I love collecting-days; I greet them with anticipation. I love the days when I can sniff the energy of green combined with welcoming weather. At these moments, I sense something like a call. I feel like a Knight of The Round Table, sensing the call in the wind, and immediately arise to greet the harvest day ahead.

I enjoy the discovering, the greeting, the sorting, the choosing. I enjoy the meeting of new friends on the journey. I enjoy seeing and feeling who the wind and earth will bring. Who, on the journey of life, will I meet today? What adventure might the quest offer today?

Not every day is a seeking day. There are quiet days too.

Like the Knights of The Round Table, a devotee of the quest, I sometimes must learn to listen and wait. Not jump too fast, nor gather too much.

The notion of comparing my excitement to a Knight of The Round Table popped into my mind this morning, when I realized that I felt excitement about finding today's elixir; when I felt charged with a sense of adventure and romance, imbued with a mandate to seek and to drink from the elixir of today. When this charge arrives, it feels like magic, like a romance awaiting in the rows of nettles and violets.

I have always loved the contrast between the words Round and Quest. The first conjures softness, and the latter, well, the opposite. The Round Table might have challenged the knights to temper these polarities, asking them to approach the journey with softness. Circling like a round of music, in spirals and harmonies. Suggesting that the true elixir is found in spiraling, in allowing, in gentleness and softness. One goes into the quest with a question, not an answer. One seeks and approaches beauty slowly, not with a plan, with humility, confidence and self-forgiveness, not expectation of result or direction.

Following the trail left by these sages, and learning to not expect what I might receive, is part of my journey. Perceiving the guiding light pointing me forward without assumption of a prize. Sometimes, I come home from the quest with treasure that isn’t necessarily visible in the basket.

Today, though, is a seeking day.
The leaves awoke me. Luring me up and out early to harvest before the sun's light reached it's zenith.

The plants seem to collaborate on seeking days, helping me to find the medicine who wants to go into the teas I make, helping me find the herbs even if and when I am out doing other errands. During these times, I have learned to stop and acknowledge the medicine right then and there.

Sometimes, these surprise appearances are for collecting; Other times, they are for admiring and honoring. I've noticed the most potent areas of medicine, the ones that draw my eyes to them over and over, year after year, are ones to revere and then tiptoe past. One feels and benefits simply by observing, smiling and nodding to these fonts of life, as one travels onward.

I start this day with leaves waving in my mind's eye, asking me to drink from their elixir of life, and I will end this day mixing the ingredients found into a tea that will fill me like the visions of green.
On these days, I seek a full circle of life. From an image of leaves that will lead me to the unknown at my doorstep and then circle me back to the end of the day with new gifts. At day's end, I will feel I drank deeply from the chalice of this elixir, from the chalice of the tide of life.

Namaste 🙏🏼