The Best Day Ever!

My kids say it at the end of almost every day. And each time they say it with a fervor and authenticity that is undeniable.
"Today was the BEST day EVERRRRRRR!"
They recount several things that made it so...got a prize at school, his brother shared a Jamba Juice, and on top of that we played Foosball and he won! The BEST Day EVERRRR obviously!

Kids make it so by saying so. Sometimes they say so ahead of time. As I am wetting their hair down before they go to school, like a Momma Tiger licks her cubs, they say seriously, "Mom, today is going to be the best day ever. It's Thursday and we get to wear our slippers to school."

Being inspired by our children has us see the world in a new way. What if we declared that Today is going to be the BEST DAY EVER?

Yesterday my friend did that. And told me. She did this not to tell me just to share it with me, like to have a friend hear her, but because she and I both know, because of our unique friendship, that she is then accountable for seeing and causing her day to be that way. I loved her courage and I joined in and declared the same.

And it was, The BEST DAY EVERRRR!

First of all, I woke up and wrote. Not my blog like I usually do, but an idea that had percolated over night about creating a Moms March across the country to label GMO's. I sent it to the 43 organizers in Southern California that bonded together on Prop 37. Even though I hardly knew some, a few I had connected with instantaneously over the cause and passing out flyers, we are sisters and brothers in unity.
The response was fantastically positive. Moms said Yes and gave ideas, connections to people that could help and my heart began to race. When I have an idea like this, something comes over me. It's like a wave of white light. I speculate about it and something in my body buzzes...This is it. You must do this. This is HUGE. The little voice, the one that is not my friend gets washed away by the wave. Every once in a while, when my energy is down, it will shout from a distant shore "Are you crazy? You can't do that! At least not RIGHT anyway! You are going to mess it up!"
But then someone from my community, who is now listening to me as who I said I was, emails me or calls and reminds me what I have already created (just by sharing it). The waves keep coming and I am swimming with the tide, carried by my community, towards the shore where I land on firm ground and walk into my future I created.

Yesterday, shortly after the email was sent out, Pamm Larry the Italian Grandma who organized the entire Prop 37 ballot measure, the woman I had just posted the day before as my hero, emailed ME and said if I wanted to call her to talk about this idea that she would get back to me. I DID! I called her immediately, while I was shopping in Mother's. I gave my four year old a bag of organic gummies to occupy him and I heard her answer the phone. "Pamm Larry?" "Yes." "OH MY GOD! I am so thrilled to be speaking with you!"
I was part shouting part laughing with glee and almost crying. My voice didn't know what to do. I was talk to my real life hero. I realized that she probably didn't have a lot of time for my blubbering so I composed myself and we talked about my idea.
"I love your idea," she said "And we will support you. Just get us a good plan, what you need, how you are going to do this, and we meet next week and support you."
I found myself saying "Thank you thank you! Fantastic! I love you!"
She laughed and said "I love you too." and we said goodbye and hung up.

"Whoooooohoooooo!" I shouted, jumping up and down in the aisle. "YES!!!! I just talked to Pamm Larry!!!" Shoppers turned to stare at me.
I beamed like a banshee. I called my husband to tell him and I heard his gears turning "Here we go! Zen is taking off on a big project!" but this time, even though this is bigger than any of my projects, festivals and fundraisers I have organized before, he didn't sound skeptical and concerned about the overload of work. He was impressed with the partnership I was forming. This project will be done well...because of the level of partners I am creating.

Yesterday was the best day ever because I created a whole new future for myself. We actually do this everyday, whether we declare it the best day or not. Everyday, children, teens, adults we create a new future for ourselves. Whether we complete a task or project and then create a new future for ourselves by having a wide open space for whatever is next, or we take on something new..going to the gym for the first time in years, calling a friend we haven't spoken to in months, planting a garden, writing a new chapter, each action creates something possible in the future. Everyday we are taking actions that create a new future for ourselves.

Sometimes that future could look a lot like more of the same. Sometimes it looks so different and big and, if we let it, becomes so scary that we recall it and shove it on the back burner. And other times, we let it wash over us like a wave, pulling us to a new land where everything is new and we are an adventurer in our own life.

I wish you the BEST DAY EVER and many adventures ahead.

With Love,
Zen Honeycutt

GMO Jedi's

The devastation I experienced last night when I was told that Prop 37, to label genetically modified food (GMO's), was lost, choked the tears right out of me. I stood in Mother's Market parking lot and bawled right in front of my family. The fact that greed and lies could win shook me to the core of my being.
My four year old son touched my wet cheeks and our exchange student Yanie, clouded over with concern. A peppy Mom came up and tried to cheerfully argue the sadness out of me, reminding me that only 17% of the vote was in.
But the percentage of blinded naysayers progressed accordingly and we lost.

The physical sensation of loss is body numbing.
My brain checked out too and I threw all caution to the wind when I saw the PTA President at school. The poor overworked woman got the brunt of my upset as I spewed upset terse words about being denied my first amendment right to free speech when I was denied my request to be able to speak at the PTA meeting about GMO's. I was an uncorked, un-showered and uninhibited and I embarrassed myself. My anger had me shaking when I got home. Before I was fighting the good fight. Now they just gone and done pissed me off! Was this who I was going to be? Some angry bitch?

I eventually breathed, ate and drank some water and realized that I am not committed to being angry about this, so I made amends to the PTA President, and we are creating the possibility of me doing a Topic Talk about genetically modified foods at the school with my son Ben. I am touched by her generosity and commitment to the school. We are creating that he can present his Happy Healthy Students Report and parents can find out how to support their kids' behavior, focus and performance in school.
I am not done. I will never be done supporting my sons', communities', nation's and worlds' health and empowerment in life.
And I see that sadness and anger will not support me in that endeavor. It's not bad or wrong, it is just not effective. It doesn't work.

When I told my 9 yr old, who has been right there with me at Honk n Waves and passing out flyers, that Prop 37 lost for sure this morning, he saw the disappointment on my face and he said, "Mom even Star Wars took 6 episodes to win." And they had YODA!
He was not sad, he was ready for the next episode! Adventure!

I am so inspired by children. Kathleens Hallal's awesome sons made this poster. This is the Art of Inspired Parenting...to stand for something, to express yourself, support THEM to express themselves, to connect with your kids in what matters to all of you...and to listen when they really are just a whole lot smarter than you. :)

Children play games all the time. They make up rules and they always set themselves up to win. If someone else tells them they lost, they get on with it. They end that game and then make up a new game. They declare themselves winner just because they say so.
So I declare I am a winner at being a GMO Jedi! I fought a good fight!I jumped in about Episode 4 I am guessing, as this fight has been going on for 14 years already and thousands of tireless, extraordinary GMO Jedi's came before me. Hats off to you. Today I rest my laser, but not the force. Today I am still a Jedi.

Love to you all who read my constant posts about Prop 37.
Love to you all who remained my Facebook friend.
Love to you all who read this blog in the twenty two other countries around the world.
Love to all of you who shared, passed out flyers, sweated in the sun by day and made calls across the USA by night.
Here's to you. Jedi's in life, in your games.
May the Force be with You.

Zen Honeycutt

!

2012 The End of the World as We Know It

It's happening. A shift in consciousness. Maybe not for everyone, but it is happening. And it's huge. There are people who see the world in a completely different way than a few years ago, or even 6 months ago. We look around and we cannot ever see the world the same way again. We can never go back.

Think about it...if you have seen "Genetic Roulette" movie, if you have watched "Forks over Knives "Corn Kings", "The Future of Food" or "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" the way you view food, your health, the governemnt and your life is completely transformed from a year ago.

Look down any aisle of a main stream grocery store and all you see is crap. What was once a row of viable food options is now a disgusting, greedy marketing ploy that you are no longer blinded to. Junk food, red food dye, corn syrup containing genetically modified food, cheap food fillers, aspartame, MSG, Nitrates and Sulfites, pesticides and preservatives scream like irritating toddlers to be picked up. NO.

Look down any main street USA, on the edge of town by the car dealerships and all you see are fast food joint signs blaring. All they serve is crap. Cheap, fast, easy crap. What used to be a treat for the kids and yourself is now an establishment that evokes memories of bloated aching stomach aches and regretful trips to the toilet.

Look down any road in a farming town and all we see are fields of crap crops.
GMO corn covered in pesticides doesn't even taste like corn and that the farmers won't even eat. Corn that has pesticides inside the DNA that is designed to reproduce and explode the stomach of the bug that eats it. An expensive experiment on mankind and the environment that is not working. A crappy solution to feeding the world.

Watch any TV show and all you see are commercials for crap. Weed killer, cheap chips, GMO corn syrup based candy or soda dancing before your eyes. Now you can see though, and you know, none of it works for your body, most of it doesn't work for the environment, and it doesn't work for our society, to be constantly consuming products made of plastic and pressed wood with chemicals,and food made of cheap ingredients toxic to the body, is just one crappy idea after another flashing on the screen.

One would think that seeing crap everywhere would be a miserable way to live. It is, at times, if I am not present to choice.
The thing is there has long been crap everywhere, I just didn't see it. Now I am present to choice. Now I know and I have the ability to take actions correlate to what I am committed to. This is a wonderful way to live and an extremely empowering perspective.

I, we, have choice. We are not being force fed in a labor camp. We are not starving in a desert. Even if you WIC coupons for food, you still have choice, you can choose the food you eat. You can alter your health through your choices. We have much to be grateful for.

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I have to choose my food, alter my health and my families' health, performance in life and entire future. I have a Mother's, Trader Joe's, Sprouts and several international markets within a ten minute drive in any direction with healthy options. I have a Farmer's Market with fresh organic veges and fruits every Friday outside my local library. The fact is, if I didn't see the other options as crap I wouldn't see these alternative options as valuable. They would only occur to me as other options and basing my life on convenience, as Americans are wont to do, I would merely go for the closest, cheapest and fastest option. Convenience once occurred to me as the smartest choice. My consciousness has shifted. That view has ended. Smart is no longer the most convenient. Smart is the one that offers the most value according to what works for the health of my family.

This shift not only affects our food and health... once I started questioning the status quo in food and health I began to see other areas of my life where I have been blind to what really works. The ending brought forth a beginning. Financial choices, time management, leadership choices and involvement with my community...I see now I can choose rather than just go with what is normally expected. My husband and I can create from our partnership rather than convenience. This empowers us and our children to do things like; give when we feel like receiving, create art when we feel like watching, share when we feel like retreating, hike when we feel like sitting and speak up when we feel like quitting. There may be crap around us, but we are seeing the gold and choosing to live life in a way that works for us.
For me 2012 was the end of the world as I knew it.
I am grateful that this is the year I woke up.

Thank you to all the peaceful warriors for an empowered planet. You know who you are. I love you.

Zen Honeycutt

That Weird GMO Lady

I used to be angry with the hippie types outside the grocery stores, eagerly confronting me with a clip board and huge smile about a bunch of Props I was never going to remember. I would get terse and resentful. I have things to do...can't you see my three kids squawking about the grocery cart and who gets to choose the cereal? Geez. Some people....
I would brush them off and make sure not to make eye contact again on the way out. I would feel guilty and upset for many more minutes than warranted...but for good reason. Ignoring the people who were trying to better the world was crappy. I could at least give them 30 seconds of my time. But I didn't, I wrote them off as weirdos who didn't have enough to do in life, probably people who lived alone with too many cats, OCD types who got obsessed with saving the whales or where the money should go in city coffers....who has the time for these things?
I've got important things to do for God's sake. I have to get toilet paper and frozen blueberries.

I am one of "those people" now. I make time. Today was the first of many days that I will stand in the sun and wear bright buttons and talk to complete strangers about how they should vote. I am THAT person. I don't care what you look like or how fast you are walking or how many squawking kids you have (I will in fact persue you more with a gracious smile) because this Prop 37, a California bill to Label GMO's, is something that affects every single one of us, and that we can all make time for. We may not want to know about it, but if we do, we can literally be a major cause of whether or not we have great grandchildren (studies have shown that rats that eat GMO food, their third generation is sterile). We can cause that we don't get cancer (there are studies that link to cancer and allergies, weight gain and digestive diseases, read "The Unhealthy Truth" or "Seeds of Deception") or suffer from allergies for the rest of our life. If we get Prop 37 passed in California, being the 8th largest economy in the world, it will alter the future of the human race. Food manufacturers will need to change the ingredients of their food and actually make healthy food.

I am PASSIONATE about this issue. So much so that all fear, weirdness, or reasons about being busy dissapear and I find myself eye to eye with a woman who has cancer and who never heard of GMO's and promises to put a bumper sticker on her car and let thousands of people a day know about Prop 37 and saying YES to label GMO's. That moment of recognition, of her sadness and pain, of her confusion over why this is happening to her, has me ready to stand in the sun for another hour.
And when my three year old, who is sitting in his stroller playing with a monkey in the shade points out that I missed a man, I see that he wants to be a part of this connecting I am doing with people. He will "tell me about all the people" ( be my helper) and my heart fills with joy. I get that he gets to see his Mom go up to complete strangers, talk with them and leave them smiling or at least aware of something in a new way. Some may be terse, but I don't give up and sit down. I keep at it, and someday he will get that it takes tenacity and relatedness to connect with people about issues that are important.
It will be much easier for me to teach my kids to be leaders if I am a leader. It will be much easier to teach them to be polite, gracious and related if I do that. It will be much more rewarding for me and for them to be people who make a difference in the world.
I can't choose for them, I can only choose for me.

Each person I see is connected to thousands of people. Each person is very important to many people. Our health, our body is really all we have to be in the world, taking care of it by feeding it real healthy food, will impact our lives and our children's lives for generations.

Every single vote matters because every single person matters.
If that makes me weird, than bring it on!
If you want to be weird...related, connected and make a difference too, check out
http://www.carighttoknow.org/

Zen Honeycutt

Unpopular

What I have to say is very unpopular. I think it's making my family unpopular too. I am pretty sure we may not be getting invited to BBQ's and family dinners because people have heard me talk about my kid's multitude of allergies and wonder what the hell they would feed us. So they don't bother, too complicated. I really don't blame them. No one wants to have people over that are complicated.

Then there are others that I have also shared the very inconvenient and unhealthy truth about GMO's in our food, and man, they get a clouded look on their face like it's just not something they ever wanted to know. They don't want to hear it. It's not a fun topic. I can relate. I didn't want to know about it either.
They also don't want to be scrutinized for what they serve and they don't want to have to scrutinize what they buy at the store. It's just too damn hard. So they don't invite us over.
So invite them, you might say. Yes, I could, and do sometimes. Those are the times when people bring over food. Do I ask if it's organic before letting my kids eat it? Is that considered a faux pas in etiquette? Usually I just let my kids eat it, sometimes I eat it myself, and then later, when my son's or husband's lips have puffed up from an allergic reaction or my stomach aches and I am crankier than cat hanging by it's tail, I regret it. And I am not quick to invite people over again either.

GMO's are impacting our health AND social life and I am not happy about it.
Oh Waaaah! You may think I am crying like a baby. I get it. Just be responsible and bring my own food and suck it up.
I know. Fine.

The thing is, it wasn't always this way and doesn't have to be this way.

My Mom didn't have to make gluten free pizza for me with non dairy cheese and a gluten free/egg free cupcake before going to a birthday party. ALOT of Moms do now. Millions. All in the past 10-15 years since GMO's were introduced into our food. And the number is rising. Allergies and GMO foods.And we put up with it.
Or stay home and avoid it. Seriously, if my kids have two things going in a day and the night before we have plans, the answer to going to a birthday party is no. Because what is going to be served there is pizza, cake and soda. If I don't make time to make and bring a bunch of food, my kids will eat what is there. They will leave especially tired and grumpy from the food and a few hours later they are screaming at each other, we are screaming at them and they have some painful rash that last for weeks. It's not worth it. We love people but if this is what it takes to be social we choose to be unpopular.

That place of shutting down is so stinky though isn't it? It's totally not inspiring. My game is to have life be inspiring. So I play.
Today I am playing at planning fun activities with friends that do not involve much food. Just snacks, that we bring. Swimming works. Campfire with healthy smores (there is a brand of marshmallows without GMO corn syrup at Mother's). Park play dates. Board games.

And in the meantime I can just let go of my fear of being unpopular and share what is there for me. Talk to people about GMO's and even ask them if they want to be a part of helping to eliminate them. They may yes. I might even make new friends. Who knows?

Please leave a comment. How do you feel about GMO's in our food? Do you talk with your friends and family about them? What happens?

Zen Honeycutt

GMO hazards:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/07/genetically-engineered-foods-hazards.aspx

GMO's in pregnant women and babies:

http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/organic/new-study-shows-gmo-toxins-in-93-percent-of-pregnant-women/

Want to contact the White House and be heard?
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/contact

Momma Drama

I am doing it again. Creating the Momma Drama.
First, inevitably, there is the discontent with something...mess, boredom, crankiness due to that time of the moneth...something. Lately it has been the neck pain for me and the hours of laying on the couch and watching TV commericals that just lie to us. Coca Cola, McDonald's and Cadbury as sponsors of the Olympics? If I didn't own the TV I would throw something at it. How stupid do they think American's are? Isn't sponsoring something supposed to mean you have some correlation, some connection of relatedness?
As a mother I am apalled that children anywhere, especially in my own home, might think that there is a connection between these diabetes-inducing-companies and the phenomenal athletes and their performance and I make sure to tell them. ARRRGGHH!
You can see the Momma Drama building here.


So at some point, in between complaining to my nothing-but-awesomely-patient-husband and snapping at my adorably affectionate child who just hugged me a little too hard and hurt my neck...I realized I have got to stop focusing on problems and sitting around stewing in my own head...as soon as I am better I am going to create something rather than sitting here reacting to the world around me.

So I created the possibility of being Love and Generosity. And I realized I didn't have to wait until I got better. I can be that anytime, anywhere. So I started to look into, what would be an expression of love and generosity that inspires me?

I found so many things. Number one, being with my kids in a loving way. Realizing that not being able to pick them up and hug them makes a difference for them, so last night I just sat and held my youngest for a long time and just let him sleep beside us and didn't get frustrated with him. Just loved him.

Then I saw that taking action in the other areas that really matter to me, educating the public about Genetically Modified Foods, how they are the cause of allergies and instigate inflammation in the body and rise in cancer...this matters to me. So I contacted the Label GMO's group and got opportunities to volunteer. The fiber of my being stands for healthy kids and people through REAL FOOD.
http://www.labelgmos.org/

Then, while reading an article about a Chinese woman who picked through garbage as a living and found abandoned babies and rescued them, 30 of them, I realized that there is more that we could be doing for the foster kids in our own back yard. Children feeling loved everywhere, this really matters to me.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181017/Lou-Xiaoying-Story-Chinese-woman-saved-30-abandoned-babies-dumped-street-trash.html

And then there is the issue so close to my heart of women having choices, birth centers and access to midwives and doulas, healthcare that covers those services and the education to be able to choose them, Empowered Births, empowered women, peace and love during the first moments of life, this really matters to me.
http://www.facebook.com/EmpoweredBirth.PA

So I have many areas where I would be lit up and fulfilled to make a difference in, and then these opportunities open up, and I cannot be in four places at once. I begin to create more Momma Drama for myself, which one do I choose now? I can't do it all! Am I failing this guy if I don't volunteer today? Which one is more important? Are my kids going to be mad and scream if I go out for three hours? What if what I do doesn't really make a difference? Tension begins to hurt my neck again.
Maybe other people do this too...maybe this is why alot of people don't take on any volunteering at all...the fear of not being able to do enough...creating drama for ourselves which we use as an excuse to not take action.Or if we do, it doesn't go the way we think it should so we let our passion peter out.

See, when I take on a new project, the way it sometimes goes is that my husband and kids are the ones that suffer for it. I suffer too, tension etc, but I am so used to it I hardly notice it. They get the brunt of it. I get excited about something, doing something, making a difference, and that excitement turns into anxiety and angst about getting it done on time or doing it right. We are rushing out the door and I am barking at them and my husband wonders how the hell he got roped into doing something that is supposed to be fun and is turning out to be miserable. He is coming from that FUN, right now, should be the reason why we are doing all this....I am thinking that it is just the way it is that it is rushed and crazy now...fun is for later, during the event. I am living for someday, later, he is living in the moment, the now.

I can see this now, at the time I couldn't or wouldn't, and I am totally not committed to that craziness. I am committed to love and generosity and peace of mind too. For me, for my family and for everyone I connect with.

So in taking on being of service to others, I make a deal with myself. Create a plan, a structure, for how and when and how long. One thing a day. Could be 5 minutes, could be an hour. Have it work. Take a deep breath. Connect with your inner peace and let that out to shine. "Be the Change you want to see in the world" doesn't mean it you can't have any fun or peace in the mean time. On fact, being the fun and the peace, now, is the whole point.




Zen Honeycutt

Creating Our Own Truths

Whole wheat bread, good for you. Lies!
Milk does a body good. Lies!
Formula that is healthy because it is made with the same essential minerals and vitamins as in breast milk? Lies.
Corn flakes; wholesome goodness in every bite (with GMO pesticides), Ensure; packed with vitamins (dyes and high fructose corn syrup), refreshing ice tea (with corn syrup, dyes and aspartame), healthy fruit juice (with high fructose corn syrup), better-for-you diet soda (with aspartame), healthy soy milk (with GMO soy)...lies,lies,lies.

I could go on and on. It baffles me how many friends I now have that also know that the majority of what the media is feeding us as advertising about food is literally all lies...and yet how they still get away with doing it. The public is beginning to know....so why do the lies still work?
Now in other countries, where Grandma makes the bread in the morning and the milk comes from a cow in the back yard, these above statements may be true. But I am talking about here, in America with our current factory farming system and food company conglomerates. There are millions of people for whom the current advertising is a farce.

There has been oodles of noodles of research to show that wheat and gluten is an allergen for millions ( 1 in 4 women over 30), and even some data that shows processed wheat is not healthy for anyone. And yet, it's in almost everything processed. There are entire aisles of food, several ailes in a row, that I just don't walk down. There is no point. It all has cheap filler highly processed wheat in it. It's making us fat, tired, irritable, headachy, rashy, unfocused and distracted at school and work, and stops our bodies from absorbing the vitamins and minerals we need.

The New York Times ran an article yesterday saying "Got Milk? You Don't Need It."
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/07/got-milk-you-dont-need-it/
When for years and years we have been forced to swallow a concept that we won't grow properly if we don't have out three glasses of milk a day. This has been such a truth for some parents that they get tight lipped when their offspring bring up the truth and think it's an offense to their parenting skills. It has nothing to do with parenting and everything to do with major food companies and factory farmers part of a broken system making money.

Formula for babies. The lies they are telling around soy formula in particular are criminal. Soy has been shown, reeatedly in scietific tests, to cause goiters, pancreatic, stomach and colorectal canceer,cause thyroid malfunction, increase estrogen levels and alter the hormonal makeup of children. Sound healthy? Genetically modified soy is in 80% of our soy and is even worse. It has some of the same proteins as peanuts and other foods and when they are exposed to peanuts or the other foods after having GMO soy, they react to the peanuts because their body thinks it's the GMO protiens and voila, life threatening allergies have increased 265% in the past 15 years in children alone. See:http://www.robynobrien.com/the_unhealthy_truth

Synthetic Food dyes in cookies, candy, drinks, cheese, ice cream etc has shown to exacerbate ADHD and cause ADHD like behavior in children without ADHD. When I am volunteering at school, and see an agitated student, who repeatedly disrupts my child's classroom, eating sugar coated cookies for a snack with blue and red sprinkles on it, I want to scream. Parents need to know the truth!

We need to create new truths for ourselves. We can avoid the lies on TV by just choosing to watch quality movies and documentaries on Netflix and Youtube. We can choose to go to Farmer's Markets, bring organic food to parties, buy the whole food that heals and makes us healthy and vote with our money. My kids are under no illusion that they should eat any food other than what works for them and that what they see as commercials are just as much for entertainment as the cartoons they are watching. They are just words to them. Not truths.

Our truth is that kale is delicious, has more calcium than cow's milk and it is a regular part of our diet. Coconut milk ice cream is is divine. Rice milk and water are our staple drinks. Our truth is that sweets without food dyes are much sweeter and that fruit and veges are always in our meal and first choice. Our truth is Gluten Free is the way to be.

May you find and define your own truths. May you sweep aside the lies that are being promoted as truths and see the reality of food. May you be a part of spreading the truth and creating a country of integrity and health. Because ignorance is not bliss, it is subjugation and choosing entrapment. The truth is what works for you, not for them.

Zen Honeycutt

Breakdowns to Breakthroughs in Food

I could cry. Everyday I could cry. When my sons mouth flares up from an allergy what I see is the symptom of possible invisible stomach ulcers forming (which is what happens when the stomach is repeatedly barraged with allergens) and then possible cancer. I fear a warning of death. I am in anguish. Of course I don't react like it. I look him in the eye and tell him we are going to figure it out, and it's going to stop and he is going to get healthy.

But inside I am crying. I am riddled with guilt. What was it this time? I am screaming with rage at the food system. I am imagining the incarceration of greedy food and chemical corporation executives. For the sake of all the others, I want to grab the school lunch workers, the grocery store managers, the camp organizers and my own family members and shake them and yell, "Wake Up! Learn about is in our food! Don't serve that junk to our children! Don't eat that junk! Don't die from your food!"
I feel like I am rock climbing up a sheer cliff with no harness and no end in sight.And when I take my son for another check up and, despite our highly managed diet, discover more allergies, I feel like I am falling. It is a total breakdown in my commitment to healthy children. I love my son so much I can't put words to the love. I will do anything.

The more I research the more I find out the enormity of the situation. It is not just multiple allergies that has me so upset. I can handle making food before we go to parties and saying no to the ice cream truck and birthday cake.
It's the probable, almost certain future I see, one of sickness and a country resigned that this "just is the way it is". I see the reality of Congress recently vetoing the bill to have GMO foods labeled(ARRRGHHH!) and Americans continuing to go blind to the toxins in our foods and the rise in cancer. The probable, almost certain future of more drugs manufactured to feed to millions of children with symptoms from the chemicals genetically engineered into our foods. The probable, almost certain future of the continued rise of autism, allergies, and cancer.

I have a choice though, in what I see. I am human and I will have my times of rage and fear. If I don't I won't be authentic. But I don't empower my sons, myself or my community by stewing in stress.

So I am choosing. This week I created the possibility of being adventurous,love and generosity....what can I create coming from that? What kind of future do I see now?

I choose to be inspired by my sons patience and willingness to drink green goopey drinks. I choose to see the inspiration in the other countries of the world, like Europe, where they have banned food dyes, GMO's and chemicals like sodium benzoate. The food companies make Skittles and processed foods without those additives for them. They have done it. We can too.
I see adventures in eating whole foods, organic and mostly vegetarian. I see beautiful red,orange and yellow fruits and vegetables and homemade fruit bars and crunchy organic kale snacks. I see adventures in cooking with my healthy son!
I see a future where people come together with love and stand for Real Food, where we appeal to lawmaker's love of people and children...where generosity of spirit triumphs over greed.
That is a future that will have me crying tears of joy.

And I am the person to create that future....to cause a breakthrough from a breakdown. So I promise, everyday to take an action to create that....and when I experience the fear and rage I will get it out and then take an action from adventure, love and generosity.
Thank you dear friends for whatever you can do to speak up and tell our government that we stand for Real Food,and we come from love.
Thank you.

Zen Honeycutt

Freedom Food

Today as we prepare to go to 4th of July gathering and stuff our faces, I face a new set of perils I never saw before a few months ago.

The food that will be laid out before us could slowly kill my son...and our family.
This is horrific. Why even write this? Why get panicked and alarmist?
Why not just shut up and enjoy the party and eat the corn chips?

I will enjoy the party, I might even shut up about the food and be gracious.
But I will not eat the corn chips. Neither will my family.

No more corn chips, corn tortillas, popcorn, corn bread or corn on the cob unless it is organic. Oh geez, come on...you might think I am a hippie nutter, neurotic and probably a hypochondriac.

Think what you will. Eat what you will. But know that 80% of the corn is grown from seeds from the largest pesticide company in the world and those seeds are Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's)with pesticides injected into the DNA with the intention of blowing up the stomachs of the insects that eat the corn and killing them. That's less pesticides that they have to spray on the corn, they argue.

What does that do to our stomachs?
Over time, the pesticides cause corrosion of our stomach lining. Couple with the high amounts of acidic foods we eat (highly processed, meats, dairy, junk food etc), soon our stomach have tiny holes in them, a symptom called Leaky Gut, and food escapes. When the food escapes the body thinks it a foreign invader and attacks it. From then on, when ever we ingest that food the body thinks it's an allergen and we develope rashes, stomach aches, headaches, skin irritations, and eventually stomach ulcers and colon problems which lead to cancer.

Life threatening allergies are up 265%. Cancer rates are now 4X higher in our country than others. 1 in 2 men are expected to get cancer and 1 in 3 women. Look around you in your family. Those numbers include our families.
And NO OTHER country in the world allows GMO's except the USA.
They inspire me. We CAN have Freedom in our Food, but first we have to see that we don't.

The fact is, that we are eating food everyday that is GMO and we are not only not informed but we don't have other choices. If we have a limited budget for food, or travel and eat at restaurants, if we shop at a Stop and Shop or chain Stater Brothers etc...most of these stores are the only source of food for miles and do not offer organic, non GMO alternatives. People take what they can get and they don't want to hear bad things about their food. I don't blame them. But it's going to keep going like this unless we DO hear, we DO learn and we DO speak up.

The only way to have Freedom in our FOOD is to fight for it. To speak up for it. To demand it.
All you have to do is ask.
Just take a step and demand from your Congress and Representatives that the people are heard. Say No to GMO's and YES to Real Food on the 4th of July.
"It's the most patriotic thing you can do." - Robyn O'Brien, author of "The Unhealthy Truth."

Here is a link to California Senate and Reps. Please google your states and take a few minutes today to stand for your country.

http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newseek.cgi?site=congressmerge&state=ca

Zen Honeycutt

What I Know and Don’t Know about the Cause of My Sons’ Allergies

I don’t know if it was the induction. I was urged to be induced because he might be “too big” and he came out a skinny, wrinkly 6.8 oz baby covered in vernix. He was not ready. He could have grown stronger in the womb for a week more at least. He ended up being allergic to too many things to write here without losing your interest; a myriad of food, environmental and animal allergies.

I don’t know if it was the vaccines. I gave my son the slew of them. Everything recommended, even the one with five at a time. After that one he started getting random 24 hour fevers and rashes. He had a febrile seizure in the car that nearly had my husband crash the car from panic.

I don’t know if it is the environment. We have lived in homes with synthetic carpeting and synthetic flooring. House cleaners with toxins, plastic house wares with estrogens and cabinets with formaldehyde, so I hear, pressed into the wood that slowly leaks out and gives housewives a 60% increase in cancer. As there is in most homes, I am sure there is mold in our walls; I smell it when it rains. I am sure the electronic waves from the TV, microwave, cell phones and iPad are inundating our bodies with stress. Toxins, they say, weakens the immune system and could lead to increased allergies.

I don’t know if it is the effect of the food over time. We gave him food that was as healthy as we knew how. Soda and chips only at Nana’s or birthdays. No junk cereal. Once organic became more prevalent, we did that for berries and fruit and some veges. But we also gave him the processed breads, pastas and treats. We did. We gave him corn that we now know has pesticides engineered into the DNA. And now he, and my other sons have allergies to almost everything out there.

I don’t know if it is the effect of the GMO’s, it could be the preservatives. It could be the food dyes, high fructose corn syrup or the food fillers. But the overall reason for his many allergies might very well be the amount of acidic foods he eats, which thins the stomach lining and allows the food particles, whether they be GMO or not, to escape into the blood stream and cause the body to react and attack. The attack shows up as a rash on the body. But I do suspect all of the above, especially the foods.
.
Whatever the cause is of my son’s extensive allergies, I do know I am going to find out. I am going to keep trying. Because the future we now have is unacceptable. It need not be this way.

We cannot eat out at restaurants and going to parties is heart breaking. No cake, no pizza, no hot dogs,no ice cream. It’s a nightmare. My son wailed and cried that he would rather not go last time. I found it hard not to curse God. After he slips and eats a little gluten he is out of control emotionally. If he eats nuts by accident in Thanksgiving stuffing, we are sticking his thigh with an Epi pen, and as blood spurts from his leg, we dash to the hospital. At Cub Scout events we have to bring our own food and sequester ourselves. I have to hoard our food and protect it from the hands of other starving eight year olds. They wonder why he is different.We explain it all but still…he feels odd, fearful for his life and weak…sickly…an outcast. All he wants is to be strong.

Many kids feel like this and don’t KNOW that they have a food or ingredient allergy. One friend confided, after I told him about my son’s allergies and the children’s book I am writing about it, that his son would punch holes in walls and was furiously disturbed for years until they did a food elimination diet and slipped one day and gave him a strawberry ice cream from the ice cream truck. The Red Food Dye 40 was the cause. Once they found out he became a different kid, in a good way. And all along he had been given ADHD drugs, psychotherpay, punishments etc…there are children who want to focus at school but can’t. There are kids who feel depressed and don’t know why. There are divorces happening that need not. There are suicides and violence everyday that are in many cases, I believe linked to food and ingredient allergies….the question is do we have to just put up with it? Just survive it?

We do know… we miraculously did find out recently that the red painful and embarrassing rash around his mouth is a Carrageenan allergy. (in ice cream, hot dogs, sauces, dressing, lunchmeat and toothpaste.) We know about the gluten/wheat, nut, peanut, mushroom and my other son’s egg and dairy allergies as well as others…we know about those. What we don’t know is why.

We have a hunch about this acidic/alkaline theory and we are altering our lifestyle to eat alkaline. It wasn’t a usual pathway we took to get this possible answer. We went to an Iridologist, someone who reads the iris of your eye like a tree trunk. She could see I was anemic when I was seven. She could see that my mother has arthritis in her left knee even though she doesn’t limp. She could see that my son’s stomach was too acidic. She could see his Carrageenan allergy…something a western medical doc would take many months of painful blood tests to find out if they even tried. Mostly they would just prescribe a cream and tell him to stop licking his lips. As if it’s his fault.
This Iridologist was shared with me by a friend. I am forever grateful to her.I would never normally go to a doctor who looks at your EYE to diagnose me or my kids. That’s crazy woo woo. But I was desperate…and anything is possible. So I went along time ago and have gone back twice with my son. She told us all about acidity and alkaline foods and how we can balance our diet and heal his stomach. She gave us a pathway that we are trying, to eliminate allergies altogether. We don’t KNOW, but we will try it.

In the meantime, she told us that the red flare up around his mouth was a Carrageenan allergy (a what allergy??? a food thickener made of processed seaweed or moss) and I made the mistake of giving him organic chicken lunch meat with Carageenan in it and it flared up again, I researched it some more. I found out, that if left undiscovered, if we just slapped a cream on it or shot him up with a steroid or make him drowsy with allergy medication…if we just accepted that this is the way it is, got resigned and doubtful about it…the Carageenan allergy would create ulcers in his stomach and eventually cause cancer. My son.

Other kids might have a different allergy and their parents are struggling with behavior issues, creams, steroids and meds too. They may be resigned too. They may now know…not only what is causing the behavioral or allergic reaction, but they don’t know that this is life or death. And they don’t know that they don’t know.

I wish to empower parents and children to find out for themselves. Try alternative health care. Try Holistic, Naturopaths, Iridologist, Reiki and Energy healers, Try Chinese herbalists. Find what works for you. Don’t just go to a doctor who says take this medication…for the rest of your life....don't let acceptance actually become resignation. Wonder and try! Share with your friends what you learn from alternative, integrative and holistic healthcare. You may just be inspiring someone and saving a life.

Zen Honeycutt
Mom of three boys, 9, 7 and 3

One Inspiring Mom Takes on Foreign Invaders in our Food

I am weeping tears of relatedness, inspiration, disbelief, sadness and frustration. I am watching Robyn O'Brien's Ted talk on California's Right to Know.
After her baby's allergic reaction, she learned that a food allergy is the body responding to food as a foreign invader. So she asked "Is there something foreign in our food?". Her talk answers this question.
Watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA
Pass it on.
Share it with everyone.
It is "the most patriotic thing we can do".

The facts are that between 1997 and 2002, just 5 years, peanut allergies have increased by 2X.
Our food is genetically modified with synthetic proteins that our bodies see as foreign invaders.
We get allergic reactions, sickness and cancer.
We have the highest cancer rates in the world. 1-2 men are expected to get cancer. 1-3 women are expected to get cancer. 90% of breast cancer is from environmental causes. Only 1% is genetic.
If you move here from another country you increase your chance of getting cancer by 4X.
Companies spend 60% of their profits on health care.
There has been a 265% increase in the rate of ER hospitalization by doctors (not parents) of children with severe allergy reactions to FOOD.
FOOD!
Food that is on the shelves of our grocery stores, that the FDA said is safe, that our government says is safe even though the rest of the world says no.

The food we eat is NOT allowed in Europe and other countries. And this big food companies change the formulas so that they can sell there.
If they do that for them, why not do it for us? Because we allow it.


Robyn did not just ask a good question and find the answers...she shared the answers and took action to make a difference. I am so inspired into action, more action to have USA food, and our children, be safe.
One person can make a difference!
Eat organic, whole foods as much as possible.
Be relentless about not supporting toxic food.
Contact the White House now.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

And take action in your home:
http://www.robynobrien.com/do-onething.html

Thank you for reading and for being an active American in healthy food for all.
Zen Honeycutt
P.S. I am completing my book about a boy who takes on his allergies. Finding her talk just put the fire in my belly to get it published ASAP!!!!