Hello!
It’s been so long, and a busy year of transitions and change. A little re-introduction- I’m Taylor Rose, and, if you’re trying to place me, we likely met at the California School of Herbal Studies Community Herbalist end of year symposium (about a year ago!).
I am returning my attention squarely to this work and hoping to re-engage with you all! I’ve launched my website and have a few upcoming workshops, programs, and offerings I’d like to share.
I’ll be sending out monthly newsletters, highlighting what’s new with Wonder and Roses and focusing on herbalism and political education. You can check out my substack page (in progress) for additional pieces of my writing.
Moving away from the summer season and into fall has me reflecting on balance. Balance is a helpful touchpoint for me, and something I return to frequently. As a system of exploitation, capitalism churns on imbalance, constantly creating conditions and experiences of scarcity & urgency that can show up in our bodies as illness, exhaustion, depleted immune systems, dysregulated nervous systems, and so much more.
Lately, I’ve felt rush, urgency, a busy-ness in my body. When I check in with myself, I notice that I am holding my breath. My nervous system and digestive systems are asking for support, and I’ve been working with some of my favorite adaptogens (tulsi, astragalus), digestive aids (ginger, dandelion root, burdock), and nervines (oatstraw, lemon balm, hops) to encourage balance. I’ve also been practicing simple somatic techniques, including hugging myself tightly and breathing deeply, which bring me into deeper connection with myself.
It’s true, we are living with long urgent conditions, as the twin forces of capitalism and settler colonialism continue to ravage the planet, casting some lives as worthy of being lived and others as disposable. Living in the US necessitates reckoning with these forces that are endemic to the nation-state form itself. Founded through genocide and chattel slavery, the US maintains relentless capacity for racial violence and continues to act as an imperial power: funding genocidal warfare, enacting dispossession at both local and global scales, and maintaining the largest military budget in the world.
I offer grief support for folks currently facing state violence, including those grieving loved ones in Palestine and Lebanon. If you or someone you know would benefit from herbal remedies or a loving presence to hold space for grief, please contact me.
Tending imbalance is urgent, and that tending requires intention, grounding, and connection—with ourselves, each other, with the seasons and cycles of our ecosystems. And so, I draw close my practices of slowness to move steadily, with intention as part of my commitment to love as anti-capitalist praxis. I find my body, listen to the river, breathe deeply, feel my feet on the ground, light my altars, call on my balanced ancestors, make offerings to the trees. Faced with capitalism’s ruthless commitment to scarcity and accumulation, I pray daily: may balance be restored, may I connect more deeply with the wisdom of the elements, may I move in alignment with the seasons and the rhythms of the earth.
Transitioning out of lengthy days and into longer nights, I am practicing being present with sunrise and sunset. This is an important way that I manage my mental health, and one I encourage everyone who struggles with this seasonal change in light and darkness, to practice.
A loving invitation: Can you try to notice where the sun is, the quality of the light, how much darkness remains, when you first wake in the morning? And then, can you do the same in the evenings, noticing the light leaving and the evening ushering in darkness? Can you catch any of the sun setting, taking a moment to breathe, releasing the day and welcoming in the night? Can you be present with the sunrise, welcoming in the day and grounding into the present moment?
I’m currently accepting 1:1 coaching clients. If you are looking to find more balance in your life, open to unlearning practices and patterns that keep you stuck, and want to deepen connection with yourself and the world around you, I’d love to hear from you!
This month (October), I'm launching “plants through the seasons,” a free offering to encourage connection with plants throughout the year. For one month toward the beginning of each season (October, January, May, July), I’ll hold one live call on seasonal herbal supports, and each week of that month share a plant profile (aka a monograph), detailing an herb for seasonal support. The autumn live call will be on Monday, October 28, 6-730pm (PT). Follow me on substack to receive monthly plant profiles, and email me (wonderandroses@gmail.com) to register/get the zoom link for the live call.
In November, I’m bringing Wonder & Roses to Chicago for an in-person Welcoming Winter workshop and selling some of my herbal products at my sister’s photography studio. Teaming up with my sister Leigha is a special treat and a joy.
I’ll also be hosting a Welcoming Winter workshop in Jenner, CA, on December 7 from 10:30-3:00pm (PT). Read more about out my upcoming workshops and programs on my website.
Look out for the launch of monthly writing with the plants live calls (free/by donation) and a quarterly workshop on how to read theory (free/by donation).
This week, I’ll be joining folks in Lake Arrowhead, CA for Going with Grace’s Death Doula training. I’ll post reflections on substack.
That’s all from me for now. Be in touch with questions, reflections, requests etc. I welcome your input as to offerings you’d like to see, political education you’re looking for, and days of week/times of day where you’d appreciate workshops scheduled.
With love,
Taylor Rose
photo by Leigha Wondergem