Sunday, January 31, 2010

LINKS and Detox stage II

I have been thinking about links. I promised a friend that I would send her a link (below) and we all regularly send electronic links for a fav website or u tube video. The word is a special one because we are all linked to each other, to this rock that lives and breathes that we call Planet Earth, and all its myriad of life forms.
Many are the ways to create a link and many are the ways to break one. Regardless of your beliefs, the link of the life-energy is the most powerful and is maintained through the all pervasive Love that supports and empowers us; this I send as my Valentine.

Life is wonderful

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite celebrations (What better than to celebrate love!) and February one of the best months down here in So. Florida because it is still cool, yet warm enough to have a garden and go barefoot.
As this blog is about my path of healing, I fear that I have side tracked a little and some of you have asked about my diet, etc. Well diet consists of not only what we eat, but what we consume daily in our lives; news, videos, visual input/ output, our breath, traffic.....you get the picture. (Nov 4, 2009 post describes my initial diet) I have made some changes, spend my mornings quietly, reading and breathing....wow ! I am breathing!!! keeping my life simple for now, eating and preparing organic live food. I am sprouting daily and love the taste, radish, lentil, alfalfa, fenugreek, and sesame. My garden is beginning to produce greens, I ate fresh arugula and spring onions in my salad today. I make a dressing with olive oil, umboshi plum, and sometimes I add some fresh herbs. .
I visited a Naturopath this week in the lovely town of Port Charlotte on the west coast of Florida. It is about a two and 1/2 hour drive. The beaches are clean over there ( the east coast has been compromised by civilisation!) and still have the white sands that feel so soft and lovely on one's bare feet. The day was a beautiful winter day that warmed up to 70 F by mid day. A very good friend came with me and we perused Suzanne Somers book Breakout on the drive up. She strongly advocates bio identical hormone therapy.... *more on that later.
hibiscus
The office of Dr Robert Morse is cheerful and the staff is happy. It is clean and painted with colorful flowers. He sat with us for over two hours explaining about the cells and how they function in the body and what they need within the two basic systems, blood and lymph.

I have been on an alkaline diet since my diagnosis in October, eating organic green juices which I juice myself, and salads as well as taking supplements. I still eat no meat, breads, milk, or refined sugar of any kind.

I will not go into all the details of his assessments of my state of health, but on his recommendation, I have added fruits, fresh and organic to flush out my kidneys and I will try to eat all raw for the next four weeks.
If I find it gets too cold, I will add a cooked sweet potato or make a warm broth with the left over roughage from the green juices (I add water and steam it for a few minutes then strain the roughage out and add some sea vegetables which I steam for an other few minutes, maybe adding daikon, green onions or leeks. I am still resting quite a lot as my body won't let me maintain the schedule I had become accustomed to, but slowly I intend to regain/ regenerate a clean healthy energy
"Nature uses detoxification as its main source of cleaning impurities. This is the only true way to heal and cure yourself of anything."
This is the link to his website: (http://www.godsherbs.com/)
*When I asked him about bio identical hormones, he said something that I think we need to consider. Once you start supplementing your body with artificial hormones, the body will quit making them. Perhaps it is better to strengthen the cellular tissues naturally, clean the lymphatics, and trust nature. I will do more research on this, and if any of my readers have feedback, I will certainly be happy to hear what you think or have experienced. I welcome any questions you have and thank you for all the support.

I close with a quote from Dr. Morse's workbook,
"Your physical body is an organic, carbon based being. It is an expression of the awareness and the consciousness of God. It expresses itself and is maintained and repaired via over 76 trillion cells or units (states) of awareness.

Happy Valentine's Day
Share your Love !
Tanza

Friday, January 15, 2010

Walking


This week we had a cold spell. How we all complained!! ... we are not accustomed to heaters and heavy jackets and shoes and socks. Nights were in the thirties(F) and even my cat stayed indoors. My sister Nina came down from Pennsylvania and found it quite a nice change from below zero.
We had a nice couple of days together including a trip to Butterfly world where even the butterflies had been kept indoors and were slowly being reintroduced to the atrium as the weather began to warm. Today it is back in the 70's F and feels great! Our conversations circled around healing emotional and physical hurts and taking charge.


Why is it after a crisis I feel the need to speak? Perhaps those are the days we make the most progress, perceiving a dark cloud in ones mind and finding a way through it to the light again. I have been resting a lot and my past active non-stop personality jumped in and criticised my indolence or what I have been defining as inertia.
Inertia:
Origin1705-15 Latin : lack of skill, slothfulness
Synonyms: torpor, inaction, laziness

Physics.
The property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted on by an external force.

LORIKEETS



















"
It is the child that sees the primordial secret in Nature and it is the child or ourselves we return to. the child within is simple and daring enough to live the Secret" LAO-TZU


I prefer the definition of retaining its state of rest along a straight line, but my crazy head calls me inactive and lazy, closer to the 17 century definition.

Regardless, today is a new day and I began by a walk in the hood. It is a clear cool winter morning Florida style and I observed the big ficus trees wrapped around themselves, the live oaks, two entwined as one, and picked a small bouquet of fresh fragrant jasmine, juxtaposed in between an old fence and the trash along the alley where I chose to walk. The idea to walk this bright morning came from Julia Cameron's book The Vein of Gold. Maybe some of you know her from The Artists Way.

Her task is to walk daily 20 minutes. Try it?

Monday, January 4, 2010

Poem


Happy New Year! 2010 has arrived and with it, the celebration of hope and optimism for all things prosperous and beneficial to Nature. We are but a small part yet must inevitably play a large part in her regeneration and healing.

This blog I dedicate in gratitude to all the wonderful people who have been encouraging me. Through your prayers dear friends, sisters and mothers, I find solace and strength. What follows is a poem that was sent to me, and was written by a Celt, John O’Donohue.

I found it deeply resonated with many of my initial emotions and thoughts. If you care to take the time to read it, You will also find two beautiful poems about blessings http://elspeththompson.wordpress.com/

I don't wish to fill the space with more
words, so for now,in the words of the Incredible String Band.
" May all love shine upon you"


JOHN O'DONOHUE
Poet, Philosopher

On the occasion of his official opening of
The art collection of Inis Aoibhinn
Cancer Care West - Residence and Support Centre
Friday 14th September 2007


For a Friend on the Arrival of Illness.

Now is the time of dark invitation.


Beyond a frontier you did not expect,


Abruptly your old life seems distant.


You barely noticed how each day

Opened a path through fields never questioned,


Yet expected deep down to hold treasure.


Now your time on earth becomes full of threat,


Before your eyes your future shrinks.


You lived absorbed in the day-to-day,


So continuous with everything around you 


That you could forget you were separate.


Now this dark companion has come between you


Distances have opened in your eyes


And you feel that against your will


A stranger has married your heart.


Nothing before has made you feel 
So isolated and lost…

When the reverberations of shocks subside in you


May grace come to restore you to balance.


May it shape a new space in your heart


To embrace this illness as a teacher


Who has come to open your life to new worlds.


May you find in yourself a courageous hospitality


Towards what is difficult, painful and unknown.


May you learn to use this illness as a lantern 


To illuminate the new qualities that will emerge in you.


May the fragile harvesting of this slow light 


Release whatever has become false in you.


May you trust this light to clear a path


In all the fog of old unease and anxiety,


Until you feel arising within you a tranquillity


Profound enough to call the storm to stillness.

May you find the wisdom to listen to your illness 


Ask it why it came, 


Why it chose your friendship,


Where it wants to take you,


What it wants you to know,


What quality of space it wants to create in you,


What you need to learn to become more fully yourself,


That your presence may shine in the world.


May you keep faith with your body,


Learning to see it as a holy sanctuary


Which can bring this night wound


Gradually towards the freedom and healing light of dawn.

May you be granted the courage and vision


To work through passivity and self-pity,


To see the beauty you can harvest 


From the riches of this dark invitation.


And may you learn to receive it graciously,


And promise to learn swiftly that it may leave you newborn


Willing to dedicate your time to birth.

Go raibh mile maith agaibh.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Happy Holidays





Blessings and Joy

I wasn't really sure where to post this or if I should just send a group email, but this format is simpler to post photos and write my rambling thoughts. The subject also seems to be in sinc with healing, forgiveness and understanding and maybe even New Years resolutions(?) So here I am again.
I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading and meditation. Years ago I took a workshop with a Slovenian artist named Marko Pogacnik, who leads seminars in earth healing.
Sometimes I think that we tend to blame our illnesses on our toxic environment and if we improve the quality of our food, water, air, etc we will not have so much disease. Yes this is most likely true, but sometimes I feel quite helpless in the face of the overwhelming facts of global warming and where do I/ can I help. I do believe that it is the individual that creates change. I have been revisiting the teachings of Pogacnik and came across this bit, which I would like to share.

This is a passage from his book which I found inspiring, a little different and immediately accessible:

If more and more people find inner peace and attunement with their true Selves, the resulting healing energy will necessarily have an effect on planetary life systems. Earth-healing processes are stimulated even if nothing specific has been undertaken in this respect. This feedback process, which is based on the law of macro-microcosmic resonance, is the reason I am convinced that embarking on a process of personal transformation is the most important contribution towards earth healing we can make. It is also the most democratic; no one can worm their way out of it by claiming ignorance of earth healing. It is simply down to the way we treat our own bodies, thoughts and emotions. None of us can escape this responsibility for all of life and, to put it the other way around, we can all contribute in our own unique way towards healing the earth.
From Healing the Heart of the Earth

Beautifully put and has quite exciting possibilities don't you think?
from the garden

Today I met a man named Raoul who opened a raw food restaurant with his wife called Green Wave.
http://www.greenwavecafe.org/
He took the time to talk to me and in that conversation I became so convinced that I have chosen not only the right path for healing but that this is truly a new and trans formative path. Also I had a delicious salad and saw possibilities of new recipes for tasty energising food. His wife gives classes in raw food preparation.




I wish you all a healthy and happy holiday season, take time and take care
Tanza

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Storm
Hello friends and family,
It is time to post something of my life back in the fast lane. Storm is my constant companion and yesterday when I had a little melt down he gazed into my eyes like he knew.
Lucky me to have such a loving soft boy. ok I know I feed him on demand, but it is his main pleaseure other than sleeping. Oh how we can learn from animals!
Speaking of feeding, I am still on a vegy diet and really enjoy the challenge of varying the salads and drinks. I started sprouting. Everyone should sprout. It is so easy, so nutritious and delicious.
I continue on the cancer protocol of MMS morning and night and have added some vitiamin and mineral supplements.
As healing is not just a diet I am working on changing my lifestyle and lower the stress level which is not easy in this environment. I am still adjusting to the traffic, noise and apparent lack of human interaction in our daily lives. I am learning breathing, deep into my organs and spend more time in simple quiet between work. I have to learn how to manange my energy and still be able to do what I do which at times can be strenous and demanding.
The meltdown was just such a problem. I worked all weekend and Monday did not allow my body to recover, how easy it was to fall into old patterns of pushing myself instead of stopping and enjoying a good rest curled up in the garden like my cat!
The new pattern is emerging however, one of joy in the richness of time, of enjoying chopping and preparing holistic (whole) foods, living without rushing, listening, gardening, being.
Please continue with your prayers and healing thoughts because I am convinced that there is great power in love and faith, it is by grace we are here.


ginger

I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
suddenly God was speaking.
"My Name is I AM"
I waited.
God continued
" When you live in the past,
with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not 'I Was'
When you live in the future,
with its problems and fears,
it is hard,
I am not there
My name is not 'I Will Be'
When you live in this moment,
it is not hard.
I AM here.
My name is 'I AM'."

Love, Tanza


Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!


Good Morning from So Florida! After two days of thundershowers and rain, this morning, the day of giving thanks, the sun is brilliant, the plants are rejoicing and the birds are singing.
I have been back in my little cottage and garden since Saturday morning, re-integrating into the American culture, the noises of traffic, and of course the time change.This morning I slept until 7:30a.m, so the lag in time is lessening. I've even begun to weed and clear out the neglected garden!
I got booked on a last minute gig as Pocohantas:) for a Thanksgiving dinner at a nice hotel. Great to be working! I am thankful for that!

I have had one day this week when I felt doubts as to my choice in healing, but I cannot afford to fall into indolence and self indulgence. The path is clear before me. Traveling weakened my system somewhat and that weakens me emotionally too, so I am concerned now with rebuilding and strengthening.
I visited the White Crane Healing Arts, and got lots of new information on preparing sea vegetables, and as I type this I am enjoying a clear kombu broth soup with carrots and daikon, garnished with spring onions. yum.
Meditation is a main staple of my diet (everything we do is in a sense is consuming, digesting, processing..)as well as learning to breathe with my whole body.

I am also still doing research and have found some things that I would like to share and that might be of interest on this blog.
"Stress is the major root cause of cancer and must be reduced and elininated"
There it is; Joy, Thank full ness, Appreciation, really Look, Listen and care for those around you.
Forgiveness is essential and I find that a daily task on this path of life. I can get very judgemental and resentful at times when things aren't exactly as I think they should be. But guess what, the Divine has a master plan that we are all a part of, and I know from experience that what seems like blessing may be a curse and what seems like a curse may be a blessing!!

"The most common stress on the body is eating and abusing harmful foods. Health begins with what you eliminate from your diet, not with what you add.....
Cancer can come only alive and grow in a body that is lacking oxygen"
www.Paul Nison.com
The reason I think for eating raw veggies, sea veggies and sprouts is that they contain chlorophyll (Chlorophyll enables plants to convert the sun's energy into nutrients that can be used by living organisms and is similar to the hemoglobin in human blood)

Changing the way of thinking and living is part of the healing process and if I can give you one thing it would be enjoy everything you do.

As a final note I found this little gem. I like the imagery it gave me and also I think one should be wary of mammograms. Educate yourself.

Cancer was named by the ancients, after the great veins that usually surround the malignant growth, who compared them to the "claws of a crab" or "cancer" (Latin). - Reich

Editor's note: These great veins carry glucose to the cancer site. Also, the increased blood flow to the cancer creates a "hot spot" that is the basis for "thermography" which can see cancer years before "mammography". Mammography looks for the increased density of tumors. Thermography is a much more gentle procedure that does not require squashing the breasts (contributes to breast sagging), nor does it expose the breasts to cancer-causing radiation, making it much safer than mammography. Modern high-resolution thermography devices are much more accurate and reliable than mammography. For initial screening, thermography should replace mammography everywhere immediately.

Especially today I would like to thank those of you who have kept in touch through little notes and calls. The smile is by my computer. How truly blessed I am to receive them. Forgive my selfishness if I don't always respond, but I do feel deeply your love and am grateful for your continued support.

Blessings, Tanza


Monday, November 9, 2009

Step by Step

Monday Nov.9
Today I discovered Suzanne Somer's blog which I share with you here. She speaks about a chemosensitivity test. important?
I would say so!
http://www.suzannesomers.com/Blog/2009/10/default.aspx

Information is our greatest protection. My wonderful acupuncturist/Taoist friend said to me, "Tanza, you must take responsibility for your body/health"...or something like that. And of course like always, he manages to say the right thing.

That is my goal, to take responsiblility for the decisions that I make daily, hourly, in regard to my thoughts, my way of being, what I consume and how much.

I will pay attention when I need rest, listen when that little bubble of joy comes and focus on making it grow, like trying to blow a big soap bubble and it keeps popping, I will persevere until I get the biggest bubble you've ever seen!

You ask me if I am sad or afraid with the diagnosis, I would say to you that a broken heart is much more debilitating..
."who needs a heart when a heart can be broken...what's love got to do with it?"

Yet now even with all the different thoughts that are roaming around in my brain like a restless monkey, I feel my heart opening to a greater love, a deeper understanding of the ways of being, each moment an opportunity to learn, to grow, to become. We are not separate and we all suffer from these dis-eases, as the planet is suffering. Perhaps cancer is an opportunity to understand our role in shaping a clean non toxic earth, an opportunity to practice our response-ability, to listen to our inner voice and live truly.

Tuesday Nov. 10
I went to the cancer center today to pick up all the results of the tests today; one of them being the pet scan.(Positron emission tomography). I saw the pictures, quite amazing the body, the brain, the heart and there is the tumor in the shape of a heart.

(If the biologically active molecule chosen for PET is FDG, an analogue of glucose, the concentrations of tracer imaged then give tissue metabolic activity, in terms of regional glucose uptake.)(FDG, as a glucose analog, is taken up by high-glucose-using cells such as brain, kidney, and cancer cells, where phosphorylation prevents the glucose from being released again from the cell, once it has been absorbed....As a result FDG-PET can be used for diagnosis, staging, and monitoring treatment of cancers, particularly in Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, and lung cancer. It has also been approved for use in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. )wikipedia definitions
The care here has been wonderful, extremely supportive, inexpensive and efficient. I feel very fortunate that I was able to undergo all these tests and now have all the information that I need. Step by step.