Herbs and Survival!

Nature like a magician has pulled clouds over the horizons and the heat has abated for today. At five in the morning, I was meditating and then when I opened my eyes there was this gray light. From darkness to light the subtle shift was beautiful. There were chopped off croutons near a hedge, picked them up and planted them in the garden. The clouds have drifted and sunlight and shadows dance on the rooftops.

There are sweet succulent mulberries and two trees that were bare branches and stump are covered in lovely shades of green,plucked a few and they tasted divine. When you pluck fruits from trees and eat them right away, you can feel the live energy entering your system. The frozen and processed foods just don't posses this pure nutrition. There is a lime tree where we live, not in my garden but nearby and throughout the year it is decorated with golden juicy limes. This reminds me of what Gandhi had to say about food, he once commented that food cooked in nature's fire, he meant the sun, is the best. Drawn from the Earth, filtered through the genes of plants, the organic compounds in the leaves, barks and roots restore balance to bodies exposed to artificial surroundings and foods created by us. In Indian kitchens some spices and herbs that are used daily without a thought, are now found to be rich in healing nutrients. The wonders of one such root I can vouch for, after I had a natural second delivery, I thought healing of the episiotomy stitches would be as long as the first one. This time I tried turmeric, I drank it mixed in plain milk and applied a paste on the stitches, there was a eucalyptus tree near the balcony so I would put hand full of these leaves in hot water. In less than seven days There was complete healing. There is a powdered mixture of three fruits-'harar-bahar-avla' this is a detoxifying combination to this I add, powdered peepul tree fruits called peepli, powdered bark of Arjun tree and this is one thing that really cleanses the system of any kind of toxic substance. Sharing this as we all encounter the stiffness in joints and that lethargic feeling that goes with the consumption of frozen foods and hectic lives. The herbs that I have mentioned are available at any ayurvedic
(ayurveda is a stream of medicine based on herbs practiced in India)medicine shop.

Sometimes it seems that life as we know it, we have got to the depth of it, at others it is as if we are just the spectators of a very grand show. A yellow butterfly flutters merrily near the dahlia and it knows that it has to suck nectar, find a mate and then lay eggs. That is the limit of its world as she knows it. What about us? Pulled in a million directions, with media, peer pressures, social obligations, guilt, anger, constantly changing dynamics. Before we even begin to comprehend our place in the vast cosmos(which we don't even begin get, even with all the satellites), the skeleton goes back to calcium in Earth and flesh to ashes or compost. Yet, we feel so serious about the structures, stiff rituals, pecking order and power games. An analogy here, the answer like Gandhi's non cooperation or spinning wheel, lies in simplicity. Complexity has given us cancer, it's not even a choice but the only option now. Simplify needs, relations, surroundings. Returning to what is necessary and happily granted by our only resource-this planet. Dunno how balanced this is but when sometimes I say this the reaction is-do you want to go back to the stone age? Well, a stone age is better any day than an exhausted destroyed Earth, no? Love to think it out here as while am at it some answers come and some questions erupt. Blessings and Happy thoughts!

Pic: Himalayan Village we visited last summer, my heart is already there immersed in moss-covered rocks, pine needles beneath the feet and cool wet shade of giant pines.