Vernal Equinox 2010 Detox III

Happy Spring! I am so grateful for the sun. Today I actually got out into the garden and weeded and potted some basil. The sun was warm and the breeze cool, I believe that spring is finally here!

What a cold winter it has been.

I had an eventful week last week in that I met with a wonderful woman Jill Ayn Schneider www.circle-of-life.net She has been an inspiration for me from the beginning of my diagnosis, sand this was the first time I had the opportunity to visit with her.

I had my second meeting with Dr. Morse in Port Charlotte, who suggested it is time for a 10 - day detox fast. I began Thursday with fresh grapes, grape juice and teas. He calls it the "top of the mountain" detox, fast. These last three days I have been sipping a home squeezed-lemonade as well as taking the herbs and supplements. Sunday I will add more fruits and little by little reintroduce veggies. It is not so easy for me to write this as it has been quite difficult but has also been a great learning experience, physically, mentally and emotionally.

I won't dwell too much on the particulars of the fast, but I do wish say thank you to those that have stayed beside me in my little yin world that I have wrapped around me like a cloak. I am especially grateful for my dear friends at White Crane Healing Arts www.whitecranehealingarts.com for continued support, humor and guidance!

What I prefer to speak of here is the enormous grace and love that comes with being so powerless. Forced to slow down and be present, I spent the week quietly reading, watching films, breathing, listening and hanging like a cocoon in the hammock. I have had lots of contemplative time to examine my relationship with mySelf and the world around me.

It is with age that wisdom comes. How do you teach the value of taking care of one's self? I will pass along what have learned, and that is to study Nature. Processed foods and packaged products are not meant for our consumption( don't tell the marketers that!). If we insist on fresh vegetables and fruit, the supply will increase and prices will go down. That aside, eating organically in the end is cheaper...medical bills and even alternative health professionals can be more that one is able to spend. Fresh fruit and veggies can be energising. Study, read the labels, stay away from sugar and denatured foods. It can be an adventure in eating. Teach your children well. Retraining and reconditioning is important to create new eating habits, the body loves habits...make them good ones! Eat only when hungry and don't overeat. oooo

This is sounding a bit like a lecture now ......

I did say I would pass along what I have learned which is; there is so much more to health than food, happiness and acceptance living without judging trust be present LOVE listen and be still weakness can be powerful illness can be a gift detoxification is crucial and more stay tuned!

Blessings, Tanza

Ruminations on Impatience

Bamboo- symbol of flexibility


It has been quite a while since I posted, but it is not for lack of thoughts to share, but perhaps for the fact that sometimes I prefer to keep to myself. As an animal healing, it is often easier not to expend too much energy.

I am finding that in spite of the fact that I have allowed myself this time for inactivity and inertia, I am still beset by that companion, impatience. This character in my life drama surfaces when I sit quietly, when I prepare food, when I am waiting for someone/something, reaching for a goal... in an hour, tomorrow, next year, and so on. The

true goal is now, a simple truth and an obvious one, but we strive to ignore it and look for a future happiness, a future unknown. We reach for a coffee, tea, the popular liver killer red bull to keep going instead of making the mind-body connection that might actually inspire one to rest, be still and listen, and find that there is no rush, now-here to go. Quiet sitting often has an energising and certainly an illuminating quality that lifts us closer to that eternal now.

This companion called impatience is perhaps best reflected in these familiar phrases, "I am so tired of..."

"I can't wait for..." "It is taking so long.." I have too much to do.." I don't have the time..." Can we be aware and eliminate some of this mental posturing? The method Silva calls it mental house-cleaning and in reference to one's health includes such phrases as "It/she/he gives me a headache/pain.." (I am sure you can think of others) with the idea that we create with our thoughts our daily path.

Abundance

Some of you have asked why I shaved my head and how is my diet? This I will share with you. As part of the detox, and in solidarity with all cancer sufferers I made a clean cut. I really enjoyed the feeling, but it is quite cold and it has begun to grown in soft tufts of white and black. Oh there we go, now I must reveal the fact that middle age is this crazy feeling in this culture of youth and beauty that is literally only skin deep, a dye, a cut, a derma-brasion away. I embrace the fact that I am beautifully salt and pepper, and will not put chemicals on my skull again.

My diet is abundant with fruits and vegetables. Now the citrus are in season, sweet fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juices are desirable. Papayas are prolific in the garden, and I just finished that last of the pile of green coconuts. To eat the latter, I chop the top off with a hatchet and drain the sweet milk, then cut the husk and shell in half and scrape the sweet meat to combine with any number of smoothies. I particularly like it with the papaya or watermelon in the morning. What is left goes to the squirrels. We found a winter avocado tree, small round hard shelled but delicious, so I had luscious avocado dressing on my salads.

Salads are full of raw veggies such as spinach, celery, carrot, spring onion, sun chokes, radishes, parsley, cilantro, whatever there is in the organic market and lots of fresh sprouts. I do try to eat as much as I can organic.

Sprouts are easy. I found a box of Mason jars at our local supermarket chain and in the section with sponges,etc, I found cheesecloth. I cover the bottom of the jars with sprouting seeds, lay a thin piece of the cheese cloth on top of the jar and secure it with the rim of the lid. Then I rinse them with filtered water, drain thoroughly and turn them upside down on a drying rack. That is it. Then all you have to do is rise and drain them twice a day. Once they sprout, you can store them in the fridge and they last several days. I had to experiment a little to get the quantity that I would use. The tendency at first was to make too much.

I invite other cancer patients to write to me and share their journey because I do believe there is not one way of healing. We are all intrinsically individuals, jewels on the web and each of us has a unique view point and perceptions of our own. Pain is personal, thought provoking, and often unspeakable, but sharing is a sweet golden gift. I thank my dear friends that have been sharing this journey with me.

"..on the whole this world is a very anxious one. whether you are happy are sad, whether you are exuberantly joyful or miserable, it's still an anxious world we are living in. According to Buddhist tradition, anxieties can be transformed into mindfulness and awareness. Anxiety itself can be a reminder, a nudge that keeps waking us up again and again. It is up to us whether we try to get rid of that reminder and make everything smooth, beautiful and fantastic, or whether we try to make the world into a training ground to learn more, which I suggest is preferable." Chogyam Trungpa