Talking to plants is like discovering a secret library filled with ancient wisdom. It's a profound experience to connect with the intelligence of a plant, and even more so to discover that others, in different cultures, different places and different times also discovered that same treasure trove of knowledge.

I discovered the magic of starflower on a recent spring morning. It turns out that it has potent medicine for our times.

The redwood forest near my house is filled with invisible salamanders. Invisible to me, anyway. During daylight hours, hawks circle overhead and ladybugs pile up on fern fronds. Salamanders stay hidden as they slumber in hidden crevices and under fallen trees. And yet, perhaps salamander has been aware of my footfalls along forest pathways because she recently showed up in my dreams for several nights in a row. 

The spirit of Elephant met me in my dreams last night. She beckoned me to join her in an arid plain that was scattered with sparse, spiky shrubs. The skin that hung from the elephant’s bones looked almost as old as the earth itself. It draped itself into ridges and crevasses as though it were a landscape carved from the wind and the sun and once flowing riverbeds.

Some time ago, my animal wisdom circle spent a month meditating with the spirit of hermit crab. Lately I’ve been thinking on her gentle compassionate energy as I’ve been navigating some thickets in the human world. Hermit crab has a way of bringing me back to the basics and reminding me that it actually is a wondrous thing to be alive.

Talking to plants can feel like slipping down the rabbit hole to Alice’s wonderland. I had that experience one day when I got to know Oxalis.