Subject-herb agreement: Finding Kindred Spirits Can Be Healing

Subject-herb agreement

Finding Kindred Spirits Can Be Healing

by Gabrielle Daniels

Much of the past 10 years has been a limbo of sorts for me. (I realize Pope Benedict the XXLIXth—or whatever—recently declared Limbo nonexistent but I just know I’ve been there!) I’ve lived in places I’ve loved and I’ve lived in places I. . . umm. . . haven’t. But I now realize I’ve never lived in a place where I fit.

“Hi. What do you do?”
“Oh, I’m a Master Herbalist.”
Silence.
“So, you grow herbs?”
In short, I’ve had few people even KNOW my career exists. And, when I decided to hold classes, write a regular newspaper column, give private consultations and host a radio program as an herbal health care specialist, the response was modest, to say the least. I grew very accustomed to blank looks.
“Well, yes, I do grow herbs but my work is helping people improve their health through medicinal herbs and foods.”
Silence.
“Hmm.” (Stifled yawn.) “Interesting. Tried herbs once. Didn’t work for me.”
Imagine my elation when I move to Viroqua, suggest garlic syrup for whooping cough and people, I’m not kidding, ask for the recipe; I mention the word “comfrey” and the person with whom I’m talking not only knows what it is but also knows its uses, where it grows and the numerous ways it can be prepared! And I’m not even talking to an herbalist.

Then I find out there are, get this, OTHER herbalists and they have a guild. . . with members! Who are alive! And participate!
After years of effort to set up herbal health classes with more than two students; after a three year stint giving, tops, a few private consultations a month; after two and a half years hosting a natural health radio program and receiving at best one or two calls a month due to it, I’ve now come to a place where I do almost nothing and people call me out of the blue because they’ve heard I’m an herbalist! In other words, I am no longer the oddball freakazoid who advocates organic food and encourages the use of natural remedies for good health. I fit!

It’s an amazing experience to have a conversation with people who enthusiastically nod, smile and say, “Yes, I agree.” This, instead of the truly blank stares I’d get when I’d mention that a child’s ADD just might be due to the ChocoPuffs he eats 3 times a day and the candy bars she’s given as a reward in school.

I’m all atingle when I go to the Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School end-of-the-year picnic and I see a child with herb poultices on her knees.

“Is that an herbal poultice?” I ask the mom.
“Yes, it’s plantain. She really scraped up her knees.”
“I haven’t used it for scrapes but I’ve had really good luck with plantain for poison ivy,” I say. “I had a really bad case on my face and used it for less than a week and it was gone.”
(Now, here comes the really kickin’ part!)
“Did you use a salve or poultice?” she asks.
(My heart actually skips a beat!)
“I used a salve during the day because it was less noticeable on my face. At night I did a full-out poultice. I also drank a quart of plantain tea every day.”
“Fresh or dried?”
(I pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. I’m not.)

“Fresh for the poultice and dried for the tea,” I say. “I always use fresh for mosquito and other bug bites, too, and drinking the tea helps bug bites be less irritating even when the bites first occur.”

Of course, we WERE at the picnic with tons of children and other adults and, despite my deep desire to go on with this rare and exciting encounter, it had to end sooner or later. End it did (sigh), with an interruption from a child needing help with food.
But I look forward to many more such talks and hope that I always appreciate them fully, knowing I couldn’t have this kind of random encounter just anywhere.

To achieve the unique experience of fitting in just by being myself, I first had to find a town called Viroqua, of all things, and move here. kfp

Gabrielle Daniels is a Master Herbalist and writer who has recently moved to Viroqua with her husband Pete and two sons, Soren, 6, and Miles, 2 1/2. As a “Jackie of All Trades,” Gabrielle has worked in professional theater, managed a small newspaper, and run an organic CSA garden with Pete. She’s all fired up to see what the future brings in beautiful Kickapoo country.