Freedom Flowers

______Sometimes, I am rather impressed by modern medicine.

______I am impressed by how downing two button-sized tablets can make a throbbing headache fizzle down to nothing in half an hour, and how even tinier white tablets can nearly obliterate the symptoms that we females encounter on a monthly basis.

______Taking medicine when I was little was an awful process that my mother and I both loathed to endure.  The only way my mom could get me to drink that awful stomach-soothing pink liquid would be by pouring it in a small cup, dousing it in chocolate syrup, and plopping an M&M in it.  I would still regard it contemptuously, as if a nasty wasp that would sting my insides was hidden beneath all that sugar, but choked it down nonetheless.  For the chocolate syrup and M&M, young Ali argued in her head.  And nothing more.



______Even today, I find it difficult to immediately turn to medicine when some part of my body is pleading to be subdued, and I only use it when it's absolutely necessary, or if I might die, or if not taking it would cause all of Australia to crack like an egg and be sucked into the earth's core.

______Something to that degree, you know.  Wouldn't want to have a hoard of Australians tucked in kangaroo pouches hopping fiercely toward me, one hand equipped with a deadly lizard, the other a swirling lasso.

______(I hope I didn't offend any Australians.  If it makes you feel any better, I live in Alabama, and you can ridicule how everyone here is a redneck and drives tractors everywhere.  Because that's basically the case.  And well, not to brag, but my John Deere is bedazzled with plastic jewels and decapitated Barbie heads.  It's primary uses are for Walmart errands and hunting squirrels for dinner.)

______Anyway.




______I just wish I could step into my backyard, pluck a funny-looking plant from the ground, shove it down my throat, and boom--headache gone, fatigue banished, innards soothed...  I'm all for natural junk.  The closer to earth, the better.  But hey, maybe that's why I like wearing a crown of flowers upon my head?



______I hope you guys have an excellent Fourth!  Be sure to scare the shit out of your neighbors by hurdling fireworks toward their houses.

Flower crown: DIY with Kelsey
Dress, booties: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Charming Charlie
Gold cuff: Lulu*s