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celebrating nature’s alchemy and fragrance
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simple gratitude and celebration.
All over the world in earlier times, trees were “dressed” using ribbons
or small toys tied on in the winter, in order to thank the tree for the
splendor of its greenness and the joy of its blossom in spring and summer.
In fact, there were hundreds of ancient rituals for celebrating nature. Well
dressing was another, to thank the springwater for providing the basis for
life.
Access to nature was, luckily, something I grew up with, and it has
affected my life ever since. My mother produced homemade wine, and I
gathered for her the wild yellow broom flowers, nettle tops, blackberries,
elder flowers, elderberries, dandelion flowers, and birch sap required.
Spending hours and hours over years and years with these colorful plants
gave me something that is very much a part of myself. Camping and
traveling have given me an accumulated love of mountains, rivers,
streams, woods, and valleys; sun, rain, thunder, wind, cold, and heat.
Sometimes too tired to put a tent up, I have lain in powder-dry ploughed
fields, the odd ditch, or under a sheltering tree. Moonlight, darkness,
firelight, and stars have become familiar and friendly. It is there for us all
to be touched by.
The Sweet Smell of Nature
The scent of plants on a wet early spring morning; the smell of newly
mown grass; the first roses of summer; the hot, dry, arid herbs on a
scorched mountain— these are just a few of the many sweet smells of
nature.
Smell is one of the most evocative memory joggers. Not only does it
stop you at the time, helping you to extend and savor all that is present, but
it also has a beautiful way of reviving memories to sweeten the present.
When we remember someone, we very often remember their scent. We
smell their individual pheromones (from the Greek pherein meaning “to
carry,” and hormon meaning “to excite”). Pleasant odors make us feel happy,
while noxious ones can irritate or depress. So whether you like the smell of
tar, bergamot essential oil, or the latest chemical perfume is for you to de-
cide, but the sensation will change your own body chemistry. It does this
through a portion of the brain that controls emotional well-being, which is
originally triggered by the nerves of the olfactory organ— the nose.
Essential oils come from all parts of plants and trees: bark, berries,
seeds, leaves, and flowers. They all basically work to balance our
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, relaxing and bringing
harmony and equilibrium, clarity and awareness. This is why they were,
and still are, burned in so many temples around the world in the form of
incense: myrrh and frankincense from Africa and western Asia, sage from
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