Overcoming Life Misery: D E P R E S S I O N

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Ken

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In 2006 when I lost my father to Leiomyosarcoma I fail into severe depression.

I always viewed my father as active and my doctor at that time who himself has passed    on to a better place . Thought the reason for my depression was when the cancer took that from him and my view of my father over the course of my lifetime.  That became the basis of my depression and my doctor who knew me over the course of my lifetime.  Who knew antidepressants thought with my make up of being quite out going.

Unlike my brother who he put on Ativan. Mie  required Lexapro which would be a short term fix.  https://www.rxlist.com/the_comprehensive_list_of_antidepressants/drugs-condition.htm 

After I caught up with my sleep he said you got yourself on this drug so figure your way off it. Dr. Stegall told me after my fathers death your father wouldn’t want you depressed and I myself wouldn’t want to be depressed. So get a grip on life realize it has an ending once in everybody’s life you go through a crisis like this because it brings out your better side. With this changed outlook on MY Life.

I decided to make my life better by treating my depression naturally:

And the first step was realizing people whom I thought were friends that didn’t treat me decently through my depression was eliminated from my life. I realized that however not many people will be in your life but being able to speak to a true friend helps. Then I proceeded to:

I climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills

Preview Lissa Rankin, MD and Casi Zackhariyas discuss

overcoming depression and My Pursuit of Peace

1.  Consider why you might feel depressed. Sometimes depression is a symptom of something circumstantial in your life, rather than biochemical imbalances. Does your job require you to sell out your integrity every day?  Have you been unable to admit that you need to end your marriage?  Are you feeling spiritually disconnected or sexually restless? Are you suffering from creative blocks? Is your body failing you? Are you facing financial ruin? Be honest with yourself about what might be off-kilter in your life, and make an effort to get to the root of why you might be feeling depressed.

2.  Move your body. Exercise releases happy-making endorphins, which act like natural anti-depressants. Runner’s high, anyone?

3.  Never skip a meal. Keeping your blood sugar stable reduces mood swings.

4.  Eat a serotonin-enhancing diet. Many anti-depressants like Prozac act by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin by receptors in the brain, thereby increasing serotonin levels. But you can increase your brain’s serotonin levels by eating foods that boost your serotonin levels naturally.

Serotonin-enhancing foods include:
• Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids (such as wild salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel,    and anchovies, which are even higher in omega-3 fatty acids than other fish)
• Healthy fats like coconut oil
• Eat a high protein diet, especially proteins high in tryptophan, like free range turkey

5.  Avoid caffeine, which reduces serotonin levels. If you need an energy boost, supplement with L-Tyrosine (500 – 1000 mg).

6.  Expose yourself to sunlight, which can boost mood and increase Vitamin D levels. I rode a bicycle but If you live somewhere that gets little sun, invest in a therapeutic light box. Anything that increases vitamin D helps depression

7. The B vitamins, especially folic acid and vitamin B6, can be helpful in mild depression, and you should know that B vitamins can increase the efficacy of prescription anti-depressants.  Experts recommend vitamin B-12, folic acid, vitamin D3 and tyrosine!!

8. Music is healing to the soul …variety is the spice of life listen quite often to your favorites.

9. Age related depression: try to understand that hormonal imbalances associated with aging can begin when women are still in their thirties. Oestrogen levels start falling fast, rather than at a natural pace. Or When women age, both oestrogen and progesterone will decline. Unfortunately, progesterone levels often drop at a faster rate than oestrogen and can even get to zero. Oestrogen doesn’t decrease as quickly as progesterone and this difference cause hormone imbalances, resulting in an oestrogen dominance …

10.  Make efforts to bolster your mental health by being more authentic in    all aspects of your life. Too often, we walk around wearing masks, pretending to be something we’re not.  We fake it at the schoolyard,  in the boardroom,  in the bedroom,        at church — and then we wonder why we wind up depressed. Practice letting your freak flag fly and watch how your mood lifts.

11.  Talk it out.  See a therapist,  psychiatrist,  or maybe express how you feel. Sometimes just finding someone you trust who will help you work through your feelings can make all the difference in the world.

If all else fails and you need anti-depressants, don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes you      can do everything right,  and if your imbalance is biochemical,  you may need the drugs.  But don’t forget to nurture the rest of you too. Depression, like most physical and mental illnesses, is multifactorial  and requires a global investigation of your whole health — not just your mind and body,  but your relationships,  your work,  your financial picture, how you express yourself creatively, how you satisfy yourself sexually, your environment, and whether you’re letting your Inner Pilot Light (aka authentic self) shine.

12.  Start researching or write a blog. I did and it helps to keep your thoughts active. This blog has many cancer survivor blog post in it and when I came out of my depression I had a curious eye and a keen interest about what makes the world go around?

Preview  What is Consciousness? What is LIfe Purpose?

Stephen Hawking hosts an epic brand new kind of cosmology series, a Planet Earth of the heavens.

It takes the world’s most famous scientific mind and sets it free, powered by the limitless possibilities of computer animation.

Hawking gives us the ultimate guide to the universe, a ripping yarn based on real science, spanning the whole of space and time – from the nature of the universe itself, to the chances of alien life, and the real possibility of time travel.    https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/into-the-universe-with-stephen-hawking/
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Posted in Thought Provoking | Leave a comment

How 2 Music Legends Beat Cancer.

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Ken

Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow pose, Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge Beat Cancer and HeartbreakSheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge are now teaching us a thing or two about living with joy from Heartbreak. by Alanna Nash, AARP The Magazine, October/November 2014

En español l They’ve been good friends since 1988, two Midwestern girls making their way in a male-dominated industry. Born just nine months apart in neighboring states — Sheryl Crow in tiny Kennett, Mo., and Melissa Etheridge in Leavenworth, Kan. — they first met at the Los Angeles Sports Arena during Michael Jackson’s Bad concert tour.

Backstage, Crow, then a backup singer for the Gloved One, approached Etheridge, whom critics had compared to Janis Joplin and Bruce Springsteen when her first album came out that spring, and gushed, “I’m a huge fan of your record!”

“It was such a lovely surprise,” Etheridge remembers, “and one of the first times someone whose work I admired was already an admirer of my work.”

Preview  Melissa Etheridge – I Won’t Be Alone Tonight

Fast-forward 20-some years. Etheridge, 53, sits at a table next to Crow in Los Angeles, sipping on cranberry juice and spearing pink grapefruit from a bowl,  recalling those days. “That was back when we were young,” she says.

“Back when we were cool,” Crow, 52, cracks.

The two are dressed in T-shirts, jeans and boots. “We have had parallel lives in some ways,” Crow muses. And it’s true. Songwriters and performers, they both have risen to    the top of their game professionally. (Crow has won nine Grammys and sold 35 million records, and Etheridge has five platinum albums and two Grammys to her credit.)

They are doting mothers — Crow to two boys, ages 4 and 7, and Etheridge to four children, the eldest 17 — though neither has given birth. And both have publicly endured a series of difficult challenges. They’ve gone through traumatic breakups; Crow announced the end of her five-month engagement to cyclist Lance Armstrong in 2006, and Etheridge split from two of her long-term partners — Julie Cypher in 2000 and Tammy Lynn Michaels in 2010.

Most significantly, they’ve both stared down an ominous adversary that strikes almost 300,000 American women a year: breast cancer. Etheridge learned of her diagnosis in 2004, at 43; Crow learned in 2006, at 44.   These two women now say that battling the disease  and coming out on the other side deeply transformed,  shaping them into who they are today: survivors, role models and advocates for social awareness and change.

From Melissa Etheridge self-titled debut album released in 1988 until her latest MEmphis Rock and Soul Melissa has been kicking arse for 30 years!!!

For Etheridge, it began one October day as she was on tour in Ottawa, Ontario. While taking a shower, she felt a lump in her breast. “I was like, ‘Whoa!’ ” she remembers. “And  it was large! That little voice in the back of my head started going, ‘Is it cancer? Your father died of cancer.   Your aunt died of cancer.   Your grandmother.   Your mother had cancer. Your cousin. Cancer. Cancer.’ You just can’t quiet the voice.” But she tried, telling herself, “No, it’s a cyst.”

By that point in her life, Etheridge had already braved her share of hardships. Though she was, Etheridge says, “a very good kid” —  she started writing songs on her guitar at age 8, and  in high school became  “the band and theater geek” —  she had a dark secret.  In her 2001 memoir, The Truth Is … ,  Etheridge wrote that her older sister, Jennifer, sexually abused her between ages 6 and 11. (The revelation tore up the family, and today Etheridge and Jennifer no longer speak.) Raised, Etheridge adds, with very little affection from her mother, she began yearning for the company  of  women in adolescence and,  by age 16, realized that she wanted intimacy with women, too.

She can be lighthearted about it now. As Foreigner’s Cold as Ice comes over the sound system during our interview, Etheridge sings along. “That’s what my last boyfriend said   to me,”  she reveals,  laughing.  “I was 15.   He didn’t understand why I was cold as ice. Whenever I hear that song now I think, ‘I’m not cold; I’m just gay.’ ”

But at the time, the word “lesbian” terrified her, as did her feelings. “I hope it’s better for gay youth today,” she says, “but, boy, when I was a kid, it was a dark tunnel to look down.”

On the eve of the release of her first album, Etheridge wrestled with whether to come out publicly. She and her label decided against it, though the word about her was already out in the gay community. The 1991 death of her father, John, a migrant farmer who worked his way up to becoming a schoolteacher and an athletic coach,  had a huge impact on her ultimate choice to go public.  “He was fine with [my sexuality],  and he just wanted me to  be happy,” Etheridge says. “His passing propelled me into this place of needing to be who  I am, because I wasn’t going to be happy any other way.”

So in January 1993, during President Bill Clinton’s inaugural celebration, Etheridge attended the Triangle Ball,  the first presidential gala for gays and lesbians.  After years  wondering who among her gay Hollywood friends would be the first to “jump the river of fire,” she was compelled to do so because,  she explains, “politically we were all standing up. I was like, ‘Look at all these people who put their lives and jobs on the line. Yeah, I’m going to come out.’ And bang! There it was.”  Later that year, Etheridge titled her fourth album Yes, I Am.

By then, she was deep into a relationship with Julie Cypher — a filmmaker and the ex-wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips — whom she’d met in 1988. Over the next dozen years, they became the model progressive gay couple, with Cypher also conceiving their two children, daughter Bailey and son Beckett, by using donor sperm from rock star and friend David Crosby.

But in September 2000, not long after she and Etheridge made a splash on the cover of Rolling Stone, Cypher began questioning if she was gay after all, and the tidy world the couple had made together unraveled.

Within a year of their split, Etheridge, then 40, became involved with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, 14 years her junior. In 2003 they held a commitment ceremony, and in 2006, two years after Etheridge’s cancer diagnosis, Michaels gave birth to their twins, daughter Johnnie Rose and son Miller Steven, fathered by an anonymous sperm donor. Life seemed to be on the upswing again.

Preview  Melissa Etheridge – Favorite Song

It never occurred to either woman to try to keep her illness secret. Today, though, Etheridge says: “If I could have, I would have chosen not to go through cancer or my divorces in public. Yet you can’t say, ‘I’m only going to let the public see the good stuff.’ Whenever I sit down with someone, I need to know that I’m not hiding anything.”

Crow’s cancer diagnosis, coming so soon after her breakup with Armstrong (who in      1996  was  diagnosed  with metastatic testicular cancer),  only intensified the publicity,      and Crow’s grief.  Today she declines to discuss the cyclist, but with a trace of bitterness     in her voice, she notes the irony of it all: “He was probably the most widely known cancer survivor, right? It was kind of a cruel joke.”

Crow decided on a lumpectomy and radiation to treat her cancer, which doctors caught     at an early stage.

Etheridge had not been so lucky. Her diagnosis was stage 3, though doctors later dialed      it back to stage 2.  “My radiologist, bless her heart, sat me down in a darkened room. She said, ‘Melissa, I want you to know that this is the worst that can happen.’  She unbuttoned her blouse and showed me her double mastectomy.  She said,  ‘Do not fear.  You are going to be OK.’ So I started my journey with that base of ‘I’m not going to die. I just have to walk through this.’ ”

The chemo debilitated her. “To have absolutely no energy is completely terrifying,” Etheridge says. Unable to eat as a result of the nausea, she turned to medical marijuana, for which she is now a political advocate. “It calmed my anxiety and gave me an appetite, so I was able to keep my strength up,” she adds.

Melissa Etheridge sings, Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge Beat Cancer and Heartbreak Melissa Etheridge performs at the 2005 Grammy Awards.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbtBw6oYY8w

Weeks after she had completed her treatments, a bald Etheridge agreed to perform at     the 2005 Grammy Awards, participating in a tribute to Janis Joplin with “Piece of My Heart.” It would be her first public appearance since her diagnosis, and she walked onto the stage thinking,  “I just don’t want anyone to make fun of me.”  She was so exhausted that when she began singing, she recalls, “I stood in one place, instead of moving around, which I usually do. That actually made for a much better performance.” The crowd responded with a standing ovation.

Afterward, Etheridge lay in her bed and reflected. “Part of my spiritual awakening came from really examining myself,” she explains. “I took the time to be still.” Because Etheridge has a mutation of the BRCA2 gene, which predisposes women to breast cancer, her strategy for preventing a recurrence has been to exercise more control in her life and to fix what went wrong. “I’m not a victim,” she says. “I take responsibility for it.”

” EveryDay Is A Winding Road “

Crow has a different view.  “I don’t know of any clear-cut data  that  says  if  we  do         this or that, we can prevent ourselves from having cancer,” she says. Instead of adopting Etheridge’s take-charge approach to healing, Crow has ceded control — let go and stopped trying to please everyone around her. “I’ve been a person who fixes things,” Crow says, ” but when you’re constantly fixing things for others, you sacrifice yourself.”

Growing up in Missouri as the third of four children, Crow was driven from the start.      Her father, Wendell, a lawyer,  and her mother, Bernice,  played in a swing band and encouraged Crow to make a life in music. In high school she excelled athletically and academically. At the University of Missouri she earned a degree in classical piano and voice, and in 1986 she headed to L.A. with her demo tape.

Sheryl Crow interacts with her audience, Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge Beat Cancer and HeartbreakGrammy Award-winning Sheryl Crow rocks out.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfg6Kh2h33Q

She quickly found success with jingle work and on the Michael Jackson tour, but when that ended after two years, she found herself waitressing to support herself. “Every record label in L.A. turned me down,”  she says.  “It was,  ‘We don’t know what to do with a blue-eyed soul singer.’ ” In 1992 she recorded what was to be her debut, only to see the album shelved.

She spent several years “in the trenches,” doing everything from teaching music in an elementary school to being a backup vocalist for Michael Jackson, before recording her first album, Tuesday Night Music Club. the song, “All I Wanna Do,” a celebration of  the California slacker culture,  burst off her official debut,   Tuesday Night Music Club.   Her next single,  “Strong Enough,” secured Crow’s spot as a hit maker.   It sold over seven million copies and brought her three Grammys, The album   sold 7 million copies and snagged her three Grammy awards and has since preformed with many of the greats.

Eric Clapton & Sheryl Crow performing ” Tulsa Time ” (HD Version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij5tUsRg2S0

“That was such an amazing album!” Etheridge exclaims today, her eyes wide.                     “It just lit up everybody.”

Crow’s new popularity brought unexpected emotional jolts. “I was 32,” she says. “I didn’t care about fame, but the next thing you know, people are dressing you and writing about you. You have to be sensitive enough to have insight into the human condition to write long-lasting music, yet you have to form this tough skin. It took me a while to back away from that aspect of popularity and focus on the work.”

But work took a backseat when cancer called. Crow downshifted her high-achieving lifestyle and turned her attention to taking care of herself. “I’d been living a really fragmented life,” she says. “I hadn’t learned how to take the weight of the world off          my shoulders.”

Less than a year after her diagnosis, Crow decided to take steps to create the family she’d always wanted, without waiting for the right man to share this. (“I’ve picked some doozies to be in relationships with,” she admits.) In May 2007 she also adopted a 2-week-old boy, Wyatt Steven. The next year, she moved to Nashville to be nearer to her family. “In all the franticness, I didn’t know where I belonged,” she says. “All I could think to do was to move closer to home. It wound up being the best decision I ever made.” In 2010 she adopted a second son, Levi James.

Her most recent album, last fall’s Feels Like Home, finds her leaning hard on her country-rock template, particularly in songs about broken homes and romances gone cold. “What Crow’s doing now is grownup’s music,” says Brian Mansfield, Nashville correspondent for USA Today. “She’s writing about people who have experienced loss, and who worry about health and family and bill paying.”

During a break in our interview, Etheridge dons a set of headphones and starts bobbing her head to a final mix of “Soul Brothers,” a song on her upcoming CD, This Is M.E.  Like Crow’s latest, the album reflects the experiences of an artist who’s reached maturity through hardship.

Crow and Etheridge agree that having made it to their 50s is reason to celebrate.

They appreciate the accrued wisdom and the lack of needing to explain oneself. And for Etheridge, at least, a newfound sensuality. “The sex is better!” she says with a hearty laugh. “Seriously, I’m healthier, and in loving myself I attract a different kind of person now.”

In late May, Etheridge married Nurse Jackie creator Linda Wallem, her longtime best friend. The two began dating in 2010, after the dissolution of Etheridge’s relationship with Michaels. Both Etheridge and Crow, who is not currently in a relationship, want to teach their kids (Etheridge splits custody with her exes) some of the life lessons they’ve learned. For Crow, who in late 2011 was found to have a benign brain tumor, that means “having the perseverance to maintain who you are through abject trial and tribulation.”

The women are also committed to educating others in the breast cancer fight. Crow         has lent her name to an imaging facility at the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Los Angeles,      a leader in innovative screening and treatment. She also talks with women she runs into    at the airport or in the Starbucks line.  “There’s rarely a time that it doesn’t come up,”   Crow says. They didn’t seek to join this sorority,  now that Crow and Etheridge belong, they’re grateful.

“It took having cancer for me to realize that happiness is something I have to cultivate      in myself,” Crow says, touching Etheridge’s hand.

“I’ve learned to make fearless choices,” says Etheridge. “You come up against stuff now and you’re like, ‘All right! Just do it!’ ”

Cancer, they agree, has become something they never imagined.  “A gift,”  they say,      almost in unison.

Melissa Ethridge Sheryl Crow Breast Cancer Lessons

Sheryl Crow – Always On Your Side ft. Sting
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ღMy 0wn Little W0rlDღ

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Ken

Upon reaching St. Joseph on Oct. 12, Martin had just kayaked 25.6 miles in one day.   Her one-day record was a few days previous, when she travelled nearly 50 miles, kayaking from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

That’s how Traci Lynn Martin day went as she tried to circumnavigate all five Great Lakes and hopefully break a world record in the process.

Despite painful arthritis, and a doctor telling her to quit, Martin  as far as she knows,       the first person to kayak around the three largest Great Lakes — Michigan, Superior       and Huron — in the same year.

Speaking to the Times-Advocate last week, Martin said she had a rough start in the ice      in March on Lake Huron, but since about April the trip has been fantastic. She said she  has made many friends and visited wonderful places that she would like to return to in   the future.

All great journey’s get off to rough starts!!!

Her ”rough start” in the ice was a long ordeal in the Saginaw Bay area of Lake Huron in March. There was an ice storm and Martin had to rely on her compass instead of her GPS. In addition, her cellphone wasn’t working. There were also strong waves, and Martin went off course. After about 11 hours of paddling, instead of going straight across, she ended up nearly going in a circle and arrived just a few miles away,   where there was solid ice and nowhere to land. The battery of her marine radio was dead, her cellphone battery was nearly dead, and the decision was made to call the authorities and have her rescued out of the ice. 

Throughout the trip, Martin said the support she has received and the people who have reached out to her have been “a Godsend.”

An award-winning competitive kayak racer, Martin began researching the idea of kayaking around the Great Lakes when she was taking care of her ailing mother, who was battling pancreatic cancer. Martin learned that no one had ever paddled all five Great Lakes in the same year. After her mom died, Martin decided to go for it, and spent two years planning for her record-breaking attempt. Throughout, many people have tried to talk Martin out  of the trip due to her rheumatoid arthritis.  

But Martin was determined, and has dedicated her journey to people who have chronic illnesses.

“You should always do the things in life that give you meaning,” she said. “If you stop living, then you’re just existing, and that’s a horrible way to spend the rest of your life.”

Dealing with arthritis through the trip has been a major challenge for Martin. She said a person with rheumatoid arthritis typically has certain joints that hurt all the time. With Martin, it’s her wrists, feet and ankles. But during “flare-ups,” her whole body hurts, and that has happened many times throughout the trip.

“It’s like someone has taken a baseball bat and just beaten you. Literally every joint          in   your body hurts.”

Martin has had a physician tell her he is doing damage to her hands and she should       stop the voyage.

She also damaged her shoulder on Lake Michigan, which made her change her paddling style. According to project manager Edwards, cold weather is Martin’s “biggest enemy,” and there has been plenty of that over the past eight months.                      

But Martin said the trip has made her much stronger physically and mentally, and she describes herself as more self assured.

“I feel like I’m much more at peace with myself and with the R.A. (rheumatoid arthritis).”

Martin said her grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis and was in a wheelchair by the time she was 40. Martin was always afraid she would meet the same fate. Having just turned 50 herself, Martin says she is no longer afraid.

There have been many surprises for Martin throughout her journey, but she says the biggest is the overwhelming number of people who have reached out to her to offer help. On Lake Superior,  she pulled up on the beach and a complete stranger,  after talking to    her and learning about her quest, invited her and Bill Noble, who has been assisting with the trip, to stay at his home.

“It’s just phenomenal, and it really restores your faith in people,” Martin said. She’s also quick to credit her team, which includes project manager Scott Edwards and driver Noble, as well as others behind the scenes.

“I value these people very much.”

Kayaking the Great Lakes presented a learning curve for Martin. She said she had to     learn how to navigate “the craziness of the waves of the Great Lakes.” She said the lakes can become rough very quickly.

The trip has also deepened Martin’s love of nature, particularly birds, which she has watched all summer, including loons and pelicans.

There have been many scary moments during the trip,  including being stuck in the ice      on Lake Huron.  On Lake Superior,  Martin was paddling along an area where there were eight miles of cliffs. When a thunderstorm hit, there was nowhere for her to land, and the waves kicked up and were over Martin’s head. She had no choice but to paddle through it.

“You just had to sort of man up and do it,” she said.

She also experienced very strong winds in the Tobermory area, and Martin said she         has had to learn to adapt to the conditions.

“The first time it might be scary, the second time it’s a little less scary. The third time, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I can do this. I’ve already done it.’”

But while cold weather, ice, and rheumatoid arthritis haven’t been able to stop Martin, there is one challenge that’s making her reconsider her plans to finish the last two Great Lakes — Ontario and Erie.

“I miss my children,” Martin said. “There are times I wake up and I just miss them so badly, and I’m thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

Martin’s children are aged 12 to 25 and her daughter is pregnant, due to give birth to Martin’s first grandchild in November.

To break the world record and do all five Great Lakes in the same year, Martin had until Dec. 31. Once she reaches Port Huron (which she hoped would happen last Sunday) Martin will have completed the three largest Great Lakes.

“Once I hit Port Huron, I’ve done something that no one else in the world has done,” Martin said.

At that point,  she expected to take a few days to determine if she will go on to the            two remaining Great Lakes. Weather will also be a factor in her decision, Martin said.

Whichever decision she makes, Martin said she is glad she made the journey and would never give up the experiences she has had. Colder temperatures leave her feeling “like an ice cube” and prevent her from paddling at night.  Fewer daylight hours also have cut her progress to an average of 20 miles a day, down from 35 over the summer on Superior and Huron. And the lake’s shallowness means even calm winds of 8 mph from the north can generate huge waves and force her to shore, like they did one day early this week.

Martin, 50, said she wants to be a role model and inspiration for people with chronic disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, which was her diagnosis in 2010.

“If I can paddle 3,600 miles with rheumatoid arthritis, then if you have a chronic illness you can get up out of bed and do the things in life that you love, whether it’s walking your dog, gardening or painting,” she said.

As an intensive care unit nurse, she cared for dispirited patients who found little reason    to get up out of bed and moving.

“You can lay in bed and hurt. You can sit in your chair and never move and hurt,” she said. “Or you can get up and do the things that you love. In the beginning you’re going to hurt but once you start doing the things you love it takes your mind off the physical pain and mentally you feel better.”

Another inspiration for undertaking the arduous journey was her mother, who, in 2015, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“Before she passed away she told me if I had any dreams or anything I wanted to do, to     do it now and not to wait or put it off because you never know when your life’s going to be over,” she said.  “People put off what they want to do because they think they have all this time and suddenly they’re passing away with all these regrets.”

An experienced kayaker, Martin decided to tackle the largest collection of freshwater lakes in the world.  She cashed in a portion of her retirement savings  and set off in March from Port Huron,  Mich.,  with a goal of 5,800 miles.  That’s been cut to 3,900  by  Dec. 31,  still enough to break the Guinness world record for longest nonstop solo trip on a surf ski in a calendar year.

Created by lifeguards in Australia and popular on the West Coast, a surf ski is longer and thinner than a kayak, she said. While the ends of a kayak flare up out of the water, a surf ski’s entire length is in the water, making it sleeker and faster, and, like a sailboat, it has  an understern rudder controlled by foot pedals.

“What you give up on maneuverability, those really sharp turns, you gain in speed,” she said. “They’re designed to surf the ocean waves. They’re really good in the big waves.”

She recruited Bill Noble, a friend from their paddling club in Kansas City, as driver of     her support vehicle and trailer. He’s watched over the months as fatigue set in, and her arthritis in the cold makes it more difficult to paddle.

“It’s hard to watch her go through that,” he said. “You want to encourage her on one hand and yet you’re concerned about her overall long-term health on the other hand.  It’s been tough to help her negotiate that and decide what the best route is.”

                   The sun shines over Lake Erie as Martin paddles her surf ski near Dunkirk.

(Derek Gee/Buffalo News) 

Highlights from her trip  a day spent exploring the sea caves of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, and paddling along the huge cliffs that stretch for miles along that lake.

“On a calm day paddling along these cliffs with the sun, it’s just beautiful,” she said.       “It’s just breathtakingly beautiful.”

Pukaskwa National Park on the Canadian side of Lake Superior was another highlight.  “It’s remote and you have waterfalls and little islands you can weave in and out of,” she said. “You don’t see another person there.”

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan was “absolutely spiritual and beautiful and some place I’d like to go back,” she said.

While Lake Erie has been the most challenging body of water, its shoreline inhabitants have also been more welcoming than the other lakes combined, she said. A man in Dunkirk paid for her hotel room Tuesday night.

“The amount of people here on Lake Erie who have been so kind and generous, it’s just mind-blowing,” she said. “It really makes me just want to sit and cry.”

Lesson Learned: “You just can’t let life pass you by,” she said. “You can’t sit in your chair and just exist. You have to be active and continue doing the things in life that you love.”

Lost paddle

While Martin paddled an amazing 50 miles in one day recently north of Goderich,         there was one unfortunate incident. At the Port Albert beach, she left behind her primary, favorite paddle.  When her crew called the area reporting it lost, they found out someone had found the paddle and left it on a bench.  However,  when Martin’s crew returned,  the paddle wasn’t there.  The paddle has the letters “rpc3.com” on it and Martin has an emotional attachment to it.  Anyone who knows anything about its whereabouts is asked to call project manager Scott Edwards at 610-299-8468.

Traci Lynn Martin paddles her surf ski in Lake Erie near Wright Park in Dunkirk. Clear water reveals rock formations on the lake bed during a segment of her journey around all five Great Lakes. (Derek Gee/Buffalo News)           Traci Lynn Martin paddles her surf ski in Lake Erie near Wright Park in Dunkirk.         Clear water reveals rock formations on the lake bed during a segment of her journey around all five Great Lakes. (Derek Gee/Buffalo News)

Having a strong constitution…

constitution con·sti·tu·tion

[kon″stĭ-too´shun]

1. the make-up or functional habit of the body, determined by the genetic, biochemical, and physiologic endowment of the individual, and modified in great measure by environmental factors.
2. in chemistry, the atoms making up a molecule and the way they are linked, the property that distinguishes a compound from its structural isomers.

(kon’sti-tū’shŭn)

The physical makeup of a body, including the mode of performance of its functions, the activity of its metabolic processes, the manner and degree of its reactions to stimuli, and its power of resistance to the attack of pathogenic organisms or other disease processes.

n 1. the fundamental components that form a human being or thing.
2. the total configuration of traits, physical and mental, that categorize a person. This compendium will consider both the effects of nature and nurture on that person. See also homeopathic medicine, constitutional; consitutional prescribing, constitution, carbonic; constitution, epidemic; constitution, fluoric; constitution, phosphoric; sensitive type; constitution, sulphuric; susceptibility; and typology.

3. Psychiatry: A person’s intrinsic physical and psychologic endowment. Constitution may refer to a person’s physical inheritance or intellectual potential. The general bodily health of an individual, expressed by the person’s physical and mental ability to function adequately in adverse circumstances.
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There’s A Rainbow 0f LOVE

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Ken

Image may contain: night

Metamorphosis A change in the form and often habits of an animal during normal development after the embryonic stage. Metamorphosis includes, in insects, and the transformation of a maggot into an adult fly,  a caterpillar into a butterfly,  and also in amphibians, the changing of a tadpole into a frog. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZk6nZGH9Xo  

The new year is like an empty book of 365 pages. Make every day a masterpiece, use all  the colors of life, listen to the sound of silence and smile always. While writing your future through the present. Write every day with the feelings  and  intentions of love that springs from the depths of your being.

<3 <3 Happiness depends on the interior, not the circumstances <3

Rainbows are a universal symbol of pride,  love,  hope,  and a brand new    day and usually come out after a storm and sunshine prism meet head on.

Image result for amazing rainbow gif

We are in a crucial time for humanity, we live the now, the present, intensely in peace, love and unity, we are one! Miedo12 believes fear paralyzes and keep our real being outside…. a single path, a single vibration love, love, love!  We must face our fears to go where we want to go, because the darkness is nothing but the hidden light!  <3 Namaste

“Nothingness More than Infinite” is the name of his new mural and you can see the wild affinity MIEDO 12 has for the letter form  –  and where it comes from.  “ It embodies the learning, the experiences, the life of the creator,”  he says,  “and all of this is necessary to generate the whisper of the clouds that originate the letters.” “Just like a drop of water is the origin of everything, here the spray is the one that, with its effluvium, originates the clouds of inspiration,” says MIEDO 12, is a famous graffiti writer from Valencia, Spain.  https://bizarrebeyondbelief.com/2017/07/13/miedo-12-nothingness-more-than-infinite/

A lot of people say they’re not lucky in Love. For them i wish to explain to them that love must begin by ourselves.
How should we love each other?
First start with interiorizarnos and find out what past situations have left us in a sense of guilt. Once we have identified, we must forgive ourselves. It’s all learning, mistakes don’t exist.
Then it comes to accepting us as we are though always having a goal to evolve as human and spiritual beings.
We’re still searching inside. And once we complete the acceptance, we begin to discover that love has it inside and that love is God.
This discovery causes us to expand that love to others and to accept and forgive them as we do with ourselves.
That way and being on that vibration will come to our life the couple who are on the same frequency and that’s the one that’ll make you happy.
What is the greatest obstacle to love?…… fear
Love! Love unites while Fear divides. We are all one although some remain immersed in the dream of this matrix manipulated by fear and division.
Wake up! Love LIfe!

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

The Creator warned us of worshiping man made creations. If you see peace, then you    shall seek truth, when you find truth you will find love, and love is the Lords Power.

If you understand our Heavenly Father then you will not be deceived dark origins of Hinduism.

Its one thing to practice the understanding of the spirit and to miss out of the human experience, but no degree of study will grand you to the promise land of home that which you came from. I know this will challenge your beliefs, but no teaching of a fallen angel is truth. #JustBelieve

In the Musicvideo by Robin Thicke I see Leighton Meester performing Somebody To Love. I see sexy Leighton, I also see a limo, there’s only one open                                question?   I wonder if she regrets singing with him now!!!  Her makeup is flawless! Leighton Meester in the back of a limo…You are walking a dangerous path 😭❤️  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZg3ibOt964  Its The Good Girls Go Bad Girl Metamorphosis  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix5z1bRz4Sc Much like Maren Morris from my Church  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouWQ25O-Mcg  into The Middle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3mJkSqZbX4

namasté

Namaste:  Yo honro el lugar dentro de ti donde el Universo entero reside.  Yo honro el lugar dentro de ti de amor y luz,  de verdad,  y paz. Yo honro el lugar dentro de ti donde cuando tú estás en ese punto tuyo, y yo estoy en ese punto mío, somos sólo Uno. . . .  (from the Spanish to   English version.)

I honor the place within you where the entire Universe resides. I honor the place within you of love and light, of truth, and peace. I honor the place within you where when you    are at that point of yours, and I am at that point of mine, we are only One!!

Image may contain: cloud, sky and water

“THE INCURABLES”
– Jessica Biscardi – Breast Cancer Survivor Stage IV

"THE INCURABLES" - Jessica Biscardi - Breast Cancer Survivor Stage IV

“THE INCURABLES” – Jessica Biscardi – Breast Cancer Survivor Stage IV

A remarkable story of personal triumph! (DVD Veria TV Productions – 30 minutes)

JESSICA BISCARDI’S story is a dramatic journey from Stage 4 cancer, being given less than three months to live, she never gave up hope and faith despite all of the constant pain, discomforts and disappointments, her whole world was interrupted and falling apart. The emotional impact and sorrow of a cancer diagnosis is never easy and especially difficult in her situation with everyone fearing for her life if she did not take the traditional cut, poison and burn approach. ”

I wanted to take the challenge to beat the cancer with every bit of strength, knowledge and research.” Jessica knew in her heart to search for other remedies and options and this led to a greater insight into the alternative world of powerful and effective Non-Toxic Cancer Therapies responsible for her complete recovery   by her tremendous Cancer Team and Doctors found through the Cancer Control Society. Jessica has survived against all odds and has completed an arduous journey!

In addition to being a Hollywood Celebrity Print Agent, Documentary Film Producer and Red Carpet Correspondent, Jessica devotes her time and has a passion for helping and sharing with those facing cancer challenges and has       been inspired to become certified as a Life Coach Practitioner. Jessica believes    that “Cancer can be a scary word but not to those who will get in the trenches       and fight, fight, fight and stay positive and affirm that you will get better,                 be informed, do as much research as you can, you are not alone.”

What would you do if your doctor told you there was no cure for your illness?

Three words: never give up. Follow the real-life inspiring stories of people who  beat the odds, turning to alternative methods to heal from their chronic, often     life-threatening illness.

Jessica passed away November 23, 2013 more than a 10 years after being told she had only three months to live.  Prior to her recurrence she also experience a very stressful situation, stopped following her diet and supplement routine and her cancer came back with a vengeance.

Therefore,  it is always essential that you make lifestyle changes and diet an essential part of your daily life. This with making stress reduction techniques that can be employed when stress arises. https://cancercompassalternateroute.com/stress-relief/

   Jessica was our poster child for Dr. Bernardo’s protocol . . . which reboots your system, get’s you alkalized…. which means cancer can’t live.  She lived cancer free       for a decade: but proved if you get depressed and go off your diet and supplements that  your body goes back to making cancer.  And you die.

Jessica Biscardi shares how she used an alkaline diet to heal stage 4 breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes, pancreas and lungs.

 Preview  Jessica – Dr. Bernardo’s Proof Breast Cancer can be beat!

Preview Jessica’s Story  “The Incurables”

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I am Who I am and That’s ALL I AM :)

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Ken

The Secret Mind

Your emotions and feelings must also be aligned with what you wish for.

It is not enough to merely ask for it if you do not truly have emotions and feelings that are in harmony with that wish. You need to “fall in love” with what you want in order to be in the correct vibrational state.

If you ask for more money through prayer, meditation or just by wanting it – it will not help you if your emotions and feelings are programmed to think that money does not grow on trees, or that you do not deserve to be rich, or  you cannot handle being rich et cet·er·a.

If you grew up in a family where your father or mother (or both) always said: “do you think I am made out of money – we can’t afford that” – then most likely you are programmed to believe this to be true.

Preview What is Consciousness ? –

Three Stages of Consciousness | Michio Kaku

We all have built a blueprint in our mind (subconscious) of what we regard as true and what we believe in. This blueprint has been sculpted for years through your childhood by your father and mother, by your brother and sisters, by your friends, by what you read in the newspapers, by what you see on TV, by what you learn in school and so on.

If suddenly new information is presented to this blueprint it will not automatically be added.  You can ask for more money of financial wealth  everyday for several years and nothing will ever manifest as the Law of Attraction preaches because your subconscious    is not aligned with that desire. This is the reason  why  so many people who attempt to change their lives using the Law of Attraction fail.

In order to change your belief system you can start applying affirmations.

“Reprogram” your subconscious mind with a new belief system. Believe that anything is possible, believe that you are rich, that you deserve to be rich, that you are happy, that you are healthy and so on. Make a list of positive affirmations and read them to yourself every day. Say to yourself those things you want to be or believe in. You can decide to be the best version of yourself. It´s all about shaping your mind.

Want to learn more – check out The 5 Steps To Master Your Life.

frame of knowledge flat earth

Most people are only looking inside the so-called “established truth”.
It´s like a “frame of knowledge” based on what´s been proven and
accepted by the masses.
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In other words, if something is established as a general truth people stick to it.                Very few people dare to challenge “the established frame of knowledge”.

Before it was “a fact” that the earth was flat. People believed they could fall off the end       of the world. However, this “truth-frame” changed when science could show that this       was not the case. A new “truth” replaced the old one. A paradigm shift happened.

People live by the old saying “seeing is believing” – but why don´t we learn from history and realize that something might be true even though we don´t see it.

We don´t have to see something to believe it.

It´s the other way around – believing will make you see. Most people only choose to look at what they know and what they can see. They only rely on their five senses. They  are not willing to keep an open mind. They are not willing to accept that everything vibrates and that The Law of Vibration is real – that we are vibrating sending-towers transmitting our thoughts and feelings into the universe 24/7.

Our “frame of knowledge” is constantly changing since science is showing us “new”    truths – new paradigms. And you have to have the right frame of mind to truly heal?

Preview  17 Signs That You Have Healing Powers

With an open mind we can start to believe that something can be a reality even           though science can’t prove it or even though we can´t verify it with our five senses.

Science has shown that everything is energy. You, me and everything else has its own vibrational frequency. We are bound by The Law of Vibration.

However, most people don´t know this because they haven´t realized that we are in a paradigm shift. A new “truth frame” is emerging revealing that we are vibrational beings living in a universe of motion where The Law of Vibration is real.

This doesn´t mean that absence of evidence is evidence of absence. In other words, if science can´t prove something it doesn´t mean it´s not real. We need to open up to the idea that there are things in our lives going on which might be true even though we can’t use our five senses or science to verify it – like the Law of Vibration.

We need to keep an open mind and get better at thinking outside the box. We ought          to realize that what we perceive as impossible today might be obvious and a known fact     in the near future. The Law of Vibration and other universal laws will probably be school curriculum for future generations. Just like we have been taught about physical laws, like the law of gravity, they will be educated in the Universal laws like The Law of Vibration.

Today we don´t question the amazing features of a cell-phone. We´re able to talk to another person on the other side of the planet without a wire to be seen. You can’t see how it works, but you experience it, so you believe it. Yes, most people must see (experience) to believe.

Today we can reach out to millions of people through the internet. Since it´s a technology of our time we take it for granted. However, if someone told you 50 years ago that you would be able to “surf” something called the Internet and be able to reach millions of people using this technology you most likely wouldn´t believe it.

WHY?

Because “the frame of knowledge” at that time did not have the ability to grasp it and embrace it as a new truth. So these brave men and women had a rough journey trying to convince people.  Most people don´t like change.  They are afraid of changing what they already know, but the inventors and pioneers of the past never gave up.  They paved the way for a new world with new truths. One of these was Guglielmo Marconi.

Guglielmo MarconiGuglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor and he was able to show to the world the feasibility of radio communication.  However –    he had a hard time being believed that signals could be sent wireless.  His colleagues and other scientists have said he was ready for the “looney-house”.

He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel.

On June 2nd 1896, Marconi applied for a British wireless telegraphy patent. Shortly thereafter he applied for and obtained a patent in the United States. He electrified the world when he succeeded in sending a wireless signal from Newfoundland to Ireland. Believing that radio waves, like light rays, on which signals had already been sent, shot  out into space when they reached the horizon, some scientists did not believe his claim to have sent a signal across the Atlantic.

Today we know better.

Will we change what we believe in?

Maybe in the near future the Law of Vibration will be a well know fact for every single person on this planet – just as much a fact as our planet being round and part of The Milky Way. Maybe it will be part of what kids learn in school – learning how to send out positive thoughts and vibrations as part of their behavior. I am positive that future generations will learn to understand The Law of Vibration, The Law of Attraction and other universal Laws governing our lives. It will become second nature to them as long as someone will teach this important information to them at an early age.

We need to believe that anything is possible. We just need to believe it. Believing is seeing.

So believe in The law of Vibration – that everything is vibrating. Absolutely everything.   We are actually living in a sea of energy.

We live in an ocean of motion !!!

Our thoughts are on a certain vibrational frequency and hence is part of the vibrating universe. The Law of Attraction, which is based on The Law of Vibration, states that we attract what we are sending out. Hence positive energies attract positive energies and negative energies attract negative energies.

Our thoughts are cosmic waves of energy that penetrate all time and space. Thought is the most potent vibration – so this means you can attract to you what you want and wish for.

Learn about the Power of Thought and how they make ripples in the sea of energy we call the universe, consciousness, the formula for success, Universal Laws and more by getting the Make A Ripple Make A Difference e-book

So if I have a healthy vision, my mind’s chemistry converts my body into health. If I live in fear… Fear causes 90% of the illness on the planet. And it’s all generated  by  the perceptions of  the mind.  The picture you hold in your mind creates the behaviour and biology you express in life.” – Bruce Lipton

Though out my Catholic Upbringing I have learned a lot that has shaped my life.

In 1962, Mother Angelica began a series of community meetings on matters relevant          to Catholicism and also began recording her talks. Bishop Joseph Vath noticed her talent for communicating with the lay public and encouraged her to continue; she began taping   a radio show for broadcast on Sunday mornings and published her first book in 1972.

In the late 1970s she began videotaping her talks for television, which were broadcast       on the satellite Christian Broadcasting Network. In 1981, after visiting a Chicago television studio and being impressed by its capability, she also helped formed the non-profit EWTN corporation. Initially, she recorded her shows in a converted garage at the monastery’s property.

EWTN became a voice for American conservative and traditional Catholics,  with its position on religious and social issues often mirroring that of Pope John Paul II.  With the emphasis on tradition, Angelica had feuds with some members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Most famous is the feud over a pastoral letter written by Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over teachings surrounding the Eucharist and the liturgy.

After this dispute, EWTN added a theology department with priests, theologians, deacons, and lay people to make sure EWTN was in line with the teachings of the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.

According to EWTN, the network’s channels currently reach 264 million households globally. I don’t push my religion off on anybody, however, in this Mother Angelica Live Classics – Mother Angelica talks Death and Dying is extremely interesting view points!!

Preview Mother Angelica Live Classics – Death and Dying,

originally aired November 02, 1999

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God Inspired Child Prodigy

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Ken

                Akiane Kramarik uses her paintings to reveal her visions and dreams.

  🌹Heaven is for Real – Based on the #1 New York Times best-selling book             of the same name!!!

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL brings to the screen the true story of a small-town father who must find the courage and conviction to share his son’s extraordinary, life-changing experience with the world . . . .  The film stars Academy Award® nominee and Emmy® award winning actor Greg Kinnear  as  Todd Burpo  and  co-stars  Kelly Reilly  as  Sonja Burpo, the real-life couple whose son Colton (newcomer Connor Corum) claims to have visited Heaven during a near death experience.

Colton recounts the details of his amazing journey with childlike innocence and speaks matter-of-factly about things that happened before his birth … things he couldn’t possibly know.  Todd and also his family are then challenged to examine the meaning from this remarkable event.   https://gloria.tv/video/v8EXat1gWg7a3PwLnzLMkPP7f 

Preview Heaven is for REAL Jesus Painting

by Akiane Lithuania Girl Seen By Colton

Bringing back hope

By Tim Gebhart
January 17, 2018 11:50 am Last Updated: January 19, 2018 1:06 pm
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Painter Akiane Kramarik on Her Art and Spiritual Journey!!
 

Akiane is a worldwide acclaimed child prodigy who began drawing at 4,   and painting at 6, teaching herself and learning mostly from her own keen observation and study.

At 4, she had a life-changing spiritual transformation, bringing her atheist family to God. The inspiration for her art and also literature comes from her visions, dreams, observations of people, nature and God. With her art coming from the hand of GOD.

She is considered to be one of the most recognized artists in the world, sharing her wisdom and gifts with millions of people.

 Fearlessly dedicated to expressing her spiritual journey and the worlds in her dreams          and visions, artist Akiane Kramarik has insights into humanity that reach for the highest understanding of the universe and flow unrestrained from her mind onto the canvas.

Mirroring her paintings and their subject matter, she radiates a sense of wonder at life  and expresses the complexities  of our existence  and its mysteries. She has traveled the world over, connecting with and inspiring others through her paintings, with the ultimate purpose of spreading hope.

Despite their poverty, Kramarik’s family encouraged her to pursue her artistic gift after  she began to draw at the age of 4. Her drawings were first done with whatever she could get her hands on: pencils, crayons, or food on her dinner plate.

By the age of 8, Kramarik’s renderings had progressed to become shockingly realistic.   Her paintings also started to reflect her inner consciousness and perceptions.

She detailed and illustrated her visions, including those of some enigmatic and multidimensional worlds.  She also depicted her vision of Jesus Christ in her painting   “The Prince of Peace,” which became one of her most famous works. Kramarik had set       a ritual to dutifully wake up at 2 a.m. and tiptoe down to her little studio to paint these visions.

At this point, her parents decided to share her paintings with their small community in Idaho. Soon after, Kramarik and her deep, solemn, and hopeful paintings were invited to “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which featured a series on gifted children. Kramarik instantly gained international recognition. Her family was able to escape poverty and share the gift of her visions and her message with the world.

Despite the complexities of the modern world, Kramarik, now 23, holds fast to the youthful wonder she possessed since her earliest days of painting. She also remains humble and focused.  

“Patience” by Akiane Kramarik. (Courtesy of Akiane Kramarik)

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Kramarik shares her insights, her paintings,       and their meanings.

The Epoch Times: You grew up in poverty in rural Idaho without a TV or other    modern distractions. How do you think that influenced who you are?
Akiane Kramarik: Even though we lived in poverty, we were blessed with abundant happiness in our family. Laughing, talking, playing, improvising, and creating were our daily entertainment. I did not know what boredom or superficial entertainment was because every minute was [full of] meaningful and creative play; we made our own toys from cardboard boxes, sticks, stones, and clay. We made our own music, and we created our own school.

We were also entrusted with huge responsibilities as soon as we were able to walk (and   we all walked quite early: 8 to 9 months). We cooked, did laundry, cleaned, took care of our sick dad, and walked with our mom, door to door, in two feet of snow selling food in different neighborhoods in order to make ends meet.

The poverty was my blank canvas upon which I could create more freely. And as I grew and matured, I never forgot the humble beginnings my family had to go through and never, ever took any day, any gift, or any comfort for granted.

The Epoch Times: You said in a YouTube video that the best teacher of painting you could have is yourself. Are we our own best teachers in our lives as well?
Ms. Kramarik: Being self-taught in art does not mean that I am my own best teacher. My best teacher is life and everyone who is consciously or unconsciously participating in it. Every single being, inanimate or animate, influences my life, and my responsibility is to creatively reciprocate such generosity, whether it is on canvas, in film, for the kitchen table, horse farm, or mayor’s office.

At the age of 6, during my early experimentation in art, I became curious of what other children were doing at my age. My mother and I came up with a brilliant idea: to invite children from many different towns to draw together.

I interpreted that experience as the foundation of my motivation and determination          to share my art with many more people around the world.  As a student of life, I was challenged every day to experiment and to explore the unknown territories and learn about art the hard way. I discovered every technique by observing humans, live animals, and natural tones of vast landscapes in [the] 30 countries I lived in or visited.

Real experiences, visions, and dreams were my starting point, but it was my duty                to interpret those ideas, transform them, and then detail them. An artist gets to see everything first in the rough, just like a diamond.

Every day, I see ordinary things in this extraordinary world, and I see extraordinary things in this ordinary world. To be able to create cinematic-like experience from a simple sound, object, color, emotion, or scenery takes patience and confidence. …
My mission to this day is … to use my art and writings to bring back hope to people who seek it. My lifetime motto is also still the same: I don’t wait for inspiration, inspiration always waits for me.

“Footsteps of Eternity,” 2008, by Akiane Kramarik. Acrylic on canvas. “Our yearning for profound and wholesome connections stays within us; however, this world rarely meets our expectations—with our first mortal breath, we, immortal beings, forget our entire infinite experience.” ~Footsteps of eternity (Courtesy of Akiane Kramarik)

The Epoch Times: In “Footsteps of Eternity,” you touch on different characteristics        of a person’s life: that our existence is much more complicated than what we see on the surface, or what we are aware of.     What were you trying to capture in this painting?
Ms. Kramarik: I painted “Footsteps of Eternity” at the age of 13. The painting depicts part of our spiritual journey—the journey of our soul [our higher self] that is able to be present in multiple places, all at the same time. …
Respect and appreciation of our earthly life—plain, brief, confusing, painful, remarkable, or even cataclysmic—is vital for our spiritual well-being. Our experiences are waiting for us; we simply choose to live through the challenges and mistakes. If we don’t live through difficulties, we cannot see the solved puzzle at the end. Our forgetfulness of our divine self and God’s presence and purpose for us is part of [life’s] mystery.

The Epoch Times: That “art is life outside of life” is an idea you shared with             others in interviews in the past. Could you elaborate on that a bit more?
Ms. Kramarik: Art is life within life and life outside of life. It is a design of nature, a design of humanity, and a design of countless worlds. There is not a single element in nature or humanity without some artistic design and expression. We create our life with our minds and hearts. That is why art is inseparable from the most complex fabric of our thoughts and feelings. Inspiration and epiphanies are experienced when mind and heart meet.

The Epoch Times: Is it our relationship with ourselves that takes the most work? Makes the most difference? How you feel about yourself and your relationship to your paintings?
Ms. Kramarik: Our relationship with ourselves is our relationship with our universe. The more we are connected to [our] infinite possibilities and responsibilities …, the more completely we are able to appreciate our being here—our mission, our calling, our purpose.

Comprehending the significance of our living here forms a complete peace of mind that we could feel every day. It is the assurance of our oneness with everyone, the conviction that we are all part of that collective puzzle, part of one and the same spirit, part of the grand divinity, part of each and everyone we will meet today on a train, in a coffee shop, in a bookstore, at school, or in a neighborhood park.

The art of life is loving and listening to one another. When we feel sad, all we need to do   is to count our blessings, no matter how few we notice, so we can feel grateful for what we have been given. Sadness soon disappears and, in return, we get inspired to bless others. …

What we all share is “awareness.” We are in an invisible intertwined web. The more we move [toward awareness], the more we get to experience a wider and more complete range of relationships and creations.

I hope my art would be part of that web. When people get the chance to see other worlds,   I hope they will trust their own sensitive compass to navigate through [to] true reality.

The Epoch Times: Your live your life very deliberately in pursuing your artistic vision and following your own path in life. Is that where the learning and truly understanding yourself begins, not in conforming to others but in conforming to our own true selves?
Ms. Kramarik: We each have a different purpose. True understanding and learning could still be achieved by conforming to others, because, sooner or later, the maturity of seeing the cause and effect brings forth the most fragrant fruition of the truth. …

The blessing is not in fully knowing yourself or fully knowing the whole truth. The blessing is in the peace of not knowing, yet being true to the purpose that is given to us “from above.”

… Living every moment as if it was our first and last is a genuine life of gratitude, acceptance, and wisdom. …

And who fulfills such way of living the best? Children.

Children’s simplicity,  their eagerness  to learn  from their surroundings,  being content    with not knowing everything yet trusting the caretakers for guidance is the most advanced spiritual achievement within the parameters of all imperfect worlds.

Children seek for answers in the purest way: humility, peace, childlike enthusiasm, acceptance, and sincerity. … That’s why my frequent portrayal of children in my art        is     my wholehearted appreciation of this remarkable manifestation: childhood.

Childhood is a provisional treasure. We can never be children again if we are fully         aware adults in our human lifespan, but we can be much happier adults if we can    emulate childlike innocence, faith, hope, [and] lightheartedness.

Image result for “Lilies of the Valley,” 2016. Acrylic on canvas, (Courtesy of Akiane Kramarik).                   “Between the Frames,” 2012. Acrylic on canvas. (Courtesy of Akiane Kramarik)

 Depicts transformation between childhood and adulthood. Climbing from one frame of time into another, we acquire more wisdom and more compassion, yet we lose simplicity, innocence, and pure wonder [that] only childhood can provide.

Between frames is a symbol of our terrestrial existence where we are trying to escape       the frames but end up being entangled inside larger and larger frames, until the frame    we try to fit in is so large that we lose our sense of reality,  …  “Between the Frames”  is literally falling frames—[the] heroic, yet at times tragic effort to comprehend our human and divine destiny and our spirituality; our intense search for love, beauty, happiness,    and wisdom; our epic journey that we never finish.

                 “Lilies of the Valley,” 2016. Acrylic on canvas, portrays an allegory of Earth.            (Courtesy of Akiane Kramarik).

Preview  ”Lilies of the Valley” By Akiane

Wow, I just researched lillies of the valley and they ARE poisonous just like us humans could be to the earth!                         The Lily of the Valley was St. Therese’s favorite flower.
 ☺️I can not thank you enough for bringing this into the light. Was reading Song Of Solomon 2 in the Bible the other day, and a message came to me a few days later, saying, “If you don’t stop to smell the Rose’s, you cannot see the Lillie’s down below.” This can be interpreted many ways, but my feeling is God is represented as the Rose, and Jesus Christ as the Lilies. Thank you Akiane. Your paintings are incredibly beautiful and inspiring. I think you are an Angel from heaven..👏❤🙋💚😇

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I hope everyone enjoyed the painting titled ”The Vision”. I would not be where I am today
if it was not for God and the great support from people like you.
Akiane Kramarik – Painting The Impossible 
    Image result for painting the impossible
I believe this could be the face of Jesus. Her testimony is rather interesting and even compelling. I also find that the diversity at which Jesus genuinely reveals himself is truly outstanding and incomprehensible. Personally I find A LOT of poetry to this and though in a literal sense I still can’t say whether this an accurate portrait or not, but here’s where I find the real beauty of the poetry coming alive.
Rather than thinking that Jesus’ inspiration to her was to bring a portrait of himself to the world, instead I find that Jesus inspired Akiane to dig deep into her own convictions and manifest it through the one thing that she knew how to do. I feel that regardless of what Jesus really looks like, her act of trying to paint the impossible was futile that made itself quite clear near the end, but it wasn’t until she finally covered the rest of the canvas that she in a sense gave her hands over to her Savior.
Once she finally committed to covering it she metaphorically postured herself into type of position that says “I can’t do this!” It’s amazing how many ways Jesus manifests this thought into us and forces us to make a decision. When will we finally realize that God’s commandments are not for us to fulfill and perfectly uphold, but rather they are there for us to look at and give submission to the One who has already conquered evil?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VEs6MfkFzo
To learn more about Kramarik, see akiane.com or facebook.com/akianeart   Thank you!

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 🌹

🌹🌹🌹BEAUTIFULANDTRUE🌹🌹🌹

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
Published on Jan 8, 2018

Akiane Kramarik is a child and teenage prodigy, she has become a self-made millionaire through selling her incredible paintings from the early age of 5. Akiane, paints from her visions of Jesus Christ which she claims speaks to her.

Akiane paintings and videos are, Like a meditation session…. ❤️🌅🎇
Posted in Thought Provoking | Leave a comment

One Mind One Energy

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Ken
The idea that one should just empty ones cup, and try to just examine ones mind and present experience. If Reality, Truth exists, then it exists Now in this present moment.
 

Both Agnetha and Frida brought different things to ABBA, Agnetha brought the girl next door image and Frida brought the extravert fun girl. . . which was great on stage, so much energy. This song was written for Frida by Jon Lord to put into song the feelings of loss of her third husband’s death, as well as the death of her daughter in a car accident. Its a very beautiful song, full of her personal pain. And so what if it wasnt a single?  I am sure Frida  and Jon Lord are just happy performing the track rather than commercial success. oh my God…every time when I listening this song I am crying….. Her voice is holy… 🙂

She has an angelic voice!  Love You frida….Thank You because You exist!!! But I think    it’s sad when they reduce Agnetha to just physical attributes and not on her vocal ability,    Abba best songs   125 videos   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s&list=PL1BEA9DDEFD221C08   

     Law of Vibration

In the year 1905, Albert Einstein proved that we can break matter down into smaller components and that, when we do, we move beyond the material realm and into a realm  in which everything is energy.

This is the Law of Vibration, a law of nature that states that ‘nothing rests; everything moves; every-thing vibrates.’The lower the vibration, the slower the vibration; the higher the vibration the faster the vibration.

The difference between the manifestations of the physical, mental, emo-tional and spiritual result simply from different levels of vibrating energy, or frequencies.  So, while the feelings of fear, grief and despair vibrate at a very low frequency, the feelings of love, joy and gratitude vibrate much quicker.
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Although most frequencies exist outside of our normal range of perception, all can be perceived as both colors and sounds.  There are seven colors in a rainbow and seven notes in the musical scale. So the color blue is also heard as the musical key of D, which vibrates at 587 Hz.

Using this principal of resonance, we can also actually increase the speed at which the molecules in our bodies vibrate, through our thoughts of love, joy and gratitude.  When atoms slow down,  third dimensional matter is created;  when they speed up, the higher dimensions of consciousness can be reached.  And the higher our consciousness is raised, the closer to Spirit we become.

”In the beginning was the Word,” the vibration of sound.

But what is most interesting is that, if a frequency is vibrating fast enough, it’s emitted as a color of Light.[ii]

If we wanted to convert sound to Light, we would simply raise its frequency forty octaves.  This results in a vibration in the trillions of cycles per second.  So, if a pianist could press   a key way above the eighty-eight keys that exist on a piano, that key would produce Light.  They could create a chord of Light in the same way they can create a chord of sound.  And it would be seen as colors of Light because it would be moving at the speed of Light.

The philosophical and scientific basis for this Law of Vibration can be found in quantum physics and in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.  Energy is related to matter and the speed of Light.  This is Einstein’s famous E = mc2 equation.

When two frequencies are brought together, the lower will always rise to meet the higher.  This is the principle of resonance.  So, when a piano is tuned, a tuning fork is struck, and then brought close to the piano string that carries that same musical tone.  The string then raises its vibration automatically and attunes itself to the same rate at which the fork is vibrating.

I will raise him up at the last day.  I John 6:40

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”Vivian Greene
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 In my progression of lives, I’ve made mistakes, it was part of my process and like Edison,   I learned from my mistakes. So learn to choose happy, is there really any other option? Tell yourself every morning that you are happy and soon it will become your reality. How fortunate for us that the happiness we strive for is already here within us. We already possess the keys to happiness, success and even our good health.
 
So many people tell me what they can’t do. They have unilaterally put restrictions on their capabilities. Henry Ford once said “If you believe you can or you …believe you can’t, you’re absolutely right.” In truth, if you believe in yourself that’s all that matters, that’s all you need. Who would want to hire a person to do something who didn’t believe it could be done? At one time, we knew we couldn’t fly so we didn’t. We didn’t even try. Then one day someone thought maybe we could fly and then we did. Belief is the strongest power in the universe. Believe in yourself, Frankie already believes in you.

Preview  The Cup Song (You’re Gonna Miss Me)

by Anna Kendrick on David Letterman

I personally find this term offensive. Where do people come up with …these terms?           To be catty is to be deliberately hurtful.  Cats just don’t do that,  nor do we        ignore you. When you call a dog, he comes running. With cats, we are just not the        same. It’s not that we don’t want to obey, we’re just different, independent.

When feeling the need to judge others, just don’t. How are you helping? Surely,               you can’t presuppose that you are aware of all the causations of their actions.

Don’t let sadness or regrets enter your life. Whether you know it or not, you have accomplished a great deal, probably more than you realize. You have affected many      lives and are fulfilling your purpose here on earth, and for that I thank you.
Frankie

You are about to think, here’s a dumb question. If you could pick between happy and sad, which would you choose? Of course, you would pick happiness, and yet …many of us don’t. The possibility of happiness and sadness resides within us but fortunately, you can pick which one you choose to accompany you in your journey. Some of the happiest people I have met have extremely restrictive health or emotional issues, while some of the saddest and stressed are people without any restrictions whatsoever. How is this possible? Happiness is just your state of mind.

Preview (When I’m Gone) – Pitch Perfect A Cappella Cover –

Kara Della Valle, Grace Doty & Otto Tunes

Make your world as much fun as mine. Choose happy.

“Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life.
Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.”
Cullen Hightower

“Very little is needed to make a happy life;
it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
Marcus Aurelius

“Before you criticize someone,
you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way when you criticize them,
you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
Jack Handey

https://www.themagicofquantum.com/review.php

 
Always have to have in mind that there will always be unexpected around the corner, not everything will be happiness and have to be prepared or have to have support in the circumstances… ✌🏼
The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles, Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.,

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Feelings are frequencies.

Preview  Cups – Anna Kendricks (Choreography)

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What’s Love Got To Do With IT

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Ken
Edward Martin Obituary (Anchorage Daily News) Edward Donald Martin Sr. of Cooper Landing, Alaska passed away Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Martin was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and as a child felt an inexplicable “driving force” to seek out patches of green clover amid the borough’s concrete and steel.
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Almost always, Martin still recalls, he managed to spot at least one four-leaf clover among the more common three-leaf standard. Martin, holds the world record for finding the most four-leaf clovers, amassing a  collection of more than 160,000 and counting — each one painstakingly picked by hand. His story  begins a lifetime and a world away.
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Martin was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and as a child felt an inexplicable “driving force” to seek out patches of green clover amid the borough’s concrete and steel. Almost always, Martin still recalls, he managed to spot at least one four-leaf clover among the more common three-leaf standard.

In 1957, Martin headed north to Alaska, where he homesteaded and discovered field after field of “four-leaved grass.” There, in the Final Frontier, he spent his life building roads and pipelines, always keeping his head down as he walked, and often stumbling upon nature’s unnatural.

“You look for the unusual, not the usual,” he explained. “Anybody can see the usual.”

After Martin retired, finding four-leaf clovers became his preferred pastime, a chance        to enjoy fresh air, exercise and glimpses of bald eagles and moose.

“It’s a challenge, and life is a challenge,” he said, struggling to explain why he does it. “Every day is a new door opening.”

Martin fills those days now, as one might expect, still finding more clover and resting  easy, believing no challenger comes close to his growing total. With the record on the books, some folks have suggested he sell his collection, which sits in boxes at his eldest son’s house. Martin said he likes the idea, hoping the clover’s luck could rub off on whoever bought them.

“It’s a good way to get rid of depression,” he said, laughing.

As to how he — a self-described “old man” in small-town Alaska, with no fixed address — would go about finding the right buyer, that’s an answer, he says, he hasn’t stumbled upon yet.

“People keep saying why don’t I put them on eBay and see what people will pay for them,” he fretted.

“I don’t even know how to get on eBay.”

The Odds of Finding a Four-Leaf Clover Are Pretty Good  Approximately one in 10,000 clover stems will have a four-leafed mutation.

Now that might sound daunting, but according to the Minitab Blog, you can find that many clover plants in a rectangular area covering approximately three-by-four feet.          So you don’t need to cover a massive amount of area to find your lucky clovers.

Single Four Leaf Clover                              Scanning Can Help You Find Lucky Clovers Faster.

Amana Images Inc / Getty Images

If you try to check 10,000 individual leaves to see if one of them is a lucky clover,        you’re going to waste a lot of time and energy. Luckily, there’s a better way.

Let your eyes scan over a limited area (an area about the size of an office desk works well, according to Scientific American). Don’t try to look for individual leaves, just try to see if something pops out at you as looking a little bit different from the surrounding clover.

If that doesn’t work for you right away, try using your shoe to gently brush over the clover, and see if turning the plants to a slightly different angle gives you a better perspective.

“Is the glass half empty or half full?” is a common expression, a proverbial phrase, generally used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation  could be a cause for optimism (half full) or pessimism (half empty), or as a general litmus test to simply determine an individual’s worldview.

 
Truth be Told:  I am always searching for a different type of four leaf clover. I am on the internet always on the look out for long term survivors and trying to figure out how and where they went for treatment of the deadliest of cancer types?
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Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma: poised for progress.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3531714/

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 My name is Nina Rose Valdiserri. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor called a diffused intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) at age 2 1/2. My tumor is very rare and the doctors gave   me a 1% chance of survival. They said I wouldn’t make it to my 3rd birthday. I finished my last chemotherapy the week before Christmas 2008. The doctors said if my tumor doesn’t grow by May 2009 I will be in remission.

My doctors are incredible, one in particular found a new experimental treatment prot…ocol and it seems to be working,  also Radiation,  combined with Temodar, CCNU, Irinotecan, and Avastin. If this plan continues to work on me then we can use it for other children with the same tumor. It has been a long, difficult road. Two other girls that live in the same city as me with DIPG, have gone to heaven. I have other friends that I made over the years who also lost their battle.

I love going to the hospital. I had a port for 3 years and love to get my “tail on” (accessed) and walk around with my I.V. pole. Now I go to the hospital every 6 months for a checkup and an MRI once a year, sometimes I also miss it because I always look forward to seeing everyone who helped take care of me.  For the most part I handled all my chemotherapy well and took most of the medications at home. We had a couple of setbacks but nothing major.  We went to Disney World for my Make-a-Wish  and still talk about it today.  I’m from Michigan and it is cold in the winter, I love summertime so I can swim in my pool.

Thank you,

Nina

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With Another DIPG Story being:

  Two years ago  December 22nd, 2015, 15-year-old Camron Cozzi and his family received life-altering news: Camron had an inoperable brainstem tumor called DIPG. After completing radiation, Camron and his family took a Make-A-Wish cruise, and then headed to Cologne, Germany, where he underwent immunotherapy from April through November of last year.

“Early on you would think Camron was going to win the battle,” Cyndi says, since his first symptoms weren’t too bad, and radiation helped improve his balance. Camron also never had to take steroids to control his symptoms, so he didn’t gain the weight or have other steroid-related side effects that a lot of kids with DIPG do. And even though Cam had to give up playing lacrosse, he was still able to help out coaching younger teams in their town.
However, in October of 2016,

Cam started to struggle walking and an MRI showed he was in progression. One week before Thanksgiving, he had a shunt installed to help relieve symptoms related to hydrocephalus (fluid buildup in the ventricles due to tumor growth, which increases pressure in the brain). Up until he had the shunt surgery, Cam attended school.

His family contacted Dr. Burzynski in Houston after discovering Cam was in progression, and he received treatment at the clinic from January through May of 2017, when it was determined that he wasn’t responding to it. Throughout this time, Camron’s balance continued to worsen, and he started to use a walker to get around. By May, he had lost the use of his right leg and arm, so he needed a wheelchair for mobility. Around the same time, Cam also lost the ability to speak audibly.

Camron has had to rely on others to help him out with just about everything since last May—showering, dressing, you name it. “Once he started to lose his right side, he began to feel frustrated and mad,” Cyndi explains. “But shortly after, the happy, funny Camron that we knew started to show up again. His demeanor physically changed, reflecting his will to fight this battle.”

After the Burzynski clinic failed to help improve Cam’s condition, the family began researching other treatment options (of which there were few) and settled on Monterrey after talking with Parker Monhollon’s mother, Amanda. Camron was accepted into the program and received his first treatment on June 2nd, 2017. He’s completed all four recommended immunotherapy treatments, which he received alongside IA treatments 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Recently, Cam completed five rounds of cyber knife radiation back home in Washington to treat a secondary tumor in his thalamus. Between this and the Monterrey treatment, the doctors believe that the thalamic tumor will be eradicated. They also believe the Mexico treatment is working against the DIPG. https://makingdipghistory.com/Manage

Making DIPG History in Monterrey
makingdipghistory.com
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 Elijah Simpson-Sundell. The 8-year-old was diagnosed with a brain tumor last spring. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post).

In such a bleak landscape, Elijah’s story is remarkable because of the lengths to which his parents have gone to try to save him. Yet it is also unremarkable — because others have done the same for their children. “As parents, you are facing not just overwhelming odds but zero odds,” Simpson said.  “You will do anything.”
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Almost 4,000 miles away in Cologne, Germany, is the private clinic that his family     sought out. It’s one of the few places in the world offering immunotherapy for DIPG. The centerpiece of its effort is a vaccine  made from each patient’s   own white blood cells and tumor antigens, which are proteins that produce an immune response. The goal is to allow the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer.

After 18 months and 29 children, the results are “encouraging,” said pediatric oncologist Stefaan van Gool. But it’s far too early to know whether the approach extends survival. “We have to wait,” he acknowledged.

Elijah has flown to Cologne three times since October, twice with his father and once     with his mother. In between sessions at the clinic, he visited  Schokoladenmuseum —     the Chocolate Museum — played cards and made friends with some of the other young patients.

Elijah died on April 23, 2017, a day after he turned 9 years old. He had a hard Saturday night, unable to sleep but for the fluids clogging his lungs. By yesterday morning he was slipping in and out of consciousness. We managed to get him some medicine to help dry some of the secretions in his chest and lungs, and started him on oxygen, and this calmed him and he slept peacefully, really only waking once more to complain about his favorite cat Bobbi, who had climbed into his lap.

At around 3pm his fever spiked as the tumor began squeezing off his brain’s capacity to regulate his temperature, and as we bundled him into the car and rushed to the hospital  he slipped into a coma while his mom held him in the back seat.

As we reached the hospital and rushed him into the emergency room he stopped breathing. The doctors attempted for several minutes to revive him until Kristin               and I collected our grief-stricken wits about us and asked the doctors to stop.                   And he was gone 🙁

Preview  May the Force Be With You

Posted in Information & Research | Leave a comment

💗 💕 I Found My True Love! 💕 💗

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Ken

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I have spent a good 20 years of my life getting progressively sicker.

As a health- conscious individual, I always took care of myself by eating relatively well, exercising daily, and making a point of getting an annual physical the results of which I kept and analyzed.

I first noticed a problem due to my decreasing performance in athletic activities.

I played soccer in my teens and 20s and became a runner and biker in my 30s. Slowly  over time, I noticed that I didn’t have the energy to maintain my preferred pace. I would run out of steam and just muscle my way through.   I also started experiencing various aches and pains throughout my body, which I attributed to something I ate. At the age       of 38, I decided to look at my blood work over time. That’s when I noticed that all my numbers were moving in a negative direction toward the low end of normal. Of course,     my doctor didn’t think anything of it since I was still within the normal range, but I was worried.

When I became anemic, I pushed him to investigate further. I needed a long nap just to   get through the evening and my aches and pains now extended to my sleep. I developed debilitating migraines  and  took  Relpax for relief.  Overall,   I just did not feel right and knew something was wrong.  I took iron pills for months, but there was no change in my blood work. Next my doctor recommended an iron infusion, but I went into anaphylactic shock.

Based on my own research, I mentioned that there must be some kind of absorption    issue and that’s when it clicked for my doctor. He sent my blood out to be tested for Celiac disease and it came back positive with my antibody numbers off the chart.  The solution,   it seemed, was easy; I was to stop eating gluten.

I was in heaven for 3 months. After my diagnosis, my energy increased, my runs were amazing, the heaviness in my lower abdomen disappeared, and some of my aches and pains went away as the inflammation in my body decreased. Then it all came tumbling down. Suddenly, I became allergic to different foods. Over a 6-year period I developed adverse reactions to an increasing number of them. I couldn’t eat fish, shellfish, seeds    and anything derived from them, nuts, most packaged foods, preservatives, coconut oil, sulfites, alcohol, vinegar, spices, and so on. It was very difficult to eat safely.

I hardly ever ate out, restricting myself to my list of ‘safe foods.’ I became an Advil junkie to deal with my nightly aching joints. I took Benadryl to calm mysterious chest vibrations and gurgling noises at night, which resulted from certain foods. My energy decreased and   I would crash in the middle of the afternoon.  So,  once again,  I began seeing all kinds of specialists: three different allergists, two gastroenterologists, and numerous others whose specialties escape me.   No one could explain why this was happening!   They just kept throwing medication my way. I was in bad shape, sleep deprived, and afraid to eat. My quality of life declined.

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 Throughout all of this, I kept reading online hoping that one day something would come my way to explain why this was happening. Finally,  in the winter of 2015,  I happened to stumble on Sarah Ballantyne’s work and the autoimmune diet. That was it! I had leaky gut syndrome, also known as intestinal permeability. It all made sense.

In January 2016, I began the autoimmune paleo diet  to repair my gut.  I strictly followed it and felt immediate results.  All of my joint pain went away and the strange tingling I felt throughout my body stopped over time too. I no longer experienced a strange gurgling sensation in my chest at night and my workout stamina improved.

 I n the course of all my research, I had read about iodine and its positive effects on the thyroid. Luckily, soon thereafter, a wonderful man, Tibor, walked into my life. His positive experiences with using iodine encouraged me to try it. I took my first drop of iodine at the beginning of March and immediately felt a surge of energy, but it was short lived as the iodine detox took over.  My mistakes were taking too much too quickly, not taking any of the required companion nutrients, and not salt loading to remove the bromide build up in my body. I endured three weeks of diarrhea, two weeks of never-ending chest phlegm, a constantly-draining nasal passage, and extreme muscle fatigue.

However, I still wasn’t able to eat the foods I loved without an adverse reaction. I also experienced a numbing and dumbing sensation in my head, which I now refer to…. as  bromine head.  I felt heavily sedated and lethargic.  Regardless,  my short moments of incredible energy and mental clarity  motivated me to stick with iodine.  During the last two weeks of March I woke up one day feeling drunk and unable to do anything. I had crashed my thyroid and was toxic.

I went to my doctor to get my blood work done and my numbers were terrible with off- the-chart cholesterol counts, high blood pressure, and weak kidneys.  I was diagnosed  with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto.  In fact,  my TSH numbers were so high that my doctor stated  he’d never seen such a thing.  He immediately wanted  me on Synthroid   and was afraid that I would develop a goiter. I had then started iodine for wellness and now regarded it as my cure.  I didn’t want to go on any medication.

Tibor, who was now my boyfriend, advised me to make my decisions based on how I felt.   I took this to heart.  After further research,  I learned that there…. was an iodine protocol that I could follow to detox safely and absorb the iodine.  I joined an Iodine Workshop on Facebook, read the required readings and began to follow the recommended protocol.

I received my next round of blood work numbers in May and even though I was still hypo all of my numbers were moving in the right direction and my antibodies. . . . were coming down.  I continued on without thyroid medication. Numerous users of the Facebook group had reported that following the iodine protocol stopped their environmental allergies.

 I had been taking Zyrtec every other day for 20 years.  I decreased the amount I took to once every third day, then once every fourth day and then I stopped. A week went by and no allergy symptoms.  After a month,  I was still  completely symptom free!  I also felt so liberated.  My boyfriend believed that a lot of my food sensitivities would also be cured.

So in May,  I tentatively tried the foods on my banned list. I started with nuts and experienced no adverse reactions.  After two years without a drip of alcohol, I had my   first drink with friends to celebrate a birthday. No problems. I tried Indian food, which      is full of spices derived from seeds and again,  no reactions.  I successfully introduced        all seafood and shellfish back into my diet. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all, my skin could tolerate gluten.

I work as a teacher and used to have to wear gloves to serve snacks containing gluten to  my students because without them my hands would itch and burn terribly. I no longer   had this problem.  I am now completely drug free  and have no environmental allergies    or migraines and can eat gluten again,  but choose not to.  I sleep better  and feel sharp most of the time, my energy and stamina have increased. Workouts are like nothing I’ve experienced before. I can lift heavy weights without getting tired and feel like a machine when I do cardio workouts, like I could go on forever.

I’ve also noticed that my night vision is better and floaters in my eyes have decreased.

This journey has brought wonderful things, opportunities,  and people into my life. It     has now set me on a path to help others.  I’m still in the process of treating my thyroid   and realize I could still face a few hurdles along the way.  Regardless,  I wouldn’t trade    this experience for anything. I wouldn’t want to forget the best part, I married the man who introduced to me iodine and truly saved my life.

Tibor Pilenyi's photo.

Connect with Parveen Sangha on Facebook!!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/parveenspath/


 

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The Master-of Your Soul

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Ken

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     As we think, so we become. This fundamental truth, which some have called “The Secret”  or  the  “Law of Attraction,” was clearly and convincingly argued for the first time in James Allen’s masterpiece, As a Man Thinketh. Allen reveals how our thoughts shape our character, and manifest themselves in our finances,  health,  appearance,  and environment. The choice is yours: either master your thoughts and create the life you want; or remain mired in negativity, frustration, and failure.

   James Allen (November 28, 1864 — January 24, 1912) was a British philosophical writer known for his inspirational books and poetry and as a pioneer of the self-help movement. His best known work, As a Man Thinketh, has been mass-produced since its publication  in 1902. It has been a source of inspiration to motivational and self-help authors.

Born in Leicester, England, into a working-class family, Allen was the elder of two brothers. His mother could neither read nor write while his father, William, was a factory knitter. In 1879 following a downturn in the textile trade of central England, Allen’s father traveled alone to America to find work and establish a new home for the family. Within two days of arriving his father was pronounced dead at New York City Hospital, believed to be a case of robbery and murder. At age fifteen, with the family now facing economic disaster, Allen was forced to leave school and find work.

For much of the 1890s, Allen worked as a private secretary and stationer in several British manufacturing firms. In 1893 Allen moved to London where he met Lily Louisa Oram who he then wed in 1895. In 1898 Allen found an occupation in which he could showcase his spiritual and social interests as a writer for the magazine The Herald of the Golden Age.

At this time, Allen entered a creative period where he then published his first book of many books, From Poverty to Power (1901). In 1902 Allen began to publish his own spiritual magazine, The Light of Reason, later retitled The Epoch.

In 1902 Allen published his third and most famous book As a Man Thinketh. Loosely based on the biblical proverb, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” the small work eventually became read around the world  and brought Allen posthumous fame as one       of the pioneering figures of modern inspirational thought.  The book’s minor audience allowed Allen to quit his secretarial work and pursue his writing and editing career.

In 1903, the Allen family retired to the town of Ilfracombe where Allen would spend        the rest of his life. Continuing to publish the Epoch, Allen produced more than one book per year until his death in 1912. There he wrote for nine years, producing 19 works.

Following his death in 1912, his wife continued publishing the magazine under the name The Epoch. Lily Allen summarized her husband’s literary mission in the preface to one of his posthumously published manuscripts, Foundation Stones to Happiness and Success saying:”He never wrote theories, or for the sake of writing; but he wrote when he had a message, and it became a message only when he had lived it out in his own life, and knew that it was good. Thus he wrote facts, which he had proven by practice.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma3ldNtA6Gc

 It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances. The price of the book is only one shilling, and it can be carried in the pocket.”  It was also described by Allen as “A book that will help you to help yourself”, “A pocket companion for thoughtful people”, and “A book on the power and right application of thought.”

 As a Man Thinketh is a literary self-help book by James Allen, published in 1903. It was described by Allen as “… [dealing] with the power of thought, and particularly with the use and application of thought to happy and beautiful issues. I have tried to make the book simple, so that all can easily grasp and follow its teaching, and put into practice the methods which it advises.

It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life,  and that,  by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances. The price of the book is only one shilling, and it can be carried in the pocket.”  It was also described by Allen as “A book that will help you to help yourself”, “A pocket companion for thoughtful people”, and “A book on the power and right application of thought.”

   The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 23, verse 7: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. The full passage, taken from the King James Version, is as follows:

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

While the passage suggests that one should consider the true motivations of a person who is being uncharacteristically generous before accepting his generosity, the title and content of Allen’s work refer to the reader himself.

This book, written in terms of the responsibility assumption, opens with the statement:

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: —
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.

Chapter 1 starts with the quote from Dhammapada that explains the effect of karma.

Quotes From As a Man Thinketh

  • “Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.”
  • “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”
  • “Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind,  the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts,  for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these,   if you but remain true to them your world will at last be built.”
  • “The soul attracts which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which      it fears.  It reaches the height  of  its cherished aspirations.  It falls to the level of its unchastened desires – and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives     its own.”
  • “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.”
  • “Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.”
  • “Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.”
  • “Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.”
  • “You cannot travel within and stand still without.”
  • “As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts, can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.”
  • “Every man is where he is by the law of his being; the thoughts which he has built      into his character have brought him there, and in the arrangement of his life there        is no element of chance, but all is the result of a law which cannot err.”
  • “The thoughtless, the ignorant, and indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of law, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, ‘How lucky he is!’ Observing another become intellectual they exclaim, ‘How highly favored he is!’ And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, ‘How chance aids him at every turn!’
  • They don’t see the trials and failures and the struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heart aches; they only see the light and the Joy, and they call it ‘luck’; do not see the longing arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it ‘good fortune’; do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it ‘chance’.”
  • “The circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental inharmony”.
  • “The human Will,  that force unseen.  The offspring of a deathless Soul, can hew a way   to any goal though walls of granite intervene. Be not impatient in delay, but wait as one who understands; When spirit rises and commands, the Gods are ready to obey.”
  • External links
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  • External links
            James Allen Library

Preview  As A Man Thinketh James Allen Full Audio Book

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