A warm welcome to our guest blog writer Jamie Morris!
Dear Flower Essences...
I am SO SORRY! I didn’t mean to laugh at you—but you just seemed so improbable! Do you remember? It was the summer of 1984. Michael was weeding the garden under the hot New England sun, and I was sitting in the shade looking at a new age magazine.
An article about the healing properties of the Bach Flower Remedies caught my eye. I started to read the piece out loud to Mike—but then the absurdity of the notion—that flowers set in water and exposed to sunlight could have specific effects on human emotions—struck me, and I started to laugh. Long. Hard. Actually falling over. I mean, COME ON.
Now, it’s 2024, forty years later, and I must apologize for doubting you. As you know, by the autumn of 1984, just two short months after first learning about—and laughing at—you, I had purchased a full set of Bach Remedies and was using them to address my chronic anger and anxiety. (Holly, Mimulus, Aspen, you are friends for life!)
From the beginning, you, Flower Essences, were so kind! You helped me find alternatives to my hardened emotional responses. You were subtle, yes, but unmistakably helpful. I was in therapy at the time, and my counselor noticed the changes in my attitudes before I did! My quick reactivity—triggered by anxiety but expressed as anger—softened in the first weeks I was taking the Bach Remedies.
With your multi-blossomed support, I was able to quit smoking, as I no longer seemed to need nicotine’s self-medicating properties. Then, Wild Oat led me to taking my writing seriously. Walnut was there to help me move on when my relationship with Michael failed. In fact, for years, I have relied on you during every possible emotional, mental, or spiritual kerfuffle.
At first, I only knew you as the Bach Remedies. Then one day, browsing at my local herbalist, I saw another brand of Essences on the shelf. This brand, from California, offered a wider selection of essences than Bach’s thirty-six. I soon discovered that these newer Essences could expand upon my work with the Bach Remedies.
Over the course of another decade or so of flower Essence use—and with the helpful advent of the internet, through which I learned about other Essence companies—you, dear Essences, were a constant. Time and again you provided support in a myriad of stressful situations.
Because you gently guided me out of my own way, I found myself living a great life. Happily single (with cats!), I had a wonderful job at a community college; was active in my local writing community; and was a part of a beautiful friendship group. Of course, things weren’t always smooth. But whenever I felt fearful or embarrassed or out of balance in any other way, I would turn to my now far-ranging repertoire of Essences. Invariably, you helped me remember that I am whole and safe—mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
However, my finances proved a seemingly unsolvable problem. For as long as I can recall, money has been an issue. Growing up, my family was never in abject poverty, but ends were often stretched thin to meet. As an adult, I was always “a day late and a dollar short.” In fact, in early 2004, despite my decent job, I woke up every morning anxiously wondering how I was going to pay the rent.
No matter how much Mimulus and Rock Rose I took, my rocky financial situation was never far from my mind. Clearly, I was perpetuating a family pattern of lack. But while I could see the pattern, I couldn’t see a way to fix it. Then one day, I stumbled upon the Pacific Essences website and found the beautiful lotus-blossomed label of Abundance Essence beaming at me from my computer screen.
Is this it? I wondered. Is this the help I’ve been praying for? Hoping against hope, I borrowed money from my next-door neighbor and purchased my first bottle of Abundance Essence.
Dear Essences, whoa!
From the moment that first little bottle of Abundance arrived, my finances began to turn around. Soon, I found the courage to start leading writing workshops independently. Then, within six months—SIX MONTHS!—I was earning enough from the workshops that I was able to quit my job at the community college and work exclusively for myself.
That was in 2005. With the support of the Abundance Essence, I began to save money for the first time. This was pivotal, because in 2009, I had enough saved to put a down payment on a house of my own—something I’d wanted my entire life!
After that, I continued to take Abundance Essence regularly, and the doors to the flow stayed open. I was soon able to afford a new car, my first ever. Whenever I needed a repair for the house, the money appeared. Cats went to the vet twice a year and got their pricey dental cleanings as needed. I bought art for my walls and took classes on tarot and art and writing, and filled my yard with beautiful native shrubs.
Since then, if I ever feel the energy of financial flow tightening, I head right to the Pacific Essences site and order two bottles of Abundance Essence. Its energy is so strong that simply ORDERING IT seems to prime the pump and get things moving again.
Some folks who study flower Essences believe that individuals can have a deeper affinity with one Essence than with others. I believe, dear Flower Essences, that if that is the case, I have a soul connection with the elements that make up the Abundance Essence combination. When I take it, I feel empowered and clear-sighted. And the Universe seems to respond immediately to the shift in attitude I experience.
Certainly, my experience with Abundance Essence has been dramatic. But, over the years, so many years that they have now stacked up into four decades, you, dear Essences, have been there for me in so many ways. Your steady and reliable presence always shores me up and helps me manage the present moment—while also showing me a path to a brighter tomorrow.
I look back to our first meeting, and laugh again. But now my humor is directed at myself, at how little I understood what was being offered to me on that hot summer day, turning the pages of a new age magazine.
Now, I am unendingly grateful for your presence in my life. I extend my deepest thanks to you, Flower Essences, and to the many human hands that translate the blossoms of the world into your magical medicine.
Love,
Many thanks to Jamie for sharing this beautiful letter celebrating the magical medicine of Flower Essences. Her journey from laughter to abundant gratitude (and back to laughter!) is truly inspirational.
Jamie Morris is a Florida-based writing coach who loves cats, tarot cards, flower Essences, and every other woo-woo thing you can think of! She brings a lot of that woo to her writing clients—some of whom appreciate it more than others. Visit her at VoiceHeartVision.com.
