Quiet time and generational healing
Quiet time and generational healing
With family time in nature space opens for deep generational healing
My hands, my mother’s hands, my daughters hands, these hands of ours with dirt under our fingernails, a mosquito bite, washed by river water and sunshine. Hands that have held each other through the years. The hands of mothers feeding daughters, cleaning daughters, holding daughters, doing the work, the cooking, the cleaning, making the money, filling in the paperwork, fixing the the things that are broken, making it work, making a life that can be lived in. Getting it right, getting it wrong, having to apologise and forgive, but always “I love you” “I’ve always Loved you, I always will”
This last week spent on the land in The Northern Rivers, by a river, in a tent, with my mother and my two daughters, just swimming and lying under the trees, sitting by the campfire, walking gently in the afternoon, when the searing heat has abated enough to move.
It’s been a big year, big illness in the family, now on the other side, but still feeling the aftershocks, still getting over it.
I wrote a book, I gave it everything, until I had nothing left to give and then I gave it some more. With my mothers help I gave it the more I didn’t have to give. My mother’s hands got it over the line. Picking plants and bringing them to me, more recipe testing, more trial, more error, making it work, another round of production, more fingers on the keyboard, another round of editing. We got there. It’s still not done but it’s so close now.
Now this week to just be, just unwind from it all. Reconnect with my children. Away from screens. All of us… were finally…. able… to get off… our… f**king screens!
To feel into the the space of being held by that great big mother of the Earth, by our mothers, by our daughters. Gentle touch, wind, river water and sunshine on golden brown or sunburnt skin. I’ve missed you. All of you. It feels like coming home. To myself.
On our last night we do a ritual. It’s time to get right with our ancestors. Time to break some patterns, heal some DNA. We each choose an object from nature to represent our mother, father and both sets of grandparents. Objects to add to the fire.
It’s time for truth telling. Time to say the things we never said before. Time to acknowledge our people in all their humanness and fragility.
We speak about the about the absent fathers and mothers, the abandonment, the alcoholics and addicts, the narcissists, the ones who couldn’t be there for the ones who needed them, the ones who couldn’t love themselves, the ones who pushed or worked to hard and sacrificed themselves for others until it broke them.
We speak about our sadness and anger and disappointment and we send them light and wish them well, we send the light of all the sun and fire and love we have collected over the week down through time and the lines of our DNA. We speak of the the ones who were great and loving and kind and noble and made us who we are, we acknowledge all we have received from them that we want to carry with us into our future, into the the DNA of the ones to come. We find compassion, we give thanks, we know ourselves better, we find peace.
After the fire we create a circle for new life, new growth; singapore daisy for abundance and prolific growth, fresh green grass for new life, new growth, fresh gotu kola for the links with our ancestors and karmic patterns that are being acknowledged and released.
We leave restored, connected, to nature, to each other, to our ancestors, to ourselves. Ready.
I’d love to hear in the comments how you have worked on healing family patterns or trauma. How do we do this as a society that hasn’t been taught how to do it?
This week on the Wildcraft series:
Cobblers pegs harvesting and monograph
This week on the Wildcraft series I’m talking about how to harvest Cobblers pegs and have included a very detailed herbal monograph on the plant and all its uses. There is also a fully referenced PDF version of the monograph that can be downloaded with all the references for anyone wanting to explore the research on this incredible plant.
This series is available to paid subscribers and will be added to each week. I have just started the series, so this is only the second post. But as the series progresses there will be more to explore each week. I’m focusing on one plant per month over the next 12 months. You can join for a just a month to access just the plants your interested in or join for a year to cover them all. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Cobbler’s Pegs, Lentil & Tomato Curry
(30 minutes) serves 4
This is a sneak peak recipe from my new recipe book out in 2024 by Murdoch books!
In the theme of all things Cobblers Pegs, I wanted to share this with all of you,
so you can be using this super nutritious plant straight away.
This delicious curry is super high in protein with cobbler’s pegs having the highest amounts of protein of all the wild plants I know – offering a whopping 24.5 grams of protein per 100 grams of fresh leaves. Most plants only contain between 1-6 grams of protein per 100g so 24.5 grams is off the charts!!
Lentils also contain protein and have approximately 9 grams of protein per 100 grams of cooked lentils. This is a great and nutritious curry, packed with minerals and protein and perfect to have as a staple on the menu.
Ingredients
1 cup dried green lentils (or one 425 g can of lentils)
2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 fresh chilli or ½ teaspoon of dried chilli flakes or chilli powder
1 thumb size piece of fresh grated ginger (or 2 teaspoons of ginger paste)
5 garlic cloves, minced (or 2 teaspoons of garlic paste)
1 large onion, finely diced
2 small sticks of celery, diced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 fresh tomatoes (chopped)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons of rapadura or coconut sugar
3 cups of lightly packed, coarsely chopped cobbler’s pegs leaves
½ cup of water
Serving suggestions: Lemon, coconut yoghurt, fresh cobblers pegs, parsley or coriander, steamed rice
Option: Add ½ a can of coconut cream towards the end of cooking for a creamy lentil dahl version of this dish.
Method
Soak the lentils for 8 hours or overnight. Drain lentils and add them to a saucepan, cover with fresh water and cook for 15-20 mins or until soft.
While lentils are cooking, put oil in a large frying pan and heat.
Add the coriander, cumin, garam masala, chilli, ginger, garlic, onion and celery and fry until golden brown.
Add the tomato paste and chopped fresh tomatoes, salt and sugar and cobbler’s pegs
Drained cooked or canned lentils and add to the frying pan.
Simmer over low heat until tomatoes and cobbler’s pegs are soft, stirring regularly. Add a little water if needed.
If using the coconut milk to make acreamy version add that now before serving, mix to incorporate on heat for 3 minutes.
Take off the heat and serve with a squeeze of lemon and freshly chopped cobbler’s pegs greens, parsley or coriander and a dollop of plain yoghurt. Serve with steamed rice.
Tell me what you want, what you really, really want.
I’d love to hear from you about what you would like me to share in this free substack. Click on what you would like more of or if its not there let me know in the comments. I’m keen to start interviewing other herbalist and inspirational folk in the coming year and keen to share more about the wonderful world of plants. But I want to give you what YOU want.
I would like to acknowledge the Kabbi Kabbi/Gubbi Gubbi peoples on who’s lands I live and work. I acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and pray this truth be acknowledged and respected by all who live, work and govern these lands.