growing down
marshmallow wisdom
hello hello,
happy friday.
this week i’ve been putzing in the garden, planting new friends and greeting old ones peeking out of the soil. its been a long winter. its been a long long labor to get to this point, finally out of the dirt, reaching up towards the sun.
on the days when its hard to feel hope, or feel good in my body (dynamic disability life!), standing by my plant friends feet bare in the dirt is my saving grace. i remember gratitude, i remember beauty, i remember resilience, and the wonder of the land.
i saw the miracle of my marshmallow friends, who were suffocated last year by overzealous asparagus trees blocking out all the sun. i thought they were dead, or atleast so injured that they wouldnt be able to return, since they didnt get the space or sun to grow as they needed to. and yet as i dug up the bed this week, there they were. some of the biggest first year marshmallow roots that i have ever ever seen.
given no space to grow upward as they desired, for leaf and bloom to emerge, instead they used last summer to grow downward. underground, expanding, taking up the space they needed, not letting them be prevented from their own unfurling. they let their roots grow big and strong and mighty, there in the fertile dark, until they could again try to grow upwards.
wow wow. wise wise plants. holding those root crowns the size of my head, i just felt awe. how can we keep going, keep growing, keep surviving, even when conditions arent ideal? if we cant go in the direction we hoped, if theres restriction or cages there, what if we grew down instead? what power might be there in the dirt for us? how might we transform?
i’m mostly full of wonder and curiosity and questions today. dirt in my fingernails, and all over my feet, and a silly grin on my face.
marshmallow is a beloved friend, and is one of the plants we will talk about in the upcoming session this Sunday on bodies of tension. theres still spaces in this community popup - won’t you join us?
We are holding so much right now. For many of us, when things feel overwhelming, when it all gets to be too much, we get tighter. We draw in. We clench ever more tightly, as our wise bodies try to hold it all together. and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Tension in the body is functional, it is habituated, and it is a wise teacher. What does your body know about tension? join us in Sunday’s session as we greet tension and some plants & practices for support. $10+, NOTALF, Sunday June 7th on Zoom, recorded.
and if you are seeking a more structured container for embodiment practice this summer, if your own tension would be supported by ritual somatics in a group of likeminded folks, if having an anchor to return to body and your values each week would be a boon within the wider frenzy of summer, consider joining us in wellspring. this world is constantly trying to knock us off center, to stop our momentum towards change, but we can always return to ourselves, the land, and what we care about.
wellspring: exploring the 3 cauldrons and embodied white supremacy: a 6-week online series exploring ancestral & antiracist embodiment; weekly facilitated live practice, personal reflection and community wisdom sharing; at home practice suggestions in between sessions. Thursdays at 2pm ET // 11am PT beginning July 2, 2026. $200. Group limited to ten participants.
May the land sing in your bones. May you remember and practice how to listen. May the plants remind you of things you already know about yourself, and the person you want to be, and the world you know is possible. and most importantly, may you always remember that when things feel hard, when you are lost, you can can come back here, back home, to the land.
hope to see you in community space soon.
with care,
rowan
work with me & stay connected
Hi, I’m rowan.
I’m a faciltator, herbalist, folklorist, writer, researcher and somatic bodyworker. I run two tiny businesses for queer healing, cultural reconnection & collective transformation.
of hawthorn and yew is the cauldron of my antiracist culture work. I facilitate classes & longer programs on politicized ancestral reconnection, Celtic Isles diasporic work, and reweaving anticolonial cultural herbalisms on n america. together we connect to our european-descended ancestors, reweave culture lost from assimiliation into whiteness, and embody our values more deeply. I also offer 1:1 mentorship for folks ready to begin or deepen in ancestral reconnection work.
wild aliveness apothecary is the heart of my healing arts practice. seeking queercare? I see clients 1:1 as well as offer small group programs on herbalism, writing & somatics. gather in queer space, connect with plants, self, and community, and be held.
Learn more: wild aliveness apothecary + of hawthorn and yew.
email to connect: ofhawthornandyew@protonmail.com
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