Honoring my creative lineage: Beloved plant allies
This month, I will write a series of personal reflections, poems and vignettes that honor my creative lineage, which includes the many beings that have shaped me, prayed for me and supported me so that I may walk my own empowered path guided by them and the gifts they shared with me.
Beloved Plant Allies
My ancestral roots are tied up with plants. Like the mycelium networks that speak and offer nourishment to trees, I stand taller with the support of the beloved green ones. My people were born from the soil of Ukraine. They sang to the earth, prayed to the earth, and thanked the earth. And the earth felt their heart beat along with hers.
When I first connected with the spirit of dandelion, when the information I was sensing I was also believing and trusting, I cried. There is so much freedom in our communication. The dandelion joyously allowed me the space to see my own reflection; I felt my inner sun beaming out of my chest in the shape of the flower.
When I think back on my early years, plants were always there. I was steeped in nature even while living in a cosmopolitan city like Kyiv. Every year, my parents would take my sister and I camping for months on the riverbed of the Dnieper. It wasn’t a public campsite but a small patch of land emerged in nature; we would spend days playing in the water, and soaking up the sun and lying under the dreamy sky in our tents.
Plants mostly spoke to me through people who could feel their intimate connection until I could feel them and interpret their messages on my own. My father, before we left Kyiv in 1989 to immigrate to the U.S., stopped under a horse chestnut tree and said “Make sure to say goodbye to this horse chestnut because you won’t see it in America”. There was so such sadness in his voice, like he was parting with an old friend.
We would visit my grandparents in their dacha (summer house) during the summer and I would instantly gravitate to the bouquet of a carrot greens and fight to pick them out. My grandmothers garden was lush and full of life and so were the neighboring dachas. Everybody intimately knew how to nurture the land and grow their own food.
It wasn’t until 2016 when I came upon a local garden in my neighborhood that I began to listen to my body and how it felt when I was around plants. I felt a buzzing, something was happening inside me that I couldn’t name; I just knew that I needed to come back. In 2018, I took an Herbal Intensive Class with a dear friend and soul sister, Liz Neves, that changed the trajectory of my life.
Her gentle prodding to connect to the essence of the plants we were working with opened me up to receive their guidance and support fully. I began to trust my intuition. I allowed their medicine to hold and support my unfolding. In my personal and professional life, I was feeling a sense of personal liberation and an appreciation for what life was showing me.
Plants helped me to heal generations of trauma and emotional suppression. The oppressive culture of the Soviet Union in Ukraine did not allow its people to express their feelings in safety. Fear of persecution forced my family members to hide themselves and to quiet their voice; their lack of inner power reflected that. Many people on my father’s side suffered and even died from ulcers because of the trauma they endured under the authoritative and colonial government.
Rose opened up a portal to my senses and sensuality in profound ways. In a journey meditation, she appeared as a gigantic vine hovering over me showing me her thorns. “Don’t underestimate me because I am beautiful”, she declared, reminding me that I am also the dance between beauty, power and self-preservation.
Image by Edward Howell
Goldenrod reminded me I am worthy, powerful and strong. “Allow your inner strength to be expressed - set boundaries and feel ok to say NO when necessary”, they told me and reminded me that we are siblings and not that different from each other. “Feel our connection and know the I am always shining for us”; their words remind me that we have a sacred relationship.
Image by Emily Thompson
I started to connect to the plants that my ancestors used: red clover, comfrey, plantain, rosehip, valerian, mulberry and so on. I realized that there was a universe of rituals and songs that they sang to their plant friends. I learned that they would sprinkle fresh seeds on sweet cakes and dried herbs to make teas to support lungs and kidneys. The plants that grew in spring would offer the people a sense of rebirth and supported seasonal transitions.
Plants expanded my sense of creativity by connection me back to my roots and giving me permission to celebrate my life in small and playful ways. If I wanted to communicate with my fellow green beings, I had to come to a place in myself that was open, imaginative and intuitive. They expanded my path of self-exploration, a key ingredient in my creativity work.
Plants have offered me countless gifts and helped me to cultivate my relationship with Mother Earth, my forever home. Our relationship has grown to include my daughter, an earth child in her own right, who is watching and listening to their wisdom and guidance by watching her mama.
Thank you, blessed green ones, for all your sweet blessings and reminders.