Playing Human

"Who are you and how do you know all this stuff," she looked at me as if I was from another planet or something.

That was after I told her about fermented vegetables, and how ferments may help her digestive and overall health.  We were standing in the parking lot of People's Food Co-op, and had seen each other several times before because we both had a "share of a cow" from the same dairy farmer, which means we both picked up raw milk on the same night, and we both usually shopped at the Co-op, either before or after.  Our conversations often centered around health and the healing properties of certain foods.

Cabbage/Carrot Ferment

How did I know all this? about ferments? and healing?  That was easy to answer.  "It's all been a part of my healing journey for the last year or so,"  I explained, "learning about fermented foods and making them myself.  Most fermented vegetables available in grocery stores have been pasteurized, which kills the good bacteria in them, so if you want the real benefits of fermented vegetables, you must either make them yourself, or look for fermented products labeled 'unpasteurized' or 'raw.'  But it's very inexpensive and rather rewarding to make them yourself."

Fermenting was one of the ways our ancestors preserved foods, which also helped to keep them healthy.  And if they hadn't survived, where would we be?

It's an interesting fact that our body is basically a shell for trillions of bacteria.  We are the host for lots and lots of other life, kind of like how the Earth is host to us and lots of other life as well.  The bacteria in our bodies actually outnumber our own cells 10 to 1, which means there are more of "them" than there are "us."

Very simply put, as far as gut bacteria go, there are the "good-guys" and the "bad-guys."  When the "bad-guys" out number the "good-guys" in our gut, all sorts of imbalances can occur in our bodies.  Replenishing the "good-guys" on a regular basis supports good health, and has been an important part of restoring my health.

So that's how I know all this stuff about healing foods, from my own personal experience.

But, who am I, other than bacteria?

That's a good question, and my answer seems to be ever evolving...

When I was a teenager, I remember looking into the mirror and wondering, "If my parents had never gotten together, who or what would I be?"

For some reason, I just knew that I would still be, that I would still exist, though my form would most likely be different.  I realized that my current form was a result of my parent's genetics, yet I knew that there was something eternal and timeless about me, about everyone.  We all have this animating force, this divine spark that, upon the death of the physical body, leaves the body and goes elsewhere, but does not cease to exist.

Recently I've also experienced myself in other dimensions and as other beings...

In one brief yet exhilarating experience, as I was falling asleep one night, I jumped into another reality that was so real I only stayed there for a few moments because I was so shocked and surprised by it's reality.  I was in a male body, yet it felt as though I fully embodied my feminine side as well.  Wearing silver armor, like a knight, holding a silver and gold sword with rainbow colored sparkles dripping from the tip, I looked around and saw a female figure who was also doing something with rainbow colored sparkles.  And I knew that even though I was a separate being, I was also that female form and everything I saw.  That was when I jumped out of that reality and back into Jeanine.  And for about an hour afterward I was filled with astonishment from that experience.

Henry Kissinger

And talk about astonishment, in another experience I jumped into Henry Kissinger's body and literally became him.  In that brief experience, I knew his history, his life and his experiences because they were also my history, my life and my experiences.  I was him.  I totally understood him and why he thinks the way he does.  It's kind of like how a goldfish is a goldfish, and no matter how much others want the goldfish to be a lion, it's simply not a lion.  It's a goldfish.  I left that dimension knowing that Henry Kissinger is playing his role, being himself, perfectly! 

An eternal, multi-dimensional being, connected to everything that is because I AM a part of All That Is, playing my human role, perfectly.  And so are you!

Blessings!

Blowing Kisses

Thursday evening I went for a walk in my daughter's neighborhood with a friend, my daughter and her dog.  

My friend and I had plastic bags and rubber gloves on and were picking up trash as we slowly walked along the city streets and through the park.  

We were passing a house with several people sitting on the front porch, perhaps a mother, a father and a couple of young children.  The father was bent over and had his head in his hands.  Mom had a somber look on her face and seemed to be staring blankly above our heads, and the two children looked like they were longing for something.  The sound of a dog barking was coming from within the house as we were passing. 

The screen door opened and another woman, perhaps the grandmother, walked out and apologized to us for the dog barking inside, to which we responded with kind assurance that we were not concerned.  She then proceeded to tell us how beautiful my daughter’s dog was.  

I was already sending silent blessings to them all, but here was my opportunity to actually say something out loud.  So I looked at the grandmother and said, “YOU are beautiful!”  Feeling now the attention of the children, I looked at them and said, “You are ALL beautiful!”  And as I said this, everyone lightened up!  The grandmother, mother, father and children were all looking at me with big beautiful smiles.  And as we continued to slowly pass by their house, I blew kisses to the children and they blew kisses back. 

Evolving Diet

Before the Ice Age, when the "Tribe of Man" was small, it is said that humanity survived on what they could gather from forest and field, a vegetarian-type diet.  Sensing the approaching Ice Age, Antelope knew that humanity would not survive without their help, and so they approached the Tribe of Man, communicating to them:

"If you kill us, you can eat our flesh and thereby not starve, 

and you can use our hide to help keep warm."

Whether that story is true or not, I would imagine there were times when plant-sourced foods were scare, and humanity had to eat animals to survive.  And so, perhaps, began our journey into an omnivorous diet, eating both plants and animals.

I've also heard that humanity is now evolving away from an omnivorous diet, and will eventually complete the circle by returning to a "lighter" vegetarian-type diet.  A vegetarian or vegan diet of whole, unprocessed foods can be very cleansing and healing for some.  However, some people, myself included, actually (still) need animal products to heal.

Several years of going between a vegetarian diet, a vegan diet, a raw vegan diet, and raw juice feasting, only made my food sensitivities worse, not better.  Back then I "knew" all the reason why everyone should be eating a vegan diet, or at least a vegetarian one.  I had even given an impassioned speech at Toastmasters about the consequences of eating meat, and how it affected both the earth and the animals.  However, like Penny Kelly, the author of the book, "Getting Well Again, Naturally, From the Soil to the Stomach," says, if what you are doing isn't working, then try something different.  And following a vegetarian diet was not working for me; my food sensitivities were growing.  So eventually I went back to eating more of an omnivore diet, and within a few months of focusing upon healing foods, such as homemade meat stocks rich in high quality, nutrient dense meats and animal fats, well cooked soups and stews, and homemade ferments, my long-awaited healing had finally begun.  That was when I started the GAPS diet Intro Phase, a gut-healing diet.

If you are concerned about cholesterol and animal products, please do some research about that.

"The diet-heart hypothesis is the greatest scientific deception of this century, perhaps of any century." ~ George Mann, eminent American physician and scientist

The diet-heart hypothesis has long been dis-proven, and there is actually little correlation between the amount of animal fat a person eats and heart disease.  In fact, if there is not enough cholesterol in your diet for your body's needs, your body will manufacture it.

One-hundred-percent of the animal products and about ninety-percent of the vegetables and fruits I consume are from local farmers and ranchers, people I know and trust, who treat their animals as the gifts to the "Tribe of Man" that they are.  It's the way our ancestors used to eat, before processed foods and factory farms.  They use natural and sustainable practices that actually can help to restore farmland that had been ravaged by previous factory farming practices.  Restoring farmland can be a long process without the gift of farm animals and the replenishing "fertilizer" they deposit upon the earth.

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." 

~ Hippocrates, 460-370 BC

Eating more meat at first worked wonders in healing my gut and curing me of dozens of food sensitivities, something a vegetarian and vegan diet did not do.  Now, about a year after starting the GAPS diet, I am consuming less meat, and use it mostly to "season" my vegetables with, though bone broths and organ meats are still a staple in my diet.  I've heard that when large cats (lions and tigers) kill their prey, they eat the organs first because they know that the organs contain the largest concentrations of nutrition.  Perhaps that is why organ meats are so important in a gut-healing diet.  When the gut is damaged, the body is not absorbing nutrition properly.  I remember before starting on the GAPS diet, my complexion was becoming more and more gray, probably because the nourishment in my food was not being properly absorbed through my damaged gut.  That has changed tremendously now.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the author of GAPS book, states repeatedly that there is no one-size-fits-all diet, that we are all unique in our dietary needs, and what works for one may not work for another, and, what the body needs today may not be needed tomorrow.  That is why muscle-testing and listening to my intuition regarding nourishment has become a valuable daily practice for me and my evolving diet.

I feel that all of life is a gift from Creator, both plants and animals.  What is important is how and why I use the gifts given.  Local, high quality animal products have been a very important part of my healing journey.  However, if what I've been doing stops "working," then I will know that it's once again time for a change.  And I will continue to listen.

Wednesday Rainbow

"We're supposed to get rain," he said.

"Looks like there's a storm over there," I said, motioning to the west.

The westerly sky was dark and gray, though when I looked to the east there was blue sky.

"Who knows?  Your barometer said rain yesterday, but it never did... I think the weather changes so quickly lately that one minute a storm is coming and the next it's not."

And that was when we saw the rainbow.

Nonnie, Gnomes, and Jesus Christ in the Northern Lights

Nonnie and me

Nonnie was the first person that ever talked to me about gnomies.  She was my father's mother, and according to Nonnie, gnomies most often lived in the country, away from civilizations, though most people rarely saw them anymore, not even people who lived in the country.

Nonnie grew up in Sweden and walked through the woods to get to school every day, which I would imagine is where she first started seeing the gnomies.  Perhaps that is why Nonnie and Gramps had gnome statues around their house and yard in Chicago, and also up at the cottage in Wisconsin, to help educate people about the existence of gnomes.  And maybe the gnome statues also to helped Nonnie feel more at home.

Gramps and me

Nonnie and Gramps lived in a big house on Chase near Sheridan in Chicago, and they rented out parts of their house to mostly people who had just come to America from Sweden.  I imagined that a lot of those renters already knew about gnomies too, being from Sweden and all, where there must have been lots of gnomies to see.  However, Nonnie and Gramps were the only ones I remember ever talking about gnomes while I was growing up.  That is, until one summer at the cottage when I was a teenager...

Our cottage in Spread Eagle, Wisconsin

One quiet summer night at the cottage, while sitting in a boat drifting in the middle of the lake in the company of my dear friend whom I will call Penelope, watching the sky aglow with colorful northern lights, Penelope started telling me about her recent Outward Bound "solo experience."  She started out by asking if I would promise to never tell her parents what she was about to tell me, because she was certain they would think she was crazy and may even send her away to an insane asylum because of it.  I promised that I would never tell her parents.

Penelope then proceeded to describe how, on the third day of her solo experience, while she was sitting at the top of a hill, looking down on a stream of water, at the water's edge she saw what she described as small people washing small clothing and small dishes in the stream of water.  Being very familiar with the existence of gnomes (though never having seen one myself), of course I believed her.  Penelope said that she spoke with the little people, and they said (just as Nonnie had said years earlier) that most people could not see them, and it was because of some kind of veil they had over their eyes and ears and other senses.  I had no doubt that what Penelope told me was the truth, and I felt quite privileged to hear about her experiences.  She and I surmised that on the third day of her solo experience in the woods, her veils had been lifted, and that was why she was able to see the gnomies.

Right about then, Penelope and I returned to looking up toward the sky to see a colorful configuration of the northern lights in the silhouette of Jesus Christ.

True story.

Photographer John Hilmarsson, from abcnews.go.com

PS ~ It's important to note that areas of transition, from field to forest, or shore to water, are natural doorways to the other-worlds, where encounters with other dimensions may be more likely.

PSS ~ Penelope's parents have both passed-on, and I would imagine they know all about the gnomies by now.

Listening, Healing, and Change

Interesting... my last post was on a Friday the 13th, and we just had another Friday the 13th.  Thirteen represents change to me, and indeed, things have changed.

This is a description of my journey into the gap of common medical knowledge; from food sensitivities, to topical steroid use, to real healing.

After twenty years of not knowing why I had so many food sensitivities, and five years of using topical steroid cream to mask the symptoms of  the food sensitivities, I am done with the steroids and well on my healing way.

When eczema first developed on my face, about twenty years ago, I narrowed it down to a reaction to milk products.  For a while, as long as I avoided anything containing milk, my face remained clear.  But then wheat started causing a reaction, then citrus, then...  At some point I lost track of all the foods I needed to avoid to keep my skin clear.  I tried all kinds of things also: different diets, different fasts, different detoxes, different supplements, yet none of it cured the eczema.

Food sensitivity tests showed that I had dozens and dozens of them.  I had even gone to a reputed clinic and all they had to offer was experimental shots at $300 a piece that insurance would not cover and had no guarantee of actually working.  So I said, "No thank you," to that!

A few years back I was talking to the woman selling pasture raised chicken, beef and eggs at a Farmer's Market.  Telling her about all my food sensitivities and using the topical steroids, she insisted that I was never going to get rid of the sensitivities until I healed my gut.  She told me about a book on how to do that, and eventually I bought and read the book.  What a life-changing blessing that has been!

A damaged, or "leaky gut," allows undigested food particles into the blood stream, which causes an immune response because the body looks at those large, undigested food particles as invaders.  For me, the immune response manifested as eczema on my face.  Eventually just about anything I ate caused a reaction in the form of eczema on my face.  That is why about six years ago I started using topical steroid cream, to mask the symptoms.  And I used it regularly for about five years.

Topical steroid cream was a quick and easy "fix," but not without consequences.  Unbeknownst to me, my skin became addicted to the steroids, and when I stopped using it in May of 2014, the withdrawal process was horrendous.  The skin on my face quickly became so bright red and swollen that I refused to leave the house for about two weeks during the worst of it.

About that same time I had started a form of channeling, and I was desperate for answers to what was going on with me, so I asked for help.  My Team lead me to the ITSAN (International Topical Steroid Awareness Network) web site, which totally explained what was happening.  I found out that the "Red Skin Syndrome," as it is called, would not last forever, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other people had gone through the exact same process of topical steroid withdrawal.  Despite my flaming red and swollen face, I literally cried for joy when I read about how this condition was only temporary, and was a detox symptom from topical steroid addiction.  It takes about three years for topical steroids to be completely eliminated from the body, I read, but the good news is that the first "flash" is the worst.  Since then, I have had a few recognizable "flashes," but nothing in comparison to the first one.

Back to the gut!  How does the gut get damaged and leaky?  Lots of ways, but for me it was probably a number of things: Lots of rounds of antibiotics when I was younger, plus a few years of birth-control pills, plus stress, plus a huge sweet tooth, and the topical steroid cream use was like the icing on the cake.  Antibiotics kill beneficial microbes in the gut, as do birth-control pills.  Pharmaceutical drugs damage beneficial microbes in the gut also, and I had been taking thyroid medication for a number of years as well.  Plus, I had a huge sweet tooth, and sweets feed opportunistic microbes in the gut.  Opportunistic microbes can damage the gut wall, causing a leaky gut.

Finally, after about twenty years of dealing with food sensitivities and eczema, I had the answer to what was going on in my body.  I had a leaky gut, and needed to heal it.

In May of 2014, after taking my time reading the GAPS book, (GAPS stands for Gut And Psychology Syndrome), and backing my way into the very strict Intro Phase of the diet, I started on my journey out of the gap of common medical knowledge, and into real healing.  And once through the worst part of topical steroid cream withdrawal/Red Skin Syndrome, and strictly following the GAPS diet (also called GAPS healing protocol), my skin looks better than it has in twenty years.  I am now able to eat just about anything, including some milk products, with no reaction!  And for this, I am truly grateful.

Blessings!

Tonight, Ashling would not get into the car. She usually jumps right in with little or no hesitation. But not tonight. She did not want to get into the car. So we tried again. A few more attempts, and she just didn’t want to get in. So we took a little walk away from the car, and tried again. This time she hesitated, but then jumped in. Moments later we pull onto a major road and we see, just ahead, first one, then another, then another, then a fourth deer, running across the road, probably exactly where Ashling and I would have been had she jumped right into the car.

I am reminded that everything happens for a reason.

I am humbled, and grateful.