Inspiration is written in cursive white chalk on a small oval-shaped blackboard. It appears at eye level surrounded by a crème-painted metal flower frame. This is my bedroom for now, situated in another beautiful home two hours north of where I was since arriving in Canada.
Inspiration comes from the Latin inspirare and translates to divine guidance. Often we may feel inspired by another’s actions, external to us, and forget about our own genius intellect. With so much on offer these days, and from a plethora of directions, it’s too easy to assume that someone else knows a better way than we do. Herein lies the key, too easy is not necessarily true, and equally relevant is we cannot assume we know better than another person either.
It is only through my daily consistency to rise early and be comfortably seated in the quiet embodiment, focusing on all of me in my multidimensionality, that I am now beginning to see more changes and improvements in my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The physical is, of course, the final stage where a pattern appears on the surface and is the last to be revealed. When it does, it can be all-consuming because it looks and feels uncomfortable. We feel judgement from others, and often judge ourselves, and thus the spiral of healing a particular issue, to regression and back to healing again, is a problematic cycle where the mind tries to interfere with the process.
So, when I felt compelled to apply the sap from a well-known weed - grown globally - to my skin from Peggy’s garden, a condition known as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, it burned, reddened and looked worse than ever. Not only was it a shock but it was also cause for complete surrender to the stillness to reveal where I went wrong.
The good news is I didn’t do anything wrong!
The best news is it is a proven treatment for warts, corns, callouses and skin cancers. What I hadn’t taken into account was the amount to apply because I didn’t know its name. I do now, thanks to my dear friend back home in Melbourne, Australia.
Petty Spurge (Euphorbia Peplus) is also known as a radium plant, cancer weed and milkweed and is native to the Mediterranean and Eurasia. The interesting thing is I had tried it in Australia with no effect. How curious it was that the same weed in Canada was too effective.
This is where my herbalist friend and her knowledge - where I’m now staying - could be beneficial because she shared with me that depending on the land: soil nutrients, air, water, toxicities etc. a shrub grown in Canada can be a tree in another European country. It’s curious because I understood that the environment where I lived would have the plants, vegetables and fruit my body would most benefit from. I guess that’s not always the case or maybe why I felt drawn to travel. There can be as many reasons as there are trees.
However, my friend also said, ‘We must be assertive in response to something we don’t want our body to endure.’ So, when I applied too much sap to my skin, that wasn’t a mistake either and could be viewed as asserting my power to address the skin issues with equal force. While this is a curious concept, I disagree, as it harmed my skin and showed me I must respect each plant for its medicinal properties.
Paradoxically, could it be that by applying too much, I set myself up to break the old pattern of being afraid of what others think of me? As I couldn’t see my image - unless I looked in a mirror - and because I’d moved beyond the initial pain, I felt happy and content going about my day with no regard to how I looked or could be seen. In the old system, that might be perceived as a test. If so, it was a most beneficial one for me.
Mind introspections aside, I was also introduced to another plant called Greater Celandine - from the Poppy family. Although it is considered a weed, the small yellow flowers provide nectar for insects and the yellowy/orange sap was historically used as a herbal remedy for warts. Greater Celandine contains alkaloids, chelidoxanthine, chelidonine and coptisine which have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antimicrobial properties. When my skin healed from the first disaster I tried dabbing a small amount of fresh sap directly from the stem of this plant and learned it is not as strong/corrosive yet still effective.
At the end of the day, plants can only be effective when in conjunction with the right foods, water, state of mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health, exercise and inner/outer times of peace (where I simply sit or stand focused on my embodiment) and even then, as a steward or child of the Earth, nature decides. What I needed to remember was that everything is interconnected and works together for the greater good. (Below: 1. the Greater Celandine plant is not yet in flower. 2. yellow sap.)
As I shared in my first book, Write to Heal, my first mole was cut from my back when eight years of age. Over the years, many more ‘suspect’ moles have been met with either dry ice or a surgeon’s scalpel, but inside there was a knowing that we are all gifted with a body that knows how to naturally heal and we need only turn to nature to see that occurring every day. A tree loses a limb due to ‘man’ or environmental factors, dries and heals and continues to grow, as one example.
I thought I’d reached the end of this post only to be introduced to the giant puffball on another walk in the fields with my friend. They mysteriously appear overnight and can double in size within a day or two. After discovering these types of mushrooms can be sliced and used as a pizza base, I then delved into their medicinal qualities and read that the Native American Lakota tribe used dried giant puffball spore powder as a medicine to treat bleeding, promote blood clotting and heal wounds. Another tribe tore off pieces of the giant puffball and placed it directly onto a wound to stop the bleeding and prevent infection.
Could nature have gifted me with the antidote to a wound on my upper back that is hard for me to reach, rubs on the clothing I wear, heals and then reopens again? We’ll see… there can be many variables that support any given health situation.
What struck me, was feeling confident in knowing I am always where I am meant to be, even though my mind has often told me otherwise. I am excited to give this a go. As my friend said, the giant puffball mushrooms don’t appear every year!
Curiously, in the 1960s, researchers isolated a substance called calvacin from giant puffball mushrooms and gave it to mice with sarcoma cancer that affects bones and soft tissues. The result was a potent anticancer activity that reduced the growth of the sarcoma. (The one below is between 15-20cms in diameter and growing.)
When old meets new is the revisitation of a condition that has given me much grief for too many years, however, the good thing is I’m aware of not having it stop me from showing up, to live the life I want to lead. The new ways of dealing with it, as mentioned, are broad and all-encompassing and gracefully replace the old ways, where frustration, denial, pain, anger and disappointment have slowed the process and sometimes made it much worse.
The blank canvas is the anticipation of healthy skin - the largest organ of the body - that signifies my efforts have not been in vain because I have learned so much through the process, my love for life itself and my connection to nature is strengthening and the light of me continues to pour forth ever stronger. Never give up, has been and still is my life’s motto.
Do you have a life motto? Has it changed over the years?
Thank you for journeying with me. As I walk the fields picking up ripe luscious pears from the ground, my hiking boots with their split soles worn out from previous hikes, I feel thankful for the abundance that surrounds me at this time-space-coordinate. It’s temporary - everything is - but that’s another story.
Family shared a meal today… I couldn’t resist using a few pears to contribute a Pear Custard Pie made with oat milk. It reminded me of a bread and butter pudding. I was asked to make it again tomorrow!!! 😂
As for inspiration, I don’t feel it as much at this location, maybe due to the water sources being at a distance. Nevertheless, the wildlife here is always conversing with me, and when I take the time to listen there are helpful messages to intuit - Woodpecker, Chipmunk, Frog, Cricket, flocks of Canadian Geese, Red-tailed Hawk, Raven, varied butterflies, snake - I even heard a pack of coyotes in the distance upon waking this morning. Of course, there is much beauty too!
What has inspired you this week?
Until soon…
Love’s Harmony,
Leanda Michelle ✍🏼