Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Back-story

Although my book is on Natural Sexual Health it’s also about magic, love and the tenacity to make dreams come true. My first exposure to folk medicine was in my youth. Without a doctor or hospital close by there was always someone with something that could be used for fever, aches, colds, cuts, flues, infections and any other maladies that might be fixable with a little touch of caring hands. For example: I can remember being given a little elderberry wine from the root cellar where my grandmother kept her canned and bottled preserves. Elderberries grew wildly all over the island. The berries have been used since ancient times as a medicine. They are rich in vitamin c and a strong tonic for strengthening a weak system. This is where I got my basic recipe for my Pep Berry Rob Nectar which is an immune boosting nectar of elderberries, other herbs, berry flavoring and honey. We would help my mother pick wild rose hips form the wild roses that grew along the shoreline. She would make a rose hip jelly that was wonderful in the winter on toast and provided us with vitamin c through the long winter months when fruit was hard to come by. Another example would be using burdock as a poultice (bandage to cover a wound) to draw out infection from a wound. As children we ran wildly and played freely in the coves and on the ledges of the ocean; always barefoot. As we ran along the ledges near the shoreline, we would sometimes cut our feet on barnacles. The first thing you did was soak your feet in the salt water from the ocean. It would clean and heal like an antiseptic. We used hot tea bags full of warm herbs for eye infections and smoke from herbs blown into the ears for earaches. But mostly it was healthy local foods and lots of fresh air.


I never liked going to the Doctor or taking allopathic medicines. There have been times when I had to see a doctor and take medicine. My belief and my background teaches me that a balance between the two; allopathic and holistic medicine is best. It is good to stabilize and eradiate pain but then it is best to look at diet and other natural causative practices.

My childhood had many tough times, as well as being rich with folklore, the simple life and a feeling of community that seems so secure. Nobody locked their doors or took the keys out of their cars. If you needed a car and yours wasn’t available you just used your neighbors. If you need an egg or flour you just went across the street and helped yourself. We had barn raisings, community dinners, skating parties, sledding parties, made homemade ice cream, ran freely through the woods and shore line of the island. We all had little boats, places to swim and lots of time to play. But we also had to work.

We all had to help with the chores and everyone did something to contribute to the family. The boys would help their fathers on the fishing boats and the girls would help the mothers with canning, cooking and domestic chores. In the summertime the “summer people” would come to vacation. So e worked in the little motels, restaurants and curiosity shops that dotted the island. We always had money, boats, cars and fun. I grew up with a strong sense of the Protestant work ethic. And a Yankee thrift point of view. I learned to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

My early childhood was easy even though to most people we probably lived a poor and difficult life. It was not easy to grow up in a very rural and isolate part of the world. But it was easy, safe and carefree. You didn’t have one mother and father; you had Aunts Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, siblings and a host of neighbors all looking out for each other. It was truly a community. But I was an odd child and given to spending a lot of time by myself contemplating the world…

Doctor Lynn

http:/www.doctorlynn.com

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