The Remedy Nearby

This morning I remembered the astonishing and beautiful claim that when you encounter some poisonous plant in nature, the antidote is often nearby. It’s such a wonderful phenomenon: poison ivy will often grow near its remedy, jewel weed; stinging nettle will grow near the horsetail plant that relieves the stinging and itching; and there’s even a poisonous tree, the black-sap poisonwood in Central America, that grows alongside the gumbo-limbo tree that cures the rash from the poisonwood.

This lesson in nature reminds me to stop, look around, and understand in new ways how the environment God put me in provides the resources and mechanisms I need for growth and healing. It’s all right here. There’s often a solution nearby that God designed at the moment of my need. I love how the very environment we feel has somehow poisoned us also provides the remedy right there alongside what’s troubling us.

I remember this with joy when I research how to best rid my Brussels sprouts of the infestation of tiny caterpillars–also known as army worms or cabbage loopers– who love to munch my glorious plants. I wanted to use a natural and homemade remedy. Was there something nearby? Guess what? My very abundance of nearby Serrano peppers, when blended with water and garlic, will supposedly repel all pests when sprayed on the Brussels sprouts leaves in the evening. I cannot wait to try the concoction.

As pick a few peppers, I remember the principle of the remedy nearby.

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