"...In an interview, ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison explained how she came to view even interspecies communication as prayer: 'Talking to the essence of species other than human and asking them to be present and to intervene to heal us or to grow, or thanking them for being so beautiful -- all of these are a kind of prayer.' (3)

Harrison believes we can call on what's wild for help and can commune intimately with plants, butterflies, or bees for new, unexpected healings. She describes one woman with advanced ovarian cancer whose Buddhist healer had no "in-depth relationship to plants," but who intuited the significance of the woman's magnificent garden. Sitting by the woman's bed, the healer invoked the presence of all the plants. She paid proper attention to them, and invited them in to be present as companions in the healing. (4)

For many, such tales of healers talking to plants or using them as healing agents is a huge stretch. Although the Bible tells us that the Lord gave us every plant-yielding seed on the surface of the earth to be food (Genesis 1:29) many prefer their chemo straight up and thank you very much. Ah, but spiritualities differ. Harrison reports the woman with ovarian cancer is now in remission. So please, to each her own. The proof is in the pudding: prayer heals. And prayer differs. And prayer graces us, without force, drawing us deep into the subtlest, silent realms of the subtle. Let us remain there -- as long and self-forgetfully as possible, even into our busy day..."

Marsha Sinetar, Sometimes, Enough is Enough, Cliff Street/Harper Collins Books, 2000, pp. 103-104 (quoted sections acknowledged in text).