Exploring our Eco-System:: Searching for Water,Wild Herbs and Edible Grass

It was 4pm and my Sun was eager to complete his mission; provide a tour of our backyard or rather the woods in the back of our apartment complex. It’s the end of November, so 4pm is on the edge of darkness and our time in the woods were limited. As my daughter and I approached the stairs we found he had rounded up a neighborhood of children to join us on our expedition!

Backpack, scissors, empty water bottle, and baggies in hand we set out in search of Wild Herbs, Wild Mushrooms, Wild Grass, and a Water supply. My Sun led me, my daughter,  and the neighborhood children through unpredictable terrain. We pushed past low branches and twigs, fallen trees, what looked like marsh grasses, sand, and various streams of water. I had flashbacks of when I was a kid playing endlessly in the back of my home in the creek and flushed with smiles as I urged the children to be safe and checked for their passage as we stayed in our group.

My Sun called himself the “Pack Leader” and informed us of the different variety of mushrooms he’d find as we made our way to the larger water area he said he had found just a few weeks before. He had informed me of how mushrooms thrive which was a lecture comparable to any science teacher or professor. This time he didn’t lecture, he seemed ‘alive’ in the wild running and bouncing in the midst of Earth’s unpredictable ground. I on the other hand, was overly cautious, making jokes, screaming, laughing yielding to the ‘unpredictable’ Earth. I wanted to get to a stream of what David Wolfe and Daniel Vitalis calls “Live Water.” At one point I found myself describing how fallen leaves provide the running water with tannis and how that effects the water and our Eco System.

I kept thinking ‘why my Sun had invited all these children and how I must look venturing in the woods with them in search of “Living Raw Foods and Water” that I had learned about in my Raw Food Nutrition Class just the day before. But to my surprise the kids were excited and they took turns looking after one another (me included) watching and paying close attention to the my descriptions and findings. There was this incredible sense of care and awareness that took place that seemed absent in normal surroundings. It makes me think that being in Nature produces a kind of empathetic inquisitive energy that stems from the Heart chakra. That Heart Chakra Energy is profound in Nature. Even for my Sun who has a wild hunter explorer character seemed balanced in this Natural World.

Jumping into and over streams of water and unpredictable terrain, we found Wild Grass, Living Water and Wild Mushrooms on our journey of our backyard Eco system. Unfortunately, I felt way too ‘new’ to distinguish what variety was edible and safe to consume so I only took samples to research. The children screamed when they saw me take a sip of the water. I waited to see if I would keel over with sickness, but nothing happened, and I wondered if in fact, “Living Water” was as easy to find as Daniel Vitalis and David Wolfe claim. In the meantime, I’m feeling closer to Nature, and my immediate environment and natural instincts. There truly is a treasure that unfolds in the Wild and I’m blessed to be aware of this incredible healing energy.

As usual my daughter took live video and pictures of our Eco exploration. She seems to always capture me on film. (if I can find the usb chords to this phone I no longer use; I think I may have packed it away as a gift to the Pine Ridge Reservation over the summer) but I’m hoping I kept an extra chord somewhere and provide a video journal 😉 She loved it so much she begged me to return this morning! The teachings continue…