Archive for the ‘Stories from the Rose Cottage’ Category
Saturday, June 30th, 2012
Memories of a first job, a senior prom and a big, yellow convertible collide in this simple story that both touches the heart and tickles the funny bone. A look back to her earliest encounter with golf, the good life and a summer when everything changed. This summer coming of age story might trigger some memories of your own.
Return with Mary to 1971 — a time of tentative beginnings and equally uncertain endings.
By Mary Duggan
I grew up in a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago called Beverly Hills. Everyone calls it Beverly, to not confuse it with the sunshine, movie stars, and glamour of Beverly Hills, California. There are two country clubs in Beverly. One built for Protestants called Beverly Country Club. And one built for Catholics called Ridge Country Club. I have ten siblings and lots of us worked at the Club. I’m sure you can imagine which one. I joined the team at Ridge as a waitress. I started the day after my senior prom in June of 1971.
(more…)
Tags: car accidents, country clubs, golf, reflections on life, self-reflection, summer before college, teenagers
Posted in Life at the Rose Cottage, Stories from the Rose Cottage | No Comments »
Saturday, June 30th, 2012
By Mary Duggan
When my beloved dog Ceiliedgh died at age 15 she had a soccer ball sized tumor hanging from the side of her body. She had carried this expanding growth for five years, a constant and terrifying source of concern for me and visible to one and all. At the time of her death it weighed in at about 20 pounds and required constant care. Ceiliedgh had adapted bravely to its growth, her spine twisting and distorting in an ongoing effort to maintain balance and mobility as she adapted to being a 60-pound border collie on a 40-pound frame. It broke my heart that I had unwittingly contributed to her suffering and ultimate death.
Lots of happy memories.
Annie with Ceiliedgh.
A Walk on the Beach
Our first 10 years were really healthy, with few if any visits to the vet. (more…)
Tags: Organic Lawn Care, Pesticides, Service Dogs, TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury
Posted in Life at the Rose Cottage, Our Service Dog Chester, Stories from the Rose Cottage | 1 Comment »
Saturday, June 16th, 2012
by Mary Duggan
I identify with birds. I am captivated and inspired by birds. I heart birds. When I purchased The Rose Cottage, some 6 years ago, I went in way over budget. I had to have it. The yard is filled with birds due in great measure to the bird sanctuary developed by my next door neighbor. Inside of our home, as well, bird imagery abounds. This past winter and spring brought lots of bad news about my health. So, of necessity, this summer begins a period of change, hopefully transformation. My summer molt, if you will.
I have decided to get my molt on. As we are spending very little time in public this summer, I think it’s a good time to take this on. It’s a necessary and natural ritual every now and again to shed ones skin, make some changes and see what returns in the Fall. A molt is triggered by crisis or angst or the not so simple need to regain or reestablish what is authentic in one’s life. Deeply experiencing each category lately, I figure it’s high time and highly important. My sisters think it’s hysterical, but they are learning to accept its meaning in my life.
MOLTING – STAGE ONE: Hair
I stood before the mirror, trying to get my mousy brown paper flat molt hair to pouf. I was racing to get out of the house for our standard Wednesday night at the movies. Clare poked her head in the door. Are we ready yet? This is Clare’s way of saying you are making us late. “My hair looks awful! I look like Margaret Mead!” I offered in explanation for making us late. I was not used to my hair being a problem. (more…)
Tags: birthdays, molting
Posted in Life at the Rose Cottage, Stories from the Rose Cottage | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2012
By Mary Duggan
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
by William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, 1697
As a young woman I entered into a really sick marriage. Well educated, meaningfully employed and facing a red-hot future, I walked head long and innocent into an abyss that derailed me – heart and soul – for over 14 years. I know from abuse. Exposure now to interpersonal toxins registers with me physically: a bitter, metallic taste fills my mouth; my solar plexus swells and painfully tightens. My reaction is visceral, insistent and king-sized. I have successfully healed on many levels from that experience and I have painstakingly steered clear of abusive relationships ever since. I never imagined that business partnerships could so easily replicate the abusive model I had so struggled to overcome. Boy, was I wrong.
Our first kiosk and a supportive team leader. High hopes on DAY ONE.
In March of 2011 the Duggan Sisters loaded our lifestinks® deodorant products into our first Whole Foods Market, led an inspiring and informative training session for the staff, and filled a kiosk with our treasured products; an environmentally responsible and lymphatically sound deodorant system that represented the combined efforts of the three of us for the better part of a decade. When the kiosk finally looked as perfect as we could possibly make it, I turned to a stunned Clare and said “I have to get out of here NOW. Please, get me out of here!” On what should have been one of the happiest and most fulfilling days of my career, I was having THE REACTION and I was having it strong.
I am so powerfully attuned to abusive energy that I knew in one day what it would take our company collectively 10 months and a lot of anguish to comprehend. Many the bride knows the feelings of doom I was experiencing. They know they are making a terrible mistake; but, for a myriad of reasons, they walk down the aisle anyways. My journey this time was down the grocery aisle; but surviving and recovering from marital abuse gave me the insights and frame of reference I needed to identify the same beast in a new role. (more…)
Tags: Buy Local, marital abuse, Product Pirating at Whole Foods, WFM, Whole Foods Market, Whole Foods Stinks
Posted in For the Record, Life at the Rose Cottage, LifeStinks® deodorant, Stories from the Rose Cottage | 56 Comments »
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
by Mary Duggan
The talented team at Destination Kohler Waters Spa are very special friends to the Duggan Sisters: as well as tremendous champions of lifestinks® deodorant and our Don’t Be A Boob Campaign. When they invited us many months ago to speak at their Women’s Wellness Weekend it was an easy yes on our part. For months in advance, I pondered my talk and worked to deepen and expand on our message. I knew I wanted to introduce the concept that health is a space you claim for yourself. The larger the space you claim, the more vibrant the health you experience. This concept has become central to our ongoing message and, as is always the case, a personal struggle for the sisters as well. (Look for a blog entry soon outlining our “Claim a Space for Health©” formula.)
Chester, Mary’s Service Dog
As the wellness weekend drew near, and I was finalizing my talk, I realized my sisters had their own agenda for the weekend and their own input into our wellness message. They were determined that I would claim a bit more space for myself, actually lots more space, and they wanted me to do this within the famed and fancy and Oriental carpeted walls of the American Club. They wanted me to bring Chester, the six-year-old Keeshond/Pomeranian mix that has claimed our hearts as a family pet and my gratitude as a neurological bodyguard. It was time for me to come out of the closet about using a service dog. (more…)
Tags: Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), Brain Injury Awareness Month, Chester, Destination Kohler, Dr. Kimberly Curtis, Dr. Oz, DVM, enchantment, Guy Kawasaki, Kimberly Curtis, Kohler Water Spas, PTSD, Service Dogs, TBI, The American Club, The Pet Prescription, Therapy Dogs, Traumatic Brain Injuries, Veterans with TBI, Victoria Bou
Posted in Life at the Rose Cottage, Our Service Dog Chester, Stories from the Rose Cottage | 5 Comments »
Friday, March 9th, 2012
by Mary Duggan
If you read one book this spring, I strongly encourage you to make it Wheat Belly. A New York Times Bestseller, written by Wisconsin cardiologist Dr. William Davis, it will forever change the way you look at pastries, pizzas, and all the superficial delights of the gluten world.
Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis
We had been a gluten-free family for many years, as it was part of getting Annie well. I went along for the ride but I was decidedly haphazard in my approach. It was Annie’s problem and she had the gastro intestinal turmoil to prove it. In solidarity I munched on gluten-free crackers and drizzled gluten-free pancakes with pure maple syrup and I had to agree – they were way more delicious than their gluten rich counterparts. But I was never averse to preceding a selection from the gluten-free menu in restaurants with a few buttered slices of the house baguette. Strictly gluten-free was Annie’s cursed state. I never fell victim to gluten’s deadly effects. Or so I thought! (more…)
Tags: book commentary, Dr. William Davis, Gluten-free living, Wheat Belly, William Davis M.D.
Posted in Book Suggestions, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Life at the Rose Cottage, Raw & Living Foods, Stories from the Rose Cottage | 7 Comments »
Friday, July 1st, 2011
By Mary Duggan
The Duggan Sisters have had a ball with the name of our deodorant. For folks who don’t get it, perhaps a bit of history behind the naming of our lifestinks® deodorant would help. Here’s the first layer of the story. In 2007 we pooled all of our available resources to have a sophisticated website built to support the work of our home based healing center – The Rose Cottage in Beverly. We were amongst a handful of people trained in a very unusual system of Manual Lymphatic Drainage and we had lots of other healing techniques in our bag of goodies – from Raindrop Therapy and Far Infrared Sauna to Transformational Reiki and Forrest Yoga. Business was pretty good, but ever the worrier, Mary, was looking at a flagging economy and wondering how long we would survive the looming cash crunch; a website had gone from being a possibility to an essential. So, we gave a reputable designer our last resources (more…)
Tags: deodorant, Duggan Sisters, handmade in Chicago, life stinks, LifeStinks® deodorant, Rose Cottage in Beverly, St. Barnabas, St. Barnabas Parish
Posted in For the Record, Life at the Rose Cottage, LifeStinks® deodorant, Stories from the Rose Cottage | 1 Comment »
Eight Good Years
Friday, March 9th, 2012by Mary Duggan
If you read one book this spring, I strongly encourage you to make it Wheat Belly. A New York Times Bestseller, written by Wisconsin cardiologist Dr. William Davis, it will forever change the way you look at pastries, pizzas, and all the superficial delights of the gluten world.
Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis
We had been a gluten-free family for many years, as it was part of getting Annie well. I went along for the ride but I was decidedly haphazard in my approach. It was Annie’s problem and she had the gastro intestinal turmoil to prove it. In solidarity I munched on gluten-free crackers and drizzled gluten-free pancakes with pure maple syrup and I had to agree – they were way more delicious than their gluten rich counterparts. But I was never averse to preceding a selection from the gluten-free menu in restaurants with a few buttered slices of the house baguette. Strictly gluten-free was Annie’s cursed state. I never fell victim to gluten’s deadly effects. Or so I thought! (more…)
Tags: book commentary, Dr. William Davis, Gluten-free living, Wheat Belly, William Davis M.D.
Posted in Book Suggestions, Eating with the Sisters, Gluten-free living, Life at the Rose Cottage, Raw & Living Foods, Stories from the Rose Cottage | 7 Comments »