Offerings of Horticultural Insight
A Review of
The Generosity of Plants: Shared Wisdom from the Community of Herb Lovers
Rosemary Gladstar
Hardcover: Storey Publishing, LLC Reviewed by Janna Lynas
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“Of all the creatures on Earth, the plants have remained truest to their original instructions from Creator. They give generously of themselves for the wellbeing of all.”
– Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel (1919-1999) Anishinaabeg medicine woman (133)
In the early morning summer hours, I can be found in the garden and the places that outline the perimeter of my home, watering, pruning, weeding, gathering and wondering what has emerged overnight. Late June days bring forth a small harvest and also the promise of more to come as the summer moves on– rain, heat and humidity beckoning everything to flourish. The garden is where I find the most beautiful intermingling of plant and creature, insect and element. It’s the place where my spiritual connections find their furthest reach, tending to these spaces, even the dirt, as it tends to my soul. I’ve kept Rosemary Gladstar’s unique “gathering” (as she calls it) of quotes and notes close by, offering insight and curiosity to many of the plants already within arms reach.
The Generosity of Plants: Shared Wisdom from the Community of Herb Lovers, is a delightful and diverse collection of voices over time, some that were spoken from our ancestors, most notably for Gladstar, her maternal grandmother, for whom this book is dedicated. Gladstar begins with thoughts on how this book came into being, discovering an old notebook belonging to her grandmother filled with quotes, and notes on life and plants. “A good quote can send the mind wandering, sum up a long, thoughtful conversation in a line or two, invite a deep dive into previously untraveled territory, and even challenge us to think a little differently” (ix). And so begins this small collection of thoughts and love and passion for connection to nature.
Rosemary Gladstar, an educator and activist, created the herbal studies course, The Science and Art of Herbalism and has an extensive resume of founding organizations and conferences that help share the study and practice of tending to nature and ourselves, around the world. In this beautifully photographed book, organically organized content walks the reader through sacred teachings of plants, gathering, preserving and sharing, reverence and honoring, gardening, protecting and thoughts on being an herbalist. Skipping my way through the book, dotted with provocative thoughts and questions, set my mind into thoughtfulness, wondering over all I am still learning after 40 years of gardening. I found solidarity in these pages and people who are kindred spirits in the world of nature as caregiver, provider and healer. “In some Native languages the term for plants translates as “those who take care of us” (Robin Wall Kimmerer, 125). How beautiful it is to know we are closer than we knew to each other through this common care language.
Gladstar gently educates and binds these pages together with the history of some plants such as Tulsi, or Holy Basil, and why it is still planted near doorways all over India today. Gladstar asks a gentle and accessible question early in her book, “What doorway can you create to grant calmness and joy for all who enter?” (7) Her question takes us further past the aesthetic of plants to the heart of why or who we consider when we plant them. “Plants have supported humans since the dawn of humanity. We continue to eat, wear, inhabit and connect with the descendants of our botanical ancestors…By remembering these ancestral connections through everyday rituals, we reconnect with beauty, and the larger vision and purpose for our lives. We remember why we are here, now” (Jilin LIn, 19). And I wonder how the ritual practice of care and tending to what is growing right outside our doors actually cares and tends to us and all we invite into our lives.
One plant I have growing beside my front door is native Coneflower, or Echinacea. Tucked quietly into the center of all these plant wonderings, Gladstar invites us to give thanks to the natural world, created for us, to fortify and care for us. She includes a simple recipe for gathering and harvesting to create an immunity support tincture to enjoy throughout the winter. Gladstar balances practical herbalism with thought provoking questions, pictures and artwork page by page.
Within the last two sections of this book on protecting and herbalism, the tone changes to one of action and passionate language charging the reader to consider the reach of healing and quality of life plants have to offer. It also dispels what herbalism is and isn’t. These pages are filled with centuries of knowledge as well as thoughts from contemporaries such as Amanda McQuade Crawford, “For two-thirds of the people on earth, traditional medicine is herbal medicine” (167). Chanchal Cabrera adds, on cancer care, “…Nature is brought to the table. Not as an alternative, where it’s all or nothing. Not as integrative care, where cultural traditions at the roof of natural medicine are diluted, appropriate, and/or lost. But rather as an equal member of the healing team, with the patient at the center. Holistic care is expansive… and inclusive” (172).
A beautiful companion book for plant lovers, photographers, and quote collectors, Gladstar ends with some deliberate connections between humans and nature, the words from other admired humans receiving humble credit for guiding her on this journey of the natural world as a healing world. “When we succeed in looking at the world without seeing it simply as a playground for humans we cannot help but notice the ubiquity of plants. They are everywhere and their adventures inevitably intertwine with ours” (Stefano Mancuso, 193). This intertwining of adventures leads us naturally to our need for herbalists, “Herbalists exist because their communities come to them in need … herbalists learn more because their communities ask them questions and share their own experiences and wisdom. Herbalists exist as a part of an ecosystem made up not just – or even mostly – of plants, but of the connections between plants and place and people (203).
This small book encourages and challenges our modern and spiritual view of the very things that have the power to nourish and even heal us if we let them. The wisdom contained in this small book is unforgiving in the call to embrace, protect, and play with the possibilities plants hold for us as humans. We only have to pause and consider for a moment the centuries of their use, and no matter how far away that might seem, there is time for us to invite a new conversation around the role plants have in our daily lives and welcome them today.
Janna Lynas
Janna Lynas lives in the Midwest with her husband, beloved Golden Irish pup and one or more of her four semi-adult children. She loves listening to real-life stories and taking notes.
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