Feeling, Healing, Art

I am sitting here in my porch, watching the un-mowed grass undulate from a strong west wind, shimmering like a peridot sea.

It is the role of an artist to notice. To pay close attention to the way sunlight touches the bend in each blade of grass, to witness the way a field can move like the surface of a lake. Yet, I am innately aware that an artist’s role runs more deeply than noticing light and shadow, value and color.

I know that it is also my role to feel.

What is it like to bend to the wind? How might it feel to be the surface of a lake? What is the experience of a bud, opening in the early spring? This, more than anything, is what I want to imagine when I paint, this what I want to bring to life.

There is an aspect of my world that I don’t delve into much in this newsletter and that is my homeopathic healing practice. Not because I don’t want to, it is as much a part of my life as my creative practice. The reason I have kept them separate was for the perceived sake of the interest of my art audience.

However recently, these worlds have been colliding, weaving together, and to not talk about what is stirring here feels like I have tucked something away too magical to keep in the dark.

Though the art of working with this holistic system of medicine to help other people heal might not be like watercolor in technical ways, they overlap in a lot of others. Both of these practices require my willingness to hold space for the experience of something outside of me. Currently, I am in the process of getting my certification in Flower Essence Therapy. This healing therapy is sort of a sister practice to homeopathy — if homeopathy were the methodical, fastidious and precise student, flower essences are more like her wild, free-spirited sister. They carry similarities but are not the same.

In addition to learning how to use these essences to help people heal, I have learned how to make my own flower essences out of living plants and it is something that has blown my world right open. The practice is incredibly potent and life-changing and I have fallen in love with the art of it. I have made two mother essences so far from native plants on our land here — first, Pussy Willow, then Dandelion — and not only did I get to experience the true energetic healing power of these plants, I now have them in my regimen to help others heal and am using them to heal myself.

After being deeply immersed in the energy of these plants, I have felt so present to the essence them that I like to paint the experience shortly after. It tethers me even more closely to the natural world, to the healing power of the plants that are so readily available to us, and to the messages they have to share. I have also used the essences themselves in the water I use to paint, so the literal energy of the plant is infused into the painting itself.

This practice of essence making is immersive and potent, and through it, I am learning how to really listen. I have become more and more aware that nature is always reaching out, and to pay attention when I can’t take my gaze away from a particular plant. In both these instances of making plant medicine out of Pussy Willow and Dandelion, it was as if I couldn’t pull myself away from the plant. I have learned even more deeply that what we feel attracted to wants us right back. That I am in a symbiotic relationship with everything around me.

Of course, throughout the summer, as more flowers and trees bloom around me, I will be making more essences to use in my practice. I should be officially certified in Flower Essence Therapy by the end of the month and am so looking forward to adding this to my list of services as a homeopath and healer.

And of course, as I continue to make essences throughout the summer, I will be painting these experiences along the way. I am so excited to share this in this venture with all of you.

Speaking of which, if you are interested in learning more about my services as a homeopathic practitioner and flower essence therapist, you can visit my website here at katiebrommehomeopathy.com or you can email me at katie@katiebrommehomeopathy.com. I am always open to chatting with anyone would is curious about this near and dear practice.