My Daddy taught me that if you learn the flora and fauna of a place, that you’ll never feel like a stranger. He moved to Zimbabwe over 40 years ago for many reasons, but partly because he was wanted to live in a place where he could build a relationship with the wild. He took that relationship seriously and modeled it for my siblings and I in his own unique way .
When we moved to Botswana it was the same. I watched him take the time to learn the Tswana names for the trees and bushes catalogue the growth patterns of the velds we spent our time in. In his immigration , he found a place that felt more like the home of his heart than where he had been born and raised. I attribute most of that to his relationship with the outdoors. Unknowingly, he showed me how to belong yourself to a place not knowing that one day I would need that information when his death untethered me from Earth. I clawed my way back down in the arms of trees and plants that held me. Well, the trees and group therapy. Gotta give it up for group therapy too.
Herbalist Guido Mase is one of the teachers whose lectures I started listening to when I began my journey as an herbalist. He spoke once about the practice of having a nibble of a familiar and friendly plant when traveling to a new place. Going on a walk and becoming acquainted with the plants and nature around you. Creosote in Arizona, Guinep in Jamaica, Baobab in Botswana, and so on and so forth. Greeting them, making and offering, and if you have the time, learning more about them. I try to visit herbal shops, and native preservation centers every time I travel somewhere new. It’s good to know who your neighbors on Earth are, and how they live. I want to be a citizen of Earth, rather than just the locus of my home.
As for me, I have cultivated in myself the joy and medicine of seeking out seasonal fruits and vegetables. Even though we live in the city, there are several fruit bearing trees in places we frequent. I used to hate cold weather months with a passion. But now we demarcate our year with the arrival of the foods that grow around us.
Leaning towards observing the seasons and eating seasonally has changed my heart towards gratitude and wonder. I dream of peaches and watermelon in January, and pumpkins in July. We visit strawberry patches in the Spring, and go to the pumpkin patch in Autumn. I watch the gestation of apple trees as if they are a pregnant mother waiting for the birth of their baby. I’m just grateful to be on this Earth, with these plants, and that I get to experience these things. They ground me.
Rootin’ Tootingly yours
Farai