Holy Basil

As I walked along a path in the herbal garden, I picked a green leaf from its hairy stem and felt the gentle presence of the Holy Basil in my hand. "What am I to know about this plant?" I wondered to myself.

Surprised, I heard a gentle whispered response, clear as day: "That I am here to take you to the quiet place, your calm center of peaceful dreams."

I looked around, but I was alone. Alone with my thoughts. And thoughts that were not my own.

I took the Holy Basil into my mouth and chewed on it. The slight tickle of its clove-like taste awoke my tongue. It was soon delicate and moist between my teeth.

"Yes, enjoy me. I will take you where you want to go. Now go lie down!" she commanded,
as effectively as a general would command his troops. But in a feminine way, like a saint, calling the people to acts of kindness. And so I followed the path to the edge of the forest, where the sunlight dappled hither and yon, and found a resting place among the pines.

"I am a pillow for your weary mind," she cooed. My head settled deep into the soft pine needles.

"I return the body to its natural balance." I heard myself exhale as I relaxed into the ground. 

"I soothe and cradle the weary traveller." A delicate cloth of pashmina wool fell over my closed eyes, dimming the sunlight that filtered through the leaves and my eyelids.

Her lyric voice rose up inside of me, arising now from my heart, as I swallowed the last of her leafy fibers. 

"I am the Mother Medicine of Nature." I felt my skin gently glow, a warm cleansing showered me from head to toe. 

"I am the Elixer of Life," she beamed.  A shiver ran up my spine and I swallowed again, feeling happy and balanced.

"…the Queen of Herbs." Tears welled up in the inner corners of my eyes. I felt grief lift from me like sunlight clearing the morning fog.  And then I remembered that she was called Holy, Sacred. Where did that feeling of reverence come from, I wondered. My heart? I looked into my own heart and beheld its stronger cadence. 

"Ah!" I vocalized, surprising myself with sound that emitted from my own mouth. 

"Wow, a full body awakening," I thought as I I lay there, entranced, with the fresh vigor of the Holy Basil floating around inside of me, around me, through me. "Wow."