Not only did I get to spend the afternoon sharing awareness of the Rex Foundation’s work to support the environment, and musical arts (www.rexfoundation.org), I had the remarkable opportunity to spend the Grateful Dead 50th celebration concert with my plant mentor Kathleen Harrison, founder of Botanical Dimensions. We all have experiences in life that change us dramatically that we can reflect back on and for me it was going on tour when I was 17. This experience exposed me to sages selling crystals, those who had chosen an alternative path, opening yourself up to the moment, trusting in what would happen next was meant to be, and that miracles happen.

Plants and Music are interwoven into our DNA, music speaks to us in ways words cannot, feeding our emotional beings, and plants do just the same. There is no denying how plants can shift our state of being by opening our heart chakras, just as music makes us dance.

The Bribri Shamans in Talamanca, Costa Rica due not ingest psychoactive plants to shift consciousness when calling into being plant spirits instead they sing songs, songs that are taught to them by the plant spirits themselves. “Every species has a song” is a quote from Kathleen Harrison, ethnobotanist and plant whisper. I first read about Kathleen Harrison as one of the first featured Bioneers, when I was 18 and I wrote her a letter asking for advice on how I might find my path in plant studies. Our paths have been interwoven ever since. So for me it was a TRIFECTA moment, to be listening the music that opened my heart and mind, to be with my mentor, and to be representing and holding space for the at-risk plants that need our help. Passing out stickers for United Plant Savers on a beautiful sunny California day among those that came out to Celebrate 50 years of transformative music being played by the greatest band EVER, not to mention hearing my favorite song… Eyes of the World, was as they say EPIC !

Right outside this lazy summer home
You ain’t got time to call your soul a critic, no
Right outside the lazy gate of winter’s summer home
Wonderin’ where the nut-thatch winters
Wings a mile long just carried the bird away.

Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world
The heart has its beaches, its homeland and thoughts of its own
Wake now, discover that you are the song that the morning brings
But the heart has its seasons, its evenings, and songs of its own.

There comes a redeemer, and he slowly too fades away
There follows his wagon behind him that’s loaded with clay
And the seeds that were silent all burst into bloom and decay
And night comes so quiet, it’s close on the heels of the day.

Sometimes we live no particular way but our own
Sometimes we visit your country and live in your home
Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone
Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own.