The ancient memory

You have been disconnected from your ancestry, from your land.

Importing ingredients from all over the world.

Importing plants and foods that do not synchronize with your local ecosystem, that should not grow on your land.

Yet you know nothing of your local land.

You have traveled the world.

But do you know your true Home?

Do you know the plants, the insects, the soil?

Do you know the animals?

Do you know the nearby river?

Do you really know it?

Have you communicated with it?

Is it conscious?

Does it have a personality?

Have you listened to the trees, to the forest?

Really listened?

Have you become curious?

You are constantly being lured into unknown territory, traveling to far away lands.

Far from where you live.

Yet there is a sacred mystery, right below your feet.

It is right here, not far away from you.

I have always been here.

Patiently waiting, pulling you downwards with my gravity.

Welcoming you.

Live on my land.

Grow where you are planted.

There are berries where you live.

There is ancient medicine buried under your feet.

There are healing herbs out there.

Listen, they will call you.

There is a medicine for everything.

Your cough, your cold, your fever.

Plant medicine has always been there.

Throughout every culture on Earth.

Indigenous people remember.

YOU remember.

How can you become strong?

How can you boost your health with the local ingredients you have?

How can the herbs, the plants, the forests play a role in your life?

How can they assist you to feed your connection to the Earth?

To realize a sense of belonging to this wild Earth?

To become free, so absolutely free?

Knowledgeable, wise, once more?

Soon, ingredients will run out.

But could it be that there is a supermarket out there?

Out in wild nature.

We want you to forage.

To discover.

Take your children out of the house and go into the woods.

To rediscover the power of plants.

To learn about mushrooms, berries, herbs and the soil.

Did you know about the world wide web that connects all things?

Did you know you can become part of it, that you can connect with it?

Did you know there has been communication between non-human elements throughout all this time?

That trees, stones, minerals, plants, funghi have been on their journey of evolution too? That they have become conscious?

Did you know they can help you to become wise?

To become strong?

To become deeply rooted?

Did you know that you can help them, and they can help you?

Did you know they have been calling you for years?

Did you know they would like you to stop trying to destroy them, but that no matter how hard you try, ‘you can never destroy us’?

Become curious.

There are people who will remember knowledge from lifetimes ago.

There are people who have been trained into the secrets of nature for life times.

They can help you. They will help you.

Listen.

Become curious.

Do you remember?

When you still lived a simple life.

The Earth was your Mother and you knew it.

You respected me.

You were so dependent on me.

You saw the direct connections between everything.

The ecosystem was your home.

You knew everything about it, because this is how you survived.

You loved to be outside.

You spent your days outside, working my land.

The whole family joined in.

The whole village worked together.

Together.

Sharing seeds, growing food, celebrating the harvest.

Dining at long tables.

Welcoming everybody.

Celebrating your joy, mourning your losses.

Being in community.

Together.

This is the time of great remembrance.

Written by Joanna

19 March 2020

Amsterdam