This Garden Could Be Your life: The Continuing Impact of Mountain Gardens

“We want to save the world and we want to save ourselves. It’s the same thing.” It has been over twenty years since I read those lines, the opening sentences in an essay that would lead me to a garden that would change my direction and ultimately change my life. Dave had picked up a …

Herbs for Staying with the Trouble

by Janet Kent Peach Blossom Elixir Deep, long sigh. The heat is on. All kinds of heat with no end in sight. For future readers, I am writing this in late June of 2022. Here in Southern Appalachia we just experienced two back to back heat waves, the kind of heat that happens once in …

Uncontainable Night: Herbs for Grief

by Janet Kent Can herbs actually help mend a broken heart? How can anyone move through their grief when every day brings another chance to grieve?  How can we possibly heal from the constant bereavement we experience in this world?  Is healing even an appropriate goal? These are the questions that I hear most when …

You are Nature: Working with the Elements for Change

by Janet Kent It is mid-winter. Outside the Wood Frogs are croaking, calling others in from the surrounding forest to congregate and breed in the unseasonably warm rain. They are here a month early, but they will be fine. We live in the Southern tip of their range and they are accustomed to cycles of …

Everything Matters: Why this is No Time for Cynicism

by Janet Kent Voices of cynicism under the guise of “reason” inundate us early in life. By cynicism I mean not only the assumption that individuals are acting out of self-interest, but also the belittling of the impact of individual and collective action. When we are children, mostly well-meaning adults advise us not to get …

Announcing our Podcast: The Book on Fire

If you know the two of us you know that we both read a lot, across a wide range of disciplines, seeking out books that enrich our understanding of the more-than-human world, books that shed light on how we as a species got into the mess we are in, books that offer frameworks for comprehension …

To Fulfill the Promise of Herbalism

We are living at an exciting time of rising energy and opportunity for herbalism in the United States. What is the full potential of this moment? How can we channel all this energy into the service of the greatest good?

Emergency! Herbs for Overwhelm and Freakout

                                                              by Janet Kent Big Box Meltdown A few days ago I had to spend a while in a big box store. I do this from time to time without much hassle but this time, no such luck. Something about the bright, bright fluorescent lights and the crowded aisles of holiday shoppers put me in …

Two Visions for the Future of Life on Earth

by Dave Meesters. On our trip to Florida last week, Janet and I had the privilege of seeing two eminent scientists speak. One of these speeches was an event that we’d been anticipating for months; the other took us completely by surprise. These two scientists shared strikingly different visions for how we can act to protect life in our apocalyptic age.