My husband took the kids to the store last night to get some groceries.  He’s pretty amazing, and brave to take a 1, 3 AND 5 year old by himself.  Anyhow, we were out of salt so he grabbed some.  We’re usually very careful about checking ingredients, but when you’ve got all three kids by yourself – all bets are off.  Besides it’s sea salt right?  Why would you add anything to it?  Apparently, if it is a packaged food product, we have found a way to contaminate it.  The specific product is Balenine Fine Crystals.  Ingredients:  Sea Salt, Magnesium Oxide and Yellow Prussiate of Soda.  A quick look at the MSDS for Yellow Prussiate told us this:

Potential Acute Health Effects:  Extremely hazardous in case of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation.

Potential Chronic Health Effects:  Extremely hazardous in case of ingestion. Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of inhalation.  CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. MUTAGENIC EFFECTS: Not available. TERATOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available.  DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICITY: Not available. The substance is toxic to blood, lungs, mucous membranes. Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage.

Section 4: First Aid Measures

Eye Contact:  Check for and remove any contact lenses. Immediately flush eyes with running water for at least 15 minutes, keeping eyelids open. Cold water may be used. Do not use an eye ointment. Seek medical attention.

Skin Contact:  After contact with skin, wash immediately with plenty of water. Gently and thoroughly wash the contaminated skin with running water and non-abrasive soap. Be particularly careful to clean folds, crevices, creases and groin. Cold water may be used.  Cover the irritated skin with an emollient. If irritation persists, seek medical attention.

Serious Skin Contact:  Wash with a disinfectant soap and cover the contaminated skin with an anti-bacterial cream. Seek medical attention.

Inhalation: Allow the victim to rest in a well ventilated area. Seek immediate medical attention.

Serious Inhalation: Not available.

Ingestion:  Do not induce vomiting. Loosen tight clothing such as a collar, tie, belt or waistband. If the victim is not breathing, perform
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Seek immediate medical attention.

Serious Ingestion: Not available.

Uh, yeah, we’re gonna take it back.

Over the past several months my eyes have opened to the carefully crafted lies we’ve all bought into about our food, our water, our consumerism, our energy consumption and our ‘health’ system. Our entire culture has been brainwashed over decades by a system based on greed and suppression.  For a time, we didn’t even notice it was happening.  However, now the math is beginning to sneak into our psyches.  The calculations have been running quietly in the backgrounds of our minds, beginning to make us uneasy, even when we didn’t consciously know why.  The stuff from which our stuff is made is running out.  The soil is dying, we’re running out of forests, we’ve devastated the landscape and destroyed the water.  All of this ecology is also habitat and the life within each has been direly impacted.  The bottom line is, it’s bad, it’s really bad.  There is a reason that we are looking for sustainable answers to today’s problems, because the way we have been living is not. By definition our UN-sustainable lives, practices and energy sources [oil] are seeing their limits and, it seems, they’re just beyond the horizon.  The sun is about to set on this illusion and we are running out of daylight.

Waking up to all of this knowledge, seems overwhelming.  We feel powerless and we want to put our blinders back on.  We stare straight ahead, afraid of what else we may uncover if we begin to believe the editorials of the horrible crimes that have been perpetrated against us.  We lose hope knowing that in turn, we perpetrated horrible crimes against other cultures, innocent beings and the earth through our support of this system.  I am guilty.  It feels bad and I’m sorry, but instead of dwelling there, I want to fix it.  This is an opportunity.

I am ready to do what it takes to end this war on life.  It doesn’t have to be a difficult process.  We can have grand plans about a perfect system that seems impossible to employ, but it can be much easier than that.  We can worry individually about the things that we don’t want to do and the skills that we don’t have, but when it boils down to it if we embrace unlimited compassion within our hearts and let our egos dissolve, the world will begin to right itself.  By this I certainly don’t mean we all sit around with our fingers crossed waiting for some magic fairy to come, wave her wand and restore everything.  When we begin to rebuild from a foundation of love, things have a way coming together.  It means we all do the things we LOVE and we commit to them.  It means we put forth honest effort.  Instead of slackly doing something you dislike for someone you don’t respect (which will inevitably wrap you in a downward spiral of discontent), figure out what you love, stop worrying about money and just do it.  Do it morning and night, with passion, for days until the brilliant ideas start forming in your head.  Don’t be scared along the way by what the television says, or by what the billboard says or even by what your friend or relative says.  Just keep moving steadily forward.  Trust yourself and listen intently for your intuition.  Don’t be easily discouraged and maintain flexibility.  One of my favorite pieces of advice from the Dalai Lama is this:

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Instead of immediately complaining about how you didn’t get what you wanted, be open to the possibility that this is the best thing that could have happened.  This could be clearing a path to an amazing future.  Let go of your grasp on how things should have been and unlock your potential for progress.  Be honest and loving with others and you’ll no longer have to worry about others’ being honest and loving with you.  Drop your ego and it won’t matter what anyone else thinks of you.  You become free.  When you become free, you become happy.  When you become happy you become more productive, more creative and more resourceful.  We are beautiful spirits, capable of amazing things, all we need to do is trust ourselves.

Here are some important changes to make in your life (if you haven’t already) that can make this transition flow more smoothly:

• Look behind the scenes to see where things are originating and the processes that created them.
• Eat nutritious foods; source (non-genetically modified (GMO), no pesticide) whole foods from real people.  Talk to the farmer about how the food was grown.  Eat healthy saturated fats like coconut oil and/or grassfed butter & raw milk and avoid unhealthy vegetable, canola and hydrogenated oils.  Taste the difference and feel the changes in your body.  GMO foods do not have to be labeled.  If it’s in the grocery store, has corn or soy in it and it isn’t labeled ‘organic’ or ‘non-gmo’ then it’s a pretty sure bet that it is gmo.
• Cut as far back on sugar as possible.  This is easiest to do by eliminating all sugar (including most fruit) for at least a week.  Then stay away from all processed sugars including (GMO) high-fructose corn syrup as much a possible.
• Seek out clean water.  When fluoride is artificially added to our drinking water it is a toxic poison.  It is not helping our teeth and even if it were, topical applications would cover us – we shouldn’t be drinking it and bathing in it on a daily basis.  Harvest spring water from a local spring (check out www.findaspring.com to see if there is a spring listed near you, even if there isn’t that doesn’t mean you don’t have one locally).  Install a Reverse Osmosis filter or if well water is clean and available switch over.
• Enjoy the outdoors, take a little time each day to appreciate all the beauty and wonder that nature has to offer.
• Make more connections with people.  This can be as simple as striking up a conversation with the guy standing next to you in line.
• Limit mass consumerism to the best of your ability.  Fill the void with love instead.  When you are about to buy something ask yourself if it is really something that you want or need and how long it is going to be of use to you.  When you do shop seek out local, independent retailers.  If you need a gift for someone else consider lessons or classes, purchase them rights to a streaming movie from amazon, some used books you know they’ll love or buy or make something handcrafted  & from the heart.
• Avoid chemicals whenever possible.  Read the ingredients on everything and research alternatives.  A simple example of an eco-friendly alternative to the toxic soaps we use in the shower – try a local soap from a farmers market or Dr. Bronner’s available at many natural food stores.

virgin organic coconut oil
lots of garlic
celery
carrots
squash
zucchini
sea (Himalayan or other quality) salt
pepper
spring water (or well or reverse osmosis)
grass-fed butter (raw is a plus!)
sprouted beans (I sprouted garbanzos)
tomato

clean & rough chop veggies. saute celery, carrots, garlic in about 5T coconut oil, pile squash on top to steam a bit. fill pot with spring water. salt & pepper like wild. add about 3T butter and the sprouted beans cook until beans and squash begin to soften. taste, adjust salt, pepper, water ratio. serve hot or cold with fresh slices of tomato on top (delicious if the soup has good salt balance)

optional: most everything, get crazy

Ganesha, Lord of Obstacles

My neck is a tangled mass of taught strings right now. It always amazes me how quickly my body can set to work and invoke physical maladies in order to deflect thought from uncomfortable emotional states. I take a moment center my thoughts and treat my body like one of my children, “neck, really, I am so thrilled that you think enough of me to try and pitch in here and I love you, but, yeah, this isn’t helping, so please chill out”.

The experiences we have originate from our need to attain spiritual knowledge.  Some of the experiences are exciting and enjoyable; others painfully tragic. The work is to attain the spiritual knowledge of the experience and process it. More often than not, when there is a painful experience we do what we can to exist happily while hoping the experience will just fade away. Without processing and absorbing the lesson, it remains on the roster; it is part of our dharma. By avoiding the things we know we need to address, we create karma.

Astrologically, this is a big karmic cleansing week. It’s best to be prepared and not treat this like any other ordinary week. Look directly at your fears as they come up. Take a deep breath, continue to breathe deeply and slowly. Think about every move you make as one step in the solution to the problem. If one step seems it was in the wrong direction, re-evaluate and try again, it is only one step. Treat problems like science or math, try not to allow emotion to cloud judgment – but do keep an ear open for the heart.

I wish for us all to have great strength in this process, by addressing and releasing our issues from the past, we open our selves up to new opportunities and realities. We’ve so got this.

I raided Missy’s closet, as I always do when she goes out, and played around in the yard.
Thanks Melissa!

Interview with Johan Galtung

I am ready to hear someone talk about resolutions to all our most pressing national issues. Some days I feel as if I am helpless to affect positive change in my beloved country’s behavior.  It all seems too big and distant but it is affecting us all, in ever increasing ways. It is hard for me to see the blood of innocent people being spilled because they were in the wrong place when someone pulled the trigger.   Most of the time I refuse to look because it’s a lot to handle it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

I want to hear more people talk about what our nation is doing internationally, from Afghanistan to the Gulf, and how it makes them feel.  We can’t close our eyes and wait for it to go away.  War is being fought in our name.  Perhaps discussing potential resolutions will lead to a collective understanding of how to effect actual change, not just a sleight of hand trick.

This morning Ed and I watched part 2 of this interview with Johan Galtung.  I appreciate his clarity of vision pertaining to potential actions and resolutions, we as a country can take, to effect a more positive outcome in our future.  We still have a choice.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to part two of my interview with Johan Galtung. Known as the founder of peace studies, he spent the past half-century pursuing nonviolent conflict resolution in international relations. His latest book is The Fall of the US Empire–And Then What?: Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism of US Blossoming?

There are many ways we may look for approval.  I have struggled with this off and on most of my life.

I know many women that struggle with this.  This doesn’t mean that the habit of seeking approval from others can’t be easily broken.  Come on ladies… how does it feel when you want to do something, and even though you talked about it with your significant other a few days ago,  when the day arrives they suddenly seem moody.  If you feel frustrated, indecisive or worried about how they feel, its time to ask yourself some questions.

When you’re getting ready do you think more about what he’s feeling rather than the way you’ll wear your hair?

Do you feel the need to make everything perfect before you leave to earn your personal time?

Are you just plain hovering, waiting for them to give you the go ahead before you feel comfortable walking out the door?

If so, you may have started this by projecting your fears and expectations on him.

When I did this, it would irritate Ed and he’d immediately become moody.  I was standing around waiting for Ed to say  “Yeah honey! go have fun.  I’m so glad your going for drinks with the girls.  I don’t want to see you home until after last call .”  I’ll be waiting until I’m 90 before I hear that.  My behavior was getting me the opposite response.  At the least, I was giving him time to worry about me and my safety, most of the time I was acting insecure.  This triggered the pretty common response of  ” You’re going there?  The music sucks there.”  Or the one I hear from my friends with kids  “When are you getting home?  I’ve got things I need to do” (and this was the first you heard of it).  The most common though, is just straight up moodiness.

Yes, you are worthy and you deserve to have time to yourself.  Plus, it is so much easier to have patience and be able to care for those around us if you do.  There is nothing sexier than confidence. Own your worthiness ladies.

I bet you 9 out of 10 times if you confidently share your plans with your loved one,  give them a big kiss (with more to come later),  a shining smile and walk out the door without worrying about what they’re gonna do while your gone.  I swear they can smell worry or indecision like a dog smells fear.  Not only will you have a much better time but they will too.

Now the next thing I have to work on is not pouting when Ed wants to do the same and I’m at home waiting for him. There is a need for equal treatment, one step at a time right?

some of my... Support Group

It is beautiful out today. I’m sitting outside attempting to see my screen as I sit in the sun. Believe me it’s worth it. If everyday could feel like this I think I would have a permanent smile on my face.
This has been a crazy year for me. I began the year in a cute little house with a yard and extra room for a sewing studio. I was so excited to be in the new space.
Things don’t always work the out the way you think they will. I was about to describe all the things that went wrong but then realized I have no desire to relive it.
The short version: no heat, no working stove, the house ate my computer, the last straw… the pipes all rotted out and the landlord wouldn’t fix it.
The positive things: I had a space to work on the last fashion show without distraction. It was a small room and a space heater worked wonderfully. It was the only warm room in the place. Ed and I spent a lot of time reading books under a blanket on our couch watching the snow. Forced down time can be a blessing in disguise.
I haven’t really put much out in the last few months. I have been trying to find my way back to my center. We are now staying with my partner in crime Melissa Cokas, trying to decide what our next move will be. There are definitely more positive than negative reasons to co-habituate in these crazy times we’re living in. I have also been blessed with an even more fabulous place to sew. It’s truly wild how things happen.

I feel truly blessed to have many amazing friends. This is a time of major transition. It’s time to bring together your personal support group and take care of each other.

It will bring you bounty in the face of adversity.

About 4 weeks ago I embarked on a new journey in my life.  Never having been on a diet before, my husband and I were looking for one that we could use to quickly shed a few pounds before walking in the Re-Vamp Fashion Show.  After a couple days of research we finally decided on the anti-candida diet.  If I was going to make this sacrifice and actually deny myself certain foods, I wanted it to be the most beneficial for our health at the same time.

I have done a lot of research on candida overgrowth over the past 4 weeks and it has been really enlightening.  It has sent me on a completely different path nutritionally and I have changed my family’s diet in many ways for life.  The best resource I have found for info is The Whole Approach .  I personally did not buy any of the supplements that they sell on the website, however, I am taking a high quality probiotic and rotating using oil of oregano, coconut oil, grapefruit seed extract, garlic and pau d’arco tea to fight the candida.  These are all available at natural food stores.

The gist of the diet is you want to re-balance your digestive flora (which takes time) by starving the candida (an opportunistic naturally occurring yeast that is normally a part of digestion).  Nearly 80% of the population suffer from an overgrowth due to widely prescribed antibiotics, birth controls and the Standard American Diet (SAD).  Within this population, range dozens of related health problems including allergies to environmental stimuli and food, behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, sinus and bronchial infections, skin conditions, digestive problems, brain fog, indecisiveness, joint pain etc.  In most cases doctors do not recognize candida overgrowth as the disorder and will attempt to treat symptoms only.  I really think that we are in the midst of an epidemic.  The rates of childhood illness, allergies and behavioral disorders is climbing at an alarming rate.  Most people have no idea that the majority of the food they consume is harmful and of little to no nutritional value, especially because of the way it is prepared.

Candida thrive on sugar and simple carbohydrates – so the first phase of the diet is eliminating those almost completely.  No sugars of any kind including fruit, honey and agave (we’ve still been eating a VERY small amount of green apple and berries from time to time), no refined flours or gluten – which means no bread, pasta, ect…  No milk (it has lactose, which is a sugar) and no alcohol.  The first phase is 3 – 4 months and then you move on to add more things back in in the 2nd phase.    The third phase is probably one that we will base more on The Weston Price Foundation and continue for life, after a couple months in this way of eating having some things that aren’t in the diet here or there don’t impact you as negatively as they do when you still have overgrowth, so it is ok at that point.

Another important factor in this new realm of nutrition is knowing where your food is coming from and how it is raised, treated and grown.  I  highly recommend watching Food Inc and Future of Food (this one is free on hulu).  The state of our nations food industry is absolutely appalling and it has really opened my eyes.  I now try to source as much of my food through organic and local sources as possible.  There are many excellent local farms in the area, many organic and even some that are biodynamic.

Chris and I have both lost more than 15lbs (and any trace of cellulite) in the past 4 weeks and it was not by starving ourselves.  It has been through consuming healthy, natural (responsibly produced) fats, such as grassfed raw milk, butter, meats and eggs, eating lots of veggies and preparing everything from scratch (no more packaged foods).  We’ve discovered lots of ways to create the tastes we used to love even within the somewhat strict boundaries of phase one.  In the process I have developed a new love for cooking and am really embracing domestic goddess-hood.

Beyond the weight loss, I have experienced a tremendous increase in energy and clarity, the dark circles under my eyes are diminishing and I’m more driven and optimistic.  I’m looking forward to seeing what other benefits the diet brings me in the future.

The current controversy over the fluoridation of public water supplies doesn’t really leave my thoughts much these days.  This is a practice steeped in deception and elaborate marketing.  Shouldn’t we all have the right to choose whether or not we want to ingest this chemical additive, without having it quietly injected into our drinking water?  A quick check of your local Consumer Confidence Report will show if your town is fluoridating like the majority of towns in the US.  If you currently have fluoridated water here are some simple solutions to get clean drinking water:

• Check out Find a Spring to see if there is a local spring where you can harvest your own spring water.
• Install a reverse osmosis home water filter.
• Install a well if you have clean water at your home or reconnect old wells after testing water.

Whatever the reasons actually are, I think we need to act now to eliminate this practice as soon as possible.  For more information on why you should oppose fluoride in your drinking water check out what these folks have to say here:

10 Fluoride Facts

50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoride in Drinking Water

To find out the levels of Fluoride in your own town’s drinking water call town hall (or go to their website) and ask for a copy of the Consumer Confidence Report.