Book Excerpt
(from “Root Woman”)
… Wednesday afternoon, as I approach her front
gate, Kahlee is already coming out the door with greetings and smiles. Dressed
in festive–coloured layers and a jaunty tweed cap, she radiates the whimsy of
going to a Tea Party. These walks in nature are exciting to her; she gets to
reunite with her plant friends.
I notice a medicinal plant, mullein, growing outside the fence on the
streetfront. Its leaves are soft and velvety like lamb’s ears, and I wonder
aloud if such a tactile treasure wouldn’t quickly get plucked up in this
inner–city neighbourhood? But Kahlee says she wouldn’t mind; her philosophy is
that the plucker would subconsciously need that plant, in whatever way, to
assist them. “That’s how it works, kiddo,” she says with a grin.
As I unlock the passenger door for her, she reaches in her day–pack and
presents me with a book called The Standing People: A
Field Guide of Medicinal Plants for the Prairie Provinces. It’s a
full–colour handbook she and Dave published in 2003, highlighting over 150
medicinal plants found on the prairies. I had been planning to purchase the
manual at a local bookstore, so I insist on paying her for this unexpected copy.
She refuses, saying it’s a gift. And that is that.
We drive for half an hour through low hills ripe with autumnal blush, to Pike
Lake Provincial Park. Ours is the only vehicle in the parking lot. It’s the kind
of overcast afternoon that is humming with stillness. Heavy with an unburst
humidity. We stroll over to the river’s edge and within minutes, there’s a huge
blue dragonfly clinging to Kahlee’s index finger. It feels today like we are
part of nature when it’s not conscious of being watched; like being at the zoo
once it’s closed for the night.
… Wednesday afternoon, as I approach her front
gate, Kahlee is already coming out the door with greetings and smiles. Dressed
in festive–coloured layers and a jaunty tweed cap, she radiates the whimsy of
going to a Tea Party. These walks in nature are exciting to her; she gets to
reunite with her plant friends.
I notice a medicinal plant, mullein, growing outside the fence on the
streetfront. Its leaves are soft and velvety like lamb’s ears, and I wonder
aloud if such a tactile treasure wouldn’t quickly get plucked up in this
inner–city neighbourhood? But Kahlee says she wouldn’t mind; her philosophy is
that the plucker would subconsciously need that plant, in whatever way, to
assist them. “That’s how it works, kiddo,” she says with a grin.
As I unlock the passenger door for her, she reaches in her day–pack and
presents me with a book called The Standing People: A
Field Guide of Medicinal Plants for the Prairie Provinces. It’s a
full–colour handbook she and Dave published in 2003, highlighting over 150
medicinal plants found on the prairies. I had been planning to purchase the
manual at a local bookstore, so I insist on paying her for this unexpected copy.
She refuses, saying it’s a gift. And that is that.
We drive for half an hour through low hills ripe with autumnal blush, to Pike
Lake Provincial Park. Ours is the only vehicle in the parking lot. It’s the kind
of overcast afternoon that is humming with stillness. Heavy with an unburst
humidity. We stroll over to the river’s edge and within minutes, there’s a huge
blue dragonfly clinging to Kahlee’s index finger. It feels today like we are
part of nature when it’s not conscious of being watched; like being at the zoo
once it’s closed for the night.
