{"id":3382,"date":"2024-12-17T08:32:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allida.com\/wp\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2024-12-21T16:25:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T21:25:48","slug":"kuunkukka-moonflower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allida.com\/wp\/?p=3382","title":{"rendered":"Kuunkukka (Moonflower)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before her death in 2015, my mother and I planted Moonflowers (Datura Inoxia) in a few parts of the yard where they continue to flourish. Rather than blooming during the day, Moonflowers spin open at night, unfurling their origami buds into a five pointed star and emerging into a broad phonograph trumpet. My mother loved origami, and was inventive with it. When I was a child she made paper lamps out of leftover blue and white wall paper that splashed soft evening light in our apartment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of 2020, my father had an acute incident that required open heart surgery. I drove to Michigan with my own heart bursting open with fear from the palpable sensation of impermanence, magnified by the pandemic, that comes from facing mortality in this way. Fortunately, while the anxiety was palpable, the remote work period of the lockdown enabled me to work from \u201chome\u201d and be there for his recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he regained energy and health, we spent a lot of time in the yard, watching the garden grow. When the dark began to fall, the moonflowers would open. I took time lapse videos and made drawings, contemplating the cycle of these plants. It emerges from tiny green nubs to greenish and then white petals bursting out of the sepals. The magic of its glowing white bloom is special in part because of its symmetry and in part because the anticipation of the ephemeral bloom. It droops and perishes by the next afternoon, when it drops from the pistil and the spiky fruited seedpods begin to form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to this direct personal contemplation on joy, mortality, and impermanence, this species of Moonflower is sometimes called Sacred Moonflower. Like its sister plants Jimsonweed and Morning Glory, it is extremely toxic, but can also be used as medicine for pain relief and in ceremonial rites by Native Americans for its entheogenic properties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process of the moonflower opening is relatively quick. It goes from a tight coil to an open cone in just the time that it takes for the sun to go down, but watching the unfolding, it feels immeasurably slow, until one moment, suddenly you notice that it is different! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are invited to let your imagination roam. What beautiful impermanent thing makes you dance with hope and joy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n