One thing drilled into me at Hippocrates was the slogan HOPE = Hormones, Oxygen, Phytonutrients, and Enzymes.   Eating a healthy plant-based diet that is preferably raw and nothing cooked above 118 is ideal. The reason to eat raw or utilize low cooking and dehydrated foods are to retain the vital enzymes in the food. When we eat cooked foods, the body expends a lot of energy digesting it and creating its own enzymes to do so. With cooked foods, the body utilizes cups of digestive enzymes vs spoonfuls to break it all down. Eating cooked foods slows down the entire process and depletes the body of enzymes.  Enzymatic exhaustion is aging.  Enzymes are the spark of life, the electric.  Hippocrates maintains that eating cooked foods causes digestive glucose cytosis – where your body engages white blood cells to go ‘on attack’. The immune system doesn’t recognize processed and cooked food as food. The thought process here is that a lot of energy the body spends ‘fighting’ cooked foods could be spent on detoxing and curing cancer.  At the very least, raw foods should be consumed with cooked and eat the raw foods first, followed by the cooked ones.

Enzymes help you alkalize.  An alkaline system is inhospitable to cancer.  Enzymes benefit cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. Digestion is the #1 thing. If you lack enzymes from your food, your body will borrow it from other places and that is not a good thing.  Enzymes are necessary to break down fats, carbohydrates and protein.  Getting enough enzymes helps regulate healthy weight.  It is recommended to take enzymes with each meal or snack regardless of whether the meal is raw or cooked.  I do not take an enzyme when I juice, however, as I consider juicing to be ‘pre-digested’, meaning it is all fresh raw ingredients, macerated into a juice without pulp (see my article on Juicing vs blending) so that the body has minimal work absorbing the nutrients.  I typically juice first thing in the morning as my ‘breakfast’ and then later eat a solid breakfast of salad, typically or hummus etc.

I love feedback so please post your success stories and comments after being on enzymes. ♥

Are you concerned about the quality of your supplements?  Are you vegan and find it frustrating to assure that there isn’t anything animal based in the supplements you take?  Do synthetic vitamins provide the same quality as plant-based supplements?

About Me – I have been primarily organic with food and skincare the last 25 years and completely detoxed my home care about 20 years ago. Most of my life I lived primarily vegetarian and spent all of 2016 studying with Hippocrates Health Institute.  Hippocrates was a life-changing experience for me, where I learned how the higher up the food chain we eat (other animals) that we increase our body burden of toxins stored in our fat.  Plants do not store toxins the same way animals do.  When we filter our nutrients through another animals body, rather than getting those vitamins and minerals directly from the source (plants) we increase the body burden because our bodies, as animals, store anything that cannot be detoxed right away, into our fat to protect the entire system from shutting down.

No matter how cleanly you eat, you have a body burden.  The entire planet is polluted to a greater or lesser degree because of factory farming and an onslaught of chemicals in our air, soil and water which all move, they know no borders.

Therefore, we all must supplement to aid our bodies in getting the highest nutrition (soil erosion has wiped out vitamins and minerals) and help our DNA remain strong and repair.  If you plan on rearing children, your kids will also thank you for that genetic boost because that will be passed down!   On that note, I hear folks say that they have a history of heart disease or cancer and I want to assure you that 90-95% of cancer is from what you’re exposed to and 5-10% is genetic.  The body wants to heal and survive so give it the tools.

Here are my rules:
1)  Plant-based – The supplement must be plant-based and contain no synthetic ingredients because I believe the body, at a cellular level, doesn’t adequately absorb them or see them as food. What you want are the full spectrum nutrients you would get if you were eating optimally.  Seeing NOS which is Naturally Occurring Standard certified, on the label lets you know the product is not synthetic.

2) Organic (or wildcrafted) – The supplement must be organic so I look for certification there.  The reason is that generally the quality of the supplement is going to be better, more nutritious and being organic let’s me know it is non-GMO and that no pesticides were used.

3) Vegan – Both the product itself and whatever the softgel or capsule is made from should not be animal based.

4) Quality Control – How is the product sourced and how is it made, what is the process, or facility the supplement is made in because this matters to assure contaminates are minimized.

5) Value – I price check and ingredient check to come up with what I believe to be the best deal.

Back in the beginning of all supplements, every one was plant-based.  Then science found a way to synthesize nutrients which saves a ton of money but at what health cost?  Synthetics are a cheaper supplement to create because rather than harvesting live crops, the nutrients are synthesized in a lab.  They will tell you that doing things this way keeps the consistency, such as if one bottle has 500mg of C, the next batch will too because its a formula based on a synthetic and not a live plant where one plant is going to vary slightly from another.  While I do understand why synthetics are on the market,  in my training at Hippocrates, all synthetic based supplements were shunned.  The reason is that while we may know a particular thing, such as biotin is great, the issue is that when we take it as a synthetic, we are getting just biotin synthesized whereas when we take it in food form, from a plant, we are getting the full spectrum of nutrients in our supplement.  All things work together to form a whole.  This is how the body expects things to be because this is what happens naturally when we eat healthy food.  A salad, for example, will have numerous components, which the body knows how to break down and utilize.  As Hippocrates phrased it, “High doses are not required since biology’s orchestration enables your cells to fully embrace the unified chorus of superior elements.”
There are varied schools of thought but I believe that the body doesn’t recognize, at a cellular level, a synthetic vitamin in the same way it would recognize it in food and therefore, will not absorb and utilize it the same way with the same effects.

Hippocrates has their own brand, LifeGive,  which I use as well as reviewing and sourcing both through what I market as an Independent Consultant and online shopping.

Below is a link to Hippocrates if you are interested in going down the rabbit hole of knowledge.  The link will provide you with a free syllabus.

Essante and Miessence links below offer great organic and wildcrafted supplements and skin care and home care.

I’m available for any questions. ♥

www.miessence.com/puretemple/en/category/1/skincare

www.EssanteOrganics.com/Puretemple 

https://op.hippocratesinst.org/moreinfo/static/34  

I always find it amusing when people try to differentiate ourselves far and away from the other animals as if we are not in any way similar or on the same playing field.  My husband will talk about ‘our animals’ and I will occasionally remind him that we are animals too.  In my lifetime of being around animals, predominately cats and a few dogs, birds and fish, I have come to the knowledge that they each have reasoning capabilities, a great capacity for love, forgiveness and joy, their own proclivities and desires, social decorums, ways of training others and being part of the family.  No cat you will ever have will be exactly like another.  Their personality differences are infinite snowflakes of uniqueness.  I will never have the capacity to know all animals but am amply blessed to know a few while I am here.  I have come to believe they are here to help us grow in the knowledge of right and wrong, of compassion and grace as well as aiding us in the retention of awe.  Each creature really is awe-inspiring and fearfully made.  It is a humbling responsibility to have a fur child in our family who trusts us on such a deep level to be their advocate through thick and thin, to always look after their best interest.  It is equally humbling to see that they give the very same dedication, if not even more so, to us, their human-animal companions.  I am currently studying CMT, Canine Massage Therapy, and on a progressive training there as I continue to learn more about them and myself.

I recently picked up The above book This is one of those really great books that’s hard to put down once you crack the cover.  Regardless of your religious beliefs, there is something beyond hunks of meat shaped like a cat or a person. That something is the breath of life, the spirit that motivates us behind the mind and body, that same light that fades from our eyes once we are gone.  I have been surrounded by quite a bit of death the last few years and witness how one foot is here on this plane while the other foot is in the netherworld.  People not on any drugs will awake here on this plane and tell you plainly that they were just speaking to deceased friends, relatives, their dog was there to greet them etc.  This morning, a friend of mine passed away.  Prior to Bobby’s death, he saw my best friends dead daughter Jennifer amongst others.  He would awaken here and be disappointed he had not already crossed over the rainbow bridge.    Bobby was ready to go and left us early this morning.  I believe we are all here with plans, with things to do.  But it wasn’t until reading The Spritual Nature Of Animals by Karlene Stange, that I came away with an awareness that they also have plans.  This struck a deep chord in me (see my other canine posts) as Rhett, our resident Doberman and I, have been through some heavy stuff lately which has all helped me to share new information with others to help them as well as set me upon a new career path.

Temple Grandin, upon the death of an animal,  asked in her book Animals Make Us Human, ‘Where do they go?’
She is speaking of the spirit, the light in the eyes, the thing most of us don’t really discuss that we all share, the breath of life that contains the spirit in the temporal body.

I do not advocate the killing of any of our fellow animals but I also realize that not everybody will go vegan.  I would much rather see a return (and saving) of our local farms who make efforts to raise animals humanely, who are in the meat or dairy business as ethically as possible than I ever would want to see what is happening, corporate farms with zero compassion taking over, wiping out our local farmers with their power and might who create substandard fare while creating a living hell on earth for our brethren animals.  Even if you don’t like pigs, perhaps you don’t like their ways or just don’t care, you have to understand they are loyal, fun loving and smarter than most dogs.  Dogs are as smart as that of a 4 or 5-year-old child.  That isn’t what you would call dumb.  The thing with dogs is that their emotional intelligence remains that of a 4 or 5-year-old too, regardless of how old they actually are.  Some humans remain at an infant state too but we’ll move off that topic.  ♥  While we may lose patience with an adult human acting a fool, it is very important to absorb at your core that no matter how smart your fur kid is, his emotional intelligence is that of a 4-year-old kid.  It is never going to mature beyond this so extend the necessary grace when that 4-year-old chews something up stressing out when you work late.  You’re the adult in this relationship, always.  Put things away, provide toys and other healthy distractions or own the consequences with grace.  It is true that as an animal ages, coupled with consistent,  firm but kind training or mentoring as I like to call it, good socialization as you would your human kids, they settle in and are far better behaved as they age which can give off the illusion that they are mature.  Yes but no…there will always be that child within and God bless this because we need reminding of awe and humility and innocence every day.

Randy Habib & Karen Becker have a great reference book, The Forever Dog. As a pet professional, as well as helping people and their animal companions detox their lifestyle, I am seeing far more people now  awaken to their holistic options. 

 Dr. Goldsteins The Nature Of Animal Healing is one of my reference books.  I learned about alternative heartworm treatments here as well as how bad all these annual shots are for our fur babies.  I haven’t had any shots since I was a child and I feel fine.  Why on earth do we ply our creatures with annual insults?  Also, I did not realize until last year that most of these shots, for us and them, contain mercury and other toxins in their mix.  Unless it is necessary, such as an area where Parvo is common or what have you, why put them deliberately in harm’s way?  Be judicious.  This book will help guide you there.

The book above is also a great book on Holistic approaches to wellness.  Many people argue this is silly woo woo stuff that doesn’t work, however, I have experienced first hand the healing of various homeopathic medicines and can attest that they are indeed effective.

Another fabulous reference book is Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health For Dogs & Cats.  This book teaches natural herbs and techniques, as well as recipes for home cooked meals.  Also, you can look up symptoms and diseases to help guide you through many situations.

What animal lovers library would be completed without James Herriot All Creatures Great & Small? Or perhaps the whole set, below.

Please post your own stories and comments, I love feedback and thanks for reading. ♥

This is my vent.  At my new job, looking forward to my  June 5th 1 year anniversary, I had sent a letter of thanks the afternoon of May 23rd to my employer.  I had been busy that week, we were readying for API deployments which I was managing the implementation of.  This is, or was, the day job that keeps/kept this blog afloat, along with my entire family as the primary breadwinner.
Well into my morning on the 24th, having logged in a bit of extra time all week and in the throes of responding to emails, I received a call to stop all work.  I had actually been let go yesterday, just nobody had bothered to tell me. No time to hand off work properly.  What kind of crazy is this?  How rude for the person taking on my work.

The bathroom remodel, which was supposed to take 3-4 weeks tops, has spanned two contractors and 3 months so far and went from 19k (guy didn’t have a clue on prices) to 32k.  While I have money saved, I was actually counting on regular paychecks to take care of this remodel.  Not only would having my bathroom back, getting my beautiful new tub (which has been sitting for months outside in the yard) actually situated in the house where it belongs, be quite lovely, my master closet is also in this bathroom.  This would be the closet where I could perhaps locate appropriate shoes and attire for an interview, were one to come up not on skype or phone that requested my physical presence with expectations of me putting some care into my appearance.

And I was now completely stressing over a very expensive stove for my inlaws that I had gleefully offered to pay for, not knowing the bathroom price would be significantly higher or that my job would vanish within a few weeks.  The ins just don’t understand my current (and very temporary) drama.  They’re in a jam and I have been shoring them up as agreed.  It will all work out in the end of it.

I continue to scan the finances to figure out what I really should keep and what I can let go of. Change is always a great time to sit quietly and meditate on what you need in your life and what no longer serves you.  All monthly donations to charities were canceled.  I can set those up again downstream.  YMCA membership?  Keep, I DO need my yoga!  We have re-worked the budget and I am not allowed in stores.  🙂

On June 5th our dogson, Rhett, a strapping handsome, smart and sweet Doberman, normally bounding about with full-on power and energy, went into a spiral.  After his morning walk, he kept falling down. Some sort of spine, nerve trauma and so suddenly we have no idea what he could have done to bring this on.   Rhett needs twice weekly therapy and acupuncture treatments.  On the upside, we have witnessed swift improvements and he is feeling so much better.  Not to beg, but I did set up a gofundme for him and the link is below if you know of any animal lovers, dog lovers, Doberman people, kindly help by sharing,  please and thank you.

Job from the bible comes to mind but that guy had it way worse than me so I am determined to remain thankful.  Still, what on earth happened to common courtesy?  What happened to warnings of layoffs pending, to having a conversation and providing some modicum of notice when someone is no longer needed? How is it that the worker bee is asked to provide notice when the business does not? What do these actions say about a future at any corporation or the morale there?  Do we put up with instability and fear or change our plans? When is the income level high enough to compensate for that fear and not knowing when yesterday was your last day there?   When a company is that freaking hard up to do a merger, provide extra bonuses for their execs, or make their bottom line and stock price heftier before announcements,  that they must turn to layoffs, especially without any notice, one has to question if the decisions which precipitated that action, are equally thoughtless.  While this, of course, affects individuals and their families, many of us also have employees counting on us,  a lawn service,  housekeeper, grocery delivery service, dog walker,  and we should take that seriously too because just as our income is affected by our employer, we affect peoples incomes too. Also, in some situations, we are not really in a good position to let these employees of ours go.  For example, I get sun poisoning if I stay outside too long, so the lawn guy stays.

While I am absolutely stewing over this, ruminating over my pissed offedness, and hurt, really so hurt,  I also know intuitively we co-create at least 95% of what happens to us. Next, when things do happen, there is reason and purpose behind it.  I am now opened up to find other work, another purpose.  I am also out a 98k salary.  All in all, quite the bummer.

My contract terms stipulated I must provide 2 weeks notice to leave my position,  while I received an ‘oh by the way this happened yesterday’ termination.    I have become an afterthought.  This makes me think of all the afterthoughts out there silently hanging with me.  Corporations today seem soulless, doing things on the regular that they would never have even discussed perpetrating 30 years ago. There was, feigned or true, an appearance of giving a damn, an understanding that there should be coverage provided to good workers with some grace, funded 401ks, healthcare and pensions and time off to enjoy life. In my 20’s the healthcare I never used was fully funded by the company.  I watched the pension die.  I watched the 401k stop getting matched. I watched 16 years of quarterly layoffs and spotty raises.  So many people back in the day worked for themselves or in their families business.  When you give up that control for working at someone else’s business, it makes sense to get some kind of return, not just weekly but to cover you in retirement years.  It sucks having what you have worked for crumble through no fault of your own. Not all of us want to work until we are 100. Not all of us will be capable.  I have seen ethics and compassion vanish over the last couple of decades and greed take over.  My husband, who is in management, complains of the millennials.  He is lucky to get even a day’s notice when someone quits. His last notice was less than 24 hours and said ‘thanks so much for the opportunity but I am moving on’.  This from a young dude my husband took under his wing and mentored.  It was his first job.  He could have moved up but decided to move on. Most don’t even give notice, they’ no call no show.’  The millennials are far more about themselves, what they want to do right now,  make right now than ever paying any kind of dues or putting up with anything they don’t like for any length of time.  I find quite a lot of humor in this.  It is the ultimate payback to the dispassionate care corporations have given their workers for so long now.  While I do feel sorry for my husband, he is a wise, ethical, caring and fair-minded man, I snicker at what has been wrought.  This is exactly what Corporate America asked for when they took us from long 8 hour days and weren’t satisfied with that into mandating exempts work until the job is done, 10, 12 and 16 hours per day and stack ranking us accordingly,   managing by fear. Getting the milk for free as they say.  Nothing is ever free.  Eventually, we pay for things the right way or Karma takes care of it later.  In the 50’s & 60’s, there was much talk of how technology was to have us working perhaps 4 hours a day and enjoying so much more personal time.  I want to know what happened to that? (Greed) When companies make the choice to disassociate from compassion towards their workforce, to buy up another company or do some other unnecessary thing, this is not balanced.  I see a lot of imbalance in most folks finances and I see the same insanity in many corporations. Obviously, a company is attempting something that is too much of a strain if they are unable to do that and also keep their daily work and workers going. They are not living in balance. And if your finances are a mirror of this, you are not in balance either.  The problem with your personal finances not being in balance is the stress it causes. Gone are the days when you could feel comfortable at work, settle in.  I believe everyone should have significant savings and manage all debts to increase their cash flow as much as possible.  Ages ago, I read Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad,(link below too) and at that time I was mired in credit card debt.  My mother had taught me that, but my dad was a very practical man and a saver.  This book really opened up my eyes to the spirit of money and all the ways we tend to abuse it.

No matter who you are or what you make, everyone needs to be thinking about a plan A, B & C.  Stuff happens that throws us off our game and shapeshifts us.  While you can feel how you feel, in that moment, it is also necessary to absorb lessons and to move on.  In order to do that, you have to sort through the wreckage, what worked, what didn’t and create a plan you can use next. All of this really helps if you already had a backup plan to turn to.  For me, I had some savings to finish the bathroom.   Job searching but I don’t believe my next role will be with any typical corporation after going through all that I have been through the last 28 years and in particular the insult a few weeks back. I am thankful for what I have earned and the education, but firmly believe we all deserve respect and very saddened to see a lack of the very basics in courtesy happening in Corporate America.  I am learning,  meditating on next steps,  determined to carve a new path forward thinking more like a millennial.  For those of you finding yourself in this or similar situation, I hope sharing my story and the interesting reading below helps you shed light on where you are today and where you plan to go.  ♥

Help Our Pup!  https://www.gofundme.com/treatment-for-heironymus-rhett?sharetype=teams&member=295754&rcid=r01-152951544828-f60b9c3bb15c4ec2&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w
Interesting Reading:

The little enclave where my MCM home is parked has quite a lot of nature in it.  We are close to a creek with coyotes, opossums, racoons, hawks, rodents and loads of bugs.

I love animals and am actually a bit partial to most bugs, provided they are not crawling on me.  The ones I prefer are what we call the ‘beneficial’ insects, praying mantis, ladybugs, spiders, fireflies, dragonflies etc.   One of my friends abhors frogs, they scare her.  Not me, bring in the toads!  Lizards, toads, frogs, let nature reign.  Most homes share bugs unawares.  Spiders, for example, will hide out catching bugs that dare wander in.  When I see a spider, I typically catch and release it outside.

Nobody loves fleas, ticks or cockroaches.  Well, they mate so apparently someone does, but generally not of the human variety.   It can be a challenge to enjoy nature and control it in a safe or safer way.  If you live in an area with opossums, (below link to more info on these interesting and adorably ugly critters,  rest easy knowing they are killing thousands of ticks and minimizing your families risk of Lyme Disease.  http://www.caryinstitute.org/newsroom/opossums-killers-ticks

So what do we do with the creepies that invade our interiors?  It is important to be mindful of what products we use because there are more than 85,000 chemicals in our water and approximately 2000 new chemicals created annually.

Many of us have pets that we worry about with outdoor gardens as well as what they may ingest inside the home.   To minimize fleas in our

yard, we use CedarCide.  It smells yummy or just like Cedar if you aren’t a huge fan (I once locked myself in a newly minted cedar closet for 5 minutes breathing it all in) and is a safer, kinder gentler way to kill the bloodsuckers.   But this product also works on lice, kills ticks, mosquitos, mites and ants as well, at all stages of their life cycle.  This product is indoor/outdoor, we just use it primarily outside.

• IF you have snakes, keep in mind that cedar is toxic to reptiles.

I typically use this product pointed down and spraying onto our

grass/yard, early morning when cool and avoiding bees, butterflies etc.

In our garden and yard we also use beneficial nematodes. Biologic Scanmask with 10 Million Steinernema feltiae (Sf) is an all natural defense against fleas, knats, grubs.  You apply easily with a watering can or spray pump.  

has makes one

For the patio, and for those local to the DFW area, its made right here, there’s  SkeeterScreen personal spray which I also use on my dog, and their patio egg which not only looks cool, but helps spread the unwelcome mat.  Just FYI, if you get it next to paint, such as where ours is hanging right at the slider coming into the house, where it touches the house?  The oil will eventually peel the paint there.  Small price to pay, or just situate it where it will hang freely and not swing into the side of your house like I should have done to begin with rather than complain about it here.  They have candles too and the scent is nice. I am not a huge fan of citronella so while I know citronella is effective, I want other herbs and stuff to make a nice smell that doesn’t give me citronella overdose.  I am an incense fan from the 70’s dude, so why not on the patio and in the yard?  I am never without Amazon Lights incense.  Firstly, there’s the cone which also comes with a nice ceramic holder.  This is perfect for having a quiet corner conversation or a cup of joe and just wanting to enjoy your patio space for a few moments before heading into work etc.  If you are going to be out longer, get the Amazon Lights stick version which last a couple of hours.  I love the scent, which includes rosemary and thyme….and who couldn’t use more of that?  The sticks last between 2.5 and 3 hours.  For a larger space, strategically place a few so the entire patio is within it’s cloaking device.

INSIDE THE HOME BUG CONTROL – We use an ultrasonic plugin.  Bodyguard Ultrasonic Pest Repellent is a great way to rid your home of unwanted bugs without toxic chemicals.  Each unit works up to 1600 square feet so you can place strategically.

For cockroaches, silverfish and palmetto bugs  (what I call giant cockroaches) and ants, we recently used, and with great effectiveness, Harris Diatomaceous Earth.  There are hundreds of uses for this product and it comes with a duster.  This is an all natural product with no additives or fillers.

Another option is Harris Boric Acid Roach and Silverfish Killer Powder with Lure because it is EPA registered, a safer approach to killing the nasties while keeping pets and family members safer.  The product must be kept dry to work and works for weeks and is fast acting.

Due to environmental concerns, I do not recommend baits in plastic tins and I recommend placing these powders inside sink cabinets in the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms and behind such appliances as the stove and refrigerator.  I am a bit paranoid, I want to keep pest control out of reach of the little ones, human and otherwise.

When applied correctly and at regular intervals, coupled with keeping your home environment tidy, you should be well on the way to bug-free home zone.    Feel free to comment on how each of these products did at your house!

This book, Random Acts Of Kindness by Amy Newmark is a great book to read when you’re feeling nobody cares or want a great sweet dose of happiness before bedtime.  I’m a huge fan of random acts of kindness and paying things forward.

Greed, and the drive to gain more is at the root of most cruelty and inconsideration toward others.  When we comprehend that this world is symbiotic, as we give we get, we begin to release the grip on greed and avarice. The universe is plentiful and yet so many times we live like we are grasping for the last slice of cake.  There is always more cake, we just need to see the world as the mother of expansion that it truly is.  Most of our abundance issues stem from childhood, from training that there isn’t enough or that you must work very hard to attain it.
Back in the 50’s & 60’s there was much talk about how technology would allow folks to slim down their 8 hour work day to 4 and acquire so much more leisure time.  This could have taken place but greed got in the way of it.

Tesla offered us free electricity.  But the governing powers in place wanted cash for this new find. Having to pay for things brings it down to the haves and the have nots which is so inherent in the way we have set up our monetary system. That being said, nothing about this is going to change, but we can adopt a kinder and more generous approach to everything we do.

I believe that everything upon the earth, all creatures, contains a spirit.  While we are imperfect beings, we are also filled with that same spirit.  Because we are one of the few animals we know of who can reason using higher reasoning skills, make tools,  and plan for our future, this means we have a higher moral responsibility to do the right thing and cause the least harm while we are here.  You may read this and think I misstepped about the higher reasoning and tools or future planning that other animals exhibit?  Nope.  Firstly, we actually don’t know everything.  We have yet to understand whale or dolphin communication, for example.  As much time as we have spent studying the animals, it seems many of our takeaways are superficial and spotty.  Many educated people still believe the other animals don’t have higher thought or feelings etc.  Crows use tools to get at food, proof of higher thought. I have seen dogs use a tool.  My brother’s dog used to put a tennis ball between his back and the couch and move so that he got a back massage.  He did this repeatedly until he worked all his kinks out.  Tool use.  Squirrels and other animals will store food for later, proof of future planning.  One animal may save another of a different species, showing compassion and moral responsibility or love.  Pigs are known for protecting their human caretakers if they are treated well.  A dolphin’s mate will go down with the one caught in the net, refusing to leave him/her.  When they love and when they trust,  they give their all.  With Humans, sometimes it’s all pretending, something might be held back or change on a whim. Of course, we can also love deeply madly truly, but we employ trickery far more than the other creatures do although I know of dogs who fool the others in the pack that somebody is at the door, for example, in order to sneak and eat all the treats meant for everybody.    Humans can be tricky and some of us can be quite delightful too, but with the other animals, you get what is real all the time.  As Billy Joel would lament, you get honesty which here on planet human is such a lonely word.

We don’t corner the market on higher thought or higher action to be sure. And where many of us have lost our way,  losing it to greed and a what’s in it for me today mentality,  I believe that the other animals already grasp that every action contains spirit.  I try to mirror them in my actions.  I work daily to be kinder and honest and to give the right spirit to others.

Greed and Selfishness ruin everything, including us.
I rent out a 109 year old Edwardian duplex that I have had magnificently restored.  This is the kind of home you see in great shelter catalogs with fantastic bones, space and loads of light.  A tenant, with whom I have been more than fair with, moved at the end of their year term and left the place in such filth it was evident they never once cleaned.  Grease peeled up under my fingernails on the stone kitchen backsplash and counters …and this was after paying for 15 hours of professional cleaning!  Yes the cost of cleaning will come out of the deposit but I wondered at the spirit of these individuals.  Did they feel they don’t own so why bother?  Were they depressed?  Did they feel unworthy of such a great space that they had to trash it?  Was this all somehow sticking it to the man?  While it may appear on the surface of things that when we look out for just ourselves and screw the other party, that we are winning, we absolutely aren’t accomplishing a win.  Acting in greed leaves the soul bereft.  If all we are, in the end and all we were in the beginning, was spirit, this is a serious matter as the soul is the one thing we retain, what and who we actually are with the skin we wear simply a covering.
Taming the stirrings of covetous greed can be challenging.  I have a young man who calls me mom.  He has cleaned up his life from drugs, and inherited a nice fortune.  He is kind and helpful and giving.  And so yes, there is always a hand out for the take.  When he recently said no, the person asking for his money took it upon themselves to dig up online his value. All of this really doesn’t matter because fortunes change.  By applying yourself and following your passions, your truth, this is how you bring home the revenue for yourself and your family.  You don’t need somebody else’s.  The thing is, whether it’s a Porsche or a Pinto, a mansion or a yurt, car is a car and a home is a shelter.  Granted, a nicer car, one well made,  is going to be a nicer experience, than something cheap and crappy.  But you can buy expensive crap, see my story on my misbegotten Lexus LS600HL that my 1995 Toyota outperforms.  The thing is, if the function of a thing is there, then how it looks becomes secondary.  How it looks may be important to you and I will admit looks for me are absolutely a driver.  But I am less caught up in the labels of things and more caught up in how I like the looks and function of a thing.  Keeping up with the Joneses is unnecessary for happiness.  What matters is keeping up with yourself, owning and embracing who you are and honoring this with what you surround yourself with.

My father was a great businessman.  He was fair-minded and kind, had a lot of friends with whom he did business who returned the favor and did business with him.  He did almost all of his shopping locally from businesses who created a lot of product locally as well. He taught me by quiet example, how business and relationships work.  they work best symbiotically, when we support each other by buying or trading for what we need with someone in our circle that has that item or product.  While I do a lot of online shopping, I am mindful of shopping with folks who buy organic skincare from me,  read my blog or have hired me to help them move toward a Plant-Based lifestyle.  By sharing each other’s talents, this is how we all succeed.

Great Suggested Reading, just click on the titles:

The Spiritual Nature of Animals – Karlene Stange

Tesla – Man Out Of Time

Tangled Vines – Frances Dinkelspiel – History that reads like a novel

All of us are inherently corrupt in some way. The world, in fact, is filled with corruption and before we ever do a thing to it.  I believe this is due to the fall of man the bible talks about.  Perhaps it is truth that once the lion lay with the lamb, everyone was dining on manna from heaven and life was sweet.  We wanted more and then all hell broke loose.  We compromise and while the laws are written upon our hearts, we war with our ego, our desires and principles.

Because of the imperfection inherent in our condition, our fault if the bible is to be believed, then the goal becomes ahimsa or causing least harm.  But we know we will cause harm.  The gas guzzler is swapped out for an electric or hybrid. Both still burn oil and create battery waste.  Some folks eat off paper plates so their dishwashing is reduced but their trash footprint is larger. So the goal is baby steps toward kindness and causing least harm, with the compassionate understanding that none of us is perfect, nor will we ever be fully enlightened on this plane of existence, but we do have a goal of it.  The meat eater pets and perhaps cherishes his cat. The vegan kills plants. I sprout stuff all week long, just to watch it grow a wee bit and eat it.  In my Hippocrates studies, I was taught that sprouts talk to each other while growing as well as pick up on the energy and mineral needs of the individual growing them, through touch.

In The Secret Life Of Plants, by Peter Tompkins, we explore the spiritual relationship between plants and man.

In Intelligent Trees, we learn from a forester, Peter Wohlleben,  about how trees in a forest support one another and it is completely fascinating as I have always thought of the roots being their brains.  Turns out I was not far off the mark with this.

Anyone who sets themselves up as ‘better than’ is under the employ of human vanity.  There may be someone who out vegans you, someone who creates far less trash, lives in a yurt and rides a bike.  Sure there are indeed folks who do things greener, walk a lighter footpath on the earth, but the point is that all of us are here do cause harm, are not perfect and are merely learning our way back toward the lost enlightenment.  And as the fall wasn’t any other animals fault but ours, I believe it is these creatures we inhabit the planet with that aid us greatly in our crawl back to sainthood.  It is in understanding and loving them that allows us to be more patient with each other.

If you’re looking to explore a great read, check out Karlene Strange, The Spiritual Nature of Animals. 

I find love, in my current flawed condition to be nearly equal parts awe and annoyance.  Of course, the love bit wins out over the annoyance bit, but it is definitely a humbling struggle.  I marvel at the love and full-on trust bestowed upon me. I marvel at the workmanship of my creatures, how they are so perfect in form and function, so beautiful and so emotionally sweet and balanced.

Hydra & Loki, pictured to the left there, were brought into the house after our very well behaved Tiger cat passed away.  They are such a handful that I promised my husband no more kittens.  Loki, the guy sitting in the pot, is fairly well behaved and very loving.  He just cannot get it through his head what not to scratch at, such as the carpet or the furniture.  He knows better by now but just keeps at it.  I have employed sprays and he has a plethora of scratchers and toys, which he loves.  Mostly, though, he is a loving cat and tries to behave. He was really rambunctious and not much of a lover as a kitten.  But now he is very snuggly as I have taught him this.  He used to draw blood with his love bites and has now learned not to bite or to bite super softly (Good kitty). Hydra, the kitty outside the pot, is just one of the sweetest cats ever.  She keeps her claws retracted when playing, including her back legs when she is really going at your arm! And, she even inhibits her bites.  I taught her none of this.  I was only very gentle with her as I am with all my animals.  As a tiny kitten, every time I picked her up, she’d begin purring.  She wasn’t well and I had to boost her with some goats milk.  But she is also the most clumsy cat I have ever known and I have known many cats.  It’s not just about knocking stuff off the counter because that’s fun to do, it’s mostly about running pel mell into stuff and just not managing to avoid it.  We have lost thousands in all the damage, all the broken pottery and glass.  I have glued stuff down with putty, put things way high up, but she manages to break something on a regular basis. She is also first at the door to greet me home and tell me how much she loves me.

While our animal companions are very trainable (for the most part) and they love us and want to please us, we humans struggle with applying ‘human’ logic to them.   Animals do have a sense of fairness and of what is right, ethical, but it is contained within their particular perspective as first what they are (dog, cat, fish, lion, elephant, whale) and then all that is coupled with their individual personality and what has, so far, shaped their life and mindset, how each was individually socialized.  Our pets may know you leave all day Monday through Friday, for example, and they know the time you leave and should arrive back at the home, however they have no concept of why, that you may be earning the kibble wherever it is that you go.  They do, however, know where you were, based on the smell.

They know, given consistency,  when you will be leaving and arriving back home, when it’s the weekend where things may relax and perhaps they can expect dog park time or extra loves.  They sense so much from us in both our tone and body language but they don’t know that your handbag or wallet cost $500.00 and they don’t care.  They may, if you jerk the wallet away exclaiming ‘No, bad!’ that this action was a wrong choice and perhaps not ever chew your wallet again.  Or it may take several firm but gentle coaching sessions to effect that change.  Our Doberman had a penchant for underwear, left shoes and walls.  Fortunately I worked from home and could catch him enough times that the walls weren’t badly damaged and although I did go through numerous left shoes, (no idea why just the left) and a payload of undies, he finally stopped playing with ‘My Toys’ and grasped, as I kept repeatedly re-directing him to one of is, began grabbing his own stuff to play with and chew up.  Just like we get, they get bored or stressed out, smell you on the item and begin chewing.  They do absolutely care that you are upset but don’t always grasp why unless you catch them in the act, right away, and correct them.  Correcting them should never include physical violence.  And it really shouldn’t include yelling (pointing finger at self right now).  Remember that we have created ‘money’ and applied that ‘value’ to our stuff.  The rest of the world doesn’t run like this or think in those terms.   Hydra has no idea what money is or that I culled a very special collection of Mid-Century Modern tchotchkes to feather our MCM home with.  She just ploughs right through them, then comes running to me trilling when she sees that I am angry (hears me yelling) and wants to comfort me by offering up her joy and sweetness.  She is the ONLY cat I have ever known that literally comes running to my aid when I raise my voice at her.  And once, Loki looked so quizzically at me as he gently touched his nose to mine, staring into my eyes the entire time, as I ranted about something he had just done to upset me.  I guess it is a good thing they don’t fear me, so yelling aside, I do many things right.

Our Dobie is (mostly) very well behaved, however, he is exceedingly stubborn, ‘The most willful dog I have ever known’ as the vet put it, and is also quite demanding of treats, more food, more time, more pets, more walks, more engagement.  He can also chill as he is doing right now.  But oh yes, once I am done typing, that walk had better happen! In all seriousness, he is a very well behaved boy.  He is also very self-possessed and feels comfortable telling me exactly what he wants. He feels safe, deeply loved and knows he is a part of our family.  His sleep is untroubled except when he went through bloat surgery and whined in his sleep because of the pain.  I love our trust and how much I have come to fully know this creature that shares our residence. I also feel protected in his presence and have learned all his different bark tones that tell me if it is someone we know at the door, how well we know them or a stranger that he likes or a stranger he really doesn’t.

I really love this book, On Talking Terms With Dogs by Turid Rugaas which blew me away because I really thought I had pieced quite a bit of my dog’s communication together.  After reading this book, I noticed Rhett going first into a play bow, then looking away briefly, before making eye contact again with another pup, then repeating the procedure.  It’s the looking away bit I didn’t understand, but it basically means ‘I don’t want to fight you’  So my dog, who was confronted with this other pup that was growling and charging a bit aggressively, was essentially saying that he was here to play and did not want to fight. How brilliant!  And the other dog absorbed all that message!  After Rhett repeated the body language a few times,  the once aggressive dog went into a play bow too and looked away briefly then back etc. Game On!

I take a lot of time to simply marvel at the animals in general and specifically at the ones in my home.  Each is a snowflake, unique and never to ever be created again.  Once Tiger kitty exited this plane of existence, that was it.  Sure there’s no shortage of cats, but I am left heartbroken.

Each animal is similar and unique.  Given the chance to shine their personality, you will find it in a chicken, a goat, cow, horse, pig, you name it.  And each one will love you and communicate with you in their own individual way.

Mathew Scully writes a compelling book, Dominion,  about the struggle we have with our own power and how we cause suffering to the animals.  A lot of what we call stubborn or not minding sometimes is simply body language.  They don’t speak English (except some birds), although they often do learn what it is we are saying to them provided they spend enough time with us to learn.  So, their way of communication back to us (and their kind), becomes bleats, sighs, screams, chortles, huffs and tons of body language.

We may believe we own a creature and perhaps under the laws in place, we do, however,  under the laws of the universe, we don’t own anything.   I can assure you that the cow, pig, dog, cat, bird you think you own absolutely do not see things in this way at all!  These creatures see themselves as individuals just as we see ourselves.  Based upon their own personality coupled with their life experiences thus far, they view you as a friend, acquaintance,  family or pack – heard member or maybe someone to fear, avoid or someone to love and to draw closer to.  They are either actively engaging you, trying to build upon or begin a relationship with you or they have given that up because of what outcome they encountered.  In giving up, they generally look away and keep to themselves. Many damaged souls are in this shape at shelters who have to learn that not every human is abusive.  They have their own thoughts, preferences, joys and pain just as we do.  Most of the communication is all in the body language and their eyes.  They want their friends, their kind, they are curious, and want comfort, to play, to engage and they definitely see themselves as a part of life and, where appropriate, they do consider themselves as a part of the team.  They get bored if there isn’t enough to do.  They blossom when they are deeply loved and cared for.  Just as we do, they bond where that is appropriate.  A dog left in the yard all day long and by himself with little to no interaction with you is very unlikely to guard you or your property.  Why should he care?  Where is his skin in this game?  But when he loves you, yes.

The Chain, by Ted Genoways, a poet, centers around Hormel and Spam and the cruel accident prone fast-paced production lines in packhouses across America.

Seeing the baby goats and calves taken from their mothers just days old is heart-wrenching.  The mothers have no idea why this is happening and are gut wrenched time and time again as we repeatedly do this on the new factory farming model.  The babies are confused innocents in all this cruelty perpetrated on them as they JUST enter the world.  Watching a baby goat with its mother, given a chance at joy, they prance around and are just so cute.  They don’t know that we are bringing souls into the world for the purposes of harvesting them for food.   In the wild, there was a bit of democracy going on, survival of the fittest.  The majority of the heard would survive if they worked at it.  We have changed the game in our farming methods where that is barely possible.  Once in a blue moon, a pig or cow escapes, it makes the news and people rally to save him or her.  But we have largely lost our compassion for these creatures and we need to change our mindset and lessen our grip on evil.

If things had just remained the way they were, say back in the 50’s and 60’s, where the animals we were raising for food were treated well, had sunshine and fields to play in, weren’t continuously raped to remain pregnant milk producers, stayed with their babies, with us taking the surplus milk, old dairy cows going out to pasture, I don’t believe this topic would have ever come up and i would never be writing this.  While killing is still killing and I believe a direct correlation to our fall, it was done at a far saner pace and the animals got to live a decent life first.  Seeing all the abuses is what turned me off meat and dairy.  I haven’t had ice-cream in 2 years.  I believe we are ruining the planet with all the byproduct waste, the rain rainforest demolition and soil erosion necessary to feed our meat and dairy wants.  Believe you me, they are wants and not needs! One lb of beef requires over 2000 gallons of water.  Folks, this is not sustainable.  Plants have more bioavailable protein than meat ever could. And you won’t suffer chronic disease by switching to a plant-based diet.  Our soul, our divinity, is crushed along with the animals spirits as lives are taken in these sped up no light zero kindness factory farming methods employed today to speed up the kill process.  The way is not perfect because we cannot achieve that here, but the way is making daily choices in our lives which cause the least harm to others.