fire, berries, heart voice.
My chest and lungs hurt so bad. They feel full and cold. I have been spending the last few days wearing my socks in the house, applying Vicks, taking reishi tincture and oil of oregano. Drinking hot turmeric with ginger lime and honey, drinking water, watching reality tv, working and resting. I feel tired!
I took two covid tests yesterday (nose and throat swab) both of which came back negative. I have been resting in the house and sitting with my thoughts and drawing and enjoying the silence. Yesterday while I was in my studio a notebook that I hadn’t written in since 2018 appeared and I spent some time reading some of my thoughts from that time. I read my pleas to my innermost self and god that I wrote and some of my affirmations. It was really fun to read and made me remember myself at that time and feel closer to that person and I found myself thanking myself for the prayers that I had written down at that time. These reminders help me see what things I continue to lean into and which things have fallen away a bit.
I paused my reading and noticed a jar on my desk, what looked like dye - which didn’t make sense to me because I did not remember leaving dye bottled in that way and then I realized it was tincture and that its label rubbed off somehow!
I opened the jar to see what it was and was so happy to smell pure elderberry tincture. Right on time. My lungs sure do need it and so do my spirit.
This past month witnessing an ongoing genocide against Palestinian people has been horrific and has been on my mind every single day.
So many of us are holding immense grief and I wonder how are lungs are collectively. I think about the airflow of the lungs - how when I am feeling a chest cold the first thing I feel in my chest is cold wind. I think of the airflow that the lungs provide which contribute to our voice. Our singing, our speaking, our wails.
I most certainly have been checking in with my voice at this moment. As my lungs process my grief and the sorting of my voice and how I share it and whom with, sitting with plant medicines and talking with others have provided sustenance .
Elderberry.
Finding the elderberry tincture last night was so very exciting because I not only realized that I have this tincture ready that I so desperately need but I also remembered elderberry as a powerful medicine for grief.
Within Traditional Chinese Medicine the lungs are associated with the element of metal and with the emotion of grief. Elderberry is a powerful decongestant and has anti inflammatory and anti viral properties.
This gorgeous berry rich in color, purple / black looking, reminds me of the blackberries I used to pick at home in South Carolina. They remind me of the indigo that I dye with and the spiritual protective qualities of wild indigo. I think of the protective qualities of blues, blacks, purples and rich deep dark colors and I think to the many ways that my ancestors in the South used, sat with and relate to wild indigo.
Elderberry is used for colds, coughs, flus, immune support, minor constipation and respiratory infections. It can be known to bring blood pressure down, so if you are taking medication for blood pressure or blood thinners it is a good idea to check in with your medical team while bringing elderberry into the plants that you work with.
The scientific name for elderberry is Sambucus nigra and it is a member of the caprifoliaceae family - which is the honeysuckle family. While participating in a wonderful herbal learning container named Everything is Medicine led by Olivia Chumacero, I learned about honeysuckle having a connection to ancestors work. Olivia shared this in one of our sessions and I immediately felt emotional. Thinking of the summers that I would go home to South Carolina, from New York, before moving to the South to live.
When visiting my grandmother in South Carolina a focal point of the days spent with my cousins was riding bikes, going to the park and looking for oak apples and honeysuckle flowers. Whenever I see one to this day I think of those times and smile and feel like my 5,6,7 year old self.
Elderberry and honeysuckle are so needed right now and accessible. While reflecting on elderberry’s relationship to honeysuckle and honeysuckles relationship to ancestors I ask what prayers and what ancestor work that we are called to do at this moment. What map or roadway to completely undoing, rebuilding, re-envisioning, greiving, liberation, deconstructing, shifting can we tap into by sitting with elderberry and the honeysuckle?