Summer sick, summer haze, summer days
Though not yet the summer solstice, summer is certainly upon us all. The mercury has climbed well into the nineties several days this week and it is only the beginning of June. Like most of summer in the Virginia, half the misery is due to the humidity wrapped around us like a thick, wet blanket of suffocation and sweat.
I have spent the last 12 hours mixing Elecampane, sage and thyme with honey and lemon for my perma-ill beau. He can't seem to recover for long without falling ill again. I suspect mono. There can be no other sickness that would trouble him over and over for months with no time to fully heal in between. Yesterday I made a dinner of fresh, crispy romaine, spring mix with dandelion greens and a wonderful medley of strawberries, nectarines and a bit of apricot stilton. We ate the fresh things ravenously and were happily full of good vitamins.
And yet, just a few hours later his small dry cough progressed into a heavy, thick one and his throat became raw. Time for the usual treatment...Poor boy. After a fitful night of sleep, I doped him up with vitamin C, more sage, thyme and elecampane and plenty of raw, local honey from my mother's hives.
While I felt so sorry for the handsome man, coughing and bleary eyed, I felt an insane sense of contentment as I bustled about my kitchen, throwing together this and that to make him well and full of warm food.
I am slowly starting to find my place and purpose...the problem is, I don't know how to find it in the world. There are no homesteads with families needing herbal treatment and care anymore. There are no little villages in which a country herbwyfe may life and tend to folks without a severe tongue lashing from the government. How can I be what I need to be and live the life I am made to lead when I am not needed in the world?
I want him to be well, I need him to be well, for what if I fall ill? But how do you cure things when one cannot take the true time to be well? Ah, I am sure it is an age old problem women have found with stubborn men.
I have been reading and beyond enjoying the 'Outlander' book series. If you have seen the television shows, you will know that it is full of sex, rape, pillaging and plundering, BUT, that is not all. Much of what is in the books has been left out to appeal to the world. Claire is a doctor with a knowledge of herbs and cures that I couldn't hope to know in my lifetime. She is a badass and never stops fighting, learning and healing. When I first started the series, I could think of no other woman besides my mother to fit the bill for Claire in my head. Ever since then, I have come to realize over and over that my mother's knowledge should never be doubted or usurped.
Growing up is strange. For so long you long for independence and want to grow up and live by your own accord...but then it shifts. Responsibility becomes a huge crass weight and you long for someone else's help and guidance. This is where I am...the bridge into adulthood where I am in need of support, guidance and knowledge but and also thrilled to finally know enough myself to make calls in my life. What a world...
Happy Sunday...may this week fill you with enlightenment.
Slainte!
BRM
I have spent the last 12 hours mixing Elecampane, sage and thyme with honey and lemon for my perma-ill beau. He can't seem to recover for long without falling ill again. I suspect mono. There can be no other sickness that would trouble him over and over for months with no time to fully heal in between. Yesterday I made a dinner of fresh, crispy romaine, spring mix with dandelion greens and a wonderful medley of strawberries, nectarines and a bit of apricot stilton. We ate the fresh things ravenously and were happily full of good vitamins.
And yet, just a few hours later his small dry cough progressed into a heavy, thick one and his throat became raw. Time for the usual treatment...Poor boy. After a fitful night of sleep, I doped him up with vitamin C, more sage, thyme and elecampane and plenty of raw, local honey from my mother's hives.
While I felt so sorry for the handsome man, coughing and bleary eyed, I felt an insane sense of contentment as I bustled about my kitchen, throwing together this and that to make him well and full of warm food.
I am slowly starting to find my place and purpose...the problem is, I don't know how to find it in the world. There are no homesteads with families needing herbal treatment and care anymore. There are no little villages in which a country herbwyfe may life and tend to folks without a severe tongue lashing from the government. How can I be what I need to be and live the life I am made to lead when I am not needed in the world?
I want him to be well, I need him to be well, for what if I fall ill? But how do you cure things when one cannot take the true time to be well? Ah, I am sure it is an age old problem women have found with stubborn men.
I have been reading and beyond enjoying the 'Outlander' book series. If you have seen the television shows, you will know that it is full of sex, rape, pillaging and plundering, BUT, that is not all. Much of what is in the books has been left out to appeal to the world. Claire is a doctor with a knowledge of herbs and cures that I couldn't hope to know in my lifetime. She is a badass and never stops fighting, learning and healing. When I first started the series, I could think of no other woman besides my mother to fit the bill for Claire in my head. Ever since then, I have come to realize over and over that my mother's knowledge should never be doubted or usurped.
Growing up is strange. For so long you long for independence and want to grow up and live by your own accord...but then it shifts. Responsibility becomes a huge crass weight and you long for someone else's help and guidance. This is where I am...the bridge into adulthood where I am in need of support, guidance and knowledge but and also thrilled to finally know enough myself to make calls in my life. What a world...
Happy Sunday...may this week fill you with enlightenment.
Slainte!
BRM
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