I’m continuing my writing hiatus as I’m focusing on my health, which is the reason posts have been sparse lately. I hope to be back at it in a few weeks. In the meantime, check out the free workshops we’re presenting this Spring. All classes are free, open to the public, and take place at the beautiful Evergreen State College.

Related posts:

1. Back in Olympia & Proteus Gowanus!
2. And the Plants Will Set You Free
3. Spring 2012 Reading List

Designs by Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization by Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane

It absolutely PAINS me to say that I’m on a book diet and haven’t read this…yet. This book came out just over a month ago and has been tantalizing me ever since. Here, the authors focus on a

particular aspect of general systems theory (or, constructs and aspects of any kind of complex system) called Constructal Law. It was articulated by Bejan in 1996 as follows:

For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it.

It basically says that orientation to flows in a system are what governs its evolution. This book elucidates the implications and applications of this concept to social organizations, ecological dynamics, engineering, and many other fields. I literally cannot WAIT to get my paws on a copy.

The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations: A Theory of Transformative Change in Living Systems by Andreas Wagner

This book is a unique one. It sets out to articulate a theory of innovation in living systems. It is a dense read, and the heavy terminology may be daunting for some audiences. But for someone with a working knowledge of biology, this read will take you through a tour of the biological processes that allow organisms to innovate. This book would suit those curious about biological processes as well as those interested in biomimetic design.

The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World by Wade Davis

I have yet to get my hands on this as well, and I’m quite excited to read it. Recently published, anthropologist Wade Davis reiterates the necessity for diversity and integrity of our global ethnosphere. The ethnosphere is the complex, collective social web of stories, narratives, structures of thought, language, spiritual constructs. When we lose cultures, we lose a part of our human heritage. Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? This book addresses all these things, and I’d love for it to find its way to my overfilled bookshelf soon.

Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram

If you haven’t already, I recommend dropping what you’re reading now and get a hold of this. It’s a must. It’s one of the most gorgeously written, inspiring and insightful books available. It’s a bit difficult to say what this book is about without doing it a terrible injustice. It’s about many things: the place of humans in the world, about the dependence of human cognition on the natural environment, landscapes of language, interspecies communication. Lyrical, ethereal, philosophical, and important.

Related posts:

1. Winter Reading List, Part Deux
2. Winter 2011 Reading List

I just came across Sequence Design, project of UK-based design Michael Waring. Combining digital photography and collage, his work evokes cerebral and futuristic perceptions of landscape and habitat. See more on his Tumblr.

Related posts:

1. Design Thinking for the Creative Herbalist

Certain contemporary epidemics (notably: diabetes, cancer and HIV/AIDS) have been attributed to a set of factors. Susan Sontag writes in Illness as Metaphor about her experience with her breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent social stigma. Besides experiencing the emotional suffering behind perceived betrayal of her body, she had to constantly face the judgement of others towards her food and nourishment, childhood emotions, and other intimate personal details. The etiology of cancer is certainly complex. Yet, look at how much we project onto cancer patients.

The medical community, in its attempts to understand the epidemic of diabetes ravaging indigenous peoples, propose a genetic basis for the vulnerability of these populations. They call it the ‘thrifty gene’ theory: genes that protect against starvation become maladaptive, giving rise to this metabolic disorder. The link between intergenerational trauma (from genocide and colonization) and chronic disease is being established in the literature. Indigenous peoples globally now have to deal with a construct of diabetes that says being indigenous is a risk factor for the disease; that their genes are bad, their blood is bad. This recalls the days when the federal government screened and scrutinized Indian’s blood so they can receive their land allotments. Over the last century, the federal government has severed the relationship between Indians and their food traditions, forcing commodity food on the reservations and in boarding schools. Now, we stigmatize them for having a bad diet and being sick.

Decades ago, we took their food away and give them sugar and flour, scrutinized their blood to give them land allotments. Now, we scrutinize their blood for glucose levels. In conventional diabetes treatment, doctors assign them a registered dietician, who tells them what to eat again. For many Indians, diabetes onset, diagnosis and treatment is another facet of social control and oppression.

And look at how we stigmatize those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, attributing the spread of this virus to lifestyle choices.

I’m not claiming right or wrong regarding the cause of disease. Biomedical science has popularized potential genetic causes of disease over the last 50 years. It’s part of an integral perspective, but let’s not leave the sociopolitical dimensions out of the picture.

Furthermore, let’s consider the potential adverse effects of our social constructions of disease, lest we perpetuate social and health injustice. If you’re a clinician, be aware and conscious of your working models of disease causation. If you’re a policy advocate or legislator, do the same. If you’re a community organizer, wellness coach, researcher–it’s time for awareness of these social constructs, these functional narratives, and the effects they have on those afflicted persons.

In other words, be aware of your operational stories and please don’t project them on others.

For more information on the subject of disease, metaphors and social constructionism, I suggest the following readings:

• Illness as Metaphor; AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag
• Indigenous People and Diabetes: Community Empowerment and Wellness by Gretchen Chesley Lang and Mariana Leal Ferreira

No related posts.

I’m using these entries to start a permanent page on this blog for highlight similar projects that contribute to a culture of social and ecological health. I’ll be adding to this list periodically. So if you know of any initiatives, projects or organizations that you think should be included, let me know.

R&DIY

R&DIY stands for Research and Develop it Yourself. Officially, it’s an online platform for mass collaboration. Using the problem of creating effective urban window farms, a global community collaborated on its research, development and implementation. It’s basically crowdsourced R&D. See more about the our.WindowFarms project here, and a TED talk about the project and its process here. This approach can be applied for many things, and the mass collaboration process is one to keep an eye on.

Traditional Plants and Foods Program (Northwest Indian College)  and the Native Plants Nutrition Program (Northwest Indian Drug & Alcohol Treatment Center): Bellingham, WA and Elma, WA

Traditional Plants Class with Valerie Segrest, April 2011, courtesy NWIC.

Here in Salish country, a cultural renaissance has been growing over the last decade. With tribal and longhouse communities ravaged by American colonization over the last 3 centuries, there’s a lot of work to be done to heal the generational and cultural trauma. With the leadership of notable tribal elders, education programs on plants, culture and health have been developed and implemented in schools, tribal clinics, community organizations and gardens to do just that. One that’s particularly carrying the effort is the Traditional Plants and Foods Program of the Northwest Indian College (Cooperative Extension). The Traditional Plants and Foods Program develops curricula and leads workshops and classes in Salish traditions of food and medicine, nutrition, chronic disease prevention and herbal medicine. Through the use of cultural storytelling and narrative, plants and their connections to culture and ancestry have been rejuvenating participating communities and empowering people to reclaim their traditional knowledge, cultural property. With strengthening cultural identity, the social fabric of communities becomes stronger.

Plants connect people to their stories, culture and ancestry. They connect us to our habitat and ecological communities. The work of this group helps us understand that by situating people in their historical and ecological context, deep healing can happen.

Elise Krohn teaching salve making. Courtesy Iambic Cafe.

Another notable feature of this program is their focus on capacity-building. They regularly host a ‘Train the Trainers’ intensive, giving tribal educators all the tools they need to go out and teach medicine and food traditions, health maintenance and disease prevention. This way, the impact of their work has risen exponentially.

They also direct the Native Plants Nutrition Program, which provides weekly classes on traditional foods, medicines and nutrition at the Northwest Indian Drug & Alcohol Treatment Center. They also host the Lummi Traditional Food Project and the Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project. This innovative program has taken plants into many venues, potentiated their impact through storytelling, and has led a cultural renaissance in Indian Country. I’m honored to be working with them and learning from them, and I fully support and promote their work. See more here, and I highly recommend the documentary Teaching of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller to learn more about the vision and foundations of this program.

Beacon Food Forest: Seattle, WA

Full seven acre proposal to be built over the next few years. Courtesy Beacon Food Forest.

The simplicity of this project is what’s grabbed me. A neighborhood got together and transformed a portion of a park (Jefferson Park) into a public access food forest. The project has attracted hundreds of cynical comments of the ‘What about the Tragedy of the Commons?!’ variety. However, I’d like to point out to the naysayers that the Tragedy of the Commons is a potential pattern, and one that can be skillfully averted. Don’t let the ‘what ifs’ stand in the way of positive, creative change. See more about the project here. 

Olympia Free Herbal Clinic/Dandelion Community Health Collective: Olympia, WA

The Olympia Free Herbal Clinic was founded in 2008 by herbalists who wanted to provide safe, accessible herbal medicine to their community. We’ve operated a free walk-in herbal clinic in downtown Olympia, community education, and a medicinal garden. Four years later, we are a collective of 7 and are expanding our project and activities to better achieve our mission: To empower people to take charge of their own health. We look to collaborate with others and promote a culture of health in Olympia, promote social and ecological partnership and awareness, and to help the people reclaim their medicine. This year we’re expanding to create the Dandelion Community Health Collective that coordinates the community clinic, community education program and resource center, internship program, medicine garden, organizing tools & trainings and an apprenticeship programs. We’re very busy and enormously excited for this new phase.

GRuB: Olympia, WA

GRuB stands for A Garden Raised Bounty and operates in Washington State. Their mission states:

Again, if you know of any initiatives, projects or organizations that you think should be included, drop a line and let me know.

Related posts:

1. Resilience & The Rise of Community Leadership
2. Ecological Medicine and the Grey Area of Individual Treatment and Systemic Change
3. Framing Health in a Context of Interconnectedness

Tomorrow night’s workshop is The Basics of Herbcraft, presented by yours truly. We’ll talk about core principles of medicine making, with a special eye for branching out, being creative and developing your craft. We’ll specifically talk about infusions, decoctions, infused oils, salves and alcohol tinctures. I put together a short & sweet 12-page booklet of what we’ll be talking about for participants. It includes methods recipes, tips & tricks. For those of you not in attendance and want to obtain one, here’s the .pdf file for you to print, peruse and distribute as you see fit.

https://rapidshare.com/files/3895861965/Final_Herbcraft_Booklets.pdf

It’s hosted on Rapidshare, and I assure you it’s not sketchy. Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, you can find the file here on GoogleDocs, no sign-in required. Print 2-sided, short-edge binding. Then you’re good to go! Enjoy, and see you tomorrow!

No related posts.

I’m inspired to write about this because we’re in the season of Water. In Chinese 5-element medicine, Winter is the season of Water–the season and element of cleansing, restoration, gathering reserves for the rapid growth in the springtime. Water holds and conducts energy and intention. So when you need some deep medicine, what better way than to immerse yourself in such a restorative medium?

There are a few ways to bathe with herbs:

1. Herbs loose in the bathtub. Little fuss, just toss herbs in and let them go. I personally don’t use this method if there are small plant parts–it’s a strange sensation to have tiny plant pieces in your nether regions and a true nuisance to clean up. I pass.
2. Herbs in a muslin bag in the bathtub. Just get a medium to large cloth bag and tuck some loose herbs into it and let it steep in the tub. (You can also do a makeshift bag by taking a section of cloth and tying it with a rubber band.)
3. Herbs steeped and strained in a pot on the stove, then poured in the bath. I have to boil water on the stovetop because my water heater is too small. So I usually tie up a bag of herbs or a couple handfuls of branches to be infused while I’m at it. I really like this method.
4. Flower or tree essence in the bath. Adding a few drops directly to the bathwater. Flower and tree essence have an affinity for the emotional and spiritual bodies, and have a special affinity for water. Something special happens when you add them to the bath. Have good intentions when you’re working with these.
5. Essential oils in the bath. Besides catering to and enlightening our senses, essential oils have medicinal properties. Combining them with a little vegetable glycerine or milk helps them dissolve in the water, rather than float on the top and evaporate.

We’re in deep Winter, and most gathering trips entail visits to the evergreen forests. Naturally, working with tree medicine during Winter comes easily. I especially like working with trees in baths. There’s something about tree leaves infused in water your bathing in that makes you feel like you’re being held by the trees themselves.

by Mary Vaux Walcott

It’s really wonderful to get to know Western Red Cedar, if you dont already. This tree is revered in the Northwest rainforests as a giver of life and provider of nourishment. Salish peoples used Thuja plicata for food, medicine, tools, houses, canoes, incense and art materials. Medicinally, T. plicata has antifungal and antiviral properties and can be helpful in conditions of rheumatism, immune depression and coughs. Western Red Cedar can be dried and drank as a tea, infused into oil, tinctured and used in baths. This is a special plant to me, as it was the first plant I got to know on a deep level. The one that opened up the rabbit hole of plant work.

I especially like baths with Western Red Cedar. Here’s the bath I like to do. I like making a mineral bath salt blend. The epsom salts are detoxifying and soothing to tissues. The white clay and borax contain a lot of minerals that nourish & soothe the skin. These earthy elements also ground the experience and pair nicely with plants. (You can substitute freely as you like. Hydrosols, essential oils and spagyrics are definitely very special and may be hard to come by or out of some people’s budgets. They’re a nice addition but not necessary.) So here’s what I do:

1. Brew a tea on the stove of cedar fronds using one of the methods above.
2. While that’s brewing, I mix the salts. In a bowl, I mix together with a spoon or whisk: 1 cup epsom salts, 2T borax, 2T white clay (found at natural food stores or Mountain Rose Herbs), 3 drops Western Red Cedar tree essence, 7 drops Western Red Cedar essential oil, drizzle of vegetable glycerine or milk (this helps the essential oil dissolve in water). 
3. Assemble the Bathroom of Awesomeness: light candles, burn some incense, get a book, grab a glass of water or tea, set the bowl of salts near the tub.
4. When the bath tea is done brewing, pour it into the tub. Pour in the salts, mixing it through with good intentions and prayers to the Water, Earth minerals and Western Red Cedar.
5. When you’re ready, get in! Relax, flutter about, reclaim your mermaid or merman self. Let you mind drift and wander.
6. When you’re through, thank the Water, the Earth and the plants. Let the water drain and send it off with blessings for all the bodies of water in your region and on the planet. We’re quite lucky to have access to all this fresh water, so let’s keep that in mind.

Other herbs I like use in the bath are fir, spruce or hemlock boughs, Cottonwood/poplar leaves, Willow leaves, Mugwort. And the sky is truly the limit. Use whatever you are called to! Here are some more ideas & practices around bathing:

• Skin brushing is a great thing to add before bathing. It stimulates the lymphatic system and circulation, and primes the skin quite nicely for some good soakin’. (There’s a good article here about it.)
• Afterwards, put on something really great. Your favorite jammies. Something that smells good.
• Crystals and water have a special affinity to each other. Have some lovely specimens? Have them join the party.
• Get something nice to drink. Fresh well water, wine/cordial, syrup or tea. Healing inside & out. Get a good book too. I like reading something ethereal, like philosophy or fiction. I don’t exactly like reading auto parts catalogs or my phone bills in the bathtub.
• Soak for at least 20 minutes. That way, you can take in all the medicine.
• Use numbers intentionally with formulating. I like odd numbers for clearing and moving, even numbers for stabilizing. So I’ll use 3 herbs, 7 drops of essential oil. You get the idea.
• American hoodoo and Rootwork traditions have a practice called a 9-Herb bath. That is, an herb formula consisting of 9 herbs, brewed into a tea, and poured over the head that many times while praying.  Manufacturers keep their formulas secret. I use 9 plants that are sacred to me, and the practice remains the same. 7 and 13-herb variations exists.
• Foot baths area easy, and are especially good at the end of the day. They are very helpful for drawing tension out of the head. Mugwort, Western Red Cedar, Lavender, Thyme footbaths are all transformative.
• For really sore muscles and bones (the kind that need more than a soak and oil rub), try soaking some washcloths in mugwort or cedar tea and heating them on low in the oven. Then work them into areas of soreness, pain or inflammation (if heat won’t aggravate it). It’s really nice.

Looking for more posts? Rebecca at King’s Road Apothecary has a great post on the Indian practice of abyangha, or hot oil bathing, and I’m officially hooked on it. Ananda Wilson at Plant Journeys had a great idea–using your leftover marc for bath tea. She details other uses for the marc too. Check it out.

Related posts:

1. Blood Tea and Red String

“If natural diversity is the wellspring of human intelligence, then the systematic destruction inherent in contemporary technology and economics is a war against the very sources of mind . . . It is impossible to unravel natural diversity without undermining human intelligence as well.” -E.O. Wilson

Articulations are powerful. Good articulations shape our thinking and actions. And many years ago, Erich Fromm made a great one: Biophilia: the love of life or living systems. He first used it to describe a psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital.

Edward O. Wilson has been a prominent and inspiring voice for global biodiversity and an advocate for human’s intimate connection with the natural world. He resurrected the idea in the 1980′s and set it free into current Naturalistic thought with his 1984 book Biophilia. He cites it as the force behind human’s inherent affinity for living things. Furthermore, our natural love of life is the very thing that sustains it. It’s a product of our co-evolution with all of the species on Earth.

Biophilia. Do you not feel it as you’re lazily wandering a forest, intoxicated by the scent of conifer needles and cradled by the soft dirt? Or maybe as you’re petting the soft & buttery Calendula petals, or lovingly digging up yellow dock roots? Herbalism is biophilia in action. Herbalists are biophiles. Biophilia’s a lovely word and a terrific articulation of the basic need for humans to have relationships and connections with other life forms. 

And maybe our task as a race is to pursue these relationships further. Here’s Wilson on the future of humanity and biodiversity:

Humanity needs a vision of an expanding and unending future. This spiritual craving cannot be satisfied by the colonisation of space. The other planets are inhospitable and immensely expensive to reach. The nearest stars are so far away that voyagers would need thousands of years just to report back. The true frontier for humanity is life on earth, its exploration and the transport of knowledge about it into science, art and practical affairs. Life around us exceeds in complexity and beauty anything else humanity is ever likely to encounter.

A good articulation indeed.

No related posts.

There are so many dimensions of our connection and relationship with our ecological communities. So many physical forms that this symbiosis takes: We ingest local food for nourishment and local plants to maintain health; Nurture and tend the land. There’s another subtle, deep and very alluring dimension to our relationship with Nature and her other life forms: its touch and texture.

Think about how many of your senses are engaged when you’re IDing a tree. Or harvesting nettle tops, calendula flowers or dandelion roots. You’re attention is brought to subtle shifts in colors, odors, temperature, texture. You engage corporeal and nonordinary senses–things you don’t necessarily use when running errands and working at a desk. Engaging these subtle senses expands our selves and strengthens our connection with ecological community.

As a species, we evolved this way: touching leaves, digging roots, gathering berries, being with people, laughing and stirring soup. Sunlight. Barefeet. Since the industrial revolution, human environments have deviated from natural ones. Instead of touching bark, we’re touching plastic. Instead of walking through forests, we’re sitting in offices.

I think about this when I’m out searching for a particular tree, garbling leaves and smelling the poplar buds. This is what makes this work really beautiful and nourishing to the soul. There’s nothing like skin-leaf contact, foot-earth connection. (In fact, Ryan Drum wrote an article on the micronutrients that are ingested by touching leaves. It’s a good read.)

Through our organoleptic senses, we also learn more about these plants than what’s written in books. (For anyone interested in learning how to use your senses to learn about plants, I highly recommend Kiva’s course on Herbal Energetics.)

So pay special notice to how you’re touching plants, how you’re feeling the electricity of the Earth through your feet, how you connect with life through your skin and Spirit. Mind the textures, temperatures and subtleties.

 I’ll end this with something my friend Rebecca of King’s Road Apothecary posted yesterday:

This is your friendly daily reminder to get your feet onto the earth, barefoot if possible. Wiggle your toes and maybe even get some dirt on your feet. And then, while you’re at it, take a deep breath and let the earth soak into your body. *nodnod* It’s worth dirty toes, I promise.

No related posts.

The Lost Language of Plants: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth by Stephen Harrod Buhner

Buhner’s a great writer, and I’ve really been inspired about how he’s incorporated systemic thinking and complexity theory into human-plant relationships. In this book, he describes a variety of aspects of the flora kingdom’s role in the greater planetary picture–from biophilia to the ecological impacts of industrial medicine. Thought-provoking and beautiful.

The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing by Frank Vertosick

I just started reading this. I think how we characterize intelligence is a crucial issue, and informs how we order and classify life forms and determines how we treat other living things. So maybe how we define and frame intelligence deserves more consideration. Plant folks, you’ll love this!

Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine by Randolph Nesse & George Williams

For practitioners and folks working in the medical field, if you are eager to geek out on some pathology theory, grab a copy of this book. It’s a great summary of a new perspective slowly making its way into medical thought: evolutionary medicine. Evolutionary medicine is simply applying an evolutionary trajectory to pathogenesis and considering human origins and development when considering disease origins and treatments. Fantastic! I’m reviewing these for my thesis.

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus

For the readers that are coming from the design field, you already know this one. Janine Benyus and the Biomimicry Institute have done a lot to transform our thinking and design processes by drawing inspiration from natural processes. This has big implications and opens up many opportunities to create products, organizations and systems that are more natural.

A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

A classic that’s been on my shelf for years that I’m now coming back to. Diane Ackerman’s a stellar author and takes us on a vivid description of the sensory life throughout history. And we all know how important engaging all the sense are. So if you haven’t exposed yourself to this gem, now’s the time.

Here’s to the growth and expanse of mind, heart & spirit during this mystical Winter season!

Related posts:

1. Winter 2011 Reading List
2. Spring 2012 Reading List

Jesse Bransford, Hecterion (2009)

Whatever it is, best follow it. Cultivating and honoring your innate curiosities about the world, life, society and yourself brings you closer to your true work and encourages the emergence of true self.

Many folks that I look up to and admire for their contributions valued curiosity—letting the mind be free, to pursue its interests & engage with life! People often attribute their success or accomplishments to the fact that they’re so danged curious and pursued an important question—and less about their actual abilities or other advantages.

For me—I’m really curious about the human condition and how working with plants relates to our architecture of the future. Likewise, I’m extremely interested in the mysteries of human origins and dynamics of interspecies relationships/communication. I’m also curious about the implications of design processes for this work.

Honestly, I don’t quite know sometimes how that fits into my activities or professional direction, but that doesn’t matter. Letting the important and deep questions unfold is what I’m going for. It’ll come together at some point.

If you’re bored, you’ve become distant from what makes you curious, excited & geeking out about life. And I think you should work on reconnecting to your curiosity and passion.

What does make you curious, and how’s that reflected in your work?

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people. -Leo   Burnett

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. -Albert Einstein

Gennady Privedentsev

Related posts:

1. The Congress for Curious People: April 9-18, 2010

Regeneration (2011) by Toshiyuki Enoki

It’s a terribly chilly day here in Olympia. I’ve spent most of the day at my desk, drinking puerh tea, brow furrowed in intense contemplation over some aspects of my developing thesis. I’m exploring the question of the contribution of ethnobotanical knowledge & practices to public health and I face a number of challenges. And chief of these challenges is dealing with the conceptual frame and definition of health itself. There are many ways to define health and the cultural variations are plenty. Here are some:

World Health Organization. 1948. Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization.
The first lines of the Preamble declare, “in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, that . . . [h]ealth is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Dubos, René. 1959. Mirage of health. New York: Harper & Row.
Health is “the expression of the extent to which the individual and the social body maintain in readiness the resources required to meet the exigencies of the future.”

Murray, Kay, Waltner-Toews, & Raez-Luna. (2002). Linking human and ecosystem health on the amazon frontier. In Conservation medicine: Ecological health in practice. 
Defines the ecosystem approach to health: health is the ability to meet socially-determined goals.

Mirriam Webster 2011.
Health is the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit.

And there are many more. The WHO definition is currently the one most widely embraced by the medical establishment.

But what’s interesting here is that the definition health is focused on and oriented to the individual. But what if we think about it this way: given that we live in a world of social and ecological connectedness, is it really the right perspective to have to designate one individual as healthy? Doesn’t that cut out a large portion of the picture? Maybe we need to start taking into account environment, context and the larger system when we consider a being’s state of health. The WHO Determinants of Health model gives the beginning of a framework to consider the social and environmental factors that affect health, and can lead to a positive and more effective public health policy (as opposed to our very expensive disease-management system).

I do see more practitioners and thinkers leaving behind the ‘Health=Good/Illness=Bad’ dichotomy that’s plagued allopathic and naturopathic systems of medicine alike. That’s a good thing, given that being stuck in this linear spectrum is not really working for anybody. (See my recent post on Polarities and Paradoxes.)

So here’s the big question for today: what does a definition of health look like that is in accord with socioecological interconnectedness? I mean, what are we really going for here with our clinical practices, social change work and activism? What’s the vision?

Maybe if we can articulate a new vision for health that honors our inherent interconnectedness, we’d start to have sound social structures and health systems that actually work.

Maurice Pillard Verneuil, from Combinaisons ornementales.

Related posts:

1. 5 Innovative Community & Ecological Health Projects To Watch

Concept design for space station by Don Davis.

The event was fascinating. Whoopi Goldberg narrated the planetarium show, which stands out as some of the best science storytelling I’ve seen yet. I saw what plants dinosaurs ate, the Virgin Atlantic model planes for space tourism, models for lunar elevators, space station garden designs, the model for the space port currently in development in Las Cruces, NM, how we might deal with an asteroid, what to do when the sun burns out and the 1000-year plan for terraforming Mars into a second Earth.

Art by Stefan Morrell. Sources: Christopher McKay, NASA Ames Research Center; James Graham, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Robert Zubrin, Mars Society; Margarita Marinova, California Institute of Technology. Earth and Mars images: NASA

I think the exhibit was so well done because it had a clear and important message:

Humanity’s at a crossroads.

We’re facing deep decisions about how we relate to Earth and space.

What are we going to do?

All of this means that we’re expanding the context in which we think, imagine and act. So, what does herbal practice mean in the era when humanity is considering questions such as: should we plan to leave Earth? What does the evolution of our race mean on a cosmic time scale? Where are we going as a species?

These are huge questions, and they require thoughtful consideration. So, how are we as herbalists contributing to this conversation? I think we should. Our context is changing and humanity is going into uncharted waters. What’s the bigger picture of our work?

In pondering these questions, I keep coming back to connection as the nexus and grounding value I hold in my work. Connection to human and ecological communities. Connection to life itself. It’s a big curiosity of mine right now.

As people who love plants, life & community, what’s our contribution to the many crossroads we face? I think we have an important perspective to add. And a responsibility to do so.

No related posts.

This day marks the darkest day of the year, with the Sun pulled back from the Northern hemisphere. To honor this day and the beginning of Winter, I’ve collected some works to share with you.

Read fantasy stories, poetry and folktales.

Light candles, make fires.

Make your home really beautiful. Fill it with music: Sequentia Ensemble: Iacobe Virginei. (And there’s more here.)

Tend to what you love.

Articulate your values and principles.

Make more decisions.

Build the fire within. Create your life and legacy from the inside out.

Eat berries, dig roots, hug friends, repeat. (from Ananda Wilson)

Honor conifer medicine: hemlock tea, spruce-maple brandy, fir oil or butter, salve with resins, wreaths & garlands.

Bless and thank your water: well, reservoir, nearby rivers & creeks, the rain.

Panos Tsigaris, The Second Mystery

See the dimensions in those in-between places: dawn & twilight, solstices & equinoxes. (Special things come into focus.)

And bring your magic into the world for us.

Be forever dead in Eurydice-more gladly arise
into the seamless life proclaimed in your song.
Here, in the realm of decline, among momentary days,
be the crystal cup that shattered even as it rang.

Be-and yet know the great void where all things begin,
the infinite source of your own most intense vibration,
so that, this once, you may give it your perfect assent.

To all that is used-up, and to all the muffled and dumb
creatures in the world’s full reserve, the unsayable sums,
joyfully add yourself, and cancel the count.

-Rainier Maria Rilke, The Sonnets to Orpheus, Book 2, XIII

No related posts.

I then checked my email and received a flurry of freak-out emails from some of the global health foundations and nonprofits that I follow, alarming their audience to the devasting shortage of funds that are threatening crucial HIV prevention & treatment programs, tuberculosis programs & the like.

I don’t want to sound unsympathetic, but it’s happening everywhere. The economic calamity of the last 3 years has shaken social and health services to their core. In my community, so many more people are houseless, without medical care or any kind of safety net.

How we determine who should take care of who depends on how you define your people or your tribe. Who is our group? With whom do we share our identity? Think about it.

This issue of group identity has a cultural basis also. If we’re a part of a community that has a community identity, that’s likely to influence our notion of the groups that we’re a part of. So I think this issue of who should care for who is determined by where you are, and the nature of relationships there.

All that said, the social safety net that has been holding up many folks isn’t resilient. They aren’t able to withstand current economic trends. So, the responsibility (and burden) goes back to the community. But communities, by and large, have relinquished their leadership over the last century to state and federal leadership. But that tide is changing, and we community practitioners & advocates are at the forefront of it.

The Makah community, a tribal reservation on the Northwest peninsula of Washington state, is reclaiming their health services. In 2006, they took back control of health services from Indian Health Services, the federal bureaucracy that’s decimated Indian health. They’ve since instated a Makah Wellness Clinic, an integrative clinic that is specific for the Makah people and community. They’re identifying what health means for them, and are connecting community organizations to make these health services accessible to their people. I got to visit and meet with their team earlier this week and was greatly inspired by their dedication, persistent and heart. They’re going to do great things, those folks.

And we at the Olympia Free Herbal Clinic are identifying unmet needs in our community and answering them with no-questions-asked free consultation, herbal medicines and education. We teach at immigrant advocacy organizations, prisons, farms and schools. There are so many examples of rural and community clinic work, where practitioners are being responsible for the health of their place. Rosalee de la Foret has just launched her clinic in the Methow Valley. Kiva Rose practices in her village in Reserve, NM. Charles ‘Doc’ Garcia practices street herbalism in Richmond, CA. 7Song works at the Ithaca Free Clinic in Ithaca, NY. There are many more examples of this powerful work, and I’d like to know about it. Drop me a line, as I’d like to write something up on what’s happening, so if people want to get involved and help out they know where to find you.

Stands of wild Trillium ovatum. Plants like to be in community also.

It’s time for communities to become more resilient, to care and nurture the health of their people. For this, we need leaders and advocates for strong, resilient connection with people & habitat. With the fall of the national social safety net, our people now look to us for support.

It’s the age of the Rise of Community Leadership, and you’re at the forefront.

So what are you going to do?

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1. 5 Innovative Community & Ecological Health Projects To Watch