ROSE TINCTURE

This is just a tiny post…I think.

I never quite know where my thoughts will take me so be patient and let us see how this develops.

My herbal friend, Jayn advised my daughter to use a particular herbal tincture…the ingredients of which sound amazing.  Imagine taking a mixture that includes Blessed Thistle, False Unicorn Root and Squaw Vine amongst several others!  Alongside, she feels that Rose Tincture would be very supportive and nurturing and something inside me said that I too would benefit from this lovely mixture.

I have used Rose Tincture before at a time when I needed to care more for me.

A week ago my mother-in-law passed away very peacefully.  She had,until the last few years led a full and active life.  I knew her for more years than I knew my own mother…and as with any relationship we had our ups and downs.  She and I were completely different!  However, she always supported me, and often understood me more than I understood myself.  She loved the fact that I taught yoga and that became a counsellor many years ago.  She was gentle, she was kind and she loved all her family with a quiet devotion and deep interest.  Even as recently as March she wanted to know how my sister and husband were and asked after my good friend and neighbour, Barbara.

And so it seemed the perfect support would be found in Rose Tincture.

“Rose tincture is uplifting and calming, just smelling it is up-lifting.  It is primarily a female tonic.  It calms the nerves”  Fushi

Elsewhere I have read that it opens your heart and can be effective in addressing  sadness, grief, depression, anxiety and insomnia.

The sum total of all that I have read is that it is the perfect remedy for me for now.  

It’s possible that most people in our world at the moment would benefit from this beautiful mixture.

It is very easy to make your own tincture but you do need to ensure that the rose petals you use are free of all pesticides….organic in other words.

Simply pile a heap of fresh petals in a glass jar and cover completely with alcohol, stir with a wooden chopstick, seal tightly and leave for four weeks.  Shake the mix at least once a day.  When done store in a tinted glass bottle.  A more detailed recipe can be found at Studio Botanica.

My Rose Tincture came from a local herbalist; Richard Linton.

The following words by Henry Scott Holland meant a lot to my father and when I found a copy of them in his paperwork they moved me hugely and helped greatly to soothe my grief at his passing…I share them with you.  I feel that he would be very glad to know we are sharing them and passing them around the world.

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped into the next room. I am I, and you are
you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always use. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.  Let my name be ever the household word that it ever was, let it be spoken without effort, without the trace of shadow on it.  Life means all that it ever meant.  It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity.  Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?  I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.
 
                       All is well.
 

And finally, these are words I will speak from my heart for my mother-in-law at the ceremony to celebrate her life……
 

Do not hurry as you walk with grief: it does not help your journey.  Walk slowly, pausing often.  Do not hurry as you walk with grief.  Be gentle with the one who walks with grief.  If it is you, be gentle with yourself.  Walk slowly, pausing often.
Take time: be gentle as you walk with grief.
 

May we all walk in beauty! Aho.