Blessed Reishi in the City

Days after realizing it was time to work with Reishi again personally, and speaking aloud this intention, I found these two beautiful creatures growing on a stump. Mind you the Reishi double-extraction I started in the spring has been patiently waiting to be strained by yours truly for more than a few weeks now. My discovery of these wild creatures was the push I needed to strain and bottle the tincture, if for no one other than myself.

Now, the stump in question is in the middle of NYC, in an area that I maintain at the park where I work. I first discovered that Reishi were keen on growing here sometime last year, finding an old dried-out Ganoderma that’d been hanging out so long it had taken an ashen pallor and become solid as granite. A concrete curb that demarcates the line between the plants’ area and the human’s area (the sidewalk) sits no more than 11 inches from said stump.  

In the midst of dog pee, MTA bus and horn-honking central, how did I have the presence of mind to know that magic was afoot?

Earth beings bear witness to our thoughts, declarations and intentions. This is a reminder to those of us in cities that we are connected to these beings—a reminder that we are still doing the work. Our work with the earth in cities is just as valid as work being done in open meadows and quiet woods. In fact, if humans can’t figure out how to harmonize our visions of nature with human society, to realize that we are an outgrowth of nature, rather than conceive of nature as a place to escape to, to return to some made up “untouched” past, or a thing that exists outside of ourselves, we will continue to go nowhere, with the quickness. 

I’d also like it to be known that I do not harvest Reishi—or any other native plants for that matter—that grow wild in the woods. These were harvested in the Upper West side of Manahatta and I will not sell them. With their permission, I will use them as teaching tools in future workshops and as a reminder to myself that when I ask—and come with an open heart—the Earth will always answer me.  

Much love to Black folk walking with, noticing and listening to plants (and fungi!) in cities.