Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Livin, Svetlana Konnikova [classic fiction .TXT] 📗

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