Episode Eighty-Seven: The Interview-Cheralyn Darcey

33:15

33:15

Episode Eighty-Seven: The Interview-Cheralyn Darcey

by Byte Sized Blessings

Rated

5

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

10

Cheralyn wears many hats-but her miracle? It happened before all that. In this longer interview she tells how she was young, very ill, and at her wit's end. Then she had a visitor-one that healed her and reminded her that she could change her life-and by doing so, change her story.

Healing Change History Consciousness Education Symbolism Mindful Gardening Indigenous Spirituality Interviews Miracles Plant Communication Garden Spirits

Meet your Teacher

Byte Sized Blessings

Santa Fe, NM, USA

Meet your Teacher

Byte Sized Blessings

Santa Fe, NM, USA

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Bite-sized Blessings. I don't do this often, But every once in a while I ask my listeners to consider writing a review or leaving a rating wherever you listen to the podcast, Whether it's on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, Or Podchaser. Those ratings and reviews help others find us. So now let's get to episode 87 and my interview with Sherilyn Darcy, Who's pretty much the most astounding human being I've ever interviewed. Not only does she have a weekly podcast of botanical history called Mostly About Plants, She also has 20 published plant-based books out there in the world. You really must look at her webpage to see everything that this formidable human being is engaged in. She has a weekly gardening page that's in the Central Coast newspapers in Australia. She has a radio show called At Home with the Gardening Gang on Coast FM 96. 3. I just can't say enough about this amazing and abundant human being who's put out so much in the world and so clearly has such an affinity and a love with everything growing green around her. In this episode, We talk about a lot of different things, But Sherilyn's miracle is really a beautiful one. I don't want to take away the surprise, But it's really a powerful story about healing, The natural world, And how miracles and gifts come from the most unexpected places. So now, Episode 87 and my conversation with Sherilyn Darcy. But they, At the time, Diagnosed me with, I had the flu, Then it was pleurisy, Very, Very ill, And I was actually lying on the floor all the time. I just thought, I can't even, And I don't know what's going to happen. I was young and it was very cold. I remember that for sure. And one day, My flatmates had all gone to work and I was like, I could hardly breathe. I was thinking, I'm going to have to call an ambulance or something like that. I just, I can't get through it at all. And I was, I thought I was woken up and I saw, What I saw in front of me was a woman who was like covered in flowers. That's how I describe her. And I could just smell the flowers really, Really strongly. I was just like, Oh my goodness. And she just told me to get up, Like just get up. Cause I was literally lying on these floorboards with a rug and I was like, Just get up and go outside. So my first question I ask everybody, Which has proved to be a stumper for a lot of people, Which I thought would be the easiest question, But it's not, Is who are you as a human being? Like if you were to go to a convention or these workshops you're talking about doing, How do you introduce yourself? How do you describe who you are as a person? Okay. Not stumped. Thank you. I describe myself as part of the conversation of ethnobotany. So ethnobotany is the study of people and plants and it kind of, It's means a lot of different things to different cultures and different countries as well. There's a very strong belief that it's just about plants that change your mind, Psychedelic drugs, Things like that. That's one corner of it, But ethno people, Botany, Plants, That's it. The way plants and people interact. I really feel like I'm part of that conversation, A community connector. My big passion is community gardening, Getting people to garden wherever they are as well. So that's my passion. If you wanted to come down, Like, What are you? You describe yourself, A gardener. That's it. That's it. If I could only have one word, That'd be it. And I think that encompasses so much, Being a gardener, A creator of with things with plants. Okay. It was interesting before you said, You felt that I dabbled in a lot of different things. To me, That may look like that, But if you look at what I dabble in, It's always plants. Like I only write about plants, Create about plants. That's it. Dabbling to me, It's exploring. I explore lots of things and that comes into the belief as well, Because plants don't believe in anything except existing and being part of the consciousness of the universe. You know, There's more and this isn't being woo-woo. There's lots of study on this, Lots of scientific research that plants do have some sort of consciousness. We're just not really aware of it at the moment. So I find that my dabbling, My exploring is looking at the ways different people have believed. What do they believe in with plants? And so be it Christianity, Be it even a cultism, Be it witchcraft, Whatever it is, They're the things that I like to look at and explore. Sorry, I've lost track of my question at the moment. I just asked when you were a child. So when I was a child, So the dabbling comes in. When I was a child, I started my upbringing in the city, In the inner city of Sydney, The inner west, They call it Balmain, Lilyfield, Leichhardt for the Aussies that might be listening to this. And my mother was a nurse, Blended families, Beautiful, Very wonderful stepfather, Dad, German, Very into growing things. And we grew our own things at home. We call it city change here or tree change. My parents with this Brady Bunch family of six kids sold up and moved to the country, To the bush we call it. And my parents very much got into the whole, What people are getting into now really, And did back then in that time, Trying to be self-sufficient and growing things. My mother is a wonderful artist, A wonderful botanical artist that inspired me. And just being around the plants and being out in the bush, Growing things, Growing food, I just had this fascination with plants. And it was very impressionable on me coming from the inner city. We did have a nice garden, Granted, But then going from in that age, Going from that out to the bush. And I was, How old was at the time, 14. So it was like, Whoa, On lots of levels, But I just fell in love with it. I completely, I'd gone and visited the bush, But to live there, To wake up and smell the eucalyptus, To see the waratahs and in person, In the flesh, Then to grow our own food as well, And go through the whole process, I just became intrigued. And then when I moved back to Sydney, I lived in a place called Paddington, Back sort of inner city, But I lived near the botanical gardens, Our really big botanical gardens in Sydney. And I used to work as a tour guide at the Sydney Tower. And I used to actually walk through the botanical gardens. And I had that connection again with plants all the time. I loved it. And I'd often, Even it was raining, Whatever, People who listen to this know Sydney, I just make that sort of journey and people, There weren't people around. I used to love it. I spent so much time there. So that's it. And talking to people, Being around people and just seeing that other people have the same reaction to plants as I did as well, It just became like, I want to be part of this whole thing. And that's been all my life, Just loved it. I'm going to assume that you, What I thought, It was something intriguing that just happened recently. I mean, For years, I read science magazines. So for years, There's been big discussions about photosynthesis and how they're measuring, I don't know how they're measuring the photosynthesis and how, And they've discovered inside this process that it happens way more quickly than it should. Like technically, Like they don't understand. The last I read was they're positing that there are some quantum processes that are happening that we can't observe. And then just in the last month, I read an article about consciousness and memory making in our brains. They're like, We don't know how this happens, But they recently did some experiments that kind of definitively proved that there are quantum things going on with memory formation. And so I just thought, You know, You have plants over here, You have humans, Mammals over here, But we're utilizing the same thing to, Well, They're saying for humans, That creates memories, Consciousness, But who's to say those plants aren't conscious. And that's what those quantum processes are doing. Yes. Well, Here's the thing. In ancient Egypt, There was a very big belief that if you wanted your plans to keep going through, Going into the future, So the ancient Egyptians were, I'm not saying all of them, Some of them were very aware of the space of time, How, You know, They built these pyramids that they, You know, They're very connected with the afterlife, What happens, You know, In the future, They'd make big plans, You know, Planning pyramids and sculptures and things that in their lifetime, They wouldn't see finished at all. They believe that if they had a good idea or a plan, They would go and tell it to a plant. And there's actually pictures of them. And we've always sort of gone, Well, You know, Scientists have discovered this. And when I found that out, I was like, Because plants have this life cycle and what you're saying, This memory. So at first, When, When, You know, We looked at this and went, Wow, That's what they believe. We found out from reading things, They believe they, You actually physically went and whispered to a plant, That plant would die, The seeds would go on. But that somewhere in the consciousness of not the actual plant, But the consciousness of this universe, This planet, That somebody would get that information just by passing that plant, Or it was in the psyche of the universe. So then what you were just saying, Then, I think people, You know, We thought, Oh, It's a seed in the plant. But you're right. What if that is part of memory, That is part of this whole thing. So that connection, You know, It's like, We only we don't know what we don't know, As they say, It's a silly little rhyme, But it's true. We just don't. And there are plants out there that don't actually survive through photosynthesis. You know, They're quite white in a couple of that they need very, Very low light, But they adapt. And life all life on this planet is about adaptation. And it's not just about, You know, Where we get our food, Where we get our water from and air, It is also we need to have that some sort of consciousness to keep surviving. You know, One of my absolute favorite people is Michael Pollan, Who writes a lot about this sort of stuff. He's just like, Ah, You know, If I had to choose who I was going to sit at a dinner table with, You know, I have to tell you, It'd have to be Martha Stewart. I just have and it would have to be Michael Pollan as well, Because I just got a very interesting conversation. But I just love his work. You know, It is just it is mind blowing. And I always suggest that when people talk to me and say, What else can I you know, What, Where can I find more information? I'm like, Really, Really, Really, Really old gardening books from the 17, 18 hundreds, Because people wrote back then with their feelings, Not just what they you know, The science and and what you know, Is is thought of today that needs to be said and very black and white writing like this is a flower, It dies here, It does this old gardening books and old botany books really talk about the emotions behind that. And we can look in it. And then Mr. Pollan, Well, My mother, Look, Classic 60s sort of, She's a nurse, Okay, And very sort of alternate hippie sort of thing. Tarot reader loves all that sort of stuff. Now, This is great. And I talk to people and they go, Oh, My gosh, That's amazing. And I'm like, Just the same as kids. I've heard the stories of like, Very religious households, And I go, Oh, That's it, I'm going out and I'm, You know, I'm going to be an emo and I'm going to be a goth. I actually left my, As I told you, This sea changing, Let's go be hippies in the in the country and grow food. I couldn't get out of there quick enough to be quite honest, Get to Sydney and find a boyfriend with a sports car. And I don't know that a hippie stuff forget about sustainable living. True, Honest, You know, Honest, Honest, Honest. And as I said to you, I moved to back into the inner city. And I love the plants. I still love plants. I love gardening and had my little pot plants and herbs. But it wasn't a spiritual thing to me like it was to my mother. So growing up, Blended family, Not a religious family, But very much an alternative. Yeah, Believing in lots of different things. Buddhism, My mother is very, Very dedicated to Buddhism. My mother was a vegetarian when we were at home, But we did eat meat. And it wasn't until I had my own children, That I then sort of, You know, Was wanting, I guess, Something to be connected with. Now, In saying that, I actually dabbled with a few, I want to say, Here's a dabble with a few religions. I actually did, I started going to church, My grandparents were Church of England. My grandmother went to church. That's it. I married a Catholic, A Catholic altar boy, He was from a very Catholic, Tasmanian family. He wasn't practicing, He was very jaded over the whole thing. But I still thought, I'll get some a little bit of religion in here, I guess. But I just, I think the more that I looked at those things, The more that I didn't, I just didn't believe in everything. And I guess that's a thing of faith. And to be honest with you, I don't find that I even fit into the mind, Body, Spirit, Witchcraft, All that sort of stuff. Because same thing, Because I was so into plants and that, I guess, This constriction of a religion. So do I believe in God? Yeah, Pretty much. Like I believe that there is a higher power. Is that a God? Is it? Look, I don't know. I really don't know. Do I have faith in some sort of entity? Well, I do. That's the whole thing. Do I pray? Yeah, I do. Do I believe in organized religion? No, Not that I don't believe in it. I just find there's been too, This is just my personal thing, Too much interpretation into events and things. And I find that still even with modern day witchcraft and paganism, Different things like that. And so yeah, I, Yeah, That, Well, That was my upbringing. And that's how I am now. Thank you so much. And I really, It resonated with me earlier when you said that the community garden was your church. And I thought that is so beautiful. You know, There's people there of all different beliefs. You know, There's all different beliefs, No beliefs. And the actual where I am is swamp. And we are at the wetlands, Which is the fancy name for swamps these days. Swamp stands for sustainable wetlands, Agricultural makers project. So we're at this beautiful wetlands where we put a community garden. It's only two years old, Started in the, Born in the pandemic. A group of people got together and all different beliefs. But our driving thing is to get people gardening, To have somewhere to go and to also be very connected with community. There is an indigenous rehab center, Which we found like literally just over the field. Now they've got gardens there. We've actually gone in and helped them set up gardens, Edible gardens. And now actually tomorrow we're going and helping them set up an indigenous edible garden. The people who run it are indigenous. The clients are indigenous to come through. And it's fascinating to think, You know, Here's us, Like we know more about it than they know in their culture. And it's sad, But it's so cool that a group, We don't know everything cause we're learning as well, But we're in there going, You know, You let's, Let's do this and give you something. Now they come to us as well and help us with building infrastructure. And it's called the Glen. And then now that's for men and they've got the Glen for women just open and we're doing the same thing as well as that. There's a project here in Australia. I know they have it in the US and around the world. This one's called Dale and it's young women who fall pregnant while they're at school. And it's a program to keep them in school to finish their education. They're coming to us because some of them might want to go into horticulture. Youth Connections is a beautiful organization in Australia and it's helping youth with living with disabilities. And we have youth living with mental disabilities come to us once a week on a Thursday. And we have a soul to plate program where we actually go through the whole growing things. We had a pizza garden. So it was all the things for pizzas. We've got a soup garden at the moment and we even have art. Like I teach the art and craft one once a term. So we did painted wooden spoons and made invitations. And these youth, Most of them, The majority are non-verbal as well. And to see them, Like I'm getting all like last week, One young fellow called Troy, He was, He so focused because they come into the garden now, They know where they're going. They're having experience of just people connecting in the community. And then some of them might again, Go into horticulture because there are jobs in horticulture where people living with disabilities could do. We have a lot of farming around here, A lot of small nursery places. So just things like planting, Which we've shown them as well, Planting seeds into little pots, Doing things like that and being, And they're just loving it because our charter as it were, We were very organized is to be that we put the community into community gardening. So it's about doing things for, And with the community as well. I find that the most spiritual thing that I've ever found and ever done, You know, And that's not because I'm trying to be good or we're trying to be good. It's just that that's, I go, I got the time, I've got the resources, I've got the skills. So should be out there doing something. And it is, It's, That's what I say, My garden, My community garden is my church. That's it. Well, I think when you go back to that, Being connected with plants and the, You know, The religious thing as well, The thing that really made me think there was something else there. And this actual thing that happened to me, I still, I don't know, You know, Exactly how that came about, But I was living in Melbourne at the time, Which is right down in our Southern states, Which I'm sure you'd be familiar with. And at the time I'd been very, Very sick. And it was so weird because years later, They realized that I'd actually had tuberculosis. So because I worked as a tour guide and it was, Cause I hadn't been out of the country, But it was like, How did that happen? But they, At the time, Diagnosed me with, I had the flu, Then it was pleurisy, Very, Very ill. And I was actually like lying on a floor all the time. And I just thought, I can't even, You know, I don't know what's going to happen. And I was young and, And, And it was very cold. I remember that for sure. And one day my flatmates had all gone to work and I was like, I could hardly breathe. And I was thinking, I am going to have to call an ambulance or something like that. I just, I can't get through it at all. And I was, I thought I was woken up and I, I saw what I saw in front of me was a woman who was like coveting flowers. That's how I describe her. And I could just smell the flowers were really, Really strongly. I was just like, Oh my goodness. And she just told me to get up, Like, Just get up. Cause I was literally lying on these floorboards with a rug. And it was like, Just get up and go outside. That's what you need to do. And I, To this day, And I did, I went outside and I sat on this little thing outside and I just sat there in the sunlight and all I could smell, There were no flowers around, But I could just smell these roses really over the top of roses. That's it. And then I remember afterwards, After that, I just felt better. That's how I felt better. And when I, I looked back on that all the time, It was so real. And it was so something, I don't know what it was. And I did say, Was I just delirious? Was it, But it was so, So, So real. The thing was that then later on, When I was like, This was, I was telling my flatmates later on, One of them turned around and had three pink rose petals and was like, Well, Where did these come from? And we were like, And I hadn't left the house. No one had roses, Roses weren't in season. And I still had those. I still had those pressed in a box. I didn't tell anyone for a long time. It's actually in one of my books. I never told anyone for so long. Cause I was like, People think I'm mental, You know, Like, Ah, That's it. And it's funny you should ask me cause I was a bit like, Oh gosh, Well I tell, Because I don't, I don't know. Did it change things for me? It did at the time I actually left Melbourne. I wasn't in a very good situation either. So the message to me was get up, Move on, Get up, Get out of here. And I actually moved. I moved back to Sydney at the time, Not in a good situation, Not in a good relationship whatsoever with, You know, The people that I was with and life really changed me after that as well. And I felt like it wasn't just about the sickness. It was the place that I was in. I've told very few people this story, Just even though it is in one of my books, It's in the foreword, But we've talked about that. Like, Oh, Could it be an angel? Could it be a God? I said, I don't know. Someone actually said, And I thought this was amazing. Cause we're going back to this plant psyche of, You know, Like the, And it's a circle and going on. Another author said to me one day, We were talking and she turned around and went, Could it have been you? And I went, And I was like, My gosh, Like she said, Because when I think of you, I do think of someone of all flowers. And I'm even getting goosebumps now. And I went, That's amazing. Could it have been like a higher power using you, Like yourself in the future or yourself in the past? And I went, And she went, I don't even know where that came from. Cause it's not something I've thought of or believed in. She goes, But I just went, Could it have been you? It was actually Lucy Cavendish. She writes a lot of books. So Lucy said it to me one day and I was like, Lucy, Yeah. And she said, You know, Telling you get up because if it didn't get up, If it didn't leave, It wasn't a good situation. And I was very, And I didn't get better. Like I was, You know, When you're spiraling things, I was like, That's it, I'm dead. I'm going over dramatic, But a lot of things changed with me. And I always found, I always came back to flowers after that and plant, Or it was always connected, But it was kind of like, I don't know, I just even, I started painting flowers. Then I started really almost too obsessional, Like writing, Reading about, Reading about the Victorian language, The flowers, Reading all these things. And it really, You know, It was still, I was only, I was about 21 at the time. It still was, I mean, I didn't get published until 2013. So it, That was still 20 years away from being actually published, But it did start me researching. It did start me writing, Reading, And all those sorts of things as well, Because not to finally answer so much, But just, I just felt like plants, Flowers, That was really became more spiritual to me. What I think is really evocative in your story and also so beautiful in the Catholic tradition, Sometimes people have visions or the Virgin Mary will come to them. The mother will come to them and a lot of times it's accompanied with the scent of roses. And sometimes you smell roses before you even know that the Virgin's going to come. It's like her calling card. And so I was listening to you and then hearing what that author said to you. And I was thinking to myself, Gosh, You know, The rose is kind of this sacred flower that foretells a special event is going to happen that kind of helps a bridge is the bridge between ordinary reality and extraordinary reality. Yeah. And I had no idea back then that I didn't even like roses. I honestly didn't. And I have a funny sort of thing with it is like, And I don't drink wine myself, But you sort of often hear that people go from white wine to red wine when I heard that. And I was like, That's not flowers. I think people go from daisies to roses. You have to mature into it. You have to understand when you're young, You're like, All right, Is there old fashioned. And then as you get more mature, You're sort of going roses, You know, That bit. And I think because there's so high in energy, It's easy to be connected to light, Bright daisies. So, You know, That's it. But roses, It that is heavy stuff, You know, Like it really is to be connected with. And then the appreciation of it when you're older as well. I find nothing more comforting than the scent of roses. Now, I just it's just to me, It's so grounding. It's that musky sort of it is there's a heaviness to it, But there's something that it envelopes you, You know, It really, Really does. And it's no wonder the connection and yeah, The connection with the Mother Mary, The sacred angelic beings, And a lot of different cultures. It is connected a lot with divinity, A lot of that very high energy of a rose as well. One of the oldest plants, You know, As well, That's almost in its original form, Even though, You know, Us humans love hybridizing everything, Love hybridizing everything, The rose and the magnolia. You know, They are the legacy keepers, They are the, You know, The continuance for us as well. Well, I, I lived in Portland for 20 years, And I would go to the Portland Rose Garden every once in a while, Which had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of roses. And they're all very stately and, You know, Pruned, Beyond anything and beautiful, Of course, Like in so many colors, Small, Large, Medium sized. But a lot of times all the breeding that's been done is completely removed the scent, The scent is just and so for me, Like the perfect rose is the one that's old, Old, That's climbing a trellis and is wild, Has 10, 000 thorns all over it. And it's just been left to be itself. Because those smell the best. They do because the thing is, People were trying to get the color, You know, When you're trying to get the color, You're not going to get the scent all the time. Same here on minor, I always say that my roses are just gently tamed. That's what they are, So that I can walk around my garden. That's it. Because people come in, They're like, There's a branch there, Because it's just to see a rose in its form, To just let it go. Within reason, As you said, Is just absolutely divine is really something to behold. And the old world roses, I mean, They're usually referring to things pre 1950. So a lot of being hybridized still, But at least there's a point, You know, And also a lot of these roses, When we talk about that, They will cross pollinate and breed themselves. So there's something to be said in that as well, That they've done it themselves. When you're saying that, That the consciousness of all, You know, Of going forward and connecting out, What I said about the ancient Egyptians, And, You know, And it's all, It's so much bigger than what we think of just a plant, A flower, Just us, You know, There's got to be something in there. And we're so much bigger on a micro and a macro level, Then we possibly could imagine them. I think each plant is exactly the same as well, You know, And they, They have to evolve because we evolve, We're changing things, Other plants are changing things. So they have to evolve and change to keep up, But they need to keep something in of themselves. They're not, It's not going to, It's not going to get to the point that it's never a rose anymore. You know, There's going to be something in it, Because even when we look at it now, What we say is a rose, It does look different to what an original rose was. Let's look at carrots, You know, Carrots were never orange. Carrots were like purple and red and, You know, Oh my gosh, We're here forever talking about the story of carrots, But it's still a carrot. It still connects with, You know, That's it, You can find some heirloom carrots, But I'll tell you what, They're still not going to look like what carrots originally were. And that's even going back to the middle ages. I've always thought of carrots as such a happy little vegetable. They just seem so happy. I really think that for me, That story about the Egyptians and then telling a plant a story or your intention, Knowing that it will, As it evolves or just grows into its next, The seed grows into its next plant. It's so beautiful. And it makes me want to go out to all the plants I'm looking at right now and tell them my secrets and wishes for this world. So that they remember the goodness that I want in the world. And hopefully the next time someone walks by, They're like, Hey, Think about this. Thank you so much for listening to episode 87 of Bite-sized Blessings and my conversation with Sherilyn Darcy. I hope you enjoyed our fangirling on the natural world, On flowers, On roses, On ancient history and the Egyptians. For more information about my esteemed and gorgeous guest, Sherilyn, Please visit her website at SherilynDarcy. Com. There will be a link to her website under the episode show notes on the Bite-sized Blessings website. I need to thank the creators of the music used in this episode. Frank Schroeder, Keith Wolk, Music L Files, Radion Myechev, German Tretiakov and Winnie the Moog. For complete attribution, Please see the Bite-sized Blessings website at Bite-sizedBlessings. Com. On the website, You'll find links to groovy music, Inspired artists and intrepid authors like Sherilyn. There will be several of her books on my website. All of these, I hope, Lift and brighten your day. Thank you for listening. And here's my one request. Be like Sherilyn. Talk to your plants. Tell plants your secrets. Tell plants your dreams, Your ideas, Your hopes for the future, Knowing that not only are they listening, But they'll take those hopes and dreams forever into the future until your hopes and dreams are out there in the world.