Post by wren on Oct 12, 2006 12:44:11 GMT -5
Discovering a Healing
Author: Gina K.
www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=earth&id=10964
“To discover something”—what does that mean? Mankind makes new discoveries all the time! But what, exactly, are we discovering? While discovering new plant and animal life is a spectacular event, the discovery of new oil fields seems to generate a much bigger response from the majority of people inhabiting this planet of ours! Why? Could it be that the only honest and truthful discoveries are the ones we make within ourselves?
Nature has provided us with so many wondrous and fantastical things—how is it that we still fail to see the Magick of it all? Have we not, after all this time, yet discovered how fragile our existence here is?
Global warming was being taught in my public school as early as 1962. In 1970 my kindergarten teachers were the first to introduce the idea of “preservation” into my four-year-old head. By the time I was in sixth grade the only real mention in school of the greenhouse effect was when we were told to write an essay on the items we recycled at home. My own children have been taught nothing at all in school about these subjects, and the majority of their classmates have little or no respect for anything natural—and we live in a very rural and agricultural rich area on California’s northern coast!
Recently, I set upon a path of discovering the Magick I was born with. I have been both saddened and enlightened by the absolute truths I have discovered. The relief and genuine joy I have felt at finally understanding how connected I am to my soil are tempered by the sadness of how utterly unaware most of my fellow beings actually are. I think, “I am only human” and cannot change the world on my own. Then I am reminded, gently at first, but with a bang when I don’t listen, that I am more than human. I am connected to Life and all that is living by much more than just a heartbeat. I believe we can help Nature to heal Herself.
I have discovered that every time I take my daughters into the garden with me I am helping a connection grow. Every time one of the girls asks me why I talk to each plant and I answer, “Because it is alive,” my girls are being reminded of that connection. Each and every time my youngest plants a seed and says, “Help it grow, Mommy,” I know without a shadow of doubt that there is hope for a civilization intent on Healing.
“Discovery,” to me, means simply to understand what is already there. The warnings of global warming are finally being heard and understood—the connection is already there; all we have to do is help it grow!
How many of us remember the old television campaign to stop litter? You know the one: a Native American sheds a tear atop the litter-covered hill. What about good old Smokey the Bear teaching children to respect the forest? And let’s not forget the list of endangered species so many of us worked so hard to pass into law! Have you seen any new campaigns lately? No; me, neither.
Each of us has the ability within ourselves to meet our world’s needs, once we have discovered what those needs are. They are as complex and as simple as a single seed. Driving less, recycling, organic gardening, humane agriculture—all of these are wonderful signs of healing in progress, but they are not enough. I believe with all my heart and soul that if each and every human being in the Pagan Community were to just stop driving, it still would not be enough. The hope I feel welling inside does not lie with those of you who are reading these words, but with those whom you will share your own discoveries with!
I overheard my youngest daughter telling a friend of her (in whispers, of course), “my mom has magic plants, and I think she is a Witch.”
And the friend replied with, “That’s so cool!” Later in the day while we were out in the garden, the girls came to me and wanted to know what kind of “magic” was in each plant. As we talked about the plants, they asked me which one was my favorite. I told them that rosemary was my most favorite because she is born with all her Magick, and no one has to tell her what to do with it, and that she shares her Magick with all of us just by simply growing! When the mother of my daughter’s friend came to pick her up, the first thing out of the little girl’s mouth was, “Hey, Mom, rosemary is a really cool plant! Can you buy me one to grow?” One thing led to another, and before long we were all taking baby herbs and seeds from my garden to be grown in another garden by a little girl intent on discovering the delights of living herbs!
That little girl visited us yesterday. I asked her how her garden was doing. A simple question that led to an entire conversation animated by a child’s glowing face as she explained to me how happy she is when she is helping her garden grow. Her mother asked me jokingly if I “put a spell on her” because this is not a child who had ever shown an interest in gardening. I laughed and replied, “She has her own Magick; she doesn’t need mine.”
The mother just stared at me for the longest time, and then she cried. I was at a complete loss as to what to say to this woman, when she looked up and simply said, “Thank you for reminding me.”
In my humble opinion and limited knowledge I discovered a healing yesterday that may not solve the greenhouse effect or detoxify our water supply all by itself, but that healing will spread and continue to grow in ways too profound for mere words.
Author: Gina K.
www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=earth&id=10964
“To discover something”—what does that mean? Mankind makes new discoveries all the time! But what, exactly, are we discovering? While discovering new plant and animal life is a spectacular event, the discovery of new oil fields seems to generate a much bigger response from the majority of people inhabiting this planet of ours! Why? Could it be that the only honest and truthful discoveries are the ones we make within ourselves?
Nature has provided us with so many wondrous and fantastical things—how is it that we still fail to see the Magick of it all? Have we not, after all this time, yet discovered how fragile our existence here is?
Global warming was being taught in my public school as early as 1962. In 1970 my kindergarten teachers were the first to introduce the idea of “preservation” into my four-year-old head. By the time I was in sixth grade the only real mention in school of the greenhouse effect was when we were told to write an essay on the items we recycled at home. My own children have been taught nothing at all in school about these subjects, and the majority of their classmates have little or no respect for anything natural—and we live in a very rural and agricultural rich area on California’s northern coast!
Recently, I set upon a path of discovering the Magick I was born with. I have been both saddened and enlightened by the absolute truths I have discovered. The relief and genuine joy I have felt at finally understanding how connected I am to my soil are tempered by the sadness of how utterly unaware most of my fellow beings actually are. I think, “I am only human” and cannot change the world on my own. Then I am reminded, gently at first, but with a bang when I don’t listen, that I am more than human. I am connected to Life and all that is living by much more than just a heartbeat. I believe we can help Nature to heal Herself.
I have discovered that every time I take my daughters into the garden with me I am helping a connection grow. Every time one of the girls asks me why I talk to each plant and I answer, “Because it is alive,” my girls are being reminded of that connection. Each and every time my youngest plants a seed and says, “Help it grow, Mommy,” I know without a shadow of doubt that there is hope for a civilization intent on Healing.
“Discovery,” to me, means simply to understand what is already there. The warnings of global warming are finally being heard and understood—the connection is already there; all we have to do is help it grow!
How many of us remember the old television campaign to stop litter? You know the one: a Native American sheds a tear atop the litter-covered hill. What about good old Smokey the Bear teaching children to respect the forest? And let’s not forget the list of endangered species so many of us worked so hard to pass into law! Have you seen any new campaigns lately? No; me, neither.
Each of us has the ability within ourselves to meet our world’s needs, once we have discovered what those needs are. They are as complex and as simple as a single seed. Driving less, recycling, organic gardening, humane agriculture—all of these are wonderful signs of healing in progress, but they are not enough. I believe with all my heart and soul that if each and every human being in the Pagan Community were to just stop driving, it still would not be enough. The hope I feel welling inside does not lie with those of you who are reading these words, but with those whom you will share your own discoveries with!
I overheard my youngest daughter telling a friend of her (in whispers, of course), “my mom has magic plants, and I think she is a Witch.”
And the friend replied with, “That’s so cool!” Later in the day while we were out in the garden, the girls came to me and wanted to know what kind of “magic” was in each plant. As we talked about the plants, they asked me which one was my favorite. I told them that rosemary was my most favorite because she is born with all her Magick, and no one has to tell her what to do with it, and that she shares her Magick with all of us just by simply growing! When the mother of my daughter’s friend came to pick her up, the first thing out of the little girl’s mouth was, “Hey, Mom, rosemary is a really cool plant! Can you buy me one to grow?” One thing led to another, and before long we were all taking baby herbs and seeds from my garden to be grown in another garden by a little girl intent on discovering the delights of living herbs!
That little girl visited us yesterday. I asked her how her garden was doing. A simple question that led to an entire conversation animated by a child’s glowing face as she explained to me how happy she is when she is helping her garden grow. Her mother asked me jokingly if I “put a spell on her” because this is not a child who had ever shown an interest in gardening. I laughed and replied, “She has her own Magick; she doesn’t need mine.”
The mother just stared at me for the longest time, and then she cried. I was at a complete loss as to what to say to this woman, when she looked up and simply said, “Thank you for reminding me.”
In my humble opinion and limited knowledge I discovered a healing yesterday that may not solve the greenhouse effect or detoxify our water supply all by itself, but that healing will spread and continue to grow in ways too profound for mere words.