Finding Purpose - My 7-year journey to SEEDTIME
Soaking wet from a sweat that started with the rising of the sun, I knocked on the door of a rickety old house. I knew immediately someone lived there because of the blooming and well-maintained plants that littered the yard and dilapidated front porch. After several minutes a smiling face opened the door and immediately invited us in. This was the very familiar hospitality of the Bahamians living on Cat Island.
My stomach churned the moment I saw her because my view of door to door evangelism in 2012 was the ghastly image of shoving The Holy Bible physically down someone’s throat. The leader of our 3-person circus asked if we could pray for her and this woman surprisingly unloaded. She had outlived her abusive husband by several decades and found solace only in her garden. She told us that she was still isolated because of the embarrassment he caused her and still felt uncomfortable in town and at social events and so she rarely attended. We prayed and we prayed hard that day and I felt the Holy Spirit in that two-room house. Something shifted that I cannot explain to this day, the air just felt lighter. We planted a SEED.
After some casual conversation, we followed this extraordinary woman to her back yard to experience her “therapeutic garden.” The moment I stepped into this wonderland of abundant growth I was truly never the same. The others took self-toured vacations but not me, I didn’t leave her side. She wasted no time with her tour calling out strange names foreign to my ears while talking about ailments that each had healed. God breathed into my soul in that moment and placed a tiny little SEED and said to me clearly, “learn this.”
Returning to the hustle and bustle of Atlanta, GA I picked up right where I left off as a Marketing Director for an international company working long hours, wanting more while needing less and feeling numb. One very small difference existed now…I had that SEED. I replaced modern medicine for natural alternatives when I could, purchased organic, local and homegrown food when possible and researched chemicals like it was my full-time job. There was a shift but it was not always educated and I longed to know more from credible sources.
In this time, I also got married, had my son and was now pregnant with my daughter. This only fed my desire for a more authentic, grassroots lifestyle. We had already traded in our city life for a log cabin out in the country and began growing our own food but when it came to caring for our illnesses, I wanted the experience and wisdom of my dear friend in Cat Island.
In 2015 I enrolled at BotanoLogos School of Herbal Studies for my first herbalist program, a 10-month commitment to a foundations program. The SEED was cracking and new life was making an entrance. My desire to learn exploded and since then I have taken courses on tongue and pulse diagnosis, herbal medicine formulation, herbal business development and most recently plunging into the depths of traditional Chinese medicine. Through it all I have been astounded by God’s creation. The inner workings of our souls and bodies and the abundant resources that he purposefully placed on our planet. It is with that surety that I introduce SEEDTIME FARMACY.