God, I savoured everything word of this. I had to wait to read it until I could do it in one go and boy, was I in for a treat!
First of all, Maddie is her mother’s daughter through and through! Holy wow, is her healing inspirational. And bring on the woo! I wish I could have seen Randall’s face and the subsequent egg on it after Maddie’s eight day triumphant return. And her laughter in that video is pure sunshine and joy, just like you. Just beautiful.
Second of all, I’m all about the micro echoing the macro and the squeeze providing the evolutionary pressure that’s necessary for our growth, spiritual, physical, and mental. Thank you for a riveting essay and feeling of empowerment as we float on this here spaceship.
Good luck on the tourney, Maddie! You got woo woo putting wind in your sails. ❤️
Wow! Mary, this is a real winner! I love the way you take such a circuitous route to tell your story, and this was so interesting. I need to check into that Patrick method for the knee, and all the other remedies you mentioned. When I first retired I discovered pickleball, which was not well known back then, but I became a maniac and ruined my knee in the process. I had to quit because I refused to have a knee replacement. I still walk daily but it's not the same as pb.
Maddie is quite the amazing young woman which is not surprising with you for a mother. So, I say
"Down with the Experts!" and up with "Welcome the Squeeze!" Way to go, Mary. xox
I loved every word of this, Mary - beautifully expressed.
Such an inspiring story. I think the speed at which Maddie's ankle healed via embracing pain - is instructive on multiple levels, so timely to our times, and so encouraging.(I don't know her obviously, but feel proud of her!)
Even those who - as you put it, are adverse to adversity - can turn things around quickly.
We are definitely in profound times, and being shaped by them.
Great thoughts, Mary. Our pursuit of ease and convenience has made us fearful and soft, no doubt about it. The pressure cooker forces us to grow to meet the adversity.
Just wonderful, Mary. Hard to imagine a better argument for adversity. At a time when we are sold the benefits of a friction-free transactional life ad nauseum, I always say that the quality of life reflects the deliberate friction we create. Thanks for the validation...
I sent this to a dozen people so far. It is so important for us to embrace the hurt in the midst of so much personal and global discomfort. This is a powerful piece of wisdom, Mary.
I am so grateful to read this today! I am sending it to my daughter, who is currently away from her husband and family at Officer Training School for the USAF. She went from enlisted to the Officer rank after so many hoops. She injured her knee during something physical and difficult. Maddie sounds like an amazing woman, just like her mom. Pain, something to be avoided at all costs, whether internal or external, right? This is a view I hadn't even thought of, but it is 100% correct. People who have not gone through any adversity and come out the other side are seriously lacking in some aspect of character that could have been grown and tended to make them better, stronger, or morally upright or or or...choose your trait. Even being a parent and making it to the other side of their summers with us make us better people, better humans. Because kids can be the ultimate teachers. Thanks M.♥
Mary, I'm sure you can guess how much I love this story!! Kudos to Maddie for having the strength to question the "expert" regarding the healing of her own body.
I don't know why but Comfrey popped into my head immediately while reading about Maddie's injury. It's a wonderful plant that has amazing healing properties for bones, sprains, etc. but is often deemed "unsafe" by the powers that be. Do you know it? Rosemary Gladstar talks about Comfrey in this (old) video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8uXCsAfj_8
Many years ago when I was studying energy healing, a young woman contacted my teacher for distance healing on a pretty severe leg injury. We were all together for a workshop that weekend so we did a group distance healing. The results were remarkable.
The young people today like Maddie who believe in self-healing give me hope. 💚
Ketchin' up here an' so glad yer Maddie is not only fine n' dandy but back in the game!
She's got spunk an' determination, like her mama -- an' the gumption ta stand proud facin' pompous "author-it-tea!" (or Author-it-tay as Eric Cartman'd say!) Yer stomick must've fallen 'bout 23 storeys when ya saw the drop on the teevee--I'd say that'd be more ang-guish-in' than even a phonecall... so good on yer own "resilience" fer holdin' strong yerself--if crazy thoughts didn't go thru yer head when ya didn't know wha'happened (don't we all do it?) then I'm a monkey's uncle. So part've parentin' is copin' with bad nooz, anguish, watchin' our chillun' suffer (AN' recover!) an' bravin' those challenges an' hardships--an' yup, PAIN--is what bein' a "real human bean" is about! Them cyborg-AI-souped-up trans/tranny-"humanists" (surely oxy-moronic!) wanna escape the pain of real life... but they'll miss the rewards!
When my dear daughters ran fevers I welcomed 'em as a sign've healin'--you NEED heat /fever to heal--I imagine that's like not icin' an ankle ta heal cuz it precludes the heat. I also have a good friend, a homeopath, who long'go told me when ya burn yer finger, don't run cold on it--run warm--like heals like, warm heals a burn. Ya know what? She wuz right! It stings more but heals faster thatta way... no glass ankles an' no blisters neither
Ice is still nice if ya do the Wim Hof thing-a-madoo but that too is workin' thru pain... I wonder how cold AND hot kin indeed heal... cold builds brown fat (the good kind!) but RICE as far as proto-calls ... ain't NICE at all it seems ('cept fer "chicken soup with rice" but that's all 'bout Maurice Sendak / Really Rosie an' totally off topic!)--- so I learned a thing 'er 2 too--don't pay the PRICE of RICE cuz the amount've time you'll be put outta commish... is TWICE (like I said, I'mma poet an' I don't know it ha ha!)
Great post and big admiration for your young (in years only) daughter, who stands miles above her coddled, infantilized contemporaries.
The truths and anecdotes you share, allude to the reasons many of us "older" vets say, the "kids" in the military today are going to get slaughtered, if they ever have to put actual boots on the ground, in a sustained campaign or battle. Battles/Wars are 90% discomfort (mental, emotional, physical). Those who expect results via a few taps of a screen, a Venmo payment, pills/shots/masks/drug or equity training class - have one foot in the grave, where survival and victory are concerned.
If these virtual warriors - referring to not just military, but all who think the sphere in their phones/tablets is real - had been the first proto-homonids, we'd have never made it past the first winters or droughts.
You reminded me of two times in my military life, where dealing with injury and pain was just a given.
1. During a year of training (many different sister service schools) I'd also sprained my ankle and could not walk, unless it was tightly wrapped (ace bandage) and I was motrin-ed up. The flight doc offered the same RICE RX - to which I laughed (as would the others, the same training tract). That coddling treatment regime, would have had me eliminated from training and DX'd. So, as we all understood, you wrap it and then fall in and act like everything is fine. A week later I was in jump school with a lace up ankle brace and jumping off a 6 foot platform practicing landing falls, then onto the real thing. One thing my mom taught me was, "no one cares about your self pity or that your hurt, it's up to you to get up and do what you have to and not look for an easy way out". It was more loving, than it sounds.
2. Years later, I herniated a disc in my back and injured a knee, on a training jump, while we were deployed. After getting the feeling below my waist back, I was in a vehicle gathering the other team members, some injured, as well. A week later I was crammed in the back of a vehicle, going through the country we were deployed to. I told no one about the pain or injury (the knee was a normal thing for us all, so that was divulged to the docs, for motrin). The injury would have been grounds for being taken off jump status and sent home from the deployment. No one (back then) would have accepted that.
About 2 years later I finally brought it up in an exam and had to fight with 2 Ortho-surgeons (experts) who said the pain in my back (that would drop me to the floor about twice a year) was micro tears in the gluteal muscle. I told them it was skeletal and finally forced them to do an MRI. From that point on, my attitude was F' the experts.
We will not get these lost (on so many fronts and in many issues) generations back. You rarely can teach those who have been snuggled all their lives, to embrace and thrive in adversity. If we are to have societies of hearty-strong stock, it will be through attrition of the weak and take over by the strong, like your daughter and I'm sure her future children. That is where our hope is banked.
yup, an' thinkin' bout what'cha said about natural feedback, we also feel stronger an' more confident after we've conquered pain--an' injury, a hurt, a life trauma... an' lived thru it, healed. Folks protected in cotton wool from all such pains 're gonna grow up without the strength an' confidence to face such real life-stuff--an' fer all them years 've coddled protection, those wiltin' violets 're gonna be pains in the u-know-what fer life (com-p(l)ainers!)... Bravo again' ta Maddie--an' I love that she's pullin' a truck! (A skill that may come handy one day, ya never know!)
God, I savoured everything word of this. I had to wait to read it until I could do it in one go and boy, was I in for a treat!
First of all, Maddie is her mother’s daughter through and through! Holy wow, is her healing inspirational. And bring on the woo! I wish I could have seen Randall’s face and the subsequent egg on it after Maddie’s eight day triumphant return. And her laughter in that video is pure sunshine and joy, just like you. Just beautiful.
Second of all, I’m all about the micro echoing the macro and the squeeze providing the evolutionary pressure that’s necessary for our growth, spiritual, physical, and mental. Thank you for a riveting essay and feeling of empowerment as we float on this here spaceship.
Good luck on the tourney, Maddie! You got woo woo putting wind in your sails. ❤️
Wow! Mary, this is a real winner! I love the way you take such a circuitous route to tell your story, and this was so interesting. I need to check into that Patrick method for the knee, and all the other remedies you mentioned. When I first retired I discovered pickleball, which was not well known back then, but I became a maniac and ruined my knee in the process. I had to quit because I refused to have a knee replacement. I still walk daily but it's not the same as pb.
Maddie is quite the amazing young woman which is not surprising with you for a mother. So, I say
"Down with the Experts!" and up with "Welcome the Squeeze!" Way to go, Mary. xox
I loved every word of this, Mary - beautifully expressed.
Such an inspiring story. I think the speed at which Maddie's ankle healed via embracing pain - is instructive on multiple levels, so timely to our times, and so encouraging.(I don't know her obviously, but feel proud of her!)
Even those who - as you put it, are adverse to adversity - can turn things around quickly.
We are definitely in profound times, and being shaped by them.
Here's to welcoming the squeeze! Very best.
Great thoughts, Mary. Our pursuit of ease and convenience has made us fearful and soft, no doubt about it. The pressure cooker forces us to grow to meet the adversity.
I think this is what I was getting at with this post: https://thefreethinker.substack.com/p/why-the-narrative-refuses-to-die. Some of us find comfort within discomfort, and do not despair at the challenges, but see them as an opportunity to grow stronger.
Just wonderful, Mary. Hard to imagine a better argument for adversity. At a time when we are sold the benefits of a friction-free transactional life ad nauseum, I always say that the quality of life reflects the deliberate friction we create. Thanks for the validation...
I sent this to a dozen people so far. It is so important for us to embrace the hurt in the midst of so much personal and global discomfort. This is a powerful piece of wisdom, Mary.
Thank you.
I am so grateful to read this today! I am sending it to my daughter, who is currently away from her husband and family at Officer Training School for the USAF. She went from enlisted to the Officer rank after so many hoops. She injured her knee during something physical and difficult. Maddie sounds like an amazing woman, just like her mom. Pain, something to be avoided at all costs, whether internal or external, right? This is a view I hadn't even thought of, but it is 100% correct. People who have not gone through any adversity and come out the other side are seriously lacking in some aspect of character that could have been grown and tended to make them better, stronger, or morally upright or or or...choose your trait. Even being a parent and making it to the other side of their summers with us make us better people, better humans. Because kids can be the ultimate teachers. Thanks M.♥
Mary, I'm sure you can guess how much I love this story!! Kudos to Maddie for having the strength to question the "expert" regarding the healing of her own body.
I don't know why but Comfrey popped into my head immediately while reading about Maddie's injury. It's a wonderful plant that has amazing healing properties for bones, sprains, etc. but is often deemed "unsafe" by the powers that be. Do you know it? Rosemary Gladstar talks about Comfrey in this (old) video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8uXCsAfj_8
Many years ago when I was studying energy healing, a young woman contacted my teacher for distance healing on a pretty severe leg injury. We were all together for a workshop that weekend so we did a group distance healing. The results were remarkable.
The young people today like Maddie who believe in self-healing give me hope. 💚
Ketchin' up here an' so glad yer Maddie is not only fine n' dandy but back in the game!
She's got spunk an' determination, like her mama -- an' the gumption ta stand proud facin' pompous "author-it-tea!" (or Author-it-tay as Eric Cartman'd say!) Yer stomick must've fallen 'bout 23 storeys when ya saw the drop on the teevee--I'd say that'd be more ang-guish-in' than even a phonecall... so good on yer own "resilience" fer holdin' strong yerself--if crazy thoughts didn't go thru yer head when ya didn't know wha'happened (don't we all do it?) then I'm a monkey's uncle. So part've parentin' is copin' with bad nooz, anguish, watchin' our chillun' suffer (AN' recover!) an' bravin' those challenges an' hardships--an' yup, PAIN--is what bein' a "real human bean" is about! Them cyborg-AI-souped-up trans/tranny-"humanists" (surely oxy-moronic!) wanna escape the pain of real life... but they'll miss the rewards!
When my dear daughters ran fevers I welcomed 'em as a sign've healin'--you NEED heat /fever to heal--I imagine that's like not icin' an ankle ta heal cuz it precludes the heat. I also have a good friend, a homeopath, who long'go told me when ya burn yer finger, don't run cold on it--run warm--like heals like, warm heals a burn. Ya know what? She wuz right! It stings more but heals faster thatta way... no glass ankles an' no blisters neither
Ice is still nice if ya do the Wim Hof thing-a-madoo but that too is workin' thru pain... I wonder how cold AND hot kin indeed heal... cold builds brown fat (the good kind!) but RICE as far as proto-calls ... ain't NICE at all it seems ('cept fer "chicken soup with rice" but that's all 'bout Maurice Sendak / Really Rosie an' totally off topic!)--- so I learned a thing 'er 2 too--don't pay the PRICE of RICE cuz the amount've time you'll be put outta commish... is TWICE (like I said, I'mma poet an' I don't know it ha ha!)
Signin' out with some inspirin' ELEPHANT TOOTHPASTE! (we've seen this live, it's a hoot!, tusk tusk!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LItsBy1g4
Great post and big admiration for your young (in years only) daughter, who stands miles above her coddled, infantilized contemporaries.
The truths and anecdotes you share, allude to the reasons many of us "older" vets say, the "kids" in the military today are going to get slaughtered, if they ever have to put actual boots on the ground, in a sustained campaign or battle. Battles/Wars are 90% discomfort (mental, emotional, physical). Those who expect results via a few taps of a screen, a Venmo payment, pills/shots/masks/drug or equity training class - have one foot in the grave, where survival and victory are concerned.
If these virtual warriors - referring to not just military, but all who think the sphere in their phones/tablets is real - had been the first proto-homonids, we'd have never made it past the first winters or droughts.
You reminded me of two times in my military life, where dealing with injury and pain was just a given.
1. During a year of training (many different sister service schools) I'd also sprained my ankle and could not walk, unless it was tightly wrapped (ace bandage) and I was motrin-ed up. The flight doc offered the same RICE RX - to which I laughed (as would the others, the same training tract). That coddling treatment regime, would have had me eliminated from training and DX'd. So, as we all understood, you wrap it and then fall in and act like everything is fine. A week later I was in jump school with a lace up ankle brace and jumping off a 6 foot platform practicing landing falls, then onto the real thing. One thing my mom taught me was, "no one cares about your self pity or that your hurt, it's up to you to get up and do what you have to and not look for an easy way out". It was more loving, than it sounds.
2. Years later, I herniated a disc in my back and injured a knee, on a training jump, while we were deployed. After getting the feeling below my waist back, I was in a vehicle gathering the other team members, some injured, as well. A week later I was crammed in the back of a vehicle, going through the country we were deployed to. I told no one about the pain or injury (the knee was a normal thing for us all, so that was divulged to the docs, for motrin). The injury would have been grounds for being taken off jump status and sent home from the deployment. No one (back then) would have accepted that.
About 2 years later I finally brought it up in an exam and had to fight with 2 Ortho-surgeons (experts) who said the pain in my back (that would drop me to the floor about twice a year) was micro tears in the gluteal muscle. I told them it was skeletal and finally forced them to do an MRI. From that point on, my attitude was F' the experts.
We will not get these lost (on so many fronts and in many issues) generations back. You rarely can teach those who have been snuggled all their lives, to embrace and thrive in adversity. If we are to have societies of hearty-strong stock, it will be through attrition of the weak and take over by the strong, like your daughter and I'm sure her future children. That is where our hope is banked.
This is GREAT. Thank you so much. I am so proud of your daughter--what a warrior!!
Eloquent and inspiring as always Mary, thank you.
Beautiful, as always Mary. Just shared w a few friends
yup, an' thinkin' bout what'cha said about natural feedback, we also feel stronger an' more confident after we've conquered pain--an' injury, a hurt, a life trauma... an' lived thru it, healed. Folks protected in cotton wool from all such pains 're gonna grow up without the strength an' confidence to face such real life-stuff--an' fer all them years 've coddled protection, those wiltin' violets 're gonna be pains in the u-know-what fer life (com-p(l)ainers!)... Bravo again' ta Maddie--an' I love that she's pullin' a truck! (A skill that may come handy one day, ya never know!)