Theif in the Night, Goodbye 2011

"Light Bearer" is a painting I did after seeing the Brazilian healer John of God

Happy New Year's Eve! Hard to believe that tomorrow will be 2012. A year of promise and new opportunities. 

Last night I had a dream that a thief came during the night. That's all I remember, all of the other details were lost in the deep folds of sleep. This morning I woke happier than I have felt in a very long time and I had the distinct sense that through all of this hard work I am doing with this cleansing way of eating something wonderful is occurring within me. I think my "thief in the night" was invited by me to steal away all the things that no longer serve me. In opening my heart, cleansing and detoxing my body and leaving the door to my deepest self ajar I invited this "thief' to steal away my illness, inflammation, pain, depression, anger, grief. Bit by bit he comes at night while my body rests and each morning I awaken with a little less pain, a little less inflammation and a lot less depression. 

My heart is so filled with gratitude this morning. Through this very limited way of eating I really think I have finally found the key to beating this inflammatory-autoimmune disease. 11 years ago I was bitten by a tick and my life descended into a living hell for the next 6 years with no diagnosis. Finally I was diagnosed with Advanced Neurological Lyme Disease and Ankylosing Spondylitis. For the next 5 years I tried every possible means to get well and some things brought improvement others did not. Last winter I was using a combination of a wheelchair, walker and cane to get around. I was paralyzed by fatigue and suffered constant pain. To say I was depressed is an understatement. I was told by my Neurologist to "Go home, get cable TV and a comfy recliner and to make myself comfortable". I looked her in the eye and said "I can't do that, I'm not done yet"

I went to see the Brazilian healer John of God in September and began doing some deep spiritual work. I continued to work with an intuitive healer using biological medicines and I began to make small changes in my diet. Once I felt comfortable with these small changes I cut everything out of my diet except for large amounts of organic vegetables and limited amounts of beans, tofu, nuts, seeds and very limited low sugar fruit. I began making fresh juice and continued drinking my VitaMix green smoothies. The change in my condition since I changed my way of eating has been remarkable in a very short time.

"Radiance" is another painting I did after seeing the Brazilian healer John of God

I am over the moon excited about what 2012 is going to bring. I can't wait to build up enough energy to get back in the studio so that I can explore this new passion I have for creating Art Cloth and making Art Quilts. I feel so energized at the thought of this new creative path and doing some work that is more geared towards abstract, intuitive work than my silk painting, which is more realism based. I am more stirred up creativity than I have been in years. Maybe all that pent up creative energy from all those years of illness keeping me out of the studio is ready to burst forth.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Wishing you an abundance of peace, joy and health in 2012

Green Gold, The Art of Healing via Juicing

In my never ending journey to kick this autoimmune diseases butt I have radically changed my diet. Don and are are on what could best be described as a combination of vegan/raw/grain-free/juice cleanse diet. We have survived our first week and are settling into this way of eating quite nicely. I have lost 6 pounds in 5 days which is a nice bonus.

This diet is not for the faint of heart because I spend most of my day buying, washing, chopping, juicing and preparing veggies for meals. It is a lot of work, but from what we have read and seen in documentaries it is a sure fire cure for inflammatory-autoimmune diseases among a holy host of other conditions as well.

The inspiration for this way of eating came from many sources in our lives but two documentries had a very strong influance on us. The first one was "Forks over Knives", you can see trailer here: Forks Over Knives Preview and the other was "Fat Sick & Nearly Dead", you can see that trailer here: Fat Sick & Nearly Dead preview. Both of these films are incredibly inspiring and after watching them I had to try this way of eating for myself. It all just made too much sense not to.  Don and I were also intrigued by The Gerson Therapy diet. You can see a movie preview about that here: The beautiful Truth

I bought the book "Juicing, Fasting, and Detoxing for Life" by Cherie Calbom MS and with our Doctors guidance we are following a modified version of her cleanse. For the first few weeks we are eating 50% to 75% raw organic veggie, green smoothies and fresh veggie juices. The remaining 50% to 25% is cooked veggies, beans, nuts, seeds and tofu. Our goal is to move to as high a percent raw veggie diet as possible cutting back on the nuts, tofu and beans. Then we will start her colon cleanse program. We are adding the fiber drink included in her program 1x a day starting tomorrow.

So that is the plan of attack. I will keep you posted on our healing through cleansing journey! Here are some photos of our juicing process.

Getting all the veggies out of the fridge and onto the counter and starting to wash them. I will end up using about 4 lbs of organic produce.

 

Washing the veggies with "Veggie Wash" and then rinsing them with  filtered water.

 Setting up the juicer and gathering up the washed veggies

 All that work and 4 lbs of organic produce for a bit of this liquid, green gold! 

 Putting the surplus washed veggies in containers for easy storage in the fridge until the whole process starts over tomorrow

The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are Eccentric

Almost scary how much of this article relates to my personality, very interesting! Explains why socializing is so utterly difficult for me among other things ;~)

 

 "The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are Eccentric

Highly creative people often seem weirder than the rest of us. Now researchers know why

• People who are highly creative often have odd thoughts and behaviors—and vice versa.
• Both creativity and eccentricity may be the result of genetic variations that increase cognitive disinhibition—the brain’s failure to filter out extraneous information.
• When unfiltered information reaches conscious awareness in the brains of people who are highly intelligent and can process this information without being overwhelmed, it may lead to exceptional insights and sensations."

Click here to read entire article