A Note from Herbalista
Community herbalism is a powerful thing. Not only does it have the power to heal, it actually empowers people to heal themselves. And unlike the dominant capitalistic-colonial system, it manages to build economic potential while both stewarding the environment and protecting human dignity.
On a more personal note, it is through this type of collaborative herbwork that I continue to find both hope and purpose, particularly now, during an especially tragic year.
And it might even be within these moments of grief and of horror, as we bear witness to genocide, climate disasters, and ever-punishing poverty, that we are able to summon the courage and the strength we need to reject the status quo and do the work it takes to compassionately create a more loving (and infinitely more sustainable) system of life. And we don’t have to go it alone. Let us look to each other and our herbal elders for inspiration. We community herbalists stand on mighty and loving shoulders.
I am pleased to share with you this year’s service report, filled with all the herbwork that we have done together. In addition to our regular programming, we helped co-create some new community offerings (check out Brigid Books and the Herbal Mutual Aid Directory) and also poured a tremendous amount of effort into the rebuilding of our online resources. We redid our website and the online toolkit; we updated many of our downloadable worksheets and guides; and we continued working on our latest Free School Course entitled Community and Clinical Care, to be released this coming February.
We look forward to continuing our work together, building community through herbalism, in 2025.
Herbally yours,
Lorna Mauney-Brodek
