Marvelous Meditating Monks Meet Mother Marianne

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. Over time, others have joined in to help host this wonderful and informative meme. We are now in our ELEVENTH round with 'Captain Roger' at the helm! Some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "M".

Meditating Monks

 (image from the Minding the Bedside website-how to meditate)

Meditating monks. One thousand of them to be exact! The site that this image is from gives ten essentials tips to meditating. Monkey mind always gets in the way of mindful meditation. At least, it often does for me.

Mullein

(mullein in the wild-those are wild turkeys in the background)

Mullein is a biennial plant-it grows abundantly here in the higher elevations-mostly the juniper/Pinon and Ponderosa belts. Says the late Michael Moore, "mullein is an herb for the lungs and throat and can be consumed in any rational quantity needed, being basically free of toxicity. It is a mild sedative to the lungs and is especially useful in the initial stages of an infection, when there is a mild fever, a raspiness in the throat, and a hot dry feeling in the chest. The chopped leaves can also relax spasmodic coughing in chest infections and asthma."   

You can also find out more about mullein at Wikipedia's site-it seems pretty comprehensive.

If you've ever had the cough drops made by the Ricola company, they use mullein as the anti spasmodic ingredient.

Mother Marianne Cope

Mother Marianne (or, more accurately now referred to as Blessed Marianne) will be canonized as a saint next week in Rome. Exactly 3 years after Damien. The United States will then have 3 saints and two of them are from Molokai (Damien and Marianne who both were on the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai). I am in awe of the fact that we have two saints from our island. My brother and my sister in law will be in Rome for this event. My brother was also there for Damien's canonization (that is the official ceremony where they are declared a saint).

Wikipedia has a pretty good write up on her life if want to read more about it (of course it's worth it!).

Multum

(image from the beer Wirtz Nevada site)

And, now, for the more obscure: multum. In brewing, a compound consisting of an extract of quassia and licorice, formerly used as an adulterant.

And then, there's multum in parvo: Latin: much in little