A woman with a shock of wild red hair and oversized sunglasses approached me outside of Flower Power Herbs and Roots as I stood waiting for Lata Chettri-Kennedy, the East Village shop’s herbalist.

“Are you…” she trailed off, her gaze caught by two leather stools at the entrance of her door. “Chair karma! We have been having very good chair karma lately.” Without missing a beat, she picked up the stools and walked them inside.

The walls of Flower Power were filled with loose herbs and teas, herbal extracts and oils, flower essences, local honey, ritual herbs, and a library of herbal healing books. Hanging from the ceiling were dried flowers, wreaths made by local artisans, strings of lights, and arrangements of branches and leaves, which made one feel as though they had left the streets of New York and walked into a store of C.S. Lewis’s making.

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