Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living (28 page)

Don’t Be Afraid of Good Stress @ 193

One day as I sat on an oak bench in our garden reading a book, I began really to look at the beautiful settee I was relaxing on. Grandpa and my father had made that bench by hand. The seat back was meticulously and intricately hand-carved with motifs of ancient Rome. The bench was an attractive centerpiece in our garden. On both sides Grandpa and my father had formed realistic oak leaf designs to pay reverence to this mighty tree.

Oak and walnut trees grew all around, towering above the bench and casting shadows that provided shade in the hot summer. It was my favorite place to think, dream, talk to Mother Nature, and read. It was a special place also to share my secrets with Grandma, my close girlfriends, and, of course, to meditate and communicate with the world of trees, birds, and azure sky. Grandma used to say, “First of all, when you wake up in the morning, take a quick look at the sky . . . this endless spacious blue expanse . . . and you will feel comfortable.”

The ancient Greeks believed that if you looked at the sky, even for a minute, it would cleanse your body, soul, and spirit and relieve you from “moral intoxication.”

The garden bel , buoyed by the summer breeze, jingled a delicate melody. I was happy to be home again for summer vacation. A smal shred of blue sky peeked through the branches of our old walnut trees as I read the works of the Russian poet and singer, Boulat Okoudjava. (You can hear him sing his heartfelt poems in Russian at http://www. russia-in-us.com/Music/Artists/index.html. Here, sitting on this familiar and comforting bench, I began to daydream about the impact the changing seasons had on this spectacular garden. From spring to late fall, a profusion of flowers blossomed in Grandma’s garden, but in winter under a blanket of snow, bulbs lay dormant and Grandma patiently waited for her favorite flowers to arrive. Finally the first messengers of awakening Nature arrived—delicate, milky-white snowdrops softly blowing in a tender breeze.

In “The Snowdrop” (1863) by Hans Christian Andersen, this spring flower was always wondering.

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I t was winter time; the air was cold, the wind

was sharp, but within the closed doors it was

warm and comfortable, and within the closed door lay

the flower; it lay in the bulb under the snow-covered

earth. One day rain fell. The drops penetrated through the snowy covering down into the earth, touched the flower bulb, and talked of the bright world above. Soon the Sunbeam pierced its way through the snow to the root, and within the root there was a stirring.

“Come in,” said the Flower.

“I cannot,” said the Sunbeam. “I am not strong enough to

unlock the door! When the summer comes, I shall be strong!”

“When will it be summer?” asked the Flower, and she repeated this question each time a new sunbeam made its way down to her. But the summer was yet far distant. The snow still lay upon the ground, and there was a coat of ice on the water every night.

“What a long time it takes! What a long time it takes!”

said the Flower. “I feel a stirring and striving within me; I must stretch myself, I must unlock the door, I must get out, and must nod a good morning to the summer, and a

happy time that will be!”

In an old legend that Grandma breathed new life into, snow fell as Adam and Eve were banished from Paradise. There was no place for Eve to hide from the frost. Then several snowflakes transformed into beautiful flowers and offered her a sign of hope. From then on, the modest snowdrop was a symbol of hope.

White snowdrops rocked in the cradle of a light breeze. Each tiny flower, their white bell-shaped petals edged by the tiniest dab of lime green, shimmered in our garden. Grandma’s flower of spring came to us from beneath the snow, a simple flower, carrying so much hope and joy for everyone. Don’t Be Afraid of Good Stress @ 195

Grandma cultivated in our garden only flowers that made good sense to her. She planted periwinkles, in spite of a common belief in Italy that the periwinkle is “the flower of the dead.”

“So what?” she said. “My garden is not a garden without periwinkles. They bring happiness, as my garden brings relaxation.”

The periwinkle is a symbol of everlasting life but is also considered by many to be a flower symbolizing jealousy. But Grandma did not think so and she told me a fairy tale about the periwinkle’s little-known secret. T he periwinkle is one of the first flowers to

blossom in the spring. Like the fragrant violet,

it announces the coming spring, but the periwinkle was

upset that people and the gods paid more attention to the

violet than to it. However, the periwinkle’s leaves and flowers are not less beautiful than that of the violet; only in fragrance does the violet surpass the periwinkle.

Once, when the goddess Flora came down to the earth in spring, she was charmed with the delicate smell of the violet. She caressed it and offered to make it taller, so it could tower over the other flowers, instead of smelling sweetly living discreetly in the shadows of other plants. Suddenly a thin, whining voice sounded.

“Who is complaining?” Flora asked.

“It is me,” replied the periwinkle.

“What do you want? Why are you crying?”

“I cry because you, the mother of flowers, don’t notice me while at the same time you pour over the violet your graces and offer to make it better.”

Flora looked at the little plant which she did not know at all or maybe she had just forgotten. Gods often cannot remember every single creature they have made. And so Flora asked, “What is your name?”

“I don’t have a name yet,” answered the periwinkle.

“In that case what do you wish for?”

“I wish to have a pleasant smell like the violet. Give it to me, Flora, and I will be very, very grateful.”

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“Unfortunately, that I cannot give you,” replied Flora. “A plant receives this miraculous gift when it is the will of the Creator. It is given to a plant through the kiss of a genius appointed to guard it. You were born without a scent.”

“Give me some kind of special gift that can make me equal to the violet. I am even similar to it in color, but everyone loves the violet, not me.”

“Okay,” agreed the goddess. “Blossom much longer than the violet. Blossom even then when the violet is long gone.”

“Thank you, Flora. This is a great gift. Now when lovers try to find shady spots in gardens or parks and don’t run into a violet, then maybe they will pay attention to me. They will take me and attach small bouquets of flowers to their chest near hearts beating with love.”

“It can happen,” responded the goddess.

“But I would like to ask you something else,” continued the periwinkle. “Make my flowers larger than the violet’s.”

“As you wish. I can do that also. Let your flowers be larger than the violet’s. The size does not indicate depth. Your looks say nothing about how intelligent you are.”

Flora became irritated with the periwinkle’s persistence and wanted to leave, but it seemed that the plant wasn’t satisfied yet.

“What else do you want?” asked Flora. “You get a larger flower than the violet. You will blossom longer that it will. Isn’t that enough?”

“No, Flora, since you are already so nice to me, then give me a name also, because without a name I am nothing.”

Instead of becoming upset, Flora simply smiled.

“Okay, that’s easy enough,” she said. “You’ll be named Pervinca from the Latin verb meaning
win
because no matter what, you always want to defeat your more modest and beautiful neighbor. Let your name be the expression of your jealous nature.”

And from that time on the flower was called

periwinkle.

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There is a Ukrainian belief that a bouquet of periwinkles is a symbol of love and fidelity and those who plant periwinkles can be assured that their dreams will come true. In France there is a common notion that the demure periwinkle is the “witch’s violet.” Even so, during a recent trip to Switzerland, I noticed blue periwinkles encircling the monument of JeanJacques Rousseau, an eighteenth-century French writer and philosopher, on the tiny
Ile Rousseau
in Lake Geneva. The periwinkle was a favorite flower of Rousseau, and his first love, a French baroness Françoise-Louise de Warens, also called Madame de Warens. It was particularly special to Rousseau because it reminded him of the good years of his youth and the love that he lost.

Rousseau met her in 1728 on Palm Sunday, a moveable feast in the church calendar observed by Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians. This Sunday before Easter changed his life forever. Still a youth, just past boyhood, the kindhearted Madame de Warens hid Rousseau from Swiss authorities who were after him. He fell deeply in love with her and considered this the happiest time of his life. When they were traveling together from Chambéry (the capital of Savoy, France) to the countryside in Rhône-Alps, Madam de Warens saw a blue periwinkle in the bushes. She approached the flower and exclaimed, “Ah!
Voila de la pervenche en fleurs
!” (“This is a periwinkle blossoming!”) Rousseau didn’t respond to her exclamation, but that moment made a deep impression in his soul.

Many years passed, and as he walked with one of his friends on a picturesque mountainside near Neushâtel in Switzerland, he accidentally came upon the same flower. His happy past flashed before his eyes and in admiration he exclaimed, “Ah!
Voila de la pervenche en fleurs
!”

This exclamation returned many years after his happy travels with Françoise-Louise de Warens. Rousseau wrote about this in his autobiographical work,
Confes ions
. When this book was first published and Parisians read this touching story, many visited the famous botanical garden,
Jardin des plantes
(Garden of Plants), to view the periwinkles there that were planted in Rousseau’s honor.

The pert and pretty flowers also made an appearance in

Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “Little Ida’s Flowers” in 1835. The flowers that he wrote of loved grand balls where they merrily danced all night.

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It was at one of those balls, that when

the door to the room opened, a number

of beautiful flowers danced in. Little Ida could not

imagine where they had come from, unless they

were flowers from the king’s garden. First came two lovely roses wearing tiny golden crowns on their heads; these were the king and queen. Beautiful stocks and carnations followed, bowing to everyone present. They brought their own instruments with them. Large poppies and peonies had pea-shells, which they played and blew into them till they were quite red in the face. Bunches of blue hyacinths and the little white snowdrops jingled their bell-like flowers, as if they were real bells. Then came many more flowers: blue violets, purple heartsease, daisies, and lilies of the valley, and they all danced together and kissed one another. It was beautiful to behold.”

So you see the small periwinkle is a flower of great magnitude after all. He is not so “sophisticated” as other beautiful flowers in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale which loved grand balls, but he is very cute and knows what he is doing, for sure.

D. Get a pet to fend off distress

Having a pet in the house can help us overcome bad stress. You will reap health benefits from keeping your loyal and responsive four-legged friends near you. American scientists discovered that people who have dogs live longer, happier lives. After observing patients who had suffered heart attacks, they concluded that owners of dogs recover four times faster than people without dogs. Why? Dogs provide their owners with unconditional love and daily walks outdoors in the fresh air, and they never argue with them. In addition, caring for a pet, whether cat or dog, fish, hamster, you name it, is an act of nurturing that gives as well as receives.

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E. Stay intellectually active

If our lives are empty and we have nothing to do in our spare time, we become bored and mislabel the condition as stress. And indeed, being bored can lead to distress. The remedy for boredom is simple.

Stimulate yourself intellectually. Maintain a consistent process of selfimprovement and you will find your life is full. Allow yourself to take time off from responsibilities and have fun! We can indulge our interests and satisfy our soul’s starvation by going to the theater or enjoying a concert or an art exhibit. Choose what you like and make it part of your relaxation regime. Good books are like good friends. Meet with people who share your reading interests. I know a group of women in Florida who meet once a week to read and critique a short story or book, or they may listen to music together or discuss the latest news events. By exchanging their ideas, they broaden their scope of interests and stimulate their intellect right there inside the four walls of their homes.

Exploring new impressions and knowledge can be like stashing treasures into a bottomless chest. Sometimes we have to give ourselves a gentle push past our inertia to satisfy our soul’s desires. We can bring joy to our lives by engaging in simple pleasures like reading a good story or an uplifting article, going to a concert, or keeping a rendezvous with a friend, planting seeds or selecting flowers to fill a bouquet.

A Russian fable says that long, long ago before people existed on our planet, a green leaf sprouted from the earth. It stretched tall and stately to the sky, toward the sun, and blossomed as a lovely, crimson flower. And then another flower bloomed . . . and then another. Fields and mountainsides were painted in a wash of fragrance, texture, and color. In this way, beauty appeared in the world. The flowers evoked human emotions, thoughts, and words. These marvelous creations of Nature intermingled with our destinies, our traditions, and our lives.