"Health Come First" and How it Doesn't

My Mother used to bring a bowl of chicken broth to me when I was sick and gently chide me to put away my book, drink my soup and sleep. "Health comes first." she would say...homework, reading, etc...would have to wait. Now, when she hears the rush in my voice and weariness creeping in, she reminds me, from 3000 miles away, to take care of my health and I do. Most of the time.

For Halloween, I was sewing large round polka dots onto a white sweat suit to be the zebra-turned-circus-horse Character Chris Rock played in Madagascar 3 "Afro Circus, Polka Dot Circus, polka dot, polka dot, polka dot, Afro Circus!!!" and I could barely thread the needle. My eyesight is going. I am almost forty, I thought, and my body is going through those changes, that's just the way it is.

Realizing I have also been unusually tired and because health comes first, I went to my Iridologist, who looks into your eyes, take a photo which is analyzed by a very high tech computer system and she points out all the mineral deletions, physical symptoms and causes for pain, sickness or issues in your body.

She could see that I had muscular pain on my scapula ( amazing! It had been hurting for months and I didn't tell her!) which was causing pain up my neck and muscles tightening across my face and restricting the blood flow to my eye. My right pupil was significantly smaller than my left pupil and could be the source of my eyesight blurriness. Completely correctable and not a function of just getting old.
This is preventing me from just accepting deteriorating eyesight, getting glasses and living with the blood flow being restricted to my eye and brain. Who knows what problems that could cause over time? Blindness? Brain deterioration? I went to a holistic doctor who focuses on cranial work, who said that the pain stemmed from my liver, which was over taxed from filtering toxins. She did some kind of massage to my head and liver and I left feeling completely better. I will also go to an eye doctor and maybe get glasses, but I will not ignore the cause and continue to monitor my neck pain as more than just bad posture, but as the a sign my brain is not being fed the blood it needs.

She saw that my stomach was acidic, causing a likely hood of more allergies, adrenals were overworked which causes very low energy levels, fatigue and irritability...and that really effects my parenting and confidence.

She then saw that white foggy lines around my pupil showed deep concern for osteoporosis, a serious lack of calcium and weakening of the bones. It's the reason why my grandmother hunched over constantly. But she was in her nineties...why was I getting this in my thirties? I eat very healthy food, lots of greens which supply more calcium than milk! I was shocked but so grateful to be able to know this and take a high quality calcium supplement for the next six months (which she does not sell or make money from) and then I will go in for a bone scan. This is preventing me from permanent spinal curvature, lifelong pain and being aware to not get wonky and do risky things that cold have me easily break a fragile hip. Hip surgery is tens of thousands of dollars and months in recuperation.
An injury like that would greatly impact the function of my family.
And a western medical doctor would never see these things in a regular checkup.

Why do I share all this? Because none of this is paid for by our Healthcare system, and that's just ludicris. I also believe that many of our health issues, including mine are related to GMOs in our food. According to "Genetic Roulette" movie,GMOs are sprayed with and injected with glyphosate, which is chelator, meaning it hugs the nutrients in the plant and strips them away to kill the weed. 70-85% of the food I was eating up until a few months ago, had this chelating chemical in it. I believe that a huge number of people who are mineral depleted now are experiencing this because of the glyphosate in our food which is hugging onto and depleting our bodies of the important nutrients we need. We then get sicker and experience liver overload, muscle aches, pains, fatigue, rashes, inflammation which can result in weight gain, auto immune diseases and more.

Alternative health care, and paying more for organic food is preventative and saves me and the insurance companies and the government tens of thousands of dollars in the future. It allows me to function as a responsible member of society and contribute, rather than site on the couch and take in disability. Alternative healthcare has us truly put health first, and out future first. And eliminating GMO's sustains our health.

WHY then, isn't the government promoting preventative healthcare and organic food?
Because it doesn't occur to them that health really does come first. Money does. Their jobs do. They have it all mixed up. They should listen to their Mommas.

Zen Honeycutt

The Future of Food and our lives....

I am ready to rant. Seriously. Just watched the "Future of Food" (available on Netflix) and am so riled up I could walk up to the President of Monsanto and the FDA and punch them in the face. ( Ok, I know, not very "Zen".) Or at least do a citizen arrest.I get what the "Crazy liberals" are chanting and waving signs about at the GMO food protests now. I get it. There is a crime of nature going on and most of us just don't know it. Because money, control and convenience are more important.

My father used to smoke something like 10 packs a day of cigarettes in the 40's for a while, he was a total chain smoker. He remembers ads that said "Camel cigarettes...they soothe the throat." No kidding. He thought he was doing something good for himself for a short time.
(When he found out my Mom was pregnant he stopped THANK YOU DAD!!! Amazing will power!)

The food industry has that same kind of smokescreen up right now. There is a huge percentage of our food that is genetically modified and patentented/owned by Monsanto (80% of all corn and soybeans) and we don't know it because it's not labeled. All of the European countries won't allow GM foods...but we Americans don't even know because it's just too inconvenient to label it.

What does it matter? Ok:

#1) Genetically modified is NOT natural..meaning our bodies don't know how to process a tomato with flounder fish genes in it (allows it to ripen in the cold) and so we become allergic to it....know any kids with a lot of allergies to all kinds of food especially cow's milk (fed GM corn), soy (80% US GM) and wheat...increasing GM???) Um, most of us??

#2) Genetically modified food comes from genetically modified seeds, which have been in the case of corn, as an example, been injected with some kind of chemical derived from a NERVE GAS (BT?) which is an pesticide which KILLS the worm that eats the corn....ok so what does it do to humans??? My kids??? I wonder if GM foods could be linked to the rise in autism and developemental delays which are exponenetially on the rise?

#3) To top it all off, the majority of the people in leadership positions of the FDA..that regulates all of this...have been on the board or in leadership positions of Monsanto. The laws for regulation have been laughable...they are basically complete deregulation...do what ever you want, just make money and donate to our political careers.

There are lots of other reasons to be alarmed, in action, and causing a shift in how our food is manufactured..injustices to farmers,third world hunger monopolization, crops taht are programmed not to reseed...sterile crops, so that the farmer in a third world MUST buy from Monsanto...(and we wonder why some other countries hate Americans???, Monsanto owning over 11,000 patents on seeds,on our world's food... thousands of types of potatoes and corn that are extinct because the four large food companies only grow about four types....etc, but the top three above take the cake for me.

I took on being a champion for "green" several years ago....preached to my family and friends about parabens,plastics, preservatives, and pesticides. I created a Green Earth Festival and a group called "Moms for Mother Earth". Then I saw the green movement grow around me... I had wanted to be a spear head person in growing it. The paper work for "Moms for Mother Earth " to be a non profit was daunting, however and I chose to direct my energy on kids and business.

One day as I went to the grocery store I saw two out of three other people approaching Sprouts carrying reusable bags. I breathed a sigh of relief and said to myself...ok there are lots of "Moms for Mother Earth" out there now. People know about plastic bags, saving energy and healthy personal care. Time to Champion another cause.

Like GMO food...
Folks, take a moment to consider that your voice matters. Buying Organic MATTERS:
it is Non GMO only because 250,000 US citizens wrote to the government and caused that standard.
Walmart has dropped the growth hormone rBGH (owned by Monsanto) from its dairy products because their customers spoke up!

We caused that. Those emails you get to send a petition...they matter. Buying organic of from Co-Ops matters.You matter. The natural structure of our food matters...our future generations matter.
Thank you for reading a Mom's rant and taking action for people and our planet.


Zen Honeycutt
www.zenspurplegarden.com


http://www.holisticmed.com/ge/avoid.html

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/monsanto-gmo-corn-causes-cancer-mammals.php

http://www.ewg.org/

http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Let's Get it Done!

I am sitting in the office of a director of a major hotel in Irvine. She is savvy business women who has graciously welcomed time with me to discuss Zen's Purple Garden. On the cork board behind her is a post card that stands out "Do or Don't. There is no TRY." I comment how I like the post card. I am a firm believer in committing to something in life, or not, and following through. She agrees and shares about aspects of her job that require following through, even when you don't want to. We get that we honor deadlines, do what we say, commit. We exchange a look of recognition of someone who has integrity, someone who is trustworthy.

Later, I see the news. Obama has declared about health care "Let's get it done!"
I agree. I don't know all the details of the reform, but I get that it is a step forward, not perfect, not without gaps, but a step forward. I do get his commitment to the best possible bill with "what's so" right now. As I watched clips of the health care conference last week I sighed with exasperation at the antics of the opposing members, turning the conference into a battleground of analogies and jabbing words versus honoring the time carefully created to CREATE.

As a Mom and business person, as a wife creating a life with my husband of ten years, I am constantly getting things done. I am doing doing doing. There are days in which I take my often protesting, screaming baby in and out of the car seat, bringing my older boys to school, to errands, grocery shopping, to play dates or doctors, over twelve times. And that's just the car seat, that's not the highchair or diaper changing table. I bend, lift, squat, clean, reach, scrape food, wipe butt, sweep, scrub, cook, blot, dab, put away, wash, fold, pack, remind, direct, ask, command, walk, pick up, drop off, console, cuddle, pat, tuck, dress and hug, countless times during the day. I get it Done! Moms do.

And yet with all that doing, I rarely take time to think about who I am being...what is my experience of myself? Who am I to my children? To my husband? Do they enjoy being around me? Does my husband really look forward to coming home? Does he just like to come home to get away from work? Or to be with Me?

When I can take my mind off auto pilot and stop just doing doing doing...I look into their eyes and get what all the doing is about. What REALLY matters. And that's not what I am doing for them. It's who I am being with them.

Tonight, my husband looks at me with gratitude and sweetness in his eyes and requests that my sons tell me that I am amazing after a good dinner and bonding conversation, ( I love him:). My 4 year old looks at me and says "Momma, you are really really really really really reeeeeeeeeeally amazing!", and I get that it's not because of the cooking, picking up an dropping off, cleaning, packing lunches or bedtime tucking in. Being there and doing those thing is great, the health care conference was a good idea, but who I am being, who they are being about it, makes all the difference in the world.

When I let Bodee help cook and guide his hand gently, even when he makes a mess, or when I commit to being on time to drop off and pick up and I am, with a peaceful smile, (huge breakthrough for me, I used to always be late)...or when I hum lullabye, even when I am dog tired, and Thank God for all the beautiful things in nature, for my boys, with love and gratitude in my off key song...being patient and trustworthy, being love...I have a feeling that that might be what he appreciates so much.
Or it could be that I get what really matters to him and I buy him a pack of gum now and then...who knows.

My point is Getting it Done is great. Let' s do that. But let's also think about who we are being please, Congressmen and women. What are you creating and who are you being about that? People's lives are on the line and this mother cares about people having access to health care to take care of their families, and be healthy, now.
Thank you.

Zen Honeycutt
www.zenspurplegarden.com