I’ve often found comfort in learning how things were done in the old days: pumping water with a windmill or the construction of a homemade quilt. But how will the world look for my kids? How many of their problems can be solved using the old ways?
I brought my eldest daughter home sick prior to reading break. She’d developed a reaction to the sulfa drugs prescribed for strep throat. Already allergic to penicillin, she healed on homemade soup, garlic, ginger, pro-biotics and a salt water gargle. We also dealt with some of major stressors that were plaguing her.
We live in stressful times. Stress is a huge contributing factor to disease, can raise blood pressure, even cause migraines. If someone asked me years ago: “How are you dealing with stress?” I’d have shrugged my shoulders. I tried to ignore stress altogether. Thank God for meditation, journaling and the wonders of EFT.
But back to my daughter, who graduates in June and didn’t know what she wanted to do or be. People kept asking if she’d enrolled in post-secondary but she didn’t know what was right for her.
She told me about a picture she saw once: a graduate was handed a diploma and wore a huge weight of debt around the neck. The image stuck with her. Why study for the sake of studying and risk coming out of school disappointed with a huge debt? I understood her dilemma and wasn’t about to push her.
When she felt better, she dug into our late Grandma’s old material stores. I took out a sewing machine and a neighbour showed her how it worked. She began creating. Later she confessed wanting to own a boutique and sell her creations. Now we were on to something.
We looked on-line at various fashion colleges but she still balked at the debt and would have to wait a year to be old enough to enroll in one that looked interesting. What did they do in the old days? They utilized apprenticeship.
We did an on-line search for clothing manufacturers in Saskatchewan, turning up several. Entry level jobs probably wouldn’t pay much, but would provide opportunities to learn fashion, which she loves.
We don’t have the details worked out, but have lifted stress. She’s happily creating and headed back to finish high school. Is it possible the old ways have saved us once again?
