New World Dawning … towards a sustainable and just future

Helllllloooo wide world of blogging. I’ve been guilty of neglecting you for more than two months and now have come to repent!
No babies kitty refers to the fact that I have discovered that my 6 year old cat likes to be carried around inside a hoodie (like a pregnant belly) so that he can be close to my warmth. It really seems to be the only way that he is happy because then he gets a break from following me around everywhere meowing and rolling around the floor provocatively. But there are no babies in there, only kitty!
OK that’s enought sillyness.
Some quick updates on a varity of subjects …
1) Health: was pretty stable until a colon-scope last week, from whcih I am still recovering. I switched to a new pharmaceutical (Lialda) the same as the Asacol, just a higher dose so I only take it twice a day; plus my immuno suppressant was upped to head off any inflammatory reaction I might have from the colonoscopy. Haven’t been able to get a hold of the naturopathic dr and hesitant to see an acupunturist given all the meds I am on.
2) Crafting: I’ll be in my first two craft shows this month selling all kinds of yummy and inedible crochet treats! Cookies, softies, freeform, you can check them all out at my flickr page.
the first one is the and the second is part of a pottery & art show put on by my good friend Natalie.
3) Relationship: The main one being marriage. I’ve taken on being masterful in the art of marriage, and learning as much as I can about what makes this relationship not just work, but flourish. So that is a great inquiry to be in , and any advice you have is welcome on one condition -No cynicism please! That is a really tired conversation - no wonder the divorce rate is so high!
We are moving this month to an airstream on a farm on the edge of town - a dream come true for a couple of DIY vegetarians trying to ‘get off the grid.’ We’ll let you know how it goes!

 Finally someone at the New York Times put out a piece that talks some sense about the seriousness of our culture’s meat-guzzling addiction and its implications for the planet!! This is good to see in such a major media outlet.  Will people actually start talking about it? 

Read it here:     Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler  by Mark Bittman

For more straight talk about the meat industry and health, I’ve been picking up pieces of Skinny Bitch  by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnoui. It’s hilarious. And they pull no punches. I won’t quote it here b/c, quite frankly, the language is not kid-friendly and I don’t want to offend anyone.

The part I love about it is that this non-diet ‘diet’ book, which happens to a NYT Bestseller, doesn’t promise fab results with no effort (we all know that’s bullsh*t anyway) - guess what people - you need to work a little to transform yourself and your life! If you don’t face up to that fact, you are deluding yourself.

Seems like maybe some people in the mainstream media are waking up  

OK One more good read, that again, I’ve only been getting bits and pieces of (this book lives in my bathroom), is The Exception to the Rulers by Amy Goodman and David Goodman of Democracy Now.  Just go to their website.

Happy reading!!

Also, this post is open to discussion for the 90+ people I sent the article to. Please, feel free to comment!  I want to hear what you think! 

OK - I have to put another link to the Institute for Figuring (that’s a fun way to say ‘Math’) for their awesome crocheted hyperbolic coral reef exhibit.  Really beautiful, inspiring stuff … Now you can have a coral reef in your home without even having them in water or a tank!

Knitted Frog Dissection - as long as you don’t use wool (as this crafter did), you’re not hurting any animals with this dissection kit. Of course it still flies in the face of a purist animal rights argument b/c we are still positioning animals within a scientific hierarchy where humans dominate… 

I 'happened' to rediscover my Educated Guess album this morning and decided to post
this spoken word piece "Grand Canyon".  I'm listening obsessively to my uncle's band 256 also,
out of Grand Rapids, MI.
The poem is a bit long, but please enjoy. the meter and rhythm really comes out if you read it aloud ...  
 
I love my country
By which I meanI am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water 
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Cut a grand canyon of light
 
Yes, I’ve bin so many places
Flown through vast empty spaces
With stewardesses whose hands
Look much older than their faces
I’ve tossed so many napkinsInto that big hole in the sky
Bin at the bottom of the Atlantic
 
Seething in a two-ply
Looking up through all that water
And the fishes swimming by
And I don’t always feel lucky
But I’m smart enough to try
Cuz humility has buoyancy
And above us only sky
So I lean inBreathe deeper that brutal burning smell 
That surrounds the smoldering wreckage
That I’ve come to love so well
Yes, color me stunned and dazzled
By all the red white and blue flashing lights
In the American intersection
Where black crashed head on with white
Comes a melody
Comes a rhythm
A particular resonance
That is us and only us
Comes a screaming ambulance
A hand that you can trust 
Laid steady on your chest
Working for the better good
(Which is good at its best)
And too, bearing witness
Like a woman bears a child…With all her might
Born of the greatest pain
Into a grand canyon of light
 
I mean, no song has gone unsung here
And this joint is strung crazy tight
And people bin raising up their voices
Since it just ain’t bin right
With all the righteous rage
And all the bitter spite
That will accompany us out
Of this long night
That will grab us by the hand
When we are ready to take flight
Seatback and traytable
In the upright and locked position
Shocked to tears by each new vision
Of all that my ancestors have done
Like, say, the women who gave their lives
So that I could have one
 
People, we are standing at ground zero
Of the feminist revolution
Yeah, it was an inside job
Stoic and sly
One we’re supposed to forget 
And downplay and deny
But I think the time is nothing
If not nigh
To let the truth out
Coolest f-word ever deserves a fucking shout!
I mean Why can’t all decent men and women
Call themselves feminists?
Out of respect 
For those who fought for this 
I mean, look around 
We have this 
 
Yes
I love my country
By which I meanI am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter 
Came through hell and high water
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Is cutting a grand canyon of light
 
words and music by ani difranco © 2004 righteous babe music / BMI 

 Think crochet is mindless?  Link here for all the brainiac crafsters out there . . .   Intro to the interview with the mathematician and the, uh, other mathematician (who crochets, and who happens to be married to him).

 Until the 19th century, mathematicians knew about only two kinds of geometry: the Euclidean plane and the sphere. It was therefore a deep shock to their community to find that there existed in principle a completely other spatial structure whose existence was discerned only by overturning a 2000-year-old prejudice about “parallel” lines. The discovery of hyperbolic space in the 1820s and 1830s by the Hungarian mathematician Janos Bolyai and the Russian mathematician Nicholay Lobatchevsky marked a turning point in mathematics and initiated the formal field of non-Euclidean geometry. For more than a century, mathematicians searched in vain for a physical surface with hyperbolic geometry. Starting in the 1950s, they began to suggest possibilities for constructing such surfaces. Eventually, in 1997, Daina Taimina, a mathematician at Cornell University, made the first useable physical model of the hyperbolic — a feat many mathematicians had believed was impossible — using, of all things, crochet.   

If you have a chance / are interested, take a minute to check out the Animal Writings blog right now. He’s put together a really comprehensive bunch of strategies and tips for meat-eaters to reduce their meat consumption and increase vegetable and fruit consumption - something which I think we can all agree is a good thing, whether or not you give a fig about animals, their welfare, or their rights as sentient beings. You also have a right to great health, and shouldn’t keep yourself confined just because you’ve been raised in a culture that teaches you to eat meat as a default without ever seemingly asking your consent. You actually have a choice!  Choose more vegetables!!

 Though I spend some time here talking about alternative therapies, sometimes there is no replacement for good ole’ fashioned Western surgery … as was the case with my spouse, N, who sliced up his hand pretty good almost two weeks ago.  He managed to severe four tendons and a nerve in his right hand, and had reconstructive surgery last Friday for it. [Picture below illustrates where the cuts are]. I haven’t seen his hand since the surgery, since it’s been bound up in a giant bandage and I wasn’t able to go with him to the doctor’s today. Hand  So we’ve been pretty preoccupied with that. In the meantime, I had been crocheting up an excessive amount of fake food and small amigurumi animals … a new obsession.  And I sold my first handmade item - a crocheted veggie burger where all the pieces come apart (play food).   I’ll be putting pictures up on ravelry and etsy soon too, once I secure a camera.  Interestingly, I’ve noticed that my creativity/motivation waxes and wanes with the moon - no kidding.  The two weeks before my period are the most manic  productive for me.   Tonight is the night of my presentation on Living with and Healing Colitis/IBD Naturally.    In a few weeks, some friends and I will be putting on a food workshop covering a variety of topics - vegetarian meal planning, quick and easy foods, flatbread making, energy of herbs and spices, medicinal teas etc. My section will be on Sprouting and Live Foods and salad dressing method (yes there is a method). See the flyer here –>Food Workshop Flyer  This workshop has been a long time in the making, it seems, as it is some of the same group that had been meeting for about a year trying to get a co-op off the ground.We realized, I think, that the main thing we want to accomplish with that is the educate and expand people’s idea of food, and to be conscious about their eating.  Since eating permeates so much of our culture, food choices have a HUGE impact on the well being of individuals, communities and society as a whole. 

Ulmus fulva
Thanks to another healer friend of mine, I have discovered the wonderful and delicious slippery elm. I’m not sure why I think it’s delicious - it certainly doesn’t lend itself to much culinary creativity - but the healing properties of this herb are amazing.
A few days ago I purchased said herb in powder form and have been making tea from it a few times a day, between meals. It has the interesting property, like flax, of becoming muciligenious (sp?) - mucus-like and um, slippery - when heated in water and has a distinctive nutty-sweet-earthy flavor. Its main property? To coat, soothe, and heal the GI tract, reducing many symptoms of IBS and colits. Because of it’s soothing properties, it’s also used for burns, ulcers, sore throats and respiratory ailments, among other things.
Apparently, Native Americans used to use it as a ’survival herb’ … not sure what that means, but it makes my tummy feel happy and full and calm, for which I am very grateful :).

This same friend offered me some very good advice and insights and at his reccomendation, I have restarted enzymatic therapy more dilligently and increasing my raw intake again. What I found most interesting is that he mentioned that the gallbladder is the seat of your personal will. I had mine removed when I was 16 and have had digestive problems ever since due to the bile imbalance (something I didn’t know much about until about six months ago, and am still learning)… from that he accurately predicted that I also struggle to find my voice and assert my will in my own life. Amazing how everything is so interconnected like that.

I’ve noticed a lot of people have been reading my first post on Naturopathic Medicine, so I am posting an update of my progress so far working with a N.D. on my Ulcerative Colitis. I am also going to post a page with some background about my seven year journey, including alternative therapies, with U.C. for people who are looking for support.
I had a phone follow-up call with the N.D. a few days ago after about 5 weeks on the regimen that we specified (see previous post). So far the results have been good, in conjunction with the pharmadrugs. I am finally tapering off of the Predisone, down to 35mg/day from 50mg. I will be off it by mid-February. My colon has calmed down a lot, though not to the “one or two” bowel movements per day that both my dr’s are hoping for.
The tumeric and herbal blend (marshmallow, slippery elm, etc) that I have been taking twice a day is part of a long range plan with stages for the healing and restoration. I will keep taking these for two more months before going on to another blend (not sure what that is).
My diet is almost back to normal - meaning, a high-fiber plant-based diet. I have to watch the fiber though, make sure it’s enough soluable. I’ve stopped eating the cheese and few eggs that I had been for a few weeks - a recommitted vegan - after reading the first 100 pages of The World Peace Diet and being reminded of the horrible pain and suffering involved with producing those ‘foods.’
Interestingly, I have found now that if I am going to eat a lot of fruit or veggies, it’s better to eat them raw with the enzymes intact - then I have much less bloating and unconfortability. When I told that to the N.D., she suggested that I go back to using digestive enzymes only when I have a big cooked meal. I am still taking UltraFlora (probiotics), Iron Extra, and at least 3,000mg of Flax Oil a day. Eating it as just oil wasn’t working so well for me, so I take caplets, but I also eat oil and flax meal pretty much everyday. You can never get enough of that stuff! The N.D. says that eventually the omega-3 rich flax oil is what is going to act as the anti-inflammatory after I am off the predisone.
The goal is not, obviously, to be on a lot of supplements. Right now they are really supportive for the healing process. I’ve gained some weight (about 10 lbs.), either from the predisone or from actually being able to digest food, or both. Either way, I am feeling a lot better and my energy is up despite the drug-induced insomnia (sleeping about 5 hours a night). Unfortunately, I had picked up drinking small amounts of coffee throughout the day to combat my sleepiness (and b/c I like the taste and live with a coffee snob) but now at my N.D.’s suggestion am switching to green tea and yerba mate, both of which have some benefits for UC.
I’ll leave you with this thought: Health is a function of your participation. Participation in life, in your healing, in anything. You have to engage. The energy you put in is what feeds you life. I have been on a crazy roller coaster of participation, throwing myself back into multiple projects and socializing a lot since coming out of ‘hiding’ (translation: hospital) and that has been a large part of my healing.
I realize this may be striking for many who think they need to ‘conserve’ their energy in order for their body to heal, but that is a stingy attitude (a conversation coming from scarcity) that will probably leave you always feeling tired and unsatisfied … If you want an abundance of health and vitality, YOU have to generate it and put it out there. [While being responsible for it and taking care of yourself.]

Also: The second Tuesday in February, I will be giving a talk to a local (Utica, NY) wellness group about healing and living with colitis naturally. Just a little background (more to be up on a page soon), some of the ‘alternative’ therapies that I have benefitted from that I will discuss include yoga, acupunture, BIOSET, reiki, diet and cleansing, enzyme therapy, homeopathy, raw food and juicing, colon hydrotherapy and herbal enemas.