by Jack Braunstein
Part 1
"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change,” wrote Buddha about 2,500 years ago. This insight has been echoed over the centuries by many religions, philosophies, and individuals, but have you in your entire lifetime spent an hour or two-or three or more tuning into a single flower? If so, perhaps you have begun to understand “the language of the flowers”.
This probing deeply into the individuality of a single plant is called a plant attunement. Part of the requirements to attain my certification through the Flower Essence Society involved my doing a plant attunement. I purposely chose a wild aster because its flower is not particularly spectacular-at least at a casual glance-and because I could not find any reference to its healing properties as a flower essence. The first part of the exercise involved paying close attention to its habitat, stem, leaves, root system, fragrance, and flower. At some point during my third hour of note taking, I felt I had gathered enough clues to determine its properties as a flower essence. Basically, I felt the aster helps be true to oneself so that he or she can radiate a truer love to others. After four hours, I finished my assignment and went about my day, expecting nothing out of the ordinary to occur. Nevertheless, I was delightfully surprised.
The first of two wonderful events that were to follow began with a dream I had that evening, and with the permission of the woman whom it involved, I will tell you that next time. The second incident I will tell you about now. When I did the plant attunement, I had been reading Eliot Cowan’s book, Plant Spirit Medicine. This book made me feel that the aster had been grateful for my ‘communication’ with it, and had thus played an instrumental part in the magical event that was about to occur in my life.
The story began 27 years ago when, at the age of 17, I was hitchhiking on the highway with a backpack filled with all of what I felt I needed. Headed to Pittsburgh from New York, I was running away from home. Even though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, asters were in full bloom along the highway on that sunny October morning. I don’t remember either of the first two drivers who gave me rides, but because I needed an adult to speak with, I probably shared my intention to leave home. The third driver proved to be much more memorable. He was Carmine Tedeschi, and to this day I remember what he looked like. During our conversation, he convinced me to take the train home and “give my father another chance.” He also insisted on giving me the two dollars for the trip home.
Things did calm down at my house and I never attempted to run away again. While I was a senior in high school that year, Carmine and I exchanged a couple of letters, during which I returned the two-dollar loan. We fell out of touch when I went to college. Five years after our meeting, his wife Tina wrote me a note addressed to my parents’ address, asking if I would visit Carmine who was terribly ill in the hospital. Even though I was living in New York City where his hospital was located, I was unsure of myself and afraid to deal with anyone’s illness, I looked at the letter on my desk for days, then weeks, then months. By that point I feared the worst and didn’t even respond to her request.
About 10 years later, I realized the importance of being there for friends in need and tried to find any Carmine or C. Tedeschi’s in the New York City area by calling information. No luck. Then with the advent of the Internet, I tried finding his phone number again. Once again, to no avail. I began accepting that I would have to live with my remorse.
A few days after I did the attunement exercise with the aster, however, a 71-year old man and his wife were rummaging through their papers in their attic. It was Carmine and his wife Tina, and among the papers was a letter I had written him 27 years earlier. Tina suggested he write me with the chance that my parents were still living at the same address. They were, and upon receiving the letter, they forwarded it to me. I was shocked! Not only was Carmine alive and well, he had cherished our meeting as much as I had. What’s more, he had forgiven me for not visiting him in the hospital. It was also especially notable that I was now 44-years old, the same age Carmine had been when he had given me the ride 27 years earlier. It is also notable that I was 17 at the time, and he was now 71, the same age with the numbers reversed. Was it all mere coincidence?
I have seen Carmine and Tina four times since then, and our friendship continues to develop. Was our reconnecting after so many years at all related to my seeing “the miracle of a single flower”? Having been granted a wish, I believe so.
Part 2
When you observe nature closely, your efforts will not go unnoticed. She's always glad to have an audience. Listen closely and she will reward you in ways unexpected.
In the previous section I told how I observed, took notes, sketched and, in short, communed with a single aster plant. It was part of the course work that Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski assigned in order to earn my certification as a flower essence practitioner through the Flower Essence Society. At the time I had also been reading Eliot Cowan's book Plant Spirit Medicine, so I felt particularly prepared for tuning into a plant’s healing spirit. After three hours I thought my session with the aster was over, but I have since come to wonder if it had expressed its appreciation for my acknowledging it by precipitating two wonderful events that were soon to follow. .
In the previous section I wrote how I reconnected with Carmine Tedeschi, the person who had given me a ride while I was hitchhiking and running away from home at the age of 17. Five years later, when I was 22, his wife wrote me a letter asking if I would visit Carmine in the hospital as he was very sick. I didn't reply and felt extremely guilty years later but was no longer able to locate his whereabouts. Twenty-seven years after our only meeting, I had been given the chance to apologize to him and his wife Tina. They had written a letter to my parents, who had forwarded it to me, and I was thrilled to find out that Carmine and Tina were alive and well. This was one of two quiet miracles that occurred within days after my attunement with the aster. The other involved a woman whom I will call "Colette" to respect her wish to be anonymous.
Colette's husband had passed away two months earlier. They lived far from me so I met them in person only three times, but the contacts were meaningful and maintained by an occasional phone call. The couple was soul mates so Colette took his passing extremely hard. The night after I did the attunement with the aster, Colette's husband appeared in my dream and made me feel it was imperative to call her. The very next day I did, and she revealed that her sorrow had only intensified over the course of time and that she was experiencing the darkest period of her life.
She went on to tell me that on a few occasions since her husband's death, she had come into contact with Gabriel Rossetti's painting of Ophelia, the woman in Shakespeare's Hamlet who goes mad and eventually commits suicide. In the painting, Ophelia is depicted in her delirious state as she floats down a stream on her back with flowers alongside her. Colette, whose will to carry on without her husband was subsiding, identified with Ophelia's fate.
"But what about Hamlet's dying wish that he requests of his friend Laertes!" I implored. I searched for this passage and read it to her. Hamlet's speech was more telling than I had realized:
"Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me.
If thou
didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in
this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story."
Colette and I were in awe. Suddenly we understood why her husband had appeared in my dream: It was as if he had wanted her to hear Hamlet's message because he needed her to tell their story.
I prepared her a blend of flower essences that I felt would help her through these trying times. Over the next three months, Colette used three bottles of the special blend and my blend called Letting Go, which helps a person move through the grief of separation. She steadily emerged from her depression, and within a few weeks she had a completely rejuvenated outlook on her future. Rather than claiming her soul, the darkness she experienced had deepened it. Today, Colette continues her outstanding work as a healer, helping others through their obstacles and sorrows.
This is a story of how one life touches another's--mine, Colette's, her husband's, Eliot Cowan's, Richard Katz's, Patricia Kaminski's, Shakespeare's, David Thomas' (for planting the garden that inspired me to make the essences), and yes, that single aster's. It makes little difference that the latter just happens to have been a plant. And does it really matter that Shakespeare, Colette's husband, David Thomas, and that particular aster have passed on? While the positive influence of their lives continues to inform and ripple into the present, they are revealing how those who once lived with spirit, live on in spirit. ”
Jack Braunstein is an FES-certified flower essence practitioner who has developed a line of special blends through his company David's Garden. Take a refreshing stroll through www.davidsgarden.com
