to the edge of summer. Revered as the most popular flower for summer – perfect for bouquets set upon your altar, shrine, nature table – Dahlia helps move us gracefully from summer into the next season as the “Queen of the Autumn Garden”. She helps with transformation. No wonder butterflies feed on this flower.
I like to use dahlia outside for the inside. She holds many symbolic messages liken to creativity, inner strength and stands tall representing integrity, intention, commitment to one’s sacred values.
As her petals start to fade, I bring them in to dress our salads. An ode to the Fire symbol of Summer, she reminds me of my radiance, strength and sanctity.

Thru Dahlia, I reconnect to the ancients and I feel grace.
That’s a perfect aperitif for nurturing the Sanctuary of me across all the places and spaces I BE and go. A worthy plant in recipes for sanctuaries.
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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Creative credit for

image: Annie Spratt