Hello.
Welcome.
Now,
Have you ever brushed your hand against a rosemary plant?
And then noticed how its fragrance seems to just follow you.
It clings to your fingers,
It's fresh and green,
And it's a little woody,
Almost like pine.
And long after you've walked away,
You can still smell it upon your skin.
And maybe that is one reason Rosemary has become so deeply connected with remembrance.
It doesn't disappear quietly.
It leaves something behind.
So welcome back to the wisdom of the apothecary.
The door is open.
The shelves are waiting and today we are reaching into the herbal cabinet for one of the most Familiar plants found within it.
Rosemary.
It is so familiar that it can be easily overlooked.
Rosemary has been carried through celebrations and remembrance ceremonies.
Traditional remedies and household rituals for centuries.
And it has appeared at weddings as a symbol of loyalty and enduring love.
And at funerals as a symbol of memory and devotion to those who have gone before us.
Now that's quite a journey for a small evergreen herb.
And Rosemary seems to understand that love and remembrance are closely connected.
And we remember because something mattered.
A person,
A place.
Maybe a season of your life,
Or even a familiar version of yourself.
And sometimes that memory is so joyful.
Sometimes it is tender.
And sometimes remembering.
It feels like opening a drawer that we've kept closed for a very long time.
But Rosemary,
It doesn't talk to us to live in the past.
Its wisdom is not about clinging to everything that has been,
It's about honoring what remains.
Now.
This,
If you didn't know,
Is rosemary.
It is beautiful.
I love rosemary.
And I think the first thing you would notice is its sort of wide but narrow leaves.
They're firm,
They're very firm.
They're not delicate and the plant itself is evergreen.
And even during the colder months,
When many other plants lose their leaves or disappear back into the earth,
Rosemary remains.
You know,
There's something beautifully reassuring about that.
And it reminds us that not everything living within and especially living within us,
Vanishes during a difficult season.
You know,
Joy may become harder to reach.
Confidence can grow quieter and our sense of direction may change.
It just might feel hidden,
But hidden is not the same as gone.
And some parts of us remain evergreen.
And they wait patiently beneath the tiredness,
The grief,
The responsibility,
And all the ways life has asked us to change.
And the wisdom of Rosemary,
It says you may have lost yourself a little bit,
But you may simply need something to help you remember.
And traditionally,
Rosemary has been valued for its very strong aromatic presence as well.
Its fragrance has long been associated with alertness and mental clarity and concentration,
Which makes its connection with memory feel especially fitting.
Now,
If you crush this,
I'm going to put some into my little pestle and mortar here.
And this is beautiful.
So if we crush it.
Brush it a little bit.
Just a little wee bit.
And you can do this between your fingers.
It releases its beautiful scent.
Oh,
It is divine.
It is divine.
I love it.
And there's no long preparation,
Just a simple little wee crushing.
No complicated ritual.
And as I said,
You can do that on your fingers.
The plant responds the moment it is touched and scent itself has a remarkable way of opening the doors of memory.
And a single fragrance can suddenly return to us in the kitchen from childhood.
A garden we once walked through.
You know,
The perfume of someone we loved.
A particular season maybe.
Holiday or a home.
And before we've even found the words,
The body's remembered.
And that's beautiful.
And that is also one beautiful thing about the apothecary.
It reminds us that we don't experience life through thought alone.
We remember through fragrance and taste and sound and texture and sensation and our stories are held in more places than the mind.
You know,
Maybe you've experienced this with a cup of tea made in the same way your mother or your grandmother prepared it.
Maybe it's the smell of lavender.
And that reminds you of clean linen or wood smoke returns you to winter evenings.
These amazing sensory memories can feel almost magical.
But they're also deeply human.
The apothecary knew this.
And it understood that a remedy was not only about the ingredient itself.
The warmth of the cap.
The familiar fragrance.
The sound of the spoon and the care with which something was prepared.
Could all become part of the experience.
And Rosemary brings us back to this way of noticing.
It asks us to pay attention to what What awakens when we encounter it?
And for some people,
Its fragrance feels cleansing and invigorating.
And for others,
It brings memories of cooking.
Garden saw.
Family gatherings and there's no correct response.
This beautiful plant may have a long history in many traditional associations.
But your relationship with it is personal.
And that is an important part of working with anything from the apothecary.
We can learn what a herb has meant to others while remaining curious.
About what it means to us.
The old books may offer us knowledge,
But our senses offer us conversation.
And rosemary also carries a beautiful and amazing reputation as a protective household herb.
It has traditionally been placed near doors and grown close to homes and included in cleansing preparations.
And when we approach that practically,
Symbolically or spiritually.
There is something lovely about the idea of Rosemary standing at the threshold.
A plant of remembrance growing beside the place where we come and go.
And maybe ask.
Maybe it's asking you,
As you step into the world,
What do you wish to remember?
And then when you return home.
What would you want to leave at the door?
And we often speak about protection as though it means building a wall around ourselves,
But Rosemary offers another possibility.
Sometimes protection is remembering.
Who we are before we enter the noise.
Remembering our values and our limits.
And remembering that we don't have to absorb every mood,
Expression,
Or opinion around us.
We can deeply without carrying everything.
You know,
We can be generous without abandoning ourselves.
We can listen to others without forgetting our own inner voice.
And that may be one of Rosemary's most useful teachings for modern life.
We are surrounded by so much information that it can become difficult to hear what we already know.
We look outside ourselves for reassurance,
For permission and answers.
And we compare our lives with carefully chosen glimpses of other people's lives.
And we can become so busy responding to what is urgent that we lose touch with what is important.
And Rosemary.
Places a fragrant hand upon your shoulder and says,
Come back.
Remember.
Remember what steadies you.
Remember what nourishes you.
Remember the people who helped you become who you are.
Remember the promises you made to yourself when your mind was clear.
And remember that rest.
And tenderness and beauty and not distractions from your life.
That part of your life.
And if you would like to bring Rosemary into that,
Into your everyday apothecary,
It can be very,
Very simple.
You might keep a rosemary plant near a doorway or a sunny windowsill,
They love it there,
And touch its leaves as you pass.
You could add a beautiful wee sprig to roasted vegetables,
Soups or bread.
And you might place a small bundle in a room simply for its natural fragrance.
Or use Rosemary as the focus of a small remembrance ritual.
You could write down the name of someone or somewhere or some part of yourself that you wish to honor.
And then place a sprig of rosemary beside those words.
And you don't have to make the moment elaborate.
You could just simply say,
I remember what was given to me.
I honor what remains and I carry the love forward.
And if you're using rosemary preparations on the body as an essential oil or as part of a herbal remedy,
Remember that natural does not automatically mean suitable for everyone.
Concentrated essential oils should be swallowed and they need to be diluted appropriately for topical use.
Individual health conditions and medications and pregnancy and sensitivities can all affect what is safe.
So seek guidance.
When needed.
But we don't need to make a remedy to receive Rosemary's wisdom,
Although it does make some beautiful ones.
You can begin with the plant itself.
Look at it.
Touch it.
Notice its fragrance.
Allow it to remind you that the ordinary things around us often become extraordinary when we give them our attention.
And before we close the herbal draw today,
I'd like to leave you with a question from the apothecary.
What part of yourself is asking to be remembered.
Maybe it's your creativity.
Maybe it's your playfulness.
Or your courage.
Or your voice.
Maybe the person you were before life became so demanding.
Or maybe it is not a forgotten part of yourself at all.
Maybe you've been asked to remember how far you have already come.
And we can become so focused on what still needs healing that we forget to honor what we have survived and what we've learned and carried.
You don't have to return to the earlier version of yourself.
The purpose of remembering is not to move backwards.
It is to gather the pieces of wisdom that still belong with you and bring them into the person you are becoming now.
And so today's whisper from the apothecary is this.
Not everything you have lost is gone.
Some things are waiting within you for the fragrance.
The feeling,
Or the moment that helps you remember.
So thank you for joining me and Rosemary today beside the beautiful herbal cabinet.
And until we open the apothecary door again,
May Rosemary remind you of what endures.
May you honour the memories that have shaped you.
And may you remember and welcome the parts of yourself that are ready.
To be remembered and loved.
Until we meet again in the Apothecary.
Namaste.
