My Grandparents Knew Good Health

ABOUT MY GRANDMOTHER’S FARM

My grandmother was one of a kind.  She lived on her farm by herself in a small town of 235 people for 40 years, and before that with her husband, my grandfather and 7 children. My grand mother was about 5’1” but she had a big attitude and free spirit—she loved nature more than life itself.  She lived a very organic life- she had no phone, used no running water or electricity; although her children tried to pay for “these necessities” several times.

My grandmother loved her wood burning stove, kerosene lamps, canning her food and making quilts.  Her farm was in upstate New York where the summers are beautiful and sunny and the winters are harsh, snowy and cold.  In the spring you would see her in her overalls, planting her garden and pruning her fruit trees, she would chop wood for her stove and clean her house to get ready for the summer.  In the summer her life was centered around her garden, sometimes complaining about how a rabbit had eaten something like her asparagus or green beans. She would be out mowing her lawn, and enjoying the sunshine.

Many times my grandmother would take my brother and I on hikes through her 75 acres of rolling hills, fruit tress, and wild flowers.  On our nature walks we would see a deer or a rabbit and she would point out the names of the beautiful flowers and herbs.  She might pick some mint to use for her stomach potion or some mandrake root and use it for something else. The best surprise is you never knew what treasure you might come home with, a Native American arrowhead or some kind of unusual shaped rocks.

It was amazing, although you do not know as a young child, how amazing , to see an 80 year old women bringing buckets of water from her well to her stove, chopping her wood, and  carrying heavy loads of it  to her house.  Although she was not highly educated her flow with just being was uncanny.  She knew how to take care of her children’s health.  It was interesting because one of the things I always ask clients is about their feces (a polite word for poop) and my uncle recently told me that grandmother would always examine their feces and make sure they were regular.  My grand mother knew that it was important to health to take out the trash (your body’s trash). Her great grandfather had been a doctor in the new frontier and I guess it was passed to her through the generations.

She died at 93, but that was due to a car accident.  But even when she broke her hip at 88, they said she would not live, she pulled through with remarkable flying colors.

And she went back after to live alone in her home.  Unfortunately she fell a second time and had to be placed in a nursing home.  She had never taken a drug before her hospitalization and I think those chemicals along with losing her freedom made her ready to leave her body and make her transition. She used to pray thanking god for all she had.  I thank her for all the love of nature and realizing we are one with what god created she gave me.

My Other Grandparents

What My Grandfather Learned From the Old Country

It was incredible how much fun my Italian grandfather from my other side of the family would have planting a garden. His garden was filled with so many other things than my Irish grandmother’s garden He would have tomatoes, squash, basil, oregano and dandelions.  My grandfather could not wait to dig up the dandelions and cook them.  He would call this his “spring cleaning”.  He had been taught that dandelions cleaned the body and got your body ready for the season change.  When I started learning about natural medicine I learned how dandelions can help cleanse the liver.  When I began my research on foods I was amazed to find so many studies showing how much anti-microbial effect oregano has on yeasts and bacteria.  I use oregano tea or oregano oil capsules whenever I feel I may be coming down with anything.   And how calming basil can be especially when it is made into a nice tea.   My grandfather lived healthy long life well into his 80’s. He taught me the best medicine was Love and Laughter.

My other grandmother was from the hills of Tennessee and her whole family would have gardens.  They loved okra, I was later to learn how well the “slime from that plant is for the stomach. Since the stomach needs a good mucus coating that slime, along with aloe vera, and slippery elm.  My grandmother was a very peaceful person full of love and she taught me that slowing down and allowing the time for yourself and the body was just what it needed to heal.

These sages are in every family and from every country in the world.  God, the creator, mother nature, the Great Spirit, Allah, I AM, the collective unconscious or whatever you believe in would not make anything that was not perfect complete and easily available to help your body heal itself