Newsletter August 2026 Volume 202
Hello there,
I hope you’re doing well.
I’m just back from a walk and I am struck, yet again, by how healing a walk in nature can be.
I’ve been going up into the woods near my house because it’s cooler and quieter with fewer cars.
I have a practical ingrained fear of walking in isolated places because of the hostile-to-women world we all live in, but I have my phone, the trail is close to the neighborhood and I yearn to access nature that isn’t always cultivated, so I go out in the woods.
There is always a threat of assault thrumming in the life of a woman. I find this to be an absolute gutting heartbreak for many reasons and one is because if I had my way outside alone in the woods would be much of where I spent my time. Sleeping under the trees and lying by a brook.
You get it.
You probably have the same deep down yearning and same practical fear.
But today I actually wanted to talk about plants and forests; how they welcome us and sense us and how after listening to The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohleben (I’m only part way through.) I resonated so much with the idea the trees have their own sentience and they are communicating with each other, protecting each other but are doing so at a slower place that makes it difficult for us to recognize and see.
Also this week I was very moved by this quote by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world.”
I want to say it again and again.
Of course intention and attention matter and what we focus on, what we give our energy to and what we spend time with ultimately determine who we are.
What a lovely way to put it.
“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world.”
Just being out in the woods or in nature gives us a reminder of where we came from and what we are connected to, which can be very healing and grounding in these challenging times.
The other day, as I walked, I heard a sound, a rustling midway up through the trees and saw a bird on large slow wings flapping through the forest – away from me with the sun glowing behind it.
It was hard to get a handle on what kind of bird it was. I would assume a Barred or a Great Horned Owl because of its size, the wing shape and where it was in the trees,
As I walked farther up the path, I saw it again moving farther up into the woods. The first time I had thought maybe it was a jogger or a person but then I realized they would’ve had to be suspended in mid air. Part of me wanted to walk towards it into the woods, look up at the bird and discover what it was, but it was getting hotter and the mosquitoes were biting.
Also I wanted to leave it a mystery.
It didn’t even really matter who it was – that image of a bird moving through the trees with the dappled light behind it – has stayed with me and that is a kind of medicine too.
Today there were so many mushrooms poking up, spreading out and falling over. And a running stream! I haven’t seen that for weeks. It must be from the big rains we had this week. It felt satisfying to be part of a complex natural system responding to water from above with streams coming down the hill and mushrooms bursting up from the ground. After listening to The Hidden Life of Trees I had an awareness of the mycelium, the mushrooms and all the fungi surrounding, upholding and degrading the forest around me. It all feels even more mysterious than the more I know about it.
But then I had to laugh because as I walked, watching the ground around me for mushrooms and listening to the birds, I walked directly into an enormous spiderweb with what looked like a good size spider! I was too far in it before I could stop and I took the whole thing with me as I flailed around in the path for a while, hoping to flick it off, but it might still be somewhere on me. (I have showered. I am kidding. I hope.)
It was funny in the midst of paying such close attention to the world around me to then ambling directly into a net made for trapping.😂
As time goes on, I feel like as I notice my plants more and more, give them attention, focus on them, I can feel the reciprocation. I feel more connected to them, and whether that is coming from them or from my own attention, reflecting back on me may not matter, what matters is that there is a connection and an energy flowing.
I definitely feel that when I’m harvesting plants to use in medicine. I ask respectfully if I can harvest the plant.
One can’t help but appreciate the beauty and the gift of the dirt covered roots, the bright blooming flowers or the sharp fragrant needles.
What a gift.
And the fact that humans are in fact evolved to eat plants and use them as medicine so they work so well with our bodies; I feel so grateful.
One of my friends was asking me recently why my herbal products were so potent.
Was it the time they spent steeping?
Was it my formula?
The high quality ingredients?
And I think it is those things – yes – but I also think it is because I adore the plants and I feel so grateful and reverent towards them; that comes through in the medicine we make together.
How lucky am I? How lucky are all of us to have this beautiful abundant planet growing plants all around us!?
As Mary Oliver writes in the poem, “what can I say?”
“The song you hear singing in the leaf when you
were a child
Is still singing.”
Apparently, I feel very philosophical when I wake up and go directly on a walk, but practically, I wanted to let you know that I will be decanting and bottling up my CBD/ Balsam massage oil, (which I can’t sell on Etsy because they don’t allow any CBD – which is too bad but probably understandable.)
This blend of CBD and Balsam is very potent and now has a worldwide following because Lily‘s friend in India is requesting several large bottles for his grandmother!
It really works and helps with pain, inflammation and general malaise in the body.
And its scent is very soothing.
It takes me a year to make so I wanted to make sure that if you wanted some, I put you on a waiting list so I know how to prioritize its dispersion.
Let me know if you want some:
4 oz bottle $25
2 oz bottle $15
2 oz salve $25.
Lots of love to you and I hope you go enjoy the plants around you while they are thriving in these late summer months.
XO
Katherine
