Happy Spring & All The Gifts She Brings
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Are You Ready for Spring?
Spring is here and everyone is busy getting their gardens ready for planting. Windows are being opened to let the fresh air in. Winter clothing is being put away and lighter ones brought out.*
Change is all around and all of life is feeling it.
The sounds and smells of Spring are distinctive. The birds and land creatures are out and about frolicking and leaping with joy.
Spring is here and Life is being renewed once more.
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Spring and Fall are two major season changes that affect us greatly in many ways.
Preparations must be made for the coming season changes and our bodies are certainly a part of this yearly ritual.
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In the fall we changed our diet and way of life to accommodate the season changes. And now again we do the same.
The heavier foods with more fats are being replaced with lighter and simpler meals.
Our bodies are needing some “gardening” preparations just like the land.
It is time for a Spring Cleansing Program to help us make this transition.
You might look around and are seeing more people having colds or flus and of course allergies. You too might be experiencing more mucous than normal.
This is the body’s response to the season change. It’s own house cleaning has begun.
So how can we help ourselves through this season change and hopefully minimize the symptoms?
Nature in Her perfection gives us just what we need when we need it!
Dandelions are all around. So beautiful and bright sharing their joy She beckons us to partake of Her healing gifts.
Dandelions** are a wonderful natural liver cleanser and a lot more.
When you can, pick a leaf and chew on her. Always pick leaves that are free of car fumes and chemicals of course. And always give Her thanks for this gift.
You can add the flowers to your salads as well as the leaves. Wild dandelion is a bit more bitter but that is just what we want for the extra Spring healing power.
You can use cultivated dandelion that is now available at many health foods all year long. So lucky are we!
Make a bed of dandelion greens, baby kale, and spinach on your dinner plate and then put your food on top. The heat of the food will lightly soften the greens and add nutrients to your meal.
As we move more into summer use this mix as the base for your salads.
There are many cleansing programs available right now and in the next newsletter I will talk about some of these.
But for today I want to keep this very simple. With dandelions popping up all around it is a perfect time for us all to partake in Nature’s healing gift.
The best part is this gift is free and plentiful.
So grab a bowl and take a walk. Remember to always give thanks for the plant gifts we take.
Join Life’s choir and sing your thanks as we are now breathing in Spring’s renewed life force.
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Together Our Hands Are Joined To Heal One Another…
Alexander Gardener
The Lymph Guy
thelymphguy@gmail.com
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*As I am getting ready to send this we are having one of our spring/winter storms. But the dandelions seem not to care as they keep just popping up all around.
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**Here is some technical information about dandelions you might enjoy! You can read the complete article here.
All the above curative functions, and more, have been attributed to one plant known to everyone, Taraxacum officinale, which means the “Official Remedy for Disorders.” We call it the common dandelion. It is so well respected, in fact, that it appears in the U.S. National Formulatory, and in the Pharmacopeias of Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union. It is one of the top 6 herbs in the Chinese herbal medicine chest.
According to the USDA Bulletin #8, “Composition of Foods” (Haytowitz and Matthews 1984), dandelions rank in the top 4 green vegetables in overall nutritional value. Minnich, in “Gardening for Better Nutrition” ranks them, out of all vegetables, including grains, seeds and greens, as tied for 9th best. According to these data, dandelions are nature’s richest green vegetable source of beta-carotene, from which Vitamin A is created, and the third richest source of Vitamin A of all foods, after cod-liver oil and beef liver! They also are particularly rich in fiber, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and the B vitamins, thiamine and riboflavin, and are a good source of protein
