New Research reveals how sugar causes cancer

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/research-reveals-how-sugar-causes-cancer

Aluminum, Autism and Vaccines

Here is an article that explains that aluminum in vaccines causes autism:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/aluminum-vaccines-cause-autism

Autism, Vaccines, Glyphosate

New evidence shows that glyphosate contributes to autism. One of the things glyphosate does is that it causes permeability of the gut and the blood brain barrier. So if you vaccinate,  and you eat conventionally grown grains, sugar, meat, poultry, etc. the toxins in the vaccination will end up in your brain causing damage. And there are terrible toxins in all vaccinations. But glyphosate by itself by another of the harmful things it does to the body can cause autism by reducing or stopping motility, (if I'm reading this correctly, go to this link to read for yourself: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/how-glyphosate-poisoning-explains-peculiarities-autism-gut)

disclaimer: This is my personal opinion based on things I've read and seen. Do the research yourself.

A couple interesting blog posts at Hunt Gather Love

Here is the first link  to the post, Don't be too quick to write that autobiographical cure book, which basically has a very balanced perspective on specific cures. Here is a quote:


...If there is anything I've learned from blogging in this sphere, is that one person's cure is another person's poison and I've certainly encountered people for whom her extremely vegetable-rich diet would be harmful. I know from experience that I cannot consume such a diet as it causes immense gastric distress. I've gotten more tolerant of things like brassica vegetables over time, but I still have to be careful.
My own advice is to try a variety of things, but don't expect them to work for you just because someone else has a miracle-cure story.


Here is the second link  to the post, Just Kale Me: How your Kale habit is slowly destroying your health and the world. After demonizing kale in a really funny satire she says just kidding and adds the following comments (here in part):

Yes, Kale does contain chemicals, all foods do. In very large amounts or in certain vulnerable people could cause problems. Many of the studies I chose involved animals with a diet almost completely based on kale, which I think anyone will agree is a bad idea. Most also involved varieties not sold for human consumption and consumed in ways that humans might not consume- uncooked, un-marinated, etc. A lot of the rest involved just scary language about various chemicals and studies involving isolated chemicals.

I do think that the point about antioxidants being overrated is valid, but overall I don't think kale or most other foods (barring actual intolerances or allergies) are going to cause problems as part of a diverse diet. Maybe you shouldn't juice a pound of kale and drink it for breakfast every day though. Sadly to say, I have met people who do things like that. You have to respect that leaves have to protect themselves from herbivory or these plants would not have survived...Some of those chemicals to deter consumption can be healthy in small amounts, but unhealthy in largely amounts. 

I will say the issues regarding leafy green production being destructive are worth thinking about, but you can certainly find responsibly-produced kale in season at your local farmer's market. I brought them up because people rarely think about the environmental effects of things that have a moral halo around them like greens, including people more than willing to tell you about how bad meat is for the environment...

But when you see an article that demonizes a food, think about whether or not there are citations and follow those citations. Ask yourself whether they apply to human beings eating a diverse diet with adequete calories. Or whether they involve very high concentrations no human being eats, isolated chemicals, or preparations that no normal human would put on their plate. I see narratives like this, not as satire, in many diet books and on a lot of diet blogs. I have been guilty of this in the past, when I took a lot of stuff seriously that I no longer worry about. Like phytic acid in foods– most of the studies that show this is a problem involve populations of people who are malnourished. I suppose some people get to that point while dieting though. 

Antibacterial madness could be killing us...

These are excerpts from a newsletter from William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. 

"Triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in soaps, detergents and even clothing, has been sucking the human endocrine system dry. And as it goes to work on your body, it's also helping to kill off common bacteria... while allowing powerful new ones to rise."

Common chemicals linked to early puberty

...The latest study found that young girls around the country have alarming levels of three frightening hormone-like substances that I've been warning you about: phenols, phthalates and phytoestrogens.

When researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine studied urine samples from 1,151 girls between 6 and 8 years old from New York City, Cincinnati and northern California, they found high levels of all three of those "p's" in the pee.

I'll throw in one more "p" -- poison, because these awful chemicals will harm you and your family, especially your children and grandchildren.

...the troubling trio is everywhere. Phthalates are in plastics -- even toys -- as well as cosmetics. Phytoestrogen is the key hormone-like substance that makes soy so dangerous. And the most common phenol, BPA, is in just about everything -- including plastic bottles and can linings.

...phthalates are even helping boys to grow their own breasts -- to the point where some of them practically need bras themselves. (Read, "Why some boys have breasts.")

I've also told you plenty about BPA -- it's been linked to heart disease, cancer, obesity, asthma and all manner of sexual dysfunction in males and females alike. Soy is quite simply the world's most dangerous substance disguised as food.

There's no room for debate on this, and no time to wait for the feds to act. Avoid soy, plastics and cans as much as you possibly can.

And those aren't the only dangerous chemicals turning up everywhere. Keep reading...
Antibacterial madness could be killing us

We're so clean we're filthy. In fact, we're washing our way towards illness and death.

Triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in soaps, detergents and even clothing, has been sucking the human endocrine system dry. And as it goes to work on your body, it's also helping to kill off common bacteria... while allowing powerful new ones to rise... it's actually a pesticide, not a soap.

You've probably been washing with it for years, then eating with your "clean" hands.

The feds now say they're concerned about this chemical... but don't wait for them to save your skin. The FDA has been working on rules for the use of triclosan for 38 years -- so if they haven't figured it out by now, you're on your own.

Here's what you need to know -- what even the feds already admit to: This stuff is so dangerous it kills fish when it gets into the water.

And it's in the water -- because it's literally everywhere. Triclosan can be found in everything from clothing to cutting boards. Pretty much anything with the word "antibacterial" screaming from the label has triclosan in it.

It's so common it's in the urine of 75 percent of the population.

And yet people keep buying up that antibacterial soap in the mistaken belief that it must be better. After all, it costs more... so it must be good, right?

Wrong!

Studies have repeatedly proven that antibacterial soaps are no better than ordinary soaps.

That shouldn't surprise anyone past a certain age. We grew up without this stuff, and didn't face anything like the bacterial threat running rampant today.

So if you're looking to stay clean, just do what we did -- warm water and plain old soap.

99 and 44/100 percent pure,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

suffering is part of the truth of our life

"Even suffering is part of the truth of our life. Thus, trying to 
shield the youngest from every difficulty and experience of 
suffering, we risk creating, despite our good intentions, fragile 
persons of little generosity:
The capacity to love, in fact, corresponds to the capacity to suffer, 
and to suffer together." Benedict XVI

The Horrors of the 20th Century and Divine Mercy

Excerpts from:

Where the 20th Century Happened

September 18, 2013

George Weigel   

emphasis added
  

John Paul II had a keen insight into the way in which the two totalitarianisms of the 20th century had shredded the moral and spiritual fabric of humanity. The Gulag and the Nazi death camps, the Ukrainian terror famine, the genocide of the Chinese “cultural revolution,” the Cambodian genocide—all of this, and more, had left 21st-century humanity with a terrible burden of guilt. And to whom could those terrible crimes be confessed: those sins that had made an abattoir out of a century imagined, at its outset, to be one of unlimited human progress? How could the guilt piled up by so many crimes be expiated? 

According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, another man who read history through Slavic cultural lenses, the unique horrors of the 20th century had taken place because (as the Russian novelist and chronicler put it in his 1983 Templeton Prize lecture) men and women had forgotten God: “The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century.”French theologian Henri de Lubac made a similar point in The Drama of Atheist Humanism: The 20th century proved that men and women could indeed organize the world without God; but without God, they could only organize it against each other.

John Paul II knew all of this. That is why he wanted to “universalize” the message of the divine mercy that had been given in Cracow as the answer to the anguish and despair caused by the horrors of the 20th century. The God of the Bible, a God of infinite mercy, was the One to whom the burden of the 20th century could be brought for expiation.

to read the whole article:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/09/where-the-20th-century-happened

Francis' Message on Church's Concept of Family

 "The future of society, and concretely of Italian society, is rooted in the elderly and in young people"

Here is and excerpt (emphasis added):
The theme of this Social Week is “The Family, Hope and Future of Italian Society.” I express all my appreciation for this choice, and for having associated to the family the idea of hope and future. It is indeed so! However, for the Christian community the family is much more than a “theme”: it is life, daily fabric, and the path of generations that transmit the faith to one another together with love and with fundamental moral values; it is concrete solidarity, effort, patience and also project, hope, future. All this, which the Christian community lives in the light of faith, of hope and of charity, is never held for oneself, but becomes every day leaven in the dough of the whole society, for its greater common good (cf. Ibid., 47).
Hope and future presuppose memory. The memory of our elderly people is the support to go forward on the way. The future of society, and concretely of Italian society, is rooted in the elderly and in young people: the latter because they have the strength and age to carry the history forward, the former, because they are the living memory. A nation that does not take care of the elderly, of children and of young people has no future, because it mistreats the memory and the promise.
This 47thSocial Week is placed in this perspective, with the preparatory document that preceded it. It intends to offer a testimony and to propose a reflection, a discernment, free of prejudices, as open as possible, attentive to the human and social sciences. As Church we offer first of all a conception of the family which is that of the Book of Genesis, of the unity in difference between man and woman, and of fecundity. In this reality, moreover, we recognize a good for all, the first natural society, as accepted also in the Constitution of the Italian Republic. In fine, we wish to reaffirm that the family, understood thus, remains the first and principal subject builder of the society and of an economy to the measure of man, and as such merits to be actively supported. The consequences – positive and negative --, of the choices of a cultural character, first of all, and political regarding the family touch the different realms of the life of a society and a country: from the demographic problem – which is serious for the whole European continent and, in particular, for Italy, to the other questions regarding work and the economy in general, to the upbringing of children, to those that concern the anthropological view itself which is at the base of our civilization (cf. Benedict XVI, encyclical Caritas in veritate, 44).
These reflections do not just interest believers but all persons of good will, all those who have at heart the common good of the country, precisely as happens with the problems of environmental ecology, which can help very much to understand those of “human ecology” (cf. Id, Address to the Bundestag, Berlin, September 22, 2011). The family is the privileged school of generosity, of sharing, of responsibility; school that educates to overcome a certain individualistic mentality that has gained ground in our societies. To support and promote the family, valuing its fundamental and central role, is to work needed for a just and solidaristic development.
We cannot ignore the suffering of so many families, due to lack of work, to the problem of housing, to the practical impossibility to act freely in their educational choices; suffering due also to internal conflicts in families themselves, to the failure of the conjugal and family experience, to the violence which unfortunately nests and causes damage within our homes. We want to be particularly close to all, with respect and with a true sense of fraternity and solidarity. However, above all we want to recall the simple but beautiful and courageous testimony of so many families, which live joyfully the experience of matrimony and parenthood, illumined and sustained by the Lord’s grace, without fear of facing also moments of the cross that, lived in union with that of the Lord, do not impede the way of love, but can even make it stronger and more complete.
May this Social Week contribute effectively to make evident the bond that unites the common good to the promotion of the family founded on marriage, beyond prejudices and ideologies. It is a duty of hope that all have in addressing the country, particularly young people, who must be offered hope for the future. To you, dear Brother, and to the great assembly of the Social Week of Turin, I assure my remembrance in prayer and, while asking that you pray also for me and for my service to the Church, I send from my heart the Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, September 11, 2013

Why and How to Soak Corn

This is an excerpt from Sara at The Healthy Home Economist here. She has a video on it too.

"Soaking corn or cornmeal overnight in limewater releases the Vitamin B3 and improves the amino acid profile of the corn making for easier digestion.
"If corn is a staple in your diet, then soaking in limewater is a must as the disease pellagra is caused by Vitamin B3 deficiency.  Symptoms of pellagra include sore skin, mental problems, and fatigue.
"Even if you don’t eat corn that frequently, limewater is so easy to make and lasts for such a long time in the pantry ..."
"I use 1 cup of limewater for every 2 cups of corn or cornmeal when I am making cornbread, corn casserole and other corn based dishes. Pour the limewater out of the mason jar carefully – you don’t want to use the lime that has settled at the bottom, only the limewater. Soaking for 12-24 hours is sufficient to release the nutrients but cornbread in particular will rise better if soaked for 24 hours."

To make limewater get dolomite powder (brand KAL is recommended for purity). Put 1/2 inch in the bottom of a quart jar or 1 inch at the bottom of a 1/2 gallon jar, then fill the rest with purified water. Put the lid on, shake a couple of times and let it sit. Can keep it in the pantry or in the fridge (if it is warm).

"The Only Possible Catholicism in the 21st Century"

  [ Excerpt from the article by George Weigel, The rise of evangelical Catholicism here ] 

"The challenge can be defined simply: throughout the western world, the culture no longer carries the faith, because the culture has become increasingly hostile to the faith. Catholicism can no longer be absorbed by osmosis from the environment, for the environment has become toxic. So we can no longer sit back and assume that decent lives lived in conformity with the prevailing cultural norms will, somehow, convey the faith to our children and grandchildren and invite others to consider entering the Church. 

"No, in our new situation, Catholicism has to be proposed, and Catholicism has to be lived in radical fidelity to Christ and the Gospel. Recreational Catholicism—Catholicism as a traditional, leisure-time activity absorbing perhaps 90 minutes of one’s time on a weekend—is over. Full-time Catholicism—a Catholicism that, as the Second Vatican Council taught, infuses all of life and calls everyone in the Church to holiness and mission—isthe only possible Catholicism in the 21st century."

To Graduates of Ivy League Schools

This quote is from an excellent mock commencement address to an ivy league school by Michael Pakaluk, from: here.

"But worse than the damage that has been done to you is the damage you are prepared to inflict on society, because great care has been taken to see that you continue to view violence against unborn children as the expression of a fundamental right, and you have been successfully trained to view marriage (which exists in reality only between a man and a woman) as an intolerable and insufferable discrimination.  So you are about to go out into society thinking that you are doing good while you do everything in your power, in those domains closest to you, to tear down human dignity and the dignity of spousal love and the family — no doubt remaining fully convinced that you are a great champion of human rights and that you love humanity.
If I were Socrates I might speak even more bluntly and say: Refute me if you can: You are not merely hobbled for happiness as regards all the ordinary means of happiness, but, worse than that, because you are about to work in ignorance to promote injustice and to tear down that which is necessary for society, you are miserable–I say–and have been made even more miserable by this institution that is now graduating you."

twenty centuries in perspective

I was just reading an article in which the author was talking about looking at something from the 19th century from a 20th century perspective, and I thought, 'it is now the 21st century.' We are actually 13 years into the 21st century. How time flies! Then it occurred to me that if you had only twenty people who lived 100 years you can go all the way back to the time of Christ! Only 20 people! It sure makes those 20 centuries seem like it wasn't all that long ago.

Infant Jesus of Prague

This statue is at the Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in NE

Freedom to Homeschool

excerpts from  "The Freedom to Homeschool"

from:  www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/08/the-freedom-to-homeschool    

(I added the bold)    

“It’s a free country” may not continue to resonate with Americans for much longer either. As Obamacare’s individual mandate was predicated on the notion that costs incurred by an individual but borne by society necessitate government intervention, politicians in this country could easily be convinced—by, say, teachers unions—that homeschoolers are no different than the uninsured in the costs they impose on the rest of us. Doesn’t society suffer if kids aren’t being properly socialized? Don’t institutions suffer if children aren’t being properly educated into citizenship?

In fact, the argument is already being made. In a 2010 paper in the journal Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, Georgetown Law School professor Robin L. West characterized homeschooling families as a political “army,” whose objective “is to undermine, limit, or destroy state functions. . . Also sacrificed is their exposure to diverse ideas, cultures, and ways of being.” Others see homeschooling as a potential threat to public health; a 2008 USA Today article claimed that some families homeschool in order to avoid mandatory vaccinations.

Stanford University political scientist Rob Reich has argued that homeschooling should be strictly regulated both to ensure that children become good citizens and to prevent them from becoming “ethically servile,” or victims of their parents’ blinkered worldviews. His idea is founded on what he perversely calls the “freedom argument.” Of his proposed regulations requiring parents to check in with the state he writes, “The minimal standard will include academic benchmarks as well as an assurance that children are exposed to and engaged with ideas, values, and beliefs that are different from those of the parents.”

Reich and West would like to see parental rights subordinated to those of the child. They see unregulated education in the home—especially in the homes of religious believers—as insufficiently committed to diversity, secular progressivism’s cardinal virtue.

Earlier this year in a Slate article subtitled “Why teaching children at home violates progressive values,” journalist Dana Goldstein asked “Does homeschooling serve the interests not just of those who are doing it, but of society as a whole?” Like Reich and West, Goldstein cannot imagine homeschooling that doesn’t resemble involuntary confinement to a Wahhabi madrasah. But most homeschooling families I know make ample use of their scheduling freedom to pursue enriching and, yes, diverse opportunities: field trips to city halls and statehouses; substantive volunteer opportunities in hospitals, homeless shelters, and nursing homes, athletic contests, etc.

The progressive critics of homeschooling are less interested in promoting tolerance than they are in promoting compliance. It’s the freedom that bothers them, not what kids learn or how well they learn it. It’s about who decides. In other words—here as in Spain—it’s about politics. And it won’t be long before some enterprising American politician proposes a set of rules that would effectively deprive my family of its right to homeschool. This will come not as an outright ban on the practice but as an array of guidelines and edicts couched in the most unobjectionable terms—ensuring diversity, promoting responsible citizenship, safeguarding public health.

If the state appoints itself to guard against indoctrination by parents, who is to protect children from indoctrination by the state? Critics of homeschooling rarely grapple with this question for the likely reason that they are committed to a value system that is as uniform and intolerant in its own way as they imagine the value systems of American homeschoolers to be.

Why drink Kombucha Tea?

From:  http://www.anahatabalance.com/teakombucha2.html (go here to see the whole article)
Drinking Kombucha promotes good health and helps millions of
people with its excellent detoxifying and immune-enhancing qualities.
There are no known negative reactions from drinking
kombu tea, except for improper brewing methods.
-Kombucha culture has a wide range of organic acids, vitamins and
enzymes that give it its extraordinary value. It contains the range of
B vitamins, particularly B1, B2, B6 and B12, that provide the body with
energy, help to process fats and proteins, and which are vital for the
normal functioning of the nervous system. 
-There is also vitamin C which is a potent detoxifier, immune booster and enhancer of vitality.
Probiotic Organic Acids
-There are two organic acids produced by Kombucha culture which
encourage the activity of the resident bifidobacteria, thus restoring
a healthy balance with the bacteroides:
-Lactic acid which is essential for healthy digestive action (through
its derivative lactobacilli) and for energy production by the liver, and is not found in the tissues of people with cancer.
-Acetic acid which is an antiseptic and inhibitor of pathogenic bacteria.
Kombucha’s Vital Organic Acids
Other valuable organic acids produced by the Kombucha culture, some of
which have a more direct effect on other organs include:
-Glucuronic acid, normally produced by a healthy liver, is a powerful
detoxifier and can readily be converted into glucosamines,
the foundations of our skeletal system.
-Usnic acid has selective antibiotic qualities which can partly deactivate viruses.
-Citric acid is an antiascorbic.
-Oxalic acid encourages the intercellular production of energy, and is a preservative.
-Malic acid also helps the liver to detoxify.
-Gluconic acid is a sugar product which can break down to caprylic acid
to work symbiotically with —
-Butyric acid (produced by the yeast) protects human cellular
membranes, and combined with Gluconic acid which is produced by
the bacteria,strengthens the walls of the gut in order to combat yeast
infections such as Candida.
-Nucleic acids, like RNA and DNA, transmit information to the cells on
how to perform correctly and regenerate.
   

See Where We Are Going

For an interesting article read "Obama Pits America’s Makers Against Its Takers" at this link:

from: http://news.investors.com/articleprint/606265/201203301828/obama-echoes-communist-manifesto-in-blueprint-for-change.aspx

Are You Magnesium Deficient?

from:

http://blog.radiantlifecatalog.com/bid/53692/ancient-minerals-are-you-magnesium-deficient

 ...when you are deficient in magnesium, over 300 enzymes in your body are unable to function properly...Magnesium is required for the body to produce and store energy. Without magnesium there is no energy, no movement, no life. What you don't know about magnesium is probably adversely affecting your health already!

Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of The Magnesium Miracle, believes that magnesium deficiency is a significant factor in many severe illnesses including heart attacks and other forms of heart disease, asthma, anxiety and panic attacks, depression, fatigue, diabetes, migraines and other headaches, osteoporosis, insomnia, and most cases of muscular problems. Sadly, two thirds of us (more than 200 million people in America) are magnesium deficient.  A lack of this critical nutrient is a major factor in many common health problems. Many chronic diseases respond positively to magnesium replenishment.

...Topical absorption is the most efficient method restoring magnesium at the cellular level, as magnesium is easily and rapidly absorbed into the skin and underlying tissues.

...[orally] Only one-third to one-half of dietary magnesium is absorbed into the body at best... When you [orally] take the amount necessary to combat a deficiency of magnesium, many of us experience loose stools. This again reduces absorption because the magnesium moves through the system too quickly. Exposing your skin to magnesium chloride topically allows you to completely bypass your digestive tract so you can avoid these problems!

Benefits of Transdermal Magnesium Chloride

Here are just a few of the positive results that have been reported from the utilization of transdermal magnesium chloride:

• Aids in hypertension
• Massaged into arthritic joints will frequently render almost instant reprieve from pain
• Magnesium flakes in a hot bath will impart a very relaxing soak while delivering a vast amount of magnesium to your cells. Great for restless legs!
• Assists in the prevention of strokes and aids in recovery
• Improvement in insomnia
• Cardiac health
• Overall energy production (ATP)
• Helps maintain memory function
• Magnesium is crucial for the removal of toxins and heavy metals
• Helps build bones and make proteins
• Sprayed on wrinkled skin will, in due course begin to smooth them out  
• Calming effect on the nervous system
• Assists diabetes by enhancing insulin secretion, facilitating sugar metabolism. Without magnesium, insulin is not able to transfer glucose into cells
• Improvement in autistic individuals
• Asthma (both histamine production and bronchial spasms increase with magnesium deficiency)  
• Cystitis – Bladder spasms are exacerbated by magnesium deficiency
• Prevents Premenstrual Syndrome and cramping pain during menses
• Tooth Decay - Magnesium deficiency perpetrates an unhealthy balance of phosphorus and calcium in saliva, which damages teeth
• Magnesium assists in the relaxation of spastic blood vessels that cause pain and numbness of the fingers and extremities
• Musculoskeletal conditions such as muscle spasms and pains, eye twitches, muscle pains and fibromyalgia  
• Anxiety and panic attacks are helped by keeping adrenal stress hormones under control
• Increases DHEA levels, which is the bio-marker for aging. DHEA has been referred to as the, “Master Hormone”, and when produced at sufficient levels, will induce the production of all of the other hormones whose depletion can be associated with many symptoms of aging. Only when magnesium is applied topically onto the skin, where it passes through the fatty tissue, are DHEA levels raised. Neither oral nor intravenous administration will do this!

How Much?

One teaspoon of Ancient Minerals Magnesium Oil contains approximately 560 mg of elemental magnesium. 8 sprays of Ancient Minerals magnesium oil delivers approximately 100mg of elemental magnesium on the skin. Your body will absorb only what it needs. According to Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD, a highly respected medical authority on the subject, research over the past 20 years has shown us that even under ideal conditions approximately 300mg of magnesium is required merely to replace daily losses.

However, as a general rule of thumb, an appropriate daily intake of magnesium should be approximately 3-4 mg per pound of bodyweight. For a 200lb male, this would equate to 600mg to 800mg per day. Chronic health complications, emotional and physical stress, physical injury, athletic exertion, and poor lifestyle/dietary choices, all increase your daily magnesium requirements. Women who are pregnant or lactating also have elevated magnesium requirements.

(This oil is meant to be applied to your skin for the most efficient absorption of magnesium. Avoid contact with eyes and other sensitive areas. You may rinse or wipe off after 20 minutes. It is normal to experience a tingling sensation on the skin. Posted @ Friday, March 02, 2012 5:06 PM by Kathy LeMoine)

  [ I would add that a few friends and myself have tried the topical magnesium and didn't really care for it. It feels sticky. I didn't know to wash it off after 20 minutes. After reading this I am going to give it another try. But just about everyone says the epsom salt baths are beneficial. A good magnesium supplement helps also]-etr

[I do not get anything for recommending this]

What Is Sloth?

What Is Sloth? It’s a bit more subtle than laziness

This is from: http://blog.adw.org/2012/03/what-is-sloth-its-a-bit-more-subtle-than-laziness/

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

One of the more misunderstood of the Cardinal Sins is sloth. This is because most see it merely as laziness. But there is more to sloth than that. Lets take a moment and consider some aspects of the Cardinal sin we call in English, Sloth.

The Greek word we translate as sloth is ἀκηδία akedia (a = absence + kedos = care), meaning indifference or negligence. St Thomas speaks of sloth as sloth is sorrow for spiritual good. By it we it shun spiritual good, as toilsome (cf ST II-II 35,2).

Some modern commentators speak of sloth as a don’t-care feeling, some even as a kind of falling out of love with God and the things of God (cf Rev 2:4). On account of  sloth, the idea of right living, and the gift of a transformed humanity inspires, not joy, but aversion or even disgust, because it is seen as laborious, or as involving the setting aside currently enjoyed or sinful pleasures. By sloth many experience sorrow, not joy or zeal, in following God and receiving a transformed human life. Rather they are distressed at the prospect of what might have to occur should they embrace the faith more deeply.

Sloth also tends to dismiss the power of grace since it focuses on the “trouble” or effort attached to walking in the Christian way, rather than to understand it as a work of God.

As said above, many people today equate sloth with laziness. But sloth is not merely laziness, it is more properly understood as sorrow or indifference. While it is true, sloth may sometimes look like boredom and and a casual laziness toward attaining spiritual good, it is also true that sloth can also be manifested by a frantic busyness about worldly things, so as to avoid spiritual questions or live a reflective life.

Consider, for example a man who is a workaholic. Now suppose too that this man has a wife and children. A man in this position has some very significant gifts and duties beyond his career. He is a husband, a father, and the spiritual leader of his home. He is also a disciple, whom the Lord has summoned to new life, to the great discovery of God, and the deepest meanings and realities of his life. He also has the awesome dignity to announce these truths to his wife and children.

But all of the duties and glories of his vocation overwhelm and even scare him. It all seems so irksome and the task too open-ended. Frankly, he doesn’t want to reflect too much, because it might summon him to ponder things he would like to avoid considering,  such as moral questions, or priorities, or whether he is really spending enough time with his wife and children, or whether his life is really focused on things that matter most. No, its all just too irksome, too ridden with uncertainty to enter more deeply into the spiritual life. Work is easier, and at work they call him “sir” and do what he says.

So, he buries himself in his work. And this helps him to avoid prayer, and reflection. Of course there is “no time” for mass or for praying with his wife and children. There is no time for scripture, retreats and the like.

This man is not lazy, but he is slothful. In the end his workaholism is sloth, for it is sorrow and aversion at the gift that the Lord offers him to come out into the deeper waters and lower his net for a catch. His sorrow for spiritual goods, in this case, is manifest by a kind of avoidance rooted in fear. By sloth he is not joyful at the invitation of the Lord or the Church. Instead he is sorrowful and averse to what he sees as toilsome, and possibly as raising uncomfortable things he would rather not look at. He does not hate God or the faith, but it is all just too much.

That said, sloth does often manifest as a kind of lethargy, and kind of boredom that can’t muster any interest, energy, joy or enthusiasm for spiritual gifts. Such people may be enthusiastic about any number of things, but God and the faith are not among them.

To a great extent boredom is elevated in modern times and this fuels sloth. In effect we are hyper-stimulated in the modern world. Our frantic pace, endless interruptions, and the rich abundance of entertainment, fast-paced movies, video games, all are a feast for the eyes but they hyper-stimulate. From the time we awaken to our return to sleep there is almost never a moment of silence, or a time when we are not being bombarded by images, often flickering and quickly changing.

This hyper-stimulation means that when we come upon things like quiet prayer or adoration, or are asked to listen for an extended period, or when the imagery is not fast changing we are easily bored.

And boredom feeds right into sloth. The “still, small voice of God,” the quiet of prayer, the simple reading of Scripture and pondering its message, the unfolding of spiritual meaning through reflection, the slower joys of normal human conversation in communal prayer and fellowship…none of this appeals to many who are hyper-stimulated, and used to a breakneck pace. Sunday, once the highlight of the week for many (due to the music, the beauty of the liturgy, the hearing of the sermon, the joy of fellowship and the quiet of Holy Communion), is now considered by many as boring and about as appealing as getting a flu shot; a necessary evil at best.  Thus, sloth is fueled by the boredom our culture feels at anything not going 90 miles and hour.

Peter Kreeft says that

Sloth is a cold sin, not a hot one. But that makes it even deadlier. [For] rebellion against God is closer to him than indifference….God can more easily cool our wrath than fire our frozenness, though he can do both.  Sloth is a sin of omission not commission. That too makes it deadlier,  for a similar reason. To commit evil is at least to be playing the game… Sloth simply does not play God’s game, either with him or against him….It sits on the sidelines bored….Better to be hot or cold than lukewarm [Back to Virtue, P. 154].

Sloth of course gives rise to many sins whereby we do not pray, attend mass, go to confession, or read Scripture, we do not grow in our spiritual life and whereby we fail to become the man or woman God has made us to be. In some sense every sin contains an element of sloth for when we sin we indicate a kind of aversion to the perfecting graces God offers us. Rather than see the moral law of God as a great summons to freedom, we sorrowfully reject that call as too much trouble.

Socially too there are many manifestations of sloth. But just to mention two that are common in the modern world.

1. Secularism - By secularism, here is meant not the more recent hostility to religious faith, but more the older meaning of the word wherein one’s preoccupation is essentially a worldly one. It is amazing how passionate and interested we can get about worldly things. Perhaps it is a football game, or it is politics, or some new electronic device that has just come out. Perhaps it is our careers or our, or the stock market, or something in the news. Yes, we are passionate people and even the most reserved have strong interests that occupy their mind and vividly capture their interest.

And yet, many of those who rejoiced at the basketball game that ended so thrillingly, or were passionately engaged at the political rally, or excited about the latest twist on their favorite television shoe, many of these same passionate, joyful people can muster no interest in prayer, Mass, or Bible study. And if they do get to Mass they look in agony until it is over.

This is secularism and  a form of sloth. We have time and passion for everything else, but not for God. It is a very deep drive. We are mesmerized by many things of the world, but bored, sorrowful and thus slothful over the things of the spiritual life. Where is the joy? Where is the zeal? Where is the hunger for completion in God?

This is sloth. It is not merely depression or boredom, it is sloth, it is a sorrow toward the spiritual gifts of God. It is a deep drive of the flesh, and it has to go. But only God and our openness to his grace can ultimately save us and bring us more alive from this death directed drive.

2. Relativism – Many today indulge a notion that there is no absolute or unchanging truth to which we are summoned and must ultimately conform. This is relativism. And many who practice it actually congratulate themselves for their “tolerance” and open-mindedness. They think of their relativism as a virtue. But, more often than not, relativism is simply sloth masquerading as tolerance. The fact is, if there is a truth, (and there is), then I should joyfully seek it, and base my life on its demands and promises.

But many indulge the notion of relativism, for it is an easy way out. If there is no truth then I am not obliged to seek it, and base my life on it. Frankly many are averse to and sorrowful toward the truth for they find its demands irksome. This is sloth, for their sorrow is directed toward a very precious spiritual gift of God, the gift of truth. Instead of joyfully seeking the truth, the relativist is sorrowful and avoidant of the gift though they couch their sloth in other words such as “broad-mindedness” and “tolerance.”

To be sure there is a place for tolerance. But the true virtue of tolerance is usually misunderstoodtoday and equated with approval. The proper understanding of tolerance is the conditional acceptance of or non-interference with beliefs, actions or practices that one considers to be wrong but still “tolerable,” such that they should not be prohibited or unreasonably constrained. The key point that is often lost today is that the tolerated beliefs or practices are considered to be objectionable, wrong or bad. If this objection component is missing, we are not speaking any longer of “toleration” but of “indifference” or “affirmation.”

Hence, relativists who slothfully dismiss that there is truth to be found cannot rightly call their position “tolerance.” It is, in fact mere indifference, and a form of sloth.

For all of our modern claims to be tolerant and open-minded, the more usual fact is that we are just plain lazy and slothful when it comes to seeking the truth. We (collectively speaking) do not love the truth but shun it, sorrowfully regarding its possible claims on us. Jesus said rightly, This is the judgement: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (Jn 3:19-21).

A few reflections then, on Sloth.

Coming to recognize sloth for what it is, calling it by name and learning its moves is the first step on the road to healing. Sloth is, of course, one of those drives that is so deep that we must ultimately fall to our knees and beg deliverance form the Lord who alone can heal us.

The gift that the Lord offers us is promised in the beatitude: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt 5:6).

We must also ask for and seek the fruits of the Holy Spirit, especially love, joy, and peace. These gifts enkindle a fire of love in our hearts for God and for the gifts he offers.

Since sloth is a very deep drive, we must cast ourselves on the care of God with great humility, recognizing our poverty and seeking his miraculous grace to give us grateful, loving and passionate hearts.

Finally, since sloth can also be generated by the feeling of being overwhelmed at the perfection of our call, we do well to consider two points:

1. We ought to meditate carefully on what our specific call is. Since we cannot do and be everything we need to come to an understanding of our own gifts and how God expects us to reasonably use them. Having done this we do well to stay in our lane.
2. It is also true that we must understand that spiritual progress grows in stages and by many steps, not by one giant leap. Hence we not not be so sorrowful or adverse to the good things God offers, for, as a loving Father he leads us and forms us most often in gentle ways as one spiritual victory leads to others.

Pray for zeal, joy, hope, confidence and a hunger for holy things. The Christian journey is meant to be a thrilling one as we experience how God is utterly transforming us.

Making Beeswax Candles [part 2]

Go to: http://backtothebest.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/homemade-beeswax-candles-part-ii/

to see the post.

Why Pastured Chicken's Eggs Are So Good for You

From Weston A Price Foundation: http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/eat-eggs-and-have-chicken-too
(go there to see the whole article)

Reason #1 To Raise Backyard Chickens: Stellar Nutrition

Without a doubt, fresh, pastured eggs are superior in taste and nutrition to conventionally raised commercially available varieties. Eggs have been a highly valued foods since the beginning of time—eggs from chickens, ducks, geese, turtles and fish. Egg yolks are the richest source of two superstar carotenoids—lutein and zeaxanthin. ¹. Not only are bright yellow yolks loaded with these fat-soluble antioxidant nutrients, they are more bioavailable than those found in vegetables, corn and most supplements.^2,3 While these nutrients have a reputation of combating macular degeneration^4,5 and cataracts⁶ and supporting overall healthy vision, they have a long list of other benefits, including protecting the skin from sun damage⁷ and even reducing one’s risk of colon⁸ and breast cancer.⁹ 

Besides providing all eight essential proteinbuilding amino acids, a large whole, fresh egg offers about six to seven grams of protein and five grams of fat (with about 1.5 grams of it saturated), which comes in handy to help in the absorption of all the egg’s fat-soluble vitamins. One egg also serves up around 200 milligrams of brain-loving cholesterol and contains the valuable vitamins A, K, E, D, B-complex and minerals iron, phosphorus, potassium and calcium.¹⁰ Choline, another egg-nutrient, is a fatty substance found in every living cell and is a major component of our brain. Additionally, choline helps break up cholesterol deposits by preventing fat and cholesterol from sticking to the arteries.^10,14 So the bottom line is, don’t be chicken about eating eggs, especially the cholesterol-rich yolks!

Compared to the generic supermarket variety, eggs from pastured poultry are a vivid yellow-orange—proof of a richer store of healthenhancing carotenes (more specifically xanthophylls, a natural yellow-orange pigment in green plants and yellow corn).^11,12 The more carotenes, the darker, deeper orange color the yolk—and the higher the levels of fat-soluble vitamins as well. Expect to find the richest orange colors in the spring, when grass is fresh and bugs are plentiful. Color also fades as the egg ages. Bear in mind, variations will be seen in these differences due to the breed and age of chickens, their diet (grass, insects, and feed) and the season.

When left to their own scavenger instincts, being the omnivores they are, chickens eat bugs, worms (and even snakes if given the opportunity), grasses and nutritious herbs such as plantain leaves and wilted nettle—both of which boost egg production and yolk hue. While these feathered friends will eat the grain and pellets left in the feed trough, it certainly isn’t their ideal food. Remember, chickens are omnivores, not vegetarians as many people assume, meaning they are designed to consume foods from both animal and plant sources. Subjecting chickens to a strictly vegetarian diet prevents them from achieving their ideal health by denying them the nutrients found through scavenging around the farm, barnyard and pasture.

Compared to eggs from conventionallyraised, caged hens, eggs produced by free-roaming and pasture-pecking chickens have more omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and vitamin A,¹² along with notably higher amounts of folic acid and vitamin B₁₂.¹³ Direct sunlight also acts as a nutrient and naturally boosts egg production.¹⁴ So get your girls out of doors as much as possible!