11 Questions To Love and Be Loved

Those who know me are quite aware that I SUCK at small talk! I am everything that encompasses awkward when it pertains to small talk! I come across as weird, strange, and totally aloof. To add to my list of disadvantageous reasons for people not to like me, I have a hard, mean looking expression burned into my brow. Bugger! I have no idea why I look like I’m mad all the time. I’m usually quite serene on the inside, but this expression certainly doesn’t make me very approachable. Aside from Botox, what’s a gal to do? I am still working on it. So, if you try and have small talk with me, you probably won't be too fond of my first impression. However, get to know me with what I like to call large talk (deep and meaningful convo) you'll likely love me because I am all about truly connecting with others. Here's a funny, little story:


I used to work at a restaurant as a busgirl. I loved the job because I could have my head down in my work, cleaning tables and keep my mouth shut. I could be around people but not have to interact in the shallow pleasantries that the servers were compelled to in order to get good tips. This suited me just fine. One day I got to talking with one of the waitresses there as it was a slow day and not much to do but work closely together. We got into a conversation about her kids and what classes she was taking in school, etc. I happily listened to all she had to say. I really do enjoy getting to know what people are really all about. Upon conversation she literally said to me, “I have to apologize to you.” I was slighty taken back and said, “Why?” She responded with this frank statement, “Because I thought you were a B*&CH before getting to know you a bit.” I casually laughed and told her that it was totally okay. I get that a lot!

In light of knowing that I am slightly an oddball and don’t do well with the typical chitchat but love to get down to the nitty gritty of conversation, I came across this post on a blog that I LOVE. Shout out to Melody Fletcher. On this particular post she shared another person’s blog post, 11 Questions you're NOT asking that could change your life. Oh boy, a blog post about another’s blog post about another’s blog post. Are you confused yet? If so just visit Melody’s website and take a gander at her post entitled Screw Smalltalk! 11 Questions That Can Help You Truly Connect.

I loved this post so much that I wanted to share as well! I am absolutely invigorated by deep, meaningful conversation with others and as someone who is known for asking personal questions, here…we…go.

1. What is your dream job?

I love to help people on an intimate level and assist them to figure out the mysteries of their lives. I truly am a counselor at heart. I would love be a psychologist with my own private practice.

2. What fulfills you?

The happiness on my daughter’s face every morning when I get her out of her crib makes my cup runneth over. Seriously, my heart gets so full I think I might have edema and the only way to keep from bursting into a million little pieces of true love is for the water to well up and come out of my eyes! It fulfills me when my small family (husband, daughter, and myself) are in harmony. Meaningful conversation with people fulfills me. (Obviously, haha) 

3. What’s your greatest fear?

I had to think sort of hard on this one. I’m not a particularly fearful person. I typically go above and beyond to be sure that others know I do not have an ounce of judgment in my heart towards them so this tells me that I must have a fear deep down about being misunderstood or moreover, a fear of being judged by others. Also, the thought of having a house fire occasionaly grips me with horrible anxiety.

4. What do you want more of in life?

I want loads more knowledge, wisdom, happiness, harmonious friendships and relationships in general, motivation, inspiration, love, deep and meaningful conversations. (Another obvious)

5. What is your single greatest accomplishment?

Motherhood. It takes great strength, work, patience, vigor, selflessness, and all that good stuff that teaches one to be a better person.

 

6. What are you ashamed of?
I am slightly ashamed of the fact that I don’t get out of the house much. I only leave about once a week because I live pretty far away from town and I don’t like to spend money on gas to go somewhere unless I have plenty of errands and I know my time and money is not squandered. However, this summer I will take my daughter to the local park often and that will solve much of my shameful feelings about not getting out with my daughter enough.


7. What makes you sad?

When my relationships are in disharmony I get very sad. It saddens me deeply when people completely misunderstand me or when I hurt someone. When people think I’m something that I’m not, although I am learning that it doesn’t much matter what others think of me. What is important is, as long as I know in my heart who I truly am, others will come around to that understanding as well.

8. Hardest thing ever experienced?

It’s too personal to comment about publicly but it was extremely difficult. It was the worst time of my life, but thanks to God and I truly mean ALL thanks to GOD I was and am the victor over that whole experience!!!

9. What’s great about you?

I am smart. I am zealous about studying many different subjects. I am a student in life. I pray for humility. I was gifted at birth with a highly useful internal, moral compass. I am very passionate about many different things. I am unique and I love that about myself. I am articulate. I deeply care for others. All of these things I am again thankful to God for. I am absolutely nothing without him. I am a vessel of his love.

10. Who are you?

I am a powerful woman. I am strong willed with an important voice in the world. I am love. I am a comfort to others. I am a friend, mother, wife, lover, sister, daughter, cousin, niece, confidant, counselor, student, beloved child of God, and so much more!

11. What inspires you?

Knowledge and Wisdom!!!

Pretty please with a cherry on top answer these 11 questions and comment below. I am totally and completely interested in everyone’s answers!

Journey To Improved Health Commenced

My two week juice fast has been completed! With minimal cheating along the way I was able to reverse some rather uncomfortable health problems, lose weight, detox, and retrain my food cravings. I’ll break it down into three sections,“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” and discuss just what happened during the juice fast as well the wonderful results I got.

THE GOOD:

I’ll jump off from a positive starting point and discuss the good. By day three I was feeling AMAZING! I experienced some really great improvements in my health in just two and half days. I started sleeping rather well. My back pain had virtually disappeared. My mood began to significantly elevate. I have suffered with spells of slight depression throughout most of my days and now gone! I also enjoyed less fatigue than what I was used to. I no longer suffer from the atrocious gas that was something new for me. I started having gas problems soon after I allowed the ‘hack’ (gall bladder removal surgeon) to steal my gall bladder from me before I knew better. Thank God that unpleasant symptom is gone!

Fortunately for me, I did not experience any horrible side-effects the first couple days from detoxing as many claim to experience. It’s possible that I aided the detoxification process the day before I started my juice FEAST with a warm water enema and that is why I did not have any yucky symptoms. I’ll talk more about that in “The Ugly” section. Another noticeable improvement was my pee. Yep, that’s right my PEEEEE! It was completely clear. I don’t think I have ever witnessed my urine to be clear before the juice fast. Clear urine is a good sign of improved internal health and proper hydration. I was very excited about that!

In addition, I transformed my food cravings! This was my main goal and reason for doing the juice fast. I no longer crave sweets anymore. I don’t have the urge to eat cookies and cakes anymore. Those cravings were a big problem for me as I felt completely out of control over what I ate. I would sometimes eat 3, 4, or even 5 cookies at a time (the big cookies) and made myself sick just to reduce the insatiable craving for sugar! And as most of you know, the craving doesn’t subside for very long even after over indulging. Another 24 hours later I would be right back in the cookie jar. I have to insert a funny little story here.

About a week after starting my fast, my lovely, baking neighbor brought over a giant hunk of double layer chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting in between each layer and topping the whole cake. This cake sat on my counter in front of my face for about three days. I glared at it. I fantasized about diving face first in the cake and eating with no utensils, just my face! I imagined my husband walking in on me with my head in the cake and I would look up with a chocolate mask covering my face and him saying, “WHAT THE BLEEEEP?!”Thankfully this embarrassing daydream never took place; however, the following actually happened. I snuck a bite of the scrumptious looking cake one evening while my husband ran to town. I was absolutely shocked when I ran over to the sink and promptly spit out the piece of cake and felt the urge to rinse out my mouth. The cake was actually disgusting to me. Weird right?! Cake was a huge weakness for me before. I haven’t eaten any sweets in 24 days and I can’t say I ever crave any.

Another great bonus is that I lost 8 pounds in 14 days. 6 pounds was lost in the first 7 days. I have probably lost even more than that by now but I haven’t weighed myself since stopping the fast.




THE BAD:

One negative thing to talk a bit about is my bouts of anger. On one hand, I think I got angry because of simply abstaining from food and I just wanted to crunch on something. This can make anyone slightly grumpy or make others want to slam the juicer over the head of someone who is eating! You choose which category you think I fall under. However, on the other hand, it was that time of the month which could be the biggest factor in why I was sort of unpleasantly irritable at times.

Speaking of wanting to eat something, let’s talk about ‘cheating’. Going from eating darn near anything and everything my little heart desired to not eating anything but mashed up and sprayed out juice is TOUGH! On day one I did break down and scarf down a banana. Just the sheer joy of having something with texture in my mouth kept me going onto day two. On day two I cheated as well. I ate a few grapes and strawberries but I chewed them so well it was darn near like juice. I didn’t want my body to have to work too hard to digest the food since that is one of the main reasons to go on a juice fast – give your body a break from digesting and instead focus on healing. The evening of day two I cheated again but this time with romaine lettuce wrapped around ½ avocado, diced tomatoes, sliced onions, and salsa. You may be thinking, golly, that’s no fast! But let me tell you…this is far better than cookies, pasta, chili, meat, dairy, and all the other junk I was usually eating so I am still very pleased with myself. Oh yeah, I also broke down late one night and ate one cracker. The salty cracker and its marvelous texture with the oh so pleasant crunch that invaded my mouth was another amazing treat that actually – believe it or not - kept me going on with my goal to become more healthy. You see, for me it is not merely about abstaining and succeeding at not eating a lick for two weeks. It is more about changing habits, retraining my body to crave healthier foods, recognizing when my body could get to the point where I shove 3 or 4 cookies down my throat or simply eat an organic cracker to subside my urges to break the fast entirely.

I think it's worth mentioning that a couple days during the two weeks I did feel very tired and knew that my body needed to rest. I expected this because while detoxing your body just needs to take it easy at times. After all, it is doing the huge task of repairing and healing things that have been out of whack for some time!

THE UGLY:

Now then, what could be uglier than what comes out of the poop chute? Yeah, I’m guessing not much. But you won’t believe it. I barely had a BM the whole time I was on the fast. This is probably surprising to many people in the health-conscious world because it is common knowledge that having a lot of rather strange bowel movements is expected when starting a juice fast. This is from the idea that after years of eating all the junk of the SAD (Standard American Diet) we have compacted feces in our colon and what not. I actually believe that I did have this compacted crap - pardon the pun – but I eliminated much of it with a coffee enema about two weeks before the fast and then a warm water enema a day before launching the juice fast. Can I just take a minute to talk a little about an enema? This is a power house way to quickly and effectively aid your liver to flush out toxins, especially using organic coffee. What it does is dilate the ducts and allow maximum room for the body to flush out impurities. The caffeine stimulates the liver to detoxify and through the liver the blood is filtered and cleaned as well! In the future I will write a post focusing solely on enemas so all you people out there that think that is the craziest thing you've ever heard will get a better understanding of just how beneficial it is and just how easy it really is.




Conclusion:

So there you have it, some of the highlights on my journey to better health. The mental process is something that cannot be put into words. You simply have to try it and experience it for yourself. It is a roller coaster ride that you won’t soon forget! I encourage everyone who has any health problems, minimal such as just annoying gas or severe such as arthritis and chronic disease to try a juice fast. If you suffer from chronic diseases and want to try the juice fast, do it under the supervision of your doctor. You may have to find a new doctor though because the great majority is not educated about nutrition and detox. If you are like me, young and rather healthy with no major health problems, feel free to surge ahead with a juice fast as soon as you can! It may just change your life!

Take your health into your OWN hands,

In the words of a mother

Here are a couple pics of some delicious juices I made!

Cantaloupe Juice - This is great if you freeze it. It's like sherbet!

Strong detox drink - Beet, Carrot, Apple, and Pear Juice!

Monthly Poem - January: The Disgrace of War

Veracity creates the need

Voracity begins to breed

Disgrace amongst all seed

Two sides refuse to concede

Tyrants, violence, and gore

Lies and scandals ignored

Crimes, riots, and wars

Hatred and spite at the core

Anguish, tears, and cries

Suffering, grief, no pride

Agony and pain worldwide

Who will weep for the war bride

Clamor, wail, and scream

Beseech, beg, and plead

Accept, let go, and breathe

Yet again we all will grieve

Anger, rage, distrust

Forgiveness or revenge and malice

Decisions, decisions press us

Held high is a blood filled chalice

Broken, dried up and done

Like ashes we fell one by one

The brave gave it a good run

But why the need to use a gun

Question, learn, and believe

Like the bone the truth we cleave

Allies and enemies who deceive

How many more must we bereave

Remember, consider, and never forget

Pray for the future for theirs is the debt

The tears, the blood, and the sweat

Our shame is what is left to inherit

A few photos below of Iraqi Pain. This is the disgrace of but one war. Will we have more of these wars?

America At Its Finest?

I am not an America basher. I don’t hate America. I don’t despise in my heart the people in high places that orchestrate horrendous wars and I am not unpatriotic. I have a deep love for my country and truly appreciate the great abundances I have been so liberally blessed with. My family and I have surely inherited many undeserved gifts. I do however question the integrity of the leaders of this great nation. I question their motives. I question their plots. I question the way they go about using their resources. I wonder if the people in secret societies have used their knowledge and skills to oppress the majority of common-folk not just here in America but throughout the world and particularly in the Middle East. I question if Israel manipulates the United States to do their bidding. I question the corruption involving the connections with our allies and the central banks. I question the division in this country that is not only growing among the rich and poor but among almost every facet of society. This division seems to be growing between brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, progressive and conservative, right and left, "Occupy" and "Tea Party". The air is thickened with offense.

The Occupy Movement and the 99% vs. the 1% protestors have some very valid ground in which to make their assertions on the super rich of our nation. For instance, in the near election of 2012 we have Democrat Obama who is backed by Goldman Sachs and other large bankers but then we also have Republican Romney (the current front-runner in the primaries) who is also backed by Goldman Sachs and other bankers. In short, these people in high and powerful places give large sums of money to the campaigns of certain individuals so that no matter who the public votes for they are, in fact, voting for the people in power with most of the wealth. There is much talk recently in the non-mainstream media that the main-stream media, also largely in cahoots with the bankers, support and give more coverage to those that are funded by the bankers. It's common practice to focus on the candidate with enough money to put out loads of ads. He is like the most popular kid in high school. Everyone pays attention to him and talks about him. Romney is that popular guy. It is sickening to the democratic process in the sense that even candidates with the largest grass-roots base, who don't have the banks contributions, have a hard time competing for a spot on the presidential ticket. Ron Paul is a perfect example of the guy who has a large grass-roots following with his contributions coming from average Americans but not getting equal attention in the media. Not only does the media seem to want to ignore him but they also consistently repeat how "he's nuts". Recently someone told me that they think he's nuts and I asked that person, "why do you think he's nuts?" I am not exaggerating when the response I received was, "I don't know." I wasn't surprised. I’m sure this person heard it over and over again from the news media and simply repeated it to me with no individual thought process to back up their statement.

This problem with the bankers (super rich) and who they fund to get what they want is not exactly a conspiracy theory. It’s simply not common knowledge. It’s all too easy to believe just about anything and everything we see in the media. Conspiracy theories are not popular and people would rather believe things at face value. They’ll pick one side or the other but it is still largely misleading. To take anything in the media at face value makes life simpler. If they are confronted with the possibility that they are being misinformed they might entertain these "conspiracy theory type" allegations as a sort of interesting tale for a few minutes but then typically and quickly resolve to be apathetic. After all, what can one person do even if they did know the truth? I suppose all anyone can do is research to figure things out to the best of their knowledge, educate their friends and family, perhaps start a YouTube channel or a blog, blow the whistle, and make the best decisions they can while living in this seemingly backward world.

Let me be fair and assert that The Tea Party Movement also has some very valid ground to stand on in the sense that our nation is on the precipice of extreme economic turmoil. We are faced with the need to severely cut back our enormous government spending which could actually be the biggest downfall of our empire. Tea party patriots are first and foremost fiscal conservatives. This makes the more liberal population scoff at such hard-nosed stances but if we want to help the poor, it certainly cannot be done with a bankrupt nation. Where is the common ground? Where can we come together rather than be divided?

I said all of that to post the video below in hopes that it inspires you to start on a path to become more educated on the situations we as average citizens face in this nation. It is important to learn about world history as well as the current events taking place on the world stage. I am absolutely no expert but the more I seek the more I learn that I have been indoctrinated by certain people with illusive agendas through the media and then subsequently listening to other people around me reiterate the same things over and over again. I am no longer interested in this kind of destructive and misleading regurgitation of information. I want information as objective as possible and of course I myself have to be objective; otherwise, the truth is watered down or lost yet again in my own perceptions. This is truly a delicate balance that is usually hard to achieve or maintain but trying our best is all we can hope to do.

Please watch the video of this young man who was sent by our country to fight in a war that now so many deem useless and unable to win. Perhaps it will soften your heart towards understanding that ACTUAL people are being killed, wounded, damaged, shamed, corrupted, and damned, all in the name of what? That is not a rhetorical question. I’m sincerely asking...all in the name of what? Can anyone give an honest and factual answer?

After viewing this video ask yourself: Is this America at its finest?

We must get on your faces before God and ask for truth and justice to be revealed to us. Are wars such as these just? I stand for an America that does not forsake its mission to be a civil and just nation UNDER God, rather than presume it is THE God of the world. We are not a nation OVER any other nation. Pride comes before a fall. Let's be sure we are humble in our hearts before God and mankind or more unnecessary wars will ensue.

Seek Peace with your enemies,

In the words of a mother