Medicinal Plant Walk

there are currently over 20,000 emails in my inbox. and that's only the unread emails. yup. i'm a digital hoarder with a bad habit of signing up for every email list i encounter. i've got some cleaning up, unsubscribing, and downsizing to do, but i always worry i'll miss out on gems like the one i that caught my attention in my inbox a few weeks back. a free medicinal plant walk. yes!!

discovering various culinary and functional uses of plants growing in southern california has been one of my favorite things about living in socal. when you're able to identify plants and their uses, an ordinary walk turns from black and white to that moment in the wizard of oz when everything turned to technicolor. you just can't see the world the same anymore. this was my first walk specific to medicinal uses of plants and even though it was a cold and rainy morning and i could feel a sore throat and cold coming on, i was up at 6am and ready to fill my brain with all sorts of new plant knowledge and new diy's for my to-do list.

ms. kirby derby picked me up since i drove us to ventura to craftcation a few weeks ago (but i know it's just because she can't handle my sweet melissa time driving ;) ). as we drove out to calabasas the weather began to clear and it warmed up quickly when we arrived. the sky still held a few heavy dark clouds in the background, but the blue sky peeked through the clouds and the ground was dry. a dreamy california morning.

the plant walk was organized by the santa monica mountains national recreation area and led by jim adams, phd, professor at the usc school of pharmacy. jim was trained for 14 years in traditional chumash healing by cecilia garcia and after her passing is now the healer to the chumach people in san fernando.

i appreciated the reverence and sacredness in the way jim shared the traditional knowledge of the chumach people and was fascinated with the way he wove together folklore stories, prayer, ritual, and traditional healing along with his scientific research and data in the safety and efficacy of traditional medicinal uses of native plants. he placed significant emphasis on being stewards of the earth, taking only what is need, and respect for the entire symbiotic nature of plant and animal life.

white sage (salvia apiana - or we'wey (pronounced waykway, chumach) is a plant we are fortunate enough to find growing throughout most of southern california. the chumash believe that god has given them the plant to be caretakers of and to share with others. it must not be wasted. one should only take just what is needed. those giant sage bundles you may find being sold are not recommended. jim emphasized that one leaf is enough and we must not be greedy. he instructed to unwrap large sage bundles and to use only one sage leaf when performing a ritual cleansing or blessings. as i've been taught before on previous plants walks, you can take one sage leaf (fresh or dry) and put in your water bottle. continue to refill the water bottle throughout the day and each day change out to a new sage leaf. sage is potent and one leaf is the perfect amount for a light infusion to keep you, "calm, rational, and productive". it contains monoterpenoids that in these very small doses assist in relieving pain and anxiety. for severe times of grief such as death of a family member or intense anxiety, he recommended a white sage tea with strict and specific instructions. simply put one leaf of white sage in 1/2 c. of warm water. heat the water just until it begins to boil. remove from heat, cool, and drink with no sweetener. this is used only at night and only for no more than 4 consecutive nights and must not be used with other drugs such as valium or alcohol. in his book, co-authored with cecilia garcia, healing with medicinal plants of the west, he details more uses of white sage and states, "perhaps prayer, fasting and drinking white sage preparations, in moderation, could help our spirits."

purple sage (salvia dorrii) and black sage (salvia mellifera) are different from the european sage most of us have growing in our gardens. this grows all over southern california and can be used as a pain replacement for aspirin and other NSAIDS without any harmful side effects. when someone asked what the side effects were of this, jim responded, "the side effect is your pain is gone and you'll feel better." for the purple/black sage he recommended to grab a nice armful of clippings of the branches and leaves and put this stack in 2-3 quarts of sea water. no sea water? tap water will work just fine. place in the sun for 3-4 hours to make a sun tea and then soak your feet in it for 15-20 minutes. if you have pain in your neck, you soak your feet. pain in your hands, you soak your feet. pain in your back, you soak your feet. he stressed the importance of treating pain in the skin where we sense our pain as opposed to the brain stem. many medicines such as aspirin, aleve, ibuprofen, etc. treat at the brain stem and have harmful side effects such as ulcers, blood clotting, strokes, and kill the kidneys.

we went on to learn about how to make a recipe for a california sagebrush (artemisia californica) liniment for pain that works similar to morphine for pain, yet without any harmful side effects such as oxycodone. he stated this has even cured some with fibromyalgia and is used for arthritis pain. unfortunately, no liniment arthritis cure claims, but pain relief, yes.  i'll be making this recipe over the weekend to share next week.

then, we stumbled onto the calfornia jimson weed (datura wrightii). i had learned of this plant before and commonly know it as the peanut butter plant because the scent resembles peanut butter. definitely not recommended for eating due to its toxic hallucinogenic nature. however, the chumach do use this during four significant times in life (accepting responsibility to become an adult, marriage, having a child, and death) in sacred ceremony as a way of speaking to god. aside from this, jim did teach us safe medicinal ways to use datura in similar ways to the sage tea mentioned above. it requires a bit more time and finesse. for now, i'll stick to the purple sage.

anxious much? stressing over an upcoming date, job interview, test? one of the most alluring medicinal beverages to aid with short term stress is made by steeping one very small piece of hummingbird sage (salvia spathacea) for a couple minutes in hot chocolate made with water. jim is partial to ibarra mexican hot chocolate, but you can use your favorite. seriously, any medicine that includes chocolate as a primary ingredient is something i can get behind.

jim leads medicinal plant walks in southern california and you can learn more at his website or purchase his book, healing with medicinal plants of the west. now.. if i can only get my hands on a few leaves of hummingbird sage and chocolate. nom nom!!

Spring Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Spring is in full bloom in southern California and with it comes strawberries, cucumbers, and zucchini. Seriously, if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, first thing in the ground is zucchini. You’ll have food for an army. I swear, they literally appear overnight and you can put zucchini in almost anything. In my best Bubba voice, “zucchini bread, zucchini pickled, zucchini fried, zucchini sautéed, stuffed zucchini, zucchini noodles….” But did you know you can eat the blossoms too?!! Talk about a multi-purpose plant!

This time of the year is great to scope out the farmers markets for bags of squash blossoms. I grabbed the last bag at the market this weekend. There are a variety of things you can make with them, but my favorite way is stuffed with a cheese filling and fried. This time I’m experimenting with baked.

 I recommend making these lovelies for a simple easy Sunday brunch with friends complemented with a cool breeze and Louis Armstrong. Toss in a hammock and wind chimes for good measure.

Begin by giving the ladies a gentle rinse in cool water. There’s often a few lingering critters that didn’t receive their eviction notice when they were plucked from the ground. Lay them out to dry on a clean towel.

Measure into a mixing bowl, 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese and sprinkle in 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan. Mix in bit of salt and pepper.

I originally thought basil would be nice, but since we found the basil plant hanging on to life with a few limp leaves, we were lured by the sage. A few fresh sage springs along with their flowers are perfect for this!

Back to the kitchen, we made a chiffonade of about 2 T of fresh sage to stir into the cheese mixture.

To make filling the squash blossoms as easy as possible, we scooped the cheese mixture into a plastic bag, pressing all of the mixture toward one bottom corner and snipping a small hole at the end of the bag. Using your make-shift pastry bag, gently open the blossom and squeeze the filling little more than halfway into the blossom, being careful not to overfill. Gently press the petals closed and place onto a baking sheet. Mist with an oiled baking spray.

Put into a 325 degree oven for about 15 minutes, keeping an eye out for the delicate petals.

While the blossoms are warming in the oven, mash an avocado into a mixing bowl with a dash of salt and squeeze of lemon juice. Mix till chunky delicious and slice up the best tomatoes you can find.

This is a good time to turn your bread to toast and carefully pluck the sage blossoms for garnish.

 Then, we build. Layer the toast with a chunky layer of mashed avocado, dressing with tomatoes (we “dress” our food in the south) and gently lay a warm crispy squash blossom on top.

Garnish with salt, pepper, sage blossoms, and a little crumbly cheese. I made the mistake with grabbing gorgonzola, but would recommend feta or a soft goat cheese. Serve with a lemon wedge and for extra heaven, a poached egg.

 Bon Appetit !! 

Creativity Calling

An acquaintance of mine, Isla Morley, is a massively talented storyteller who can weave together words in such a beautiful and powerful way. She published two books, the first of which I admit, I haven’t been able to finish reading yet. Some stories must be allowed the right time and place to gently sink into.

But what I found curious is how she immersed herself into writing a heartbreaking fictional story similar to her life in character and location. How can someone go into a place that sends chills down the spine of every mother? And stay there, and write. Why go there at all? There are million things one could choose to write about, why this? It felt to me like a spell casting of sorts, a vision boarding of tragedy. As humans, we often hide away our fears, refusing to think or speak about them unless we’re forced to. In this case, she chose the opposite.

I thought about this a lot and finally asked her,  “How did you write this story? How could you write about the death of a young girl, with such close parallels to your own daughter?  Why would you choose to write something so terrifying to even think about?”  I was struck by her response.

“I didn’t choose the story. It came to me.”

I always thought creating something was a process of hammering away while struggling to pull something into existence from nothing. This idea that a story could show up and ask to be written was foreign and yet intriguing to me. For her, it began as a powerful visitation of a reoccurring character that she could no longer ignore.  As if opening the front door to welcome in a visitor for tea, she welcomed the character in, and ultimately, the story that was asking to be written. She created the space and allowed the story to unfold through her. It went on to receive praise and accolades, and eventually paved the way for her second book.

I don’t believe creativity is always waiting on the doorstep calling your name, but I do realize there are many visitors that have knocked on my front door that I’ve ignored. I secretly peek through the windows while pretending I’m not home. Some linger for a while, and others decide to leave and knock on someone else’s door.

I’ve decided to begin answering the door for what’s showing up (with discernment, of course).  And I’m finding all sorts of fun discoveries sitting on my front porch, waiting to be welcomed inside, asking to be seen, heard, played with, cultivated, and brought into the world. 

Becoming a Timeshifting Ninja

When I was a college student with a second hand inexpensive car, things frequently came up that needed fixing. Usually something like a water pump, transmission service, new timing belt, or spark plugs. On those days, with my car in the shop, my dad was often the one available to bring me to school and work. Being the last minute person I am, my routine usually was to wake up late, leave late, and dodge through traffic where I spent a ridiculous amount of time circling the parking lot and walking my little legs as fast as I could to class only to arrive out of breath and late. So, those days when I counted on my dad for a ride, I wasn’t able to control the speed of the vehicle, which, for my dad is typically a slow meandering pace with more watching everything on the side of the road than on the road. We’d get in the car, running late, (which of course was my fault) and work our way through New Orleans I-10 traffic. Cars would pass and dad would engage in conversation with me, as I prayed he would remember I don’t talk in the morning. He’s never been one to dodge in and out of traffic, pass other cars, or speed through yellow lights. More often than not, he drives just under the speed limit, which is excruciating painful when you’re already late and have no control over navigating through traffic. And yet, somehow, by some mysterious magical forces of the universe, I would always arrive much faster than if I were driving by rushing and weaving through traffic. It wasn’t just a lucky day, this would happen consistently, nearly every time I was in the car with him. I always wondered, "How did this happen?" Perplexed and curious, how is it possible to move at a slower pace and yet arrive like you’ve been driving at 90 mph instead of 50 mph? I’ve got a few thoughts...

As I’ve grown older and bumped up against life enough times to cause some pretty gnarly scrapes and bruises, I’ve gravitated towards mindfulness based practices which have shed some light on components of this magical time shifting.

There are 3 specific things I found in my dad’s ninja driving that I was missing in my attempt to hyper-navigate traffic.

Ease – My dad drives with ease. (A little too much according to my mother). It’s the ease of a retired courier and fisherman with no major looming stressful deadlines. It’s the laid back presence of simply noticing the old buildings, the wildlife, and the rising and falling of waterways (again, my mother keeps him in check, “Fred! The road!” Dad’s response, “Gloria! I see the road!” -- I digress). It’s the ease of taking time to notice life around him while he’s navigating, as opposed to always rushing to a destination.

Steadiness – There’s a steadiness in his driving. Often slow, but not lagging. We don’t pull over to look at old buildings and get lost and abandon the journey. He has a direction and a purpose, but there’s no rush. He simply applies a constant and steady forward motion towards our destination. He doesn’t speed up and then slam on the breaks or rev the engine and weave in and around other vehicles. Emotions aren’t high and filled with rage, or then filled with victory as we bypass 10 cars. He doesn’t engage in competing with other vehicles or getting ahead. He slowly comes to a complete stop when approaching a stop sign, he slows down when the light turns yellow, and when the light turns green he eases onto the gas and we continue onward. He recognizes his own journey and pace, knowing we will arrive when we arrive.

Surrender – When he’s driving, there is a surrender. He knows we are at the mercy of traffic. There could be accidents on the road, there could be a million various obstacles in our way. Or a train. There’s always a train. And back home they are long sloooow cargo trains. When one of those beasts stop you, there’s nothing to do but shift your car into park and close your eyes for a nap. You can feel the surrender in his driving. He does the work of moving the vehicle safely through traffic to the best of his ability and surrenders the rest and trusts we will arrive to our destination in our own perfect time.

Contrast that to my anxiety fear ridden morning drives on the I-10 to school everyday. My mental state was stressed and stomach in knots. I was trying to control things outside of my control. Most of the time was spent speeding up only to slam on my brakes or trying to figure out which lane was the fastest. By the time I arrived, I was mentally and physically exhausted, late, and I did it to myself. I didn’t know I could choose how to navigate. I thought morning traffic = stressful driving. I didn’t know I could choose ease.

The thing about this is, it’s applicable to all of life and not only navigating traffic. How are you “driving” your business/job, your personal life, romantic relationships, fitness and health, or even your spiritual life? Do you find yourself rushing through hyper-focused on the destination and everything else is lost? Are you weaving in and out of traffic so much that you are completely exhausted or have crashed your car? Are you so anxious and fearful that you’re getting into unnecessary conflicts with others on the road? Does your vehicle need an oil change that you’re ignoring? Is your engine overheating? Have you checked your tires? How do you feel?

For many of us, encouraging a state of ease feels opposite of what we need to do to get where we want. The messages we hear all the time are a lot about the “hustle” and getting things done and going, going, going. I’m not suggesting to abandon the “hustle”, but simply look at how you are “hustling”. Can you still “hustle" with a sense of ease? I’d would offer up, “Yes, you can!!” Not only is it possible, but you just might find yourself becoming a timeshifting ninja.

All or Nothing and the Lost Inbetween

I’ve noticed over the course of my life I have gravitated towards the “all or nothing” way of living. 

If my room can’t be perfectly clean, why bother making the bed?

If there are a pile of dishes in the sink, why bother wiping down the countertop?

If things are messy, why bother taking out the overflowing trash?

If I can’t clean out my entire inbox of thousands of messages, why bother deleting 10 or 15 right now?

If I can’t seem to each “healthy”, I’m ordering pizza or a burger, fries, and coke.

I can’t quite make that craft project perfect, so why bother?

There's no way that yoga headstand is happening, let me save myself the time and the trouble and the embarrassment. I'm gonna sit right here and just watch. 

You get the gist, yeah? And I'm sure it's something we all feel at some point or another. But I sat with myself and took a good hard look. How much of my life am I living from this perspective? Simply a spectator on the sidelines of my own life. Twiddling my thumbs away at the impossibilities of perfection, the overwhelming giant piles of messes I ignore, and the complete lack of respect I've given to the process and journey of life.

Did I think perfection was the goal? Why, yes I did. My head say, "nah, that's silly", but my life was saying, "yup". What was I really looking for? That feeling of satisfaction, the pats on the back, the accolades, but most of all, I believed my perfection defined who I was and how I wanted to be seen in the world. And yet.. here I am.. sitting in a giant mess of unattempted things.. because if I never attempted them, then they wouldn't be up for judging. 

I've begun to really see life as the momentary experiencing unfolding into each other. And I denied myself of that. Not only did I deny myself of this, but the world. We each have gifts, we each have something of ourselves to offer to the world in small and large ways, simply by living our lives. I was so worried about giving only what is perfect that I lost all of my life in-between. 

Life is not the perfection or the achievement. It's moving forward each day, micro movements, tiny shifts of uncovering, discovering, bumping up against challenges, learning about ourselves, overcoming, creating and making, playing, and being present and saying, "YES!" to each moment that unfolds. 

I've decided, I am ready to say "yes!!" to my life. I am working on goals that felt completely and utterly impossible and I am watching the shifts in teeny little bits at a time, and it is exciting!! I'm pushing forward and doing things that feel scary, but exciting to me. I'm sharing things that feel scary and new, I'm traveling to places that push my comfort zone boundaries, and I'm washing my dishes more regularly, even if the kitchen floors desperately need mopping.