My first introduction to Stephen Harrod Buhner was reading one of my favorite books on the planet – Katie Hess
“My first introduction to Stephen Harrod Buhner was reading one of my favorite books on the planet: The Lost Language of Plants. Long before the emergence of trendy words like ‘microbiome’, Stephen poetically articulated the spiraling effects of chemicals, antibiotics & pharmaceuticals on the planet – and our culture’s tendency to go to war with nature. He also brought to life the extraordinary power and wisdom of plants & how nature is a reflection of our own otherworldly vastness as human beings. The Lost Language of Plants (https://amzn.to/4dWjzD2) was one of the few non-fiction books I read voraciously, like a teenager devouring a juicy cheeseburger after a track meet. It was one of those rare times in life where I felt truly understood – like somebody thought the way I thought, felt the way I felt, saw the world the way I did. And his writing! It’s not just words on a page. It comes alive within you. It grips your heart and reawakens something very deep inside you. In a single paragraph, Stephen can crush your naivete and leave you hopeless at the current & impending doom of our planet, or life itself – while simultaneously making you breathless at the exquisite beauty of the natural world, and the utter miraculousness of being human. I featured several of Stephen’s quotes in my book, Flowerevolution (https://amzn.to/4dUeV8y) to help demonstrate the incredible healing potential of nature: “Among the Iroquois, it has been said that if a person becomes ill and needs a plant for healing, the plant will stand up and begin calling, helping the person who is ill to find it.”
“All ancient and indigenous peoples said that they learned the uses of plants as medicines from the plants themselves. For, they insisted that the plants can speak to human beings if only human beings will listen and respond to them in the proper state of mind.” —Katie Hess
