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People
Tell Their Stories: Finding My Own Medicine Kahlee Keane — Root Woman Excerpt from Conscious
Women-Conscious Lives (White Knight Publications) by Darlene Montgomery Those who analyze such things,
say children who lack parental love don't thrive. It was true for me — I didn't
thrive, I didn't want to thrive. Specifically, I lacked the will to live. So
when in my early thirties, I discovered my life might be over within a year, I
chose to abstain from treatment. Instead I embraced death. I had no close friends and
severed family ties long ago, so it was easy to slip away from my urban life. I
had enough money on hand to last a year, six months more than I figured I
needed. I chose for my retreat Some days were good, some bad.
I walked and contemplated, cried and laughed. I sometimes met people around the
area, but if they got too curious, I lied. Whatever came to mind was the theme
for the day. Some days I was sick and
frightened of what was coming but oddly most days were filled with an uncommon
feeling of serenity, of being cared for and nurtured from an unseen source.
Days were spent wandering the shore and tidal pools where I watched the water
people. Higher up in the meadows I took on wings and flew with the sky people. I first saw her in a high
meadow ¾ a native woman gathering plants. "Medicine,"
she told me. I watched her as she gathered leaves, flowers and dug roots ¾ stooping low to bury tobacco offerings in the
Mother Earth. Her connection with the plants made me conscious of the tall,
graceful, shaggy-headed plants circling my cabin. My landlord had told me to
get rid of them. They take over and are just "weeds," he said. I'd
put it off, couldn't do it, they seemed to be there for me, guarding me,
looking for me in some way. I realized then these were the standing people. The next time I saw the woman
she was digging the root of the very same plant. Surprised by the
synchronicity, I asked her to tell me about them. "You've found your
medicine," she said. "This root is good for the blood, good for
tumors, this is your medicine." She handed me a small shovel and we dug
maybe twenty roots together. For every root she dropped tobacco in the hole
making an offering of thanks to the plant. She gave me some so that I could do
the same. I began to feel connected to life, part of something greater. I began
to feel the power of medicine. Words were seldom required
between us, she knew all she needed to know about me.
That day she invited me for tea at her summerhouse — a tent beside a creek at
the edge of the tree line. The tent was large and airy and filled with earthy
smells. It was furnished with a cot, table and chairs. As we sipped our tea she
told me that she had known about me before we met and knew that she would be
able to help me. She said, "The grandmothers had told me this." It was
simply understood between us that I would stay with her and use the medicine to
get well. I learned her name was
Standing Woman, she was Kwakiutl, and I stayed with her for three months. She
took me with her to gather plants for my daily needs, telling me their story,
and how to prepare them. Afterward we would make the medicine together. Some
days I wasn't well enough to venture out, and on those days she sat with me and
cared for my needs with more love and tenderness than I had ever known. As the
days passed I became stronger and more confident that I had ever been. I was
deeply connected to the earth, the same earth that I had wanted to leave just a
short time before. One morning, I awoke and simply knew that my disease was
gone. I also knew that my apprenticeship with nature had just begun. Now, some twenty-five years
later, I walk close to the earth, and like her, I listen to stories the plants
have to tell. They teach me their medicine and I pass it on to those who want
to learn. Before she died, Standing Woman asked me to carry on her work. I
cannot replace her but I can walk with people to help them find the medicine
they are seeking. Some want to walk this way,
and some do not. For those who do, I am here in the meadow. Ó Kahlee Keane 2001 Reprinted by permission of
Kahlee Keane
Excerpt
from Conscious Women-Conscious Lives: Powerful &
Transformational Stories of Healing Body, Mind and Soul (White Knight
Publications, Copyright © 2004 by Darlene Montgomery. All rights reserved. Reprinted
by permission of Darlene Montgomery. Kahlee Keane, Root Woman is an educator
and eco-herbalist. Her lectures, books, videos and herbology
courses stress the sustainable use of medicinal plants while teaching others to
make and use the medicines that are their birthright. She is the founder of Senega Watch (branch of Save Our Species). Kahlee and David Howarth have
just published The Standing People, a
guide to the medicinal wild plants found in
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