I have been searching a lifetime and the world, looking for purpose and a teaching that might become my own to carry. Like a crow on a journey, I have collected shiny bits of information, glittering baubles of this and that on the internet and in looking through my “cache”, I have discovered that I have this ability to pick out intriguing bits of resource materials that have an inter- relatedness in theme and content. It is time to share the cache with you. The purpose of the eBook, Fever Essentials: Helping Your Child Heal, is to bring you the teachings of homeopathy and “other medicines” (common sense medicine or what I like to call “Grandmother Medicine”) to help you move from a place of fear of all things germ and diseases to a position of love as you help keep your children comfortable and supported during common childhood illnesses. Our bodies and the bodies of our children are not “battlefields” but a remarkable co- operative community of co-existence. There is a story from Richard Wagamese that is timely and inspirational as I write the first of several eBooks, blogs and newsletters. “Creator gave gifts to all the flyers of the world. The Eagle was chosen to be the peoples messenger, to carry their prayers and thanks to Creator. The Loon became the teacher of love and good relationships. But the Crow felt he’d been given nothing. He didn’t have a special color. He didn’t have a beautiful song. He did not have the strength or vision of the Eagle. When he looked at himself Crow wondered what his role was in the circle of being. So Crow began to fly about looking for purpose. He flew far and wide and searched the world for one teaching that might become his own to carry.” http://www.richardwagamese.com/ Crow, we learn in Wagameseʼs retelling of the story, happens to find his purpose as he is flying in search of it. He hears the cries of his friends and stops to listen and then direct them to the right person or source for their healing and freedom from what is troubling them. So it has been for me as well. As I have flown the world over in the printed word, in books, on the Internet and in school, I have accumulated connections and resources to people, healers, spiritual directors and homeopathy. I have spent time listening within myself for what ails me and have been curious about what might ail others. I have always had a deep conviction that we have everything within us to heal ourselves and only just in recent years have I begun to understand that “all healing is spiritual”. It is important that you know how to treat your child should they become sick with measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and any number of other eruptive fever illnesses like Fifth disease, Hand Foot and Mouth (not Anthrax) and Slapped Face. All these illnesses present first with a fever and then a skin eruption. Homeopathy offers a gentle non-toxic alternative to prescription medications and over the counter products. It is important that you know how to help support your child through the fever with as little or no over the counter medication. There is now reliable scientific research that states it is essential to avoid using anti-pyretics (fever suppressants like Advil, Tylenol, Paracetamol, Aspirin etc.). I will be sharing with you in the eBook, some of the research that is now coming out that one of the possible contributing factors to the current rise in autism, is the suppression of fever. There is also research and evidence that using anti-pyretics may be related to childhood asthma. In the eBook, my hope is to provide useful information, ask questions that you yourself might want to ask your doctor and to share with you as many of resources that I have collected over the years. There is a way that modern medicine, traditional wisdom and “other medicines” like homeopathy, can be supportive of one another…to work co-operatively in the best of all worlds to keep our children healthy and safe without fear. So in the crow tradition, this is your purpose at this stage of life. You are here to listen to your children, support them through their fever and sicknesses and in turn, my hope is that you will find support within these pages to help them and you through it. Find your connections to other parents; find your connections to “other medicines”; find connections with yourself; find connections between sickness and health. There is a place and purpose even for fever and childhood illnesses. May this be the beginning of a conversation and like the crow, it may be a bit raucous, irritating and grating in sound at times, but we can listen for the wisdom behind the squawking! We’ll find our way together and see what sparkly bits we can add to our shiny horde of information and resources.
