Hearts and Roots
Just yesterday I had my toes in snow and today the sun came out in all her brilliance to warm the earth to a balmy late-winter 50 degrees. It’s these brief flashes of warmth that hold all the promise we need of the season to come. We are in the final stages of the season of rest, a time of planning, reflection, scarcity, and blankets. It’s during this polarizing holiday of love that is either celebrated fiercely or faced with feelings of indifference that we want to take a step back and focus on cultivating beauty close to home.
Taking the time for reminders of the love you have for your significant other, your kiddos, siblings, parents, or dearest and closest friends is important, and everyone cherishes those reminders of who holds your heart. But we want to stand behind this as a season of self-love, protection, and growth first and foremost. Most especially coming out of the winter holiday season of giving, this should be a time to replenish your lost energy reserves and fill up your own cup so that you can continue to organically and sustainably spread your beauty outward to others. Taking a stand to say no to something, to slow down, to soak for an extra 15 minutes in a hot bath, to wear your pajamas all day, to sit with a book in a corner of sunshine long after dinner should have been started, these things keep us human. They keep our feet planted on the earth so we can continue to count our blessings, sow seeds of care and reassurance, keep loving everything.
Unruly at best, the past couple of years have forced a monumental shift in how we define our roots and how we celebrate love. Our roots are more than where we live and do life and have childhood memories and nurture families of our own. Roots are the things that keep us grounded when everything we know shifts and is irrevocably altered. Roots are the anchors of who we are and all we love, traditions, rituals, shared moments. Starting peas while it’s still so cold you can see your breath outside. Watching their first tiny tendrils, perfectly coiled, reaching outward and upward to find something to hold fast, to support the weight of all that is to come. Making strawberry jam in the kitchen from the stained and smudged recipe card in grandma’s writing. Walking through the woods and watching the tree-filtered sun spots highlight the ground in shifting waves of gold. Starting a fire in the wood stove before the sun comes up and meditating on dancing fingers of warmth and light. Slicing off the first asparagus tip of the season, which marks the beginning of humble bounty. Cannot these roots of simple pleasures and hallmarks of what we define inextricably as home also be the harbingers of everything we call love? In the tenderness of watching pea tendrils unfurl, and the warmth of grandma’s memory guiding us in our own kitchens, we can discover again how we want to be loved.
Let the love we share mirror of the reciprocity of the earth. The thorns, the flowers, the tears, the turning over, the gathering, the harvest. The rains and the sun. The fruits and the weeds.
A season of love is a season of celebration, because the earth is waking again and we are here to witness the bloom.
-Jenn
Chocolate Rose Aphrodisiac Spritzer
Our Chocolate Love Elixir supports fertility and sexual function in men and women, and softens, warms, and opens emotions. Made with sensual and adaptogenic herbs that support healthy reproductive, circulatory, and nervous systems, and support increased energy and stamina. Added to a cocktail (or mocktail) of rose flower water and ginger beer, this warming, energetic libido booster takes on a whole new life.
In a bar shaker, mix together the following:2 teaspoons raw honey1 egg white (discard the yolk or use for another recipe)4 ounces of gin4 droppers of Chocolate Love Elixir2-3 drops of rose water (we like THIS brand)Shake vigorously for 30 seconds. This makes 2 drinks, one for you and one for your sweetheart.Fill the shaker with ice and shake for another 30 seconds until cold.Drizzle chocolate sauce on the inside of a glass. Strain the drink into the glass and top with ginger beer or soda water. The egg white foam forms a silken layer on top. Garnish with a strawberry or rose petals.
