The Flower Essence Diaries ~ My first ever Flower Essence Collection | Periwinkle

The Spiritual practice of embodying presence - my first lesson from Periwinkle

I collected my first Flower Essence this week and here’s what happened.

I will start by noting that everyone has emotional wounds, baggage and unaddressed limitations that come up in daily life in the form of behaviours and situations. They can serve as opportunities that bring attention to what needs healing. I had no idea at the time that all of this would be relevant to what the flowers would be communicating with me.

Lately, I had been feeling rude. Snappy, irritable with my partner, hurrying things along. Typically, my mind goes at a million miles an hour when I see a task, a mundane task usually, that needs moving through. I can see the efficient way to quickly make choices, quickly complete things, in order to capture ‘more time’ for myself and the funner, more gratifying things I want to do in the future. I don’t want to have to spend 1 more minute, even 10 more seconds choosing the right ingredient, I want to take it off the shelf in three seconds and move on. And, yet, I had been experiencing this sort of out of body experience, hearing my voice as I expressed my impatience with the world and those in it. It sounded disrespectful. It sounded quite disconnected and unpresent. I didn’t like hearing that in myself.

In a Western society founded by capitalism and consumerism, we peddle fast to pay the bills to feel secure, to ensure our routines are taken care of quickly to gain time with our loved ones. We numb and temporarily fuel ourselves by reaching for fast dopamine hits to take ourselves out of the here and now, and it's no wonder we ponder: there has to be more than this. In the darker moments, the race towards the next thing can feel like a never ending cycle. We find ourselves (understandably) placing our hope, presence and fulfilment in a future moment that we are yet to ever attain.
In summary, time for me to do as I wish = wealth and security.

My garden is full of primroses. An outrageous amount that I thought would be my first teaching and integration of vibrational medicine. Yet clear as day, Periwinkle kept popping up into my vision. I kept hearing the word ‘trust’ from them all weekend. When the day came to approach my first essence collection, I was given a clear sign that it wasn’t meant to be with Primrose this time. This is the beauty of following your intuition, it doesn’t require logic and questioning, because it just is. 

The day arrived at a time where I was freshly finished with a weekend of hosting friends, socially burned out, but showered, dressed, and feeling I needed to go outside and get this ticked off the list to feel a sense of achievement. My first flower essence. But something stopped me. So I consulted my oracle deck, and drew the card ‘No.’ The card of patience, of waiting, of stopping, the picture showing a lightning and rain storm ahead of me.. The oracle card surprised me, and as I went to shut the door that leads onto the garden, the heavens opened, and I was met with the most intense monsoon rain storm we have ever seen this Spring so far. And I laughed. 

Not now, Periwinkle whispered. Wait. Trust. 

The following day, I knew I was ready. The day was very overcast, and I organised myself and left for the bottom of the garden. I call this area of the garden ‘my secret garden’ because it is the place least seen by my neighbours. I felt safe to do my thing in private. Well no sooner had I introduced myself to the tumbling thicket of Periwinkle, my neighbour decided to make an appearance on his side of the garden. Our garden isn’t private, there is hardly any fence between us, and so one of my worst fears actualised, being seen in all my ‘strangeness’.

Embarrassed that he might have seen me talk to the flowers, I hurriedly scuttled into my greenhouse and began busying myself as one does when they are trying to fill time with tasks that make them look busy and preoccupied. Just as I had settled into this state of performativity, imbalance and hurriedness, clear as day I was given the knowing that it was safe for me to take my time. To breathe, to try again, but try again slower and take my time. 

I asked Periwinkle in a gentle whisper if I may attune to them. Their faces stared at me and all of a sudden I felt their vibrancy, and their welcoming. I can only describe the feeling as being greeted at a party by a gleeful, maternal and vibrant host who is happy you showed up even though you don’t know each other very well. I decided to abandon my camping chair and get down on their level. I got out my pendulum and clarified a big yes for their permission to attune. I smiled and settled in.

Something very profound moved me just as I called in the sky and the earth into my heart along with the flowers. On this incredibly overcast, cloudy day the sun shone brightly down onto myself and Periwinkle. I looked up and there above me, was a perfect opening, a circle of bright blue clear sky directly above us, surrounded by the canopy of thick dense clouds. I have never seen anything quite like it, in all my English observations of island weather. The opening, just for me. 

As this was happening, a great hum of fluttering wings resounded around me, yet I could not see the bird, I only knew it was there. Each time I smiled in acknowledgment, the fluttering resumed. 

Then it hit me. The message. It moved me to tears. As the imbalance of hurrying washed away, and my neighbour continued his business about his garden, I heard

‘Patience. Don’t rush’

As soon as it hit me, flashes of memory appeared in quick succession in my mind’s eye, the hurrying, the impatience. The speed in which I had woven through this world lately when I didn’t want to inconvenience fictitious impatient people by taking up too much space. The English embedded fear of inconveniencing strangers by just being.

I do not remember doing this, but the first words I wrote in my journal as I sat with Periwinkle were 

‘Patience’

‘Time’

“In a hurry”

I knew this was the message. The wisdom. As I was granted permission to capture Periwinkle’s essence, carefully nestling my jar of Spring water amongst their leaves, I looked back to the sky and noticed myself as a mirror. Sat beneath the canopy of the clouds with sunshine sharing its rays with me, as if I the water and the Sun the plant. A beautiful mirror actualised in mother nature. 

I wrote down many transmissions as the flowers did their thing. The wings continued to flutter. As I got up to leave, the bird showed herself to me, with worm in mouth. Because I had stayed to notice.

I took my time walking down the garden path back to the cottage. I took my time taking up space. If you have ever micro-dosed Liberty Caps, you will know how the colours of the world become more vibrant, you notice the world around you in great detail and vivid beauty. Well the same sensation happened to me as I slowly walked the garden path, it gave me time to notice it all. The almost neon orange of the marigolds, the colours! Each flower seemed to smile knowingly at me, well done Holly! Well done for taking your time! Look how beautiful the world is when you stop rushing!

The teaching continued to play out. I was told by my mentor (thank you Lizzie) that you would know when the Essence was ready. I found myself scanning the garden for my neighbour - finally the coast was clear! No sooner had I left the cottage in pursuit of retrieving my essence water, he had reappeared, this time to mow the lawn.

The same thing happened - I rushed hurriedly to the Periwinkle, scuttled into the greenhouse and began gathering my things, camping chair tucked under arm, and swivelled on my heel to hurry back in, forgetting to thank dear Periwinkle and forgetting to close the portal. Forgetting to thank Sky and Earth, forgetting the magic of patience and time savoured. 

As I reached my cottage, I stopped. I surprised myself, as if there wasn’t any other logical option, and calmly took my time to return to the Periwinkle. And I gently, patiently thanked them. I took my time, I closed the circle and I slowly left for home once more. 

During my lesson with Lizzie later that afternoon, I told her about my transmissions, what Periwinkle had shown me, the lessons I was experiencing. Lizzie’s jaw dropped - it turns out her first ever Flower Essence she collected was Periwinkle. 

And as I told her my story, she affirmed that most purple flowers teach us about time. 

‘You will find the portal to the future only through the present. Periwinkle encourages you to say yes to the moment, and to respond when a door opens or opportunity beckons. We only get to the future by being present in the now, right?’ With every moment being ‘a whole world’.

Since preparing and taking the essence of Periwinkle I have been presented with situations in public that feel very relevant to their teaching. 

I found myself in the longest queue you could ever imagine in the garden centre - at the front of the queue stood a woman rather awkwardly muttering the word ‘Speed. Speed. Speed.’ under her breath. In that moment she felt like a gift, a reminder to go slowly. To savour being here in the queue with my partner, with my new houseplant, with my growing patience. I slowed down a little as my partner chose the right soil for his new client (he is a gardener), as he went to get the truck to pack up our things. I enjoyed every moment with him. 

That week, my partner came home and told me he had a beautiful exchange with a man who he had parked in front of, quite “slowly”. And the man said ‘what a great truck, take your time, no rush…’

So dear Periwinkle, thank you. Dear Lizzie, thank you for guiding me home to the plants. We have time, and the future looks bright here.

You can learn more about Lizzie's teachings and available offerings with vibrational essence healing here:

www.magicisreal.org