The Give and Take Ritual

The Give and Take Ritual

This is a personal ritual for me, not everyone practices this but I have seen some where they hace instructed to do so. If you have your own herb garden then you most likely have some kind of offering to the plants or leave something of yours behind. Eye for an eye if you will. Sometimes you buy the herbs already cut and there's nothing you can really leave for them as thanks so I often just say my little thank you as I use it and be done.
However, if I am using something fresh. For example if I were to go to an oak tree and take a leaf or a branch I would leave something of mine with it. Taking the best care to not permanently damage the tree I typically say the following while taking what I need:

Thank you ___[oak tree]___ for your gift.
 I have left you weakened but still whole,
as the law of three, I give you a part of me.

And then I give it my offering. Typically it is a braided lock of my hair. I shed quite a bit so I can usually get together a good mass of it and braid it for these occasions. I've also given water and changed "part of me" to "water." Just little things. This is not something you have to do but something to keep in mind as the law of three. If you take and take and take and give nothing back the universe will come to collect at some point and it cares not if you have "nothing" to give - it will take whatever it wants.