Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Livin by Svetlana Konnikova (best fiction novels of all time .txt) 📕

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.

198 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

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.

Don’t Be Afraid of Good Stress @ 199

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.

Our house was always festively adorned