If you have a child with ADHD or know someone with ADHD this 2 part series is a worthwhile read.
An Alternative Thought to ADHD
Crazy Mama's Place: Crazy Mama's Place: THE FRONT PORCH: Crazy Mama's Place: THE FRONT PORCH : An Alternative Thought for ADHD Part 1 In January of 2018 my daughter phoned and told ...
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Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
Crazy Mama's Place: THE FRONT PORCH
Crazy Mama's Place: THE FRONT PORCH:
An Alternative Thought for ADHD Part 1
In January of 2018 my daughter phoned and told me she needed me to come and pick up her ten year old son. J.C. had had behavioral problems pretty much all of his life. My daughter had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when J.C. was about two years old, however, because Rae had been sick since he was born her parenting skills weren’t quite up to par. It’s difficult to deal with a child when you’re too sick to get out of bed or when you feel like your insides are falling out. J.C. learned to be the captain of his own ship from a very early age.
When J.C. was about six or seven, my daughter phoned to tell me that he’d seen a new doctor. This doctor diagnosed J.C. with ODD (oppositional Defiance Disorder). I laughed and told my daughter that he didn’t have ODD, “he has “lackawhoopass.” When a child has known no boundaries, has had no consistent disciplinary actions taken, and has been the boss of his life for as long as he could remember, ODD may have been the result, but in my estimation there was a cause. I wondered if ODD could be the result of a learned behavior and not from a brain malfunction. In my mind the cause was lack of consistent disciplinary action, no boundaries set and that he’d been allowed to make his own decisions and discipline for pretty much all of his life. He had this fortitude about him that if he was told “no” he would make it a yes come hell or high water. Why should he listen to anyone when he’d always been the one to decide whether or not to do something and when he would do it? This little quirk in his personality came to full light when he began school. Teachers, principals and others found J.C. difficult to deal with because he would never listen to them, he did not care what they wanted him to do and he made it more than evident he didn’t care.
When J.C. was four years old he became enraged when another child did something to him and he literally went off the deep end as far as behavior was concerned. No teacher, police officer or anyone else could control him. He would go into these blind rages and destroy whatever was in his path and for those who would try to coerce him by touching him it was as if he could eat them up and spit them on the ground. He was in this type of rage and the school felt it was necessary to lock down and call in the police force. When my daughter called to tell me this I laughed and kept saying that she was lying because I couldn’t imagine that a school full of adults couldn’t control one little four year old. As time went on, J.C.’s behavior only worsened.
J.C. quickly had become the “bad boy” that no one wanted around them or their children. J.C. didn’t get along with kids his own age. He didn’t get along with adults because he wouldn’t listen and they couldn’t handle the fact that a child would be so disrespectful and defiant. By the time he was nine years old, J.C. had four felonies hanging over him and the children’s service agency was ready to take action and place him in a boy’s home or even juvenile detention because of his behavior.
For years I had begged my daughter to send J.C. to me so that I could work with him. I commend her for not wanting him to feel like she had given up on him, but I had told her that each year that went by made it that much harder to find the things that could help him and that she may wind up waiting to late. For J.C. that time, almost too late, came quickly.
J.C. had already been in the hospital psychiatric ward twice. He was on at least two very high power anti-psychotic drugs and his behavior was only getting worse. No one seemed to be able to keep him under control. No prescribed medications seem to lessen his symptoms, they actually made them worse. According to his school, J.C., was borderline mentally retarded and at the age of ten, J.C. couldn’t read, couldn’t count to twenty (and barely could count to ten without getting confused) and he had no concept of how just everyday things worked.
Now I will tell you that I am not a big proponent of medicine as it’s prescribed today. The medical industry is far to concentrated on the bottom line----money, instead of the true causes of an illness. I’ve had many instances within my own family where I have used natural medicines to help cure or subside symptoms of an illness and that has made me a true believer. In my estimation, God created an entire world with all of the things we need. That includes the means to heal ourselves if we are willing to search for the answers.
As soon as J.C. was with me I began taking notes of different things about him. His behavior. His thought process. His entire being. There were things that seemed connected and there were things that just didn’t make sense. So, I began a journey of research and trial and error of things that might help. Oh my goodness, the things I found that opened my eyes to his world of ups and downs.
Due to the fact that J.C. was so far behind educationally and for the most part socially, I chose to home school him. The first and most obvious symptoms I observed were the beginning of my quest for the root of his problems. I didn’t just want medications that were geared toward easing his symptoms. I wanted to know what was causing the symptoms that were creating a very unhappy and distraught little boy.
For years my daughter and I had talked about how J.C. could be sweating when it was twenty degrees outside. That was a sign to me that something wasn’t right inside his body. Most people look at it and say that it’s just the way the person is made and that they’ve always been like that. That wasn’t a good enough answer for me. J.C. also couldn’t sit still at all. He seemed to have an insatiable itch from the inside of his body that he could never get scratched. He was like a rubber band being wound tighter and tighter while he was listening to you and then he’d just snap. He’d begin to be destructive or have extreme raging outbursts. You would literally have to hold him down and restrain him so that he didn’t hurt himself or those around him. Many times I have narrowly escaped metal toys or whatever was closest to him to throw. He’d break down a door if he couldn’t get through quick enough. His strength was like that of three grown men. His behavior was so erratic and irrational that teachers and those who were closely involved with him were at wits end. It’s difficult to teach a child that can’t sit still and is constantly interrupting or distracting the other children. It’s difficult to keep harmony in a house when one child demands all the attention from bad behavior. In all honesty, J.C. was the kind of kid that used up all your emotions and energy at once. By the time you had his behavior halfway calmed down your exhaustion and mental state made you feel you were either ready to throw yourself off a bridge or lock him in a cage and call the cops to report yourself for child abuse. It isn’t a laughing matter, but there honestly were times that you didn’t feel you or him would come out of the battles alive. You can ask any of the teachers he bit or the police officer he hit while trying to be restrained, even the bus driver that demanded J.C. be restrained in the bus seat while being transported to and from school. J.C.’s behavior and his psychotic outbursts were real and definitely not for the faint at heart.
I began looking at the first of things. Number one, the prescribed medication. Researching the side effects of the drugs J.C. was on worried me tremendously. Because he came to us from a different state, one of the anti psychotic drugs he was on was so powerful that the prescription was not allowed to cross the state line. That was certainly a red flag. Since he had no doctor set up where we live and his prescription was out, I decided that I’d like to begin from scratch. I needed to see just how J.C. handled limited or no drugs to determine just what ‘his’ true symptoms were. Slowly I began weaning him off the only anti psychotic drug he was still on. In the process I researched natural supplements that could help with his symptoms. I came across a product made by the company Genexa. In reading the information on this company I liked the story behind why they began creating supplements for children and felt comfortable with their products. I purchased the “Calm Keeper” because the ingredients were geared toward most of the symptoms that J.C. had. There is a link on our pages for Calm Keeper if you’d like to give it a try. Yes, I do get a small percentage for a sale, however, that small percentage is not why I chose to advertise this product. I don’t want to offer any product that I don’t believe in, whether it could make me money or not. There may be other products out there that are just as effective as Calm Keeper, but I haven’t tried them and I can’t in good conscience promote them until I do. I have seen how Calm Keeper works and I believe in it.
Initially the Calm Keeper was making a difference. I noticed that J.C. was beginning to concentrate better and could comprehend more of what I was teaching him. It was so noticeable that even J.C. commented one day, “mamaw, I can think better. I understand that.” That was a vast improvement in and of itself. However, the constant moving, itching and squirming were still evident and I knew something needed to help him with that. My quest for the root of the problem took me deep on a journey within the brain.
Because I knew J.C. had always had a problem with being extremely hot no matter what the temperature I began searching what regulates our body temperature. Aha! The hypothalamus is the body temperature’s thermostat. I thought okay, so just what is the hypothalamus and what does it do. What’s it responsible for inside our bodies. It’s just a little thing at the base of the brain, but it seems to me that it is responsible for a whole lot more than most average people know. I didn’t.
I will try and break down what I’ve found as simply as I can. If you’ve ever been to a doctor about something serious, they break out all the big words and start putting the high priced fancy degree to showboating excellence. I want you to understand it so I will try to break it down as generally as I can.
Now most people have heard of the “Flight or Fright” response we have when we’re scared, but that’s just a small portion of what the hypothalamus does. The hypothalamus is triggered when the body signals that there is a stressor. It sends out a signal to the pituitary gland and the adrenal gland. The short term effect is the “Flight or Fright” mode from what’s called the Sympathomedullary Pathway. Long term stress is regulated by the HPA (Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal System). Cortisol helps the body to maintain a steady supply of blood sugar, which is what also helps our bodies cope with stress and helps it return to normal. So we can see that stressors can have a huge impact on how our body acts. The hypothalamus is also responsible for activating the Adrenal Medulla, which is a part of the ANS (Autonomic Nervous System). The ANS is part of the peripheral nervous system or the things that our bodies do that we aren’t conscious of. The Adrenal Medulla is where Adrenaline is secreted, which is what gets us ready for “Flight or Fright.” Adrenaline causes changes within the body, which include an increase in heart rate, that pumping feeling you feel when you’re scared and want to run (getting ready for “Flight”), it decreases digestion, AND it increases sweating. Aha! I am starting to get somewhere I thought. J.C.’s body always seems to be in the “Flight or Fright” mode and he’s always sweating. Once a threat is over the parasympathetic branch is supposed to bring the body back into normal state. Evidently, J.C.’s body always felt some type of stressor and was in that constant “flight or fright” mode.
Then I came across Chromium. It wasn’t so much what I was reading about Chromium itself, but rather, the fact that J.C. had always had a metallic smell to him. His breath, his body odor were at times extremely overwhelming. That was something I figured I would come back to and see what causes for that may be.
So, to boil this down to ingestible parts, my findings just made me want to learn more because things about J.C. started making sense. The hypothalamus was so much more than I’d ever realized. It’s a central part of the Autonomic Nervous System and it helps control:
*Body Temp
*Thirst
*Hunger
*Sleep
*Emotional Activity
So now I see that J.C.’s hypothalamus must be out of whack because he had problems with his body temp, sleep and emotions. Nothing left to do but dive into this brain thing deeper because I still needed to find out why he acted like he had that incredible itch all the time. I had to find out what controlled the itch response in our bodies to be able to see if any of this was connected.
On the next post I’ll go through the rest of my research and how I found the combination of things that have helped create the child J.C. was meant to be. Today there’s more harmony and peace in our home and he’s picking up speed on his educational path. You won’t want to miss the way you may be able to help your child become a more happy and productive child.
For me, finding and piecing together the research I found, .seems as though it’s all a big secret. I mean, the people with degrees in these areas should certainly know how all of this works and how it should be done to help kids. There isn’t any good information out there about kids with ADHD or ODD or any of the things J.C. has dealt with all of his life. Everyone wants you on prescribed medication, but no one knows what the total of long term effects are. The short term side effects scared me. The medical field says they don’t know what causes ADHD and for the medications they prescribe they tell you that they “THINK” that a certain drug interacts a certain way with the brain to give the effects they want. When you’re dealing with my child I want more than thinking something works a certain way. If I’m going to give any child something that is supposed to help them I want to know that it’s working on the areas that it should. I wouldn’t give them a medication geared for cancer if they had the flu.
All that I’m trying to do is to get people to look at things from a realistic point of view. Let’s spend time truly looking and finding things that help our kids. Ask your physician questions about the symptoms your child has. I am in no way advocating you just willy nilly take a child off of medication. Do your research. Ask the questions. Be the involved parent who helps find the answers to make your child and your life better.
I can’t wait until you hear the rest of the story and hear the amazing results J.C. is experiencing, so I’ll see you back on the porch real soon!
****Please note that nothing within J.C.’s story should be mistaken, misconstrued for sound medical advice. I only speak from my experience. Please do not stop taking medications without the advice of your physician. I am not a doctor and do not advise stopping medications cold turkey (some medications can be extremely harmful if stopped suddenly!), so please seek the guidance and advice of your physician before beginning any new treatment.
An Alternative Thought for ADHD Part 1
In January of 2018 my daughter phoned and told me she needed me to come and pick up her ten year old son. J.C. had had behavioral problems pretty much all of his life. My daughter had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when J.C. was about two years old, however, because Rae had been sick since he was born her parenting skills weren’t quite up to par. It’s difficult to deal with a child when you’re too sick to get out of bed or when you feel like your insides are falling out. J.C. learned to be the captain of his own ship from a very early age.
When J.C. was about six or seven, my daughter phoned to tell me that he’d seen a new doctor. This doctor diagnosed J.C. with ODD (oppositional Defiance Disorder). I laughed and told my daughter that he didn’t have ODD, “he has “lackawhoopass.” When a child has known no boundaries, has had no consistent disciplinary actions taken, and has been the boss of his life for as long as he could remember, ODD may have been the result, but in my estimation there was a cause. I wondered if ODD could be the result of a learned behavior and not from a brain malfunction. In my mind the cause was lack of consistent disciplinary action, no boundaries set and that he’d been allowed to make his own decisions and discipline for pretty much all of his life. He had this fortitude about him that if he was told “no” he would make it a yes come hell or high water. Why should he listen to anyone when he’d always been the one to decide whether or not to do something and when he would do it? This little quirk in his personality came to full light when he began school. Teachers, principals and others found J.C. difficult to deal with because he would never listen to them, he did not care what they wanted him to do and he made it more than evident he didn’t care.
When J.C. was four years old he became enraged when another child did something to him and he literally went off the deep end as far as behavior was concerned. No teacher, police officer or anyone else could control him. He would go into these blind rages and destroy whatever was in his path and for those who would try to coerce him by touching him it was as if he could eat them up and spit them on the ground. He was in this type of rage and the school felt it was necessary to lock down and call in the police force. When my daughter called to tell me this I laughed and kept saying that she was lying because I couldn’t imagine that a school full of adults couldn’t control one little four year old. As time went on, J.C.’s behavior only worsened.
J.C. quickly had become the “bad boy” that no one wanted around them or their children. J.C. didn’t get along with kids his own age. He didn’t get along with adults because he wouldn’t listen and they couldn’t handle the fact that a child would be so disrespectful and defiant. By the time he was nine years old, J.C. had four felonies hanging over him and the children’s service agency was ready to take action and place him in a boy’s home or even juvenile detention because of his behavior.
For years I had begged my daughter to send J.C. to me so that I could work with him. I commend her for not wanting him to feel like she had given up on him, but I had told her that each year that went by made it that much harder to find the things that could help him and that she may wind up waiting to late. For J.C. that time, almost too late, came quickly.
J.C. had already been in the hospital psychiatric ward twice. He was on at least two very high power anti-psychotic drugs and his behavior was only getting worse. No one seemed to be able to keep him under control. No prescribed medications seem to lessen his symptoms, they actually made them worse. According to his school, J.C., was borderline mentally retarded and at the age of ten, J.C. couldn’t read, couldn’t count to twenty (and barely could count to ten without getting confused) and he had no concept of how just everyday things worked.
Now I will tell you that I am not a big proponent of medicine as it’s prescribed today. The medical industry is far to concentrated on the bottom line----money, instead of the true causes of an illness. I’ve had many instances within my own family where I have used natural medicines to help cure or subside symptoms of an illness and that has made me a true believer. In my estimation, God created an entire world with all of the things we need. That includes the means to heal ourselves if we are willing to search for the answers.
As soon as J.C. was with me I began taking notes of different things about him. His behavior. His thought process. His entire being. There were things that seemed connected and there were things that just didn’t make sense. So, I began a journey of research and trial and error of things that might help. Oh my goodness, the things I found that opened my eyes to his world of ups and downs.
Due to the fact that J.C. was so far behind educationally and for the most part socially, I chose to home school him. The first and most obvious symptoms I observed were the beginning of my quest for the root of his problems. I didn’t just want medications that were geared toward easing his symptoms. I wanted to know what was causing the symptoms that were creating a very unhappy and distraught little boy.
For years my daughter and I had talked about how J.C. could be sweating when it was twenty degrees outside. That was a sign to me that something wasn’t right inside his body. Most people look at it and say that it’s just the way the person is made and that they’ve always been like that. That wasn’t a good enough answer for me. J.C. also couldn’t sit still at all. He seemed to have an insatiable itch from the inside of his body that he could never get scratched. He was like a rubber band being wound tighter and tighter while he was listening to you and then he’d just snap. He’d begin to be destructive or have extreme raging outbursts. You would literally have to hold him down and restrain him so that he didn’t hurt himself or those around him. Many times I have narrowly escaped metal toys or whatever was closest to him to throw. He’d break down a door if he couldn’t get through quick enough. His strength was like that of three grown men. His behavior was so erratic and irrational that teachers and those who were closely involved with him were at wits end. It’s difficult to teach a child that can’t sit still and is constantly interrupting or distracting the other children. It’s difficult to keep harmony in a house when one child demands all the attention from bad behavior. In all honesty, J.C. was the kind of kid that used up all your emotions and energy at once. By the time you had his behavior halfway calmed down your exhaustion and mental state made you feel you were either ready to throw yourself off a bridge or lock him in a cage and call the cops to report yourself for child abuse. It isn’t a laughing matter, but there honestly were times that you didn’t feel you or him would come out of the battles alive. You can ask any of the teachers he bit or the police officer he hit while trying to be restrained, even the bus driver that demanded J.C. be restrained in the bus seat while being transported to and from school. J.C.’s behavior and his psychotic outbursts were real and definitely not for the faint at heart.
I began looking at the first of things. Number one, the prescribed medication. Researching the side effects of the drugs J.C. was on worried me tremendously. Because he came to us from a different state, one of the anti psychotic drugs he was on was so powerful that the prescription was not allowed to cross the state line. That was certainly a red flag. Since he had no doctor set up where we live and his prescription was out, I decided that I’d like to begin from scratch. I needed to see just how J.C. handled limited or no drugs to determine just what ‘his’ true symptoms were. Slowly I began weaning him off the only anti psychotic drug he was still on. In the process I researched natural supplements that could help with his symptoms. I came across a product made by the company Genexa. In reading the information on this company I liked the story behind why they began creating supplements for children and felt comfortable with their products. I purchased the “Calm Keeper” because the ingredients were geared toward most of the symptoms that J.C. had. There is a link on our pages for Calm Keeper if you’d like to give it a try. Yes, I do get a small percentage for a sale, however, that small percentage is not why I chose to advertise this product. I don’t want to offer any product that I don’t believe in, whether it could make me money or not. There may be other products out there that are just as effective as Calm Keeper, but I haven’t tried them and I can’t in good conscience promote them until I do. I have seen how Calm Keeper works and I believe in it.
Initially the Calm Keeper was making a difference. I noticed that J.C. was beginning to concentrate better and could comprehend more of what I was teaching him. It was so noticeable that even J.C. commented one day, “mamaw, I can think better. I understand that.” That was a vast improvement in and of itself. However, the constant moving, itching and squirming were still evident and I knew something needed to help him with that. My quest for the root of the problem took me deep on a journey within the brain.
Because I knew J.C. had always had a problem with being extremely hot no matter what the temperature I began searching what regulates our body temperature. Aha! The hypothalamus is the body temperature’s thermostat. I thought okay, so just what is the hypothalamus and what does it do. What’s it responsible for inside our bodies. It’s just a little thing at the base of the brain, but it seems to me that it is responsible for a whole lot more than most average people know. I didn’t.
I will try and break down what I’ve found as simply as I can. If you’ve ever been to a doctor about something serious, they break out all the big words and start putting the high priced fancy degree to showboating excellence. I want you to understand it so I will try to break it down as generally as I can.
Now most people have heard of the “Flight or Fright” response we have when we’re scared, but that’s just a small portion of what the hypothalamus does. The hypothalamus is triggered when the body signals that there is a stressor. It sends out a signal to the pituitary gland and the adrenal gland. The short term effect is the “Flight or Fright” mode from what’s called the Sympathomedullary Pathway. Long term stress is regulated by the HPA (Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal System). Cortisol helps the body to maintain a steady supply of blood sugar, which is what also helps our bodies cope with stress and helps it return to normal. So we can see that stressors can have a huge impact on how our body acts. The hypothalamus is also responsible for activating the Adrenal Medulla, which is a part of the ANS (Autonomic Nervous System). The ANS is part of the peripheral nervous system or the things that our bodies do that we aren’t conscious of. The Adrenal Medulla is where Adrenaline is secreted, which is what gets us ready for “Flight or Fright.” Adrenaline causes changes within the body, which include an increase in heart rate, that pumping feeling you feel when you’re scared and want to run (getting ready for “Flight”), it decreases digestion, AND it increases sweating. Aha! I am starting to get somewhere I thought. J.C.’s body always seems to be in the “Flight or Fright” mode and he’s always sweating. Once a threat is over the parasympathetic branch is supposed to bring the body back into normal state. Evidently, J.C.’s body always felt some type of stressor and was in that constant “flight or fright” mode.
Then I came across Chromium. It wasn’t so much what I was reading about Chromium itself, but rather, the fact that J.C. had always had a metallic smell to him. His breath, his body odor were at times extremely overwhelming. That was something I figured I would come back to and see what causes for that may be.
So, to boil this down to ingestible parts, my findings just made me want to learn more because things about J.C. started making sense. The hypothalamus was so much more than I’d ever realized. It’s a central part of the Autonomic Nervous System and it helps control:
*Body Temp
*Thirst
*Hunger
*Sleep
*Emotional Activity
So now I see that J.C.’s hypothalamus must be out of whack because he had problems with his body temp, sleep and emotions. Nothing left to do but dive into this brain thing deeper because I still needed to find out why he acted like he had that incredible itch all the time. I had to find out what controlled the itch response in our bodies to be able to see if any of this was connected.
On the next post I’ll go through the rest of my research and how I found the combination of things that have helped create the child J.C. was meant to be. Today there’s more harmony and peace in our home and he’s picking up speed on his educational path. You won’t want to miss the way you may be able to help your child become a more happy and productive child.
For me, finding and piecing together the research I found, .seems as though it’s all a big secret. I mean, the people with degrees in these areas should certainly know how all of this works and how it should be done to help kids. There isn’t any good information out there about kids with ADHD or ODD or any of the things J.C. has dealt with all of his life. Everyone wants you on prescribed medication, but no one knows what the total of long term effects are. The short term side effects scared me. The medical field says they don’t know what causes ADHD and for the medications they prescribe they tell you that they “THINK” that a certain drug interacts a certain way with the brain to give the effects they want. When you’re dealing with my child I want more than thinking something works a certain way. If I’m going to give any child something that is supposed to help them I want to know that it’s working on the areas that it should. I wouldn’t give them a medication geared for cancer if they had the flu.
All that I’m trying to do is to get people to look at things from a realistic point of view. Let’s spend time truly looking and finding things that help our kids. Ask your physician questions about the symptoms your child has. I am in no way advocating you just willy nilly take a child off of medication. Do your research. Ask the questions. Be the involved parent who helps find the answers to make your child and your life better.
I can’t wait until you hear the rest of the story and hear the amazing results J.C. is experiencing, so I’ll see you back on the porch real soon!
****Please note that nothing within J.C.’s story should be mistaken, misconstrued for sound medical advice. I only speak from my experience. Please do not stop taking medications without the advice of your physician. I am not a doctor and do not advise stopping medications cold turkey (some medications can be extremely harmful if stopped suddenly!), so please seek the guidance and advice of your physician before beginning any new treatment.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Thursday, July 26, 2018
I JUST WANT TO FLY!
I JUST WANT TO FLY!
Well, sitting here on the front porch with my cup of hot coffee in hand my mind wanders. Have you ever woke up and wanted to just do something wild and crazy? Today’s one of those days for me.
I’m looking out over the property and I see the ducks in their pen. I’ve had ducks before and instead of a pen I just let them be free. People used to watch in amazement when I’d call them for feeding time. “Come on guys it’s time to eat,” I would yell loudly and all the ducks would come flying in from wherever they’d roamed. It actually was a beautiful sight. Their wings span so far and just the grace they have as they come flying in and the precision of their landing. Looking at the ducks in the pen I feel like I’ve taken away their spirit. I’ve clipped their wings so to speak.
Then I look at the free range chickens that are roaming around. What’s so ironic to me is that they can actually fly, but they never go far. Actually the only time they get those wings in gear is when my dog decides she wants to play chase and the chickens are trying to get away. Otherwise, chickens just meander around eating mosquitoes and bugs all through the yard. That’s partly why I like them running free. I hate mosquitoes and bugs so they’re my exterminating system.
So I’m sitting here watching these animals and it makes me think of people. I mean, some people are like the ducks. If they were given the chance to be free, the ducks would take off and soar. Some would stay close by where they feel safe, but another group might just take off and see just how far they could go. The chickens, somehow don’t realize that their flying could take them places they’ve never gone before. They become happy and content to just peck at the ground where they know.
It seems that people that I know are a lot like the chickens. Pecking around in the same area they were born in. Never reached out very far to see just what might be beyond that imaginary boundary that keeps us like we have no choice to go anywhere else. We know we can fly, but we rarely think about it and only fly when we feel pressured to.
Well, this morning, for me, I want to be like the ducks. If I just jump off the porch and spread my wings I wonder how far I can fly. Just how far would I go? How long would I fly? I don’t mean literally jump off my porch. Oh Lord no. I’m not that crazy. I’d crash and break a whole lot of bones and I really hate pain.
No, today, I feel like I just want to do something more different than I’ve ever done before. I want to spread my wings and fly. I want to feel the wind take me higher and higher and see things from a different perspective just to see if I would do anything different than I’ve been doing. I want to fly and sing with the birds.
Okay, I’m hyped up and ready to fly and just as I spread my arms to jump, “Hey mamaw, do we have any oatmeal?”
Wow! That was close. I almost jumped into the unknown world of flight, but reality hit. I was stopped right in the middle of the jump, right before I even got a chance to get off the ground!
That’s a lot like life. We usually have some really great ideas and just before we can launch, reality of family or whatever else stops us. So, for most people they seem to be okay being a chicken, just pecking around the area they know.
For me, I want to be a duck today. Open the cage door and move over my loves, I’m ready to spread my wings and fly!
Well, sitting here on the front porch with my cup of hot coffee in hand my mind wanders. Have you ever woke up and wanted to just do something wild and crazy? Today’s one of those days for me.
I’m looking out over the property and I see the ducks in their pen. I’ve had ducks before and instead of a pen I just let them be free. People used to watch in amazement when I’d call them for feeding time. “Come on guys it’s time to eat,” I would yell loudly and all the ducks would come flying in from wherever they’d roamed. It actually was a beautiful sight. Their wings span so far and just the grace they have as they come flying in and the precision of their landing. Looking at the ducks in the pen I feel like I’ve taken away their spirit. I’ve clipped their wings so to speak.
Then I look at the free range chickens that are roaming around. What’s so ironic to me is that they can actually fly, but they never go far. Actually the only time they get those wings in gear is when my dog decides she wants to play chase and the chickens are trying to get away. Otherwise, chickens just meander around eating mosquitoes and bugs all through the yard. That’s partly why I like them running free. I hate mosquitoes and bugs so they’re my exterminating system.
So I’m sitting here watching these animals and it makes me think of people. I mean, some people are like the ducks. If they were given the chance to be free, the ducks would take off and soar. Some would stay close by where they feel safe, but another group might just take off and see just how far they could go. The chickens, somehow don’t realize that their flying could take them places they’ve never gone before. They become happy and content to just peck at the ground where they know.
It seems that people that I know are a lot like the chickens. Pecking around in the same area they were born in. Never reached out very far to see just what might be beyond that imaginary boundary that keeps us like we have no choice to go anywhere else. We know we can fly, but we rarely think about it and only fly when we feel pressured to.
Well, this morning, for me, I want to be like the ducks. If I just jump off the porch and spread my wings I wonder how far I can fly. Just how far would I go? How long would I fly? I don’t mean literally jump off my porch. Oh Lord no. I’m not that crazy. I’d crash and break a whole lot of bones and I really hate pain.
No, today, I feel like I just want to do something more different than I’ve ever done before. I want to spread my wings and fly. I want to feel the wind take me higher and higher and see things from a different perspective just to see if I would do anything different than I’ve been doing. I want to fly and sing with the birds.
Okay, I’m hyped up and ready to fly and just as I spread my arms to jump, “Hey mamaw, do we have any oatmeal?”
Wow! That was close. I almost jumped into the unknown world of flight, but reality hit. I was stopped right in the middle of the jump, right before I even got a chance to get off the ground!
That’s a lot like life. We usually have some really great ideas and just before we can launch, reality of family or whatever else stops us. So, for most people they seem to be okay being a chicken, just pecking around the area they know.
For me, I want to be a duck today. Open the cage door and move over my loves, I’m ready to spread my wings and fly!
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Random Thoughts Into Poems
Dolly You Don't Know
You don't know this, but you made me want to sing
There with Porter and all your friends I could see my.dreams
I never made it big like you, but I still touched hearts it seems.
Yes, Dolly, you don't know, but you made me want to sing.
Sometimes I think back, memories take me there
I loved all your make-up, clothes and especially your hair.
When you played guitar and sang the songs you wrote
That little girl with great big dreams hung on every note.
It seemed with every song your heart came through your eyes
No one could make me feel like that no matter how they tried
You'll never know the joy to that little girl you'd bring
Dolly, you don't know, but you made me want to sing.
N.P. 2018
This world is cold
I don’t know what road you’re on
Which path you chose to walk along
Winding trails or mountains you must climb
No, I don’t know because I’m walking mine.
I’ve seen others come and go
Tired and weary from things I don’t know
They’ve never asked me for a dime
To stop and talk, we don’t have time
Mama said, this life
Will quickly pass us by
But you don’t know the half
So many you loved and knew have gone
Left behind to go on
Loneliness that fills your soul
Memories of ones that made you whole
Mama said my advice is don’t grow too old
Because where I am this world is cold.
N.P.2018
Better Days
We used to sit at dinner everyone got along.
Laughter filled the room like an old forgotten song.
Everyone chimed right in, we all had something to say
Lord how we could use, some of those good old days.
There were no politics because everybody knew
Uncle Rob was Republican and Daddy he was blue
Mama talked about her sewing friends and Jeffrey got an A
Lord, how we could use some of those good old days.
Those good old days
Promised us better ways
Better lives and better pay,
But now it’s hatred to the end
If you’re red you can’t have blue friends
Sons hate moms and dads hate sons
Can someone please tell me when the better days are supposed to come.
N.P. 2018
Push and Pull
Here I am, trying desperately to stay I’m not the one, when times get tough, to turn and walk away Push me out, pull me in, I’m about to lose my mind I can’t seem to see a way to get pulled back in this time. Because the words you find to break me down With a force they pound, pound, pound. It’s so plain to see You’ve stopped loving me So with what little dignity I’ll take this broken heart and leave. N. P. 2018
The Safest Place
Sometimes the night is the safest place to be
Hidden from everyone; you want no one to see.
The beating of your head,the wringing of your hands, the screaming from your heart
Because that grand life that others see is crumbling all apart. My Star There it is right there up in the sky If I reach a little further, but it is so high. No not that one, the one that's shining bright. The only star I see for me, shining in the night. It's whispering my name, I can hear it call. It says, "just reach a little higher, on your tippy toes so tall. I've been with you your whole life, with you through it all, but you've never looked my way and made me feel so small.
This is Why They Call Me Crazy Mama
As I sit here drinking my morning coffee I can hear the news. I try to stay positive and keep a lighter feeling, especially when I first get up in the morning. I mean, who wants to start out their day thinking about all the horrible things that are happening around the world? But, unfortunately, if you listen to the news all you hear is the doom and gloom and it can be depressing from the time your feet hit the floor in the morning.
For me, the saddest thing is to listen and watch people who seem to have it all crash because of addictions of one sort or another. It’s sad to see them become so involved that they can’t control their lives. Some are lucky and they just lose money. Others lose everything, including their life.
Most people wouldn’t believe me if I told them that I could help. That I have an all natural remedy that helps to take away the addiction and helps alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. I used it with my son’s drug addiction and he can attest that it works. It takes about 30 days to finish the round of natural products, but from the beginning of the treatment people begin to feel better and more focused than they have in years.
I often wonder what people think it would be worth to get their life back. Some spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in rehabs and in the end they are told they will probably relapse and have to come back and spend tens of thousands more. Our country is filled with people who have fallen into the drug addiction trap, but sadly, even the doctors, therapists and medical community as a whole has fallen in with them searching unsuccessfully for their medical ways of treating the addictions. It’s sad and frustrating to listen to the news with all the so-called experts tell you how to treat addiction and watch and listen to how they are failing miserably.
If the medical community knows about the natural remedy that I know, and I know it works, they aren’t allowed to tell you. Some code of ethics about it I guess. They seem to think that an “all natural remedy” is some kind of craziness, wacky medicine like a witch doctor or something would practice. Really? If something works it works and it makes me angry that people can die because the “trusted” medical community isn’t allowed to even let you know about an all natural remedy. Isn’t allowed or afraid they’d lose money because they couldn’t prescribe expensive treatments?
My thought today is that I want to help. Living on a little over 8 acres and having two mobile homes I’ve been renovating for vacationers my mind travels to another area where I could help. The problem is that because I’m not a well-known doctor or medical person that people wouldn’t even want to try what I would offer.
So, what would I offer people to help them overcome their addiction? 30 days of a secluded place to stay and work on getting clean. 30 days of an all natural remedy that has helped several of the people that I know and were desperate to have a life. 30 days of a life where there is no pressure, but filled with a peaceful, serene and secluded area where they only have to work on themselves. So for all of this I would be talking the enormous amount of like $500. Expensive right? I know, but because there are people who have created an aura of such authority for themselves I’d look like the medicine woman came to town peddling snake oil or something. Whether people realize it or not, the world puts more value on the people running something than they do whether or not something works. Okay, so I’m putting it out there, I am the authority on being the Crazy Mama that peddles all natural remedies and crazy ideas. I guess I have to find my place of fame somewhere. My friends and family already know this so now all I have to do is spread it to the rest of the town I live in and let the word fly.
What would I charge people for this? Money isn’t a goal for helping those with addictions. So, the only thing that I would charge is what it costs for the 30 day supply of the all nature remedy and food costs to feed them while they are here. At the end of the treatment, when they see how they feel and confirm that “they” feel it’s been worth it----then I would ask them to think about what it is worth to feel good and clean, to have the chance to have their life back on track, and offer just a quarter of what they thought it was worth. That’s for those that can afford it because when they would give just a quarter of what they could’ve spent in fancy rehabs, then I can use that to help someone who can’t afford the help.
If I mentioned this idea to my friends, some would say it’s a great idea. Then there would be some who would say I was crazy, that people would just take advantage of me or that I wouldn’t be able to afford to do it because once people got clean they’d never pay a dime. They’d call me crazy. It wouldn’t be the first time. Hence, why I’m called Crazy Mama. That and the fact that everybody feels like I'm their Mama. I try to take care of everyone that comes into my life.
I’m open for the idea though and if I can help just one person then it’s all worth it. I read that in business, or life in general, you just put the idea out there and if it’s meant to be it will be.
So there, I’m putting the idea out there so if anyone is willing, if anyone wants to be clean bad enough then I’m open to helping. There’s lots of ways to reach me so if you’re that person or you know someone that needs help, all you have to do is take the first step and contact me to let me know.
See you soon back on the front porch with a cup of coffee and a more uplifting story, but for today have a great day filled with laughter.
P.S. Be sure to check out our Shopify shop Crazy Mama's Place!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
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