Journeys into the Mirror: The Plants

Part of the Journeys Into the Mirror collection of reflections by Janneke Koole—born from a lifetime of spiritual practice, personal healing, and a deep connection to nature. Inspired by her mother’s way of seeing beauty in the everyday, Janneke invites us to look at the outer seasons as mirrors for our inner lives. Each piece offers a story, image, or guided practice to help you reconnect with your senses, your spirit, and your own truth as a woman.

When I first began to understand the World of Plants, it felt as though an entirely new layer of life had opened to me. I had never truly noticed how grasses whisper, how flowers reveal quiet truths, or how the great old trees hold memories older than any story we tell. Little by little, I began to see how plants nourish, shelter, and soften us, and how their changes mirror our own. As I watched their seasons unfold, I realized they were not just scenery but relations—living teachers offering us healing, beauty, and the reminder that we, too, are meant to grow, rest, and begin again.

Women are like Plants
Grasses, grains, herbs, shrubs, fruits, flowers, and the big old trees
We create life within our wombs
Offer healing with our hands
Bear fruit with our labor
And give beauty with our hearts
We are the flowering trees
Each season we luxuriate with a different expression of our fertility
Our changes are different faces of life
Come, rest in our arms, and we will open our door
From our womb to yours we share the gift of life herself

Choose a garden, a park or wilderness forest.
Visit her each season and observe how the plant world changes over time.
Notice who or what lives in the branches,
the grasses, the bushes and root systems.
Notice the interconnection, the intimacy and compatibility
of the different forms of life.
Notice how plants give and give and give.
Listen to their “song” of giving.
Then listen to your own heart and soul.
How are you a lush verdant plant?
When are you fertile?
How do you share your beauty?
Ask one of the plants for a gift to remind you of your beauty.
Leave something of you as a gift to the plant(s).

You may wish to journal:
I am the Plants; I am…

Excerpted from “Journey’s into the Mirror” written by Janneke Koole
DTMMS #DeerTribe #Heal #Change #Grow #SharingKnowledgeThatWorks