"Story Medicine is such an important medicine... Thank you for giving us a place to share our stories, Michelle...and for providing the wonderful space."
I’m with Academy Award-Winning Actress Olympia Dukakis who has said, “I’m so glad Susun Weed exists!”
Susun didn’t grow up wanting to be an herbalist, per se, yet even as a child nature called. Having lived just a few short blocks from the Dallas City Zoo, Susun would lie in her bed at night and fall asleep to the lullabye of the trumpeting elephants and hooting monkeys and awaken to the lions’ roars.
Susun didn’t grow up wanting to be an herbalist, per se, yet even as a child nature called. Having lived just a few short blocks from the Dallas City Zoo, Susun would lie in her bed at night and fall asleep to the lullabye of the trumpeting elephants and hooting monkeys and awaken to the lions’ roars.
In the early 1960’s she went on to UCLA, hoping to major in mathematics, yet nature had its own plan again. After visiting Planned Parenthood and being put on the pill Susun later missed her menses and felt sick with queasiness only to be told she definitely was not pregnant – after all, she was on the newest contraceptive pill. 5 months later, however, she felt a baby kick which of course caused an anomaly for the UCLA Medical Center and their interns who wondered what might happen next.
Being who she is and knowing what Susun has always said - that nature is incredibly rich and incredibly giving, - she vowed to give up scientific drugs and healthily gave birth to her beautiful daughter, Justine.
Raising her baby girl didn’t always come easy. There never seemed to be enough money around, yet she always seemed to get by --- teaching some community college classes and continuing to keep the dream of creating a place where women could feel safe, could be healed, and could be reunited with their power again.
One day in the early 70’s, after picking up a pregnant woman who was holding a baby and hitchhiking, Susun helped her do her laundry and learned they both shared a passion for plants and herbs. Since this woman was also looking to earn more income, Susun talked her into teaching a college class on herbal medicine which sychronistically later got passed on to her where she taught for many years - until the day she was told she was “no longer wanted” and had to create a new life for herself, so she persevered and gathered together a class of 4 women who were in attendance that first day out.
The more Susun worked, the more she taught, and the more she listened, until it became clear she needed to be more specific about exactly what she wanted to do, what she wanted to offer, and what she wanted to nurture in the world.
And so she restated her goals, reshaped her dream and knew without a doubt her purpose is to reweave the Ancients' healing cloak and help others bring out the green witch healer from within.
© 2011 Soul-Felt Words, Inc.
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