My Father’s Journey into Herbalism

When I was five years old, we lived on a ranch where our house was the only one around. It was my father, my mother, my five brothers, and me. It was there that everything began.

One day, my mother was invited to attend a natural medicine course. She decided to go, and that decision planted a seed in our family. She began learning about the properties of plants and what they were good for. She discovered how God had placed healing in creation, and she brought that knowledge back home.

From a young age, I became very interested in plants. We had a book called Where There Is No Doctor, and I began reading it. My mother continued attending courses and bringing home more books. But it was my father who truly embraced it.

Even though he did not know how to read or write, my father was very wise. He had an incredible memory. Everything my mother learned in those courses, he learned from her and memorized. He carried the knowledge in his heart.

As time passed, my mother did not continue as deeply in herbal medicine, but my father already knew it all by memory. He began preparing tinctures, salves, syrups, and natural remedies. He would help neighbors and anyone who came to him.

When my mother became ill, it was my father who cared for her. He bathed her with herbal remedies, prepared steam treatments, and tended to her with gentleness and dedication.

His journey into herbalism did not begin in a school or a laboratory. It began on a ranch. It began with listening, observing, memorizing, and serving.

He may not have known how to read books, but he knew how to read the land. He knew how to pay attention. He knew how to serve others with what God had provided.

That is how our family’s herbal tradition was born.

And that legacy continues today.