The merchant approached closer to the flower and saw it was the scarlet flower his third daughter, Masha, wanted so badly. He picked up the flower carefully, and suddenly he was confronted by a hideous beast. The beast was very angry and said to the merchant, “If you want this flower, you must send one of your daughters back to my enchanted forest to live in my palace forever.”
Afraid, the merchant agreed. Soon he returned home and gave the gifts to his two daughters. Then he gave the scarlet flower to his youngest daughter and told her that she had to return a favor for having this rare flower and go to the beast. Masha was so happy that her father had found the scarlet flower that she agreed to go alone to the emerald forest and live forever in the beast’s palace.
Ourselves, Our Children, Allergens, and Happy Cells @ 123
The next day Masha went to the forest to live in
the beast’s palace. Several servants met her there and helped her settle in, but the beast himself didn’t show up. However, every day he sent her beautiful fresh roses and
gifts. One day he sent her a funny-speaking red-blue parrot; another day, a merry brownish-orange monkey. The third day he gave her a tiny, cute white puppy. Then she got from the beast a beautiful grey pony with yellow spots, so she could ride around the palace in the green grassy meadows shining with small drops of the morning dew.
The beast and his servants took very good care of Masha, and she felt loved. She was happy to live in the palace, but she always wondered what the mysterious beast looked like. She never saw him. In the morning she walked in the garden blossoming with white and pink peonies, yellow and red roses, puffy carnations, purple violets and daisies, and tall sunflowers. She enjoyed the beauties of Nature and the sunny, warm days. In the afternoons she swam in the crystal glass pool with sky-blue water. In the evenings before she went to sleep, she took rejuvenating baths filled with lavender and aromatic petals of freshly cut red roses.
Life was good, but all this was not enough for the curious Masha. Every day she wondered about the mysterious beast. What did he look like? One day she asked the servants to let the beast know that she would like to see him. She was very sad this day because the night before she had a bad dream that her father was seriously sick.
In the morning after a walk in the garden she was sitting near the big window in the palace hall thinking about her ill father, her mother, and her sisters she missed so much. Suddenly she heard a light noise that sounded like oak tree leaves were murmuring with each other or wanted to tell her something. After that the beast appeared in front of her in a blink of an eye. The girl was terrified. The beast was a big, ugly man with sharp, cold eyes looking at her and waiting for her to say something. At first Masha couldn’t say a word because of her fear.
Then she said, “Dear beast, I am very grateful for all your gifts and the opportunity to live in your magnificent castle. Last night I had a very bad dream that my beloved father got very sick and can die any minute. Please let me go to see him while he’s still alive. Maybe I can heal him.”
124 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
The beast looked at her unhappily and said, “Okay, you can go, my gorgeous girl, but remember you must come back precisely on the third day not later than midnight or something bad may happen.”
“I’ll be back exactly as you ask,” Masha promised.
When she arrived home, she found her mother and her sisters in good health, but her father was very sick as she has seen him in her dream. She prepared for him her magic remedies from the herbs she picked up in the beast’s garden. She cooked for her father delicious meals and fed him herself spoon by spoon like he was her small child. She even slept every night near his bed in a small armchair and watched him every minute. Under Masha’s loving care her sick father recovered fast.
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
Chapter 7
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 t
o 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 th
e 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.
According to the American Council for Headache Education in Mount Royal, New Jersey, emotional stress can trigger or worsen some types of headaches including tension headaches and migraines. To avoid stress-related 132 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies
headaches, work on eliminating as much stress as you can. How? Doctors suggest exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, allowing time for relaxation and hobbies, getting massages, and practicing meditation.
Headache sometimes accompanies diseases of internal organs, poisoning, infections, and nervous and mental disorders. It can also be provoked by poor blood circulation in the brain (migraine), by increase in blood pressure (hypertension), or by a surplus or blood stagnation in the vessels or an accumulation of products in the blood, which can upset the metabolism. It is important to learn to recognize the causes of frequent headaches.
“Tension-type headaches are the most common, affecting upwards of 75 percent of all headache sufferers. TensionRemember: type headaches are typically a steady ache rather
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