Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Living (19 page)

Three days passed as one minute, and Masha was still there in her parents’ house. She didn’t notice the time and she didn’t know that her sisters, happy that she was taking good care of their father, changed the time on the clock. So Masha stayed one day more before she found out about her sisters’

trick with the clock. She was late to return to the beast’s palace. In the meantime she was very happy that she had healed her father, but she was very unhappy that she didn’t keep her promise to the beast. She was scared that something bad might happen, as the beast told her. She said goodbye to her father in a hurry and ran back to the emerald forest with the speed of the fastest young doe.

She was out of breath when she entered the beast’s palace. She feared the punishment she would encounter from the beast. To her great surprise, she found the beast dead, lying on the shiny marble floor in the grand ballroom. He was holding in his hand her favorite scarlet flower. Masha’s eyes filled with tears. She was horrified and heartbroken when she saw what had happened. She approached the dead beast slowly and embraced him with her trembling hands. She kissed the ugly face and said, “My beloved beast, I will always love you and remember you forever.”

As soon as she said so, she unknowingly broke an evil

spell, and her beloved beast awoke, opened his big blue eyes, stood up, and turned into a handsome young

prince. They got married and lived happily many years

ever after.

Ourselves, Our Children, Allergens, and Happy Cells @ 125

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”

—Benjamin Spock, MD (1903–1998), known as “Dr. Spock,”

a U.S. pediatrician and writer

ƒ

“Laughter is the sun that drives the winter from the human face.”

—Victor Hugo (1802–1885), French novelist, playwright, and poet
ƒ

“It is so great to learn every day something new.

The knowledge is the most cheerful thing that everybody wants
to possess, and nobody can take it away from you.”

—Mama

ƒ

“No one can make you inferior without your consent.”

—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), U.S. humanitarian

ƒ

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.”

—Joseph Addison (1672–1719), English writer and statesman
126 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

Clever Remedies to

Outsmart Headaches

Patience is a flower that does not grow in every garden.

—English proverb

FACTS

Estimates indicate that there are more than 45 million headache sufferers in the United States. Only 11 percent of them consult a neurologist for evaluation or treatment. Two-thirds of headache sufferers remain undiagnosed. Headaches account for eight million office visits each year. Most headache sufferers experience two or more concurrent headache types.22

As I was browsing in Moscow’s Art’s Salon, a unique piece of jewelry caught my eye. It was a necklace made in Lithuania, a real masterpiece. Suspended between five layers of delicate silver net was a magnificent piece of golden amber. I slipped it around my neck, fell in love with it, and did not want to take it off. I bought it on the spot and wore it out of the shop. At that time I did not know a lot about the healing properties of amber, but I knew that I felt comfortable wearing it.

Over the years I have learned that this sunny stone helps people feel joyful, inspires love, and stimulates the intellect. Amber necklaces or earrings are said to cleanse the body and mind of negative influences and to purify the air in the room where it rests. When I realized that wearing amber had relieved Clever Remedies to Outsmart Headaches @ 127

my headaches, I became extremely interested in this unusual fossilized resin, its history, and Lithuania “the land of amber,” where it originated. The land of amber

Lithuania, a small, scenic country on the Baltic Sea, dates back to the fourteenth century. Its colorful fishing villages, rapid rivers, thousands of crystal blue lakes, and thick green forests draw many visitors. One summer I stayed in Nida, which is located very close to Klaipeda, one of the biggest ports in Lithuania. Nida, however, is one of the largest and the most beautiful fishing villages on the Curionian Spit, a narrow peninsula separating the Curionian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Formed about six thousand years ago, it stretches about 98 kilometers long. Over many centuries severe, cold northern winds shifted golden sand and created what looks to me like the largest sand dunes in the world. Some of them, like Angiu Kalno and the Urbo Kalno, are approximately a thousand meters high. From the top of the dunes a magnificent view unfolds of the Baltic Sea with its midnight blue waters, as well as the Curionian Lagoon framed by the bright, leafy woods sparkling with morning dew. Until the fifteenth century coniferous and deciduous forests covered this area, but then people began to cut the trees to build vessels, furniture, and houses. This created a big problem, and Mother Nature reacted in kind when people used some of her natural resources irrationally. The trees’ disappearances lead to severe sand shifting and, as a result, the fast-moving sands swallowed 14 villages.

The people undertook the first project to plant new forests in 1825. Fortunately their hard work paid off and the sand stopped

shifting. Today the area boasts more than 17,000

acres of pine forests. The range of large sand

dunes stretches for about 43 miles and reaches

into the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, an

area considered the largest amber field in the

world. Kaliningrad’s famous Amber Museum

houses one of the largest collections, consisting of six thousand pieces of jewelry, boxes, and some fragments of the legendary Amber

128 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

Room, which was a part of Catherine’s the Great summer residence near St. Petersburg, Russia.

When I first arrived in Nida, I was instantly charmed with the tiny, sleepy fishing village of only two thousand residents. It seemed a world apart from civilization, but it was exactly what I wanted. It still held its virgin purity and serene beauty. It was still not touched by modern urbanism and still displayed beautiful wooden architecture.

I had a small room in Nida’s resort for youth. At night we would sit in a pine grove near a campfire with local girls and boys and share stories about Lithuania, the land of amber. They told sad and romantic myths and legends about heroic knights and lost love and about the magic of the emerald pine forests. But I remember most the tales they told about amber, the stone of the sun, the tears of the gods, the gold of the sea, and magnificent amber forests and giant trees dripping beads of amber.

I awoke at 6:00 a.m. with a headache and took a walk on the beach. I passed pines that surrounded the hotel like solemn guards. In the still morning hours an elderly Lithuanian woman had already set up a tent with amber souvenirs and handmade jewelry. I looked at what she had to offer, but because of my headache, my eyes were blurry. I rubbed my forehead and the woman said, “Put this amber necklace on and do not remove it for at least two weeks. These stones are the tears of the gods and they will help your headache.”

“I had hoped that a walk on the beach, the fresh breeze from the sea, and the smell of the pines would ease it,” I replied.

“Oh, it will, but this amber is a powerful healer. You need not pay me any money for this necklace. I am glad to be of service. Go to the shore, take a walk, and forget the headache. Imagine that you may be lucky enough to find pieces of amber. The goddess Jurate still weeps for her lost love, Kastytis, so you may find small amber drops there.”

I thanked the old woman and bid her goodbye, and then I walked 10

miles along the shoreline. The sea air was fresh and cool. The old woman’s amber necklace warmed my neck. I was focused on finding amber “tears”

washed up on the sand by the cold Baltic waters. As I made my way back to the hotel, I realized that my headache was gone. I stopped near the last dune before making the turn to the path in the pine grove and there it was: a dark spark of honey-colored light glistening in the sand. I brushed the sand away and an oval shape like the eye of a mystic animal emerged. Clever Remedies to Outsmart Headaches @ 129

I showed these pieces to a local artist and he made for me a pair of beautiful earrings with silver hooks. I feel energized when I wear them. When I look at them in the mirror, it is as if the amber slowly comes to life, shining like two warm human eyes, as if they are asking us all to plant beautiful flowers and take good care of them, to save a mighty oak tree in a city, a noisy bird in a cage, and a silver star falling down into the sea.

Folk medicine has other remedies for headaches too. Wise elders in Russia told me these ancient myths and superstitions about snakes and their role in curing a headache:

r1. Tie a snakeskin around your head to relieve a headache. r 2. To get rid of headache, “kil it.” For example, in Russia people shear a smal lock of hair from a person who is suffering from a headache and tie it to a mountain ash tree or to an asp. This

“method” was popular in Germany too.

According to Russian folk medicine, however, homemade herbal compresses, nastoykas (infusions), decoctions, ointments, and poultices were most often used to treat headaches. The following suggestions are for external use. r 3. Wash and attach four fresh leaves of burdock to your forehead and your calves. Relax. Or apply leaves of coltsfoot to your forehead to soothe headaches and hot flashes of menopause.
To take control of a headache best,

begin to listen to your body.

130 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

L ong ago under the midnight blue water of the

Baltic Sea stood a magnificent, white amber castle

with doors of gold and windows of diamonds. Jurate, the

goddess of the sea, lived there.

One day she called a meeting of beautiful maidens, nymphs, and sirens. She told them, “Dear friends, my father Praamzis, the god of the sky, earth, and the sea, gave me these waters of the Baltic Sea to rule. You know that I have never hurt anyone in my life, and we have lived in peace for a long time. But there can be no quiet, happy life anymore. Kastytis, an evil fisherman, takes my innocent servants, my darling fishes, from the water and allows them to die on the shore. I must punish him. I will throw him into the coldest depths of the sea.”

The next morning a hundred amber boats took Jurate and her guests in search of the fisherman. The day was bright and sunny and the sea was calm. The trees and flowers were blossoming profusely on the shore, echoing the beauty of the songs sung by the goddess Jurate and her handmaidens. The amber vessels sped along until soon they were at the mouth of the river, watching the young, handsome angler empty his net after a good catch. Suddenly he heard the haunting voices of the women. In the center of them stood a statuesque young woman with glistening skin and long, shimmering silver hair. She stood radiant upon a fountain of sea foam, which when struck by sunlight created a sparkling blaze of aurora borealis lights at her feet. She saw Kastytis, who stood entranced on the shore, and she fell in love with him.

“I am Jurate,” she said. “I am the goddess of the Baltic Sea and I am immortal. I had come here to punish you for catching my fish, but I will not kill you if you will promise no longer to harm my water kingdom and to pledge to me your love. If you refuse me this, you will die.”

Clever Remedies to Outsmart Headaches @ 131

The young fisherman knelt before Jurate and promised to love her forever. “From now on I’ll meet you every evening on the top of the mountain that I have named after you—Kastytis,“

said Jurate.

When Praamzis discovered that Jurate had fallen in love with the young human fisherman, he was outraged. He commanded

Perkunas, the god of thunder, to toss a lightning bolt into the sea to destroy Jurate’s palace. Perkunas killed Jurate and chained Kastytis to a rock at the bottom of the sea.

To this day, whenever there is a storm at sea, the pitiful cries of the young fisherman can be heard as he tosses out honey, orange, brown, and white fragments of amber that wash up with the tide—the remains of Jurate’s castle. It is said that lucky beachcombers can still find these stones, created fifty million years ago from the tears of evergreen pines, mourning the sad destiny and lost love of Jurate and Kastytis.

Learn to spot your headache triggers

Researchers tell us that headaches are the most common type of pain that people experience. Headaches come in all different sizes and are caused by many different stimuli. Learn to recognize your headache triggers and symptoms, perhaps by keeping a diary, in which you record the date of your headaches, the length and severity of your headache, foods and fluids you consumed prior to the headache, etc. You will begin to see a pattern that can help you identify which type of headache you experience and help you avoid triggers that might bring a headache on. Of course, if you experience severe headaches that just get worse, see a doctor as soon as possible to determine their cause.