Why I call myself an Earth Ally

Back when I began to actually study Plants with rigorous intent, I thought it was for the purpose of becoming an Herbalist. 🍃Full stop. I wanted to learn about herbs and work with them and, therefore, become an Herbalist. 🌿 Specifically a Folk and Community Herbalist, and not really focused on a Clinical path. What I discovered though, when doing something as simple as trying to brainstorm my next logo sketch, was that I felt mildly uncomfortable putting myself down as ‘Hummingbird Hannah - Folk Herbalist’ — not because it isn’t true, but because I felt it was limiting on the perceptions I had of my Self. 🌾 As I doodled away at my desk thinking about this, I contemplated how best to describe myself. I totally balked at the idea of calling myself a ‘Healer’, in fact, it kind of annoys me when people do. I am not the Healer. The Plants are. _You_ are for wanting to treat yourself with care. I’m just the bridge. The translator for some of these Plants, trying to communicate what they are able to do.🌺 I thought about all the different aspects of my evolving business, and more importantly, my ideals, and the phrase that came to me revealed itself almost as if it was someone else whispering the words in my ear. It felt kind of like a dream. Earth Ally.🌻 I didn’t look back. This term made me relax into it as if melting into a hug. Earth Ally encompasses and umbrellas over all the other aspects of my life and work whether that’s being an Herbalist or an Environmentalist. I may not have coined the phrase Earth Ally, but I certainly live by it. 🙌🏼

But what does it mean to be an Earth Ally? I don't really have a single answer for that, actually. All I know is that it is imperative that we work in togetherness to try to protect the future of this World. As a species, humans have managed to do a number on this Planet, and we don't really like to admit that. Particularly if you benefit from products that actively hurt the Environment. Ignorance is bliss, as they say, and so many people that have _more_ than an inkling on the damage they're doing simply turn a blind eye to it. It is truly sad. We've had so much abundance at our fingertips and now there is this cloud of uncertainty over us and so much work ahead to do.

The waters are muddied furthermore when Nations criminalize the actions of Peoples actively trying to protect the Earth! How can people working for governments sleep at night? I, like so many of my generation, was raised with this expectation to respect our elders. With this came a trust that we put into our parents, teachers and leaders, and so many people felt that decisions being made must be for the greater good and for the benefit of the future. Right? Wrong. Greed and money have been our constant companion and instead of expanding and evolving in innovative ways we have these faceless government policies trying to force us back under their thumbs. Well, no more, buck-o! People are no longer blindly trusting the suits of the governments, if they ever did.

We've been called together by the crying of the trees. Can you hear them?