13/09/2026
A Handful of Henbit-Story 1.
Have you ever noticed that the Plant Spirits and her medicine always show up in your Life at just the right moment? Never too early. Never too late. Always at the moment your Life needs to change.
When I was child, my family and I traveled from Georgia to Virginia every year in the early Spring. A lot of sweet memories from those visits, but one of my sweetest memories was my family arriving Home to purple waves of Henbit that now covered my Suburban neighborhood. As a wide eyed child, peeking over the car door and out of the window, those purple waves of tiny bright faces, sun sparkling in the morning dew was the most magical sight I had ever seen. It seemed the whole neighborhood was covered in ripples of purple flower glitter. The purple fairy flutes of Henbit gathered in a child’s hand makes for the most beautiful and magical of the bouquets. Of course, shortly after this time everyone started grass cutting for the season. While short lived, that brief glimpse of magic was all I needed to make my heart sing for years to come.
Many moons, suns, stars, and winds later….enough for 40 years of Life to learn and experience….I parked my vehicle in a patient’s driveway in Taylorsville, North Carolina early Spring in the year 2022. I was working as an Occupational Therapy Clinician in the Home Health setting. I was weary to say the least, I always had a heart for helping but after spending your Spirit for years in modern medicine systems the weight takes its toll on a Soul.
As I sit in my car and continue to stall by endlessly checking my notes and emails….eager to end my day and go Home, a purple glitter catches my eye. There they were. A patch of bright, happy, little purple faces of sparkling Henbits singing to me from the uncut yard of my patient’s house. All these years later I still knew those faces. All of these years later I still knew that magic. I gathered a bouquet with the same childlike joy in my heart that I had before except this time…..my life was forever changed. For I was in a time in my Life when I understood the call of not only building a relationship with the plants…..but learning their Stories.
Henbit welcomed me Home again. She told me not only her Story but led me to the Stories of all the Plants…..and I haven’t been the same since.
Kelley Cochran COTA/L, Southern Folk Herbalist
