On my morning walk, I stop to greet the yellow Trout Lily growing just inside the tree line. I have greeted her every Spring since we first met in 1998. That was my first Spring in the Wood and I didn’t know the plant Devas as I know them today. They were a flush of colors bursting open in a timely succession from February through Fall, some familiar and some, totally new. Trout Lily where I grew up on the Oregon Coast was pink and we called her Lamb Tongue. I remember my Grandpa coming in from his Spring walk with an armload of pink Lamb Tongues for my Grandma. She always received them with a smile as he handed her his gift; and filling her nicest vase with water, she set them next to the sink for all to admire.

Our first few years living in the Wood, we picked more than our fair share of the beautiful wild flowers that decorated our hills. White Trilliums, blue Borage, yellow Oregon Graperoot, pink Current and others graced our table as the season unfolded. As we explored, we discovered the less known and more rare flowers as well, Lady Slippers, Shooting Stars, Chocolate Lilies, pink Cat’s Ears and Oregon Fairy Bells... these we didn’t pick, just admired their exotic presence in our Wood.

As I became more connected with the plants, more showed up to teach me; mentors and teachers also came into my life. I met Hawthorne, Elder, Dandelion, Nettle and Self Heal. Abundant, weedy, wild medicine I learned to harvest and use. But, I didn’t just want to harvest and use, I wanted to “know” the plants that I lived among and to understand the gifts they offered; our ancestral connection to the web of life. I took online classes and read tons of books but, it was being with the plants where I began to “hear” and pay attention to what they had to teach me. I began to live with the rhythm of the Wood.

My daily Spiritual practice through The Invisible Garment work has deepened my connection to the plant Devas all around me. My daily walks are not just walks, they are deep encounters with the plants. They invite me to sit with them, to listen, to hear, to taste and know them in the deepest part of myself. This practice is the conduit that connects the macrocosm with the microcosm...the As Above, So Below, eliminating the separation of human and plant...of human and other.

Spring of 2020, marks twenty-two years in this Wood. She’s a sentient, living being I am grateful to be in relationship with. She has given me good gifts of health, vitality and beauty. In return, I steward her with love, accepting her gifts of Spring flowers and new plants: Usnea, Wild Ginger and Red Cedar communicating their wisdom into my Beingness. Anyone can use a plant, but being connected to the sentience of the plant Devas honors and respects the relationship. It is with deep gratitude that I listen to the wisdom of this pharmacopia in my Wood.