Mama's Home Remedies

Rose Hips Tea PartyTo live we need sun, freedom and a small flower.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), Danish writerTea parties were a Friday tradition and always a perfect get-together at our home. The “girls” would meet as usual in our garden. They were my mother’s girlfriends, medical professionals, doctors, and nurses. They worked together many years and shared one love, an obsession with their medical profession.During these years they accumulated a rich experience in healing people from different diseases. They were a team of courageous and noble people whom I observed and from whom I learned. I listened to their long conversations about natural healing and alternative medicine and their humorous stories
with unabated attention. I was 12 when I began to keep a journal in which I wrote my observations and collected valuable information that I gleaned from Mama and her friends.They told me that whenever they began to work with any patient, they would recite to them this ancient parable:
There are three of us: me, you, and a disease. If you, my patient, will be on the side of illness, I will not overcome you as a doctor. If you will be on my side, together we will conquer your illness.Mama’s and her friends’ practice was evidence that this psychological approach worked. It was motivation for the people to fight their illnesses. It was a clear direction to health and life. The “girls” gathered these miraculous remedies from centuries of wisdom and expertise including their own mothers, grandmothers, and Mother Nature. They combined the natural method of physical therapy with electro-physiology. They prescribed well-known antibiotics and other drugs, but their first attempt to heal a patient was always with the sole use of herbal remedies.Tea was considered to be an essential part of l’ art de vivre. They sat down to tea many times—the same party around the same table on our patio, overlooking Grandma’s multicolored garden with an array of flowers that greeted them with sweet and pungent aromas while the strains of Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” filled the air.To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
—Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180), Roman emperorMama’s Philosophy for Your Motivation
Life is a beautiful gift given to all of us. We should use it properly.
Be kind and try to do something good for somebody right now. Don’t delay because we will not pass the same way again.
Be an attentive listener and motivator if family members or your friends share their ultimate secrets, goals, and dreams with you. Never put them down. The consequences can be unpredictable.
Be positive and constructive. Be straightforward and encouraging. As a result, something great can come out of it.
Look at the sunny side of everything in your life and be optimistic. Your optimism will become reality.
Make your life an example of health, happiness, and prosperity. This will give you an opportunity to become a knowledgeable advisor and expert.
Be generous. Share your rich experience with those who would like to take advantage of it.
Be really responsible for your life and follow your heart.
Our life is a gift twice: once for ourselves and once for others.
Our life is a mirror in which we...