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In this short, poetry-centered episode of Gathered: Storied Botanicals, host Allison B. Young shares a poem, Waking This First Night Sharing My Bed. First drafted years ago and revisited after surviving a house fire, the poem reflects on intimacy, home, breath, and the unseen ways we are connected.

A Botanical Reading marks a new mini-episode in between the usual podcast format and offers a quiet moment to slow down, listen, and sit with words.

The poem featured in this episode is part of The Botanical Post, a monthly floral art mail club and Substack offering that delivers floral art, poetry, postcards, and letters directly to your mailbox — another way of bringing more flowers into your life.

Learn more about The Botanical Post and subscribe here.

To explore more about Gathered: Storied Botanicals, visit:
gathered-storiedbotanicals.com

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After lots of tech issues, the final podcast episode of the year is here! In this episode, I offer a strange harbinger of hope: the mushroom. Across the globe, folklore casts these fruiting bodies as symbols of mystery, death, and decay. But what if they can stand in for something more uplifting in our collective understanding of them?

I reference "Mycoremeditation: The Under-Utilized Art of Fungi Clean Ups" by Jacob Dykes in this episode, an article worth checking out!

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On this special Halloween episode of Gathered: Storied Botanicals, we wander into the woods at dusk, where strange things grow underfoot and fairy tales turn dark at the edges.

Before the night is through, you’ll encounter a glowing forest floor, something watching from the darkness, and a flower shop humming with beauty, precision, and something far more unsettling.

Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ tale “The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage,” this modern variation, “The Flower Shop,” brings together floristry, folklore, and the fragility of balance and harmony when doubt germinates. What begins as a portrait of craftsmanship and care unfurls into a cautionary folktale of envy, doubt, and unraveling—a fairy tale transplanted into the world of a busy, modern floral studio.

So settle in as the October wind rises, the last leaves fall, and the night glows faintly. This Halloween, Gathered: Storied Botanicals offers something both haunting and oddly human: the ways we bloom, grow together, and sometimes let doubt devour us.