This is all so beautiful. Thank you for taking the time to break it all down to the most generous of essentials. Appreciate the astrology, the myth, and the lived embodiment. I will be making the tea and now with greater awareness for my own ritual. 🍵
Thank you for this. Oh I love linden trees. The little yellow bells not quite blooming here in Chicago but tiny buds. When they arrive the scent is magnificent
This moment, that your writing has been crucial for, for me, of returning, on this full moon, to the sweetness of my mother, who couldn’t face the embodiment of trauma, in her child (and her own inner child), I am deeply grateful for. Thank you! My own mother and I were estranged our whole lives. She died two years ago, at 89. I am 67. This weekend, on a workshop, “Finding Meaning, Facing Death”, my mother made herself known to me, in a photograph, that jumped out at me, that I didn’t know existed, when I was looking for one of my paternal grandfather. I must have been four, or so and she and I were both kissing a flower. So I took it to the workshop and worked with it and then, yesterday, second day of the workshop, your writing, the linden tree and the sweetness of her flowers…helped the understanding and the connection and the healing. Thank you again!
Karen, thank you for trusting me with this piece of your story. There is something so sacred about that photograph...that tiny moment of shared sweetness with a flower, preserved all these years just to find you now. It feels as though the Linden is doing exactly what she does best: softening the edges of old grief and helping the heart find its way back to love, even across the threshold of death. I am so honored that my words could walk beside you in that workshop. Sending you so much tenderness as you continue to tend to that four-year-old child and her mother, its sacred work! 💚
Yes Noemi! It is this turning, of the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children, to their parents, that has been my deepest prayer and which I am so grateful to have been given the time to witness being fulfilled in my own life!
You are such a wondrous weaver of words and herbs in story. Wow! Thank you for sharing your personal and potent journey with this mothering guardian medicinal tree, and asking us to deepen into our own healing with such soul stirring questions. I have not had the delight of meeting linden before, only tasting of linden flower honey. What a gorgeous being, im determined to meet her now in person! She does not grow in any of the places ive lived. Your post on Yarrow and Nettle also felt so activating. Bless your heart and body and lungs, may your healing get easier and lighter and brighter as you strengthen and nourish with mama earths therapies.
Linden flower honey. Oh, that made me smile. She found you before you found her. That is so like her.
And yes, go meet her. Find a tree in full bloom in June and just stand underneath her for a while. Don't do anything. Just stand there and listen to the bees and breathe her in. She will do the rest.
I am so glad the yarrow and nettle pieces landed too. These plants live at our feet and we walk past them every day and I will never stop trying to turn people back around to look at them properly.
Your blessing reached me today. Right when I needed it. Thank you for that.💚
This is absolutely, heart achingly beautiful Noemi. Thank you for sharing a piece of yourself and the love of this beautiful mother tree today. It spoke directly to my soul.
Thank you, truly. To reach a soul, I think we have to let ourselves be bare and vulnerable first. There is no other way in. I'm so glad it found you. 💚
A sweet ode to linden, or lime as I knew her in Scotland. I love how there are some plants that we have these special connections with, often from childhood, and they hold such a special place in our hearts. Each story of a relationship between a plant and person is so unique and personal. I spent a lot of time with lime trees back in the UK when my daughter was tiny, but the only ones I've met so far in my part of Portugal are lining a busy road and too high to pick from. I'll keep my eye out for her though as I do miss those honey-sweet blossoms and the way they felt so calming and soothing as a tea. Such a wonderful children's herb.
(Also your experience reminds me of the song 'Lime Tree' by Trevor Hall, I don't know if you know it but you might enjoy) x
Thanks Samantha. Lime, yes. Same tree, older name. I love that she carries a different word in every land.
You'll find her here. The ones along your busy road are street trees, indeed are too high and too fumey to bother with, but where there's one there are usually others somewhere quieter, an old garden, a churchyard, the edge of a village. I found them around churches in Madeira and in European countries as there is an old saying thet Linden keeps lightning and evil away.
Mine have already flowered this year, so I'm past the blossoms and onto the seedpods now, waiting to try making chocolate with them.
Follow your nose if she's still in flower where you are. And if she stays hidden, well, it's always a good excuse to come my way. 😁
I prefer the name Linden, I grew up feeling confused by the name lime as it could also refer to the citrus fruit! But lime is the more commonly used name in the UK. Linden is a beautiful name, I believe Robin Wall Kimmerer named one of her daughters after the tree.
Yes that’s right, the street trees smell glorious but I don’t harvest from them. I will keep looking for her in the quieter places, and maybe I can find some seeds so that I can germinate them and bring her closer.
And yes, perhaps I need to travel up your way, it sounds like a magical spot you have found ✨🌳
Wow wow wow!!! 🤯 Your sign is Ophiucus?!? That is soooo beautiful! What a deep dive to finding yourself, sister. I’m grateful to have been a signpost on your journey, pointing you in the direction of home. ❤️
This post is absolutely brilliant and made me quite sad that I am not familiar with Linden! It probably grows here in Ohio, somewhere. I’ll be on the search for her now. 💛 Thank you for the inspiration! I love you! 😘
I have also been going through a deep purge and feeling drawn back into myself to reflect and release more before the next wave of expansion. It hasn’t been easy but it’s been REAL and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Preparing for the blooming to come. 🌸
Thank you for this. ❤️ I don’t really know Linden. I live (and have always lived) on land filled with pine (especially white pine), hemlock, maple, oak, shag bark hickory, my beloved sassafras, and eastern cedar. I grew up sitting under an eastern cedar, back against her, breathing in her perfume, watching squirrels frolic and jump from pine to pine. Daydreaming, reading, escaping. This so resonated and your prose is so beautiful.
I will be sitting under the blue moon tonight, most likely indoors because it is stormy today, pondering your question(s).
Thank you for this, Chris. I love the image of you as a child, back against the Cedar, watching the squirrels. That 'escaping' we do as children under trees is often where our deepest roots begin. 💚 While Linden might be a stranger for now, your beloved Sassafras and Hickory have clearly been wonderful teachers. I’m sending you warmth for your stormy moon night. Sometimes the best pondering happens when the weather forces us deep inside. I'd love to hear what surfaced for you if you care to share.
Took some time tonight. This was a powerful experience and I want to sit with what came out more. I have repressed my wild self (not sure everyone would agree with that, but I’ve let her out in “acceptable” ways). I don’t even know what it would look like to let her out, but the other thing that surfaced is that I am invisible to the people who continue to hurt me (emotionally) because they don’t get all of me. I won’t let them. But that is holding me back. It’s a paradox of me having the power to reveal what I chose and them having the power (because I let them) to keep me tame.
I know the weight of that paradox. We hide our wildness to stay safe from the ones who cannot hold it, and then we find we have built a cage from the inside. Being "tame" is a heavy coat to wear.
Invisibility can be a shield, but it is also a hunger. The wild self does not need to be "let out" in a way that feels unsafe or performative. She is there, under the surface, like a root waiting for the soil to soften. Trust that she knows her own timing.
Life got in the way of my quiet time. The storm caused a power outage at my daughter’s house and she and her two toddlers came to sleep over. Could have been a worse interruption. Being a mom / Nana is the best part of my life. ❤️ However, I stepped outside the next day when the sky was clear to say hello to the moon. And I will sit down with these questions!!!
What a precious way for life to get in the way! It sounds like a house full of love and exactly the kind of 'Nana' magic that makes life so rich. I am so glad the sky cleared for you to say hello to the moon the next day. Sometimes the best answers come to us when we are busy tending to our people. I look forward to hearing what surfaces for you whenever the time is right. Much love to you and your family! 💚
I certainly miss the Linden trees here in the west! Oh, their loveliness in New England. I had one in my front lawn… and Boston Common is filled with them! A pure delight…
It’s wonderful how a single tree can make a whole city feel more gentle. I love that you carry those New England Lindens in your heart even while being in the west. It’s like we all carry a little 'Linden-map' inside us of the places where we’ve felt that specific kind of loveliness. Thank you for reading and for bringing those Boston trees into our collective remembering and connection!
Noemi, your assenting to my reverie fills my heart. i am simply a tree lover! Sniffing trees to know their smell, touching their bark, putting my arms round them, missing them when they are cut down. Like you said, they really are a pure delight. Linden, ponderosa, red bud, cedar, western Larch, and giant firs. 💖
The entire journey of this piece was something special. From childhood through myth and cosmos and tree and family and tea.
I did not know Linden in this way and I’m grateful for the way you’ve translated the deep impact it’s had on your life along with the organioleptics. I can see more of the deeper medicine and spirit of this kin through your writing.
This also has found me at the perfect time - where this medicine is aligned with what my body is going through. The overnight infusion and the prompts really spoke to me.
Thank you for letting us in and sharing this wisdom and relationship and story with us 🙏🏾
I am so moved that this piece found you at the perfect time.
Linden is a magnificent teacher and I am honored to have been the one to translate her spirit for you today. I hope the overnight infusion is a true balm for your body and that the prompts offer some sweet revelations.
Thank you for letting me in and for being part of this sacred dialogue between the trees and our human hearts. Much love to you 💚
Thankyou so much for sharing your lived experience and connection with Linden and her mythology and connection to Chiron and this Full moon. I hadn’t known … and yet I anointed myself with the Linder absolute before doing a blue moon meditation last night.. and know I think I will make an overnight infusion , it’s time to travel with and be held by her again 💛
Oh Joanna. There is such a profound magic in the way we find our way back to the plants exactly when they are calling us.
To have already been with her in your meditation and then to find these words feels like a true blessing. I am so glad the connection to Chiron resonated with you.
It is indeed time to be held by her again. May your overnight infusion be a deep well of comfort and may you feel her ancient mothering energy in every sip. Sending you so much love on your journey with her. 💚
Oh, how I feel you, your luminescent energy, the power of the silvery shadow light. The silky illumination of the hidden places longing to be seen. Thank you for the gift of healing, the soft glow of the deeply hidden, elusive wound. You alone bring the elemental energy of the forgotten, the healing calm.
My home is surrounded by Linden trees that I have befriended. I salute them through all the seasons. Now, as summer approaches, when I walk by and smell that sweet distinct heavenly scent, I thank them. Thank you for your beautiful words and wisdom. I realize now how perfectly aligned it is to be surrounded by them as I am drowning in perimenopausal anxiety.
Oh darling Rhoda. You surrounded yourself with the best buddies! Linden is the medicine of sweet, sweet life! Ahhhhhmazing during perimenopause! It brings back sweetness, brings back the juiciness and support the nervous system and heart. 💚I have kept a linden hydrosol next to my bed during my perimenopausal years. Great for the skin too.
This is all so beautiful. Thank you for taking the time to break it all down to the most generous of essentials. Appreciate the astrology, the myth, and the lived embodiment. I will be making the tea and now with greater awareness for my own ritual. 🍵
That makes my heart so happy! Soul glad for your connection! May Linden nourish you and hold you in unconditional love. 💚
Thank you for this. Oh I love linden trees. The little yellow bells not quite blooming here in Chicago but tiny buds. When they arrive the scent is magnificent
It's definitely something to look forward to! 😍
Linden trees are a marvel, I really loved this.
Thank you! Im glad it found you! 💚💚💚
This moment, that your writing has been crucial for, for me, of returning, on this full moon, to the sweetness of my mother, who couldn’t face the embodiment of trauma, in her child (and her own inner child), I am deeply grateful for. Thank you! My own mother and I were estranged our whole lives. She died two years ago, at 89. I am 67. This weekend, on a workshop, “Finding Meaning, Facing Death”, my mother made herself known to me, in a photograph, that jumped out at me, that I didn’t know existed, when I was looking for one of my paternal grandfather. I must have been four, or so and she and I were both kissing a flower. So I took it to the workshop and worked with it and then, yesterday, second day of the workshop, your writing, the linden tree and the sweetness of her flowers…helped the understanding and the connection and the healing. Thank you again!
Karen, thank you for trusting me with this piece of your story. There is something so sacred about that photograph...that tiny moment of shared sweetness with a flower, preserved all these years just to find you now. It feels as though the Linden is doing exactly what she does best: softening the edges of old grief and helping the heart find its way back to love, even across the threshold of death. I am so honored that my words could walk beside you in that workshop. Sending you so much tenderness as you continue to tend to that four-year-old child and her mother, its sacred work! 💚
Yes Noemi! It is this turning, of the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children, to their parents, that has been my deepest prayer and which I am so grateful to have been given the time to witness being fulfilled in my own life!
Such a nourishing read x
Thank you! Linden is deeply nourishing! And stories has been always the food for our soul. 💚
Off to research it and what it looks like and if it’s anywhere near me …. 🤔
Eagerly waiting to hear if you got to meet! 💚
Not yet ! … still looking
Plants always answer one way or another when we call out for them! 💚
‘What part of me has been written out of my story?’ Such a deep and necessary question. Thank you for allowing me to follow your journey.
Thank you for walking with me! 💚
You are such a wondrous weaver of words and herbs in story. Wow! Thank you for sharing your personal and potent journey with this mothering guardian medicinal tree, and asking us to deepen into our own healing with such soul stirring questions. I have not had the delight of meeting linden before, only tasting of linden flower honey. What a gorgeous being, im determined to meet her now in person! She does not grow in any of the places ive lived. Your post on Yarrow and Nettle also felt so activating. Bless your heart and body and lungs, may your healing get easier and lighter and brighter as you strengthen and nourish with mama earths therapies.
Linden flower honey. Oh, that made me smile. She found you before you found her. That is so like her.
And yes, go meet her. Find a tree in full bloom in June and just stand underneath her for a while. Don't do anything. Just stand there and listen to the bees and breathe her in. She will do the rest.
I am so glad the yarrow and nettle pieces landed too. These plants live at our feet and we walk past them every day and I will never stop trying to turn people back around to look at them properly.
Your blessing reached me today. Right when I needed it. Thank you for that.💚
This is absolutely, heart achingly beautiful Noemi. Thank you for sharing a piece of yourself and the love of this beautiful mother tree today. It spoke directly to my soul.
Thank you, truly. To reach a soul, I think we have to let ourselves be bare and vulnerable first. There is no other way in. I'm so glad it found you. 💚
A sweet ode to linden, or lime as I knew her in Scotland. I love how there are some plants that we have these special connections with, often from childhood, and they hold such a special place in our hearts. Each story of a relationship between a plant and person is so unique and personal. I spent a lot of time with lime trees back in the UK when my daughter was tiny, but the only ones I've met so far in my part of Portugal are lining a busy road and too high to pick from. I'll keep my eye out for her though as I do miss those honey-sweet blossoms and the way they felt so calming and soothing as a tea. Such a wonderful children's herb.
(Also your experience reminds me of the song 'Lime Tree' by Trevor Hall, I don't know if you know it but you might enjoy) x
Thanks Samantha. Lime, yes. Same tree, older name. I love that she carries a different word in every land.
You'll find her here. The ones along your busy road are street trees, indeed are too high and too fumey to bother with, but where there's one there are usually others somewhere quieter, an old garden, a churchyard, the edge of a village. I found them around churches in Madeira and in European countries as there is an old saying thet Linden keeps lightning and evil away.
Mine have already flowered this year, so I'm past the blossoms and onto the seedpods now, waiting to try making chocolate with them.
Follow your nose if she's still in flower where you are. And if she stays hidden, well, it's always a good excuse to come my way. 😁
And yes, Trevor Hall is playing as I read this. x
I prefer the name Linden, I grew up feeling confused by the name lime as it could also refer to the citrus fruit! But lime is the more commonly used name in the UK. Linden is a beautiful name, I believe Robin Wall Kimmerer named one of her daughters after the tree.
Yes that’s right, the street trees smell glorious but I don’t harvest from them. I will keep looking for her in the quieter places, and maybe I can find some seeds so that I can germinate them and bring her closer.
And yes, perhaps I need to travel up your way, it sounds like a magical spot you have found ✨🌳
My personal favorite is Tilia. If I could choose a name for myself I would choose Tilia.
It's a stunning little spot and I would love to go for walks with you and also visit your paradise too! 💚
Wow wow wow!!! 🤯 Your sign is Ophiucus?!? That is soooo beautiful! What a deep dive to finding yourself, sister. I’m grateful to have been a signpost on your journey, pointing you in the direction of home. ❤️
This post is absolutely brilliant and made me quite sad that I am not familiar with Linden! It probably grows here in Ohio, somewhere. I’ll be on the search for her now. 💛 Thank you for the inspiration! I love you! 😘
I have also been going through a deep purge and feeling drawn back into myself to reflect and release more before the next wave of expansion. It hasn’t been easy but it’s been REAL and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Preparing for the blooming to come. 🌸
Thank you for this. ❤️ I don’t really know Linden. I live (and have always lived) on land filled with pine (especially white pine), hemlock, maple, oak, shag bark hickory, my beloved sassafras, and eastern cedar. I grew up sitting under an eastern cedar, back against her, breathing in her perfume, watching squirrels frolic and jump from pine to pine. Daydreaming, reading, escaping. This so resonated and your prose is so beautiful.
I will be sitting under the blue moon tonight, most likely indoors because it is stormy today, pondering your question(s).
Thank you for this, Chris. I love the image of you as a child, back against the Cedar, watching the squirrels. That 'escaping' we do as children under trees is often where our deepest roots begin. 💚 While Linden might be a stranger for now, your beloved Sassafras and Hickory have clearly been wonderful teachers. I’m sending you warmth for your stormy moon night. Sometimes the best pondering happens when the weather forces us deep inside. I'd love to hear what surfaced for you if you care to share.
Took some time tonight. This was a powerful experience and I want to sit with what came out more. I have repressed my wild self (not sure everyone would agree with that, but I’ve let her out in “acceptable” ways). I don’t even know what it would look like to let her out, but the other thing that surfaced is that I am invisible to the people who continue to hurt me (emotionally) because they don’t get all of me. I won’t let them. But that is holding me back. It’s a paradox of me having the power to reveal what I chose and them having the power (because I let them) to keep me tame.
Wow. Thank you, Naomi.
I know the weight of that paradox. We hide our wildness to stay safe from the ones who cannot hold it, and then we find we have built a cage from the inside. Being "tame" is a heavy coat to wear.
Invisibility can be a shield, but it is also a hunger. The wild self does not need to be "let out" in a way that feels unsafe or performative. She is there, under the surface, like a root waiting for the soil to soften. Trust that she knows her own timing.
Thank you for sharing what surfaced. 💚
Life got in the way of my quiet time. The storm caused a power outage at my daughter’s house and she and her two toddlers came to sleep over. Could have been a worse interruption. Being a mom / Nana is the best part of my life. ❤️ However, I stepped outside the next day when the sky was clear to say hello to the moon. And I will sit down with these questions!!!
What a precious way for life to get in the way! It sounds like a house full of love and exactly the kind of 'Nana' magic that makes life so rich. I am so glad the sky cleared for you to say hello to the moon the next day. Sometimes the best answers come to us when we are busy tending to our people. I look forward to hearing what surfaces for you whenever the time is right. Much love to you and your family! 💚
I certainly miss the Linden trees here in the west! Oh, their loveliness in New England. I had one in my front lawn… and Boston Common is filled with them! A pure delight…
They really are a pure delight, aren't they?
It’s wonderful how a single tree can make a whole city feel more gentle. I love that you carry those New England Lindens in your heart even while being in the west. It’s like we all carry a little 'Linden-map' inside us of the places where we’ve felt that specific kind of loveliness. Thank you for reading and for bringing those Boston trees into our collective remembering and connection!
Noemi, your assenting to my reverie fills my heart. i am simply a tree lover! Sniffing trees to know their smell, touching their bark, putting my arms round them, missing them when they are cut down. Like you said, they really are a pure delight. Linden, ponderosa, red bud, cedar, western Larch, and giant firs. 💖
The entire journey of this piece was something special. From childhood through myth and cosmos and tree and family and tea.
I did not know Linden in this way and I’m grateful for the way you’ve translated the deep impact it’s had on your life along with the organioleptics. I can see more of the deeper medicine and spirit of this kin through your writing.
This also has found me at the perfect time - where this medicine is aligned with what my body is going through. The overnight infusion and the prompts really spoke to me.
Thank you for letting us in and sharing this wisdom and relationship and story with us 🙏🏾
I am so moved that this piece found you at the perfect time.
Linden is a magnificent teacher and I am honored to have been the one to translate her spirit for you today. I hope the overnight infusion is a true balm for your body and that the prompts offer some sweet revelations.
Thank you for letting me in and for being part of this sacred dialogue between the trees and our human hearts. Much love to you 💚
Thankyou so much for sharing your lived experience and connection with Linden and her mythology and connection to Chiron and this Full moon. I hadn’t known … and yet I anointed myself with the Linder absolute before doing a blue moon meditation last night.. and know I think I will make an overnight infusion , it’s time to travel with and be held by her again 💛
Oh Joanna. There is such a profound magic in the way we find our way back to the plants exactly when they are calling us.
To have already been with her in your meditation and then to find these words feels like a true blessing. I am so glad the connection to Chiron resonated with you.
It is indeed time to be held by her again. May your overnight infusion be a deep well of comfort and may you feel her ancient mothering energy in every sip. Sending you so much love on your journey with her. 💚
Welcome, Full Moon, Moon of Power!
Oh, how I feel you, your luminescent energy, the power of the silvery shadow light. The silky illumination of the hidden places longing to be seen. Thank you for the gift of healing, the soft glow of the deeply hidden, elusive wound. You alone bring the elemental energy of the forgotten, the healing calm.
Exquisite. Love your words. May this healing calm wash over us all! ✨️
🙏💕🙏🐝
My home is surrounded by Linden trees that I have befriended. I salute them through all the seasons. Now, as summer approaches, when I walk by and smell that sweet distinct heavenly scent, I thank them. Thank you for your beautiful words and wisdom. I realize now how perfectly aligned it is to be surrounded by them as I am drowning in perimenopausal anxiety.
Cheering you with a cup of linden tea 💚
Oh darling Rhoda. You surrounded yourself with the best buddies! Linden is the medicine of sweet, sweet life! Ahhhhhmazing during perimenopause! It brings back sweetness, brings back the juiciness and support the nervous system and heart. 💚I have kept a linden hydrosol next to my bed during my perimenopausal years. Great for the skin too.