There is a rhythm in my bones that has moved through me for as long as I can remember…it feels ancient like the Earth and is beyond human. It is a rhythm that moves birds and bees and flowers and trees and plants and animals and water…It’s a rhythm that moves water…and the way this flow moves through me is in a dance of sacred reciprocity…a giving and receiving that comes from the heart.

Bee and Flower in their sacred dance of reciprocity

Have you ever watched as a bee slips into a flower…experiencing the oh, so gentle caress of this in your own heart as you witness the dance of sacred reciprocity before your eyes?

The caress I experience in witnessing a bee with a flower translates into the way I touch the plants as I collect their leaves, flowers, roots…receiving their gifts of medicine…and then sharing this medicine with others.

This energy, this softness, this dance of awareness, this giving and receiving…this is the energy that moves through me…the double spiral jadestone pendant I wear around my neck…this symbol of giving and receiving….nourish Self/nourish Earth…this dance of sacred reciprocity….This, This! is healing…this is Nature.

Rock Medicine...giving and receiving in perfect balance!

In the community I live in, this dance still exists…it is an abundance that is soul deep…and indigenous language that we intrinsically understand. It is the piles of fruits and vegetables from friends outside my kitchen door, and the truckloads of compost that arrive at my garden gate, and the help in my garden and with stewarding our land….just to name a few examples.

This past year, generosity from friends has shown up in the forms of grants and donations to support what Matt and I have called the Rewilding Project…a vision we created 16 years ago that tends to a return to soulful ways of relating with Self, Others, the Earth and All Beings. Matt’s primary focus is the rewilding that occurs through following the inner terrain with dream tracking. And Night Raven Holistic Health is one aspect of how I tend to rewilding by supporting individuals in tending to their own health and wellbeing with nourishing foods, vital herbal remedies, spiritual/physical/soul-centered practices and connection with Nature.

In the spring of 2019 at the beginning of the COVID pandemic I met with my current Medicine At Our Feet apprentices and shared my desire to increase the diversity of my herbal apothecary to meet the health and wellness needs of our remote community. Heather and Tessa from the group worked with me to apply for a grant through Mountain Rose Herbs that would go towards building a four season greenhouse to start and grow medicinal plants, shrubs and trees, as well as purchasing medicinal seeds and plant starts. (Click here to see the video we made for the grant proposal).

When the grant was awarded to other worthy causes, I met with Heather and Tessa and emphasized that our intention is now out “there” and to become curious as to how it will be met. A few months later without any soliciting on my part, a friend offered me a grant to meet the objectives set forth in our original grant proposal. Needless to say I was speechless.

This past season our friend Wind has been building the greenhouse with periodic help from other friends. And just a month ago another friend/student/client handed me an envelope with a generous donation of her hard earned money. I immediately transformed this currency into medicinal shrubs, and trees which I’ll plant when they arrive in spring. I have to admit it has been a practice to receive the generosity of friends and yet all I receive feeds the energy I have to be of service to Life.

This sacred reciprocity is a rhythm that comes from the heart…each beat keeping in time…the giving and receiving. It is the breath we share with plants and trees…the breath that connects us with Mystery, the inspirit-ation that gives us Life and connects us with all of Life…this giving and receiving that connects us with the plant realm, our exchange of breath, of Prana, this life force that we each need to survive, to thrive…we are intimately connected with birds and bees, and flowers and trees and plants and animals and water and…with each other..breathing together in this sacred dance of reciprocity.

With love, blessings and gratitude…

Constance Lynn

Sacred Reciprocity