There is a panic fever going on at the moment regarding the new law on herbal remedies that is supposed to be introduced to EU in April and many have different views on what this law is really about.

However, there is always something good in everything and the brilliant thing in all this (regardless how monstrous this law may or may not be) is that more and more people might finally take responsibility for their own education and health and take action to learn more about presents we are given on this planet – various herbs that surround us. Fear of loosing something implies dependence and thus often leads to a survival drive of educating self and become self responsible.

Numerous books have been written in times when no money-driven-mega-institution/conspiracy theory and whatnot would filter the knowledge gathered from hundreds and thousand years of experience in relationship between human and plant beings. There are also many other sources from which one can learn who is who in this abundant world of herbs (and human characters) and how, when and where to interact with them.

An old saying reminds us that all we need for healing is usually within our very own environment, so we can learn to collect specific herbs in our nearest wilderness or in a garden. Even more so this way one can be certain the plant still has all the healing properties and that those haven’t been ruined by wrong time of picking, treating it, transporting it or leaving it for too long on a shop shelf.

I used to be surprised when a cup of chamomile tea wouldn’t cure my tummy ache as before, when my auntie made it for me. It took me several years to learn why that was so and to finally find out how many factors are included for one chamomile cup of tea to be effective. And I am still learning about it. I feel I’ve been researching all my life and will keep doing so because every herb is specific as every person is. I mean every herb, every plant, every stem, every flower and every root. Each of them slightly different due to many, many factors; from the environment they grow to the state of mind of a person preparing the tea. Everything counts.

I wish there was a good law regarding herbs, the law that would not install forbiddances yet allow children in primary school to be taught how to interact with the plant (and animal or mineral) kingdom. I also wish every child would learn to recognize wild edibles in nearest and farther environment. I also wish every child would learn how to run her or his mind and to act out of love and not fear. I wish… So many things I wish for and dream of; the world where diversity is cause for celebration and not for fight, the world of awareness of choice.

So, why not choose studying instead of panicking about this new law? Why not choose to use it as an incentive and not a threat, as a reminder how much more there is to learn about herbs, people, and our outer and inner worlds, how many more reasons there are to love and to enjoy exploring this colourful planet and its idiosyncrasies?

Laws come and go, they change, rules change, borders change, people change. One is supposed to respect the law of the society and the time one lives in yet how aware are we of the most important one – the law to be responsible for one and only system we can control – the very own self?
Might all these distressing news, rules and laws serve as a reminder to that one, too?

…For Thou, upon a hundred streams
By tales of love and sorrow
Of faithful love, undaunted truth,
Hast shed the power of Yarrow;
And streams unknown, hills yet unseen,
Whenever they invite Thee,
At parent Nature’s grateful call,
With gladness must requite Thee.

A gracious welcome shall be thine,
Such looks of love and honour
As thy own Yarrow gave to me
When first I gazed upon her;
Beheld what I had fear to see,
Unwilling to surrender
Dreams treasured up from the early days,
The holy and the tender….

(William Wordsworth, from „Yarrow Revisited”)