Journal Notes

I find journal notes helpful. As an herbal mentor, I find them particularly helpful.

You may have noticed that many a website has a “blog”. It’s a funny ‘ol word, a portmanteau of web and log ~ hence blog. The use of the word blog was first recorded in 1997, only 27 years ago.

For me, it hardly seems fitting that working as an herbalist, in a tradition that dates back thousands of years, that I might rely on such a contemporary word.

I sometimes imagine what herbalists of old may have done; how they may have worked with medicinals, with clients; what they may have said. I can’t imagine the word “blog” in any of those contexts.

I can’t imagine anything other than journal notes. For me, it’s a fitting and evocative descriptor.

Too, full disclosure, you may know that I have an incurable interest in medicinal herbs transported aboard ships during the Age of Sail. This was a time spanning from about the mid-16th century to the mid-19th century. They probably didn’t use the word blog then either.

But what may be of interest is that whoever was responsible for the health of the crew aboard a ship, they kept notes. And yes, while many a captain kept a “log”, most in the role of offering care for a crew kept journal notes.

Hence no blog on my website.

It’s interesting too that it wasn’t necessarily a medically trained professional that offered care to those aboard ship, but that’s a topic for another day. More to the point there were a huge array of conditions that might beset a ship, and certainly a ship that frequented ports. Medicaments were of paramount importance.

All to say that as herbalists, we too have lots to keep track of in our work. Journals are one way to follow trends, record change, anticipate events and stay organized.

In my own work, and when working with mentees, I like to keep journals thematically organized. I am sure gardeners and growers can appreciate this too.

While I’m not discussing individualized client notes just here, I do keep journal notes about growing and harvesting, separate from medicine making and these separate from reflections about my herbal practice.

So let’s touch on each of these and see what may be of interest.

Firstly, growing and harvesting

Any grower will say that one of their favorite winter pastimes is anticipation of the growing season! We ponder what seeds we have [from last season], what seeds we might order [and from where], what needs starting indoors, what needs to be started outside as the earth warms and beckons planting … of course, some of our plant allies truly enjoy an early start. And this is just the tip of the iceberg … all of which is hard to keep track of if it’s not written down. For now, let’s skip over budgeting and assessing harvest yields and a bushel of other relevant topics.

It's fair to say that for most areas of interest, I’ve learned from years gone by that Post-Its get lost, the backs of envelopes get forgotten and markers often run when wet!

What many a grower will also say is that by the end of the growing season, we’re ready to put a garden to bed. But between these points, sustaining endurance and energies can be challenging … and even more challenging when there are failed crops, bumper crops and everything is happening at the same time!

A growing and harvesting journal, if you’re a grower, is an essential tool. It can too be relied upon to help pace our work.

I also keep a separate journal for medicine making

Like growing and harvesting, medicine making is also a multi-layered endeavor. Harvests need to happen at the right time. By that I mean that while there is a seasonality to medicinal herbal harvests, it can be backbreakingly difficult, and expensive, to work with everything all at once. And let’s not forget that some herbs are processed fresh, while others are dried before they’re made into medicines. Some, for example, find their way into alcohol extracts, others into honeys, vinegars or glycerin; some are prepped for topical applications and some for localized or internal uses; some are blended and others not.

The herbs that comprise any medicine chest reflect the needs of that community, whether they are land-locked or aboard a ship; mariner or not; whether they are young or older and growing wiser (!); whether or not they are trades people or white-collar workers, athletes or bibliophiles, tree-climbing or crossword experts. This makes logical sense.

Practice journals

Practice journals are likely not as regular a tool as a medicine making journal or a growing and harvest journal.

As an herbalist with decades of experience, a practice journal has been very helpful for me. It’s a suggestion that I often offer to many mentees. My practice journal reflects times I take a leap in thought. It also reminds me how much I have grown, what has changed in the ways I approach topics, symptom profiles and more, questions that plague me and where I seem to get stuck over the years.

Herbalism is an amazingly multi-faceted profession and as a professional working with plants and people, indeed with people and plants, it is occasionally unsettling to think that there is so much to learn and it’s easy to forget how much we have integrated into a changing and thriving way of practice.

I’m sure that when aboard ship, as is the case on land, it was helpful to record interventions and the rates at which change occurred. Reliance on medicinals varies on land just as it does on sea.

And while this October, I am indeed a land locked mariner, I know with surety that autumn and winter months offer us many a predictable challenge.

It’s helpful to be at the ready and have ample medicines for what lies ahead.

We might start with nervines and antimicrobials!