Down to Earth

We have a yard full of dandelions. For the past few years, we’ve decided not to use chemicals to kill the weeds in our yard. The other day a flock of goldfinches visited our yard and hid among the dandelions eating their seed. These birds retain knowledge of things we humans have forgotten.

A few weeks ago, our neighborhood Bible study group was talking about the need for healing. We wondered if healing is available to us as it was in biblical times. We looked over at the dandelions that were spreading across the neighborhood, wondering if God had a reason for making these prolific weeds. I started reading about these plants. I also decided to be my own test subject. For the last few weeks, I’ve been making a tea with dandelion leaves, stems, and flowers. I’m still alive. I spoke about my new-found interest in dandelions to a friend who used to live in China. She mentioned that the Chinese use dandelions a lot. Upon further research, I found that dandelions have been used in Chinese medicine for centuries. Here are links to a few studies that I found interesting:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/04/20/wdr-dandelion-tea-research-grant.html

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/dandelion-000236.htm

I wish there were extensive scientific studies on common plants and their benefits. However, since a drug company cannot patent a plant, there is no profit motive to study it unless they can extract specific nutrients from it and put it in a pill form. When individual nutrients are isolated and synthesized into shelf-stable supplement pills, oftentimes they lose their natural essence and balance.

I’m sure that there is a reason and purpose behind every created thing. Animals still pass on this knowledge to their young. Our ancestors probably had a lot of this knowledge, but we moderns have decided that we know better. We kill nature with chemicals and then buy bottles of chemicals labeled as ‘natural’.

I think the closer we are to nature, the more in touch we are to real soil, the deeper our understanding will be. As we learn more about the purpose of all created things, the closer we get to knowing God.