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The afternoon feels different as I walk through the Oxford Botanic Garden with Dr. Sarah Edwards.
Not just the honey scent of meadowsweet, but something deeper.
A sense that the plants around you are neighbours with their own intelligence, their own stories spanning thousands of years.
Sarah's journey from Kew Gardens botanist to ethnobotanist began with a lucid dream of an Aboriginal elder wrapped in bark, teaching her about plants on red Australian earth.
Following that dream led her to work with First Nations communities whose plant knowledge stretches back 65,000 years, knowledge now disappearing faster than we can record it.
"When you view a plant or an animal as kin," Sarah tells me, "you treat it very differently than if you view them as objects and resources to be exploited."
Sarah's work asks us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world. Her research shows that as indigenous languages disappear, so too do the unique relationships and biodiversity they preserve.
Understanding this connection is at the heart of her message: the way we think about plants shapes the future of our planet.
We explore why foraging and plant medicine communities often have it backwards, teaching identification and use before establishing relationships.
The latest research indicates that 45% of flowering plants are at risk of extinction. Indigenous knowledge systems that could help us understand how to live differently are vanishing at an equally rapid pace.
But this isn't just about loss. Sarah's current work bridges academic research with community engagement, collaborating with artists and young people to rediscover ways of connecting with the intelligence that surrounds us.
She's pioneering "ethnobotanical practice"—bringing ancient ways of knowing into contemporary life.
There's something profound here about recognising plants as beings with agency and memory.
About understanding that mycorrhizal fungi in soil might be what indigenous healers call "spirits".
Different names for the same miraculous reality.
This conversation aims to shift your perspective: by rethinking your relationship with plants, you can find new ways of seeing, living, and caring for the world around you.
The message is clear, connection with the plant world could transform everything.
Talk soon,
Robin
P.S. I keep thinking about what Sarah said, that when you see a plant as kin, you treat it differently.
That’s really the heart of 30 Days of Domei. It isn’t about learning more facts. It’s about relationship. About sitting with a plant for a few minutes each day, and letting yourself notice—really notice.
I’ve found those five quiet minutes can shift something in me. A softening. A remembering. Maybe they will for you too.
If you’d like to join me in that practice, you can begin here.
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