Settling into the rhythm of things and the stinging nettle
A new job and starting to become comfortable again. 🔎Species Spotlight: the Stinging Nettle.
Welcome to Tales from the Overgrown Path
After setting out to write on here weekly, life and mental health took over and I haven’t even managed to write monthly. With that in mind I am going to set my aim a little lower of writing monthly. Hopefully this will allow me to write higher quality pieces for you and will give me time to do all of the other bits I have filled my life with over the past few weeks.
New beginnings
I have just finished my seventh week at a new job. It was a job that I applied for on a whim, nothing special, not a dream job, just a ‘I’m desperate and will apply to almost anything now’ job.
Despite that, I have been loving it.
This job is the type of job that you can actually leave at work. Many people say that they leave their jobs at work but I don’t really believe them. Maybe it’s just me but even when I was working in hospitality and shouldn’t have cared less for the interactions I was having, I would come home and complain about rude people or overthink if I had said something awkward or weird. I have always taken my job home with me. Until now.
About half of my work is in a warehouse, during which I don’t have to interact with the public and I only have to interact with my (very lovely) colleagues occasionally. I just bop about putting things in their assigned places or collecting things for customers. The tacky radio songs blast out from the builders radio in the corner and I sing along. This is a dream for a neurodiverse person such as myself.
The other half of my work does require interaction with the public. I serve customers on the tills but most of them are tradies. Tradies don’t expect a beaming smile or 5-star customer service, they just want their weird plumbing part or huge box of screws and to be on their way. I love it. I just interact with them like a normal human, not a robot built for servitude. No slapping a smile on my tired face, no pretending like I can provide the world and that it’s no bother, no stuck up poshos upset at something out of my control. Of course the nature of humanity means I come across some rude or pushy ones but they are infrequent enough that you can just brush it off once the interaction is over.
All of this to say, things are finally settling down for me. I am emerging from the mental cave the universe had plonked me into, emerging from hibernation. The combination of spring approaching with evermore speed and the gaining of a secure job has awoken me. I find myself doing more now with less free time.
I am still finding the balance between pushing myself into motivation but not pushing myself too far into exhaustion. Money is still unbelievably tight, but now I have an expected income each month from a permanent job with contracted hours so the stress has largely been relieved. I am getting involved more with things including a birdwatching group for young adults that I have just set up.
The Treecreepers 🪶
This is my new passion project. I have no idea what to expect or how successful it may or may not be. All I hope is that people who care about nature, especially birds, can come together each month to share their passion and enjoy the outdoors.
Birdwatching is often considered a hobby for kids or retired folk but I am adamant that this needs to change. Not only are birds a really common animal to see and therefore an easy way to begin to learn about and observe nature, but they are also a lesson in patience and mindfulness. They help me be more present with nature and myself, choosing to listen to the birds and the world around me rather than putting on my headphones and blocking it all out. I find myself in such a calm state when out on a walk in nature, focusing on what I can hear and see. This bleeds over to everything else, suddenly you’re noticing the different types of trees or fungi or flowers, noticing one thing leads to noticing many things.
People of my generation have grown up with screens and the internet. I see daily the dichotomy of connection from the internet and globalisation and the disconnect from the natural world that it has caused. I see my age group being agents of big change across the world largely thanks to that global connection, but I also see a generation with higher numbers of depression and anxiety than ever before.
Nature is healing and reconnecting to the land around us has proven mental and physical health benefits. You can’t give from an empty tank.
I want a space where my peers feel welcome to come together with birds. Whether you are a complete bird-nerd or a total newbie. I want a space where people of my age can connect to nature and be supported by each other as we share a sense of understanding and kinship.
Our first meeting will be TOMORROW Sunday 6th April at Blackford Hill and The Hermitage of Braid. Find out more on the instagram @the_treecreepers, on the Eventbrite page or on the group’s ~coming soon~ Substack/mailing list.
I would appreciate everyone to share the word about this group far and wide - in person, via text, on social media stories! I would be forever grateful 💚
A rambling ode to Spring
Written in a minute or two, connecting to the present moment.
~
Twigs lay on the ground. Shaken off by the storms of winter, they await their final task. Woven into a cradle to assist the birth of new life, to carry the offspring of the new year. A beady eye considers which matches the design vision. The candidate is chosen and plucked off the soil, back into the air from whence it came. The air that is once again flowing with sounds, after a quiet few months. I begin to feel alive again, exiting my waking slumber. To rise with the earth is comforting, it resonates in an ancient part of my mind, like I am emerging from the dream, or nightmare, that is this modern world.
~
🔎Species Spotlight: the Stinging Nettle
Each post will feature a Species Spotlight where I highlight a particular species that means something to me. The contents will vary like the tides…
Scientific Name: Urtica dioica
Ah the stinging nettle! Most people’s sworn enemy when on a nice relaxing dog walk or as a kid when trying to explore the woods. Now a plant that some, including myself, are realising is actually healing.
Native to Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the stinging nettle has a long history of being a medicinal plant. Knowledge that has been slowly lost over time thanks to colonialism and patriarchy condemning witchcraft and nature-based religions. But, with the rise of people reconnecting to their ancestry, land and culture there is a resurgence of information that we are lucky to be a witness to.
Ancient Egyptians supposedly used stinging nettle to treat arthritis and back pain, something that many people swear by still to this day. The stinging compounds that enter the body via the tiny needle like hairs are thought to reduce inflammation and therefore help chronic inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and eczema. Consuming stinging nettles has a similar effect, as does using products like stinging nettle cream.
Another benefit is the promotion of good circulation by causing vasodilation (widening blood vessels). Roman troops were said to flail themselves with stinging nettle to keep warm. Good circulation and delivery of fresh, oxygenated blood is vital for the bodies healing processes and helps lower blood pressure.
Nettles are also very nutritious with high levels of iron, calcium, vitamins A, C and K, all of the essential amino acids and many other compounds we need to function. The most common way to consume nettles is in a tea, soup or in a similar way to spinach. Soaking the nettles in water or cooking them removes the stinging chemical allowing them to be safely handled and eaten.
Aside from the stinging nettles uses for humans, it is a vital food source for the caterpillars of many of our most well-known butterfly species in the UK - the comma, peacock, and small tortoiseshell - and countless moth species.
I encourage you to be curious about the stinging nettle, its history is old and varied. Maybe try connecting more to the plant with an aim to not fear it as much as you once did. Leave a patch in your garden rather then tearing it all out to help our pollinator friends and the ecosystem they uphold. Try some nettle tea and see how you feel afterwards. Give it a light brush with a finger tip and embrace the sensations.
I am trying myself to lean more into what nature has to teach us. I believe connection is the cure to much of the wrong we see in the world today.
Species Spotlight references:
Journal of Herbal Medicine article
Healthline
Wikipedia (no shame..!)
Butterfly Conservation - Comma, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell
Thank you for reading this episode of Tales from the Overgrown Path! 💚I hope to see you again soon.