Dear friends,

I originally wrote this newsletter for Earth Day, but between travel and work and gardening and everything else that happens away from the computer, Earth Day has come and gone and now here we are.

So I’ll keep this newsletter short and sweet. Below you’ll find a message I received from elusive Bloodroot when I was home in Wisconsin a few weekends ago. I wanted to share it because it was meaningful to me and maybe you’ll find it meaningful, too.

I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful transition into late spring, the most sensuous time of all!

Love,

Clare

Of the Real World

Two Sundays ago (Easter), after a full weekend of reconnecting with family I hadn’t seen in seven years, visiting old friends as they navigate the transition into new roles and identities (motherhood), and sitting on the grave of my grandfather who returned to the Earth almost exactly eight years ago (and who would have been 95 last week), I went for a walk in the woods behind my parent’s house in Wisconsin, up to the bluff with the effigy mounds that overlook the lake.

The hillsides were covered in Bloodroot, a plant I had never met before, a delicate spring ephemeral, both poisonous and medicinal. And as I wandered, I thought about belonging and what it means to feel home. I thought about family and community, and the loneliness I sometimes feel living so far from where I grew up. I thought about the loneliness of the creative path, one that requires constant explanation and justification, never knowing how or if it’s going to work out. And I thought about the loneliness of watching my oldest friends step into new roles that feel so foreign to me, despite the immense joy and happiness I feel for them.

At one point I decided to sit down. I found a little western-facing clearing filled with Bloodroot where I could watch the sunlight reflect off the lake. The mounds were to my back. And when I sat, I heard this: the human world, an isolated one, is lonely. When you let the edges between the human and more-than-human worlds begin to blend or blur, when you return to the real world, you always belong.

I’m an herbalist for many reasons. One reason is because I feel a strong urge to do something embodied, and something that’s useful and meaningful that impacts the lives of others in a positive way. Another reason is because I value creativity and a sense of spiritual purpose infinitely more than I do “making it” in a professional sense, and yet I still need to find a way to make a living, and I still crave success and respect as much as anyone. It is both an immense privilege and an exhausting process (where I feel like I’m always failing) to have this opportunity to define my professional life for myself. I know how rare that is in our world today and I am so, so grateful.

And yet every single time I’m actually with the plants, when I sit on the Earth, watching sunlight dance on water, surrounded by Bloodroot, or when I put my hands on hollow ground, I remember that this path is not about me. It’s not about my ego or what I have to say or my Instagram posts or why you should buy my products. It never has been. It’s only about me in so much as I have to have a way to support myself in our modern world–I have to promote myself to make a living.

At its center, this work is about remembering that we all belong here. That no matter the loneliness we may feel as we navigate our human experiences and responsibilities, we are intrinsically and intimately a part of the great family of things. This work is a process of homecoming and remembering. It is a practice of belonging. Through this work, we return to the embodied knowing that the Earth is our home, that we are Earth, and, someday, we are blessed to return back to it to rest. Back into the soft ground of ourselves. Shapeshifting, but always home.

Introducing: Everybody’s Tonic

Reproductive health has been a focus of my client work since I started working clinically. From painful menstruation to endometriosis, fertility to PMS, I love working with people as they deepen their relationship to their bodies through this lens. In a world in which the western medical paradigm offers limited options for reproductive imbalances, I’m in awe of the diversity of possibilities the plant world presents.

Winter’s Sister Everybody’s Tonic is an ode to the leaves, flowers, and roots that nourish the center of generative force within us all. Balanced and gentle, it can be used as a daily tea to support the reproductive system and/or ease common imbalances associated with the uterus and ovaries.

I named it Everybody’s Tonic because I wanted it to be inclusive to all, no matter one’s anatomy or gender identity (or age). You have a uterus and ovaries? Great! This tea is specifically formulated to support the vital function of those organs. You don’t have a uterus or ovaries? Also great! This tea provides gentle support for your whole body through a variety of mechanisms, and is intended to support you as you navigate the energetic aspects of what it means to embody creativity, fertility, and abundance. Likewise, this tea may be helpful for young adolescents to post-menopausal individuals. Our reproductive systems change over the years, but that doesn’t mean they need any less love and attention.

This tea is lovingly crafted with Raspberry Leaf, Rose Petals, Calendula Blossoms, Lady’s Mantle, Dandelion Root, Chamomile, and Ginger. All all of the herbs in this tea are certified organic and/or grown without the use of chemicals. All but two were sourced from small farms in the Pacific Northwest (Rise Up Remedies, a small women-owned herb farm here in Portland, Oshala Farm in southern Oregon, or Friends of the Trees in western Washington).

Working intentionally with herbs is an embodied way to move with the rhythm of the seasons, focus your energy, and support your body as it transitions through Spring and into Summer.

Curious what it’s like to work one-on-one with an herbalist? Read about my approach to clinical herbalism here.

Please Note: Statements made in this email have not been evaluated by the FDA. Products offered by this company are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any illness or condition. Seek expert advice before using herbs during pregnancy, while trying to conceive or nursing. The information provided by this website or this company is not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with you physician, and should not be construed as individual medical advice.