a journey through landscapes real and imagined

Category: Non Fiction

Mind Over Medicine – A Review of Jo Marchant’s Cure

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My daughter has struggled with gastrointestinal issues her whole life. Our second (of many) gastroenterologist was a highly recommended physician who worked with early intervention, Easter Seals, and practiced at a well-respected hospital associated with a medical school in the Chicago area. I liked him right away. He was the first to really take her symptoms seriously. This was a serious doctor who used western medicine very well, but he also prescribed natural treatments – including homeopathic treatments. I trusted him and we used what he suggested. I think that it helped some, but really the underlying problem was yet to be identified – so in reality he did the best he could, and he definitely did no harm.

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Courage

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Be brave! Have courage! When I say these things to my daughter, I’m usually trying to help her tap into her superhero strength to get through the trauma of a doctor’s visit or a vaccination. Courage is something we put on to face the monsters under the bed or other not-so-pleasant experiences.   However, several of the books I’ve read recently seem to be teaching me a new way to think about courage. These stories demonstrate how living in community and putting others first are the most courageous things we can do. Sometimes, though, the first step is learning to believe in oneself.

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Reading

I love to read.  I read books, of course, but I also read landscapes.  As an ecologist, I am always considering the ecology of the places I go.  Ecology requires an understanding of relationships and how these relationships impact the development of communities and ecosystems.  Each place has an ecological story – a story of the non-living forces that acted to create soil, how seeds found their way to those small patches of soil, how the plants grew, changed the light reaching the soil and how the types of plants and animals changed over time.

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