Small doses

I am happy to say that I have been poison ivy free for one month now.

I haven't been avoiding it, as I probably should during these summer months when the oils appear to be dripping off of the leaves. In fact, I've taken a fork to many a plant to remove them from our garden area, which involves picking up the leaves and vines with gloved hands and disposing of them.

I would like to attribute my string of good luck to Oral Ivy, a homeopathic product that builds up your body's natural defenses against the toxic oils of poison ivy, oak and sumac. I take 3 drops of the concentrated rhus toxicodendron a day.

Like any homeopathic product, Oral Ivy works in small doses. Such remedies are made by potentizing a substance (serially diluting in water or alcohol, for example, and vigorously shaking it). The substance to be potentized is usually similar to the ailment one is trying to prevent (e.g., potentize poison ivy oil to prevent poison ivy; potentize pollen to prevent pollen allergies), but others are less intuitive. It is a complex science, despite the fact that it is not recognized by strict scientists nor the FDA as a viable "medicine."

I've always believed that small is beautiful (in the economic sense, and also in the social and cultural ones). There is a rhyme and reason to the practice of homeopathic remedies, just as there is one to the concept of peppering in biodynamic farming. In a time and space where bigness, globalism, heavy consumption, needless accumulation and frivolous expansion dominate the collective consciousness, recognizing and participating in the smallness of things is the best remedy I can think of.