I read it on Facebook....

You know those people who talk about what they read on Facebook like it's some sort of place to find valid information? 

Yeah, I'm one of them. 

I started an account when it was used as a means of reconnecting with old friends or sharing pictures with family you just can't see often enough. It was great... took away some of the isolation of being a new mom without a village. 

Then it started to change. The kids started to drift away to Instagram and Snapchat and I don't even know because I'm not cool. I guess I was never "cool" and that's okay. They drifted away when the adults really took to Facebook. Everyone is so busy, even the people with a village don't get enough time to sit around a fire and chit chat. It was like parents coming home early from a vacation to find a house full of kids. The younger generation scattered to find something else to make their own. They come around now and then but more like stopping in to do laundry. Adults connected and made friends who are strangers, pen pals without the time waiting for the mail.

From where I sit an overwhelming abundance of people became reporters. It's GREAT! On a smaller level, it helps each of us get to know each other better because we get a window into things about which our friends care. On a bigger level, there are so many movements happening. There are majors in all aspects of life, with experts freely sharing knowledge. There are prayers and light and love flowing.

There are independent journalists who are able to build followings. There are house bound sick people able to discuss treatments or just be supported. There are people advertising their small businesses. There are people launching social movements from their homes. There are people helping people in so many ways, even if for nothing more than to pop in and say "Happy Birthday" or "I'm sorry that happened to you". We can get instant information if you want to know a recipe or help with a child care issue.

Boy oh boy have I read it on Facebook. I have learned more than I did in 17 years of school. I have one friend who has had a keen interest in economics his whole life. Well, he posts articles from independent sources and I read the ones that catch my eye. I have learned more from him than I ever could have without that "friending". We spent four years in high school together and I had no idea how interesting he is. His perspective is full of wisdom in things I had not a clue. I have some friends whose lives have taken them in the direction of travel. Well, I have seen things I never would have gotten to see from the perspective of someone I know. There are friends who love to cook and I have picked up some ideas and recipes. There are friends with very different political opinions than I have. Well, I have learned their perspectives. I am fine with agreeing to disagree but I do believe we should all try to understand each other. I have friends who are advocates for animals who have showed me a different kind of parenting. I have a friend from long ago who lives across the world. I get a view into her country. I have a few other friends from different countries and learn about life in those places. I have a ton of friends who are interested in health or are sick and what I have learned from them is immeasurable. I have seen countless stories of vaccine injured children, learning that we didn't hear those parents when we should have. I have learned a good bit of immunology. I have learned about post sepsis and more science than I could have had I majored in it. I have learned where to look for research. I have learned that things are not as they appear. I have learned that I lived in a naive bubble for many years. I have learned about so many different kinds of health practitioners, ones who don't hand out meds. I have read about homeschooling successes. I have read about naturally cured successes. I have read metaphysical and philosophical and historical information. I have one friend with a heart of gold who no longer lives close. I have learned how this world hurts her. I have a Canadian friend who has taught me more about the world than I would like to know some days, but I appreciate the brutal honestly and perspective of someone who is done raising her children. I learned about homebirth from a Mom I met through mold groups. I have learned about nutrition. I found a love of essential oils shared from a friend. I have learned about the human spirit. I have learned of hurts and joys I never would have seen without Facebook.  

Truth be told many of my friends are strangers. Some of these strangers have been better friends to me than my friends have been at times. I have learned that family, people from your "tribe", don't always find each other in their neighborhoods. There are a few that just feel like I have known them forever. I see their children and grandchildren and learn what's ahead or smile at what is behind.  

My husband doesn't get Facebook. He's just not that guy to do this. In our business he has the same kind of interactions because we have a lot of customers. I'm a reader more than verbally social. Facebook works for me. It doesn't work for him and that is okay.  

So yeahhhh, I did read it on Facebook. Anyone who uses that as an insult is either a troll or a person who does not see the potential and value of people posting articles from independent sources. No longer do we have to be a pawn in the emotional ping pong reports on television. No longer is the shameful drivel in mainstream media the only thing we can access. Once you have friends with similar interests, the collection of information is enormous. It's up to us to look at it, to look at our friend's different perspectives and wisdom, to look behind the media's curtain to get to truth, to empathize with friends even if we do not agree with their opinion, to see stranger's sides of the story. 

Donny Miller said, "In the age of information, ignorance is a choice." Well so is close-minded, egoistic behavior. We don't need to Internet bully people to discuss something. That's just silly. If you are going to lose friends, let it be because you have drifted apart just like happens in "real life", not because you wrote something hurtful. Discussions are great, even heated ones, just use words wisely. Virtual villages are forming. Cross lines and see each other. I did read it on Facebook and the people I know who did the same are some of the wisest and most well-rounded people I know. Think about it this way.... I finished college in 1995. Would anyone have said back then "Well you just read that at the library" like it was an insult? When we choose to not only read things that support our opinion, Facebook and the Internet are libraries. 

How we use it is up to us. Some just want social interaction with people they can't regularly see and there isn't anything wrong with that. Some of us want kindred spirits with whom to discuss and share our hearts. Nothing wrong with that either. Some of us want to learn. Nothing wrong with that. Just know that there are movements all over Facebook and you can find one that aligns with what you would really like to see different in the world. Many of these are leading from the heart space and will find a way to not just be the change, but make the change. Change starts with seeds. I read about a lot of seeds on Facebook. Some have already grown into trees. 

Funny thing is I think social media was gifted to us to distract us and divide us and there is plenty of that out there, but through the fog, I see the light workers and peace warriors and world changers gathering together for the greater good. I think that was unexpected from those who wish to control the information as they are paying people to come in to try to divide us again. Seems the human spirit, our souls were underestimated. It appears that even the introverted still have a need to be connected to the Universe and a higher power. The fog is lifting as we slice through it...  

Humph. I read it on Facebook. Yes I did. Then I researched some more and learned something. I even changed my mind about a few things. Crazy right?      

Clean Up

Clean up, clean up, EVERYbody clean up… songs from preschool that stick in my head.

You know that moment when you find out someone is coming over and you totally panic because keeping up with a house with children is, as my sister says, like shoveling snow in a blizzard? For those of you that have help, good for you! For those of you who somehow manage to keep up, good for you! I mean that because I don’t. I can’t. What I learned quickly is I could make myself INSANE or accept that motherhood is dirty. It just is and that is okay. I aim for sanitary and content from all family members, for everyone to be reasonably happy with their space.

Or there’s that moment you walk into someone else’s house and see that their house is sanitary but a bit or a lot disheveled like your own. Do you walk in and point out what’s wrong or do you walk in and say something to make them feel better about the mess when you notice they start to apologize for it? Most of the people I know would walk in and say something to make them feel better, maybe even admitting they had not cleaned X in months or even a year. “Don’t worry about it.”

My point is not about how clean your house is or is not. I just want people to give the same courtesy when discussing current events. Why is it that people are so skilled at pointing out flaws in everyone else’s opinion without looking within their own once in awhile? I’m not perfect. I’ve done that at times, but because I recognized I have done that, now I try VERY hard to be open minded to see both sides, to empathize. I see so many people when discussing issues just point fingers, never owning that their opinion’s house might need a lil dusting. It doesn’t make any sense to me. If you wouldn’t walk in to a friend’s house and tell them it looked like shite, then why would you call out everything that is wrong with their opinion and beliefs and act like your opinion and beliefs are just perfect… that the people you believe in have done no wrong, that only one side of an issue is riddled with problems. Why is it SO hard to admit that your team makes mistakes? We all have free choice to believe in whom and what we choose, but we as a culture need more empathy to understand each other. We lift each other up. That’s how change happens.   

It’s okay to agree to disagree, but be genuine in listening. Otherwise we’re just stuck chanting “You suck”. “No YOU suck.” “You suck more!” Last time I checked no problems got solved that way. We must identify flaws on our side of the fence to find middle ground. I dunno. I’m so over team colors and all that has come with the constant divisive competitive culture. This country trains our children early about win or lose. It’s pushed in their face all around them. The media feeds it and it’s working. People care more about the win than what happened to get there. My opinion… there is no win or lose unless we are all thriving. Both sides of any issue should see their own dirt. Then, THEN, we can all work on the clean up together.

Whatever side of anything you stand on, try something. Try imagining standing on the other side of an issue and looking in the window towards your side. See what needs cleaned. Feel how the other side feels. We need to see each other again. Maybe, jusssst maybe, some day you will change your mind about something and have to admit you were wrong. That’s okay too. Who of us has never believed in something that turned out to be wrong? I do not call them mistakes. I call them lessons, things we needed to learn along our way. Thing is if we close our minds so tightly so nothing new gets in, we may never learn that lesson. These kind of things repeat in our lives, get stored in our DNA and carry on longer than our eyes can see.

Since I fell down with dis-ease, I had to open my mind up to begin this journey of healing. I thought I WAS open minded, but what I found was there was a lot of dust in my opinions that needed cleaned up with truth. I was wrong about some things. I trusted some who never earned my trust. I thought some were friends who never were. I was dis-eased with programming I didn’t know was there. It happened so quietly. I also found people I needed. I continue to find myself. I continue to find blessings. I continue to learn from people I didn’t see before. My house is still dusty and needs some cleaning, but I see you. I hope you see me too. I hope you see others who you are not truly seeing after you read this. Change starts within us and then we clean up this world together.      

Medical Freedom

All of the speeches given at the 2016 Health Freedom rally in California were inspiring and are worth watching. David Wolfe’s really got me thinking about what has happened in the United States.

While I think it’s shameful how many sick people fall into bankruptcy or hopelessness or die because they can’t get the treatment needed, I am not a fan of the ACA. Sickness took a big hit on my family’s finances and we have to piece together little by little our health when we are able. Month by month we all are recovering but many ill people's, especially Lymies, hands are completely tied. I will not raise my arm for universal healthcare. To me in order to have that, FIRST healthcare that is inclusive of alternative treatment must be part of that system.

What the ACA did in my world is push small businesses into one choice where it is impossible for most of us to offer insurance, which at one time we did. Our premium rose 30% one year and 50% another year reaching $1,800 a month. So in 2015 due to our financial woes, we dropped it. Because growing up my brother was sick, I had been brought up the value of having health insurance. From the first time it was offered, I jumped on it. When we lost it, first I felt worried to not have that life boat. The longer we are without it, the more safe I feel not having it. See something did happen prior to dropping it. I got sick. Our children’s health was backsliding from their well visits and Lyme and mold and insurance didn’t cover anything I needed to restore our health, outside of blood work. No doctor I saw within that insurance helped me or my children. Absolutely insurance has its place for people having babies and for people who need to see regular doctors. I get that. Hospital expenses can easily reach into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe one day we’ll get some kind of major medical but for now we need that money for supplements.   

The bigger picture to me is how insurance has trained people to think that health is found within our system. I can’t count how many times people have asked me for advice. I’ve offered some kinds of practitioners I have found helpful and the conversation ends with “My insurance doesn’t cover that.” Off they go to continue swimming around in the pharmaceutical funded healthcare system, never finding answers. Symptom management is found there, but it is not always safe. Sometimes all we need are the proper supplements but the AMA-trained don’t know how to look. I mean every alternative practitioner I have met sells supplements. Does your doctor sell any? Nope, but they can give you a sample of something from a pharm company. A few have listened to what I have to say and are on their way to recovering. I am deeply humbled that they respected me enough to hear me.

It’s no secret doctors are limited in ordering tests. Insurance companies now dictate which are covered. Pharmaceutical companies dictate what medicine should be used to manage symptoms. Meanwhile consumers constantly fight for coverage they thought they had. We have to be informed to ask for safer drugs if the pill of the year has concerning side effects. Doctors and nurses aren’t even allowed to seek answers for patients between the orders they take from those two driving forces, topped with patients not wanting to or not being able to afford to pay out of pocket. The time alone most practitioners have for patients has their hands tied. I was FLOORED at my first appointment with my functional doctor because of how much time he spent with me and how he read my blood work as a whole, not just looking down that piece of paper for flags. It was the first time in my life I actually felt like a doctor REALLY cared about me. Even practitioners like him have their hands tied because research about treating the whole body has been suppressed. However, a patient can get A LOT further with the kind of holistic view people like him learned.

If you ask a doctor what can you do nutritionally to support healing, very few of them have advice. Some will even say “nothing” which is just silly. Every condition is affected by what we eat. Honestly, I feel empathy for the healers who chose to go the med school route without adding on other means of healing. They meant to do a service to people. I believe most of them had good intentions and I believe some are out there trying but it’s like trying to fix a car’s engine with a body shop’s tool box. Then there are those who have gotten wrapped up in the ego of having that degree and can’t see outside of the books that trained them. The science of health is an ongoing education.  

We have an extension on our taxes and I am not yet sure if we have to pay the fine for not having health insurance. What a ridiculous tax that is. On one hand you are fining people who can’t afford the insurance, no matter how much the cost is reduced. On the other hand you have people who don’t want to participate in this health care system being fined for choosing natural means to stay healthy or treat their illnesses as they arise. If someone has great health through herbal medicine or Ayurvedic medicine or traditional Chinese medicine why should they be financially punished for that choice? There are thousands of years of practice behind these ways. It’s almost like fining people who can afford to send their children to private school for not going to public school. They are already paying out of pocket for that choice.

I’m not suggesting everyone go out and drop their health insurance, but I am suggesting that people stop using the marketing slogan “It’s not covered by my insurance.” That thing, whatever it is, outside of your insurance may be just what you need, and can you put a price on your life? My personal joke is if the first few pages of Google, or Snopes for all that matters, says something is quackery, then that is a sign to look into the real life applications and read from people who healed with that method and dig further into the research. Of the numerous AMA doctors I saw before I found my way out of the system, only one gave me a page about foods that would help. That was followed by a comment of “We don’t really know what causes it.” This industry loves to toss around the word science when what it actually practices is not often scientific in regard to the treatment of a body. As Del Bigtree said,with such resonating force, at that same rally, "Science is NEVER settled." If a specialist doesn’t know what causes it, then following their advice is an act of faith and when it comes to faith, we are entitled to freedom. David Wolfe presented this quote...

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come

when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict

the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to

others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special

privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.” 

Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence

  

Hero Worship

I’ve written some other posts but kept them private, for now at least. A lot has happened since the IPhone release.

So I went to a store late the other night and bought M. a little shirt for her birthday. I always remove hangers for the cashier. As I did so it flipped out of my hand and I said something like sheesh, I’m sorry. I’m really glad that didn’t hit you. She then told me a customer hit her with a shopping cart and didn’t apologize. I was like seriously? She told me how she’s had to develop a thicker skin working there and was brought to tears by how she was treated on some days. I told her I understood because I work in foodservice. She said something like wow, you’re strong. I worked in food for awhile and went home crying EVERY night. “In retail, people think they are better than you. In food they know they are.” Pause and think about what that means as humans. I have a post I need to clean up about how ridiculous it is how human fuel providers are treated but that is for another time. 

Her comment circled back around from a different perspective.  Food service workers do face a lot of abuse from customers. We are lucky in our establishment as we have largely attracted kind souls. However we have not been immune to people who take out their bad days on us.

Today’s thought on this topic is hero worship. There is nothing people do that is more important than with what fuel we put in our bodies. You choose to either fuel yourself with food that drags you down or food that empowers your body. Yet this profession's staff are treated like servants.

Meanwhile what I see from my doorway are people who worship white coat wearing humans as Gods and think that health comes from the doctor’s office. I mean surely they MUST be better than us right? Since our country places value with dollars, they just must be smarter than we are. Surely they must never be wrong because they spend countless hours and enormous dollars learning about the human body…. or do they? Nutrition is not taught in med school. That’s pretty critical in knowing how the human body functions. Knowledge of minerals is also very important. They don’t learn that. Immunology... nope. A couple examples... An ER doctor misdiagnosed a pain I had. He wasn’t even close with the body part involved. You know who pegged it? An acupuncturist. You know what helped? Restoring minerals, silica and acupuncture.

My first memory of a doctor was having a rash on the inside of my legs cauterized. The other day I described it as torture. I don’t hold that against my Mum. She did what the doctor told her to do, and she believed he was doing what was needed. I remember being a little girl lying on that uncomfortable table with my legs in the air while this man burned and scarred the inside of my legs. I remember the sticker they gave me when he was done like that was some kind of comfort. I remember those giant tears welling up in my eyes. I remember my Mum’s face looking troubled to see me in pain and scared. I remember her love as she put her arm around me as we left. I mean it did get rid of those painful bumps. Stop… think about that. Does this sound like HEALTHcare? My issues have always presented through my skin. A couple weeks ago I was talking to this lovely homeopath, just because she is a bright light in my facebook feed. Coincidentally the rash, which I have come to know is viral, has flared. See most of our illnesses circle back to viral load. I didn’t even have to spend six figures and years upon years of my life learning that. I asked her if there was a cream or something to help with the pain. She told me to keep in mind that when we see rashes, we need to be thinking about the blood. DING DING DING!!!!

Why am I telling you this? When I was a child and endured several of those appointments, there was no course of treatment that had anything to do with me having a virus or even looking for a virus. That pattern repeated several times in my life. My skin things were treated from the outside and no doctor EVER did anything to address viral or fungal issues. SO MUCH MONEY down the drain for mistreatment. No doctor told me that my liver and kidneys were in need of a detox. This is basic freakin information. Just as a fever is a sign of our immune system fighting against something so are rashes, eczema, psoriasis, acne. They are all messages about what is going on inside of us. Treating a rash and not the cause is like putting duct tape over a nail in your tire. Eventually the tire is going to need repaired properly. Most  of us wait for the blowout to happen. Same with our body. The doctor isn’t hearing those warning signs. You are. Respond to them. Learn about nutrition. Learn about supportive herbs. Learn that health is found outside our healthcare system. There are a few things they do well, but sickness doesn’t happen to be one of them.

I have worse stories about doctors maybe for another time. Circling back… why do we worship them and treat people who provide fuel for your body like second class citizens? There is no question left in my mind that our healthcare system has become a religious institution. I am not the first to go public with that thought. We have been trained into thinking our health answers come from them when what they are taught is how to medicate symptoms. They are never taught to look for the roots. What happens when you trim poison ivy? It comes back right? The only way to get rid of poison ivy is to pull it up from the roots. Well the only way to be healthy is to dig for the roots to your issues. Surgery and medicine may help for a little while, but whatever poison, which will be a combination of emotional and physical wounds, is inside and will pop back up again. Thing is our healthcare system is the third leading cause of death in our country. Over 700 people EVERY DAY will die at their hands. The top two causes are heart disease and cancer. Well if our almighty doctors knew jack about nutrition to advise us on health, those first numbers would not be so high. If cancer and heart disease were treated with nutrition and more natural means, not as many people would lose their lives. So in my mind, our health care system is the SECOND leading cause of death in our country. The first, in my humble opinion, are the carcinogens we are exposed to regularly which are aiding in stripping our immunity, like rust in a machine. Corporations are not held to health standards and that is something that must change if we want to live.

The way people say “My doctor said” sounds like gospel. You are responsible for your body. Look at them as coaches, not Gods. Until our healthcare and its educational system are not run by pharmaceutical companies which started in the early 1900s, it is wise to seek wisdom from practitioners your insurance will not cover when taking actions for your health. Functional doctors have FAR more wisdom than your average white coat. Nutritionists are really helpful. There are lots of different kinds of practitioners who are of real value. I am not saying all doctors are bad people; however those trained by the for-profit system simply do not have a broad understanding of the roots of illness so they are limited by their training. 

Annnnd the next time you find yourself impatient because you waited too long to eat, swallow your rage and be kind to that person who is providing or selling you your fuel for the day. Thank them. Bless your food. Reiki your food if you have that skill. 

I cannot for the life of me understand how we have been so indoctrinated into thinking an industry that kills over 250,000 AMERICANS EVERY YEAR can be trusted wholeheartedly, yet some will verbally rip us to shreds if we forget the lettuce on a sandwich. Hero worship because we have been TRAINED to over-value degrees and bank accounts and undervalue common sense and soul purpose.