Friday, November 27, 2015

Thank You

For my window which frames
gardens laced with frost,
winter birds feeding,
and squirrels who knock
politely for nuts to be thrown  

For my lover who
never ceases to help me do
morning to night menial chores
when hospitality cares
to make warm welcomes

For our children who bring
friends and spouses to build
gingerbread houses with their
imaginations bursting to use
sweet building material

For a mother still living
who stuffs the turkey
and whisks magic into
the gravy with aplomb -
and stirs me to greater love

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Accompanied

She catches up with me
then catches me up

to the place where we
both want to be - recording (in our imaginations)

our favorite lyrics, thoughts,
and good reads (for posterity.)

Her brain is nimble -
her linguistic skills sharp.

She waits and listens -
holding space for sacred

breaths to open our morning
diaphragms. I have a soul

friend to walk along side
me on this perilous journey.

I imagine us reading Anam Cara
in Donegal as the sun rises and sets

on the water while John
O'Donohue's golden

light accompanies us.






For Laura 

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Sugar is Toxic Poison

Here are my top links that have educated me on the perils of sugar. Pilgrim, we don't have to live this way or feel this bad or have the health problems we have. I've had the biggest epiphany of my life and have radically changed what I eat. It was change or deteriorate….losing life as I know it.

One of the things that helped me understand why I've had a weight problem, so much neuropathy pain and other health issues over the years is this: I've worn out my pancreas and it is tired. My body is blocking the profuse amounts of insulin being pumped out and soon won't be able to produce any more insulin.

I did not know that sugar is hidden in savory things. More and more. Things that shouldn't have sugar like bouillion, salsa, soup, my beloved Siracha, ketchup, mayo, and horror of horrors - almost every deli rotisserie chicken - which I've used on the fly for unexpected company or a quick dinner - is basted with a sugar base. Along with most everything else processed or in a package. That's why it is caramelized and why it tastes so good. And why we're addicted and still feel hungry. And want more and more and more.

It's worse than cocaine or heroin, they say. It's real. Robert Lustig made me cry when he said, "You're not a sloth or a glutton, you've been tricked." I didn't know. Now I do. What am I going to do about it? I'm quitting. Sugar. Forever. Even fruit is something that should be eaten once in a while for a treat. With my compromised, overworked pancreas making me insulin resistant - I'll eat it rarely, and never with a fat or protein. The FDA and the food pyramid and the Diabetic Association have sold us out. Really, really.

And it's not just fat people who are part of this epidemic, thin people are getting diabetes, cancer, dementia, MS, and heart failure too. Sugar is the culprit.

I've been relearning habits and learning to cook in a different way. Planning, shopping and prepping for the week has helped me immensely, making it sustainable. I'm not eating sugar in ANY FORM right now. I'm reading labels like never before. I need to keep a magnifying glass in my purse because some of the print is nearly impossible to read. It's there, but not really.

I'm mainly buying real food, which I've done off and on for years. My blood sugar is back to a normal range both after eating and morning fasting. I'm going back in for an A1C test in January to confirm the turn around. I'm sad my doctor didn't tell me about options. Metformin is what he recommended with insulin looming in my future.

Robert Lustig gives the 56 names of sugar hidden in processed food. Sometimes there are 4-5 in one package all with different name. I had no idea.

Here's my list of curated links from YouTube and a few from Amazon. If you've been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes or if you are feeling like your health is deteriorating - please consider looking up these links and watching them. You don't have to take a pill or go on insulin in order to keep your organs, your eyesight, your limbs and your health.














This is done poorly, but the info in it is good. Poor woman is almost dying on stage. She must be so sick/old? If you stay with it, there is some good stuff...


BOOKS: 

http://www.amazon.com/Suicide-Sugar-Startling-National-Addiction/dp/0757003060/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447869614&sr=1-1&keywords=nancy+appleton

http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beating-Against-Processed/dp/0142180432/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447869678&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+lustig

This guy was ridiculed by his peers so shamefully that he retreated from society. But he was right. Thirty years later......

http://www.amazon.com/Pure-White-Deadly-Sugar-Killing/dp/0143125184/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=51C9kOrfD6L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&refRID=106AVG7GHBA8GCR3CZC8

http://www.sarahwilson.com   

https://www.youtube.com/user/ZoeHarcombe   She’s my favorite! I love her. 





















Thursday, November 12, 2015

Petition

Sugar in my blood
leaked into my urine
inflaming my joints
starting a war attacking
my body at a cellular level.
Sugar messes with hormones
numbing peripheral parts
and turns nerve pathways
into painful neuropathy.
Extremities could become
useless, needing removed.
My eyes might lose the ability
to see. Can I arrest it - repair
the damaging effects so
when I am old I will
still be me? Reading.
Walking. Peddling. Paddling.
Creating. Cooking. Loving.

Dearest beloved body of mine -
why are you resisting
insulin? Repair thyself I 
beg of thee. Holy indwelling
worthy be. 


Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Essential Oil

I unscrew the tiny lid
on the small vial and pour
one little drop on my

fingertip. Purity soaks
into my pores leaving
no residue.

Its healing properties
date back to a time
when gifts and wise

men followed stars
and found the one
who breathed them

into being. Presents
for a presence laying
low, low, low.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Beloved

Being beloved
by the beloved
and
being the beloved
of the beloved
is to
be beloved

so
beloved
be

Monday, November 9, 2015

Chicken Soup

Start with a whole chicken, rinsed.
Butter its butt with butter. Salt inside and out.
Arrange quartered onions
inside along backbone. Bake for one hour and a half
until the back legs flop open.
Remove and place tenderly on a rack
to cool, letting it rest so the juices soak 
into flesh sealed by crisp skin. 
While warm, break the legs and thighs
from body at joints. Apologize when wings
are removed. Wings are sacred and shouldn't
be taken lightly. This now becomes a ritual --
like you are of the tribe of Levi outside
the holiest part of the tabernacle. 
Turn the broken body over, skinned. 
With it's back turned up, feel for the small loins
and peel them away from the cavities. 
Hold them reverently. Sprinkle with salt. Give
thanks. Put them to your mouth and chew - one at a time.
The cook, in order to make soup worth
eating, must partake first of the finest portion.
Ceremoniously put a large pot of water 
on to boil. Salt it. Remove the rest of the meat 
from the bones and place the bones in boiling,
salted water. Turn heat down. Simmer for one hour.
While the meat gives up its flavor, chop onions, carrots,
celery and the meat. Strain the bouilloned water
from the bones. Save the water, it's precious now. 
Throw the bones. They are finished. Add 
vegetables and meat. Season to taste. Choose 
your bowl carefully. And your spoon. 
Light a candle.  





I really love roasting a whole chicken and picking it for soup. It is one of life's many simple pleasures. Homemade chicken soup has some sort of enchantment to it. Does anyone know why?