Along with the thriving irises and russian sage in our Shoyeido landscaping, and the radishes, peas, and greens in my vegetable garden, this is a great season for weeds. Today on my lunchtime walk, I was pondering what makes a weed a weed. Some of them are really invasive. In the greenbelt near our office we see a lot of yellow dock, which has a tenacious taproot and also produces thousands of seeds from every plant. And there are amazing thistles that tower over me, even though I'm six feet tall. But some of what we think of as weeds are really very beautiful or useful plants. One thing that grows in abundance here is wild catnip.
It has a lovely minty smell if you bruise the leaves, and this led me to thinking about how human beings discovered and have used aromatic plants. What made someone dry branches of sage and wrap them up to burn as purifying smudge? And what would it smell like if I dried and burned the catnip, or the peppermint from my garden at home? Shoyeido actually makes a Peppermint incense in the Xiang line, if you're curious. I personally think mint smells better if you don't set it on fire, but there are as many tastes in scent as there are people with noses! When I want to burn an incense with that nice scent of green growing things, I choose Peace. Not a bad strategy in life as well as incense!
