FERN COLLECTION
Unfurl
About a year ago, I got serious about some health issues I was having. I went all in. Exercise, diet, sleep, supplements — all things mind, body, and spirit. No stone was left unturned.
I was finding answers and getting better, but the process was slow and tedious.
Around the same time, I was falling deep down a rabbit hole of the Victorian era. (Random, I know, but stay with me.) The Victorians are worth at least one rabbit hole in your life. I watched documentaries and shows, read books, listened to podcasts, scrolled antique Victorian jewelry on eBay…
Somewhere along the way, I came across the term pteridomania, or “fern fever,” a massive cultural craze during the Victorian era.
Another rabbit hole.
The Victorians were OBSESSED with ferns, and for good reason. These forest floor friends are FASCINATING.
They don’t bloom. They reproduce by spores. They’ve been around since before the dinosaurs, and ancient fern-like plants that died deep in prehistoric swamps quite literally helped create the fossil fuels of modern civilization.
I had a touch of pteridomania myself, but it really hit home when I learned about fiddleheads, the springlike new growth that slowly unfurls into a fully outstretched frond.
Like a flower bud, they can’t be rushed. You can’t pull open a fiddlehead to make the fern leaves unfurl faster. It takes time, water, sunlight, the right nutrients, and patience for the slow and steady work of growth.
And there it was.
I’d been desperately pulling at the fiddleheads of my life, willing results to unfurl faster than they were ready to.
It was time to move like the fern moves. It was time to trust that my effort was making a difference and embrace patience for the slow and steady work of growth.
The fern is a mess of parts: fresh new growth, woody old growth, and everything in between. Like the fern, I’m my own mess of parts: wise old woody parts and fiddleheads of new growth still waiting to unfurl.
This collection is an homage to a plant that pushed me toward patience exactly when I needed it most.
