DAY 195 - Learning From My Little Sister

Me and Tori

I have one sister, Tori Janaya. She was born in the late spring of my fourth grade year. I remember my Mom being pregnant, tiny Tori coming home from the hospital, and I held her in my arms.

Before long she was a toddler; so cute, such a joy. Then time sped up.

Today, Tori is 49, and dealing with ovarian cancer.

Through this process she is teaching me more about life.

From the beginning, June, 3, 2009, Tori has talked openly with us about her feelings, her experiences, her life. On August 23, 2010 she sent us the following note.

“so...if it's true that none of us know for sure....then the only choice we have is to live moment my moment...what you can do for me is to stay in the presence of that moment by moment view and to lift me with your love and strength...instead of predicting my death...be with me as I continue to live...if it looks like I'm passing sooner...it's still the same...moment by moment...

I would also encourage us not to put off ...not to wait to tell someone you love them...you never know when it's your time...their time...my time..

If you look at me like I'm dying...it's not helpful for me...it's an interesting time...some friends who fell away in my life have returned with even more love and other friends have disappeared because they can't handle what is happening to me...I guess fear is a powerful sword...a sword that can pierce the hearts of people we love...I hope all of us in our own lives with our own challenges will find the sword of strength and honor and love....not the weakness that shows and takes over simply because we are afraid....we have to be better than that....we must be better than that!” ***

In the way of my heart, she is my little sister. In the world, while a sister to all, she is anything but diminutive. She is strong, gentle, and powerfully alive.

I am more than prepared to continue walking this road with you my sister, wherever it may lead us; and I have much to learn.

From just one of your brothers who loves you,
Kris

DAY 189 - No Better Gift from My Kids

Kenn and Jenny

I’ll tell you the backstory on another day, but wanted to say that my kids, Jovi and Kenn, give me the greatest birthday gifts.

What I really wanted was a guarantee of their health; but that wasn’t possible. So I asked for the next closest thing; I select a book on health, they read it, and then provide me with a book report on what was valuable to them.

Each year they learn more about health, and each year they know that their wellbeing is one of the most important things in my life.

This last October, for my 59th birthday, Kenn, and his sweetheart, Jenny began reading The Better Brain Book by David Perlmutter, MD. Let me say here, that Kenn and Jenny have had a very busy life recently. On March 27, 2011, they finished and delivered their book report.

My kids have been giving me these gifts since 1997, but, for the first time, Kenn and Jenny created their report as a video that is now available for all on Vimeo at:    http://www.vimeo.com/21576405

I am so grateful for this gift and for my kids’ interest in health! I am comforted by their closeness and increasing connection to health. Feels good now, great design for the future! Doesn’t get much better!

DAY 187 - Folks Without Homes

photo courtesy of ab.photo at flickr commons

folks without homes
at the street corners
looking into my eyes

cardboard signs
asking me my role

light’s red
can’t drive away


my gut winces
got to feel
got to see

what is it that I want to go away?
the folks without homes?
or my feelings?

as long as there are folks without homes
you and I have the opportunity to lend a hand
or just drive by, as I often have

I wasn’t intentionally unresponsive
I just didn’t have a plan

part of my current plan is
http://liftupyourvoice.org ( lift up your voice )

my thanks
to those who didn’t let me
just drive by

KY - 4/8/11

DAY 186 - Delicious Way to Prevent Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Guaranteed delicious; prevention can’t always be delivered with one recipe, nor guaranteed.

Zeaxanthin is the primary xanthophyll carotenoid in the central, macular portion of retina of the eye. Several observational studies have connected high dietary intake of foods providing zeaxanthin, with lower incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Zeaxanthin is found in many plant foods, including collard greens.

So, please, let’s start with a 6 foot-tall tree collard.







Harvest lots of leaves.

Chop into thin strips.

Lightly stir-fry in olive or coconut oil, with a splash of gluten-free tamari.

 
Serve on a bed of freshly steamed brown rice, with just a squeeze of lemon.

Now, don’t tell me you can’t see better!

Health Note: let’s face it, we all know that our lives and health are improved when we eat lots of fresh, organic vegetables; especially greens.

DAY 185 - Path to a Dairy-free Cancer Cure

photo from the Center for Food Safety

This is more like stepping stones in a stream of consciousness, rather than a path, but, walk with me if you will.
*****
We start in 1961; me with severe back pain at age 10.
My first chiropractic treatment in Fillmore, CA in 1976.
I graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1982.
In 1991, Dr. Steven Shuel, chiropractor, brings me an audio tape of a lecture on inflammation, by biochemist, Jeffrey Bland, PhD.
Almost overnight I recognize Dr. Bland as my first (and still only) professional mentor.
I subscribe to Dr. Bland’s Preventive Medicine Update (PMU); a monthly review of cutting-edge, scientific medicine (now called Functional Medicine Update).
In 1991 Dr. Bland interviewed Sherry Rogers, MD on PMU regarding her new book, Tired or Toxic?
I subscribed to Dr. Rogers newsletter – Total Wellness – in 1999.
Today, April 7, 2011 – sorting through a stack of Total Wellness newsletters, my attention was drawn to the title, Cancer is Just a Label, in the December 2006 edition. The story was that of a remarkable woman and a remarkable cure through foods, of a would-be-terminal, metastatic, multi-organ cancer.
I searched the internet to see if I could learn more about this case, and found http://www.kushicenter.com/Metastatic%20Cancer_en.htm
On this webpage I read the following:
Healing Metastatic Cancer with Diet By: Janet Vitt, R.N, B.S.N.
“Looking back, I think the main cause of my problems was cheese. I was obsessed with cheese. Not a day passed when I didn't eat it. I loved cheese omelets, I enjoyed cheese on hamburgers, and added cheese to all my vegetables. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, after aerobics class, I would come home and eat cheese and crackers. I was a cheese-a-holic.
There were several positive side effects of practicing macrobiotic. The migraine headaches I suffered from for over 20 years were now gone. The Joint pain in my knees and ankles, which I attributed to playing tennis and growing old, disappeared. My restless nights of sleep and waking to go to the bathroom became a thing of the past.”

The End
*****
50 years of hopping from stone to stone. It has been an interesting and valuable path for me. One of the clear threads that runs from beginning to end is; Warning! Dairy may be dangerous to your health!

Dairy products were clearly the single greatest cause of my own arthritis, back pain, fatigue and digestive issues. Janet Vitt suspects dairy products as being central to her nearly fatal cancer. In practice since 1983, I have seen the following conditions caused by dairy products: headache, migraine, ear infections, ringing in the ears, sinus infections, acne, tonsillitis, vertigo, neck pain, TMJ pain, back pain, knee pain, muscle pain, neuritis, arthritis, reflux, constipation, intestinal gas, nausea, gastritis, bedwetting, frightening dreams, carpal tunnel syndrome, menstrual cramps, menopausal symptoms, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sciatica, elevated blood pressure, hyperactivity, colds, flu, snoring, asthma, and weight gain.

Let the eater beware!

DAY 184 - A Moment of Compassion at TJs

Another hectic afternoon; I scurried down the aisles dodging slower-moving shoppers. Our new Trader Joe’s just opened last week in Midtown Ventura and the place was a mad house. No question, I wasn’t present, in that spiritual sense. I wasn’t in-the-moment.

My shopping didn’t take long, and fortunately my hyperactivity was slowed by the checkout line. I took a cleansing breath. Felt the humanity that surrounded me. Became aware of the chill of the one quart plastic container of organic carrot juice in my right hand, and was grounded again.

Awakening, coming to my senses, I reflected on the music playing throughout the store; 60’s music. While scurrying through the aisles, thinking only of myself, I had snapped my fingers, sang softly, and had even thrown in a subtle dance step or two, as I grooved to the music of my generation.

But my reclaimed cosmic clarity snapped me out of self-centered indulgence. As Manfred Mann sang Doo Wah Diddy Diddy over the store's Muzak, I realized the suffering of the young TJ’s staff as they toil through their days, serving us while being ground down by the relentless loop of 60’s music.

Carried back in time, I heard my parents’ music, and quickly turned it off. I cringed, knowing that these young people can’t turn it off.

Now at the front of the checkout line, I waved off the disposable bag, and in a very caring tone told my “crew member” that I felt her pain at having to listen, non-stop to her parents’, my generation’s music.

We had a good laugh. She sensed that I was totally present, maybe even hip, and the beat went on.

PS – Note to TJ’s General Management; please don’t take this compassion thing too seriously. Many of us in the last third of our lives, love your music. The kids can take it. And who knows, maybe we old-folks are in a better mood when we greet our “crew member” at check out.

DAY 180 - The Yoga of Nuclear Power

photo courtesy of topato at Flickr Commons

doing my yoga today

responding to the ever-tightening nature of human existence

asking myself, to what degree the restriction and mild soreness in my traps, lumbar spine and hamstrings are the result of my fear that we humans will continue to choose instant gratification over care and safety, as we are now by creating dangerous nuclear power plants, and leaving a legacy of highly toxic radioactive waste for countless generations of our children, at incalculable expense, over hundreds of thousands of years

is that any way to treat our children?

ah well .... back to my yoga

I’m not ready for rigor mortis yet