I left it till my early 40’s to decide what it was that I
wanted to do for a job. A job for which I got paid that is; not my ‘life’s work’
of being a wife and mother. You might think middle age is an odd time to start
University, but for me it worked well, mainly because I had got to an age where
I didn’t particularly care what people thought of me, but mostly because I had
a home help to look after the kids on my frequent trips to London. This lady
was a gem, my friends, and I couldn’t have done my degree without her. Women
make the world go round more smoothly.
Of all the things that my day job involves, one of the
things I like doing is making medicine. And one of my favouritist things is
making capsules. I have a jar of powdered herb, a capsule making machine, and
iPlayer which I have doing the rounds of Radio 4 dramas – most recently That Was Then with the brilliant Rosie
Cavaliero.
In my Pharmacy room, I can sit all alone and concentrate on
the scooping of powder, the filling the machine with empty capsules, the
tamping down and popping out and let part of my mind follow the drama while
going through the repetitive [but calming] motions of fill, tamp, pop… We all
need a bit of calm in our lives and medicine making demands it. I’m not rushed,
I don’t make mistakes, I do a good job. This calmness is more important when I
mix up tinctures, only then I don’t listen to BBC dramas, no. I need my full
concentration to check the right herbs, and amounts and prescription details.
Filling a specific prescription like this is never repetitive, it is a more creative
activity and focuses my mind on the person who will receive it and the problem
that they have that I am trying to help solve.
And now I teach Pharmacy at the School of Herbal Medicine, I
hope to pass on to our students the art and science of making plant medicine: when
it is done properly it is safe and effective and we need more people to know
how to do it…
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