Hope is a green shoot of possibility

Photo: @psuedon via Avant Gardens

What a stunning representation of the negative and positive emotions of Gorse. The sense of loss and utter hopelessness when a healthy tree is killed, cut down in its prime.  Then Nature’s ability to always surprise us by its resilience and regrowth.

After 8 months of Covid 19 and the restrictions it brings to our lives, it’s easy enough to feel hopeless about ever getting back to what we think of as normal.  You probably know the Emily Dickinson poem about ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that … never stops at all’.  Author Matt Haig has his own version of that: “Hope is the thing with feathers, that craps on you from the sky.”

That’s very Gorse – had hope, hung a lot of faith on it, and now it’s been shown to be worthless.  Not worth hoping, end of the line, it’s all pointless.   But Dr Bach put Gorse in the Uncertainty Group rather than the Despair Group.  Deep down people in need of Gorse are uncertain whether their resigned attitude is correct, whether faith is warranted or not.  They wouldn’t be discussing it if they didn’t have, even unconsciously, a spark of hope left that could be re-ignited.

Many of us have undoubtedly taken Gentian this past year and may now have got to the stage where we are beyond discouraged and finding life uncertain to the point of being depressing.  In all our fears and anxieties the flower remedies resurrect our sense of hope.  The emotional lift that comes with a return to balance and tranquillity automatically engenders hope.

Hope is a green shoot of possibility.   New dawns, new seeds, new growth, are an unfailing and integral part of Mother Nature.  She gives us Gorse so that like Her, our energy and focus is always in the present.

 

Loneliness is when we feel far from love

Having discovered the benefits of Zoom during the first lockdown, many of us are now finding that it doesn’t replace – or replicate – a good old-fashioned chat on the phone or in person.  In fact, despite all the technological ways of keeping in touch, we feel isolated, starved of human contact, especially if we live alone or with people who are unsupportive or uninterested.

 “Conversation is instant espresso for the soul.  If you need a pick-me-up, definitely pick up the phone,” says author Catherine Blyth in a Waitrose Weekend article devoted to the need we all have to communicate, voice-to-voice or face-to-face, with someone who is actively listening.

It is this loss of connection with others that is a keynote of Heather.  Someone I know – not a chatty person at all – took Heather at a time when she felt no-one in her circle wanted to take an interest in her distress or offer support.  She felt invisible, and excluded from all loving contact.  It made me think of the lines from Coleridge,

“… a little child

Upon a lonesome wild,
Not far from home but she hath lost her way …
And now screams loud, and hopes to make her mother hear.”

 

For many of us in lockdown, it is the sense of being far from love that calls for Heather.  Those who need Heather are lost in a desert of loneliness, are desperate to be rescued, and to feel heard.  Once their feeling of estrangement is relieved, they have as much love and understanding to give those around them as they once needed themselves.

When we are in need of help from the flower remedies, we lose rapport with our soul, the signal drops out because of our lowered vibration, and it manifests as making us feel distanced from those around us.   Needing Heather we are like the dog shut outdoors in the cold, barking non-stop until it is allowed back inside.  The noise may be annoying but ultimately we all belong together where we can share in the light and warmth that is rightly home to us all.

Photo: Nadine Johnson on Unsplash

When there seems to be no end in sight ...

 When there seems to be no end in sight ...

Dr Who 2010 not 2012   

In the UK – and elsewhere – there is a sense of this pandemic and its restrictions on daily life being never-ending.  In the darkest days of winter it’s hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel.  It feels over-whelming and as though we’re trying to trudge through deep mud.  These feelings all come within the ambit of the remedies in the Despair and Despondency Group.

There is the sense of feeling overwhelmed (Elm), of the bottomless pit of Sweet Chestnut, the plodding despair of Oak.  For many who have isolated for 6 months or more, there is now a lack of confidence about going out in public as it seems too risky (Larch), while for those who feel public places will never be hygienic enough to avoid contamination, there is Crab Apple.

Those who believe they will never get over the grief of losing someone at this time, or who feel guilty for maybe surviving while loved ones didn’t, or who feel resentful at the unfairness of it all will be needing Star of Bethlehem, Pine or Willow respectively.  All of the above remedies are defined by the sense that a (current) situation is going to go on for ever, that there is no way out.

But the birds singing in the garden this morning remind us that despite all appearances to the contrary, the Northern Hemisphere is turning towards the sun, the days are getting longer, spring is on its way and hope, like a mushroom, will pop up out of the dark to remind us that we are all being drawn towards the light.

How to see a future

“People talk about caterpillars becoming butterflies as though they just go into a cocoon, slip on wings and are good to go.  Caterpillars have to dissolve into a disgusting pile of goo to become butterflies.  So if you’re a mess wrapped up in blankets right now, keep going.”  ~ Jennifer Wright

We all know there’s a metaphor for personal growth in the idea of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, but this quote gives a rather different angle on it.  Which Bach flower essence first came to your mind?  It made me think of Mustard, the remedy for the sudden descent of a black cloud: as though we’re almost drowning in a sea of thick, dark mud.

When we need Mustard, we don’t know where this gloom comes from.  The feeling may last a few hours or a few days but then suddenly lift.  (Of course if it lasts much longer or occurs frequently, you should seek medical help in case something more serious is implicated.)  

Whilst in a negative Mustard state, we can’t pay attention to anything – which is why it is in the group ‘Insufficient Interest in Present Circumstances.’  It is impossible to talk ourselves out of it, and all our go-to solutions which often help – meditation, listening to music, walks in the country and so on – will not lift a Mustard mood either. 

In this black state we are focused entirely inwardly.  We know we are imprisoned and we can’t concentrate on anyone or anything outside of ourselves.  When at last we are free, oh the joy of release!  We can relate to other people, and normal life seems worthwhile again.  Who knows, maybe sometimes we have to suffer the isolation of the negative Mustard state to remind us how important is our connection to other people, and the invaluable role we play in their lives.

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“You are more than a bad month.  You are a future of multifarious possibility.  You are another self at a point in future time, looking back in gratitude that this lost and former you held on.”  Matt Haig.

 

"Cabined, cribbed, confined," and Walnut

"Cabined, cribbed, confined" ~ Shakespeare

There’s something about the slightly sinister gloom of this Christmas card which reminds me of the Hansel and Gretel story. Maybe it’s the attractive little cottage in the middle of the forest, approached by the two abandoned children of a woodcutter.   His emotional state makes me think of Walnut, so here is a slight reworking of the fairy tale, with some reflections on its relation to the Walnut remedy at the end.

Breaking the Spell

Once upon a time, devastation lay upon the land. There was disease and drought, crops failed, robber barons controlled every aspect of life and inevitably the poorest suffered the most. Because the rich would not help support the poor, many became destitute and began to starve.  A certain woodcutter had not really wanted to marry again in such difficult times but had fallen under the spell of his new wife.  He despaired of feeding his family.  Such was his desperation that he eventually gave into his wife’s demands and took his two children into the forest and left them there.  Hansel and Gretel however were immune to their stepmother’s wiles and determined their future would not be decided by her.

However when they tried to leave the forest and return home, a malign influence held them captive and they could not escape.  When we are stressed, we can be ‘oversensitive to ideas and influences’ and ready to believe any random message holds a promise of safety; thus the children willingly followed a white dove which seemed to be leading them home.  As dusk closed in, it led them to a pretty little cottage where the windows gleamed with a warm, welcoming light and the chimney flagged a huge plume of smoke from a big log fire.  The children were welcomed in by an old woman, seated by the roaring fire and given hot soup, newly-baked bread and plum cake to their hearts’ content.

But not everyone’s influence on us is benign and only our inner wisdom can decide what is really best for us.  When the children were sleepy with warmth and their first good food in months, the witch locked Hansel in a wooden cage to fatten him up for eating, and forced Gretel to work as a drudge.  This went on for several weeks until Gretel’s strength had declined so much she could hardly lift a broom.  One cold winter’s day the witch sent Gretel to draw water.  When she got there she had an idea and called to the witch, telling her there was no water left in the well.

The witch did not believe her but Gretel pointed into the well and said, ‘Look, no water!’ The witch, being very short-sighted, leaned right over and as she did so, Gretel summoned the last of her strength and pushed her down the well.  Gretel released Hansel and before they left, they took all the money the witch had stolen from other wayfarers, to highlight the truth that there’s always a jewel of great value in any experience which leads to growth.

Returning home they found their father ill in bed.  Being made to abandon his children had caused his health and his work to suffer until he had no income at all.  But he recovered on their arrival and they found to their joy that their stepmother had disappeared, never to be seen again.  (And no-one thought to look down a certain well ….)

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The family undergoes a massive life change, partly because of the famine, but mainly because of the new marriage. Just when the husband needs a clear sense of direction and duty, the wife has a destabilising effect on his judgement and we recall that Walnut is in the Group, Oversensitive to Ideas and Influences.  The children are less affected but still lose their way in the forest under such a malevolent influence and cannot ‘keep to the path’ of their destiny.

Life is a journey full of endings and beginnings. Walnut can help us negotiate those smoothly without succumbing to other people’s interference or losing our sense of what’s right for us. It gives us protection.

Also, Walnut nurtures us by giving us constancy in our chosen path.  When we follow our own destiny we grow, there is expansion in our lives – and that is symbolised by the children finding the money that will help them out of poverty.