Greetings!
In 2005, I began noticing that I didn’t feel right. I remember explaining to my doctor in the summer of that year that something was going on because I didn’t seem to be handling stress well. I couldn’t pinpoint it any better than that. He made some suggestions that helped for a while but by Thanksgiving I was sick. And six months later, I was even sicker. I couldn’t stand up to take a shower but sat on the shower floor. For months, I couldn’t even drive a car. I still remember the last time I drove before I fully realized this. I was needed to drive a second car home and was following my husband. It was terrifying how much obsessive focus and energy was required to follow him. I was leaning forward with a death grip on the steering wheel struggling to keep my attention on what the car in front of me was doing. So, from then on for months, others did all the driving. It didn’t really matter, though, that I couldn’t drive anymore because it soon became apparent to me that I couldn’t be out in public, anyway. Especially shopping. I could handle going on errands with my husband which I did just to get out of the house. I could go into a store by myself, briefly, to pick up something while he waited in the car. If, however, I actually tried to shop by myself in a store, I would walk out exhausted and empty handed in 15 minutes because I could no longer keep my focus, think or function. I would then require days on the couch or in bed to recover.
The physical recovery from this ordeal has been long and difficult. Six years later, I can now stand when I shower, clean my house, drive myself and work from home although I can only handle a limited number of clients a week. My husband still does all the grocery shopping but I can run in for a few items without any trouble. I can run errands by myself as long as I don’t go into more than 3 different places. Longer shopping trips such as clothes shopping is still much easier if I’m not alone. I can exercise as long as I’m careful to keep it easy and brief. A day of over-doing, such as a full day away from home, no longer requires days on the couch afterwards to recover from but just maybe one day. As you can see, I’m not exactly well yet. Although on most days, you wouldn’t know it to look at me. I’m no longer a yellow-gray color, my eyes no longer look empty. Half the year, I lay out in the sun as often as possible for vitamin D so my skin has color and my new diet has resulted in about a 20 pound weight loss.
Why am I telling you about this? Because you or a family member could be me in 6 months, a year, 5 years. I think of myself as the “canary in the coal mine”. Canaries used to be taken into the mines to warn the miners to evacuate if the canary died from lethal, undetectable gases. You could say that I have succumbed to the lethal gases of 20th and 21st century living. What!? Well, let me tell you. My mother suffered with Pica when she was pregnant with me. She craved dirt. This is now known to be a classic symptom of severe mineral deficiency. She was 5’8″ tall, 100 pounds and the doctor told her she could only gain 15 pounds during her pregnancy. This was standard practice at the time. She dutifully obeyed the doctor. Fortunately for me, I was born weighing 6 pounds with only minor birth defects. Also, I was one of the few babies in my generation to be breast fed by my mother. Regrettably for me, I was fed table food from just a few weeks old which was also standard practice at the time. Most infants since my generation have not been breast-fed. The infant digestive tract is designed to handle breast milk and nothing else. Then there was the onslaught of antibiotics every time I got sick followed by no probiotics to replace all the good bacteria destroyed along with the bad. The Standard American diet at the time did not include any sources of probiotics such as yogurt, kefir, raw sauerkraut, kombucha tea. For good measure, there were plenty of other stresses: Eye surgery, 2nd and 3rd degree burns requiring hospitalization, a couple of cross country moves, my parents divorce, several more moves among and also away from family, the loss of my mother when I was 6, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, ear surgery, many infections and allergies, late term miscarriage of my first child at 6 months due to fetal distress (do you see the word ‘stress’ here?), cesarean section delivery of my second child, infertility, fertility treatments, many more moves around the world and country, exploratory abdominal surgery and the usual complement of deaths, births, marriages, divorces and job stresses. I’m sure this is not a complete list but you get the idea. Not exactly standard fare or maybe it is in this day and age.
Now add to the above mix of stresses: silver (mercury) amalgam fillings in nearly every molar, chemicals and petrochemicals in my food, water, body care products, home care products, clothes and furniture, days spent indoors in unnatural light, nearly continuous exposure to electro-magnetic field radiation and other sources of radiation, air pollution, sunscreen, nightlights, vegetarian diet, low fluid intake, prescription drugs, microwaved food, root canals, genetically engineered food, food irradiation, vitamin and mineral deficiencies due to poor quality food and intestinal damage, refined and hydrogenated oils, refined carbohydrates and sugars, high carbohydrate and low protein diet, nuclear, coal, gas and oil energy, frequent emotional upset, inadequate sleep, deadlines, school. All of these and more would be the lethal gases of the 20th and 21st century that I know I have been been exposed to. Ways of living that have never been known or experienced by humanity until just the last few centuries. So we are all canaries in the mine and it’s probably only a matter of time before you or someone you know succumbs.
I know this post sounds pretty doom and gloom but I think this is necessary sometimes to help people think about what they are doing and choosing. I wish someone had pointed out to me over and over again until I woke up and became aware of what I was doing to myself. Maybe I wouldn’t be sick now. Meantime, think about what you are choosing. Is it natural? Is it found in the natural world or or is it man-made? Is it a practice that is healthy and life affirming? Is it something your ancient ancestors would have partaken of or done in the natural course of their lives? If not, what can you do about it? Many things listed above are within your power to change or do differently so think, question, read experiment, and relearn some of the old ways of your ancestors.
Live, Love & Laugh in the Light of God
Dawn 🙂