Monday, October 28, 2013

Committed to Practice


Practicing well requires a commitment.  My friend Mari wrote today that our health depends on our lifestyle, and diet is part of the lifestyle.  A healthy lifestyle will not just happen by accident so it requires a practice to help hold us steady as we go against the grain of society.

There is still somewhat of a gap between what I say I want to do and what I actually do.  Keep in mind that what we do is a better indicator of our true desires than what we say. The right practice helps achieve balance, simplicity and joy because it focuses on the true desires and not just the ideals.  The practice is useful not because it makes us perfect, but because it helps protect us from being influenced by outside pressures.

It helps to have the best mentors possible.  My mentor is Dr. John Fielder and he lives the simple, raw and natural lifestyle as perfectly as anyone in the world.  So much of what I have learned from him has become part of who I am.  His teachings will form the basis of my practice even as I make adjustments to allow for my own heart's desires.

There is a book by Julia Cameron entitled The Artist's Way.  The book's purpose is to help blocked artists work through the reasons they are not able to create their art. I went through this book a few years ago but just recently started going through it again.  It takes about twelve weeks to go through it and do the exercises.  It is a good resource for anyone since we are all artists of some sort or the other.  I recommend it to you if you are blocked!  It's cheap therapy.

This week's chapter in The Artist's Way is about Finding a Sense of Identity.  Having a practice helps with that as well because it provides a way to avoid being sucked into other people's agendas, and it keeps you from getting bogged down in numbing distractions, including food.  The practice helps you stay in the present moment and to pay attention to what is here and now.

Lunch today was green smoothie, avocado, coconut, papaya, goodie ball, and almonds.
Dinner today was a blended salad, avocado, sauerkraut, goodie ball, and almonds.

Here is a recipe for Raw Chili that I got from a raw food teacher named Alsenio Nelson.  I made this for our raw food potluck earlier this month.  It's good!  This picture is a double recipe which was a lot of chili.

Raw Chili

1/2 large sweet onion, diced
4 large carrots, diced
2 cups mushrooms

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp nama shoyu (I used Bragg's Aminios)
2 Tbsp. raw vegan coconut sugar 

CHILI SAUCE INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 dates
4 medium ripe tomatoes
2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp coconut sugar
Cumin to taste
Garlic to taste

1 cup green lentils, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
Himalayan salt
Avocado

1.  In a large bowl, stir together diced carrots, onions, and mushrooms.  I used a food processor.

2.  In a separate bowl, whisk together olive oil, nama shoyu, and coconut sugar.

3.  Pour over carrot mixture.  Marinate one our.  You can marinate it in the dehydrator if you desire.  Spread the mixture on teflex sheets and dehydrate at 115 degrees for an hour.

4.  To make the chili sauce, blend all the chili sauce ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.

5.  Add lentils to veggie mixture.  Pour chili sauce over the veggie/lentil mix and stir.  Add a dash of Himalayan salt to taste.  Top with chopped tomato and/or avocado.

To health and happiness.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Pain and Healing

I am coming off caffeine...again.  I started drinking coffee and tea a few months ago for a couple of reasons.  Reason #1:  I used it as a stimulant when traveling.  Reason #2:  I wanted to experiment with being less rigid in my diet.  Recently our friend, Karl, gave us a Keurig coffee maker, and that put me over the top.  Sunday, I decided to go cold turkey.  Monday I was in bed with a splitting headache.  Tuesday, I used one Keurig cup to make two cups of coffee.  I drank part of one cup...enough to ease the headache...so I could function well enough to go to my flute lesson and flute ensemble rehearsal.  Since then I have been drinking just enough to keep the headache at bay.  I think I am still detoxing since I am still getting the headache.  Now I am trying to ease off the caffeine and still function.  Tomorrow I won't drink any coffee unless I get a headache.  I have been 100% raw since Saturday with the exception of the coffee.

Living the Biogenic Lifestyle enables healing to occur.  The pain we may feel is part of the healing.  It is appropriate to be thankful for the pain.  My caffeine addiction is a case in point.  As I eliminate the coffee, my head becomes quite painful.  This indicates healing is taking place.  In an ideal situation, I would go to bed and ride it out.  I have every reason to be thankful for the headache.  When I drink a cup of coffee to ease the headache I have not made myself healthier.  I feel better, but I have slowed down or stopped my healing depending on how much coffee I take in.  This same principle can be applied to all our healing symptoms.  Anytime we stop the symptom without addressing the cause, we stop the healing.

In Nature Cure and Natural Hygiene we talk about enervation quite a bit.  Enervation is a state of depleted nerve energy caused by improper habits and lifestyle.  Many things can cause enervation including things like travel and getting over-tired.  This, too, can cause us to feel pain as the body works to heal us from the effects of enervation.

Trusting the process is a principle of Nature Cure. This isn't always easy as it puts us in opposition to the rest of the world.  Reminder to self:  Remember Carol's advice to practice well!! I wrote about it in this blog posting before I left Australia:

http://simplerawandnatural.blogspot.com/2011/11/ians-departure.html

John, Ian and I left for Cairns at 4:00 a.m.  We went to Rusty's Market...my last time.  I said good-bye to a couple of the vendors we buy from.  Carol was there shopping, as usual, so we said our good-byes.  Carol is a former client of John's who follows the lifestyle to near perfection.  She is originally from New York but has lived in Cairns for 30 years or so.  She's beautiful and very stylish.  I wish I had a picture of her, but I never got one.  She left me with the words, "Practice well."  I hope to do that...practice well.  

It is important to eat only at meal time and forego snacking.  The sooner we give up breakfast, the better.  It's best to just eat two meals a day, lunch at noon and dinner before 6:00.  This releases a great deal of energy for healing because we don't have to process a lot of unnecessary food.  As Dr. Fielder has often said, "One third of what we eat feeds us, the other two thirds feeds the doctors".  (I'm preaching to myself here.)

Many raw food teachers and alternative health practitioners are advocating colonics.  In Nature Cure we do not recommend them.  Colonics are not required.  On rare occasions an enema might be called for, but never colon irrigation.

We need to be patient with the body as it heals.  It can take several months for the energy to return.  Restoring nerve energy takes place at the cellular level, and it takes time.

Once you build your energy to the point where you feel better than you have in a long time, you will suddenly have the rug pulled out from under you as you become ill.  I can remember a few years ago wondering why I was living as healthy as I knew how but was so sick with flu...one bout after the other. This is called a healing crisis.  It can take many forms...fever, aches, pains, etc.  It can take the form of any acute illness - tonsillitis, kidney infection, hepatitis, etc.  This is the body doing its healing work. This is a time to go to bed, rest, sleep, drink water and fast.  And be thankful.

To health and happiness.




Saturday, September 28, 2013

Detoxifying

The 5K training is still going well.  Yesterday, again, I ran and walked in intervals which included a total of 8 minutes running.  Lucy sees to it that I get in a few extra running minutes because after I walk her up the road she takes off lickity-split back towards the house once we make the turn to come home.  I run as fast as I can to keep from holding her back too much on the leash, but I can't keep up with her.

We had a good time yesterday going to garage sales and estate sales.  We found a set of china, some Japanese tea sets, and a couple of books we can put in our E bay store.  We found some items we can use, too....a blue fruit bowl for $6.00, three candles for the coffee table for $8.00, a decorative box for $5.00, a lawn chair for me to sit in the garage with Travis for $3.00, a pitchfork for $4.00, a large ball of twine for $2.00, a some free pencils.

Lunch yesterday was fruit smoothies made with peaches, apple, orange juice, kiwi, papaya, dates, romaine, and water; papaya; coconut; and almonds.

I made a trip to Whole Foods in Little Rock yesterday and stocked up on sauerkraut, coconut water, almonds, dates, crackers, coconut oil, toothpaste, and chocolate/goji squares.  I met my friend, Connie, at Olive Garden.  I had the salad with no dressing and the vegetarian Minestrone soup.

There are some things it is good to know when you are helping your body detoxify and heal naturally...

When your body is healing it is not good to use oils on your salads.  It is best to limit your oils to what you get from your avocados, coconuts, and nuts.  Don't use commercial salad dressings.  Dr. Fielder makes something he calls Green Lava.  The recipe is not written in stone, but one version follows:

Green Lava
Make Green Lava in the Vita-Mix or other high-powered blender by blending tomatoes, celery, sauerkraut, and green leaves (such as romaine and/or parsley).  Serve over your salad.

I like to make something similar that I call Blended Salad.  You don't even have to make a salad, because you eat it with a spoon...like a soup.  To serve two I use the following recipe:

Blended Salad
1 large tomato or 2 smaller tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled
1 red bell pepper
Juice of one lemon or lime
2 Tbsp. Nutritional Yeast
- Blend in Vita-Mix until smooth
Add 6-8 stalks of chopped up celery and 1 head of romaine (from a 3 pack).
-Blend again until smooth.
Add 2 tsp flax seed.
-Quick blend to mix in the oil.

When you are detoxifying, the body uses different means of elimination.  Bowel movements may be erratic, but it is no reason to be alarmed.  Diarrhea and vomiting are common.  You may experience headaches, rashes, and skin eruptions.  These are all simple forms of elimination.  Sometimes there might even be bleeding, but even this is not that unusual as a means of eliminating toxic poisons.

Deodorants and crystals that counteract body odor are suppressants.  The only safe deodorant is good health, and good health comes from within.  Soaps, perfumes, shampoos, and deodorants do not make us clean, because they leave a layer of chemicals that destroy our natural protective oils.  The best way to clean the skin and hair is by brushing.  

Right now, I us a mild natural shampoo bar every few days, but no conditioner.  I don't use a deodorant anymore.  Meat eating is a big contributor to body odor, and I hardly ever eat any meat.    I use a fluoride-free toothpaste, and I use Ivory soap or one of the special natural soaps I buy from time to time in the shower.

To health and happiness.



Friday, September 27, 2013

The Daily Fast

Travis, Arthur and I went to Park Island for lunch yesterday.  Park Island is an awesome little restaurant in Hot Springs, Arkansas, that serves organic, locally grown foods.  Here is a link to a wonderful article about Joseph Sheridan and Armando Ortiz, the owners.
Park Island Organic Produce and Cafe

As we left Park Island we noticed four large 300 gallon tanks which will be perfect for collecting rain water. They were asking $80.00 each for them.  Later in the afternoon Travis returned to get one of them, but he ended up buying two and Joseph and Armando delivered them to the house for us. We talked about raw foods and about getting Dr. Fielder to possibly do a seminar at the cafe when he comes to Hot Springs next May.  Joseph and Armando are nice folks.

You know, it really doesn't matter what your diagnosis is or even whether you have been given a diagnosis at all.  In the practice of Nature Cure that is not important.  Our focus is not on seeking a cure, but rather the focus is on bringing ourselves into harmony with the Laws of Nature and strengthening the organism.

The daily fast is possibly the best thing we can do for ourselves.  The daily fast begins after the evening meal and ends at lunch time the following day.  Even a laborer can do this because this fast does not weaken you.  You will even feel more energetic because the digestion of food requires much energy.  This conservation of energy enables more energy to go toward healing.  This is good stewardship.  The body is the Lord's temple which should be honored and kept clean.  (I want to do better!)

One of the principles I mentioned yesterday was that we need to be squeaky clean if we wish to succeed.  What does it mean to be squeaky clean?  Here is how it was given to me by Dr. John Fielder when I so desperately needed  to find a way to heal my sick body.

Eat the natural food diet of about 50% fruit, 35% vegetables, 10-20% starches, 5-10% concentrates, and a minimum amount of condiment foods.  (Message me if you want a copy of this diet sheet.)

Stop all supplements and medications.  Eat only raw foods.  Drink only water.

Remove all forms of stress.

Pray positively.  Expect healing and full recovery.

Be in the fresh air and sunshine everyday.

Exercise by walking every day if you are able.

If necessary to separate yourself from negative people and well-meaning friends and family that saddle you with fear, you may have to go someplace... like Dr. Fielder's Clohesy River Health Farm....or find a coach that will encourage you through the hard times.  I was fortunate to have the support of my family when I decided to go this route, but everyone is not so lucky.

It helps tremendously to have a practitioner, coach or friend who has been through these things before you.  It is normal and usual to experience weakness, headaches, aches and pains, dark urine, and a host of other symptoms as the body detoxifies and heals.  Pain is part of healing.  The body is healing the part of the body that is hurting.  Our job is to stop adding anything that will interfere with the function of the body.

We also need to be aware of the things we put on our skin and hair.  Cosmetics and perfumes are never good to use even when they are advertised as being natural.  They are all processed.  Beauty and health go together, and they come from within.  At this time I am using some mineral eye makeup, mascara, and Burt's Bee's lip gloss.  That may still be too much.  I have again decided to stop putting toxic hair color on my head in order to color my hair.

Even seemingly innocuous remedies, such as salts or herbs, suppress our healing symptoms and interfere with the function of our magnificent bodies.  They are not good to use.

To health and happiness.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Dealing with Stress by Running

Diet and exercise are equally important in a healthy lifestyle.  I have two new aps for the i-phone that I hope will help me include more exercise in my life, 5K Runner and Tai Chi.  For some reason, I committed to run a 5K in November with my daughter, Molly,  and grand-daughter, Ashlyn.  Since I have never run a 5K in my life, this may be pushing my limits.  We'll see how it goes.  My training yesterday was 30 minutes walking and running combined in intervals.  I ran a total of 8 minutes.

I took a Tai Chi class one time and enjoyed it, but the time constraints of going to a class don't work for me at this time.  And besides,  I never could remember the movements well enough to practice at home.  The ap makes that part easy as it shows the postions and describes the movement while tranquil music plays in the background.  Dr. Fielder also supports the use of Tai Chi as an exercise.

I have had some trouble dealing with anxiety and stress this year although I feel much better now.  A healthy amount of stress is beneficial, of course, because it helps us perform at a higher level.  But the stress becomes debilitating when it is too intense and constant.  It uses up our inner resources and causes enervation.  This type of stress can cause disease.

We are not designed to face more stress than we can bear.  Eating the right foods certainly helps us withstand the stresses of life.  Raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts are our best foods.  Over-cooking foods depletes the minerals in the food.  Exercise, also, is an important factor in dealing with stress.  That's why I am working on exercising more by training for this 5K.

Drugs and stimulants sometimes appear to relieve stress, but in fact they are robbing us of our ability to deal with stress.  Tobacco, alcohol, coffee, sugar, and drugs are not the best way to cope with the pressures of life.  A better choice is recreation and a life with a balance of aerobic activity and intellectual and artistic endeavors.

I consider Natural Hygiene to be a practice.  I want to avoid medical intervention as much as possible.  The whole medical protocol is fear based, and they do scare the pants off you.  I have decided that anyone that tries to put FEAR on me is not out for my good.  There is a better way.

Here are some core principles in Natural Hygiene.  I have heard Dr. Fielder repeat them to me many times.

Nature does not make mistakes.  Only we make mistakes.

All action by our bodies is right action.  We have been taught otherwise so sometimes it may appear the body is doing something that is hurting us, but this is not true.  Even when we are doing things that are wrong, the body is using all its available power to make corrections.

We always feel worse before we feel better.

We have to trust the process.

It takes time for the body to heal.  It can take weeks or months.  We must keep the faith and persevere in doing right.

We need to be squeaky clean if we wish to succeed.

To health and happiness.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Still Learning to Eat


We leave for the beach early in the morning!  Today I must pack!  I hope to connect with my cousin, Gaylon, while we are in Panama City and get in some good cousin/girlfriend time.  Surely there will also be time for the farmer's market as well as getting in some sun, earth, and water time.

Travis and I want to get rid of some of our "stuff" when we get back from the beach.  Is it feasible to get rid of half?  We plan to have a garage sale and then donate what does not sell.  Our garage sale is planned for August 23-24.  Clearing out makes room for more abundance to come in!  By abundance, I do not mean necessarily more "stuff".

Travis had a day with our friend, Karl Hochradel, yesterday.  He sent a paper home with Travis that he compiled regarding competencies in building community.  I have a lot to learn in that area, so I read it carefully.  It started off with..."One of the most important elements of developing community in a democratic society is authentic, effective communication".  Communication requires a commitment to a process that transforms my best into something better.  Silence also is valuable.  Since I am an introvert, I am often silent.  But I need to become comfortable with my silence and the silence of other people.  The first and last discipline is ...Do to others as you would have them to do to you.

I listened to an important video made by Tim Van Orden called Cheating on a Raw Vegan Diet.  The message is to get rid of the whole concept of cheating.  When your truth says, "I want pizza" and this starts a conversation between your ideal self and your perceived self accusing each other of cheating and lying, nothing is gained.  Get rid of the whole cheating conversation because that is just you fighting with your truth.

Tim's rule is "Eat fruit first".  Allow yourself to "cheat" but eat fruit first.  If you still want the pizza after eating the fruit then allow yourself.  Don't fight yourself, and don't beat yourself up.  You don't crave pizza because you need protein or calcium.  It is just that your perceived self (your real self) needs affection.  If the fruit doesn't satisfy it, then give it some affection.  Don't fight it.  Start where you are, and if this means you need a little piece of pizza every now and then, embrace that.  When you embrace it, you can transform it.

Here is the link.....


The lesson I am working on right now is to learn to enjoy good healthy delicious foods without guilt and without fear.  I am a healthy eater so when I get this lesson in my head and heart, then I will enjoy more freedom and I will be able to breathe easier.

Kristopher Aaron wrote an interesting take about tithes and offerings.  The word "tithe" means "tenth" which is the best of the best.  We must bring our tithe into the storehouse of the Holy Temple.  Since the Holy Temple is the human body, he likened the storehouse to the stomach.  Once we start bringing the best offerings into our stomachs then the living God truly opens the windows of heaven whereby life becomes truly real and magical!  God then rebukes the devourer (disease and darkness) for our sakes. Pay attention to people's diets.  Do they fill their temples with light, love and life or with death, darkness and fear?  Our bodies are the Lord's temple.

I have just presented two takes that require a balance.  On the one hand I want to enjoy good healthy delicious food without guilt and fear and on the other hand I want to bring the best of the best to present an offering in the Lord's temple.

Yesterday for lunch I had a green smoothie, watermelon, cherries, avocado, and freshly grated coconut.  Yummy.  For dinner I had sauerkraut, blended salad, cooked squash and cornbread, peppermint tea and some Green & Black organic chocolate.  My diet for yesterday was not 100% raw, but it was healthy by most standards.  Do I beat myself up or embrace it?  I think I'll embrace it!

Whatever we choose to eat must be eaten with love, gratitude, and without fear.  Even healthy foods can make us ill if they are eaten with fear present.  Love and gratitude make up for a lot.  As Dan McDonald said...Eat with love and say, "Thank you Grandma for the chocolate chip cookies.

To health and happiness.

Here I am with the cucumbers we harvested a few days ago.






Thursday, June 13, 2013

Care of the Soul

I learned something important yesterday.  Anxiety is caused by the gap between your Ideal Self and your Perceived Self.  The larger that gap, the more anxiety you feel.  Since I have been having so much trouble with panic and a sensation of not being able to breathe, there is something here I need to learn.

I have had it backwards.  I knew that the goal was to listen to my authentic self and to not let the ego be in charge.  But yesterday, I finally had the revelation that what I have been thinking of as ego is in fact my real, perceived self.  And what I have been calling my authentic self is actually the ego.  I imagine I am not the only one that has been making this mistake.  As my teacher was talking to me about this it dawned on me that this real, perceived self is in fact the soul.  This ideal self that is so demanding, intent on problem solving, and full of goals is not even real.  The ego and the soul are not equal partners.  They can never be made whole.  This reminded me of a book I read a few years back called The Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore.  Caring for the soul cultivates a rich and meaningful life day by day.  Our decisions either support or disturb the soul.  The wholeness we need comes from looking at life and spirituality from the point of view of the soul.  That is where we learn and grow.

I am leaving tomorrow for a trip to Europe with my 16 year old grandson, Zac.  We fly into London and will meet my sister, Sheila, and a friend, Barbara.  Our plan is to be tourists in London for four days.  Then we will take the train to Chateauroux, France, for six days where we will be part of a series of events celebrating the long friendship between the people of Chateauroux and the Americans and their descendants that were stationed in Chateauroux and Deols with the United States Air Force in the 1950's and 1960's.  We lived there from 1960-1962 when my daddy was stationed there.  He worked at the base at Deols.  There will be about twenty Americans traveling to Chateauroux for this celebration.  Zac and I will then go to Paris for seven days...just the two of us.  We plan to take a day trip to Brussels, Belgium, one day but return to our Paris hotel for the night.

I hope that this trip and all it entails...old friends, new friends, the places we visit, the food we taste, the smells, the cultures, the weather, the art... will feed our souls.  I hope we can forget about living successfully and properly and understanding ourselves so that we can relax and just reflect on how the simple pleasures of life exist right under our noses.

Now this is soulful.  Who do you think lives behind this little door?

Here I am with my grandson, Zac, and his parents...my daughter Molly and SIL Ken... at one of the lookouts at Petit Jean State Park.  Zac and I are packed and ready to head out on our big adventure.
 To health and happiness.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

My Healing Crisis - 56 Days and Counting

Sometimes it is hard to figure out whether we are suffering because of what we are doing right or because of what we are doing wrong.  Both actions lead to suffering.  The difference is in the outcome. When we suffer for doing right, we are better and stronger when we come through the other side.  If we suffer for our wrong actions we will continue to lose vitality and become worse unless we correct what we are doing.

It is always a good idea to reflect on what we are going through and judge ourselves on whether we are obeying the Laws of Life and Nature or whether we are breaking these laws.  We know we will never be able to get away with being disobedient.

Since none of us are perfect, there is always room for repentance...a changing of the way we think and act...a call to elevated thinking.

I had been feeling bad for several months but had allowed myself to stay so caught up in my schedule that I did not heed the warnings to stop and evaluate what I was doing.  Even though I was eating a high raw food diet, I was also eating in restaurants and using stimulants (such as coffee and cooked foods) when traveling just to keep going.

Finally, my teacher and healing friend, Dr. John Fielder got my attention with a message that said, in part,  "I am going to be brutally honest, for you do not appear to be hearing what I am saying.  If you wish to regain your health and not kill yourself, it is vitally necessary that you stay in bed and stop gallivanting about.  This is serious business and you cannot afford to play around".

Eating in restaurants is a lesson that I obviously have not yet learned.  You cannot get healthy food in a restaurant.  Dr. Fielder's advice when traveling is that if you must eat, then find a place that sells fresh food and eat just fruit if that is all you can get.  "This is not a game.  It is a deadly business", he said.

This message impressed me enough to make me go to bed and begin to fast to allow my body to heal.  My 91 year old mother went into the hospital about the time I began the fast.  On the third day, she became worse so I broke the fast with juices and spent time with her on her last few days with us here even though I was feeling quite ill.

My dear Mom passed away shortly after midnight on April 3rd.  On the evening of April 4th, as I was eating a salad supper at home, I suddenly could not breathe.  My son, Harris, arrived from San Francisco that evening for the funeral services.  Molly and her family came over after the visitation on April 5th.  I was in bed for the long haul now.  I missed the visitation and the funeral.  It was heart-breaking to see my precious family leave for these services without me.

I cleared my calendar for a month and began to fast in earnest.  I fasted under Dr. Fielder's supervision for twelve days and then broke the fast with orange juice as my tongue began to clear.

My biggest problems during this crisis were emotional.  Somewhere along the way fear got a hold on me.  I began to experience severe panic attacks and even though my blood oxygen was good and I was able to breathe in and out I felt like I wasn't getting any air.  I lost my faith for a bit and began to listen to all the advice that was coming in.  I wavered and became confused.  I visited the EMT's because I felt like I was dying.   They found my vitals all good...normal blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, blood sugar, lungs clear.  I made an appointment with my medical doctor whom I had not seen in years. I had to go in as a new patient.  I asked him to run the blood work necessary to determine if I had any deficiencies.  I made an appointment with a good therapist.  Finally, Dr. Fielder told me I was going to have to choose which voice to listen to.

Slowly, slowly I began to learn not to go into panic mode when I felt like I was not able to breathe.  I talked to a dear friend who understands this lifestyle.  She spoke peace to my soul.   The therapist helped me to see how right it is to trust that the path I have chosen for myself is the right path for me.  He also helped me see that often the feeling of not being able to breathe comes from feeling like you are constricted and not able to be yourself.

My blood work all came back great so there is evidence in black and white that my diet and lifestyle have not caused any deficiencies.  Every test was within the normal range with only protein and calcium being a fraction of a percent below the normal range.  They are so close to the normal range that I don't feel the need to change anything I am doing.  Dr. Fielder advocates the use of animal proteins anyway.  I will start using a little more to be on the safe side.  The farmer's market has cheese made from raw milk and eggs from hens raised on 22 acres of pasture.

As of today, it has been 56 days since I got my wake up call and went to bed.  My breathing is much better, but I still notice it sometimes.  Each day I am able to do a little more.  I am so thankful.  During the worst of the crisis, I was not at all sure what the outcome would be.

Even as we age, the body has the ability to heal.  It just takes longer when we are older.  Am I really serious about living in harmony with Nature's Laws?  Is Dr. Fielder right that this is not a game?  The Laws of Life are not grievous.  They just require that we walk away from the world system and be willing to go through the pain of healing.

Here is where we start:
1.  Eat only raw foods
2.  Drink only water
3.  Be in the fresh air
4.  Be in the sunshine
5.  Walk everyday possible
6.  Avoid all stress
7.  Get plenty of sleep and rest
8.  Pray and expect to be healed

This is NOT alternative medicine.  It is an alternative to medicine.

To health and happiness.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday.  We didn't do anything special, but I enjoyed my time at home.  Travis was gone to South Arkansas with his retired agriculture teacher buddies.  I got awesome presents this year!  My son and his family paid over half on the Lifetime Dual Bin Compost Tumbler I wanted.  It has already arrived and is sitting in the garage waiting on someone to put it together.  The date stamp on my pictures are obviously wrong, because according to the date this is a Christmas present.  Here is the link:  Lifetime Dual Bin Compost Tumbler
Awesome birthday present!
My daughter and her family contributed towards the Aris Latham Culinary Certification Workshop on 13 DVD's.  I can hardly wait for them to arrive.  I posted one of Aris Latham's recipes on a previous post. Here is the link to his Salad and Tahini Dressing Recipe:
http://www.simplerawandnatural.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

Here is a link to the videos:
Aris Latham Raw Foods Culinary Workshop


Three of my grandchildren spent the week-end with us.  Ashlyn was a big help preparing Sunday lunch.  We fixed the Salad and Tahini Dressing and a fruit bowl.  Ashlyn also prepared a birthday fruit platter for me.
Ashlyn with the Salad.  The Tahini Dressing goes into the green pepper cup.

Ashlyn with the fruit bowl she arranged.

The birthday fruit plate created by Ashlyn.  The strawberry is the nose for the smiley face.

Another thing Aris Latham reminded me of is the importance of fasting the body.  It is very difficult for me to take the time off to water fast and keep up with my schedule.  He fasts about 70 days a year, but it seems he is considering taking in only the juices as fasting.  Technically, that is not a fast, but I think this will work for me.  So today is going to be an all fruit juice day.  My plan is to make this a weekly occurrence.  This morning I made an apple juice with a lime juiced in with it, and I made a pitcher of fresh orange juice.

Making orange juice.

Apple juice with lime and orange juice.
To health and happiness.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Aris Latham Salad and Tahini Dressing Recipes

It is cold and icy here today.  The trees are laden down with ice.  Spring will be here soon, though.    My seeds arrived yesterday.
One of the frozen pear trees.

I ordered all organic heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, MO.  They have a Facebook page for anyone that wants to follow them on Facebook.  I ordered so many seeds that they sent me three packages of free seeds...Aunt Ruby's German Cherry Tomato, Parisienne Carrot, and Korean Hyssop.  I have no idea what to do with Korean Hyssop.  The package says it makes a great base for herbal tea, and it is one of the 50 Fundamental Herbs in Chinese traditional medicine.

The seeds are here!  All organic heirlooms.
The free seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
I usually don't watch the videos that You Tube recommends for me, but for some reason yesterday I watched one called The Art of Raw Foods w/Aris Latham.  I am now a fan of Dr. Aris Latham, the Sun Food Gourmet.  Here is a link to the video:  The Art of Raw Foods w/Aris Latham

Aris washes his heart every morning with a young coconut.  I don't have any young coconuts, so I washed my heart the last two mornings with fresh orange juice.

He recommends having papaya every day.  Dr. Fielder eats papaya every day, too.  I will check at Walmart today to see if they have any papaya.  Many times they do not, but when they do, it tastes delicious with the freshly grated coconut.

Aris Latham always brings a handful of plums home from the market to hand out to the neighborhood children.  What a sweet thing to do! Whole Foods in Little Rock used to give out free apples to the young children.  Same concept.  I love it.

Here is Aris Latham's Salad Recipe which I must try very soon.  It's on my list today to buy some Tahini at Village Nutrition.

Aris' Salad
Shred two peeled carrots in food processor.  Put into one section of the salad bowl.
Shred two medium turnips.  Place in bowl next to the carrots.  Do not mix the ingredients together.
Shred one medium beet.  Place next to turnips.
Peel one cucumber (if it is commercial), slice in half lengthwise, then slice thin.  Place next to carrots.
Break up by hand a medium head of green leaf lettuce. Squeeze between carrots and turnips.
Cut a tomato in half, then slice into thin wedges.  Place in salad bowl.
Break up 6 leaves of romaine lettuce.  Place in a section of the bowl separate from the other lettuce.
Place black olives around the edge of the bowl.

Tahini Dressing
Blend all the following ingredients in the Vitamix for 30 seconds.  1/2 cup water, juice of 1/2 lime, small pc. of beet, 2 cloves of garlic, 6 mint leaves, small pc. of scallion, 1 tsp of liquid amino, dash of cumin, and 1/4 cup tahini.  Cut the top off of a bell pepper and remove the seeds. This will be the bowl for the dressing.  Place the pepper into the middle of the salad bowl and fill it with the tahini dressing.

To health and happiness.

Monday, February 18, 2013

The Journey is a Joy

I have started using an app on my i-phone called My Fitness Pal to keep up with my food, water and exercise.  The most helpful part of the app to me is keeping up with the amount of fat grams I am getting.  It is so easy to over-do on fat grams even on all raw foods.

Oranges are good this time of year.  This is my favorite way to eat them....freshly squeezed orange juice.  There is nothing better.  I have a little citrus juicer that makes the job easy.

Freshly juiced orange juice.

Cheers!
 A young friend of mine turned me on to the idea of making my own laundry detergent and fabric softener.  I finally got around to making a batch.  It's easy, and it works better than any commercial detergent.  I don't think I will need to use bleach to keep the whites looking good enough.  The dutch oven I used to boil the soap was not quite deep enough.  I had to work at keeping the temperature low enough to not boil over, yet still keep it boiling.  I will be looking for a deeper pan at the estate sales and yard sales.

The ingredients for making the laundry detergent.


Here are the recipes:

Laundry Detergent-
Bring 1/2 gallon of water to a boil then add 1/3 of the Fels-Naptha bar shredded.  Bring it back to a boil. Once the soap is melted, add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of Washing Soda.  Boil for 5 minutes and stir.  Put this into a large bucket of some sort and add 1-1/2 gallons of cold water.  Stir.  Let it sit for 30 minutes and stir.  Pour into two gallon containers.  (I used empty bleach bottles).  Use 1/2 cup per load.  This makes enough detergent to do 64 loads.  It averages about five cents per load.

Fabric Softener - Mix in a gallon container...l6 oz of Suave conditioner, 3 cups of white vinegar, and 10 cups of water.  Mix well and pour into a Downey ball.  Shake before each use.

The Hot Springs Flute Ensemble played at St. Lukes for the Sigma Alpha Iota Musicale.  Here I am getting ready.  It was fun.

Let him who would move the world first move himself. - Socrates.  I think Socrates got that right.  We can help the world most by accepting responsibility for ourselves.

When it comes to living the simple, natural life we have to want it more than anything.  The main motivation is to wake up and live at the highest level we are capable.  Health is the by-product.  The good thing about our sickness and discomfort is that it forces us to look at what we are doing wrong.  At that point, we have to choose to cover up and suppress the symptoms we are experiencing or to accept responsibility and  choose the path of peace which involves doing whatever it takes to address the cause of our problems.

If this doesn't make you get excited, I don't know what will.  You can have a great life and get healthy.  Don't let anyone tell you that you can't, not even your doctor.  Don't accept that there is no cure.  You can without a doubt clean out your organs, glands and tissues and get healthy if you are willing to take the road less traveled.  It may take some time, but what's wrong with that?  We didn't get in this condition overnight, and we won't correct the problems overnight.  But we will begin to improve almost immediately.  Actually, the journey itself is a joy.  I have never had so much fun as I have since I started practicing this way of living.

To health and happiness.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Basic Needs of Life

I'm feeling really good right now.  Eating an almost totally raw diet makes such a difference.  I feel JOY for no reason.  I still have some pain in my kidney, a sore nose, and arthritic hands, but other than that I feel GREAT!  Healing takes time.  Patience is important.  There is no need to be in a rush.  This is a work that will last as long as I do, I'm sure.  But that's okay.  Living the natural, healthy lifestyle is my pleasure, my hobby, my avocation! I love all of it.

Tuesday was all-flute day with two lessons and a rehearsal.  Lunch was lovely with a green smoothie (pineapple, greens from the garden, apple, kiwi, bananas, orange, coconut water, and water); 1/2 avocado; freshly grated coconut; and papaya.  Dinner was the usual green salad, veggie cocktail, 1/2 avocado, and trail mix.  I also drank herbal tea throughout the day.

Vegetarianism is not the same thing as Natural Hygiene.  Natural Hygiene is all about true health.  It deals with the removal of the causes of disease and maintaining health by living the simple, natural life.  It looks at the whole person...mind, body, and spirit.

There is no fast path to good health by taking drugs or herbs.  We have to learn to understand how our mind and body works.  A lot of people in the health business are looking to get rich quick.  They are successful because we are looking for health in ten easy steps, and we are willing to pay for the magic pills and potions.  Real health is not that easy.

There is a growing number of young people looking for a saner way to live.  I am encouraged by the number of them learning to grow organically and live a more simple lifestyle.  There seems to be a consensus that we can't go on as we are.

What Natural Hygiene can offer them is a knowledge of the basic needs of life.  It is a message suitable to everyone, no matter where they live or their income level.  It emphasizes what we can achieve. It appeals to the weary and sick.  It teaches our relationship to our environment.

We have to educate ourselves, but we need to educate other people, too.  We are all in this together.

"Not to offer health when unintentional suicide is going on seems nothing less than criminal." - Dr. Dewey

Our work is to educate everyone with whom we come in contact.

From the book Natural Grace:

There is more to salvation than getting the right texts.  It is not true that truth is found from the neck up.  Pay attention to the revelation of Nature.  There is a balance between the revelation from Scripture and the revelation from Nature.

We can trust our experience.  I have learned to trust my experience.

To health and happiness.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Changing the World

I have been eating almost all raw.  I have had a couple of the Mariani Bars which are all whole foods, but I doubt very much that they are raw.  I think I need to give them up.

I completely got off focus when I started searching for properties within five miles of my house where I could possibly plant some fruit trees.  Travis and I ended up spending an entire morning driving around and looking.  The main place I was interested in would be okay for someone a lot younger, but it is very hilly and there is enough work to be done there to last a lifetime.  By the time we got home I was settled back down, content with what I already have, and trusting God to take care of us where we are.  This tiny piece of property we live on will keep us busy enough.

I still want to plant some more fruit trees, get dechlorinators for the hose and showers, get a rain tank, fence the garden beds, put in a wood burning stove, find a source for trace mineral fertilizer, find some way to utilize shade cloth during the summer, and put in a couple of smaller garden beds.  That should keep us busy enough for a while.

After I got distracted, I could never get caught up on the things I had planned to do.  I'm sure my flute teacher could tell when I went to my lesson.  

Natural Grace is a book by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake.  Rupert, the scientist, is looking at the world as a living cosmos rather than as a mechanistic universe.  In our culture we have been conditioned to accept the mechanistic universe model.  I think the universe can be a living cosmos and still be governed by eternal laws because I have seen (from my perspective) that the laws of God and Nature are dependable.  I agree with him that Nature is full of creativity.  There is a relationship between God and Nature.  In our heart most of know that we need to get back to Nature.  Matthew, the theologian, writes about the sacredness and mystery of life.  He asks, "What is prayer?"  His final answer was that prayer is a radical response to life.  Thomas Aquinas and others have stated that "God is life".  The scientist is standing up and saying NO to a mechanistic system and the theologian is saying NO to forces of injustice.

A mistake about creation results in a mistake about God. -Thomas Aquinas

95% of the worship going on today is like the mechanistic system so popular in our science and culture.  A new way of looking at science might possible lead to a spiritual renaissance.  The issue isn't God being dead, the Earth being dead, or our worship being dead.  Matthew Fox says "It's us.  It's our souls...Can we come alive again?  Is there a resurrection?"  Thomas Aquinas said that there are two resurrections, and the first is waking up in this lifetime.

Is it selfish to be awake (perception, again) and to focus on individual responsibility when it comes to health and happiness when the world is going to hell in a hand basket all around us?  Should we put all our energy into changing the world or in changing ourselves?  Is our main priority to reform the economy, politics, business, and education or is it our individual self-responsibility?

To change the world we have to first change ourselves.  What we see in the world is a projection of what is in us.  If we want to correct the world, we have to correct our vision.  When something makes us fear, we need to work on getting the fear out of us.  Even if we destroy the outside object of our fear, something else will appear to make us afraid.  We will never, ever kill all the snakes, spiders, or terrorists.  Our work is to overcome the fear within.

If we are serious about resolving our afflictions, we have to look within our own mind and heart.  This for sure will not always be pleasant, but this is the only way to truly change the world.

Health and healing, happiness and harmony are within us....not out in the world.

To health and happiness.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The Enemy is Us

I made a new toothpaste that is very simple, and I like it.  The recipe is 2 Tbsp. melted coconut oil stirred into 3 Tbsp. baking soda.  I keep it in a little glass jar, and it works great.

I bought some spiralina and some frozen blackberries to use for my makeup per the video I posted last week.  My method is a little different from the one on the video.   I used a little water with a little spiralina to make eyeliner, but I used Cover Girl mascara on my eyelashes.  Hopefully, this will be okay since it doesn't touch my skin.  I applied the eyeliner with an angle brush.  The juice from the thawing blackberry was applied with a brush for lip color and with a make-up sponge to add cheek color.  I thought it looked fine.

I am using a mild bar soap to wash my hair and then blow drying it on the cool setting.  I'm trying not to use any products on it.

It felt good to get out and walk around the neighborhood for an hour on Saturday.  We know that exercising outside in the fresh air is ten times more beneficial than exercising in the gym.  Even though the temperature did not reach 60 degrees there was some beautiful sunshine to soak up.  It felt warm!

Sunday, I fixed lunch to take to the potluck at our church.  I took steamed broccoli, green salad, Kalamata olives, sauerkraut, avocadoes, a bowl of fruit, freshly grated coconut, and Mariani honey nut bars.

We drove to Benton to pick up Mom for church on Sunday.  She felt good enough to go for the first time in a while.  She had such a good time.  She said she saw people she hadn't seen in a long time, and she learned something new!  What? " Everyone is getting old"!  After our potluck lunch we drove her home.  She was ready to get into her new duster and crawl into bed.  She will be 92 years old on April 6.


Mom
Even though my Mom has lived to a very old age, I wonder how she would be had she known and chosen to live by the principles we have learned in the study of Natural Hygiene.

Drugs obstruct the natural powers of regeneration.  Drugs never help us to heal.  They are always poison.  If it's not a food, it is a poison to our bodies.  The body can not use them to make living tissue like it can with  fruit, veggies and nuts.  In that sense, they are poison.  The medical sciences don't really heal.  According to Dr. Ulric Williams they just convert acute illnesses into chronic disease.

 Dr. Williams said that no one ever cured cancer by surgery and nobody ever will.  He said that radiation, x-rays, drugs, and surgery are clumsy, illogical, expensive and painful. They shorten life and increase misery.   I tend to agree with him.  

 We have met the enemy, and he is us. - Pogo

Perspective is everything, they say.  When we can see our lives from a new and deeper perspective it changes everything.  Natural Hygiene is a philosophy of  wholeness and maintaining balance.  We are designed to be in balance. The life force in us is always motivated toward right action, so when a disease manifests it is also right action.

Most people look at health and disease as something external to themselves.  The world we live in sees problems as external to themselves so they look for solutions to poverty, pollution, war, crime, and poor health outside themselves, too.  As far as health is concerned, we would rather educate more doctors, build more hospitals, and manufacture more drugs than accept self-responsibility.

The world teaches us that disease is because of some external force and that it is not self-generated. Even those of us that know better find it easy to slip back into that mind-set if we are not vigilant.  We can give up our medicines and herbs when we can see that we caused the problem in the first place by our wrong habits of living.

To health and happiness.


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Faith in God

Did the groundhog see his shadow or not?  I'm confused.  I read that Punxsutawney Phil failed to see his shadow as it was overcast and 8 degrees in Punxsutawney, PA.  A friend in Tennessee, however, posted on Facebook that he did see his shadow.  Does each location have it's own groundhog?  I'm expecting six more weeks of winter, but it is supposed to be in the 60's here today.

Travis bought me a new book, Natural Grace, by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake.  It arrived in the mail a few days ago.  Karl suggested to Travis that this was a book I would like.  I can't wait to get into it.  Chapter One is entitled Living Nature and Creation Spirituality.  Maybe I will do some reports on this book as we go along.

I hope I am getting more fit by working out at the Fitness Center.  I still look dumpy in the mirror, but I have faith it will make a difference.  There are some very fit old people that come to work out.  We saw my friend and hairdresser, Adolfo,  there yesterday.  He volunteers there three days a month in exchange for a membership.

My sister and I had a discussion about our upcoming trip to Europe.  She does not want to go to Paris or Berlin.  Her focus is on the Chateauroux area.  After talking to my grandson, Zac, we have decided that we will still go to London and Chateauroux with Sheila, but we will do Paris and Berlin on our own.  It should be a fun time.

Lunch:  Green smoothie, 1/2 avocado, and freshly grated coconut
Dinner:  Veggie cocktail, green salad; sauerkraut, 1/2 avocado, trail mix

I am still being inspired by The Quintessence of Natural Living by Keki Sidwha.  Here is my latest report on what I learned from it....

The reason why drugs appear to alleviate symptoms is because the body has to stop the healing symptom and deal with the drug.  Once the drug is excreted the symptom will return.  The drug is toxic so often even worse symptoms show up thus the cure is worse than the disease.  The end result is that our illnesses last longer than necessary.

About three or four years ago I had what I suppose was shingles.  I had been on my healthy diet and lifestyle for a year or so.  I broke out with a rash across the trunk of my body.  The pain was excruciating.  It felt like little pointy knives sticking in my body.  A doctor friend strongly suggested I go to a doctor and get some medication to relieve the symptoms.  I was polite but knew I wasn't going to an MD.  I tried to call Dr. Fielder, but he was traveling, so I just braved it out. The next day it was worse.   I laid on my bed and squirmed and moaned and wondered if I was doing the right thing, but in just a few hours it was gone as if it had never happened.  The body was allowed to do its work and cleanse itself of some accumulated toxins.  Had I gone to the doctor and taken drugs my energy would have been diverted from healing to fighting the foreign agents.

The body can repair itself.  We see that all the time when we cut ourselves.  It is a truth that only nature heals.  When we get in too big of a hurry to "do something", we interfere with the healing process.

There is a lot of money being made by making people dependent on drugs.  And we are willing to be fooled with the promise of a cure.  Drugs do not have the power to cure, but they do have the power to destroy.  Most people don't want to face up to that.  Even  over-the-counter drugs do damage.  They cause irritation that over time takes its toll and causes congestion, inflammation, and eventually more serious things such as colitis, appendicitis, or hemorrhoids.  We usually don't ever think about the simple over-the-counter medications being the cause.  Every drug has devastating effects on the whole body.

We are endowed by the Creator with the inherent power to heal, repair, and recuperate.  If we leave Nature alone to do its job instead of searching for new remedies and cures we will be better off.  I see it as faith in God as opposed to faith in the world system.

To health and happiness.


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Open Your Heart

When I retired, I took out a high deductible insurance policy with Golden Rule Insurance company.  I almost had the nerve to go uninsured, but decided to play it safe in case I had an accident.  I called them  a month or so ago to cancel since I am now eligible for Medicare.  I was upset when I saw they drafted my account for another $165.53 after I told them to cancel.  This morning, though, Travis reminded me that they told me on the phone that I would have to pay the pro-rated amount for the last month.  I had forgotten that.  Nevertheless, they made 100% profit off of me.  I carried the policy for about three years at $273.88 per month and never made one claim on the policy.

Favorite quotes of the day:
Invoke the power vested in you for your own best and highest good. - Ilume Ao

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our own senses to grow sharper. - W.B. Yeats

My favorite Facebook post yesterday was from Michael Ellsberg.  He said we should take our bucket list, rip it up, and burn the shreds in a fire of liberation.  Here's the one thing you should do before you die:  Open your heart so wide it could kill you.

A responder to that post, Garrison Cohen,  really touched me with his comment.  Here is an edited version:  "Open your heart so wide it DOES KILL YOU.  Open your heart so wide that it becomes the leap from a cliff that you can never take back.  Open your heart so wide that the "story of you" that held to your life with a death grip becomes completely obliterated...and then as you stand there still breathing, feeling and very much alive, look at your life through those eyes.  I'll meet you there."

More thoughts inspired from The Quintessence of Natural Living...

Drugs can not heal us!  The pharmaceutical industry is a multi-billion industry.  I read that they make about $600 billion a year.  That is probably a conservative estimate, and their profits go up every year. They will go up even more with the new health care system being put in place.  Most people just blindly accept that drugs are a part of our society.

Drugs always cause changes in our bodies.  The changes are not because of the drugs, but because the living tissues in the body respond against the drug.  If you administer a drug to a dead person nothing happens.  That is because it is the body responding to the drug, not the drug acting on the body.  That is why Natural Hygiene objects to their use.

It's important to understand the disease process.  Diseases are not caused by some evil outside influence.  Even though taking a drug may appear to stop the symptoms, it is not the best thing to do.

The pharmaceutical companies play upon our fears and are quite good at marketing the concept that diseases are caused by outside forces that we must war against. They experiment with everything under the sun looking for "curing properties".  There is a great deal of superstition involved in the drug culture as they claim miraculous cures through remedies and concoctions.

In Galatians 5:20 the Bible lists the works of the flesh which are opposite to the fruit of the Spirit.  One of the works of the flesh is witchcraft.  The word witchcraft is translated from the Greek work pharmakeia which means the use or the administering of drugs and poisoning.

"Drugs, no matter in what form, under what conditions, in what quantity, under what name, patented or otherwise, have been, are, and will continue to be, in proportion to their use, a great and positive curse to God's human family." - Dr. John Cowan, MD

Dr. Cowan went on to say that it is a great and universal delusion that a sick person could get well by taking drugs. It is an absurd superstition that what will make a well person sick will make a sick person well.  It is a sad fallacy proven by the millions that have died before their time as a result.  Drugs have never cured one single person of disease.  The person always recovers in spite of the drugs and not because of them.

It is the body's instinct to preserve health.  Natural Hygiene never tries to fool anyone by masking their symptoms with drugs.  Natural Hygiene teaches us what is necessary for life and what causes our problems.  It teaches us to rest when we are ill so that all our energy can go towards healing.

We don't use drugs when we are healthy.  We don't need them.  If a healthy person did take a drug the body would eliminate it as fast as possible.  Likewise, we don't need drugs when we are sick.  Just because we are sick does not make our bodies need a poison.  It is just as toxic to a sick person as it is to a well person.  They make our diseases last longer because the body has to eliminate the poison in addition to working on healing.

To health and happiness.






Friday, February 1, 2013

Grocery Shopping and Natural Law

I try to keep my grocery shopping convenient and, therefore, sustainable.  Just like our diet requires us to have our food readily available, we also must keep our shopping habits such that we can maintain them.  The whole world is conspiring to keep us from living the simple, natural life, so we must have our intentions set and have a system in place so we don't get drawn off track.

I do most of my shopping within three miles of my house.  Village Nutrition is a health food store near here.  They are expensive, and I don't buy much there.  They have flax seed oil, nut butters and some specialty items I buy from time to time.

Cranfords is a grocery store where we can get Gundelsheim sauerkraut, bananas, and occasionally some other fruit.  The Gundelsheim sauerkraut is the only one that is stocked in this area that is an acceptable product.  It is packaged in a glass jar and has two ingredients, cabbage and salt.

I buy almost all my food at Walmart.  I know it is not ideal, but that is the best option I have.  I buy organic when I can.  Otherwise, I just buy the commercial.  Here is my normal grocery list - fruit, avocado, coconuts, organic romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, lemons, olive oil, honey, beets, carrots, Kalamata olives, green onions, herbal teas, kale and/or collards, and pine nuts.

Some things I have to order from Nuts.com.  I order my dates, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits from them.  I order my raw almonds from Briden Wilson Farms.

Lunch was green smoothies, 1/2 avocado, and grated coconut.  The green smoothie was made with kale, bananas, orange, apple, pear and dates.  I think one of the date pits got left in, and the smoothie had little pieces of hard date pits in it.  We had to be careful drinking it, but it tasted good.

The coconut grater is working great!  I love it!

Azomite is a rock dust that we can purchase from Amazon.  I haven't ordered yet, but it's about time.  We are looking at the twin Lifetime Compost Tumblers on Amazon, too.  They cost $300, so we haven't pulled the trigger on that yet, either.  It's on my wish list.

Dinner was a green salad; veggie cocktail; 1/2 avocado; and goody balls.

I talk about the laws of Nature all the time, but exactly what are the laws of Nature?  According to the Quintessence of Natural Living a natural law is independent of human authority and is immutable.  It maintains the order of things and expresses cause and effect. 

A lot of times we don't like to admit that "law" is involved in everything we do and our success depends on how well we comply with it.  Cause and effect is the working of natural law.

What about grace?  We don't deserve grace, but most of us experience it every single day.  It is by grace that we are saved from our mistakes in obeying the law.  We are given room to learn and grow.  And no matter how much we fail in keeping the law, we will never be forsaken.  That being said, as mature people, we find pleasure and happiness in learning to live in harmony with the law.  The blessings abound more and more as we accept responsibility and learn to live the way the Creator intended us to live.  Grace never condones wrong doing.

If we don't like our life or our health, then we should not complain againt fate, but instead we should look for the cause and make the necessary changes.

Growth comes from exercising.  No one else can learn and grow for us.  We have to experience things for ourselves, although we can learn from the experiences of others, too, if we are open to such.  In order to build health, we have to stick with the law.  It's important to make the necessary sacrifices in order to live and to work on ourselves.

Anything that gives us something for nothing destroys our character.  Personal effort is required in order to grow and find happiness.  It is the law of action and reaction.  The things we do have consequences in our own lives and in the lives of our children and grand-children.

Universal law decrees that we have to work.  We reap what we sow.  If we don't sow, there will be no harvest.  We have to give in order to receive.  We can never cheat the laws of Nature. What are we going to do to restore balance?  The scales of justice must eventually be balanced, for we cannot take more than we put back.

There will always be a day of reckoning.  The judgement is bound in the action itself.  Even if we don't know the law we are breaking, the penalty is certain.

Ignorance is no defense against the laws of Nature.  If you take a poison that was prescribed by your doctor, your body will still try to reject it and get it out of your system as fast as possible.

We are responsible to learn how to live in harmony with natural law.  As we grow in wisdom and understanding, we'll learn to live in accord to Nature's laws.

Thank the Lord for all His benefits and for answered prayers.

To health and happiness.




Thursday, January 31, 2013

Practicing Living

Natural Hygiene teaches us to live a simple, natural lifestyle.  The practice is a journey in which we learn wisdom.  The principles can't just be learned intellectually, but they have to be practiced.  The last thing Carol, from the market in Cairns, told me before I left Australia was, "Practice well".

Just because medical professionals have spent a lot of time studying disease and have built large elite universities does not mean they know about man and his health.  We really can't be satisfied with second-hand knowledge given to us by other people.  It's easy to get that kind of knowledge, and it doesn't require much from us personally.

The world can give us the statistics about sickness and health, but Natural Hygiene requires us to search out the causes for our illnesses for ourselves.  The "practice" involves us experiencing things for ourselves and experimenting on ourselves.

It is possible to intellectually learn from others that fasting, eating a raw food diet, and obeying the laws of life and health really do work, but wisdom...really knowing...only comes when we practice those things for ourselves.

Some people say that Natural Hygiene is radical, fanatical, and impractical, but when we put it into practice for ourselves and live it then we can see and prove that this is a valid way to live.

Many times people become interested in Natural Hygiene in rebellion against medical dogma.  I remember the day I walked away from the medical professionals.  I was in the emergency room at a hospital when I realized they had nothing to offer me.  Even though I felt like I was dying I got up and drove myself home.  I told my daughter, "They don't know".  I still feel that way.  Finding the way to Natural Hygiene was an answer to a prayer that I prayed prostrate on my floor in the middle of the night.

We need to be careful that as we embrace Natural Hygiene to find freedom from disease that we don't become trapped in another set of ideas.  The danger is that we trade one external authority for another external authority.  The only authentic authority is in us. The laws of nature are simple and they are universal.

Practicing Natural Hygiene is like sculpting.  We have to chip away at every thing that is not essential in order to reveal what is beautiful and wholesome.  We have to learn to exercise our intuition. This is the work of the alchemist.  It won't be finished in a year.  It is a long-term commitment.

"You can reflect what is another's; you can radiate only what is your own." - Chinese proverb

The more we live the simple, natural life the more we will radiate the light within us.

-Inspired by The Quintessence of Natural Living

To health and happiness.





Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Taking Responsibility for my Sickness

I finished my lesson about Professor Dr. Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, one of my mentor's mentors.  He was a philologist and could translate texts from Sanskrit, Pehlvi, Aramaic, Greek and Latin.  He translated texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essene Gospel of Peace.

I own several books by Dr. Szekely including the Essene Gospel of Peace series and a large text called Medicine Tomorrow an Introduction to Cosmotherapy.

The story is that while Dr. Szekely was studying in a Catholic monastery school he spent several months in the Vatican library in Rome.  While there he discovered the ancient manuscripts about the Essenes of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  He translated part of them and published them as the Essene Gospel of Peace.

He wrote Cosmos, Man and Society while living in the South Seas and treating natives in a leper colony.  It's now out of print, but I found a copy on half.com for $15.00.  It's on its way!

Dr. Szekely spent the last thirty years of his life in Mexico at his retreat and school, Rancho La Puerta.  He and his wife followed a simple way of living.  He lived in an old horse stable when he first arrived at Rancho La Puerta, and his wife was willing to live there with him.  After WWII ended he was able to get his money out of Europe, and he used those resources to build his retreat.  They grew all the vegetables for the school on the property using organic methods.

Monday, I ate all raw foods with the exception of some herbal teas. Lunch was green smoothie, fresh coconut, avocado, and goody balls.  Dinner was salad, veggie cocktail, sauerkraut, almonds and goody balls.  I steamed some cabbage for Travis, but I didn't eat any of it.
Here I am grating coconut with my new coconut grater.

Grating coconut. 

Green Smoothie:  banana, canteloupe, orange, apple, kiwi, dates, kale and water
Salad:  romaine, mushroom, green onion, cucumber, Kalamata olives, tomatoes, lemon juice, flax seed oil
Veggie Cocktail:  beet, celery, carrots
Dinner!

With skillful conscious action in each moment there is no danger. -Unknown

I watched an Easy to be Raw video by Megan Elizabeth on how to make our own raw make-up using two ingredients.  She used an eyelash curler, a mascara brush, and a Q-Tip.  She put a frozen organic blackberry in a small bowl and some spiralina in another bowl.  She dipped the Q-tip in the blackberry then in the spiralina.  She used that to do her eyebrows and eyelashes.  She used the blackberry juice on her lips and cheeks.  Here is a link to the You Tube video .Raw Makeup Tutorial

I am still enjoying reading The Quintessence of Natural Living by Kiki Sidwha....

One of the main teachings of Natural Hygiene is that we are responsible for our own behavior.  We need to learn and teach our children that our behavior lies in our own hands.  We need goals and incentives to work for and to keep our behavior on track.  That is one of the requirements for mental health.

According to Kiki Sidwha happiness is the balance between the world that surrounds us and the world we carry in our heart.  We can see ourselves as hopeless and helpless or we can put in the hard work life demands from us by accepting responsibility for the world around us.

"By placing responsibility for sickness upon the sick person, we at least make him free to do something about it.  He can then, if he so chooses, accept help to help himself in finding a happier and more constructive way of living his life."  - K. Sidwha

Many times doctors and hospitals keep sick people sick.  Instead, we could look at mental and physical sicknesses as irresponsible behavior.  It is always irresponsible to decide to forsake the requirements of a normal healthy life.  Ignorance is no excuse.  It is an irresponsible society that does not teach healthy living.

People sometimes use their sicknesses to get something from other people...such as attention, love, power, or money.  They use it as an excuse for failure and as a way to avoid accepting responsibility.  The welfare state encourages this thinking.

We really should expect more from the handicapped and the ill.  Our diet and way of life contribute to physical and mental illness.  Many, many people have recovered on a very strict hygienic diet.  During the war in Greece a great number of the mentally ill became healthy while the country was being starved by the Nazis.

Instead of putting the ill in a hospital, we could put them to work on farms and in gardens!  There they would find dignity and freedom as well as a healthy, hygienic diet.  They could live free from restraints and chemicals.  They could fast to cleanse the blood and lymph.  They could sleep after a hard days work, and enjoy fresh air, community, a belief in themselves, and a reason to live.

-Adapted from The Quintessence of Natural Living.

Even though it may seem cruel to expect sick people to take responsibility for their conditions, it really is the kindest most loving way to live.  It is the way that gives hope to the hopeless.  I remember well the day I slammed my hand on my desk at work and said, "I've had enough of this".  At that point I knew that either God was going to heal me or I was going to die.  


 To health and happiness.