Auntie Thyme

I’ve been staying in Oakland, helping welcome a new baby into the world –taking on the role of Auntie Thyme, herbalist postpartum doula. Newborns are remarkable bodhisattvas & this babe had already won my heart in utero for his amazing choice of mother.

Now it’s a full on love fest as I smell the oxytocin perfume that comes off his head or listen to the adorable squeaks he’s always making. I’ve been holding a baby or preparing a meal or giving some bodywork to the new parents or walking their first born fur babies, most of the past week.

My own child became a fully fledged teenager this year, so it’s been a delight to offer a skill set that is ingrained in my being (but not in need in my daily existence anymore) to help ease their transition into sleeplessness, I mean parenthood.

Yesterday I had some letters to put in the mail & so I went on a walk through the neighborhood. I was delighted to discover the median strips & sidewalk green spaces of a home free encampment filled with edible greens, alliums, and nopales.

My gardening heart positively melted at the Spring bounty & I felt something delightful stir in me when I saw several cannabis plants potted up near one tent. Herbal touchstones always help me drop in deeper. Always! A large art installment reads “HERE” & I appreciate the cause to pause.

I continued meandering through the city streets, smelling Brugmansias & plucking little nose gays of jasmine along the sidewalks for me to sniff. I gave rosemary & lavender plants olfactory hand jobs so that I could cup my hands in my face & breathe their volatile oils deeply. It’s SPRING!

I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some noshables for the baby house & a young, new mother was holding a sign for help outside the store with her baby in a stroller. I gave her all the money I had on me —which wasn’t enough in this era of plastic capitalism— but she smiled big despite her struggles & thanked me for being the first person to stop in the hour since she had arrived.

I headed into SF to meet up with an old friend & her one year old pandemic baby in Golden Gate park —even though I seem to have missed the pregnancy, birth, and early babyhood, it was wonderful to see her again & drop in as if no time had passed at all.

And last week I visited a roomie from college with the biggest smiling five month old. I knew I had stepped into some kind of baby portal when she offered me some soap that her husband had made from her breast milk! I have the b(r)e(a)st friends!

So, here I am, auntie on the verge of independence: living into my own freedom from parental responsibilities while getting to witness so many of my peers step into their journey of raising the next generation. And I am thrilled both for my place as a veteran of the childhood initiation & as someone with the free time (finally!) to show up & be helpful!

***Also, that is a rainbow on my nipple! Prism win!