Feeling Groovy

It's been over two weeks that I've been eating a diet prescribed by Dalal Akoury, M.D. to eliminate toxins in my body and begin (finally) to take control of my health through a proper diet.

It's a lot of damn work!

My goal is to - simply - feel better and try to stop using some of the many pharmaceutical drugs I have come to rely on as a chronically ill person. And to put a halt to future degradation of my physical well-being. Can I do it?

I still don't know.

First of all, some of the foods are tasteless and I have to find novel ways to spice them up - literally. Secondly, it is pricey to buy all natural, organic, free-range foods. So much of what used to exist naturally in our fruits, vegetables, chickens and cows has been altered up to 4000 per cent since the 1970's, leaving many nutrients behind, explains Dr. Akoury and the research studies I have been reading.

Lastly, I have to cook. I hate cooking. I used to love to bake and I will return to that now that I have healthful recipes to try. We really need to all go back to the prairie yet I just read in my local newspaper today that a family is being fined for keeping goats and chickens on their property. Zoning doesn't allow it and we all know those laws grew out of great hygiene concerns of the last century or so.

But I'm feeling good and that has to count for something! Yeah, I'm still cheating now and then but food is love for the soul - or is it the other way around? Don't care. Gonna keep trucking and trying.

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In other news, I must speak about our own paradigms for suffering or tragedy. When we are in crisis, we are told to look towards someone who has it worse to put things in perspective. It's good advice and it may help for the moment but your individual crisis is - well - individual and personal to you. Pain, whether in body or spirit, is real. Anguish is real. Distress, in whatever form, affects us no matter how many others have trouble in their own lives. But recognizing and empathizing with others' troubles are what make us human and connected.

Today is my niece's birthday. She is nearly my age having been born to a sister who is 18 years older than me. I wished her a Happy Birthday even though she is in the throes of one of the biggest challenges of her life. Knowing her, she will tackle what seems to be insurmountable right now with grace and acceptance - in due time. I ache for her and her family; yet I also know she will still be the first one to help someone else in need even during this time of sheer agony for her.

This blog, then, is written in honor of my amazing, wonderful, compassionate, brilliant niece. May the food on her table be bountiful and prepared with love, the prayers sent her family's way count as high as the stars, and the tremendous difficulty of her family's healing journey begin today.

I love you, Leslie.