I remember as if it were yesterday – my husband, children and myself were living in Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa in 1981. We stayed for four happy years in this city where my husband was an Accountant. We were surrounded by corruption, poverty, inconvenience in so many areas of life and at that stage incompetent conventional medical care. We shared this crazy, chaotic, vibrant city with African people in this developing nation. They were from various tribes and had been forced to work in a city to provide for their families whose homes were many miles away
I know you are curious and wondering about our life, and it is a good thing to wonder because that means you are learning about new cultures as we did.
The power of complimentary therapy
We experienced many new insights, learnt the power of resilience and gained new understandings of human nature whilst living in Lagos. In particular we learnt about a sense of community, of ingenuity in poverty, the kindness of strangers and gained life-long friendships.
I once viewed a little three year old girl who was suddenly taken extremely ill with a chest infection that proved to be double pneumonia; a terrible thing to suffer from when conventional medicine in Nigeria was so poor, and in such short supply. She had great difficulty in taking breaths and was in serious fear for her life. She was comforted by her Mother’s calm and steady strength, but you could see the fear in the Mother’s eyes and the confusion and lack of understanding in the child’s as she continuously struggled for breath.
A local woman, well versed in the native remedies suggested that the Mother should pick the tangy lemons that glistened and glowed brightly in the trees locally. Then infuse the juice in hot water with broken eucalyptus leaves from bushes that also grew nearby. This produced a therapeutic, healing aroma for the child to inhale. A natural alternative to curing ills without pills!
My husband and I smelt the pungent, healing aroma of the plants as the child inhaled the “potion”.. The stress gradually left the Mother as she realised the child was gradually recovering with this natural therapy, She heard the child’s breathing getting easier and less laboured, and felt the relief to see this weak child continue to regain health through nature.
………I was that Mother.
Unwittingly, this complimentary therapy experience was to prove a part of my road in my holistic future career. This traumatic experience taught us that people can learn, that even in the dark times visualisation and mindset of a successful outcome teaches us to learn that life is not a rehearsal.
Maybe this is an important lesson to learn as we move into the life restrictions surrounding the early part of 2021