Episode Sixty-Three: The Byte - Maria Benedetti

So I have to give a little context here to episode 63.

It really is quite remarkable how the universe brings people together.

One day I was on Amazon and you know how when you're about to check out they recommend other books?

On that day Amazon recommended Earth and Spirit,

Medicinal Plants and Healing Lore from Puerto Rico by Maria Benedetti.

There weren't any available at that time so I started doing a search online.

I quickly found a copy and purchased it and then realized,

To my chagrin,

That I had sent it to my old address in Portland,

Oregon.

Thankfully I knew the new owner of my house so I messaged him and he promised to send it straight away.

Three months later I realized I'd never received the book so I recontacted him.

He promised to send it that week and I got the book.

I opened it.

It was so powerful and enchanting I looked up the author online.

Maria Benedetti is an ethnobotanical researcher and journalist among many other things.

She's so groovy I thought,

What the heck,

I'm gonna ask her to be on the podcast.

So I reached out and emailed her.

Within 24 hours she had responded with a resounding yes.

Maria is passionate,

Intelligent and wise.

She also has the most incredible sense of humor.

Between our laughter and our conversation I hope you understand just why I find her so precious.

The two books that we discuss in this episode of Bite-Sized Blessings are the aforementioned book Earth and Spirit which is an oral history of the healing and medicinal plants of Puerto Rico and Dolores y Malagros,

A beautiful fictional tale that weaves in and out of the lives of various Puerto Rico residents.

I strongly encourage you to buy both books.

Both,

No doubt,

Will one day become precious resources.

But make sure to send it to the correct address.

Some things are worth the wait and my conversation with Maria was just that.

I hope you find it as educational and hopeful as I did.

And now Episode 63 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

Some of the prayers that these people say before they touch you.

It's like,

I can do nothing.

This is all about our Christ,

You know,

Cunning and remember what he said about Father's faith,

If it's as big as a mustard seed.

And remember my title,

It was dead.

And he was revived.

And it's all about putting the person at ease.

I'm not the healer here.

You know,

This is about your relationship to the divine.

So I'm going to leave you here and I'm going to do my work.

But remember,

My hands are representing the Christ.

The one thing that I also really appreciated about Earth and Spirit,

The first book we talked about,

Is I really thought to myself while I was reading it,

She is capturing a world that is disappearing.

And I thought one day this book is going to be essential for people as far as healing,

As far as how to reconnect with the natural world.

I also think it's,

You know,

You're telling me this story about people being kind of confused.

That you want to interview people who are poor or who are illiterate.

And I think those are the people that have all the answers.

In your neighborhood,

Everyone knows who you really are.

You know,

You can't sell a bad horse in your neighborhood.

You have to go somewhere to sell a bad horse.

So I didn't have trouble.

I knew that if they were recommended,

They were recommended because they were sincerely working,

You know,

As channels for divine intervention.

And they were doing beautiful work.

Some of their prayers.

In Earth and Spirit,

I didn't have the time.

I just came to Puerto Rico for five weeks to do the interview through oral history.

But the second book that I did,

I was already living in Puerto Rico.

I could do the interview and go back and go back again and go back again and get deeper.

And,

You know,

Some of the prayers that these people say before they touch you.

It's like,

I can do nothing.

This is all about,

You know,

You know,

Our Christ coming and remember what he said about,

You know,

That your faith is as big as a mustard seed.

And remember,

Last time it was dead and he was revived.

And it's all about putting the person at ease.

I'm not the healer here.

You know,

This is about your relationship to the divine.

So I'm going to leave you here and I'm going to do my work.

But remember,

My hands are representing the Christ,

You know,

His hands.

And,

You know,

My heart is representing,

You know,

Holy Mother's heart,

A virgin's heart.

That kind of thing,

You know,

Would be said before touching you.

And I think to myself,

My God,

What respect and also what humility.

You know,

These days,

People who do healing,

You know,

They're asked to say,

Oh,

I have level four of this and I have level three of this and I've been healing for this.

They're doing it,

You know,

And we know that,

You know,

We're not healing,

But we tend to get confused because people cause healers if we're doing that sort of work.

So,

You know,

We lose the humility.

And that was one of the things that just made me fall in love with these people.

They have no sense of I'm doing this for you and I'm the big healer.

No,

They're serving just as,

You know,

The person who's giving you your food in a restaurant is serving.

And so they're just,

They have this gift,

They've been initiated,

They have the prayers and you come to my house and you're my neighbor and,

You know,

I'll do my work,

Which is the gift that I have.

I was really struck by the humility in the stories that I read and also really struck by their acceptance that they're kind of just a conduit.

They're just there to facilitate the healing.

I thought that was incredibly beautiful.

Yeah,

The last interview,

Which is definitely the most complete,

I'm looking at their pictures on my main altar right now,

I'm going,

You know,

He says,

Oh,

Yeah,

You know,

We used to want we used to leave the house in the morning and come back the next day.

No,

We never got any money for that.

We didn't even have to bring anything because all the plants they grew around the people that were sick.

I mean,

We found everything we you know,

We found everything we needed right there.

You know,

For me,

One of the tragedies of our time is,

You know,

The poisoning of our natural world and here in Puerto Rico.

I don't know how they've done it,

But they've gotten our people to poison our own soil and our own water and our own,

You know,

Own plants ourselves with,

You know,

All these pesticides that we use,

Herbicides.

In the time of,

You know,

When these people were walking here and doing their ministry,

Which was,

You know,

Helping people heal using plants,

You know,

They found everything exactly where the people were because that's part of our relationship with plants,

You know,

When we need one,

It'll be there.

It's really,

Really interesting that I can't remember who it was said,

This healing,

This ability to heal is is a gift.

And I kind of thought that what I heard was it's also a bit genetic that it might run in families.

And so not everybody has the ability to heal.

It's,

It's a gift from,

You know,

The universe,

From Gaia,

From Spirit,

And you don't turn it down because you can be of service to your neighbors in your community.

Yeah,

It's interesting.

Most of the people I spoke with,

You know,

In order to do their work,

They were initiated,

They received training,

And they received prayers,

And they were told,

In no uncertain terms,

You can only give this to three people in your life.

And so these people would be observing from their own children,

People,

Neighbor children,

Other,

You know,

People with integrity,

Children with integrity,

Children that were service oriented,

Children that were honest,

Children that were earnestly,

You know,

Helpful.

But,

You know,

What you're saying,

You wouldn't turn it down,

Of course,

Many people,

Most people turned it down,

Turned the opportunity down because it's a sacrifice life of,

You know,

There's no money,

People aren't paying you money for these things.

And in the novel,

I think,

You know,

I think it's the last chapter,

Valeria's sister makes fun of her,

You want to be a what?

You want to be a curandera?

You want to,

What are you going to live on?

A piece of cheese?

Did someone bring you a bowl of cheese?

I mean,

What are you going to live on,

A candle?

They're going to bring you a candle?

They're making fun of it.

Because,

Of course,

The rising of the capitalist mentality and the colonizing mentality that we're all,

All of us are under at this moment,

One that looks down upon this,

This solidarity,

This community building,

This connection with our ecology and our ecosystems,

Because it all gets in the way,

I mean,

It gets in the way of our profits.

So,

You know,

You better just tone that stuff down or forget about it altogether and start buying our products because they're the real medicine.

And,

You know,

That message came through so loud and clear in Puerto Rico,

So loud and clear that even,

Even the public service movies that were made in the 50s to orient Puerto Ricans about how to work together and how to,

You know,

How to plan things and do things for the family and do things for the community,

Many of those movies,

None of them put,

You know,

A local healer in a good life and usually they're ridiculed or maybe they're drunk or maybe they're,

You know,

Ugly and maybe they're just totally made unattractive to,

You know,

The generations that are watching these films.

So,

You know,

That's one way that the media,

You know,

Controls our mind and controls our culture.

We're told what is valuable and what's not.

So guess what,

You know,

There were not a lot of people eager to take on this tradition,

A tradition that's a thousand years old.

So,

You know,

A longitudinal study in science is the highest,

Is the most highly prized because you want to see how things work from generation to generation,

Right?

So we use mice that we produce quickly so we can see,

You know,

Third generation,

That didn't go very well.

And here we are with traditions that are thousands of years old,

I mean,

You know that if it lasted more than a hundred years it's because it worked because if it didn't work there were no emergency rooms or,

You know,

Antibiotics or surgery.

There's nothing,

There's no alternative.

If this client does not heal my son I'm going to lose him.

If this client does not heal my mother I'm going to lose her.

My husband,

I'm going to lose him.

So it better work.

And if it works it's going to survive.

And if it has survived for thousands of years or hundreds of years you better believe that's a good longitudinal study.

And that should be valued by scientists everywhere around the world as it once was.

Thank you so much for listening to episode 63 of Bite Sized Blessings.

I need to thank my passionate and hopeful guest,

Maria Benedetti,

For being so generous with her time and for taking a chance on someone that she absolutely did not know to agree to be a guest on the podcast.

You can find a link to her website,

Batonica-cultura.

Com,

In the show notes for episode 63.

On her website you can find links to purchase her books,

Find a few pages of a graphic novel titled My People Free of Herbicide,

As well as more details about Maria's life,

Her journey,

Her other talents,

And more of her very wise words.

I need to thank the creators of the music used for this episode as well,

Chilled Music and Sasha End.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website you'll find links to other inspirational people,

Books,

Art,

And music I think will lift and brighten your day.

Thank you for listening,

And this week I'm going to read a quotation from Maria's website.

Maria states when talking about plants,

I'm less toxic than what Big Pharma has to offer us,

So I guess I do have a request.

Talk to your houseplants.

Talk to the plants you have in your garden.

Find a tree and talk to it.

Plants know far more than we ever will.

They're patient,

Wise,

And waiting for us to catch up to treat them as equals.

So that's my request.

As wacky as it is,

Go out and make friends with a plant.

Oh yeah,

You sound perfect.

You sound completely perfect.

So,

Thank you.

Huzzah!