Breathing Peace and Healing…

I just watched a video ​here, called The Moses Code.

To clarify:  NO, we’re not gods. No, we’re not God.
YES, we DO have a Breath of Life from the Almighty.
YES, the Breath is powerful.
YES, focusing on our breathing is healing– I “breathed through” labor contractions, and a LOT worse when I was sick.

YES, we do have the capacity to “be the healing” for others. My husband carried me, and “saw” me healed until I became well. His Breath of Life has led me out of slavery.
YES, YHWH is in everything– even Pharaoh. In the original language, YHWH doesn’t say, “Go to Pharaoh.” He says, “Come to Pharaoh.”
YHWH is already there.
YES, we are designed to be a vehicle for YHWH’s healing. Yes, the Breath of Life is for healing. How powerful is it? May YHWH be merciful to show us.

YES, the idea of separation between “good and evil” (“function and dysfunction” is a better translation of the original language) was what originally moved us away from perfect harmony with YHWH and “the garden,” or Nature. Finding the unity of function in whatever our personal “Pharaoh” may be is crucial to restoration.
The Name isn’t really best-translated as, “I am that, I am.” A better translation would be, “He exists”, with the potential use of “exists” in the sense of having a direct object: “He exists it” or “He exists all that is.”
We need to be careful not to put ourselves in a position of idolizing ourselves, but YES, we do have a responsibility to learn to use the healing power YHWH has designed into our Breath of Life, and to recognize His hand in everything– even in Pharaoh.
My personal “Pharaohs” right now are Monsanto and the Petrochem gods / corporations, and the financial and educational oppression these have on our health care and shelter, food & water systems.

“Be the change you want to see.”

OK… breathing Freedom, Sufficiency, and Healing. In a word, ​Shalom.

(click here for details on that ancient word for peace)

We All Want Peace*

Everybody’s running around with two fingers up– if they aren’t busy lifting just one finger at the driver that just cut ’em off. Even so, that driver really just wants peace. We want to know that we’re going to get to work on time, that rent will be paid, that our electricity won’t be shut off, and that we’ll be able to put gas in that car so we can do it again tomorrow. (I use “we” loosely, here– different folks have different struggles) At the core of our beings, we want to feel “secure,” knowing that we’re protected from hunger, cold, and loneliness.  We want peace.
What’s funny is that our language doesn’t tell us what peace is just by looking at the word. It’s kind of a nebulous “good thing” out there somewhere that nobody seems to have (unless they happen to smell like weed, and even then, it’s only for as long as the high lasts).

Shabbat Shalom!

A few thousand years ago, and still today in some places, the word for peace was a real, concrete picture of that nebulous thing we all want. Originally, the Scriptural, Hebrew word was “Shalom,” spelled “Shin-Lamed-Vav-Mem.” (second word in the pic)

The Shin is the picture of the two front Teeth. Lamed is a picture of the Shepherd’s Staff. Vav is the Tent Peg, and Mem is Water. The Teeth is an image of protection and defense. The Shepherd’s Staff provides guidance and direction, pointing the way out for the sheep to find everything they need. The Tent Peg is the picture of securing or “nailing down.” Water is our source of life. Shalom is defined in Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible , word #2845, “Complete: Made whole or complete by adding or subtracting. ‘To be in a state of wholeness. Also to restore or make right through payment or restitution. ‘A state of being whole, complete, or full. Also an offering of restitution or payment. ‘A greeting as a desire for completeness to another.”
Shalom is “The protection of the Shepherd, nailing down the water.” We are at peace when we are protected and provided for by our Creator, and when we are made “complete.” In order to be “complete,” we need air, water, food, and shelter. Without land to grow food on, we are incomplete, and the land is incomplete without the humble people who care for it, watching over it with sensitivity to see that seeds sprout in it. Finding those humble people gives the rest of that picture of completeness– we’re no longer lonely 🙂

*Originally posted January 28, 2010 on my old blogsite

Ain’t Life Traumatic?!

Life hurts. Whether you’ve been in a car wreck, in an abusive relationship, through emotional trauma, took a few too many hits in sporting events, poisoned yourself with city air pollution, toxic houses, pharmaceutical medications, or what-have-you, it hurts like the dickens.
There are a lot of traumatic events I’ve been spared, and I’m SO thankful for that!
I have experienced all of the above, and, due to the amount of toxins I’ve been exposed to, I can’t use pharmaceutical medications AT ALL anymore– they only make me feel worse now.
SO– there’s a bright side to all of that 😀
I don’t have to live in incessant pain!
I have a list of natural tools that I keep in my medicine cabinet that keep my body nice and happy and healing– without drugs.
Top of that list is Arnica. It’s a beautiful little flower Designed to work great as a homeopathic remedy for trauma of all kinds.
I use potencies as follows:
For minor boo-boo’s, 30X or 6C… or let the kid shake it off– no biggie.
For something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark, 30C
For something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark for a week or more, 200C
For something that’s likely to send us to the ER if it doesn’t look better fast (or if we just got out of the ER), 1M. So far, we’ve been well-blessed, and the Arnica 1M has worked beautifully on every major injury we’ve had, and, with 4 kids, we haven’t been there in about 8 years. The 1M is also good if  having flash-backs or insomnia or other psychological repercussions from trauma, or if the trauma is very old– great for that broken bone or torn ligament that never felt right again after it “healed.”
It’s a homeopathic medicine, which means it doesn’t operate on a substance basis, but rather on patterns left over in the water into which it was dissolved. That means two things:
A. It doesn’t interact with any kind of medication, which is great for people who are dependent on pharmaceutical medications.
B. We can’t use coffee or strong mint or tea tree oil or camphor or other strong smells when you use it, we can’t touch the medicine itself before you put it in our mouth, and we can’t store it at high temperatures or near electrical equipment or magnets. Any of these things can render the medicine ineffective– it messes up those patterns.
Arnica also comes in topical, gel form to put on bruises & help them to heal faster– a friend says it’s great for if you’re headed to Jamaica for your honeymoon and just banged your leg on the car door. I haven’t used it for that  specifically, but I have watched bruises disappear much more quickly than I’d expected using it… or sometimes not appear at all, if I got it on there fast enough 🙂
The key with this remedy is to take AS NEEDED. We use the LOWEST effective potency, and only take it when the symptoms come up. If the pain is getting better, we don’t take any more. If it starts to get worse or hits a stand-still at healing, we take another dose.
It’s the perfect “shell-shocked soldier” remedy. If I had my way, 1M Arnica would be standard-issue at the VA… But who am I?

Arnica isn’t the only tool in my basket, but it has been a vital one. For more on things that have been helpful for me personally, see my other posts. Arnica also doesn’t fit everyone’s trauma picture. Some people are better served by Aconitum or another remedy. Finding the remedy picture that fits the symptoms set is crucial. There are thousands of different homeopathic remedies made from natural substances, each of which has a unique “personality” for helping “fine tune” different aspects of health that can be “knocked off-course.” I’ve loved “fine tuning” in my own home to find the beautiful people inside those “rough spots” in life.

As with all of my “non-medical, non-advice”, I’m no doctor or pharmacist, which means that I’m not licensed to treat, cure, prevent, heal, or otherwise mitigate any disease. It also means that nobody paid off the FDA to approve the stuff I use. So do your own research, and find what works for you 🙂

For folks interested in more info on the history of homeopathic medicine, here’s a link to more info:
http://www.homeopathic.com/Articles/History

Thank you

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.” ~Meister Eckhart*

I wasn’t sure I agreed with this quote when I first read it… had to think a bit. I’m thinkin’ maybe so… as long as the thanks were followed up by appropriate action. A prayer of thanks for a learning experience, for example, would be followed up by acting on that learning… Finding thankfulness for even the most difficult pieces of our history and experiences is vital to a healthy, functional, improving mental and physical healing path.

We’re decorating for Thanksgiving here– paper thankfulness chain festooning the window, and handprints all over the hanukkiah “tree” on the wall, each link, and each hand with something we’re thankful for written on it… and we have a LOT to be thankful for… not the least of which are a clean, healthy house, healing, and friends who are healing alongside, reaping the rewards sown in our own challenges… it’s beautiful to see them grow stronger and overcome their ailments. Reminds me that there’s a plan for everything, and the Designer is Good, above all.

To all of you who have shared your lives with me, and allowed me to watch your healing paths, Todah (Thanks).

Here’s the pictograph:

Tav: Crossed Sticks: the mark in the distance toward which a farmer would plow to make his rows come out straight

Vav: Tent Peg: Nailing Down, Securing

Dalet: Tent Door: Movement In & Out, Back & Forth

Hey: Man Standing in Awe: “WOW, LOOK!”

Giving thanks is more than lipservice. A thankful heart marks out the place where the door of our house has been secured, and where we’ve Stood in Awe of the gifting there. That “Mark in the Distance” is our goal: to Secure the Tent Door of another in such an Awe-inspiring way.

A lot of people have given our Tent Door some Awesome support and Security. We give Thanks by Securing the Doors of others when we are blessed with the opportunity. We’re honored to be receiving that blessing in abundance lately. Todah!

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

*Special thanks to Icemanlover1 who inspired this post with this quote.

Housekeeping & Natural Laws

Chapter for my book? Feedback, please 🙂

Sorry ’bout the font changes– I’m having trouble w/ switching between programs… will work on that. LMK which fonts work best for you, and I’ll see what I can do.

There are a million reasons we clean our homes– sanity being among the biggest motivators for me.  With all of my twiddle-be-buttons running around being normal, healthy, active children, it takes an army to keep up… which is why I employ them to whatever extent they’re developmentally able LOL! Things haven’t changed so very much in several thousand years. We need homes that are free of human waste and mildew / mold. The only real difference now is in finding homes free of man-made toxins as well… hmmm… or does that fall into the “human waste” category? There are some basic, Natural Laws about how to keep a home clean that we’ve “progressed beyond” in our modern, convenient society… or have we? There’s an odd form of ignorance that seems prevalent in moist climates, imagining that it’s OK to live with mold in a home. Health researchers tell us that mold and mildew are absolutely harmful to us, and that we should avoid breathing air that is contaminated by the spores indoors. Housing industries, on the other hand, tell us that those same spores are “only harmful to sensitive people” and are therefore not anything that a homeowner should worry about (especially if the homeowner is “just renting it out anyway”… as though renters were lower life forms, unworthy of healthy living circumstances.)  Just maybe some of the health researchers might have our health in mind more often than those who profit by ill-maintained housing.

A few months back, my joints started acting up again, I started getting headaches and difficulty breathing– something I hadn’t experienced to this extent for several years. About a week after the onset of symptoms, we found the cause. Our dishwasher had leaked, and mold had been growing through 3 layers of flooring in the kitchen. Awesome Hubby fixed it all up, and my joints, breathing, and head are all happy and functional again. Is it only an “emergent” situation with someone who is “sensitive,” though?

There’s an ancient law that deals with this–

Leviticus 14:36“The priest shall then command that they empty the house before the priest goes in to look at the mark, so that everything in the house need not become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to look at the house. 37“So he shall look at the mark, and if the mark on the walls of the house has greenish or reddish depressions and appears deeper than the surface, 38then the priest shall come out of the house, to the doorway, and quarantine the house for seven days. 39“The priest shall return on the seventh day and make an inspection. If the mark has indeed spread in the walls of the house, 40then the priest shall order them to tear out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city. 41“He shall have the house scraped all around inside, and they shall dump the plaster that they scrape off at an unclean place outside the city. 42“Then they shall take other stones and replace thosestones, and he shall take other plaster and replaster the house.

43“If, however, the mark breaks out again in the house after he has torn out the stones and scraped the house, and after it has been replastered, 44then the priest shall come in and make an inspection. If he sees that the mark has indeed spread in the house, it is a malignant mark in the house; it is unclean. 45“He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones, and its timbers, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside the city to an unclean place. 46“Moreover, whoever goes into the house during the time that he has quarantined it, becomes unclean until evening. 47“Likewise, whoever lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

48“If, on the other hand, the priest comes in and makes an inspection and the mark has not indeed spread in the house after the house has been replastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the mark has not reappeared.

Thet-Hey-Resh:
Basket (surrounding, holding, containing), Man Standing in Awe (“Wow, LOOK!”), and a Man’s Head (Authority, First). 
The Surroundings being LOOKed at with Authority.
There are so many places in Scripture that call to mind pictures of cleanness and inspection related to ceremony and health, and areas where they overlap…. I’m thinkin’ the Health Department and CDC ain’t got nothin’ on Torah!

The ancient laws didn’t only protect the people against mold and mildew in their homes. They protected them against other forms of contamination that might not be visible as well. From the annual purging of yeast from the home at Passover (a GREAT idea for keeping a healthy balance of gut flora), to Ancient Paths for finding out if there’s radon gas or other contaminants in your house by taking a week off out-doors, there are beautiful, low-cost traditions for guarding our health!

Meth addiction is a hideous monster, and it doesn’t only affect addicts & their families… but there’s an ‘up-side’ to everything… 🙂
I’ve gotten sick in at least 2 homes that have been ruined due to either drug manufacture or usage: one in an on-campus apartment building when I was in college, and another in the house we rented a year ago. That last one nearly killed me before I figured out that it was the house, and had already started making the rest of our family sick, too. SO happy to be out… SO ready to see the epidemic halted!
While  we were living there, we had everything from nausea & vomiting to nerve disorders, paralysis, severe pain, rashes, difficulty breathing, irritation of mucus membranes… the symptoms came on so slowly for the rest of my family that I didn’t correlate my own severe symptoms with the house until theirs became more pronounced.
We moved out, and all of a sudden the health-nut stuff that had “barely held us together” while we lived there began healing us substantially. The kids are doing great now, and Hubby only has difficulty when he’s exposed to something we haven’t thrown away from that house. It has sensitized us to things, though. Man-made chemicals just aren’t good for anybody…
Three-fourths of everything we own had to go. It’s funny, though– the only “stuff” I really miss are my books and photos. The rest, I could care less.
That “Up-Side” I promised you:
It’s empowering to know that we can recover from such a horrible environmental attack, and freeing to have so much less “stuff” to deal with. I’ve become significantly more aware of what I really value in life… a lot of folks never do grasp that gift.
I have confidence in “Natural Miracles” that I may not have acquired in any other way. Sometimes blessings are the gifts we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy… we just have to choose to receive the blessing.

Sukkot is a Scriptural holiday to remind the Hebrew people of their time in the wilderness– so that they wouldn’t grow proud and forget the Power that had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Every year at this time, we sleep out in a Sukkah. We “go camping” with the Designer    It’s humbling to look up at the stars, and to realize how frail life is, and to recognize the gift of it as a family. By Jewish Law, only the men are required to keep this good work(post from another site), and we’re not Jewish, but we love joining Hubby whenever we can… for more than just the starlight.

A couple of years ago, we lived in a toxic house and didn’t know it for a while– we decided not to celebrate Sukkot that year because we figured I was too sick. While this may have been fine for me, we didn’t bother considering that maybe there was a Bigger Reason for Hubby to keep this Natural Law. We wound up staying in that house for another  6 months ’till Passover… another story. At any rate, if we had slept outside (like we wound up doing 6 months later, by  “coincidence”) we would’ve known that it was the house making me sick, and not me dying of Lupus. We would’ve known to get out at any cost: our lives depended on it. As it happened, we had to watch the rest of the family begin to develop my symptoms before we figured it out. We’re well now– biked 25 miles the other day, babies-and-all!  By all logic (without hindsight) we were perfectly sane in foregoing the Feast of Sukkot / Feast of Tabernacles / Feast of Booths– especially since we’re not Jewish, and according to Jewish law, are not required to participate… but that’s another story.  We’ve been finding more and more that we need these Natural Laws in Scripture– the more we study, the more we see the impact they have in the real world, here-and-now… most of it up-close-and-personal.

That word for “booths” is in Genesis / Bereshiyt 33:17

17 Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

The word “shelters”, also translated “tabernacles” or “booths” is the word “Sukkah” (singular of “Sukkot”, or “Succoth”). Strong’s # 5521. It corresponds to the AHLB # 1333J.

Here’s the Ancient Hebrew Pictograph:

Sin-Vav-Kaph

Samech: Ring of Thorns– as the shepherd would make to protect his sheep in the wilderness. Without a lumber yard to pick up construction materials, he would build it out of rocks or whatever he could find lying around, and then line the top of the ring/ shelter with thorny brush to ward off wild animals.

Vav: Tent Peg– Securing, Nailing Down

Kaph: Open Hand– Giving and Receiving

You can see the “Hedge of Protection, secured by hand” as the Sukkah.

It is defined, “Booth: A dwelling place. Branch: as used for making booths.” It is translated elsewhere as “tabernacle”.

For us, in our life’s adventures, we’ve found that this ridiculously frail-looking structure, this “booth” is the most secure place to be at the Appointed Time every year.  It’s the Ring of Thorns given by the Shepherd to secure us by the Divine Hand.

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

I’m also no rabbi, so please don’t take my experiences and path as your Rx for Kosher living 🙂

As always, for more info on the pictographs, see:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ancienthebreworg

Forgiveness and Healing

Pretty much any holistic-minded health practitioner will acknowledge that there’s something foundational to physical health in mental health, and that the two influence each other intimately. My body proves this out over and over again. From the toxicity I feel in my joints pouring out into my incapacity to think positively when I’ve had a bad exposure, to the mental toxicity of difficult relationships “draining” me physically, and requiring healing and recuperation time afterward, my body knows this basic, Natural Law.

TaNaK is full of references to this phenomenon–

Proverbs 17:22

A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 15:13

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.

---

Proverbs 16:24

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

---

Proverbs 18:14 A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

So… if interpersonal conflict affects us physically, then what do we do about it? Surely we weren’t designed to suffer endlessly without remedy…

The people I need to forgive most often are the very people who are continually hurting me. How do you forgive when you know they’re going to hurt you again? So I went to the original word.  A lot of times we lose the original concept in translation. What I found there makes a world of sense, but it’s not an easy road to implement. Forgiveness isn’t turning a blind eye to danger, bracing yourself for the next injury, and trying not to be angry about what they’ve done and will do.
It’s building a safe place.
The Original, Ancient Hebrew Pictograph:

Samech-Lamed-Chet
Samech: the Ring of Thorns that the Shepherd used to build on top of a low wall out in the wilderness to protect his flock, while he slept  with them, keeping them safe from predators.
Lamed: The Shepherd’s Staff: Teaching / Instructing, Leading, Pointing the Way
Chet: The Tent Wall: Protection, Separation from the elements
Forgiveness acknowledges the danger of being hurt, and constructs a protective wall to keep out the savage animals. Forgiveness finds the Teaching and Instruction in the Natural Laws, and uses them to build safety within the home, giving the safety of the Natural Laws to anyone who will learn them. It separates the safe place (home) from the wild beasts outside. When we’ve built a safe place inside, we eliminate the source of animosity toward any wild beast –they can’t hurt us anymore.
May we one day know a world where the whole Earth is safely invited home.

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you
For more info on the pictographs, see
www.youtube.com/user/ancienthebreworg
or
ancient-hebrew.org/

Sweat

When I was in the toxic house, I was miserably cold all winter because we had to keep the windows open so that I could breathe. Anytime we shut the windows, I’d asphyxiate. That was problematic because the cold would freeze my joints up even worse, and the lumps would get bigger– especially overnight. As excruciatingly painful as it was to move (I had to use my best labor coping skills to do it), it was absolutely necessary, because I’d only get worse if I didn’t. I found myself afraid to go to bed at night, because I knew how miserable the morning would be, and didn’t want to have to face being so crippled that Hubby would have to carry me to the bathroom in the morning… again.

I learned to sleep with a heated rice bag (other grain works, too) on my stomach and other heated bags on the worst of my joints, with those joints elevated, to keep my lymph fluid moving during the night. This usually made for better mornings– not good, but better.

After we finally figured out that it was the house (see “Camping out with God”), and moved out, I spent a few months just recouping  as much as I could, while helping to decontaminate those things that could be saved.

At some point… maybe it was that summer… we figured out that the more I sweated, the more the lumps shrank, and a few of them disappeared entirely that first year. A few years later, after using a sauna once a month (budget is tight, so we do what we can) I’ve seen a few lumps that I’ve had since I was a teenager disappear as well. I still have two small ones left over, but they get smaller when I use a sauna. Sweating is great medicine for me in this imperfect world of toxic houses, toxic fumes from asphalt plants, toxic neighbors who have no clue what they’re doing to their own bodies, let alone the air around them… One word of caution: I found that I had to bring Real Salt Water with me to the sauna to stay well-hydrated and keep my electrolytes balanced, especially at first.
Point is, I don’t live in the Garden of Eden. None of us do. And yet… we’re given some bit of a direction to point in looking for a solution for this imperfect existence… Hmmm… Thorns, Thistles, Sweat, and Dust…

Genesis 3:

17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.

18“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;

19By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

Thorns and Thistles here:

https://leavesheal.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/pathways-to-answers-thorns-thistles-and-blessings/

… and Dust… I’ll save that bit for another post.. but it’s good stuff, too 😉

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

Happy Hearts…And Other Body Parts…

We have such convenient methods of poisoning ourselves now-a-days! We can walk downtown and breathe in an array of chemicals from car fumes to cigarette smoke to somebody’s dryer sheet to cheap perfume. On top of all this, we are encouraged at every turn to attempt to sustain ourselves (failing miserably) on miscellaneous toxins marketed to us as “food.”
Cheese slices that come pre-sliced in packages usually aren’t food: reading the label, you’ll find hydrogenated oil (something akin to biodiesel). Those cookies that come with an expiration date of a few years down the road: if it won’t mold, it won’t break down in your body, either. Hot dogs… EEEW!!!! It’s the left-over nasty after the real meat was used up, and mixed with chemicals and miscellaneous additives to make us imagine it were edible!
So… we get to the doctor’s office a few decades later, and find out that we’re headed toward a pretty miserable existence if we don’t change some things… as a friend so eloquently put it, “been taking the easy way.. can’t go there anymore. time to cook..”
Good plan 🙂 Home-made takes more time, but well-worth it! Real, hormone-free cheese from your neighbor’s cow isn’t so bad– it’s the processed stuff in the little plastic wrappers that gets you; home-made cookies aren’t horrible– especially if they’re made with honey or date powder in stead of sugar, and whole-grain, organic spelt flour in stead of bleached wheat (yes, they can still taste like cookies… they can also turn out seriously wrong– Hubby can attest to that a few years ago). Roast a real turkey or a real chicken, and use 10 times the herbs that the recipes call for, and Real Salt in stead of bleached salt– more flavor than any chemical-laden frank, and SO good for us!
A “non-recipes” for folks who want to experiment:

Here’s fudge that calls for coconut oil– the same medium-chain fatty acids found in breastmilk– great stuff all-around: helps heal damaged spots nicely.
I mix up more-or-less equal parts coacoa powder, warm coconut oil, and honey, with a drop or two of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of Real Salt; pour it into a pie plate, and stick it in the fridge. An hour later, we cut it into thin slices, and have fudge!
One child can’t have the coacoa powder, so he gets the same recipe, but with tahini or almond butter substituted for the coacoa.

Sweet stuff, with all the antioxidant goodness and none of the chemicals or cane sugar.

The heart isn’t just about pumping blood… Visit this picture into the Ancient Hebrew mind– the perspective into which TaNaK was bithed… Don’t forget to come back, now!

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The toxins we experience in our daily world don’t just mess with the physical health. I’ve experienced the emotional / mental toxicity resultant from physical toxins. When we read Scripture in English, we’re reading an entirely different story sometimes. Looking at the Ancient Hebrew perspective of these body parts that we deal with is an extraordinary adventure in the mind-spirit-body connections. Our hearts, guts, kidneys, and other vital organs are vitally important not only to our physical well-being, but also to our spiritual health. Toxifying these vital organs toxifies our attitudes, emotions, and “gut instincts.” The flip side: Detoxing can not only heal us physically, but can be extraordinary in healing our spirit, outlook, philosophy, and “heart.”

Stop back by for more excerpts from my book-in-progress!

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you