Book Clubs & Gardens

My friend and I started a Book Club this year. I’ve done this over the years with several friends and it helps to facilitate reading more books and gives the opportunity to discuss what we’ve read together. So far we’ve read three books: Shadow of the Wind, Brave New World and Linghun. For each we pull a food mentioned in the book and either cook it or go experience it in some way. Brave New World was quite the challenge. They apparently didn’t need food to live. Bred not to consume food nor impact the environment……

Bill Gates would be giddy-happy.

Anyway, we made a weird but festive mixed drink as a faux Soma substance. This particular choice was more than just a book club tradition, I learned about Blue 1 Lake color dye….Jesus help me…..more on that later.

A Heatstroke Stroll

Our last book, Linghun, inspired by traditional Chinese beliefs, was written by Ai Jiang, a Chinese author living in Canada. There was a dumpling meal the family often shared in their home, but cooking it in mine seemed daunting. Dumplings are delicate and require a lot of time and love to do properly. So, my friend and I decided to go out for authentic Chinese food and visit a Japanese Garden in Kentucky. I know, but are there Chinese Gardens in Ky? Asian – close enough.

We scheduled this scenic stroll on the hottest day of the Summer, I’m sure of it. Heat index over 100 degrees. Thank God it only took about fifteen minutes to complete. It was pretty but unfortunate the county seemingly neglects it as the water has loads of cyanobacteria or some other extremely thick gunk snaking through it.

It was fun, nonetheless, and I’m enjoying our little book club this year.

Health Can Be A Bummer

I love the ocean. I’ve been asked to accompany friends and family several times over the past two years and it kills me that my health has kept me from going. I’ve gotten back on track, (my thyroid med, that is, has gotten me back on track), but it takes several months to get the dose right. Too much and your heart flies out of your chest and you meet your Maker, too little and you fade away into deep sleep….to meet your Maker. I can’t be sure about this, but one thing that seems suspicious – I never had any problems with my thyroid functioning until after I went for a dentist appointment and they X-rayed my mouth without using the padding across my chest and neck.

In talking to a neighbor, he too had the same thing happen and mentioned X-rays. I was astonished. If that’s what did it, I have to say it enrages me….so I take a deep breath and realize that crappy things happen to everyone. At least this is manageable. But it has ruined my social life (and nearly my whole life) the past year. Why was I not insistent on them covering my body?

Hindsight man, hindsight……what a horrible mistake if that’s the case.

The Winds of Change…and Pools

This year I’m finally planning to get to Florida. I couldn’t manage it this Spring but late Autumn is looking much better. And maybe I’ll be able to accompany family down to the Caribbean this coming Winter. Thank God, seasons change. We’ll see how it works out.

Since the thyroid regulates the heart, (and every damn other system and function in your entire body), it’s difficult to manage exercise. If you get trapped in the sedentary/exhaustion cycle, it’s very difficult to exercise your way back to health. But, small steps get the job done.

I walked almost every day through the winter months. Spring brings many exercise options; weeding, walking and hiking. But as soon as the summer hit, heat shot up to mid-nineties and it was miserable. So, I decided to buy a few memberships and pool passes around my area where indoor pools will remain open through the Fall and Winter seasons.

Did you know treading water for 1 hour burns over 560 calories? I didn’t. But that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. The water and sun feels great and if friends can’t come along I go on my own, plenty of people who do the same I can chat with once I’m there. The Vitamin D alone has done wonders for my energy and mood.

Barefoot for Posture?

The other activity I’ve been doing is walking barefoot. I do this inside at home. It’s why I miss going to the beach as walking through the grass freaks me out….I’ve stepped directly into hornet’s nests as a child so nobody can tell me it isn’t DEATH to walk barefoot through the grass.

Anyway, when I first started walking barefoot indoors, all hardwood floors, I did so the entire time I was inside. I don’t know how much time that was but at least a few hours of continual walking for the day. And I’m not talking about walking in socks, it’s not the same thing as a completely bare foot. Let me tell you, after day 3 I was dying. Now maybe that’s how little I use those muscles but after wearing sandals/flip-flops indoors for nearly 3 years I can tell you, you are not using the same muscles to walk.

I ’bout died…

But walking barefoot is great for aligning your posture and building your core muscles and hips. I’m a bit weird about dirt and I like things relatively clean so at the end of the day I soak my feet in epsom salts, wash them with milk & honey sugar cubes and moisturize them before bed. Extra time for pampering? Yes, please. It’s the least I can do for all their hard work keeping my skeleton aligned. Not to mention the thought of slipping my feet between the sheets unwashed wrecks my mental state.

Clean feetsies make for better dreams:)

Going Dreamy

Speaking of dreams, David Lynch sums up my inner turmoil as an artist in less than thirty seconds during a rant that is so poignant it actually brings a profound relief to my soul:

I’m not working this way again, ever. This is absolutely horrible. We never get any extra shots, we never get any time to experiment. We never get to, you know, go dreamy or anything…(…)…you don’t get a chance to sink into anything.

I’ve felt like this for awhile I think, without even realizing it. Social Media is a slow burn, kinda down to hell’s flames. I wonder sometimes just how much of my cognitive ability has been thwarted jumping from one urgent catastrophe to the next. And hell, they aren’t even my catastrophes!

I have enough to deal with.

I remember my days of corporate work where bosses wanted me to multitask – or some hideous, hydra thing like that – and when I was in my twenties, I bought that bill of goods. But in actuality multitasking is the worst thing you can do to be productive and create quality work. I was done with the ‘multitasking deadline oriented‘ jobscape when I left it all behind in 2021. But somehow, I’ve been sucked into the same dynamic through Social Media B.S.

I’m going to make a concerted effort to end this unnecessary strain on my health and lifestyle.

A Retreat from Technology is Good for the Soul and for Brain Function

So, I’ve decided to take a retreat of sorts later this Summer. Alone. Strange to me but I think it will prove to be a meditative, habit changing exercise. This season of my life needs to change, and I am more than happy to facilitate it. The main rules are, I won’t be checking in with any social media sites, no internet searches, and no YouTube videos. Zero for nearly a week. I think I will suffer withdrawal – I’ll have to write an update after returning if I make it out alive. Hopefully there will be no foaming of the mouth or convulsing, but whatever it takes.

My mind feels fragmented, and there have been studies about how bad social media is for attention spans. I’m GenX, the last generation that was raised without screens. But now we’re all sucked into the same Matrix. I’m giving myself permission to step out of it. A detox if you will from everyone’s ‘BREAKING’, ‘URGENT UPDATE’, ‘GIVE ME YOUR ATTENTION NOW OR I’LL POUND YOU A GOOD ONE’ ….says some foreign troll who hates the West and Jesus and what we stand for….

Exhausting….

The Rules

I can read books, sketch, doodle, write but all with paper and pens only – no screens or technology. I truly believe I will feel an overwhelming wave of boredom. Probably excruciating – hence the convulsions – but it will be good for my soul. flush it all out, pick up the pen and paper and feel the flow of the ink, the pressed cotton notebook pages on my skin. The smell, the quiet, the lack. I don’t think we feel lack anymore. Not the financial kind of lack or negative aspect of lack – but the lack of ‘spaces filled in’ if that makes sense.

Everywhere there is something to fill in the gaps, to displace boredom. Easy filling too, not the hard kind. I’m going to tackle the hard kind of ‘filling’. Where activity and distraction isn’t served up to me but I have to go dig up something from within myself. My mother was smart about this when I was young. I was an only child, and I was extroverted. Oh my God how I was constantly complaining about not having anyone to play with, “Sarah just left after spending three nights here! What are you talking about?”

Sigh…..the plight of the extroverted.

But, she taught me how to amuse myself. Especially with art, clay, building blocks, train sets, blankets, empty boxes…..Granted, she was able to provide me with many a toy and gadget and Barbie during those early years, but we also were children of the ’70s, and the outdoors was medicine for anything.

“I’m bored.”

“Go outside.”

“I’m sick.”

(feels forehead) “Go outside.”

“I’m scared of….”

“Go outside!”

It’s time for me to send myself outside. To play, to be bored, to get creative, to find myself again – to enjoy a slower but more real aspect of life outside the matrix of Social Media.

Let’s See, Is There Anything Else?

These are a few of the things I’ve been thinking about this Summer. Oh yes, the Blue 1 Lake dye, I almost forgot. My friend and I bought a liqour called Blue Curacuo for the faux Soma drink our book review entailed. I don’t drink alcohol as a habit but from time to time will fix a mixed drink – maybe five times a year. The way this drink made me feel I thought, wow, not drinking more often makes it difficult to drink socially.

But the feeling was too strange…it was more like an allergic reaction.

I remember over a year ago eating a bag of those gummy nerds that are so popular. I like sour candies. After eating them I remembered I felt the same way – unable to focus, lethargic and unable to concentrate on anything. It was a struggle to do even menial tasks like unloading the dishwasher or doing laundry. This didn’t last for a few hours. It lasted for several days. Same thing with the Blue Curacuo.

So I looked up the ingredients in the liquor and compared it with the gummies. Blue 1 Lake dye was in both. I researched a bit and wow, absolute disgusting side effects of that chemical. It has been shown to actually seep through the blood-brain barrier in people who have an immune deficiency. My friend was quick to point out that hypothyroidism is just that.

“synthetic dyes can cause allergic reactions and are associated by some researchers with neurobehavioral and attention issues in sensitive children.”

“FD&C Blue 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF) is among the few synthetic food dyes able to cross the blood-brain barrier. Unlike many dyes that are excluded by this protective mechanism, Blue 1 reaches brain tissue, which has fueled scientific and consumer debate regarding potential neurodevelopmental effects, though it remains FDA-approved”

(Google AI Summary Search) (New York Times; Brand New Hue)

It took me a full week to detox from this dye in both cases, and it was loathsome. God, how much damage do we suffer at the hands of the food we consume unaware? This lack of regard for human beings, people with lives and dreams and loved ones, makes me angry. I’ll never get that time back. At least now I know, but I’m not sure when I’ve felt worse, except the time right before I started the thyroid meds.

I check ingredients in food more than ever now. I never had to do that in the past because it didn’t affect me like it does now. Is it age? Is it the times and technology? We manufacture ticks to make us allergic to meat. What the hell else are these evil people doing? I truly think they want us dead. If not, they certainly don’t care if we die or suffer. Humans flippant about humans they hold in contempt. And they hold the power and the means to execute on their contempt – utterly Luciferian. God will not turn a blind eye. That’s how I feel about it.

The Miracle of Life & the Human Creation

The brain flushes itself during our nighttime sleep. It literal cleans itself. Thank God for His master work on the biological human. So whatever toxins might have breached the blood-brain barrier are dealt with by the body and flushed while we sleep. Going Dreamy has its benefits. God has wonderful things in store for His people. We all go through seasons of growth, building perseverance and discipline – and being disciplined – He corrects the ones He loves and calls His own. I’m fine with that. I thank God for that.

Just because God is taking you the long way doesn’t mean He’s taking you the wrong way. The journey is most often the preparation of your purpose not the postponement of it.

(One of my amazing cousins)

Have a wonderful week all you beautiful people~