Before it became the Brinton Oasis, it was a rubber tire farm…
Read about Lisa’s journey of making it into the Brinton Oasis it is today:
imbued with love, healing intention, & gratitude
Lisa is a plant spirit healer, folk mongrel herbalist, intuitive healer, spirit house maker, landscape painter, amulet creator, natural history silversmith, certified permaculture designer, professional gardener, and enthusiastic re-wilder and co-creator.
The Brinton Oasis is 7.5 acres of Chester County, PA. farmland, purchased in 1991, as a terribly exploited piece of land farmed since the 1700s. It was so degraded at that time, Lisa’s mother in-law named it Rubber Tire Farm, and cried because her granddaughter would be raised in a dump. Lisa told her toddler daughter that she would first build a Fairy Circle to bring back the Fairies. Nearly 30 years later, the Nature spirits have returned. It’s been a long road made of ever changing and evolving goals.
She incorporates plant spirit healing, journeying, ceremony, intuitive energy scans and clearings, egg and plant limpias, intentional altars, sacred plant bathing, healing and sanctuary garden spaces, flower essences, infused oils, tinctures, elixirs, syrups, teas, smudges, and much more. Immersion in nature, walking with Lisa through the meadow is strongly encouraged and considered part of the healing.
With the guidance and assistance of the plants to help people to heal themselves, as well as plants and ecosystems, she has the most fulfilling life work imaginable.
At first, she thought she could simply replant with perennials, and desirable trees, none of which, it turned out, could eek out a living in the harsh depleted soil and wind blown prairie. Overtime, she figured out that she had to employ the help of weed trees and dynamic accumulator weeds, with bio char, biodynamics, and permaculture methods, to change the ecosystem slowly to meadow and forest garden. With Nature’s assistance, this is finally taking shape.
The co-creation that has resulted from employing the help of plants, thought of as trash plants, has changed the land, and ultimately, who she is as a human. Lisa now can look at a “noxious” weed as someone who has arrived for a reason, thus allowing her to find a gift as well. Much of the joy of this transformation over time is watching plants return, plants that could not be found here 30 years ago, now arrive on their own. Over the years, Lisa has spread seed balls of native seeds numerous times, and planted plugs of various plants that inhabit meadows, as well as planting medicinal herbs, shrubs, and trees for nature. She is intrigued by natural successions in changing weed populations.
This land has become special, in response to our love and trust-trust that nature knows how to heal herself. What once was a degraded barren flat strip of land, now is comprised of a constant succession of native pollinator plants that fill most of five acres, with one becoming mostly wooded. There is a water dome underground beneath a medicine wheel garden that is one, of three, outdoor nature altars, with contemplation seats. It is a place of peace, and sanctuary. People come to walk the paths because, they say, “it was just what I needed, I feel so much better!” And the land too, responds energetically to the reciprocal exchange of appreciation and gratitude. The addition of regular ceremonies blessing the spirits of Nature has in turn fed our spirits while raising these energetic frequencies even higher.
The mission of the Brinton Oasis is to help connect people with nature, to recognize her value and gifts, learn the joys of co- creation and allowing Nature to heal herself. The Brinton Oasis invites us to know the art of healing ourselves through giving back to Nature.