The Three Priorities

The Three Priorities: My daily life is focused by three priorities: Involvement with Family, Artistic Work, and Personal Health. If I'm able to act on one or more of these priorities, I take note of the fact and choose to be satisfied with my day. If I don't engage in any of the three priorities, I feel frustrated and know why.

Personal Health: Herbalism

          This evening I intended to write about my photography, but an incident today has impelled me to write about my herbal practice instead.

          For a few weeks, I’ve been biking along the Tilton-Franklin trail that runs along the Winnipesaukee River. Because of the three-foot fall of snow this past winter, the ground is gorged with water, and vegetation everywhere in New England is showing abundant growth. This is the second year of my turn to herbalism as an alternative to modern medicine, and my first year of intense search for local, wild-crafted medicinal herbs. The focus of my search has been along the bike trail, where there is a wide variety of plant forms in lush growth. I use my camera to record the types of plants, their phases of growth, and their locations. Some plants I recognize, others I need to identify.

          A root of particular use to me is that of the Japanese Knotweed plant. I’ve found numerous, large patches of Knotweed, enough to supply me and hundreds of people for the rest of our lives. I discovered an herb new to me, also in abundance, called Horsetail, Equisetum arvense. I will write about these herbs another time.

 Japanese Knotweed

 Horsetail

(the spiny plants)

Horsetail

The incident I referred to occurred while I was harvesting Horsetail. Mingled in and flourishing with all the vegetation along the trail is the poisonous herb Poison Ivy. I am severely allergic to Poison Ivy, which I discovered last year when a slight brush with it on my left forearm resulted in a fiery eruption of blisters on both forearms that required a month to heal. So, I have been fearfully on the lookout for the Ivy, trying to assume it is always lurking under the safe plants. When I knelt down to clip some Horsetail stems, I first made sure there was no Ivy at that spot. But when I moved to another patch just a few feet away I lost my attention and my right hand came up from a clump of Horsetail with one leaf of Poison Ivy in my fingers. “Damn,” I yelled as I threw the leaf to the ground like it was a rattlesnake. I knew I had ten minutes in which to wash off the oil that was now on my fingers. Water was near in the flooding river, but I had no soap. There was, however, new growth of Jewelweed just across the path from the Poison Ivy.

 Jewelweed

I had read that Jewelweed was useful in curing Poison Ivy rashes, although I had never used Jewelweed for any purpose. In hope and desperation I pulled up five or six young Jewelweed plants, they weren’t at the flowering stage, and headed for the river. I rinsed off both hands in the river, then crushed a Jewelweed in my fingers, rolling the juicy plant between my hands as if it were a bar of soap. Then I rinsed off my hands again in the river. I repeated this process five times, but let the final application of the Jewelweed juice air-dry. I went back to pick more Jewelweed, which I brought home with me.

          When I got home, I did some reading on Jewelweed and its effect on Poison Ivy. The renowned herbalist Euell Gibbons explains how to use Jewelweed after exposure to Poison Ivy that was an exact description of what I did today. That was reassuring. I also read that such a practice usually prevents an outbreak or makes the outbreak less severe. By tomorrow evening, I will know what the consequences are in my case.

 

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