Homeopathy - yes! My niece whipped up a lovely lotion of shea butter with St. John's wort, from a miraculous field of the golden blossoms which manifested to her when she was in Germany, mourning the loss of her mom and her aunt. It was like the wood betony in Sajah Popham's "Herbal Evolution" book. When you need something, a plant will sense this, and find a way to call your attention to this plant which can heal you.
So I continue to walk the wetlands, woods, and our own Midwest version of the jungle. This is year #24 for me in this little loop, and the path to the river is now impenetrable, unless I'm willing to get scratched by buckthorn, multiflora rose, raspberries, and the branches of many many massive, massive fallen trees (that derecho, four years ago).
I walk that walk, minus Prince, who was bitten by another dog and has undergone five rounds of antibiotics, three sets of staples, a multitude of anti-licking devices (the miserable cone is the only one that's reliable, and he was in it most of 2024).
Focus on what is good: Prince is still alive (but not well), my husband is well, one daughter still loves me, and our son is close to home again (just a 40-minute drive away!), thought it's not gonna last; he will likely return to Mexico (or maybe Brazil) when winter hits, depending on his next job (remote office work). Our middle child continues to forbid us any and all contact with the grandkids. You'd be amazed how many many many "Invisible Grandparents" out there are uniting and sharing coping mechanisms. Write letters you'll never send. Fill up journals for the kids to read when they've grown up and left home. Meanwhile, their birthdays come and go, the holidays, and NO GRANDKIDS. Universally, these parents say they don't know what they said or did that would justify being removed like tumors and cast from the lives of their children.
Just this week, on X, a thread about therapists these days advising young adults to give up on anyone who "traumatizes" them (i.e., makes them uncomfortable):
BartemyS
....How about living life and moving on and dealing with things that are hard.
Many therapists these days simply affirm whatever self-absorbed, narcissistic, antisocial views their client has including telling them to quit jobs and cut off family and friends and not work through hard situations and learn and grow. Most therapy is a very bad drug.
Maria on X:
Therapy also gives children grievance words to maliciously throw at their parents ...
Justine Bateman (the actress) started the whole thread on X:
.... This is one of the consequences of the “trophies-for-everyone” upbringing of the early 21st century. Basically, children were shielded from processing emotionally challenging experiences. My theory is that their parents were the first generation that en masse went to therapy, and learned that much of their negative feelings about themselves were due to how their parents treated them. Most of these parents did the work and recovered from that experience. However, they also vowed to ensure that their own children would not be on a couch in 20 years, having to recover from these parents themselves.
And so, these parents bubble-wrapped their kids’ feelings. They didn’t want them to experience defeat (hence trophies for everyone, and not just the winners). They eliminated the experience of a kid not being a guest and not the focus at a birthday party (by making sure the departing gift bags everyone got were full of items of greater value than the present they themselves brought). They eliminated the experience of the kids working out conflicts themselves (by the teachers at the schools insisting that the kids come to them immediately when a conflict with another kid arose). They eliminated the kid experiencing the poor results of not having done the class assignments (by parents calling teachers on the kids’ behalf to get a better grade (including college, btw)).
All to say, this was child abuse. These parents handicapped these kids by not letting them process defeat, disappointment, being left out, frustration, etc as children, so they could build those coping skills. And so, now you have a whole batch of adults processing all that for the very first time, with no practice, and no muscles in those areas. Truly handicapped.
Hopefully, these now-adults will learn these lessons on their own, but that takes guts. Now you know why this batch of kids created the Victim Olympics for their present-day adult selves.
Ok, I'm getting ready to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the six people on the planet who don't think I'm a reject. :) A few others think I'm ok but as we have never met face to face, I tend not to include them in the roster of people who don't hate on Carol. There's a book in here, maybe even a comic strip, but I haven't tried to write it, because, historically, maybe one in a thousand people recognize satire when I try to employ it... my parents and sisters never liked me, but I have a husband who does, so I win!!! They lose!
THANK YOU @owasco for being so loyal and steadfast, such a gallant and generous and TRUE friend. :)
I hope you count me among those who do not hate Carol!
I'm delighted to hear that Miles is so near, if only for another month or so. It's not winter in Iowa yet?
Yes, psychology has done us great harm, has eroded our self-reliance and made us, nearly all, into victims who feel our traumas have nothing to do with our own acts, and are out of our control. That we need government to pass laws protecting our feelings. It's astonishing! The recent, and very sudden, erosion of male and female (way to go women's lib - now that men can be bonifide women, we biological women are nothing) sends this all into surreal, so that being human is at risk, Say no!! To a great many things!!
How old are your grandchildren now? I suppose Claire and Webb will get their own comeuppance someday, when their children will be speaking to you and Tim (yes you got a great hubby!) and not to them. I wonder if they will still blame you, even as their children do to them what they have done to you. It's gonna happen, they have trained your grandchildren how. That this is so common now (I didn't know!) shows that the family unit is being deliberately dismantled, ala Handmaid's Tale and other faves of the leftist zombie mind.
I'm in Nashville. Both daughters and their beaus will be here, along with one of their large (in several meanings of the word large) in-law family, and a couple of friends. It's gonna be close to 20! My Thanksgiving dinners have been very small the past ten years or more, so I'm really looking forward to it.
I love you!!! Happy Turkey day!