Everything is kind of a paradox or not straightforward or fuzzy. I’m not sure how to verbalize this exactly, so I’ll share an example. I love to hike. I LOVE being in the forest, I love how my body feels moving this way, I love eating turkey sandwiches at the summit, I love having an excuse to carry binoculars and a pocket knife. I usually hike alone, but whenever I hike with someone else, I am confronted with the disappointing reality that I am inconceivably slow.

This always makes me wonder - does my devotion to a woodland walk make me a hiker, or does my frank lack of athleticism disqualify me from this denomination?

I’m using this as a metaphor for deviation, a space I often inhabit, neither fully in or out. devotion deviation were two words I wrote down in March 2020, when you know what blah blah blah. I wasn’t sure why or where they’d land, but they’ve been in mind since, and when I had the idea to start a plant blog (a substack newsletter is a blog, sorry) I realized it was fitting.

Plants are beings I’ve studied formally and informally, sometimes with devotion and other times as an afterthought. I’ve studied the taxonomy and plant chemistry of medicinal herbs growing in Southern Oregon, and also repeatedly forgotten the state flower of my home state, New York. It is, by the way, this season’s greeting: The Rose.

I strongly believe that noticing the plants we inevitably encounter on a daily basis makes us happier. And I believe storytelling is a nice way to help us notice. I hope to share stories (anecdotes, facts, opinions, interviews?) — plants find us in the forest and far from it, and this space is as much for the botanist as for someone who can’t decipher one green thing from another. On dinner plates, in love affairs— in books, hospitals, songs, dreams, etc. - they make their way and help guide ours.

If you want to read a story (probably like once a month? not sure yet) please subscribe or share with a friend. And always Always feel free to write back!

lush June energy, xo
Laure

n