How many of you are off on your summer holidays, visiting the rellies? Many of you, I suspect. When my children were little, we’d set off in the latest secondhand vehicle and make the annual drive from Calgary to Winnipeg. Depending on the ‘pee breaks,’ food stops, and the occasional transmission failing, the drive could be anywhere from 14 to 16 hours. Many of those trips were without air conditioning! Ugh…I’ve been spoiled, pleasantly so.
The kids are all grown, but I continue to make the yearly trek to visit the parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces, and nephews, and thankfully, it’s by plane. Next year is a big wedding so we’ll all converge and fight for the most comfortable accommodations…we are already putting ‘dibs’ on where we will stay. No hotels for this clan! Sardines on the basement floor if we have to because no one wants to miss a family wedding! Being the eldest and therefore the most experienced ‘dibs’ getter, I’ve booked with my folks well in advance. Right up there with the air conditioning in cars, spoiled…that’s me!
Reflecting on families, I’m aware of how similar we are, yet how we are also so different in so many ways. Same and yet unique. Consider that, as a family, we all start out in life with the same family name—it’s part of us, whether we have chosen to take our partner’s last name or not. Then consider, being born with a father’s last name, you are also part of your mother’s family, even though your mother may have taken your father’s name in marriage. If you think of it that way, as women, we can have at least three family last names…and a first and middle name. All part of what could be considered a family identity. Then again, some women can choose to adopt a single name identity. Cher comes to mind.
Within families, you can have what my husband’s sister calls ‘personalities,’ from physical traits and body type to emotions and mental makeup. Although I would love to introduce you to my amazing family of origin, complete with physical, mental, and emotional traits, I’m going to introduce you instead to another kind of family…the well-known, popular homeopathic plant family of remedies, Compositae (also known as Asteraceae), the Daisy family.
For the last few years, two senior master homeopaths have been diligently working behind the scenes to help other homeopaths by classifying remedies so we can serve our patients best. Isn’t that what family is all about?
Their work began by understanding what was common to certain plant family remedies and what was unique to each plant remedy picture within the family group. These two homeopaths in particular, at about the same time, started to put together some ideas along with cured cases, using botany and scientific classification as tools to better understand what connects all the remedies in a group. We have Jan Scholten and Rajan Sankaran to thank for moving homeopathy forward as both a science and an art. Many more homeopaths have contributed as well to a ‘family’ understanding of remedies, but if you have a chance to read anything on the net by either of these two masters, do look them up.
Jan Scholten can be found at www.interhomeopathy.org.
There is a search engine within the website where you can look up Compositae or individual remedies.
Rajan Sankaran can be found at www.rajansankaran.com.
So now let me introduce you to the Daisy Family…more formally known as Compositae and at one time also known as Asteraceae! Check out your handout today.
