Transforming stories

 

Ruins of the 13C Augustinian Nunnery on Iona

Tormentil - soothes the gut

Kenilworth Ivy - wound healer

It’s not enough

to be able to name the flowers

We must get to know their stories

and listen to all that they can teach us

The hard working women

who inhabited the cloisters

of the Augustinian abbey in Iona

listened to the plants

that grew around 

their wild and rugged island

They found healing for wounds

in the absorptive sphagnum moss

And soothing for guts 

in the tannins of Tormentil 

They befriended the star shaped beauty 

of St John’s wort

that hinted at light in the long days and nights

of the harsh Scottish winter

Their gentle inquiry

and their patient listening

unearthed underground mysteries

And, as they held sacred the stories 

already there for the telling,

they breathed new life into the next chapter

of the stories of the flowers

that promised healing for the world 

I can’t help but wonder how

if we humans were to listen carefully 

to one another’s stories

we might nurture a way of caring

for the wounds of the world.

Liz Crumlish, Iona August 2024