Lavender Oracle Card
.::Lavender::.
Steadfast
“You have more in you than you know.”
My son and I walk the shore of Lake Michigan. Almost every Friday I take him to "our spot," where we walk hand in hand collecting small stones and driftwood, laying out a mandala together. We are both in heartache, trying to understand what it means. I am holding so much back, working to make some normalcy for him, pretending we can carry on through the pain. He spots the giant rocks he likes to climb and runs off, shouting at the seagulls in full five-year-old bliss, and I sink to my knees and cry. The questions — how could this happen, and why? — flow around and around, back and forth, almost in time with the waves upon the sand. My heart beats so loudly. I feel cut up, sifted like the stones we gather, turned over and over by something larger than me. Then his tiny hand is on my shoulder. I look up into his eyes. "It's ok, Mom. You have more inside you than you know." How wise.
If ever a name held a spell, it is wrapped up in Lavender. Speak this herb's name and images rise unbidden — some folks love them, some can't stand them, but the power is the same either way. It would be easy to write Lavender off as a get-what-you-see herb, but they hold far more than their reputation: nervine, carminative, circulatory stimulant, lifter of low spirits. Lavender is a heart-tender for when the space between our chests feels like it might crack, when our breath catches in our throats. They don't push the feeling away — they make room for us to sink into it and find release. Lavender is a wave upon the sand, sifting through stone and water, churning and filtering, allowing change. Steadfast in their work, they remind us that softness and strength live in the same body. What looks delicate holds depths. When Lavender comes to you, they come with a question: what are you carrying that you've mistaken for the whole of you? There is more beneath. There always is.
I would love to hear more about your relationship to plants and the web of interbeing. Please consider a public comment on this post. When we all share, we all build more connection to the natural world, our Mother and our home.
Stay wild and true
~Emily
