I first planted medicine 40 years ago. I learned by observing cut buttons sitting on the altar on my bedroom dresser. These plants looked as healthy as the day they were given to me even though they had been sitting cut, out of soil for a couple of months. I began to notice short white roots sprouting from the bottom. They were quietly but obviously telling me they wanted to be planted, not just sitting there like a decoration.

Oh wait, I’m so sorry. I was not paying attention to what you were wanting… That’s how it made me feel then and that’s how I still feel about it when I remember that lesson. This medicine wants to grow.

I made up a fluffy mix of perlite and vermiculite as I worked at an Aloe vera farm and had plenty of soil mix components around. Within weeks those cut plants had dug themselves in and started to flower. Soon I was collecting seed.

That original lesson continues to this day. Every morning I greet the medicine right outside my door with the sun. I look and listen, hoping I’m paying better attention now. Am I living my life in a good way? Are my intentions honorable? Am I being the person I need to be, to be involved in this growing relationship with medicine? And if something is not contributing to my or the medicine’s wellbeing, what can I do to make it better? These are the early morning questions I ask myself and it always leads to prayer. Thank you for my life, for this morning, for another chance to live a good day. I want to do better. I need help recognizing my own weaknesses. Thank you for listening.

This is how I grow medicine and how medicine grows me.

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Growing with medicine