The Making of the Elm Essence

Years ago I received guidance to make the 37 Bach Essences in a 24 karat gold crystal bowl. I have been working on this project for the past 5 years, and I have now made 27 of the 37 Golden Bach essences, the Goldies. Each one has magic and grace that surround the making and the adventure of finding them in their moment of bloom continues.

I am SO HAPPY to announce the ELM essence!

I have been looking to make the Elm essence since I began making the Golden Bach essences in 2013. I thought Elm would be the easy one. Elm trees grow in many places and they are easy to recognize, at least they are when they are fully green and leafy. I stalked a couple of Elm trees in Santa Barbara but they weren’t in good locations to make an essence and I never found them in bloom.

In 2016 I moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas and after quite a while I discovered that there was an Elm tree right there in my yard all along!!!

The Elm tree in my yard is very tall and the branches are high above the ground. In early spring last year I kept looking to see if it was in bloom. Of course, I didn’t know what to look for to identify that it was in bloom and I missed that *very critical* MOMENT OF BLOOM.

After researching, I learned that the bloom comes out before the leaf, it’s tiny, and it doesn’t stick around for long. This year, as the time approached, I was wondering, “would I be able to use my tree - or would I have to find another Elm?” The branches on my tree are so high I wasn’t sure I would be able to tell when it was budding. I kept looking up at the Elm and watching for signs of bloom but didn’t see any. 

One day, I went with a friend and neighbor to the garden show in Little Rock and we were gone all day. When I got home I was tired and the sun was beginning to set but all of the sudden I knew I wanted to show my friend the Elm tree. We walked to my backyard and instantly we both realized that there was a good chance that tree was beginning to bloom. The tree is so tall it was hard to tell for sure.

As she turned to go home I heard water running. There was a broken water pipe and my garage was flooding. If that Elm hadn’t called me to bring my friend to the back yard I never would have known this was happening. We got the water turned off and the leak fixed - but still, after hearing the gushing water and seeing my flooded garage I was feeling a sense of “overwhelm.”

The next day, we returned to the elm and it WAS in bloom! I made the Elm essence, with the help of two friends, Mark and Stephanie, and of course, one of the Elm essence’s gifts is to help with feeling overwhelmed… : ) 

It was March when this happened and there had been over 24 inches of rain in Hot Springs in a short amount of time with very few sunny days. On the day we discovered the blooms, the rain unexpectedly cleared and the skies opened up to the sun, we looked up and saw the Elm blossoms.

With the branches being so far off the ground, I had no idea how I was going to reach the blossoms. With a ladder Mark was able to throw a rope around a branch and bring it down for us to reach. With Stephanie’s help, we got the blossoms cut directly into the golden bowl. 

What could have been hard was graceful and easy.

It was another miracle… which the making of every essence is. Every single one of them has a story. That moment of bloom, and the perfection of it. It is all wonderful validation for me, that I continue to be on my right path.

The gifts of the Elm are:

Confidence, Ability to Cope, Strength, Capability, and up for the Magnitude of the Task.

Take charge and get it done. Follow one’s calling and ability to face the immensity of the job, to take great responsibility.

Able to deal with pressure and expectation. Some of the big things we are being called to do to take us to the next level takes a lot of energy and focus. It can almost feel like we’ve undertaken too much. Elm helps us be up for the job. Restores strength and ability to cope.