Ghia – How to connect to the natural world through plants—specifically flowers

Sleeping Bees https://mymodernmet.com/joe-neely-sleeping-bees/

Hello, my friends Ghia here with the creative, spiritual journey podcast.

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Or Judy and I share what we've been

learning on this remarkable journey.

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We call life.

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If you've listened to my first podcast,

you know, that one of my goals is

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to live closer to the natural world.

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Today.

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I want to share where my journey has

taken me over the last several weeks.

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As part of my goal, I decided to

improve my relationships with plants.

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Does that sound odd?

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How do you have a

relationship with a plant?

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They can talk.

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How do you get to know them?

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Traditionally, I'm not

much of a plant person.

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I don't have any houseplants

because I kill them.

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And I loved the first garden I ever

planted, But subsequent gardens I

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didn't have time for, so I tried to

put them on autopilot with timed,

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waterings, and occasional weedings.

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The plants didn't thrive and

I didn't enjoy the process.

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I truly believe gardens need

to be visited every day.

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As my husband and I are in the

process of developing our property.

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I'm trying to get the garden as close

to the front door of the house as I can.

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So that ignoring the garden,

won't be a possibility.

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I want this plant

interaction thing to be easy.

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You might be asking if

it's so hard for you Ghia.

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Why do you want it so bad?

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As part of my answer, I want to share

with you some thoughts from a wonderful

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herbalist named Rosemary Gladstar.

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If you don't know her, she is

basically the grand matron of

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urbalism in the United States.

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She began talking about herbs back when

herbs and herbal medicine wasn't popular.

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It was Rosemary Gladstar along with

only a few others who started the

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whole Western herbalism movement.

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But it's more than that.

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People are drawn to Rosemary's

beautiful, soft spoken nature.

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I love to hear her talk about plants

And how to be in relationship with

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them and how to learn from them.

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I couldn't find a quote that captured

what I wanted you to hear from her.

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So I pulled a bunch of comments

she gave at a conference.

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She says plants are our elders.

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In all creation stories of the world,

plants are on the earth before humans.

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We have grown up with them.

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They teach and support us.

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Plants absorb sunlight.

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And when we eat them,

we are eating sunlight.

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Or pre digested sunlight.

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Plants help us feel calmer and

more centered in our bodies.

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They teach us to root down and reach up.

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They teach us resiliency and adaptation.

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Plants are spiritual beings.

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They connect us to a sense

of joy and self-love.

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Listen to what plants

are trying to tell you.

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Life as a struggle, find the joy.

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Immerse yourself in the world of plants.

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I give them every

opportunity to lift you up.

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We need plants and plants need us.

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Does that inspire you to want more

of a relationship with plants?

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It does me.

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We need plants, literally

because of the whole oxygen,

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carbon dioxide exchange thing.

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But there's more than that.

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When I was a recreation major at the

university of Utah, I had to read a book

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called wilderness and the American mind.

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I was really upset by the book

because it basically said that humans

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don't belong in the wilderness.

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That we disrupt nature and

that we should leave it alone.

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I had just barely discovered

my love for the outdoors.

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The idea that I didn't belong

there seemed wrong to me.

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But what could I say?

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How could I refute a book

given to me by my professors?

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Life went on, but I never forgot

that book and how it made me feel.

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Recently, I've been noticing the tide

in this area beginning to change.

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For example, there is a book I love

called braiding Sweetgrass that

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basically talks about this relationship

that humans have with nature.

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For example, think about the Alps.

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People have been visiting and

gathering from the high mountain

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Meadows there for millennia.

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And the Meadows are actually

better for their pruning.

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Humans can nurture and

care for the natural world.

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Plants and humans can

benefit from each other.

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So those are some of the

reasons why I wanted to develop

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my relationship with plants.

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And when do you put out an intention?

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I believe magical things happen.

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And here is what happened to me.

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I began to wonder what I was

going to name my may full moon.

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I looked up the ancestral names,

which are budding moon, flower, moon

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planting, moon leaf, budding moon.

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And the moon of shedding ponies.

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The moon ocean.

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Getting ponies.

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Who knows ponies so well that

they can name the moon that.

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I wish I had ponies and my life.

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But since I don't a flower seemed

like the right choice for me.

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And because the only flowers

in my life right now are wild.

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It would have to be a wild flower.

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So I started anticipating

wildflower season.

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I began to watch and look for them.

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This built a sense of anticipation.

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And I was so excited when I

saw my first wild flowers.

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I found a bright red, Indian paintbrush.

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Uh, along with some tiny little Daisy like

flowers that I have no idea the name of.

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It was three more weeks before

purple Lupin showed up on my walk.

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And then more Lupin.

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Snow white Sega.

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Lily appeared next to

bright yellow Bules ears.

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Then the cactus began to bloom.

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There was a patch of deep red cleric

cups and a favorite, the hedgehog cactus.

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With a single bright pink

flower perched on its crown.

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Like a spring bonnet.

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It was so much fun to find them.

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And I realized it was like

having my friends show up.

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Was this what having a relationship

with plants was like this looking

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forward to seeing them again.

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I think so.

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Hazara.

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I had a relationship with wild flowers.

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I never realized.

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And all it took was some

deliberate forethought.

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Hmm.

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It was fun.

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Wonderful yummy.

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Exactly what I was looking for.

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But I still hadn't decided which

flower to use for my may full moon.

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One that I haven't seen recently, but no.

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Well, from my travels in the desert,

seemed like an obvious choice.

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And that is doTERRA.

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Also called moon flower.

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Because of its white trumpet,

like blossoms that open at night.

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But doTERRA are poisonous and

they're also called devil's weed.

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So I just wasn't feeling it.

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I also considered Sega Lilly.

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And my experience, it

is a solitary flower.

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And when I saw this year, it appeared

so white against the red soil.

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That I was amazed by its brilliance.

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Still I hesitated.

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I think I secretly knew which flower I was

going to choose from the very beginning.

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And when I finally saw it last week,

I knew the weight had been worth it.

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I named my may moon, globe Malo.

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Maybe not an obvious choice

being bright orange instead

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of white, but let me explain.

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There are lots of malos the most famous

being the marshmallow and yes, the

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roots form, a globby sticky substance

that added with sugar are the origins

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of our modern day marshmallows.

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Glove Malo on the other hand is

generally not ingested, though.

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It can be made into a tea.

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if the not so pleasant, tiny hairs

are filtered out with a cheese cloth.

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I haven't tried it.

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I am happy just to admire

glow Malo in passing.

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The most common globe Malo has fire

orange P two marble size flowers.

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Which cluster along wand like stems.

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They may look delicate, but

this flower thrives in arid hot

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regions of the Southwest growing

from Rocky inhospitable soil.

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I've even seen globe Malo, sprouting from

slick rock with seemingly no soil at all.

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So don't be deceived.

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There is nothing frail

about this wild flower.

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It's as tough as they come.

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And I'm going to call globe Malo

service oriented as it is also

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good for pollinators, such as

hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees.

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And speaking of pollinators, when

you have a chance do a search

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for globe Malo and sleeping bees.

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The most amazing picture.

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Uh, taken by nature for tography

for Joe Neely will come up.

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The picture is of two bees snuggled

together, sleeping in a globe.

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Malo, bud.

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They are dusted with yellow pollen

and have what looks like blue eyelids.

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This picture will make you understand

the origins of fairy tales.

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It's magical.

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These little creatures

are called globe Malo.

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No BS and live across the

Western United States.

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Glo Malo has been one of my favorite

wild flowers since my early twenties.

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When I first came to the

desert to be a river guide.

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And this picture of snuggling bees

has made me love it even more.

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But it isn't its hardiness

or the sleeping bees.

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But since the globe Malo

as my may moon choice.

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It was because of its roundness.

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The globe of globe Malo.

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Hello.

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One definition of globe is a spherical

representation of a celestial body.

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Each bud on the globe, Malo plant

is round the shape of the moon.

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There was something about

roundness that attracts me.

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I've always loved the

phrase we hear at church.

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All truth may be circumscribed into one.

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Great whole.

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I also love when I says, I am in circled

about eternally in the arms of his love.

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Does that sound like the best hug ever?

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But here's, what's interesting.

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I always saw a hug as one

dimensional, like two arms

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wrapping around me in a circle.

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Now after contemplating

the moon and globe Malo.

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I see more than just a circle.

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I see a globe.

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A hug that can Incircle me all the way

around side to side, top to bottom.

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I can feel encircled or globed.

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in an all encompassing hug.

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I love that.

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So recently in those magical hours of

the morning, when I'm just beginning

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to wake up, I have imagined myself in

circled in a globe, like hug from God.

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And I snuggle there, like

a bee in a wild flower.

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It's a great way to face the morning.

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Try it sometime and see

how it makes you feel.

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Before I wrap up, I want to talk a

little bit more about this idea of

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being in a relationship with plants.

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I believe all of us have

more of a relationship with

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them than we might think.

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Because plants are woven throughout

all our holidays and celebrations.

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And it's not a coincidence that we

bring flowers to someone who is sick.

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We instinctively know they bring

joy and joy brings healing.

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Plants help us weather,

the storms of life.

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And all we have to do is make

that relationship deliberate.

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I want to tell you one more story.

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There was a time in my life

when I was incredibly lonely.

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I was a single mom recently broken

up with my only marriage prospect.

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And my teenage daughter

was off with her friends.

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Most of the time.

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I was working crazy long hours yet.

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Barely paying my bills.

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I don't know what inspired it, but one day

I decided to start buying myself flowers.

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Before this, I had always

thought the man in my life was

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supposed to bring me flowers.

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I wasn't supposed to buy them for myself.

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But in one fluid motion, I threw

that misconception out the window

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and started buying my own flowers.

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And I loved it.

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There were only from the grocery store,

nothing fancy, but it was an amazing joy

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to pick the flowers I wanted every week.

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They would match my mood or the seasons.

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And they kept me company until

I went to the store again.

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The fabulous husband I have now what

happily buy me flowers every week.

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If I wanted him to.

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But, you know what.

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I learned, I would rather buy them myself

because picking them out is half the joy.

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So all this to say, if I have an, any

way inspired you to cultivate your

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relationship with flowers, there is a way.

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Grow them, buy them, use them

and tease and baths or skin

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products, create art with them.

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Whatever you want.

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Use your imagination, but love

them because they love you

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and want to bring you joy.

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If you liked this podcast,

please share it with a friend.

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And if you're inclined,

leave us a five star review.

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Judy we'll be here next week

and I will be back into.

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Until then.

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I find some flowers to love.

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This earth would be such a

lonely place without them.

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Nama stay.