See those nuggets of blackish stuff? That gets all over your hands or cooks food or whatever? It’s your friend when you’re hurt. Uh huh; it is. And thank you — no remarks that I’m focused on this because it’s what I got for Christmas. I’m not that bad. Well, mostly. Kinda. Oh, never mind … onward … 😉

A piece or two of this always exists in my natural medicine pantry. Why? Works miracles if you burn yourself. So, yes, I am focused on this because I was reminded about it over the weekend, baking cake for my daughter’s birthday. (See, told you sugar was bad for you. No baking cake; no 3rd degree burn on my finger!)

So, anyhow, I burned the hell out of my finger. Tried to run it under cold water and continue on. Nope, finger wasn’t having any of it. Hurt like the dickens. Got the piece of charcoal out, sat down and read while I held it on my finger. End of story; no pain. If you’ve ever burned yourself, you know what a blessing this is. No more feeling like you’d rather cut that body part off.

Hold it on there for a while. It won’t be seconds, more like minutes and could be quite a few of them, depending on the severity of the burn. I’d guess mine was 3rd degree as it was blistered and white. But, after holding the charcoal against it for maybe 15 minutes, the blistered skin lay flat, and it didn’t hurt. (Watch that skin doesn’t tear open, though — protect it with something. I unfortunately didn’t do that. The skin split open, but it still wasn’t as painful as the burn was. I then put some natural salve on it, bandaged it and no big deal.)

You should nearly instantly feel some easing of the pain once you place the charcoal on it. If you take off the charcoal, and it still hurts, put the charcoal right back on. Try again in more minutes. I guess you could find a way to make this into a flatter slice, then bandage it against the burned area, but, hey, use it as a time to take care of yourself. Taking it easy is break we all need some times. Read, watch something, listen to music, talk to your dog.

As I’ve said 4 billion times: I adore natural ways of healing. Always my first go to. They help. They are safe. They usually cost very little. And, most important reason: they are more effective than other treatments that aren’t any of that. Thank you, Mom, for being a home remedy sorta person. I carried it on into my grown up life and expanded on it. Can’t imagine life without knowing this stuff.