Now is the perfect time to bring our attention to what’s right in the world, and to reflect on what our ancestors’ lifestyle and reality were. When people (like all wild animals) took their direction with reverence for nature’s cycles, patterns, and balance. It is the new world that brings into focus, fear, competition, and hopelessness, There are alternatives to the difficulties we are experiencing at this time.
My family has experienced situations involving life and death; cases in which the people we love were threatened with illness and the medical establishment failed them. In these situations, it was our innate sensibility and fierceness, seeking out solutions in modern and ancient medicine, combining old and new ways; that led us from the dark to the light.
Now I trust my informed instinct over advice given by anyone professional or not who is not familiar with my family and my lifestyle.
I am not a doctor. I do not have degrees in nutrition, public health, health policy, dietetics, or food science, and I have no plans of pursuing any of these degrees, I do not need a badge of modern society to prove who I am or what I stand for. I have learned from experience; from living, looking, listening, reading, cooking, and healing for many decades. I have gathered and voraciously consumed information and actively applied new ideas and methods to myself, my family, and to people and landscapes in many situations.
While I am a firm believer in education, I think we should all consider what type of education we sign up for. So much “common knowledge” and public education is influenced by dollar signs and the politics of the consumer economy.
Let this time serve as a wake-up call to slow down, consume less, and be present. It’s a great time to read up on the owner’s manual for self-care. I believe that our ancestors’ lives were full of pastimes and hobbies and that maybe our daily choices should include life-enhancing activities, time with nature, reading, gardening, cooking, gathering to tell stories, singing, and dancing. Imagine what an aboriginal Salinan would think if they happened upon a golf game for example, or a shopping mall, or grocery store…GASP…meat served up on styrofoam, food with labels such as baby food, dog food, cat food, do you ever wonder what we are falling for?
