One thing I have discovered, about being an herbalist 🌿is that you can be who you are, and that is okay.
A herbalist can look like the scientist in the lab, the hippie in the forest, the teacher at your school, the store owner down the street, the farmer on the praries, the university student, a young mom, a seasoned grandma, and YOU! You can look just like you!
I laugh at this, because for such a long time, I wanted and craved that Boeheme style of clothing, house, and just the kind of cool peace that it brought to my soul when I saw it. I loved it. But it was soooo not my world! I had six children, a houseful of mismatched furniture, hand-me-down clothes, and we didn’t always eat the healthiest, and I was a herbalist! Life was fast paced, always a bit chaotic, and we lived in the middle of a bustling city. I worked in a very busy kindergarten classroom. There was not much in our lives that was Zen. Haha One of the things I enjoyed doing, and found much zen in – wandering through greenhouses. Yep I still love to do that today as well.
Now my children have all grown, and I am on 10 grandchildren, and my life is still pretty chaotic at times. I still have mis-matched furniture. I still love the Boeheme style / look, but there is nothing about my life that radiates this love! I don’t always eat the healthiest, in fact, my favorite love is Poutine! Yep! It’s my guilty pleasure of choice. I do however find time now, to have a little Zen in my life. I still love my t-shirts and jeans, and it is my clothing of choice. AND… I am more a herbalist 🌿now than I have ever been! And I love it!
I guess my point is, to embrace your life and make it beautiful, no matter what it is. You can be an herbalist if you live in the city, or on a homestead (my dream by the way), or by the beach or in the forest. There is no definition that will define you as an herbalist, other than the love of herbs, plants, and natural medicine / healing, and possibly making the world a better place, wherever you are. Other than that… well the world of herbalism is wide open!
What is it that you love about herbalism? 🌿 For me it started as a child, growing up on a farm in Southern Alberta. I spent so much time out in the fields with my dad, irrigating, riding on the tractors, eating everything that was edible, and he taught me well. I spent many summers with my grandpa, in the foothills, 🌲hiking, fishing, and enjoying nature, and again he taught me well.
I learned about plants, what they were called and if we could eat them. I learned the serenity of taking life slow, because as a farmer, and as a grandpa who was a rancher – yes they worked harder than any people I knew – but they also really knew how to slow down and just enjoy nature. I could often be found walking out in the middle of a field, picking a stalk of wheat and eating it, or a few pea pods, corn on the cob, or whatever else was growing, including all kinds of “weeds”. It was wonderful! And I loved it!
I have always self studied herbs. And up until this last couple of years, I never had any formal education, even though I have been making my “famous” Miracle Salve, that has made it’s way from Southern Alberta to the States to Africa, and many places inbetween! However now – I am soaking up the education with the few spare hours I have each day, and man I really mean soaking it in! It is wonderful and I love it!
Be who you are! Don’t try and be me or any other herbalist that you really look up to! Just do you! Be real and be YOU! Spin your own flair on how you want the world to perceive you as an herbalist. If you don’t have your “branding” created yet, well even better because the world is wide open to you. I have an old china cabinet that is my main herbal “apothecary” cupboard, with my tinctures, jars of herbs, jars of infused oils, and everything inbetween. It is located in a spare room we have, that doubles as an office, a closet space and an apothecary. So definitely I won’t have customers or people come into this space. Ughhh But I love my small space and am embracing it. My dream – a homestead / greenhouse / apothecary building and gardens. 🤔 I keep thinking! LOL
I have found my peace – finally – with who I am as an herbalist. Most days you can find me digging in the dirt somewhere, in my little lot in the city – sadly not on my homestead yet – but I am happy and finding contentment living life here for now. I have raised beds, potted plants, a large grape vine arbor thing, haha, and even a small creek that gurgles in my yard. It is a full yard, but we love it. If the weather is nice, you will find me doing camping near the mountains, ⛰️as that is really my Happy Place. I just love the mountains. This photo was a super fun spur of the moment camping trip with two of my girls! Do it!
You can find me whipping up a tincture blend – I am trying my hand at making blends and formulas, which is so much fun. You will almost always find a gallon jar of miracle salve soaking on my shelf waiting for the next batch to be made into salve and given freely to soooo many people. Another post I will talk about that more. You will find me almost always with a small batch of oil infusions going on in my little Levo oil infuser! That is a COOL tool! Worth every penny I paid for it! It will do a full pint of oil, so 2 full cups of an infused oil.
You will find me wearing something / accessorizing with essential oil diffusers, as a necklace, or lava bead bracelet or some other such thing. That is a vibe that I have always had and will always love!
So rather than drivel on about what you can find me doing, and what kind of an herbalist I am and want to be, what about you? What is it that you want to do, be, work for, or feel? On your journey to discovering herbalism in it’s many hundreds or thousands of forms, over ancient cultures, WHO ARE YOU AS AN HERBALIST?
WHO ARE YOU AS AN HERBALIST? Once you define this, and stop worrying about being like someone else… well, then that is when life really starts to happen for you. May this journey for you be beautiful as you find out. 🦋