Mimosa Medicine

It’s that time of year again y’all- Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) medicine has pom-pomed out the tree tops, tickling our hearts open a wee bit wider. She shocked me yesterday when I rounded the bend of a road in my little Toyota truck Bee Bop. She was  growing creekside in a row of soft pink, saturated magenta and a spectrum of beautiful pinks in between!! I shouted aloud alone in my car at the sight of my in-her-glory friend I hadn’t seen in too long!

I love this tree. Native to China they were brought here as an ornamental in the 1700’s, have acclimated quite well & are actually considered an invasive species here in North Carolina. Like many plants, living out of context from where they grew up, the checks and balances that would keep their growth in balance don’t exist here and so they thrive, sometimes at the expense of plants (and ecosystems) native to this land.

And yet, also like other non-native vigorous plants (think knotweed & kudzu- both markedly more aggressive I'd say) they have potent medicine to give. The situation we humans find ourselves in, one of our own making, is complicated. How do we protect and preserve our environment without doing further harm while also existing in right and honoring relationship with plants that are now a part of this new world we find ourselves in?

Mimosa is known as the “collective happiness tree”, a somewhat ironic (in terms of its classification as invasive) and at the same time touchingly beautiful name. It’s fairy poof flowers and bark are used as a balm for the spirit- grounding and nourishing human beings through challenges with anxiety, depression and insomnia especially when related to profound loss and grief. They are also a good ancestor of sorts- in that their work and gifts today nourish generations to come- you see they are a nitrogen-fixer, adding nitrogen back into the soil to nourish future plant babies- not just their babies- but all plant babies- as nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth.

Our front-yard mimosa passed unexpectedly around the same time as our beloved Etty two years ago, leaving behind her much needed medicine for my eternally grieving and grateful heart. Made medicines are such a special way to preserve a plant’s essential essence, available later as needed after the peak season or their whole life has faded. Mimosa also teaches us about a concept in herbal medicine called the Doctrine of signatures: when a plants’ form/being alludes to its medicinal gifts. Mimosa closes her leaves for the night at dusk- like sleeping beauty’s lashes. Take rest she says. Mimosa helps soothe a wired and weathered spirit, rattled with the stuff of life that can steal our rest. She helps us sleep at night and helps our hearts shine with the light. If the grief of life has left you in a stuck state of depression or anxiety leaving you feeling wired, edgy but unable to let go into rest and presence- mimosa medicine may help soothe and soften the edges a wee bit. Whether it be enjoying the texture of her pom poms brushing along your face, taking in her subtle dreamy fragrance deep into the places in your body where it lands or taking a few drops of an extract of her flowers and bark and letting it sink into your heart space, take her in, she who sleeps amongst the blinking lightening bugs on these glorious summer nights.

Thank you Mimosa, for your blessed presence and your deep gifts, for challenging us to consider present & future and for being so undeniably YOU.

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