Soon, I lingered longer and missed their innocent customs when I did return home. When I first arrived, I wanted to learn everything quickly and return to my comforts at home. I honored their cultural differences as well as their lifestyle. With experience and encouragement, I learned to grow and use their herbs as well as their wisdom. Each one repeated folklore and taught me about our connection to the earth. What I learned from these healers and cooks from all over the world became a garden in my mind. Europeans distilled therapeutic liquors and wine for medicinal use. Mexicans drank manzanilla (chamomile) and cinnamon tea for a host of ailments. Africans used spices in their food to detox and to enhance stamina. Native Americans used bitter herbs to detox and remedies that allowed quick healing. Each culture had a specific belief underlying healing. Over the past thirty years, I have traveled to many countries. Everything in nature is healing as I discovered this, the twins also were healing. As I opened my intuitive nature, I learned that even flowers are medicinal. Native Americans taught me the use and value of common weeds in my environment. Orientals taught me to cook tonic herbs to gather concentrated nutrition. From Ayurvedic medicine I learned to prepare certain herbs for topical healing. Here I met competent teachers to guide me: cooks, healers, and doctors of Eastern medicine. I soon began shopping at ethnic grocery stores to find additional foods.

One pediatrician suggested I go home and concentrate on what I could do. Their list of immune problems grew endlessly. The boy had asthma and staph infections in his eyes. One had anaphylactic shock from soy and febrile convulsions when her temperature climbed. They ran 105-degree temperatures, reacted badly to almost every food, and bled constantly through their skin. I had delivered normal twins who displayed immune deficiencies soon after birth. Mother Nature’s design is to awaken the innate healing ability within all of us. Join me on this journey and walk through the following pages. As you become aware of the beauty enfolding you, every facet of your life will seem magical. Observe each herb with new eyes and experience the earth’s healing capacity. The herbs not only help physical ailments, but also address the psyche and support spiritual sensitivity.

As each one is introduced, open your mind and heart to the knowledge it offers. The history, lore, cultural significance, and medicinal qualities of a wide variety of herbs is featured. Through this herbal, Mother Nature extends an invitation for you to discover an enchanting world of plants.

Mother Nature's Herbal by Judy Griffin