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.