“The herb wherever it grows wild denotes a pure atmosphere, and was thought to enliven the spirits by the fragrance which it diffuses into the air around. The Romans gave Thyme as a sovereign remedy to melancholy persons.” (www.botanical.com)
Wild Thyme is a highly medicinal plant which grows abundantly on our Mediterranean mountainside. The name is a cheeky play on words that inspired me to begin writing this blog page.
Wild Thyme is about coming to our senses. It is about re-wilding ourselves in the natural world. Creating a space for us to be part of Nature and a place within the natural rhythms of life.
It is about living in a wild time, a time apart from man-made time or the structured schedules of the city - of listening to the seasons and the skies and letting our bodies move with the instinctual patterns that they bring forth. Making hay when the sun shines and being cosy by the fire when it does not.
Wild thyme is a wildness that moves within us, that beckons us to be ourselves, to be free, to feel the earth beneath our feet and the warm breeze on our faces. It is a wildness not of the mind numbing kind that comes on a Friday night after a long week of drudgery in a life that we did not choose - but rather this wildness is an acknowledgment of the spark and the life force within us that liberates us from rigid structures, allowing us to be the conductors of our own reality.
Wild Thyme also speaks of an era of great uncertainty and change, a time when our world and many of the beings that live in it are under threat. It is both a critical and vital time. A point where we as a species could re-acknowledge the earth as our true home, using our energies and intellects to regenerate our environments and ecosystems whilst harmoniously caring for our human needs. The future of our kind rests in the balance of Wild Thyme - a liminal space between realities and destinies - where it is still possible to change, to choose, to be what we would like to see in the world.
Wild Thyme reminds us that the medicine and the healing that we need at this time is provided lovingly by our Mother Earth. It grows wild and free all around us, in the places that we do not notice as we rush about our days tending to more important things. Our medicine is in the clean air that we breath, the fresh food that we eat, the living water that we drink and the smiles and hugs of our shared community. Our happiness can also be found in simple earthly pleasures, in the smell of the blossom and the song of the bird, as we remember that we too are part of this magical tapestry and our lives are intricately woven with and connected to all that IS.
Wild Thyme people are those who are wild to live, wild to love, wild to share and serve “the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”*
Wild Thyme, as the name implies is also about having a good time! Finding the fun in life! It is throwing back our heads in uproarious laughter, not trying to fit in to some magazine cut-out but dancing freely and unashamedly, enjoying being alive.
The first step of Wild Thyme is taking time to discover ourselves - stopping the noise of the marketplace, the tabloids and the hustle and bustle - being mindful and diving into the Universes within - feeling the winds of change and the bubbles of hope stirring us…. arousing us…. urging us…. to respond to the call of Wild Life.
*(Quote from Jack Kerouac - On the Road)