Seizure-dodging, nettles,

plus, how to make a simple lube

It’s nettle season.

nettle leaves, this morning, in a huge pot in my tiny back garden.

I’ve been out in my tiny back garden, harvesting her, purposefully brushing my hands through the stems and across the leaves, an action which breaks the tips off nettle’s tiny glassine hairs, hairs that cover her stems and leaves. It’s an action that causes the release of nettle-chemicals onto my skin. The nettle-chemicals cause intense tingling in my skin. It will last for a few hours.

I do this because

I want to interact with nettle

the stinging sensations remind me my hands and my fingers are filled with gifts

I want to be in union with nettle

And because, today I woke up in seizure. I was dreaming about protecting people, and I woke, feeling scared and unprotected.

Nettle is a plant of protection, a plant who says “This is one way to be protected, to live in protection.” And so, she now is within me, offering me a lesson in how.

Plus, the stinging can kinda wake-up my brain. Change the charge from seizing to being here, resisting.

Typing now, fingers stinging with union, nettle’s green leaves next to me on my wooden table, the loupe that lets me she her more closely is right here, too.

the underside of nettles. see the glass trichomes? yes, trichomes, like cannabis. they perform differently.

The rest of the house is a mess. If I had to call the ambulance right now, I’d be embarrassed.

What would the ambulance techs think of the nettles on my table, the drawing paper and colored pencils, the large jar filled with nettle’s green infusion, the book Menopausal Years, written by S. Weed, ready to be mailed to a friend who lives in Massachusetts, the announcement papers of the action I took to make sure trans lives are more secure here in my county lying in a neat pile between Menopausal Years and the frames that will hold the papers.

Plus, sex is everywhere in my home. Including on my walls, in my bookcases, on my tables, in my bed.

Will the ambulance techs delight in my delight? I’ll have to ask my new friend, who is a volunteer firefighter. he often enters homes not ready for entering, homes that didn’t know they were about to be entered. do the volunteer firefighters become delighted when there is obvious delight?

nettles, packed in a 1/2 gallon jar, ready for boiling water. before you add boiling water, place a metal spoon in the jar, and have the jar in the sink. trust me.

Plus, what would the emergency workers think of my old dog, over there, lying in a mountain of her just-washed blankets and towels, old dog sick from a two-day journey I’ve just taken her on, a journey that was meaningful for me, delightful, sexy, yet ended up too much for her, and so is a journey I won’t repeat.

My old dog and I won’t journey anymore, except this journey we’re deep in, which is the journey through the end of her life.

Nettle will help with the sustaining through.

nettles, becoming infusion over the next 4 or so hours. i’ll drink her throughout this afternoon and evening

Monks, priests, and nuns have flagellated themselves with nettle. A holy union with this plant, even though they used it (some of them may be doing this right now) thinking it was for other reasons. I wonder what the nettle thought, when she was used on the body of St Teresa of Avila in such a way. Did nettle protest the abuse of herself, or did she know her sting would help heal the young nun who suffered so much?

Trichomes. Look!

LUBE RECIPE

Because it’s good to nourish our female, intersex, trans, queer, cis, male vulvas/clitorises/vaginas/anuses/penises/balls

I said I’d offer a simple lube. There are a million ways to nourish our tender sexual parts. Our lips, above and below (we all had below lips, once. on some of us they morphed into dicks, with or without our hoping they would. on some of us they’ve morphed into dicks because we’re choosing that. on some of us dicks are morphing into vulvas because we’re choosing that. and some of us were lucky enough to be born with all these parts - I mean, wow.). Our anus. Our fingertips.

Here’s just one (I don’t use nettles for lubes, although nettles sure will nourish my sexual parts - and yours. Ours. - by drinking nettle infusion regularly. Infusion is the name for what that jar filled with nettles and boiling water will become, by this afternoon.):

Warm 1/8 cup or so of coconut oil. Add a teaspoon or so of cocoa butter. Let them melt together. Stir and pour into a little bowl, or a little jar. It will harden up and soften up, depending on the temperature.

Use it. It’s meant to be used. It’s edible. It’s yummy for our bodies.

Like nettles.

Thanks for being a reader. If you’re a reader and you haven’t yet, please become a subscriber, which you can do for free, or for money. Money doesn’t go into my pocket, but helps support a sexuality school I run, a school that’s doing important stuff right now, under this anti-sexuality administration. Also, when you subscribe, you gain access to the growing archive, and it helps others be able to see that this Substack exists. Thanks a bunch.