So, I was planning on talking about this great little weed-looking plant which is actually nature's thumb to modern science's Neosporin, cuz this one works equally well inside as well as outside the body.
Booh-ya! Take that little squishy tube that I always goop too much out of.
What is the name of this wonder plant, you ask. Plaintain.
A bit confusing, I know, because you are probably thinking...that banana thing that you can get in tropical areas? No, same name, different plant. This one is home to more temperatate areas (another way of saying we have all 4 seasons, instead of just summer and HOT!)
But today I have very exciting news happening in my family...my growing family.
My sister is having a baby!
Not at this exact second, but soon.
This has changed what I want to talk about.
Raspberries
No, not sticking out your tounge at your second grade teacher when she said you had to stay in for recess and finish your homework.
I'm talking about the sweet, tiny seed filled berry goodness that ripens around midsummer, depending on where you are living. The berries themselves are wonderful, tasty, and have great tonic properties.
Personally, the smell of ripe raspberries is one of my most absolute favorite smells in the whole world. I have yet to find a perfume that comes anywhere close. And short of smearing ripe berries on my neck and wrists, I guess I'll have to settle for some other form of body scent and be content with the whiff that I may get of those beautiful red berries.
The berries are high in vitamins and minerals. They also work as a good, mild, tonic herb. What is a tonic herb you ask? Well, from the best of my knowledge, it is like spring cleaning for the insides.
Or as Wikipedia so eloquently puts it. "A Herbal tonic is used to help restore, tone and invigorate systems in the body or to promote general health and well-being.[1]"
This used to be a very common thing. In the spring people took tonics. Some older, country people still do. And now the spring and the fall are both considered ideal times to go on a cleanse. Which is just a newer way of saying tonic! I love when things come full circle.
But what I love most about Raspberries are not the berries, amazing as they are... it's the leaves!
Dried Raspberry leaves are a woman's best friend.
Move aside chocolate,
Move aside Diamonds,
Ewen McGregor, you can stay there, though.
I think that at some point, fairly early on in adulthood a woman will have the realization that while she may inhabit this body, she does not necessarily control it.
Don't believe me?
Raise your hand if you have ever started your peroid on the first day of a vacation while you are traveling?
Raise your hand if you've ever become overwhelmingly annoyed with your boss/coworker/husband/fill in other (typically male) name here? And couldn't figure out the source of your short fuse until you started a few days later.
Raise your hand if you've ever started randomly crying and didn't know why?
Raise your hand if you've ever had days (or weeks) of wondering if you are pregnant.
Raise your hand if you've ever had a baby. Or hot flashes.
Need I go on?
Ladies (Gentlemen, it would be good for you to listen to this too) Our bodies are not our own. Our cycles are dictated by what was once thought to be mysteries as mystical as the moon, but we've come now to discover is more heavlily involved with the roller coaster levels of many different types of hormones. Estrogen, Progesterone, and others, even a tiny bit of Testosterone.
So what does this have to do with Raspberries?
Well Raspberries have these hormones too, in complimenting doses to our body.
Uhh, English please?
Take Raspberry leaf tea two or three days before you start your peroid, your cramps will decrease in intensity.
This one I have tried personally. And while I normally have cramps that could bring an African Elephant to it's knees. All of a sudden after just taking the tea a few days before, my cramps became little more than a mild ache. Something I could live with and didn't make me want to personally rip every single person in half who had the gall to cross my path. Obviously I'm not promising this will happen the exact same way with everyone. But it does help... a lot!
With regular use, it will also decrease excessive bleeding. (See 'ya Tampon Giangantic!)
My hardest deal is the timing, taking the tea and getting it those few elusive days before the flood gates open. But here's the great part. If you take it too early, nothing bad will happen.
Let me repeat that, Nothing bad will happen!
No nausea, no thoughts of suicide, no restless leg syndrome, no erection lasting more than four hours, Nada!
Reason number two thousand I LOVE herbs. "They so rarely have negative side effects."
Raspberry leaves tone the muscles in the uterus, making it's work easier.
Including having babies. In the last trimester of pregnancy, a woman can take Raspberry tea, and it will help tone the uterus and pelvis to make the labor and delivery easier.
That's what many of my sister's have done. And what I try to ecourage to all my pregnant friends, who I feel comfortable enough with to talk about their hot boxes.
Not to mention, toning sounds like it could have some other positive side effects. Like maybe in the making of babies. But that one is just my personal speculation.
And what about those of us who are beyond our childbearing years? Those of us who have earned the ancient titles of wise woman, or wild woman (maybe becasue of the crazy hot flashes). Well, Raspberry leaf tea has estrogen in it.
Estrogen. You know, the hormone that has such erratic levels in your body right now, that your body is spinning around like a Tasmanian Devil causing all this havoc. So nice doses of estrogen in a form your body knows how to accept and handle (tea, rather than injection) is a perfect way of taking that Tasmanian Devil and putting it on a leash.
Other positive things that Raspberries and their leaves do:
-Raspberry leaf tea is good for clearing up mild diarrhea, and is gentle enough for kids to use.
-As a gargle is good for mouth ulcers and sore throats (cough cough)
-As a wash it is good for bathing varicose veins, shallow wounds (it helps draw it together).
-It's a soothing eyewash.
Ain't it great! For more information on how to get raspberry leaves, make gargles and washes, just let me know
Now onto the flip side. I said I love herbs becasue they have few negative side effects, I did not say they had no side effects.
With Raspberry leaves, do not take in the first trimester of your pregnancy. Apparently all that toning can sometimes tone a brand new life right out of there.
Also, if you are planning on gathering and drying them yourself, first make sure they not from a plant that recieves pesticide treatment.
Second make sure that you only use them fresh, or completely dried. One or the other!
Why? The residual moisture could possibly, maybe, be home to a fungus that inhibits blood clotting. Which in a worse case senerio can turn into internal hemmoraging or non stop external bleeding.
Fresh leaves and completely dried leaves do not have this problem. You know they are dry when they sound like tissue paper,and crumble easily looking like the little crumbledy bits in your spice jars.
Don't let this scare you. Just be educated about it.
I have used Raspberry leaves both fresh and dried more times than I can count on all my nieces and nephews fingers and toes. And I have quite a lot of them.
With one more coming!
Soon!
Ode to a Babe, Reluctant to join
Come, little one, we'd like to see your face.
You are safe there, and warm, yes.
To leave requires struggle,
and a world of unknown
a whole universe of unknown.
That can be scary, we know.
But you have a net here to catch you.
To love you.
To feed you.
To soothe your tears, your hurts, and your fears.
To listen to your dreams, and your heartaches.
To teach you, as you will teach us.
There will be times you are cold, wet,
squinting at an unfathomable bringhtness
-as some latexed hand slaps your butt.
But that is a small price to pay to be able to watch a sunset, listen to your grandmother's stories, travel to exotic lands, laugh with family, and eat really good food made by friends who love you.
In short, to have experiences that touch you right down to your soul. And the ability to put your fingerprint on this unfolding song that we as humanity sings, with all its ridges and swirls.
Come to us little one, there is so much to see!
No comments:
Post a Comment