Alyson Morgan - Our Kindred Home: Herbal Recipes, Plant Wisdom, and Seasonal Rituals for Rekindling Connection with the Earth

Acknowledgments

I want to acknowledge this Earth we all call home, which shelters and feeds us, and brings us joy with its spring blossoms. To the water that we share and to the soil that feeds us and where we will all return to one day. Even when I have fear in my heart and words are caught in my throat, the way the sunlight hits my face and the ever-changing clouds float across the sky helps me remember why Im grateful to be alive. Earth imbues me with the courage to live my most authentic self, in turn I have a fierce call to protect and fight for its survival.

To the plants who reached out to merosemary, lemon balm, elderflowerwhose scents and smells and delights called me in to listen more deeply to the Earth and myself. On this plant path, my life diverged in ways I could have never imagined. I am indebted to you.

To my ancestors who have found homes in the stars. Your lives, journeys, and experiences have brought me to where I stand. Your exquisitely complicated stories, known and unknown, live on in my bones.

To my husband and partner on this cosmic journey, AJ Morgan, who with humor, love, and unwavering service has helped me create the space and time during a global pandemic to write my first book. He helps me make my dreams come true and loves me through my errors and in my humanity. Your love has given me courage and strength to love myself. He has stepped in, stepped up in ways, seen and unseen, so I could bring this book into being. Im forever grateful to you.

To my parents, Geraldine and Anthony Cook, who have cared for me through my early arrival to this earth, through accidents, and on simple days, too. They encourage me and have loved me fiercely every day since my first breath and remind me what it means to come home. I am lucky to know them.

To my children: Magnolia, my moon, and Griffin, my sun. You are why I use my voice; their mere existence brings a smile to my face and tears to my eyes daily because I am grateful to have been given the gift of being their mother. I am grateful to them for their patience and unwavering love and for giving me the space to write and create.

To the herbal community that Ive come to know and love and learn from. I humble myself at the wisdom, lessons, and experience that plant people so graciously share in pursuit of healing. To my various herbal teachers, friends, and mentors from conferences, workshops, courses, and conversations about plants and to those who open their gardens, hearts, and minds to meour connections are rooted.

To the voices in written works who have provided me with ways out of my own darkness and into my own light: bell hooks, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rebecca Solnit, Joanna Macy, Mary Oliver.

To local friends and creatives Fran Knapp, Karlee Mikkelson and Kirsten Layer. To Fran, for being a dear and trusted friend for ten years, it is a dream to have your hard work and amazing skills showcased in my book. I hope you continue to create because the world needs it. Kirsten, for her testing, her stellar taste buds and food knowledge, her gentle but necessary critiques that helped me bring my recipes to this book. To Karlee for helping me capture parts of my visions for this book that I could not do on my own. It takes a village. To that end, Im grateful for our little town and community that steps in to help and give support and encouragement all along the way, often times no questions asked. It is here I call home and laid down my roots.

To my editor, Michele Eniclerico, whose belief in this vision, sharp mind, and kind demeanor have guided me as Ive brought these words from the depth of my being. Writing doesnt come easy and the support is immeasurable.

To my agent, Julia Eagleton, who has become a trusted friend and champion on this writing path.

To my therapist, Travis, I wouldnt and couldnt have written a book without years of sessions with you. Working with you helps me in ways I dont have words for, but maybe for my next book.

ALYSON MORGAN is a writer, photographer, and folk herbalist. She runs the herbal business Earth Star Herbals and writes about homesteading and eco-activism at alysonsimplygrows on Instagram. She has been featured in Reading My Tea Leaves, Domino, Milk Magazine, and Hello Lunch Lady. Her writing has been published in Bayou with Love, Herbal Academy, and Taproot. Alyson moved from California to the Midwest, where she homesteads with her husband and their children. You can follow Alyson on Instagram @alysonsimplygrows.

Reseeding Our Future

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. Maybe many of us wont be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.

Arundhati Roy

The new world will come from the ground up. The definition of the word reparations is to make amends for a wrong by helping those who have been harmed in some material and tangible way. The root of the word is repair or the Latin reparae , which translates to make ready again. As my first and dear therapist, Hali, helped me learn, in relationships with other people, conflict can sting and it can hurt, but the most important aspect is the repair work put in. The communication, the care, and the tenderness given in its wake. The word amend means to make better by making minor changes, from the Latin emendare , out of a fault. How can we use our hands and hearts to make whole our world that is damaged and injured? If the repair work is most important and most valuable, how do we begin?

What will we mend with the thread that binds us together, to our ancestors and our children? What future will we weave for tomorrow? It is my deepest hope that by encouraging intimate relationships with plants and the natural world, we will open portals to protect our kindred earth more fiercely.

Lets not allow the darkness of the past color the possibilities held within our present moment. Can we distill our pain down into a seed of wisdom to plant for future generations? Can we find the courage to meet ourselves in this moment? In our hearts and our collective action, we need to knit ourselves into reciprocity and accept interdependence as a vehicle for healing.

We need to nurture our soils, plant gardens to feed ourselves and each other, and tend to our local ecosystems. We need to heal ourselves and nurture our nervous systems so we can take clear, creative, and decisive action to heal the earth.

As Ive begun to learn about cherishing bees as a part of my garden and my ecosystem, their organization provides inspiration for how we can look to work together as a whole. Bees work to serve the hive. An individual bee is an organism in and of itself, yet it works to support the superorganism that is the hive, the whole, the home. We can do the work in front of us, and that contributes to the wellness and harmony of the whole.

Healing doesnt need to happen in isolation, rather healing can be brought into the realm of the community. Lets gather around food, drink, and plants to nourish each other into wholeness. In the practice of building trust in one another, let us open our gardens, hearts, and homes in a spirit of shared humanity and kinship.

• Invite a neighbor into the garden to share a harvest of herbs, flowers, or just conversation.

• Lend a hand in a friends garden.

• Make a cup of tea for an acquaintance from garden-grown herbs and lend an ear.

• Make a meal for a member of the community.

• Grow extra vegetables to donate to a local food pantry.