Positive Remedies

One day, Mrs. Pham, a sixty year old U.S immigrant, asked her first son, a Boy Scout who was awarded the Eagle Scout medal:

“What would you do if you got diarrhea while you were in the wild jungle that had only three kinds of trees: mango, guava, and papaya. I mean: what kind of leaves should you choose to eat for curing diarrhea while you do not have any medicine?”

The son frowned and said, “Mom, why do you always ask me bunch of weird questions?”

Mrs. Pham shook her head:

“I do not see anything weird in my question at all! It‘s from the reality of life. After 1975, there were many prisoners working hard on the fields in Vietnam Re-education camps but they did not have much food to eat. They were so hungry that they could gobble up the live animals that they were able to catch such as: baby fish, shrimps, crabs, mice, frogs… Those raw meats caused bad diarrhea. To cure it, they had to find the wild guava trees. By luck, they were cured by the guava leaves. After being in prison, they immigrated to the United States through the Orderly Departure Program and Humanitarian Settlement Program. Some of them are now living near us. If you want to know their true stories, you can ask them!”

The son listened quietly. He did not say a word, but Mrs. Pham was sad because of the conversation.

Another day, a female cockatiel of Mrs. Pham was bleeding. The right leg of the cockatiel was scratched deeply by a long nail of a decorated basket where she hid to lay eggs. Mrs. Pham’s second son, also a Boy Scout who got the Eagle Scout medal while studying bio-chemistry, was so worried. He used a bandage to cover the cockatiel’s wound. He wanted to use pressure to control the bleeding; however, the deep wound was still bleeding so much and the bandage from the thigh of the cockatiel dropped down to her tarsal ankle. He took the wet bandage out then re-covered the wound by another bandage but result was not different. Mrs. Pham told him: “Your way doesn’t work! Let me take care of her!”

She took the wet bandage filled with blood out of the cockatiel’s tarsus and threw it into the trash can.

The son yelled: “What are you doing, Mom?”

Mrs. Pham did not answer. She took a jar of turmeric powder, opened the lid, took a pinch of turmeric powder then sprinkled them around the wounded thigh of the cockatiel. The wound was still bleeding but the stream of blood was blocked by turmeric powder.

Mrs. Pham’s third son came in. He and his brother, the second son, gasped when they were watching their mother and the bird. One boy shook his head unceasingly while the other one said with disappointed voice tone, “What are you doing, Mom? It’s crazy!”

Mrs. Pham looked sad but she did not say anything. She continued adding turmeric powder to the cockatiel’s wound where the blood was still oozing. A few minute later, the turmeric powder blocked the bleeding and penetrated into the blood stream creating an orange line on the cockatiel’s leg. Mrs. Pham sprinkled the turmeric powder one more time. The wound stopped bleeding but the leg and even whole body of a cockatiel looked awful with messy orange color powder.

Two days later, the wound of the cockatiel was healed and she could fly from place to place in the room. When she flew back into the cage, Mrs. Pham caught her to check her carefully before she gave her a quick bath with warm water. After the bath, all orange turmeric powder was washed away and the cockatiel looked very clean and healthy. Her quick recovery surprised the three sons of Mrs. Pham. Mrs. Pham looked satisfied but she stayed quiet.

Sadness sometimes appeared on Mrs. Pham’s face but it faded right after she stepped out of the backdoor and walked outside to the deck. From the deck, she usually looked down her backyard garden with satisfaction. The garden was a place for her meditation in which many positive thoughts sparkled in her mind. She liked watching the birds flying from tree to tree and the squirrels running around the lawn. Mrs. Pham was very glad and content to see the animals so happy and carefree. The robins, wrens, cardinals, blue Jay, mourning doves, squirrels and chipmunks got used with the sound “Tuk Ta Tu, Ta Tuk!” of Mrs. Pham; they usually came to her garden right after she filled the birdfeeders with the sunflower seeds and millets and spread some of them along the fence of the wood area. With Mrs. Pham’s arrangement, the birds, squirrels, chipmunks could eat peacefully and they did not have to fight each other for food. Every day, early in the morning, they came to their self-assigned spots to wait for food, then ate and socialized. They rarely went to other places in the garden, nor did they go to the garden in the afternoon because they knew that Mrs. Pham provided seeds and pieces of bread in the morning. Mrs. Pham was fascinated their understanding and cleverness. She appreciated their friendliness when approaching to her.

The herbal plants in Mrs. Pham garden were sufficient for her family as well as for the wild animals. There were mints, water celeries, oregano, gingers, heartleaves, chives, corianders, lemon grass, marjoram sweet, spirit weeds, green onions, chilies, ramie and perilla. They are reliable medicinal herbs. Long ago, she bought these plants from the Asian markets in the Washington metropolitan area or given to her by her friends from their garden plants. Most of these friends are her childhood friends from the same hometown Nha Trang, Vietnam. She and her friends came to the United States by different ways and in different time; however, they shared the same cultures and upbringing and live styles. They lived within their means. They had a habit of using herbs to prevent and to cure illnesses. Most of the plants in their gardens could be considered as eastern medicine but they could cook them or eat them raw like any edible vegetable. Depending on the season, specific kinds of plants were used. Such as: mints for cold, water celery for high blood pressure, oregano and heartleaf for asthma, chives for cough, coriander for arthritis, perilla leaves for acne and infections (used externally), lemon grass for cold and cough (cooking with food, or inhaling steam when boiling), marjoram sweet medicinally for digestion, rami leaves for swelling pains (used externally, aloe vera for sunburns or hair growing (used externally). The cilantro and green onion were dashed in the soup or other types of dish for decorating but also for preventing the common cold.

Like other lady friends from Vietnam, Mrs. Pham spent a lot of time in her garden during the summer. She cultivated the soil, planted the vegetables, trimmed the branches, removed dust or watered the plants. She always stayed there from dawn to dust. She felt happy when she watched the animals playing around her garden. Every day, she would spend hours watching them eating the seeds that she filled in the birdfeeders, or watching them drink the fresh water that she poured into the birdbaths.

The squirrels and the chipmunks did not care who the containers belonged to; they remembered well where they could get food or drinks. The rabbits also knew well where they could find their food. They used to run straight into the lawn or the Ong choy (water spinach) beds. They did not know who their parents were, where they were from or what food or drinks they should use for their health. They just looked for food when they were hungry and went to find water when they were thirsty. The more Mrs. Pham watched the wild animals, the more her heart went out to them. So she always remembered to provide them with food, clean water and herbal plants for their health.

Mrs. Pham took good care of her plants because she wanted to be sure that the vegetables in her garden were not food but also could be used as herbal medicine for all beings. The animals learned what kind of vegetables which were good for their empty stomach, and which ones could be used as medicines. At first, the small bunnies were bewildered by the big green world surrounding them. They then tried to taste little by little of each plant to see which ones they liked best and learned from experimenting.

Mrs. Pham’s found out that with this experience, it was quite different from what she thought when she was young. Before, she thought humans knew which plants could cure illness because of the first discovery of the animals. She remembered by heart the stories about animal instincts that her mother told her every night at bedtime. One of the stories that imprinted in her mind was about the hunter who went hunting in the mountain where he saw a baby fox who was bitten by a big poisonous snake. The wound on the baby fox was bleeding so badly that the baby fox could not stand up. He became weak and almost fainted. The mother fox looked so worried but she was calm. She gently went to the bushes, searched each plant and picked up some leaves. She chewed them until they became a poultice, then she put it on her baby’s wound. After a moment, the baby fox’s wound was healed. He stood up then ran happily along with his mother into the forest. The hunter was so surprised that he could not believe his eyes. He hurried to those plants from which the mother fox had picked up the leaves. He took some home with him and secretly grew them in his yard for curing people who were bitten by the snakes. He became rich from selling those leaves as medicines.

This story gave Mrs. Pham the ideas that people of the ancient time learned how to use the herbal medicines by watching how the animals did it. They then passed their experience to their children and grandchildren from generation to generation. From this convincing theory, Mrs. Pham constantly saved herbal plants by removing them from the garden to the pots in the house during the winter then planting them in the garden during the summer from years to years. She saved them with the idea of using them in the future, especially when the needed medicine was hard to be found in the pharmacies, or when hospitals could not afford to give them to their patients.

Since December 2019, the media reported continuously about the strange virus, called coronavirus in Wuhan, China. There were people who were infected by this virus who suddenly collapsed, fell into coma and died immediately before reaching the hospitals. Even anyone with this illness could be taken to the hospital; the chance of recovery was very slim. Doctors, nurses and medical staff could not take care of the large number of patients while they were quickly attacked by this extremely contagious virus. The pandemic spread quickly across the globe and the death toll had been increasing every day. Mrs. Pham paid more attention to the news. She read the latest articles and watched many videos about the deadly coronavirus. Scientists and medical researchers desperately tried to find a ways to stop the virus but failed at that moment. People across the globe immediately limited their daily, normal activities. Most of them were just stuck in their own homes. Most countries passed laws about distancing, requiring mask wearing and banning all forms of travel. Mrs. Pham temporarily stopped working in the office and had to work remotely from home. She felt relieved because she would not be stared at by insensitive people who thought that she came from the country that was spreading the coronavirus across the globe. Besides, with working from home, she would not be infected by the virus with cross-contamination if she had traveled back and forth from work to home by buses or metro.

Working from home gave Mrs. Pham the chance to wander more often in her yard and to observe the wild animals in the woods. She thought over and over the rumors about the bat soup that gave people the virus, which she did not believe. However, she believed the wild birds and wild animals should be cared for intentionally. If not, they would get sick easily, and die quickly; then their corpses would be a source of many kinds of virus that can easily affect human’s health and lives.

When the Coronavirus surges in the United States, Mrs. Pham spent more time reading in depth about the symptoms of the virus. She recalled all types of illnesses that were similar and related to respiration, such as tuberculosis and influenza. She then telephoned her Vietnamese friends who lived all over the United States to discuss with them about coronavirus, the herbs and the remedies, such as steaming the whole house with boiling lemon grass, gingers and onions, and also using for inhalation, if needed.

Ms. La, who lived in Arkansas, told Mrs. Pham that she got positive test for the coronavirus but she was denied the hospitalization due to no beds available. So, she treated herself at home by combining western medicine with eastern medicines.

Ms. La took Tylenol and vitamin C while using folk remedies such as rinsing her mouth with salt water, steaming her whole body and healing the steam from boiling water of lemongrass and gingers; drinking ginger tea and practicing breathing exercise.

After 2 weeks, she took another coronavirus test and the result, surprisingly, was negative. It was such a relief for her and family!

Ms. La told Mrs. Pham that she believed the herbal remedies were effective for curing the coronavirus. Mrs. Pham agreed with Ms. La that she was cured by using herbal remedies, combining with western medicine.

Using the same methods as Ms. La, Mrs. Pham started to inhale the eucalyptus oil and also used it to rub it all over herself when she had to go out of the house. When she got back home, she steamed herself with lemongrass, tangerine peels and lemon leaves, and she rinsed her mouth with salt water while taking herbal plants like gingers, onions, garlics, cilantro, lemons and mints with meals.

Once Mrs. Pham had to fly down to Florida for a literary conference and when she was back home again, her husband and her children asked her to take coronavirus test right away. The result of the test was negative. That was a surprise to them, but they did not ask her how she prevented herself from getting this deadly virus during the high point of the pandemic. They thought that she used masks, sanitizers, disinfectants and stayed away from other at least two arm lengths. In reality, she was sitting in a crowded airplane where she was surrounded by other people. Because of this situation, she rubbed eucalyptus oil to her nose for temporary steaming so that she could prevent the virus from getting into her lungs.

Believing in herbal remedies, Mrs. Pham had been steaming her whole house at least twice a week. She boiled the lemongrass leaves with ginger, orange peels and eucalyptus oil to prevent the virus from entering and destroying it if it appeared in her house. She did not tell her children what she was doing it and why she was doing it. She did not want to disclose what she was doing because she was afraid that they would make fun of her and tell her that she was crazy. She was quietly happy with the good results when her family members took the tests right after they travel out- of-town. The negative results of coronavirus gave her a lot of confidence in the traditional herbal remedy.

Even with her family safe at the moment, Mrs. Pham was not satisfied with the whole situation. She was so overwhelmed with stress by the worldwide death toll along with the long duration of the pandemic. She thought over and over the same questions in her mind: “Why have not the scientists and the medical practitioners ever asked what techniques, or methods that most patients used for self-curing the virus so successfully; and why have some virus test results turned from positive to negative?” For the ordinary people, who never worked in the medical field, they would never want to disclose their treatment techniques because they did not want to hear “You are crazy!” or “You acted like a witch doctor!” Because of that, their effective remedies had been kept secret.

Mrs. Pham wished the medical researchers take some time to research patiently so that the different treatment methods could be disclosed by the ordinary people. She believed the stoicism of an object not only relied on modern science but also depended on very trivial mysteries as long as professionals knew how to communicate with ordinary people and non-professionals who had some experiences from their homelands. She wishes the total death was lesser.

With many conflicting thoughts in her mind, Mrs. Pham could not sleep well. She had been suffering severe sleeplessness from December 2019 up on the winter 2020. Each night, she quietly came to the window nearby her bed to look down the woods. She was haunted by voices of whining, crying and praying. Many voices went through the leafless trees making many deathly horrible sounds. Mrs. Pham believed all her animal friends were hiding tight in their shelters in the dark wood as with other nights. They did not know anything about virus, illness, pandemic, quarantine or other similar issues. They might simply think of the sunrise and they would have another day to find food and water. Mrs. Pham looked at a tall tree by her garden’s fence that had many branches covered by the tufty vines. These thick vines provided safe havens for the squirrels and many birds in the tall branches that were covered by the vines up to the super high tops of the tree. Mrs. Pham did not know the name of the tree, and the name of the vines; she called the tree “the big tall building tower”. During the snowy days, squirrels and birds came down from “the big tall building tower” to get food on the surrounding ground that Mrs. Pham named “the canteen”. Whether it was a snowy day, rainy days or dry day, she regularly threw the seeds and bread crumbs around the tree. She wanted to share a small contribution for wildlife conservation. Further, she wanted to plant more vines around the other trees so that the birds and squirrels would have more places to live and the deer could find food easily.

One night, Mrs. Pham was deep in sleep and had a long dream. She was in a huge crowd of people running through the leafless trees of the wood up to the hill. They were panting and trembling while trying to get through the big snowy wind. Behind them, many great waves were chasing them. After many hours, they crossed the hill and finally reached to the top where they no longer saw the big waves or the snowy wind; however, the climate was so cold. They found a big cave and stayed there. They used their body heat to warm each other while sleeping. The next day, it was warmer and the whole group walked through the woods. They followed the squirrels, the rabbits, and the deer to find the edible plants for food. After a while, they found an apple tree with some dried fruits and some mints. While they were eating the dried apples, Mrs. Pham realized people in the group were all different races with different types of clothes but they looked the same: miserable with skinny bodies. They certainly got though many difficulties in a long time. Despite the situation, they smiled kindly when they listened to each other patiently and shared their ideas sincerely. They agreed to save the mints for preventing cough and cold. They also cared, supported and comforted each other on the way back to the cave. Day after day, they still stayed in the large group that Mrs. Pham finally reunited her husband and her friends from her homeland. Every day, they followed the group to look for the wild fruits and edible plants. They searched them as easily as if they had saved them beforehand. While the group stayed in the top of the hill, there were many aircraft with different shapes flying in the sky. Some of them tried hard to land but only one with an oval shape could make it. The group of people on the hill was so happy when they heard the loud noise of the aircraft. They ran out of the cave and gathered around the green field where the oval aircraft opened its wings and landed. Happiness and hope glowed in their hearts. Mrs. Pham felt her heart beating faster when her eyes were directly starring at the landed aircraft. A group of young people with pilot clothes like astronaut's suits stepped out with some robots and two dogs. The crew of the aircraft told people were waiting for them that they were looking for help. They ran out of foods and fuels. Mrs. Pham looked at the group of people whose faces were with tears of despair, her heart became beating harder and harder. Sweats were constantly pouring on her forehead and she startled awake. In a state of apprehension, she lay still with many disarrayed thoughts. She tried to recall all the details of her bad dream, then tried to analyze why she had them. They might be from the anxiety in which she could not express her thinking and feeling to anyone. They might be coming up from her worries about epidemics, natural disasters, world climate change, society protection, the recent public health problem and the future of the environment.

She thought about the effective treatment methods for saving human lives. The treatments for physical problem could not be separated from the ones for mental health problem. The eastern and western methods of treating an illness should be mingled for the best results. She then asked herself: “How could it be?” Understanding and sympathy could not develop naturally or suddenly! People should proactively bring out the problem with explanation so that the others could be interested to get involved and input their solution. If she did not say or did not explain things that she had been done, how her children could know her experience. Quietness would create a big gap between the young and old generation from year to year.

She reviewed the time that she paid much attention on the environment and wild animals then realized young people of this era did not have much time to observe their surroundings. If they had chance to observe the environment and realized how hard the animals lived through the difficult conditions, they would use their intelligence to serve the world effectively. Mrs. Pham decided to change her behavior. She would not be quiet but talk to her children more often. Her conversation would be about the nature, world climate change, protecting the natural environment and the ways to help poor wild animals. Her children probably tell their friends about her stories, and their friends would retell them to more and more people. When the stories were spread, many good ideas would be contributed. Over the years, many creative programs would be implemented for preserving the world environment and dealing with the world climate change.

That time, people in the world would listen to each other with sympathy and respect. Everyone, young or old, rich or poor in the world treat each other with fairness and understanding. They shared ideas and experience. After 100 years of a transition, everyone would adapt the changes, break the barrier of separation/isolation and find out the best solution for each problem. They then unite for the best of mankind and become a great harmony world for preserving the bright and beautiful environment for their future generations.

“If everyone thought that the earth was a common house of all, then everyone should take responsibility of protecting and preserving it. If we could do that, the future of our younger generations would be much better. And that would be the most effective remedy of all!”

Mrs. Pham smiled when she imagined about a beautiful transformed society where everyone could share their intelligence, experience and labor to build, to serve and to care the entire world. Despite of climate change, the generations of the year 2200 would save the earth and make it better. People in the world would not worry about foods, clothing, shelters or energy. The green technology and advance science provide plenty of resources that eliminate scarcity of food, disease, or war. Beside of that, the robots would make their lives easier. The comfort would make them get more interested in art and designs than the flashy materials. Money, gold, diamonds or other fancy materials would not be more valid. The envy of possession would be replaced by love and care. In Mrs. Pham’s mind, the world of the year 2200 would be prosperous and flourishing that she had ever seen.

Cung Thị Lan

March 2021, Maryland, USA