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

The following year we went to Yaremcha, a small town in the Carpathian Mountains. On a sunny winter day we took our skis into a forest that shone with radiant downy snow and smelled deliciously of powerful pines and beeches. Fresh air flowed into our lungs and filled us with joy. The forest was quiet. The snow looked like beautiful lace tatting of diamond stars and sunbeams. The trees were dressed in the snow’s bright, white diaphanous coat, and the silver-green pines had faded into the milky atmosphere.

“Are we in a fairy tale kingdom, Mama?” my son asked me.

“Yes, we are,” I whispered. “Do you remember when I read you a poem written by Alexander Pushkin about the forest in winter and your favorite pines?”

“Yes, I remember,” Yuri said with great inspiration. “I’ll begin, but you continue, because I am not sure I know all of it.” He turned towards the pines and began:

Dialogue with the Trees of Strength and Everlasting Life @ 237

There is a forest in front of us.

I remember the pines

And their divine beauty.

All of their branches are hidden

By the sheds of snow to the tops

Of the asps, birches and naked lindens.

It shines a ray of the night luminaries.

There is no road; the shrubs, the rapids,

All snow-bound by a snow storm,

Deeply in the snow tucked in.

We spent three hours in the forest on the mountain. Afterwards we rushed off to the Russian steaming banya (sauna). The banya was built of logs that absorbed the fragrances of various aromatic and resinous matters and phytoncides. We could chose from among besoms of oak, linden, birch, eucalyptus, silver fir, nettle, and pine. The besoms clean the air in the banya and act as an antibacterial agent, helping our skin and lungs stay healthy. The fresh fragrance of a forest permeated this woody steaming chamber when we used silver fir besom, rich in resins, essential oil, phytoncides, and vitamin C. The aroma of pine or silver fir needles in a besom for the sauna contain bactericidal phytoncides. It is considered to be an excellent remedy for treating lethargy, catarrh, bronchitis, laryngitis, and pharyngytis. After steaming with pine besoms, our skin had a sweet, fresh smell and a healthy glow for a long time. Essential oils act as a bactericidal on the skin. If you take a smear from any external part of your body for microscopic examination after steaming with these besoms, you will not find even one microbe on your skin. We felt refreshed and had tons of energy. The explanation is simple: This method of cleaning opened the pores of our skin, and toxins were expelled. Toxins are hidden enemies and poison the blood. When we remove them on a regular basis, we can keep ourselves well. After you steam in a sauna, it is beneficial to drink one of the following four vitamin teas:

r 2. Mix one tablespoon each of rose hips berries and black currants. 238 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

r3. Mix one tablespoon cranberries and three tablespoons each of rose hips and nettle leaves.

r 4. Mix one tablespoon each of plantain leaves and mountain ash berries.

r 5. Mix one tablespoon wild marjoram (Mountain Mint), three tablespoons rose hips berries, and two tablespoons nettle leaves. Put two tablespoons of the mixture in a glass jar. Add 16 ounces of boiling water and let steep for one hour. Strain and drink ½

glass three to four times a day after a sauna.

We took two branches of a one-year-old pine back to our hotel room. One branch we put in a vase with water to refresh the air. The second, we used to make a special vitamin drink.

r 6. Preparation of this drink is simple and quick, but only the needles of a one-year-old pine should be used. Wash two ounces of pine needles and grind them in a porcelain mortar. Then add two to three glasses of boiling water and let steep in a cool, dark place for two hours. Add honey and lemon, according to taste. Strain and drink immediately. If the drink is stored, it wil lose vitamins.

One glass of pine drink contains the same amount of vitamin C as a glass of tomato juice. It outranks lemon juice, promoted by sailors and travelers from around the world, in that pine drink has five times more vitamin C than lemon juice.

The branches of the trees in the forest played a nice melody as they swished under the light wind of a frosty winter night. My little son was in bed and I told him a story about my pine.

I was 10 years old, and for the first time in my life, I had climbed up to the top of the pine growing near our house. I imagined that I was atop the mast of a flagship. The wind was shaking the tree. My pine vessel was rocking in unison with all other trees around. The rustle of the leaves resembled the Dialogue with the Trees of Strength and Everlasting Life @ 239

sound of broiling ocean waves before a storm. From atop the tree I saw how the forest opened its boundless space to many other green trees. The spacious green distance, gold light and shadow, and a caressing play of the brightest greens and sunbeams mixed with the solemn tranquility of Nature. I knocked three times on