Show notes
In this podcast, we cover: 01:16 Joette talks about Christmas traditions 12:09 Little tips from Joette 20:14 Being relevant in your kids’ life 26:24 To take or not to take remedies LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: My Solution for Colds and Coughs: Homeopathically, of Course! Joette’s Bone Stock Recipe Aconitum 200 mixed with Bryonia 30 Coldcalm by Boiron You are listening to a podcast from joettecalabrese.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition. Joette: One thing that I hear frequently and I think it’s human nature to a certain degree is that whenever someone is sick, particularly when it’s a chronic illness but a lot of times when people are sick, they think they’re the only ones who get sick like that. They feel as though they’re very unusual. Kate: It’s Podcast Number 41 at joettecalabrese.com. Today, we get to listen in as Joette shares with us some of her family’s holiday traditions. In addition, we get to hear how our suffering may not be so different after all! Finally, Joette shares a recent experience she had helping her son with a cold virus, and how to know when it might be pertinent to employ homeopathy and when to let a virus take its course. Now, let’s get started. It’s Kate. I’m here today with Joette. We’re excited to bring you another podcast. Joette, welcome. Joette: Thanks for doing this, Kate, as always. Kate: It’s the holiday season, and I’d like to know from you Joette, what are some of your family traditions? Joette talks about Christmas traditions Joette: You told me you were going to ask me this question, and I had to really think about it because I don’t think there’s anything really that unusual about our family traditions. We just all get together — my sons and my parents. My father, unfortunately, just passed away a couple of months ago. But, it would have been with my parents, and my brother and an occasional stray cousin. Now, it’s everyone the same — minus my beloved father. I might add, it just so happens the day we’re recording this (it’s not when this is going to be running), but today happens to be the first day of Hanukkah. So, shalom to those who are celebrating the Hanukkah holiday. But, for you and me, it’s Christmas. My holidays … my Christmas is not that much different, but I do remember when Christmas was different. My father came from a very large family. There were 14 children. My father was the second youngest. When I was growing up, we used to get together on Christmas Eve, all of us. When I mean all of us, there were probably close to 100 people. All it was was food, and fun, and playing, and staying up until really late. We got to stay up until we fell. We went to midnight mass. Then we’d come back to my aunt and uncle’s house. They had five kids. There must have been — oh, I don’t know — maybe 50 kids. They were all my cousins. Some of them were first cousins. Some of them were second cousins. It didn’t matter after a while. You kind of lose track. It was an absolute blast. We did this every year, my entire growing up years. For me, especially having just lost my father — and he was the last one in the 14 children including all of their spouses — it’s a different kind of a Christmas. It’s a reflective Christmas. I will be spending time with some of my cousins who I’m still very close to. Most of them, of course, have their own families. So, it’s not like they’re going to be coming to visit us necessarily, but I will see them during the season. So, they’ll stop by, and we’ll eat, and we’ll hug. We’ll all cry, because we’ve had a couple of deaths besides my father in our family this year. It’s always hard to say goodbye to those that we loved so much. So, that’s my Christmas this year. It’s still going to be a good one. I have my beautiful sons, and my wonderful husband, and my mother, and brother. That will all work together. I think it will still be a pretty nice tapestry of a celebration. Kate: That sounds really nice. I know it’s probably a sad holiday this year, maybe more than others for you, but it is so nice to still have family get together. I think that’s one of the things that brings us comfort is having family together during those times. Joette: We couldn’t do it without them. I couldn’t do it without them. Just being with my cousins over the last couple of months, not only the wake and funeral, but we hang out together. We go to dinner together. They come over and stopover. We’re always calling each other. I have so many cousins I can actually get to pick and choose. Kate: Wow! That’s great that they all live so close to you! Joette: Oh yes, it’s great. Kate: I don’t think that happens very much in families these days. Joette: No, it doesn’t. And even for those who are in other states, we still stay in touch and they come in. Now, with Facebook and of that business, we all stay more in touch — even in today’s world. Kate: So, New Year’s Eve, where did you usually go? Because with 100 people in your family, where would you stay? Joette: Well, we would just sleep on the floor. Wherever you ended up, you just slept there. There were mattresses all over the place for the event. There were lots of blankets. My parents would bring pajamas (we’d be in our nice … our good clothes … that was Christmas Eve). We went to midnight mass. Then, when we got back from midnight mass — depending on our age, of course — then my parents would bring our pajamas. A lot of the kids would put their pajamas on, and then we just hang out and play all night. It was such a blast. It was so great until we just dropped … from all the fun, and all the food, and cookies and stuff that we normally wouldn’t eat as much of. Kate: And pasta. Joette: Pasta and meatballs and braciole. I mean you name it, we had it all. Cardoons that were made — that were picked in the spring and saved for then. You name it, we had it all. Eel! Eel is a very big thing in Sicilian … I know you’re making a funny face … I love eel, actually. We eat eel on Christmas Eve. That’s a Sicilian tradition. So, sometimes there’d be eel (sometimes there wouldn’t), and the kids would go, “Eeeew, eeeeeel, yuck.” But, since that time as an adult, I’ve made eel on Christmas Eve because I want my kids to hold on to some of those traditions: the food, the religious and the family traditions. I think it’s important. Kate: So, how do you purchase eel? You go to the grocery store and you say, “Can I have one eel please?” Joette: Yes. You go to the eel store. Kate: I was trying to imagine where you buy an eel. Joette: Well, listen. In Buffalo, New York where I live, there are a lot of Sicilians. So, there are certain stores there who cater to specific ethnic groups. So, I go to the store where they cater to Italian and Sicilian. And, then you find chestnuts — that’s a big thing in Sicilian families. Chestnuts — and you roast them on the fire, that kind of thing. There are lots of nuts, lots of almonds. Lots and lots and lots of almonds everywhere. There are almond shells all over the place. Gosh, they’re such a mess. So, that’s a big part of it, too. I’m trying to think of what else we do. There’s always fish on Christmas Eve, and eel is probably one of the most important. Kate: That does not sound very appealing. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t sound really great. But, probably how you cook it, it is good. Joette: Oh, it’s absolutely delicious. I will tell you that I love foods like that. I like the strange stuff. I like sweetbreads. I like Rocky Mountain oysters. I like liver. I like kidney stew. I love those kinds of foods. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t get enough of them. I love tripe. That’s also very Italian. Kate: Have you ever had blood soup? Joette: Yes, duck blood soup. That’s Polish. Kate: Yes, it is. I’m Polish, and that’s what my family grew up with. But, you tell people that, and they sort of freak out. Joette: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys just eat your Twinkies, okay. You put them in your microwave, and then hit the diet soda. Then meanwhile, I’m going to eat my duck blood soup and be hearty, and strong and reproductive. Kate: Right. So, do you make any New Year’s resolutions? Joette: It’s always about eating. I’ve got to stop the chocolate. Most often, that’s my New Year’s resolution. Then by March, it’s dead. Kate: Well, three months is pretty good. Joette: Yes, it is. Actually, it’s pretty good. So, it’s either chocolate, or I love sweets. It’s just one of my downfalls. I don’t eat junky sweets. I make them myself. I make cannoli from scratch. I mean that means you’re getting the little dough — I make my dough — roll it out; wrap it around little rollers. I make sfingi which are little donuts, little Italian donuts. I make everything from scratch. So, it’s hard to resist, when I’m making that for my family to stay away from that. Once I trigger that desire for those sweets then it’s very hard to stop. I can’t just eat them Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And, then I have a son who makes a Yule log from scratch every year. He uses mascarpone cheese. I mean it’s just heaven! Kate: Wow! That sounds amazing. I know your son’s cook, don’t they? Joette: They do. They do. They all live together, and they cook meals every night — at least that’s the last I heard a couple of weeks ago. They’ve been telling me they’re still doing that. They make chili and stock. They make roasts and roast chicken. Everything is from scratch. I have one son who loves to make pastries. He’s the one who makes the Yule log. He makes everything from scratch, no mixes. There he is, whipping away. When I used to homeschool our kids, when he finished his day of work, he would go into the kitchen and whip up like challah bread or something like that. My kids are really into cooking. I think it’s my fault. Kate: Wow! That’s amazing. That’s great. Joette: Yes, it is great. Kate: It’s a wonderful thing to pass on to your children. Joette: Yes. Well, unless they all turn fat. Then we’re in trouble. Kate: They’re young boys. Joette: Which could happen. At this point, they’re pretty lucky — but it could happen. Kate: So today, I was meeting with a friend. We were watching our children as they rehearse for a choir concert. We were talking about homeopathy. She was saying how her daughter had come down with another cold-fever type thing. Every year during the choir concert season, she always gets a cold and virus. Something goes around their family. So, she said, “Boy, I was so glad that I had taken the Gateway to Homeopathy last year. I had kept excellent notes of what we did exactly last year during the choir concert when they came down with something. Because now, this year, I just went back to my notes and I was able to figure out what I gave her and what helped. So, this year, I didn’t have to think about it!” Joette: Exactly. You don’t have to look it up again. You go back to your daughter’s notes. You go into her file and look it up. There it is. Kate: So, I think that’s really important. We all get lazy, right? We stop writing things down. Then, later on, we have someone ask us, “Well, what can I do for the same condition?” Now, you don’t have notes. It would have been so easy, but now you have to go and do the research again. Joette: Yes, don’t reinvent the wheel. Just jot it down. You don’t have to write copious notes. In fact, copious notes is what I discourage people from doing. Because if they do — if they write too much — now it’s like a quagmire they have to get through. Just simple: the date, what the main condition was, what remedy you used, what potency, what frequency. Then come back after it’s done and say okay: within five hours; within three days; (and these are acutes I’m talking about, of course) very much better; only partially better; or then you went to the next one because the diarrhea then stopped, but now we’ve got fatigue; so now, we go to the next remedy. Those are very simple. Keep it really, really simple because otherwise, you’ll be discouraged from wanting to go through all that reading again. Little tips from Joette Kate: What are the common things that you see from your students or your clients that you wished that you could say, “Here’s what you can do in a different way, or maybe to help yourself and your family?” You know what I mean? Are there maybe little things like that: tips that you want to give us, things that you see over and over again that people could do just a little bit differently, and it could really help them. Joette: Well, one thing that I hear frequently — and I think it’s human nature to a certain degree — is that whenever someone is sick (particularly when it’s a chronic illness, but a lot of times when people are sick) they think they’re the only ones who get sick like that. They feel as though they’re very unusual. The reason they feel that they’re unusual is — I don’t believe — it’s self-absorption. I believe that it has to do with they look around, they’re suffering and no one else looks like they’re suffering. So, they conclude that, well, it must be because everyone else is well, and I am not. So, I have an unusual case. So, when I tell them for example that a particular protocol works for approximately 80% to 85% of the population, the first thing people say when I say that (or what I know that they’re thinking because later on, they share it with me) is that, “Oh I must be part of that 20%. What if I’m part of that 15%? Then I won’t be helped!” So, because they’re thinking like Eeyore, “Well, I guess life just stinks.” And, that’s the way we feel when we’re sick. You know what I mean? We do feel that way. We have to remember that we’re much more alike than we are different. We live in a society that has emphasized our differences. I tend to disagree. We’re really very alike in many, many ways, even across other societies, other parts of the world. Generally speaking — the cultures can be quite different — but human experience, human suffering is across the board, and so are fears and anxiety, et cetera. The fear of suffering can also be universal. Some people are more fearful than others. Sometimes, it’s because they’ve become shopworn, I guess, or maybe gun-shy is a better way to put it. They’ve had so many illnesses, one after another. They’ve had so many failures with drugs and efforts that they’ve put into it, and they’ve still come up short, that they believe that is the evidence that indicates that they indeed are a difficult case. When really what it is, is they just haven’t employed homeopathy. Unfortunately, homeopathy is the last place people go in the Western world, especially in North America. We’ve got it all backwards. People go first to get the colonoscopy. Wait a minute. There’s nothing wrong with you. Why are you going for a colonoscopy? Why would you do that? Why would you subject yourself to that— if nothing other than the inhumane way you get that kind of a test? For crying out loud, who’s willing to do that? Well, somehow, this marketing has taught them, “No, this is what you do when you’re 40 years old plus.” No, no, no, you save that colonoscopy for when there’s something really wrong. Now, we use technology, and general anesthesia, and drugs to find out what’s going on. Even then I would say if you’ve got some time, you use something else. You use homeopathy or change your nutrition before you go. We’ve got the pyramid upside down. Kate: Joette, what about those people that say, “But there is a history in my family of colon cancer,” or things like that. What do you say to them? Joette: Oh, well, if you want to list histories, you’ve got everything in your family! We’ve got colon cancer in my family. We’ve got diabetes. We’ve got breast cancer. I mean I’ve got a long list just like anybody else. But, if I followed that list, all I would do is spend time in waiting rooms…
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