Nettle is notorious for its rough leaves that sting you.
It might surprise you that some patients in the Middle Ages tried to cure rheumatism by rolling over a carpet of nettles.
This fact also reminded me of Vernon Scannell’s poem whose first line goes, “My son aged three fell in the nettle bed.”
You can find not only harm, but also tenderness in the metaphor of the “nettle bed,” precisely because nettle tea can soothe your nerves and help you to fall asleep easily.
Recently, my wife and I have been drinking nettle tea at night after our children go to bed.
Perhaps the tea affects me, but I need to add a secret ingredient: my children’s sleeping faces that will never know the stinging pain of the nettle.
