Thursday, January 28, 2010

Nettie Pot

It was late June and I was camped out beside the road in a field in northern Wyoming. I was one of twenty-five people that had gathered to participate in a workshop with a Mexican shaman. I knew no one but was determined to learn every one’s name by the end of the long week-end. This was a personal challenge for me, not only as a memory test, but because I had never attended a workshop like this so totally alone.

Truth be told, I was recently separated from my husband and it was my son’s 7th birthday. He was with his father and I was sitting with wonderful people that I did not yet know. It was the first time I was not with him on his birthday. I cried every day.

Secondly, for some obscene reason, I had set up my tent beside a dirt road which was spewing dust with every car that went by. I had no idea there would be so many. By the end of the first day I was in a full blown allergy attack, puffy face and eyes nearly swollen shut. I left the group and found a lonely shrub to crawl behind and I sat there silently sobbing, miserable, lonely and consumed by grief. I heard footsteps and there was the old Mexican shaman. He was a very short man and he looked at me with such compassion that my heart split open and my whole body shook with sobs. We did not share language and could not speak to one another, but he placed his hand on top of my head and then brushed loose hair off my wet face. He stood over me and whispered words.

After he walked away, I stood up, dusted myself off and headed for the bath house to splash cold water on my face. At dinner that night I was approached by three older women who were wild-crafters for an herb company out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They told me all about the nettie pot and how it had helped them with their hay fever symptoms. Mix ¼ tsp of sea salt with 1 cup of warm water, tilt your head to one side and let this saline run through your sinus cavity. It sounded so simple.

Once at home I purchased a nettie pot from my local health food store and I have had a love affair with it every since. Excitedly I gave one to my mom in Kansas City and one to my sister in Springfield. I wouldn’t dream of getting on an airplane without one and gently packed mine all over Scotland a few years ago. About that same time my mother saw a woman on TV demonstrating how to use a nettie pot. A few days later my youngest brother called me and said, “Why didn’t you tell me about this years ago? I have worked with concrete dust all my life. Why didn’t you tell me?” He was actually mad at me. I reminded him that I did try to tell him and the rest of my family about it so many years ago, but they all just laughed it off as “another crazy thing” that Annette does. I told them all. But a woman on TV made it all legitimate for her.

I continue to sing the praises of the simple nettie pot. I have heard so many folks tell me that they would feel like they were drowning. But I tell them “if you can breath while your dentist has both hands in your mouth, you can use a nettie pot. It is way easier than the dentist.”

Flue bugs, cold viruses, sinus infections VS salt water and a simple nettie pot.
Try it, you may like it! I am pretty sure that you will not drown.

* annette

No comments: