Notes from a Still Lake
My first year of herbalism school came to an end, and with it came three days at my teacher's place, in beautiful southern Estonia. My friend and I set off early in the morning. The landscape grew more and more beautiful and wild along the way – tall spruces rising by the roadside, old, dignified forests passing by.
When we arrived, I felt I had never seen such a beautiful farmstead. The house stood on a hill, and just below it, tucked into a small valley, hidden among trees and meadows, lay a still, mirror-smooth lake. That's what stayed with me most from the whole trip: that quiet lake, swimming alone in it, the sheer spaciousness around me. Looking at it, the pages of my own lifebook seemed to come alive in my mind – it was the very thing I had been trying to capture on paper. Spaciousness. Room for creativity to breathe, and for the soul to simply be.
The first day it rained, but the days after, the sun came out. There were about fifty women there altogether, each course holding its own workshops, plant walks winding through the meadows. I learned to recognize several new plants in the wild – lady's bedstraw was one of those simple treasures, gathered by the armful from a meadow that seemed made entirely of it. In the evenings there was drumming, a fire, singing, laughter.
I brought a little of that meadow home with me – bedstraw incense now resting on my nightstand, tinctures and salves, enough to carry the scent of that place through the season ahead.
It's funny how a lifebook is never really written in one sitting. It's built this way – one small moment at a time. A quiet swim alone in a mirror-still lake. An armful of dew-damp lady's bedstraw gathered from a meadow. A fire, a drum, a summer night. These are exactly the moments that, page by page, become the herbarium, become the book of one's life – if only we slow down enough to notice them as they happen.
So tell me – what are those small moments for you this summer? The ones you might almost let pass by, not realizing yet that they're already becoming part of your own story?
