As I was recovering from what seemed like an eternal bout of sinus inflammation, I kept coming across same old natural remedies I’d studied and researched over the course of the past 30 years or so. And kept hitting the same wall. There wasn’t anything new. I understood the mechanics of the process. And I’d tried them all.
Including the dreaded, drying, microbiome-destroying OTC and vagal gut stimulating mucus loosening OTCs.
I wasn’t willing to return to what never worked in the first place. It not only didn’t help, I also understood that those harsh medications further destroy the digestive system.
So I turned on my diffuser and went to sleep.
In the morning…
In the morning, I was determined to drink my quart of water, say my prayers and Morning Offering, before getting out of bed. Another rest day.
Suddenly, it struck me what this all meant.
It wasn’t the “scientific mechanics” of how the body functioned. And it wasn’t the “scientific analysis” of what the body should and shouldn’t consume.
What struck me was the fact that we, in our “modern” Western culture, have devalued what was one of the most understood necessities of the human body. To be understood.
But to do that, I needed to change my perception of it and it’s unique needs.
Pets…
There are customary steps that all responsible future pet owners should follow prior to acquiring any animal. This is to assure that the creature will be properly cared for. And will not be stressed because of our human ignorance.
When we set up a fish tank, for example, the water must be established first to generate the perfect environment for the kind of fish we want. The ph, temperature, bacteria count, plant life, filtration, even the food are all determined before the fish ever are placed in the tank.
Once the environment is correct, then we buy the fish and place them carefully in the tank, introducing them to the water temperature and environment while in the plastic bag before they are released.
When we decide to get a puppy, our first step should be to find out what we feed it – commercial or homemade – , where to place its bedding, how to tend to its coat and basic environmental needs. Including how to properly discipline (hint – like a wolf, not a human baby), raise, and house train the animal. Then we pick out the type, breed, temperament of the puppy that would be best suited for the people it will live with.
Our human body…
The reality is that we take better care of our pets better than we take care of ourselves. We have shirked our responsibility toward the only home our very being lives in.
But without the physical body, we have no home. We lose one of the greatest gifts ever given to us. Destroyed from neglect. Damaged by dependence on the inventions of other failed human beings who have not yet attained the wisdom this simple, yet highly integrated corporeal creation.
We have grown to despise it because its perceived weakness.
But is it the fault of our bodies? Or our own failings to understand it?
Needs…
What are the basics needs of this highly complex, organic structure?
If we take a look at our care of pets, we understand the basic components of nurturing the body: food, water, shelter, and covering. Of those things we understand.
What we don’t understand is what the relationship of these things are to its survival. Or even what comprises those requirements.
Water…
Clean water is a necessity. This is an understood high priority.
But even with this we have filtered out, removed natural local minerals, denatured, and chemically neutered the substance. Then we commercialized it by putting it in plastic or aluminum bottles, selling to unassuming consumers.
What about our food?
If we read those who grew up in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s, we would read a very different story about the body’s needs. The Jethro Kloss’ and Herman Aihara.
Dr Hazel Parcell’s was one such person – a lady renowned for her knowledge concerning human health of the body.
At the age of 40, the medical community depleted her bank account and her health attempting to heal her from Stage 4 Tuberculosis. She was told to check into a sanatorium and prepare to die.
Instead, she decided to listen to her body. She sensed that she was to consume nothing but greens. So she bought and consumed the only thing growing during that season – spinach. By the case-full. Adding in other greens as the spring season began.
After several months, she felt better. The doctor re-examined her and couldn’t believe the results! Her half-dissolved kidneys, damaged lungs, failing liver, and every organ in her body had begun to heal.
And she went on to live, completely healed, to the ripe old age of 106, dying in 1996, defying all odds. Her appetite for learning gained her several degrees in nutrition and natural healing.
Modernization…
One of the most intriguing observations was this:
…During my childhood, we were still free of the devastating effects of big business on the food supply. We were unconstrained by social rules imposed on all corners of life…we were open to any sort of advancement, using where we stood as the foundation for our striving. But later that attitude shifted, so that anything deviating from the past was considered desirable, simply because it was ‘modern’.”
Dr. Hazel Parcells, “Healer – the Pioneer & Prophet” by Joesph Dispenza, 2014
We became a culture that depends on food that was no longer derived from our source – the earth. The soil, once filled with life-giving sustenance, is now dead and lifeless; fields no longer capable of growing even weeds.
Food, once the source of life for our bodies and our cultures, became commercialized. It was no longer something to be enjoyed and shared as a part of life.
Care…
The understanding that we have been removed far from our natural physical roots began to jell in my mind. The relationship of food that we have been taught in our modern world is completely backwards. And the attempts to heal my own body was approached in that same wrong direction.
What I realized is that I needed to see that the environment necessary for healthy, natural life wouldn’t be found in scientific literature. It wasn’t the amount of vitamins, minerals, or drugs that would heal me.
It was feeding the body as it was designed to be fed. Letting it roam free in the environs in which it was meant to live. Not in a climate controlled box, feeding it with foods grown on large industrialized farms. Or, worse, in the lab.
What it required was to be nurtured back to health the way it was designed. I needed to listen to its tiny whisperings. It didn’t want the “healthy” foods everyone touted as necessary. It didn’t even like salads and raw vegetables. Least of all cruciferous.
It wanted to be fed with substances more akin to my ancestors. And that is what I set out to do.
Half-healthy…
One of the things that struck me was that I was no longer able to handle the heat and humidity of the summers, nor the cold of the winters. The body couldn’t adjust to the seasons the way it used to when I was a child. Years of working in an enclosed environment with air dried by constant 72º chilled air, and constant stress to meet arbitrary deadlines set by some suit in an upper floor.
But I briefly experienced something about my body when we were forced to live outdoors after the move that I hadn’t before. For the first time, I wasn’t restricted to what I ate or when I ate. Nor did I experience the aches and pains typical from sitting at computers all day long.
It wasn’t the foods that I was reacting to. It was the environment as a whole.
Reality of our environment…
The air was getting rank from excess ozone. Radiation permeates our atmosphere from wifi, cell towers, Nexrad dualpol radar, and extraneous radio waves. Chemicals have infiltrated our water supplies, and our food is saturated with artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Organics are not subsidized which makes them far more expensive than commercialized foods. Supplements are suggested because of the depletion of our soils and poor quality of our foods. But the prices of these are all too often out of reach for the average person.
And none of that worked when I could afford them. So I looked harder.
The answer…
And there it was – right in front of me all along.
Eat like my ancestors did. Stop trying to follow precise recipes, but learn to feel and experience the food and the flavors. My microbiome was designed from the building blocks of the foods and patterns of my ethnic ancestors. Not the design of the nutritionist or health food advocate on the internet. It is unique.
So I have started the journey to something that makes so much more sense. I started eating foods grown at home, wild harvested, organically, or imported from countries that haven’t fallen prey to the western corporations. Meals are created from scratch without recipes as my ancestors did and, in many cases, still do.
Follow my instincts instead of what someone else tells me I have to do.
Where to start…
Here in North America, we are homogeneous. For the most part, there is no Canadian or United States food culture (except for Quebec). We are a mis-mash of ethnicities that have culminated in confusion and commercialization of our food.
If you do not know in what culture your genes are the strongest, then ask yourself something:
To what culture are you drawn? Do you like Asian, Indian, Native American, South American, European, Middle Eastern cultures and foods? If you don’t know, look for ethnic shops and grocery stores. Ask questions. Taste the foods. Then pick one to start. One that particularly excites you. Learn how the foods were once traditionally prepared and probably still are, if you look hard enough. Then follow their example.
You’l find a surprising variety out there. Learn what they did, what they do, and how they did it. They saw food as a way of life – a cultural norm. A way of life. And, if they are following their heritage, they still do.
Enjoy life…
Food is cultural. It is a necessity that far exceeds the idea of preparing foods by calorie or nutrient content. Instead, food gives more than physical life far. Its influence reaches far beyond the table. It is the focal point of relationships (the shared meals), passing on of cultural history and traditions, the faith, character and wisdom of the elders to the youth. It is the enjoyment of the company, young and old alike.
Mealtimes have always been nutrition for the mind and soul as well as the body in the past. And should be restored to its rightful place today.
Skip the science. If you want to fix your health, then fix your relationship to food. Let your body tell you what it needs. If you want to fix relationships, share a meal.
Then enjoy what is set before you. And those with whom you share the feast.