Why Herbs?
(One Herbalist's grateful opinion...)
Philip L. Fritchey, M.H., N.D., CNHP - www.HISgoodherbs.com
Well, do you want the good news... or the GOOD news?
For starters, the GOOD news is, YOU ARE FORGIVEN! Sinner or saint, working stiff or corporate mogul, it doesn’t matter one tiny bit what you have been or what you have done to this very moment. Forgiveness for every transgression is yours. Your check has been paid, and your slate can be wiped clean. No matter what rutted roads and dark alleys have marked your journey to this point, the path ahead of you can be as pristine as the first steps into freshly fallen snow.
All you have to do to receive your share of this unlimited gift is, ACCEPT it. Open your heart and mind, and come - with humility and resolve – to the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father, and ACCEPT it. Acknowledge your errors, and be humbled. Turn to the Light of goodness already glowing in your heart, and resolve to follow it. Accept your gift, and begin your life anew.
Of course, for many of us, that isn’t really news. It is more joyous reassurance. It is an Article of Faith for Christians - no, make that THE Article of Faith - that God so loves the world that He gave us His mortally manifest Son to teach us compassion and forgiveness, and then allowed that untarnished Living Gift to express the ultimate act of compassion for US – to agonize and die for OUR sins - that WE might be forgiven. From Christ’s descent into the dark caverns of death, and in the brilliant light of His resurrection, the promise was written by the Hand of God Himself that we, too, can live again. If we only ACCEPT His forgiveness, then we, too, will move through the fearsome darkness into the Light. We ARE forgiven.
But wait, before we pass the basket (as if that weren’t enough), there’s more – the good news.
God’s forgiveness is not limited to matters of the spirit. Yes, I know we live in this rather peculiar era when the concept of the separation of Church and State has somehow been manipulated and interpreted to mean the separation of Faith and State. I also recognize that the enormously powerful financial interests of a medical industry that profits by dispensing lifeless chemical drug poisons are best served by perpetuating the myth that our bodies are somehow distinct from the God-given Spirit that is life itself. Even the messages eschewed from the pulpits of our churches more often than not tactfully avoid the socially delicate idea that the Bible is a guide for the health of the body as well as the soul. The Truth is, though, that our souls have been placed here – in this world, in physical bodies - by the Hand of a loving Father, Who anticipated and provided for our every need – and we have NOT been abandoned here!
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that life will be easy. It is in the journey through this physical world that our souls are tried and tested. By both our choices and our circumstances (for Love is not the only force at work in the universe), we are given the challenges that define us, and measure our Faith. For some, the challenges appear to be trivial; for others, incomprehensibly tortuous. For all, the challenges are real – and, for all, they are a GIFT. Whether we use the trials of our life to forge our Faith into unyielding steel, or allow them to turn our Faith into smoldering ashes, is our own ultimate and very personal challenge – the reward or consequence of Free Will.
Throughout it all, surrounding it all, embracing it all, is the ever watchful, endlessly patient, infinitely loving hand of the Father – waiting for our choices. We cannot always control our circumstances, but we can always choose our response to them. We are never abandoned, but in our mortal arrogance, we can choose to be isolated.
With all of the wide range of disciplines available to me as a Naturopath, I am, first and foremost, an herbalist. Of course, in the perpetual quest for health and balance, I also use other healing modalities. I use Homeopathic remedies, but I am not a Homeopath. I will sometimes call on specific enzymes, physical manipulation, and even Reiki, but I am not an enzyme therapist, or chiropractor, or energy healer. I have profound regard for all those natural healing tools, and many others, to be sure, but the platform, the foundation, the Rock upon which I build any health restoration program is and always will be the simple, un-standardized, un-manipulated, un-fooled-around-with herbs of the field. I am an herbalist, and the gifts of the Creator are pretty hard to improve on.
Herbs are, to me, direct evidence of God’s physical presence in our daily lives. Just as He offers forgiveness for our spiritual transgressions, herbs are His gift of physical forgiveness for our physical sins. They can restore health corrupted by our wrong choices, and ease the burden of our circumstances. I have witnessed time and again that, when herbs are needed, they are always where they are needed. (Contrary to popular belief, herbs are NOT manufactured in Utah.) In sight of woods choked with Poison Ivy, I have inevitably seen stands of Plantain or Jewelweed – Nature’s Poison Ivy “erasers”. I have marveled at sentinels of Mullein and Pleurisy Root growing along fence rows surrounding rolling tobacco fields - the unmistakable hand of God, offering forgiveness, even where man plants the poison. I am enthralled by the awesome range of healing powers offered by the humble Dandelion, and bemused by its persistent presence in the face of every effort by man to eradicate it.
Just as spiritual forgiveness is available to all, so it is with our physical needs. All we have to do, it turns out, is ACCEPT it. You don’t even have to believe in God for herbs to work. (That does demonstrate how much He believes in YOU, though, and just how generous He is with your unfinished journey.)
Open your heart and mind, and come, with humility and resolve, and accept that these same God-given lowly plants that have eased suffering, and healed broken and hurting bodies for centuries can do the same for you. Learn to recognize the living botanical medicines around you, and be humbled by their omni-presence. They are, after all, a gift to you – directly from the hand of our Heavenly Father. Resolve to learn their uses and methods of preparation, and while you’re at it, to make the changes in your diet and lifestyle choices that brought you to need them in the first place. Accept this gift, too, and begin your life anew.
It is a peculiar quirk of human nature that forgiveness can be more easily given than accepted. We are often able to dismiss the transgressions of others, and yet still tote around a satchel full of our own guilt. Either way, the anger and guilt of forgiveness ungiven or unaccepted can eat away at the vital force of life until the health of neither the spirit or the body can stand up to the load of life’s journey. Forgiving others for the hurts done to you, and accepting forgiveness for the wrong choices you’ve made in your life are both entirely up to you. (There’s that Free Will thing, again.) The GOOD news for your spirit (John 3:16), and the good news for your body (Psalm 104:14, Revelation 22:2) are done deals, though.
Can you accept them?
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Copyright 2007-2010. Philip Fritchey, N.D.. All rights reserved.
