So I am relaxing and enjoying my much needed day off when I receive an email from a client who was unhappy with my response to their email question. This person was upset with me because I told them that there were no such thing as curses (just MY belief) and they needed to take some specific actions if they wanted to change their lives. Now being in this field for over 15 years I have learned to accept the fact that sometimes (luckily VERY rarely but it does happen) I am the target for people who are unhappy with their lives and need someone to take it out on. Rather than responding (as I do not feed into this type of behavior) I went outside to sit on my deck and enjoy this beautiful day. While I was sitting there I noticed some Jewelweed…and the idea for this blog was born.
Many years ago I was taking an herbal class which involved lots of hours hiking through the woods. I had let my 
teacher know of my concerns with coming into contact with Poison Ivy as this plant and I have never had a good relationship. In fact it lead me to MANY doctor visits, shot, steroid packs and endless days of discomfort. Oddly enough it always seemed to grow in abundance wherever I was! The herbalist informed me that when Poison Ivy appeared around me it was actually there to protect me (as most people “stay away” from it). Now whether that is true or not I do not know. However, I will tell you from that moment on I had a new respect for this plant and it has been YEARS since I have had an outbreak… but I digress (shocking I know). While she was teaching me about Poison Ivy she also educated me on Jewelweed. For those of you who are not familiar with this wonderful gem of a plant (no pun intended…jewel, gem….lol), it is actually the antidote for poison ivy! In fact wherever there is Poison Ivy there will be Jewel weed growing near by! Isn’t it amazing how nature is designed to be in perfect harmony!
So I am sitting there staring at my Jewelweed and I am thinking how amazing nature is. How it, in all its wisdom, places the solution (Jewelweed) right next to the problem (Poison Ivy). I also start wondering how many people even know that the Jewelweed IS the antidote for the Poison Ivy? Then I start thinking that it isn’t enough to just be aware that the Jewelweed is there, you need to be willing to USE IT, and you need to know how to use it. And it hits me…life is like Poison Ivy and Jewel weed!
Sometimes in life we have these “irritations”, “rashes” in our lives. Sometimes our lives are not going the way we would like. It is during these time that many turn to the philisophy of the dreaded CURSE! Ahhhh….wouldn’t it be so wonderful if life was really THAT simple. I would LOVE to think that every bad thing that I have experienced can be easily remedied by paying someone to remove a curse! Who wouldn’t willing pay $500, $1000….heck maybe even $10,000 to live in perfect harmony without having to do ANYTHING! Of course if it was that simple I am sure we would all save up our money, have our “curses” removed and go on to live our happy perfect lives. Obviously this is not true cause even the wealthiest of people have horrible things happen and they CAN pay to have their curses removed:) Bottom line is you need to seek out the tools to fix your problems, then you need to use those tools. Like nature, the universe provides you with everything you need!
I have to tell you that I am personally VERY concerned about the world we live in. We are all about the “quick
fixes”. Let me pop a pill rather then rest and allow my body to heal! Let me pop some pills to lose weight rather then eat healthy and exercise (who has time for that). Let me look around to see who I can blame my life on rather then realize that the common denominator is ME! We need to get back to the basics. Life is not perfect! Bad things happen! I have said this a billion times and I will continue to say it until my dying day…..”some of our most valuable lessons come from the traumas in our lives”. Things are taken away to force us to go in another direction! Trust me I know first hand how hard that can be sometimes!
In the email the person suggested that maybe my “bad response” was a result of negative things happening in my life which in turn were effecting my usual cheery personality. Actually it is not the negative things effecting my personality. In fact it is the lack of responsibility people take for their problems. YES, I HAVE had a HUGE personality shift in the last few years. I am no longer willing to sit and allow people to play the “helpless victim of circumstance” role. I am going to give it to you straight, no sugar coating! I am about teaching people to take their POWER back! The truth may not always be what we want to hear but it is the ONLY way to find that path that leads to connecting you with or TRUE AUTHENTIC self.
So if you are feeling like life is beating you down and you are falling into the belief that a curse is to blame here is what I suggest to you:
- Do not contact me as you will NOT like my response
- Read “The Four Agreements”
- Read “Welcome To My Crisis”
- Take the $500 spell removal money (is that the going rate now?) and treat yourself to a Holistic Retreat weekend filled with mediation, energy work and long walks in the woods. FEED YOUR SOUL NOT YOUR FEAR!
- Know that life is about choices and NO ONE HAS POWER OVER YOU UNLESS YOU ALLOW THEM TOO!
And finally….this is an example of how you take a negative and turn it into a positive in your life. Your email has been responded to. THANK YOU for inspiring me:)
1) I LOVE what you wrote about the solution being right next to the problem.
2) Jewel weed holds a special place in my heart. As a very young child, my parents taught me about ‘Popper Seeds’. The popper seeds are the seed pod of jewel weed – as an animal brushes against the plant, the seed pod BURSTS open and the plant spreads its seeds wherever the wind, rain and animals take it.
Seeing jewel weed, or ‘Popper Seeds’ always makes me smile but now in addition to the happy family memories, I’ll be thinking that the solution to my problems may just POP out of nowhere like those old seeds and I should let nature carry them where it may.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Lisa Ann!
Thank you for sharing! Love the analogy of the solution “popping” out of nowhere!!!!!!!!!!!! You are awesome!
Lisa VERY well said……… 🙂
Love it!!! have known about jewelweed for years never sw it growing next to poison ivy have to look harder…..it’s true about curses they only work if you feed into them….I hate when people go that route…….
Lisa, you always hit the nail right on the head! I studied with an herbalist some years and she told me that” whatever you need grows around you”. I learned about jewelweed and poison ivy then.You made many good points! Go Girl! Keep giving the truth!
Wonderful. I will be in touch with a question. Timing is everything!
I love it. Thank you for saying it straight with a spiritual twist. You are a jewel!
Loved your response…however…a “profit” had told me a few years ago that I know how to remove curses…then I had to think how I did that…too easy to do…I’ve done it repeatedly in my reiki sessions, which makes me more of a spiritual healer, since I use alot of divine guidance…however…I in so doing, I teach these people how to do it…albeit, they don’t want to help themselves…EVER! I use Doreen Virtue’s approach…just ask Arch. Michael to release all negative etheric chords and remove all knives and daggars…anyone can do it if they wish…So There…a “curse” is removed…or perhaps more likely…cellular memory and neg. etheric chords are dispelled. Think of “curses” as these neg. etheric chords and you actually can help people begin to heal…or not depending upon their own inner world.
Until I was 35 I never got any reaction to PI & usta brag about it as a kid, sitting down in patches in my shorts, until on a hot sweaty summer day when barehanded I was ripping a bunch of it out of the flower garden in front of the house we lived in. I got a rash on my wrists, which is where it usually shows up. I disliked PI so I decided to find out something positive about it. And I did. Poison Ivy is a Guardian Plant. It grows on the edges of Woods & Forests & Shores. It actually holds together much of our sandy shoreline on the East coast as its roots form a sort of hairnet to keep the sand in place. Birds like the berries & thus spread it. If you want to know how to use Jewelweed here’s an URL: http://www.altnature.com/jewelweed.htm
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