The Remembering

Medicine as an art and science holds us all in a little bit of awe. The ability to heal — whether it’s a broken bone, chronic pain, or heart condition — commands a kind of respect and reverence from most of us that few professions outside of medicine enjoy.

We entrust our medicine, mostly, to our doctors, who in turn practice a kind of allopathic medicine that focuses on drugs, radiation, surgery, and other interventions for acute problems, often to life-saving effect.

Short of needing treatment for acute problems, though, we have what some call “the people’s medicine.” Things like fatigue, pain, constipation, depression, and other conditions may require allopathic intervention, and/but we also have the means to provide ourselves with support and encourage healing and well-being using foods and plants that come from the land, are gentler, and are more based in simple plant medicine.

I bought chamomile seeds last year, spread them in the garden, and watered them. German chamomile is easy to grow and I soon had a pretty patch of chamomile flowers. I admired them but I didn’t cut them. I was too busy working my corporate job, taking care of the family. But also, I was acquainting myself, learning about the chamomile.

They self seeded and again – miraculously, I felt – I have a beautiful patch of chamomile in about the same place as they grew last year. This year is different, though. I felt like we’ve been introduced, like we are friends, like they’d come back because they like me. And I felt comfortable asking for some flowers.

The photo at top was taken just after cutting some of the flower heads the week before last. It’s not easy! Leaning over a patch of chamomile and carefully cutting the flowers into a bowl takes some back strength! But I had a bowl of beautiful, delicate flowers to show for my efforts when I was done. Here they are drying on a board:

Dried, they make a lovely tea that encourages relaxation and sleep. I’m often pretty tense and find sleeping hard. But on the nights I made myself a cup of this tea I slept a lot better. I was more relaxed and felt better in general. And chamomile helps reduce inflammation, which I’ve had in my knee, lately, and which seems to be improving.

I realized, cutting the flowers and drinking them as tea, that somehow the whole thing was very familiar, like I remembered the experience rather than discovered it new. The taste and affect of the tea was the same – as if I’ve felt and tasted this before. It was a more intense relaxation and rest than the chamomile tea I’ve purchased, and that felt familiar, too. Like medicine.

I have begun to learn about herbalism. The teachers I’ve met so far say that if you’re called to this discipline it’s more of a remembering than a learning.

I think they are right.