Spent all day today in a class on Herbology. Mostly, while the teacher talked, I smelled the plants. I really can't describe the joy, pleasure, and ecstacy that I get from holding and smelling herbs. I'd brought a huge bottle of water, and I broke off a bit of rosemary and put it in the water. All day, I was drinking rosemary. It was heaven. On the way home, I was kicking myself for ever drinking "plain" water.
I came away with a few resolutions. Next year, I am going to grow bee balm, which I've avoided because it's so aggresssive, but today I remembered how amazing it smells. Also, I'm going to grow catnip. Miss Thing is, oddly, one of those cats who really don't get too wild about catnip. But our teacher was telling us today that, in large enough doses, catnip can make humans as euphoric as it does cats. Euphoria is good. I'm going to grow a lot of it.
Also, you know how sometimes a smell can take you all the way back to another time? A plant that I'd completely forgotten about -- Virginia Allspice -- was in the sample of plants that the teacher brought to class. My mom used to grow that and I'd completely forgotten it. The smell hit my brain like a time bomb and I was ten years old again, just like THAT. I'm going to find some and work it into my plans for re-landscaping this old yard.
Some people --maybe you -- would have been bored to tears today. But you have to find whatever it is that transports you, that makes you feel alive and happy and content and, then, you have to do it. Take a music lesson. Travel. Cook. Write. Dance. Fix cars. Finish furniture. We have to protest, and write letters, and work hard to save our world. And, we have to do what feeds our souls. We have to thrive. For me, a day smelling live plants is transportative.
What is it for you?????
5 comments:
Oh, I dunno, Hecate. That sounds like a wonderful way to spend a day to me.
Hmmmmm, one of the sweetest witches I've ever known had a cat named "Miss Kitty" and she could mix a mean potion. :)
-Mr.M
Both of my cats stone themselves blind on catnip. I can't grow it in the garden because they eat it. If you're successful getting it to grow, it produces a sweet and beautiful lavendar bloom.
I don't get sufficient sunlight for my bee balm. It blooms indifferently.
A fellow blogger, WV Man, had to run his cat to the vet emergency room on New Year's Eve because the cat had too much catnip. Not making this up. Miss Thing is probably wise.
Make sure grandson eats lots of cat fur. No allergies for him in the future!
Sometimes I just HAVE to smell rosemary, or I think I will die, so I definitely understand what you are talking about.
I have no sense of smell, so your post is a little bittersweet, however I shall try your suggestion of putting rosemary in water.
Post a Comment