Medicine Baskets were high on the list of things we didn’t cover in nursing school or seminary!
In all fairness, we were busy with washing our hands and starting IV’s and things like Hebrew grammar and the Book of Order. Anyone who knows me will swear that I’m still top of the class in hand washing and I didn’t actually flunk Hebrew, though there was a time when that seemed quite likely.
These days, I have an actual Medicine Basket – of the legendary wise woman sort – and several more which insist on prime real estate in my paintings. There’s also a new one with wheels in the waiting-to-be-transformed line, but that’s a story for a different day.
In this moment, the Medicine Basket between my ears seems to be in charge! Debates. Quotes. And what feels like about a zillion questions! The owl seems to have nested in the basket which is somehow comforting… and I’ll take all of that I can get these days!
You see, there’s a whole lot of stuff hatching in me! And the owl has apparently decided to take over the wisdom card project that goes along with the two new books.
For the last couple days, my job has been peacekeeper! You see, the owl isn’t the only opinionated winged being involved. My recent phoenix has insisted on helping, too! You may remember her…
For a bit, it felt like a battle between wisdom and perseverance. Finally, though, after something that could very nearly be labeled a couple’s coaching session, we are at peace, they and I. There is, indeed, a whole lot of chaos in our world and rising beats wallowing, every time!
There’s also a whole lot of need for collected wisdom, set free in this world. Set free to become new wise things… now!
Blessedly, the grand-teens were here for a bit and they ask really good questions… the kind that help me be more clear! And leave me wondering what a mythic owl-phoenix offspring would look like! (That one’s likely to take some dreaming! In fact, that one’s likely to find its way into at least one of the books!)
For now, though, one of the most precious medicines in my basket. (And, perhaps, the first conscious one!)
I learned it this way, from my old teacher-friend, Steve Glenn…
If a teenaged child has 5 adults who will listen to them, take them seriously, and not shame or blame them for their questions, that child is practically immune from ever attempting suicide.
And a bit of a re-frame for this moment, from the me who has experienced the world changing over the 40 years since I met Steve…
With fiercely compassionate, conscious intention, may WE be one of those 5 adults for as many of our Littles as possible… listening to them, taking them seriously, and not shaming or blaming them for their questions… starting this moment. Now.
ps… in observance of these holy days, a quote from another of the wise voices in my Medicine Basket:
I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.
– Anne Lamott