The Woodland Apothecary By Diane Duckworth Listening To The Spirits of Place “The clearest way into the Universe is through the forest wilderness.” -John Muir As I feel more settled in my new Cumbrian home, far from the open skies of Colorado, I am starting to feel more connected to the spirits of this place. I have been thinking about the Japanese practice of Shinto, not as something to borrow, wear, or imitate, but as a gentle reminder of something humans have always known:

By Diane Duckworth Let There Be Peace on Earth And Let It Begin With Me On this beautiful spring morning, as I stepped through the old stone opening into the woods, the bluebells were holding their own quiet light. Soft as breath, brief as kindness itself. They never shout. They never insist. And yet they change the whole forest floor. It made me wonder whether kindness works in the same way. Not as a grand performance. Not as something saved for special occasions. But as a

Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. Davis Orr This morning in the woods, with my sweet dog, Emily, by my side, and the damp earth breathing up through my boots, I found myself thinking about the future. It doesn’t have to be the metallic, humming one we are so often handed, but a living future. The kind where a hundred-year-old oak stands beside a sun-fed home that knows how to heal its own skin where technology works quietly in the background like mycelium, unseen, i