a life's journey to becoming an herbalist and short term goals for that journey

gail faith edwards wrote an article awhile back about the ten-fold path to becoming a community herbalist in response to an article that paul bergner wrote. most of them tie in nicely with quaker testimony so i plan to try to incorporate them into my daily living. here is a brief outline of the 10 things she feels are important to become a community herbalist (i've added links to them for the posts i've written and will continue to update until all 10 are covered):

1 – Sense of Place
2 – Pay Attention - Observation. Concentration
3 – Become humus. Humble yourself
4 – Learn to open your wild heart, connect with your inner wild nature
4 – Herbal Ally
5 - Study, study, study
6 – Simplify your life
7 – Cultivate your spirituality
8 – Listen to your clients
9 – Be your own refuge
10 - Practice learning


over then next few weeks,  i hope to write a bit about each item and what i'm doing or plan to start to deepen my learning as a community herbalist. as part of my studies, this will help me to focus on what is important and what i need to be doing more of (i can say what i need to be doing less of: sitting in front of the computer). i'm enrolled in 2 courses right now, both by kiva (herb energetics and her medicine woman mentorship) and i need to get back into the swing of studying on a regular habit.

i also need to start coming back to what's important to me and simplifying my life again. i feel like i not only fell off the wagon on this but i've also rolled down the hill. it's time to get up, dust off my skirt and walk at a brisk pace to catch back up with it.

things i hope to focus on this upcoming year are:

-daily yoga (helpful with posture, ballet practice and flexibility)
-better homeschooling routine
-regular studies in herbalism
-moving ahead on herbal roots zine projects
-make use of the old clothing and upcycle it into new clothing
-back into meal planning habit
-purge household goods