Better Watch This Guy...

As you know, I don't usually blog about baseball leaving that up to the excellent bloggers that Darius and Dorian are about it, but I just can't keep quiet about this guy any longer. He has the best ERA of any pitcher on the Suns (except Clayton, and I'm not sure how that happened since last week he was sitting on a 4 something). He is the 4th best in the Southern League. Last night was rained out, but he pitched the top of the first inning with 2 strikeouts. I can't wait to see what he does tonight in the makeup game and at the All-Star Game on Monday. Go, Jesus!

Speaking of baseball, Roger and I were talking on the way home about how the stadium was built to accomodate a AAA team, and we were speculating on who that might be. I did a little research when I got home and discovered the Marlins are currently in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a long way from home. I'd love for the Mets to make Jacksonville their AAA home (they're in New Orleans now), but the Marlins would be ok I guess. I would miss my beloved Dodgers, but the writing is on the wall. They are trying to get all their affiliates out west, and of course, that is more reasonable, especially with transportation costs as high as they are.

A beautiful day for the beach

I am amazed at all of the different information out there regarding health. It seems you can find a rationalization for every imaginable lifestyle. Brings to mind the fact that there is only one real source of truth. I guess I'd better get on my knees to get it figured out for me.

One source says too much fruit is bad; another says you can't eat too much fruit. One says juicing is great; another says, no, you need the fiber: do smoothies. One says if you start going raw there is no going back - to do so will do irreparable harm. Another says anything you do along the right path is good. It is really very overwhelming. On a given day I will have 10 e-mails in my mailbox each with a different opinion.

What it really boils down to is that we each must do what helps us to feel the best. Of course we struggle within the paradigm we set up, but we innately know (I really believe this) what we need to do. We may not do, at least not right this minute, but we know which direction we need to head into. I think we would be fine with this except that all the experts give us warnings on what disastrous results will happen if we don't follow their advice.

I had to laugh at a recent warning I received. On the page I opened was a U-tube of the well-respected professional telling me how disastrous my outcome would be if I chose a path different than he advised. On the page around the U-tube were advertisements for all the supplements he sells that he thought I should be taking instead of the real food choices I might be making. I think his listeners might listen better if they thought his motives were a little more sincere. I don't doubt that one could be healthy on his supplements; I just don't think that is the only way. Maybe there is a market for this if people want easier and faster than real food, I don't know. I remember when we were looking into alternative treatments for Darius, we were referred to a company who made a greens supplement. When Alicia called them and told them we were juicing everyday, they said, "Oh, you need to use our product. That juicing is so messy!" Indeed!

At one point I decided that if someone were trying to sell something I wouldn't bother listening, but that's not really fair either. I guess I need to depend on the Holy Ghost. I know I have been directed in the places I have gone to the people that helped me make lifestyle choices. I am grateful for that direction and hope it will continue. I do get overwhelmed sometimes by the choices, though.

Yesterday we went to the Halifax Hospital to see a friend in a coma from a car accident. It is the first time I have ever seen anyone in a coma. It is a little frightening. All the doctor shows on TV say that people in comas can still know what is going on around them, so I talked to him quite a bit, and Roger gave him a priesthood blessing as requested by the family. It was a tender few moments we spent with him, and I hope he comes out of it soon. His insides were pretty ripped up by the accident, so the coma is probably protecting him from the trauma and helping him to heal.

Afterwards we went to Publix to pick up some fruit and salad. We went to the boardwalk at the Daytona Beach to eat, and it was a pleasant meal. I really enjoy being at the beach. I wish we could make more time to do that.

"Real" Salad Dressing...

I'm trying to get in the habit of daily blogging, but I'm having a hard time thinking of what to say today. That's not good. I found the CD from the Jason guy I blogged about yesterday; I had not heard any of his music. It is kind of similar to Jack Johnson's style. Today on the Rachel Ray show she did another short from Justin Kredible; this time he was teaching children how to like fruits and vegetables better, especially in trying to get them to try new vegetables. He encouraged them to use dips and such if that would make them more enticing. (He poured caramel sauce on the romaine; the kids loved that!)

I remember something Anna Marie Clement said while we were at Hippocrates. She said they had a little girl there who was not eating. When Ms. Clement asked her why, she said she didn't like salad without "real" salad dressing. Ms. Clement went to the grocery store and bought one of every kind of salad dressing. She said eating salad with store-bought dressing is better than not eating any salad at all. Needless to say, the little girl finally started eating and was a very happy camper after that.

That is probably the hardest thing for me: "real" salad dressing. When I say "real", of course I am talking about the salad dressings I have been eating all my life. I have always liked salad, but now I realize it is the salad dressings that have made them so appealing to me prior to my current dietary changes. I am experimenting with live foods to dress my salads; last night I mixed avocado and 1/2 a ponderosa lemon from our tree outside. It was okay as I really wanted some greens, but it is not as satisfying, shall we say, for lack of a better word.

What was satisfying was all the home grown produce in our salad: cucumber, tomato, and pepper. They are all doing great for the time being.

Today I did not eat a salad as I was starving when we got home from work. I just had a peach and a large slice of our giant watermelon. I have been trying not to eat late at night, so I won't have anything else tonight.

Currently reading: Raw Spirit by Matt Monarch. Awesome. I read the second half of the book first: his interview with Dr. Fred Bisci. Dr. Bisci has been a raw foodist for 40 years and has seen a lot of failures. Basically this book is teaching people how to succeed if they have a desire to eat living foods. One of the main points of their teachings is that once you have improved your life by getting rid of a food that is destructive, you will make yourself very ill by going back to the offending food. This applies whether one is doing South Beach or Weightwatchers or Living Foods. It explains why people gain all their weight back and more when they quit a diet regime.

Well, I guess that wasn't too bad for someone who didn't have anything to say!

Raw Fooders go Mainstream

Yesterday on the Rachel Ray TV show she had a little video segment on 2 entertainers, Jason Mraz and Justin Kredible, who do a Music, Magic, and Make Peace Tour which includes magic tricks. The thing that I found interesting about it was that they travel with their entourage of 11 men on a bus to travel from place to place which uses bio diesel resulting in a very green footprint. They also make all their own meals on the bus with their own raw chef who travels with them. The video shows him making raw burritos and some kind of green smoothie. Here's the link to her show where the video is available:

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/show/segments/view/magic-and-music-justin-and-jason/#

I find it fascinating when raw fooders go mainstream. I guess I still consider it a subculture, but there really are a LOT of people taking this path. I can't help but wonder where it will end up. I am so impressed by the number of young people who have the wisdom to do this. They are not motivated by disease, but by the good sense that it makes to go raw. Because they are young, they don't have the years and years and years of crap to get rid of (excuse the pun) either. I would like to believe that they can make a difference in the years to come because I would hope that they will make the right decisions in their life as the truth of all things will "resonate" with them, not just the truth in food decisions. Time will tell, I suppose. I wonder if this movement is a part of our society moving towards the second coming.

A day of firsts

Today has started out with a few firsts which bare advertising to the world. We finished up our watermelon from last week that weighed 30 pounds, so Roger picked the next one that was ready. It weighed 35 pounds! Amazing. We had to divide it in half to fit it into the fridge.

Then, after I finished 45 minutes of weeding, I weighed, and there was a 0 after the 2. I realize this still sounds horrendous to all the skinnies out there, but for me, it was truly momentous. I cannot remember the last time my weight was under 210 pounds. While I still have a ways to go, I am beginning to comprehend in my head that it is possible. It is a lot more logical for me to think of losing the fat when I realize it is the result of a toxic overload. As the toxins stop being taken in, the body is able to release those that have been stored. I think the world view of fat is that it is a result of fat being eaten whose excess is stored. We don't store excess protein as protein nor excess carbs as carbs. All excesses are toxins and the body struggles to get rid of them. As we reduce the number of ways that is possible, or when the volume of toxins is more than the body can handle in one "dumping", the body shelves them until we give it a chance to eliminate them. Every once in a while the body will do some major housecleaning, and we call this "the flu" or a cold. Of course, serious overloads result in more serious disease as organs such as the pancreas and adrenals (diabetes) are affected, heart disease, cancer. These are the results when there are no more shelves.

I'm sure I'm oversimplifying here, but it helps me to envision it this way, and so I am able to meditate about releasing toxins and toxic overloads in the form of fat, and letting go of them. I'm sure that as long as I have had them, my body has adjusted to them in a way. It's not sure if it is safe to let them go. I think meditating has helped me to convince it to do so (as silly as that may sound). I tend to be a pretty unrelaxed person, so this helps me in other ways as well. It gives me a wonderful healing feeling.

The Garden Bounty ... not just for breakfast anymore

Today I'm really grateful for my garden. We are in the process of finishing up our first ever watermelon. I've been trying every year to grow them, but we plant too late, or we let the weeds overtake the garden, or something. Anyway, this year we were persistent, and it is paying off.

This is interesting too because this year fresh produce prices have skyrocketed. In today's economy what would have cost a couple of bucks last year is at least $5.00 this year. So, I figure we're pulling a good fiver out of the garden each day. While it is not a majority of what we eat (which is my goal), it is a substantial savings each month.

My thoughts when I said how grateful I was for the garden were not the savings nor the delicious produce being plucked daily. I was thinking of the other things the garden provides for me that make it easily worth my time.

Each morning I try to spend between 20 minutes and an hour working in the garden. I would go for an hour each day, but sometimes the day's activities do no allow this luxury if we have to work out of town for instance. I figure this is providing me with 3 things: 1) several minutes of sunshine each day; 2) at least some exercise; and 3) much needed quiet time without a phone or other electronic noise.

Many health enthusiasts have written of the value of the sun in our lives each day. We forget how important it is especially in this day and age when the sun is getting such a bad rap. This one activity alone has given me a lot of good benefits recently. Whenever I am in a funk, being in the sunshine can help pull me out of it.

I'm not sure how much exercise I am getting in the garden, and I'm sure I need to add more and different kinds, but for a person as sedentary as I am, those few minutes of weed pulling and raking and planting and digging is very beneficial. I promise to work some other exercise into my life.

I long for the simpler days when exercise was a part of life instead of something we have to fit into our routine. I would love to ride a bike, but from where I live, that would be not possible. (I'm still trying to figure out a way to make it work.)

The quiet time is very important. It is the time I reflect on all the things that have been bothering me, and I try to put them in the proper perspective. It doesn't take a lot of mental energy to pull weeds, so I can divert that to introspection.

I just thought of another thing that gardening gives me. I love the connection it gives me to the earth. I've started wearing gloves to protect my hands, but I love how it feels to run my hands through the soil. I love how it feels to pull the weeds up from the soil, how it feels like the soil is hanging on to them and doesn't want to let them go. I love the energy that is in the soil and in the plants emerging from it. I feel that the soil is as living an organism as the plants the grow from it and the animals that depend on the ecosystem provided by the soil.

Whenever I eat the produce grown in my garden, I feel like I take some of that energy into me. It is a transference of power. I like how that feels.

I have really been enjoying my raw foods lately, but tonight I had to go to a chicken place to buy food for one of my grandchildren. The addiction started working on me, and I wanted to eat some of the food produced there. I had all my tools in my head, so I was able to withstand it, but I was surprised how strong the urge was. Then I remembered how the ice tea commercials all still becken me even though I haven't drunk tea in 32 years. I don't think addictions ever go away. I think I am able to remember how crummy it makes me feel and how destructive a behavior it is. Still, I am always surprised by the intensity of the urge.

I heard an interview last week with Matt Monarch which talked about how much worse we feel returning to bad eating habits when we've been giving our bodies truly living food. He said we feel far worse when we go back than we did before we started as our bodies have given away their defenses since they are no longer needed. I think that is a very true principle.

There is so much different information out there on health and nutrition, I have been thinking a lot about correct principles. There are correct principles in all aspects of life, and the Holy Ghost will witness of all truthfulness. We truly do not know where to turn without it. Raw foodists use the term "resonate". They say if something resonates with you then you should integrate it into your life. Surely this resonating is His way of witnessing that we have hit upon a correct principle. So many concepts out there are theories.

Time for Reflexion

On June 30, 2008, Brandon Barker was killed in a car crash in Pomona Park, Florida. He was born 31 May 1985 and graduated from our school on 28 April 2004. He was a memorable young man, and this is a great loss.

When I visited with his family yesterday, they said a few things that surprised me. They said they talked about me alot regarding how persistent I was in encouraging Brandon to get his high school diploma. He tried to quit more than once, but I would not let him give up. They said he called me "a hard ass", but he was glad I was.

I had never thought of myself that way. As they were telling me, I found myself saying, "Well, fat lot of good that high school diploma is doing him now. I should have just let him go have a good time." I guess I was thinking that if I knew he would die so young, I would let him "enjoy" what time he had left.

This morning as I worked in the garden, I was thinking about this again (the HA thing really haunts me), and I remembered that now that he has left this earth, his knowledge and intelligence is all he takes with him. Maybe he really is grateful I kept after him, more now than ever.

How important is a high school diploma? Certainly the piece of paper is worthless, especially in light of a shortened life. I believe there are several aspects of its attainment that are valuable:

1. Goal setting. If one sets a goal to obtain a high school diploma and enacts the plan to do so, one has learned a valuable skill that will help him / her throughout their lives. In a homeschool setting, this is even more true as there is not the support to help the student to do this. In the government schools, the students are pushed through. Graduating is simply a case of sticking around long enough, showing up most days, and completing endless assignments. This is not to say this is not an accomplishment, but I think that homeschooled students have an extra dimension on this as they must actually figure out how to budget their time in order to do attain their goal.

2. Time management. When a homeschooled student receives a high school diploma, one has to hope they have learned to budget their time. I find that most students who drop out do so because they cannot accomplish this. Their parents find it too much of a hassle to keep pushing them.

3. Self motivation. The successful homeschool graduate has learned how to motivate him or herself. They will not succeed without this important asset.

I met with a graduate yesterday who has been accepted to FloArts and received a Presidential scholarship. She showed me the portfolio she had used for admission. (To be accepted into FloArts, you must audition or have a portfolio. Your admission is based on whether the college finds your work promising.) One of the things we discussed was how motivated she was regarding her passion, and how hard it was for her to be motivated when she was not interested in something. This is true for education as it is sometimes hard for students to be passionate about the 3 R's. Until it applies to some kind of life work, there is no passion.

4. Vision. This is where having a vision of where education can take you comes in. Without a vision, nothing makes sense and all seems worthless. As one reads literature, sees the mathematical qualities of the universe, understands historical events, and sees how great minds have created masterpieces, one cannot help but know that we are only a very small part of something bigger than ourselves.

5. Thinking. I would like to think that developing thought processes is the most important aspect of education. Certainly all students do not do this, but for one to consider their education to be a success, this should be an integral component.

6. Communication. A well-educated person should be able to communicate effectively and intelligently with others especially regarding those topics of personal interest and importance. While a high school diploma does not guarantee this (obviously), if a student takes their language arts classes with the understanding that it will help them communicate better, they will be better able to share their thoughts and opinions more effectively with others.

Once I asked a missionary who was serving in Orlando how the work there compared to the work here in Putnam County where I live. He answered that it went much better in Orlando as there was a better educated population there. I have always remembered that as it helped me realize that without an education, people's thought processes are not always rational. Ignorance is very confining. One is restricted to what is going on in their own mind instead of being able to comprehend things going on around them. I have been very aware lately of how much the universe really does have to offer, and as I am more open to it, more is being made available to me. Without the ability to logic and reason, much of it would be lost to my mind.

Which brings me back to the raw diet. It really was a personal triumph when I posted recently about Darius' sacrifice not being in vain. I have moved ahead tremendously since that time. Passions have returned that I thought were lost forever. I will try to blog more as these things are happening, but honestly, there is so much, I can't keep up with it all.

I have made great progress in the 12 steps. When I did this the first time many years ago, I did so very compulsively. This time, it is more implemented and integrated into my daily life and prayers. I am also trying to do some actualizing that is helping me a lot. I have been working in the garden every day even if for a short time, and I think this helps me get more sunshine which I believe is important.

I really cannot say how important personal revelation is in my life. I haven't had tons of great moments, but I have many, many small moments. The few great moments have truly changed my life, and sometimes, they have even helped others. Right now, I am so grateful to be alive and able to progress in this way.