3.3.14 You Want Your Healthy Body to BE That Well Moving Stream

     Over the years, clients sometimes 'Come Down With' a condition...less, or more serious and challenging. "coming down with' meaning they heard something happening and found a practitioner who could detect it, they saw their doctor and got tests done, or it was subclinical (not showing up on tests) and then worsened and became detectable on tests. And when they do, sometimes in their contemplations it 'makes sense' to them, in terms of their present or past lifestyle, things they were exposed to, genetics, etc. Sometimes it makes no sense to them whatsoever.
     They say " I eat like this and sleep well and don't use pesticides or Febreeze or Tylenol or regular cleansers. It's been years since i used birth control pills or etc. Why and HOW could I develop this condition?
     And I say "Yes. Yes to all of that." Because that's how life is, sometimes.
     Often there are factors we are unaware of - genetic predispositions are not certainty, merely tipping points. My grandmother developed ALS, so I really take care of my nervous system and peripheral nerves and circulation and stress as well as I can, it being a genetic possibility. Especially from a BAM event.
     And yes, we do develop conditions. Sometimes serious ones. Sometimes life threatening ones. And when we do, we do the very best we can to problem solve
     - who to tell,and when.
     -what type of approach makes the most sense to us to cover the bases of our health needs as well as we can to attend specifically to what is happening, and respond in kind with known changes that are known to support what we need in order to detox safely and nourish the organs and systems that are challenged.
     -we think carefully about testing- because who we are as an individual determines what our compromises will be. Some tests provide information while injuring the very areas that are challenges.      Other times, something like a Mammogram, in lieu of other supports that are accurate and make sense to us, will give us vital information while really harming vulnerable tissue, and we take it. We take the tool for the information. Sometimes in order to survive.
But not all tests have the same cost/benefit ratio, and one of the biggest problems is the elephant in the room. May I introduce LIABILITY.
     Liability impacts us by ensuring that a doctor suggests or urges testing or treatment that, if they did not, would endanger their license and/or hospital privileges. Tough call, right? Because there are commonly 'accepted' protocols for doctors, set by the AMA.
I once sat across from an Endocrinologist of great renown, after an operation and having medications suggested to me that were off the market a year later, due to dangers. He was suggesting the same. I leaned forward and said "Would you suggest your wife or daughter take this medication?" and he leaned forward and said "No."
     Once I was seeing a series of neurologist with my 6 year old, who'd had a brain injury, had resulting seizure disorder, violence, pain, severe ADHD, and more. The doctor said "BEcause there was no period of unconsciousness, I cannot diagnose this as a Brain Injury."
     Then he leaned forward....and said "Of course, you and I both know all these problems occurred after this injury..." leaned back (what is it with this leaning stuff?) and said "But in the field of neurology, no unconsciousness...no brain injury." Took me three doctors to find one who knew what they all know now, and work with me while I resolved the seizure disorder with sedating herbs and a Psychiatrist Homeopath who specialized in brain injury.
     I know a very well respected and consulted with Radiologist who, when asked, thought that one X-ray was the limit of safety for each person per lifetime. Right? Wow.
     So the path is murky, in terms of liability, and its important to try to be aware of the elephant in the room. Of what can be said and not said.
     Thus, the number of complementary medicine or integrative medicine doctors who don't bother with hospital privileges, and explain that they are not your primary care physician, but your consulting physician. This gives them the freedom to practice in the way they know is best. In their experience.
Some doctors practice without accepting any insurance, to further free them from hours of wrangling, paying someone or a few someones full time to do the wrangling, and practice in the way they know is best. They regret the absolute accessibility of their practice to so many, but that is the cost of being able to practice that way that, I hope, all doctors will be allowed to practice, in 20 years.
Often, people go for western medicine treatment and fall into the illusion that testing and information is actually healing.
     IT IS NOT.
     it may result in important information, and possibly life saving medications or surgical procedures you choose that may be vitally protective and helpful. But it may not.
     So stay awake and aware. Don't hassle your doctors, but take the responsibility to research well the things you may want to do....to carefully and safely regain your health.
     What path really covers the bases of your condition responsibly and effectively.
     Many people come up with plans, and then see an integrative medicine doctor to check in, and see what they think of both the opinions of their PCP, specialists, any testing they have had, and their plan.
     Many people have HAD procedures or treatment that benefits some things and harms others. It is of vital important to not stop there. It is of vital importance to realize that many toxic things have been put in your body, with your choice and embrace, supported important processed, and now really truly need to be cleaned out on an ongoing basis for the rest of your life. Really. The well moving stream.
     Many people end up with so many conditions. And the first consideration is: Will they consider CHOOSING a cleansing diet? Not pretending 'Oh, I can't have that' or 'I have to do this', but rather, being an adult and making a choice. For their health and life. It is vital, if you have a serious health condition, or one that could become serious, to find the way to face that this is happening.
     And then find the way to choose to significantly alter your diet. To at least ditch all the stream-clogging things. Sugar and flour of any kind and eggs and any dairy and meat. And begin figuring out what style of healing diet fits for you. Because there are many.
T     hey all involve lots of steamed or sautéed fresh vegetables. They all involve certain fruits and not others. They all involve certain proteins. Good quality water.
     And then, the bases MUST be covered.
     I have seen so many clients who either felt that just believing they would get well, or spiritually connecting and get well, or wanting to get well....will do it. I have never seen this happen.    

     Faith and meditation and spirituality and prayer are vital. But from my experience, we need much more.
     I have seen so many people with serious health conditions continue to work hard and run around and not be selective with what they spend their energy on, so that the extra energy can be used by the body to get well. 

     Our bodies NEED all the energy they can get; cooled out relaxed as possible (in the face of great difficulty) energy, so it can steal that stuff and HEAL your organs and systems.
If we want to approach health, and we want to get rid of the leftovers of treatments that were, at times, lifesaving, we really truly need to look at our kidneys and livers and lymphatic systems and so on, and learn from careful research or with experienced practitioner help, how to utilize a protocol that responsibly and effectively detects and covers those bases, so that we can BE that strong, nourished, well moving stream.

3.12.14 Even As The Murmurs of Coming Spring

Even as the murmurs of coming 

Spring breeze through the land, 

so the masses of Beech, 

aged and infant both, 

sprout their glistening silver buds-

 the conical essence 

of bright green tender leaf 

curled brilliantly within,

 to come forth , 

in their own time.

 While last year's leaves 

are a golden staccato 

throughout the forest, 

wherever you look- 

and now do slowly detach,

 blown or stormed or 

rained to the ground-

 an iridescent, detailed,

 exquisite story 

of the year just past.

3.12.14 Thoughts On Aging and Retaining Our Powerful Selves

     As a way of exerting dominance over those perceived to have diminished power, we trivialize others- and when it comes to older people , we trivialize their sexuality, and the ways they express themselves. 
     We ridicule them , to their face or behind their backs, for BEING older, for experiencing the inevitable aspects of aging.
     We disregard their wisdom , are impatient with their stories , the pace at which they eventually speak and walk and think.
     When we as a culture do this, we create a culture of disrespect , of undermining the irreplaceable wisdom of experience - no matter race, class , or gender.
     We misunderstand value, and in so doing, come to fear our own aging.

     So it seems really important as we age to learn the mannerisms of the Alpha-so that others don't dare behave or assume things. I know many older people who are so kindhearted, and very powerful alphas. Francis Crowe is one. Lessons to be learned. 

     So often I watch my clients loose the energy to BE in themselves with their power , in relation to others.
     Cats by instinct begin to keep the older more frail cat from the food. For them, it's really not personal.
     I think we need to decide to locate and exercise our sense of SELF, of POWER , as we age. Our connection to who we KNOW we are, especially as we grow more frail, should we be lucky enough to be here long enough.
     And train our loved ones about this ahead of time.
     So that they promise to remember that if we cannot eventually hear well, speak well, think fast, remember well , or move independently, still within, we will be the very same .
     I'm going to ask my children to promise to try to remember this.
     And do search and rescue to remind me,should I lose track of my self and my rootedness and value and power through challenges , as I age.
     It will be a loving request and reminder posted on my kitchen cabinet, not because I don't think they will honor it, but because it's so hard to remember it, in this culture. Us, AND them.

I think our own fear is the origin of devaluing others. I think we project it upon others with lack of insight, empathy, education and awareness, as a distancing mechanism. That leaves the 'other' , no matter the 'difference', isolated and without reasonable support and caring , at the expense of other's fears.which simply increase everyone's fear and isolation as a culture.

3.9.14 Spring Is Quietly Approaching

Spring is quietly approaching

3.7.14 A Remarkable Surprise

A healing diet. 

Trying without trying. 

Focused without obsessing. 

Pecans delight the way the mere idea of ice cream once pretended to. 

Simple dairy free celery soup with tofu satisfies instead of a glass of wine. 

When it's decided what you truly want, 

and  aside from all of the games, 

the whole path is a remarkable surprise.

3.7.14 It Gets Better

Surprises simply upend us
The unanticipated; the tragic
The death of one, close or far from our hearts
The news afar of for the better, or the worse
for the land, for the humans, for the creatures
and the earth
So many things , I'm afraid to say to you,
are normal

It gets better: that which is within
That which is of our own self
That which is of our growing awareness
It gets better: that which we begin to
slowly learn to accept with the
potent universal "Yes".
The Yes to a beautiful day and the
Yes to aging and its cumulative consequence and choices
The Yes to car accidents and the
Yes to suddenly lost jobs
The Yes to discovered illness; the Yes to a challenged child
The Yes to the seeming unfair
The Yes to harrowing fear
The Yes to making it through and the
divinity within us that fosters the
miraculous growth of a deeper capacity
to navigate ,with realism ,all of this life.

Better we take this in, whole willing heart
eyes wide; full sight
Better we are grown up seeped in the
real of beginnings and endings, the
nature of how they unwind
fast, or spuriously slow
so the illusion of surprise, of
shock that this could ever happen
is slowly, gently, realistically, a small
thing of your past
as the happening of these events and reality
grows its roots within our present

3.3.14 Spring Is Singing Quietly

Spring is singing quietly 
beneath every sleeping pond 
streaking through the vessels of the
towering Oak
muttering amongst the
Maple's buds, just
straining to hold back the
fray; the exuberance
horses at the gate
shifting restless
In place

From the looks of it , we still have
bitter cold of winter ravenous
birds come feeding working to
stay alive while we
remark how pretty but
this is
serious stuff

One errant chipmunk races past the
window yesterday somehow a
wakened from their
deep winters sleep
stirred by the call of
spring

Out in the field I begin to say goodbye
Goodbye to walking along the
hills so aged good
bye to the grand expansiveness in
side of me with the
wild winter storms whipping
by

Goodbye to the
tracks of creatures
Wind upon the sand the
only way we know we are all
together, here

As the forest chorus and
returning Robins and
fleet flirting Eagles and
courting California Wrens all
take me aside, say
'Is it not precious,
here?'