Why the name "Old Thyme Medicine"?

By Mary Katherine Hawk

You know, at one time, this blog post looked very different. Over the past few years, opening my business has made one thing very clear amidst so much violence and incredible disregard for the sanctity of life happening in the world. That one thing is that it serves no one and nothing to be less than your authentic self. Therefore, I'm needing to rewrite this blog and explain a bit more about where the name "Old Thyme Medicine" came from and also why I made sure to trademark it as soon as I could.

The name came to me one night when I was going through my first of two divorces. That night was one after weeks of incredible violence, fear, and gaslighting that I had been through at the hands of many people and even family. I had gotten to a point where I realized that all I could do to move forward and figure out a way to make it on my own, from absolutely nothing. I remember that night, one of the first I had really stopped crying, I put my focus into imagining what my life could look like if I dared imagine it. I imagined being open and honest about my love of helping others, for my talent of organizing and leading, and my vision of a better world. At this point in my life, I had begun my education in massage therapy but for me, it wasn't going to be enough. I needed to open my life to the possibility of doing more and creating more. So, I put pen to paper and envisioned what I using my skills could really look like if I dared. I knew it would have to be centered on community service and nature as those had always been my compass. I remember writing down "Old Thyme Medicine" and instantly really like that name. It rang a bell for me. It touched on the feeling of the mountains that made me feel so much wonder, growing up visiting Cherokee, North Carolina for years. It reminded me of the feeling of how I loved Appalachian music, culture. It reminded me of my love of the ferns and mosses on the rocks in the mountains. Most of all, seeing the name kept me grounded in who I was and what I felt like I was born to do. That being to be a woman of medicine, a community wisdom keeper of sorts if you will. I didn't a name to stuck in the modern world of sterile, cold, concrete but of green, connected, rooted traditions. I wrote down the name and new I was looking at the start of something. I just didn't know exactly what that something would look like or where it would take me quite yet. Over the years between writing down that name and where I am today in the mountains, so much incredible survival and growth has happened. I see the name "Old Thyme Medicine" on the sign everyday I come into work and it reminds me of the girl I had to sacrifice to get here and the dream that I'm still working towards. Building this business has been both terrifying and thrilling and I'm so excited to see what happens next. It all started with writing a name and following the dream behind it.