Coyotes and meteor showers
& plants for the second brain
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From the apothecary
I’ve talked about marshmallow flower and rose hips in the past, so you already know my love for them. But there is a magical alchemy that occurs when the root of marshmallow and rose hips are combined.
There is a second brain in your gut called the enteric nervous system (ENS). It lives in the lining of the digestive system where it is made up of more than 100 million nerve cells.
Its function is to control digestion, but these nerve cells also communicate directly with our actual brain. This is called the gut-brain axis. So when our gut is unbalanced due to IBS, bloating, indigestion or any other digestive ailment, our mind also suffers. It also goes the other way. If our brain is under stress, we feel it in our gut too. This may manifest as nausea, upset stomach or abdominal pain.
There is a strong link between chronic digestive issues and anxiety and depression. Even those with only mild digestive complaints may feel the toll it takes on their mood. This is mainly because 95% of our serotonin is produced in the gut. This neurotransmitter helps regulate sleep, appetite, mood and pain.
What’s more is that serotonin is highly influenced by the “good” gut bacteria that help protect the linings of our intestinal microbiome from toxins and inflammation. Gut bacteria also assists in food absorption and activating the neural pathways between the gut and the brain. It’s quite obvious then that good gut hygiene is essential for mental and overall health, not just regular bowel movements.
The combination of marshmallow root and rose hips have become my favorite tonic for addressing inflammation and imbalance in a stressed and/or leaky gut. Marshmallow root is anti-inflammatory and helps to coat the digestive tract with mucilage where all those nerves of the second brain live. It also contains inulin, a starch that feeds the “good” gut bacteria that was just mentioned. Rose hips then provide loads of antioxidants and more powerhouse anti-inflammatory properties to help regulate digestion.
These two plants extract extremely well in a cold infusion. I typically do a one to one ratio of the dried plant material infused in cold water for 3-8 hours. I infuse about one to two tablespoons of herb per 8 oz of water. This can be drank on a daily basis to help normalize the gut and soothe that second brain. You may even feel an instant calm while you drink this as those nerve cells are coated.
From the forest
The clock read 2:00AM when I left the house. It was the kind of night where the cold infuses the senses; fresh, clean and frigid. I stepped out to a chorus of coyotes. It wasn’t the coyote song that sends chills down the spine. The kind where you know you just witnessed something die in the dark. This was a song of joy. The kind they sing just to celebrate being alive and together. Odin knew. He was unconcerned by their calls tonight.
Evan complained about the cold, but he came too.
I walked out to the little hill. It’s actually a septic mound, but I like to just think of it as a hill. One made by the glaciers and not excavators. Sitting down, I laid back and looked up. It was just past the new moon. The stars were stark against the late autumn sky.
Recently a musical composer took wavelength data gathered by NASA of our Milky Way and translated it into song. The result is a sonic tapestry telling the ongoing story of our universe, beautiful and haunting. It captures the deep mystery and possibility that I feel as I look up. A twinkle of starlight, the tension of the darkness, a feeling of wonder tinged with fear.
Gazing up at them reminded me of my childhood bedroom. I had those little glow in the dark stars pasted on my ceiling. You know the ones. They were a cheap plastic and you had to use a little bit of putty to stick them on the walls. We arranged them randomly, but there was one constellation that appeared clearly as I looked up at it night after night. Right in the center was the constellation of a question mark. I guess it was a bit of a cosmic joke as I always did find more questions than answers up in the star realms. Even those plastic stars had no problem telling me how little us humans really know.
There is only a small gap in the trees allowing us a view of the sky at our house. But it was one of very few clear nights, a night when the Leonid meteor shower was supposed to be at its peak. These two things rarely ever coincide here so I was not going to miss this show.
Eventually the coyotes quieted. I listened for any other animals. The forest is always deathly quiet at night. It’s a time for predators. The trees echo with the loneliness.
Just the calls of the geese filled the air as they continued to fly south. Geese actually navigate by the positions of the sun and stars, making them efficient night travelers. They also have a sort of compass in their head that allows them to determine where the Earth’s magnetic poles are. I imagined they were getting the best show up there that night. What a rush to be surrounded by the heavens, to know how they feel on the feathers.
These deepest hours exist outside of the waking world. A time where we can feel the weight of our existence in the vastness of the night. I think of all those under siege half a world away who don’t get the privilege of looking up at the stars, their only concern being the terror outside their doors. Those horrors don’t fade with the dying light. Questions of who we are fundamentally, how we ended up here and to what end, bubble to the surface in these moments.
While the sky is beautifully filled with stars, I still haven’t seen a meteor as the minutes slip by. I keep thinking I see something slipping just past the corner of my vision. But still, it’s good just to be out here. The geese pass and all is silent in the forest.
Finally I see a bright streak just to the left of where I was looking. Then a few minutes and another streak goes by. Our bodies are protesting the cold at this point. Still we wait. But no other meteors make an appearance.
I’m deep in my thoughts by now. Basking in the cold beauty of the night, yet also starting to travel inward.
“So, if a meteor starts getting bigger, that’s probably a bad sign right?”
I snap out of my head and let out a startled laugh. “Yeah, that would be bad.”
He always knows how to bring me back.
We finally went in as the clock reached 3:00AM. The question constellation on my childhood ceiling still lingers. So many unknowables. Yet the universe asks us to tumble forward into the darkness, the vastness, the freezing coldness of it all anyways. Not to find answers, but just to understand what it feels like to be over our heads in the mystery of it all. Hopefully we’ll be reminded to laugh a little or a lot along the way too.
Much love,
Val
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