The Meteor over Russia

I have a metaphysical tale to tell re this: Yesterday evening I was outside star and moon gazing when I heard a far-off siren that sounded like a higher pitched air raid siren without a dip in tone. I listened and listened, thought about getting my recorder but sat on the deck straining to see if I could discern where the sound was coming from (couldn't tell but it sounded north east). When it ended a minute or so later, I ran inside to see if there were any news flashes. Nada. I told Jeff about what I heard and that I thought it was a case of clairaudience* as opposed to an actual air raid siren going off in D.C. Since my gift seems to be changing on a rather monumental scale - at least for me! - and I can no longer tell if what I'm hearing (and smelling re petroleum spills!) is an actual presently-occurring event or a future event, I gotta tell you I had major goose bumps with this one! The sound alone caused my skin to crawl and every hair to stand up on end; truly, truly freaky. I was going to blog about this last night, not only to have a written record of what I had heard, but as a prompt to keep googling "air raid sirens D.C. 2/14/13." As I've mentioned in several past blog posts, my short term memory is pretty much non-existent - the events themselves are always remembered, but a reminder to blog or write down what I witnessed are often forgotten, with the reminder hitting me at some future point (and then while I'm on my way to write it down or blog about it, I get distracted and forget again! oy vey). Luckily I was on the internet at about 1:00 am this morning when the first news reports came out about the meteor, and I immediately wrote about what I had heard on my Facebook Wall. But again, I'm writing this now, 17 hours or so after I wrote about it on Facebook, because Jeff asked me a few minutes ago, "Did you blog about hearing the sirens?" Extremely frustrating (but still makes me laugh because it's such an old lady cliche' to have "senior moments"). I think what is important to emphasize, though, is that according to the current news' reports on this meteor, I heard the sirens at the same time the meteor was falling and exploding over Russia. Truly, truly freaky, indeed.

If anyone reads of any event that happened in D.C. that would warrant a high pitched air raid siren, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm guessing what I heard was a case of clairaudience* of this meteor and the Russian emergency warning system being activated.

*"Clairaudience is the gift of hearing voices, music and sounds that are not audible to the normal ear and may not be of a physical form. "Clairaudience" comes from the French word meaning "clear hearing" and is often intermingled with other basic psychic phenomena such as clairvoyance and clairsentience. Yoga describes this as the siddhi and is experienced when the fifth chakra is acted with is located in the throat. Clairaudience is normally experienced in dreamtime and related states of consciousness.... Shaman, prophets, priests and so forth have been documented to have had clairaudience which would lead to certain events." Best definition of clairaudience that relates to what happened to me last night, from the website: http://www.psychic.com.au/psychic-clairaudience.htm#.UR7a46VQEXA

Here's a recent article about the meteor: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/meteorite-streaks-across-russian-urals_n_2691904.html

UPDATE 2/28/13: CNN just published an article titled, "Planet of Sound: Meteor Blast Resonated Around Earth" about the sound waves caused by the meteor. So, I reckon what I heard was the meteor, instead of an actual air raid siren with no dips in tone. http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/world/europe/russia-meteor/index.html?fb_action_ids=10151452583743827&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Message from Beyond, Smudging, Dreamtime, A Celestial Event

Message from Beyond: A woman appeared before me in dreamtime and said, "Confirm for your Aunt Andrea Lowery that you've [lost weight? stopped smoking?]" The reason I'm confused about this is because I believe she said both of those - I wrote both phrases down, however I don't remember the inflection used to emphasize one over the other. AND, I actually googled "Andrea Lowery obituary" and came up with nothing. So now I'm thinking that there should be a comma after Aunt, as in "Confirm for your Aunt, Andrea Lowery...." Therefore (hahaha - clear as mud?) this message is either from an Aunt named Andrea Lowery OR for Andrea Lowery whose sternish, kind of judgmental aunt is doubting from the Otherworld your claims that you've lost weight and stopped smoking! Although it IS unusual to receive visitations from loved ones who cling to this world's judgments, opinions, and so on - in the Otherworld, everything JUST IS since, although we each have our own individual journey to experience, once we're in the Otherworld it all becomes part of the whole, the Universal One Energy - it does happen from time to time. My suggestion for anyone who receives these types of visits, which to me are more harmful than good (don't we get enough negativity in THIS world? Just don't need to hear it from the Otherworld, too!), is to smudge* their home. The sage will keep the negativity and negative beings from reaching you. You know what your vices are and are in charge of your own well-being and journey; I don't think you need one more voice, even if it is from beyond, passing judgment!

*To smudge: get a sage (called "smudge") stick, light the stick then blow it out so that it's smoking (like incense), begin at the right corner of your front door, and in a clockwise manner hold the stick to each corner you encounter as you smudge the entire home. As you hold the stick in the corners, talk to the negative beings saying something like, "You are not welcome here. Anyone who doesn't have my best interest and wellness at heart must leave. Everyone else is welcome!" End the smudging at the left corner of your front door. If the stick goes out while you're in the middle of smudging, just re-light it, blow it out, and continue smudging. This has not happened to me, I think it's because I let the stick burn for quite a few seconds before I blow it out. When you're finished smudging, dunk the stick in a bowl of water, shake it out and let air dry. When thoroughly dried, place in glass container to use again. Some practitioners won't use the same stick twice; I think that's a waste of sage, after all we're here to protect Mother Earth and her resources and use each resource sparingly. An object or being only has power if you allow it so; you're giving the sage new power during every use, regardless of whether it was used previously or not.

Dreamtime: I had a dream, and I thought it was "just a dream" as I was seeing it played before me (when I have visions, I almost always know that it's a vision and I need to pay attention), that I was speaking to some men in hazmat suits. I did not feel the least bit alarmed nor any sense of urgency, and instead of a chemical warfare attack - which is where my waking mind goes when I see hazmat suits - these guys were wearing the suits because of pesticides, herbicides and chemical spills. I asked one of the gentlemen, "Well, shouldn't we all have our own chem gear?" He answered affirmatively, and I started doing the math in my head: 330 million people times whatever amount each hazmat suit cost. As I was mentally multiplying, I awoke with a start and realized, "330 million people? The entire United States?" So my "just a dream" in that moment became another vision. One of pollution, toxicity and  chemical-filled nightmare. My heart broke right at that moment. We've gone past the point of no return, y'all. This is not an alarmist post, I promise! The U.S. has reached levels of toxicity as we saw by the 1950s/60s. We passed numerous laws and regulations and deployed countless numbers of workers and volunteers to clean up the toxic waterways and dump sites, and we can do it again. But this time is different in that Big Energy and Chem companies and Big Business have bought our politicians lock, stock and barrel. Instead of strengthening those laws and regulations ensuring clean air and water that were passed 50 years ago, our Republican-majority Congress, with the help of some Democrats, has slowly but surely disassembled much of which was giving us some sense of safety and protection from corporate greed and waste and pollution. As an example, this morning I found out that my U.S. Senator, Mark Warner, had signed a joint letter to the President urging he approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. I almost fainted; this was my confirmation that my "dream" was actually a vision. In case you don't know anything about Keystone (except it's controversial!), here is a good overview of what it's all about (hint: it won't benefit anyone except Transcanada and the Koch Brothers, and indeed will harm aquifers and pristine ecosystems): http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/211733-bill-mckibben-founder-350org. And here's an insightful piece: http://seniorsforademocraticsociety.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/the-xl-pipeline-lie/

So, I know you're asking, "but why do you think it's too late?" And the short answer is that we are entering an Earth cycle change. This is a cycle that happens every so often, but now it has a curve ball thrown into the mix: our precious Earth can't defend and repair itself against the onslaught of extreme weather that is happening now and is to be when she is already weakened, damaged and poisoned. It would be the same thing if you were to have cancer and then catch a cold: your immune system can't fight off those little bitty cold bacteria that any other person could handle with no problem. We're entering an age of great change, great upheaval, and that flows directly into:

A Celestial Event: My Navajo grandfather visited me several months ago (and continues to visit intermittently) and told me to "look to the night sky." As a note re my grandfather for those unfamiliar with him: he first visited me back in 2006 and was a Navajo medicine man in his life on Earth. We speak in the Navajo language (which I have to write down phonetically when I awaken and then translate using the Navajo Code Talkers website). He's shown me many future events, some of which have since occurred, and is my primary guide in the Otherworld. I'm uncertain whether or not he was actually my grandfather in a past life, but it seems as if he was since that's the sort of loving, familial relationship we have in dreamtime. Anyway, he told me to keep watching the night sky, that a great "celestial event" will occur that will give me proof that the new time is beginning. Now, unlike many seers and New Agers who think we are entering into a time of enlightenment, I disagree completely. There are millions of people right here in the U.S. who cling desperately to their present way of being and refuse to change, adapt or even consider the possibility that great harm is being done to them at the same time that great harm is happening to Mother Earth and Grandmother Ocean and all their inhabitants. Our hatred, fear and loathing toward our fellow man and all other beings is palpable. Go to any conservative website, read the comments, and you'll get a good idea of what I'm talking about. Grandfather told me: This hatred must stop. This hatred toward all, including ourselves, must end. We cannot survive while harboring so much hate and greed. We cannot survive while killing Mother Earth and Grandmother Ocean. We cannot survive massive greed to pervert Mother's gifts of minerals for our own selfish ends. Mother and Grandmother need healing. Mother and Grandmother are crying for help, and their tears are like salt in the wound of a gangrenous sore called humanity. It's imperative that we become a community again, y'all! I am not saying that I was shown the end of the world; quite the contrary, the world will not end in the near future. But our present way of living will end. We will see fire, drought and flooding (more earthquakes! larger storms!) unlike any we have seen in the past, and it will affect millions of people. We will see coastlines going under water, and a shift in population centers. We must come together as a community to help each other through the Earth changes: neighbor helping neighbor. We must insist that Congress strengthen and pass new environmental protection laws. We must stop the reckless use of throw-away objects that we never even gave a second thought to in the past. And first and foremost we must prevent further toxicity of our land, water and air. Mother and Grandmother need to heal; we cannot survive in future time unless they heal, it really is just that simple.

NOTE: Last week as I was reminding myself to write my visitations down in this blog, I was quite shocked to read that a comet - Comet ISON (http://www.universetoday.com/99777/deep-impact-images-spectacular-incoming-comet-ison-curiosity-nasa-armada-will-try/) - is approaching the sun, is now being watched by astronomers and will be best viewed from November 2013-January 2014. I had no idea this comet was approaching, so that in itself proved to me that Grandfather was accurate (not that I ever doubt his teachings, but I like to have "proof" for all of you!).

Two Messages from Beyond

While meditating this afternoon, I had two visits from the Otherworld.

The first was a dog, a brownish color. He wasn't dark brown but rather a rich medium brown that could look a little gray in certain lighting. He showed me his profile, and I saw that he was wrinkled which probably meant that he was old when he passed. Short hair, brown, with a wide head, much like a male lab or bulldog breed. His eyes were light in color - perhaps he had cataracts? His eyes also reminded me of an elephant's eyes - maybe signifying he had an excellent memory? Anyway, he's very, very calm and restful in the Otherworld but wants his family to know that he's still watching over them!

The second visit was with an older gentleman who was insistent that I tell his family that he's doing well and anticipating seeing his wife in person again, but that he's visiting her in spirit form. He spoke these words, "HGV giant." So I googled those exact words and found several news obituaries in Wales detailing an "HGB boss described as 'gentle giant' by his wife." His name is Brian Williams, and he died in a traffic accident in 2010, crossed over, and continues to lovingly pop in on his family. Here's one of the articles: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/HGV+boss+Killed+in+horrific+lorry+smash%3B+TRIBUTES+TO+'GENTLE+GIANT'%3A...-a0216255795

Message from Beyond

This message concerns an older man who went by the name "Wilkerson." He died of a lung ailment from smoking, such as lung cancer or emphysema, and he visited me in a scenario that looked and smelled like an old timey gas station. He was with three or four older guy friends, and they were chatting while standing around an old pot-bellied stove in the center of the gas station's office. He knows his loved ones have been very concerned that he'd be lonely in the Otherworld without his family helping him, but he wants you all to know that he's with a group of his buddies, and they're having a "grand time!" He loves you, is checking on you from time to time, and he'll see you all soon enough, but meanwhile he's hanging out with his friends, so stop your worrying!

Message From Beyond

I kept hearing "Taps" being played by a lone bugle. As I was laying in bed listening, I thought, "I'm sure this is a message, but I need a name!" My attention was immediately drawn to a group of people where one was exclaiming, "Natalie is coming this way!" and everyone excitedly started speaking about Natalie. So if you have a loved one named Natalie who recently crossed over or is on the threshold of the doorway, you can be assured that she'll be lovingly taken care of in the Otherworld. If you are Natalie and have a loved one who recently passed or is about to, please know that the same applies: your loved one is in strong, loving hands.

Message From Beyond

Message from Beyond: A loved one (I think she's a she) came to me singing in a loud, clear voice the song "Shoo Fly." She placed special emphasis on the following snippet of the song: "I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel like the Morning Star!" Her smile was radiant when she sang that verse, and she wants you to know she's still with you in spirit AND is completely pain-free and untroubled.

Smell of Petroleum

Yesterday, 1-9-13, at about noon I walked outside into the backyard and smelled petroleum. Just as in the last times I've smelled it, I'm hoping it's a real smell as opposed to a metaphysical/prophetic smell. I'll post updates below if an oil spill (or any other type of Big Energy disaster) happens.

UPDATE: 1-27-13: Barge carrying oil spilled on the Mississippi (there may have been other incidences prior to this, but I kept forgetting to check. Sorry):

Mississippi River Barge Crash

A New Dream Vision, a New Year of Change

First of all, happy 2013 y'all! I, personally, feel optimistic about 2013, but perhaps not in the way most of you reading this will feel. For the future, I've been shown much loss, much sorrow, more violence, more war, a lot of earth upheaval - particularly flooding and drought and earthquakes (natch :D), and yet I've seen the changing, little by little, of our collective humanity. This past election caused me to (quite literally!) stroke out, especially after reading months of racist, homophobic, pro-war, pro-weapons, the emergence of a fanatical religious wave - whether Christian or Muslim - denial of climate change comments under political articles referencing those topics. I simply could not believe (or, rather, did not want to believe) that so many of my fellow citizens could be so callous, so filled with fear about their neighbor, so obtuse when it came to the Earth-raping by Big Energy and climate change caused by same in conjunction with Big Business, so judgmental where it concerned their less-than-fortunate neighbors, so unenlightened in their belief that those who follow a different or rather same-sex gender preference when matters of the heart sing are evil, as well as the belief that women are still "less than." It sickened me and caused my own mind to reel from the utter hatred of it all. But along with all that mind-numbing insensitivity, I've witnessed little things that have given me great hope and a tiny sense of peace that can be ours if only we allow it to be the "new" norm: neighbors helping neighbors during a calamity, ordinary people taking a stand against the bullies in their communities, businesses giving charitably to their communities without any thought of reward, the lone individual who, tired of seeing her children sickened by a fixable problem caused by drilling or mining or tainted vaccines or chemical/agricultural waste dumping, taking on a giant industry...and winning. All of these fill my heart with hope and the realization that each of us has the power to change that which we can no longer tolerate because it isn't beneficial to us all. Oh, it takes a village, for sure, but it always starts with that one individual who says, "I'm not taking this anymore; something has to be done." And armed with a solution to replace the old paradigm, the chances of change are infinite, because it's one thing to bitch about a problem, but it's quite another to solve that problem. Anything else is, just, well, bitching, which doesn't cause the problem to go away or cause a company to change its business model.

With that thought, that one person, supported by a community of activists, can make positive, lasting changes, here's my dream vision of last night. Please keep in mind that when I dream of myself, "I" am not "me" - I may be the actual victim if it's a murder dream (as I was in Laci Peterson's case), or I might be in the body of a killer (as I was in Casey Anthony's case) or I might represent the collective whole for other types of dreams. In this dream, I represented the Shaman/connector but also the individual:

I was in a future time in which religious zealotry ruled. This future was similar to ours in that One God was the choice of the zealots, and I remember thinking that these people also were fanatics of the Christ. I was shoved into a huge tent, decorated all in white with gold accents: gold ribbons, gold carpets, gold chairs and couches. A woman appeared, dressed in white, and smiled menacingly at me. "You do not believe?" she asked. "No," I replied, adding, "I know there is no 'god' but rather the power of the universal One." "But, are those not the same?" she asked. I replied, "No. By universal One, I mean an individual as part of the whole. Each of us has the power to be god. Each of us is our own savior. Each of us has the power to change that which we cannot tolerate as a society, as a human, as a compassionate, empathic soul and as a sentient being. We are the universal One." Laughing, she told me she'd show me the power of God. She threw her arms open wide and manifested a being shaped like a ball but covered in feathers and threw it at me, shouting, "My God is more powerful than you, Shaman!" I was a bit awe-struck when I caught the ball/being. I marveled over its feathers and shape, and then I became very, very afraid. For whatever reason, I knew the ball/being meant me harm and was very powerful, indeed - just as organized religion of any faith is in our world - just as any big corporation is in its business practices. I tried to throw it back at her, but it was as if the ball paralyzed me. Knowing I was about to face imminent death and had no power to challenge its superiority, I thought, "Huh. I reckon he is." Then I felt a hand on my arm, then many hands, and I felt no longer paralyzed, and we, the universal One, threw the ball/being back at the priestess. I said, "Your god has no more power than any one of us here." As the vision faded, the woman's expression was one of shock, dismay and sadness that her challenge was defeated, and the ball/being growled, "God." (Still gives me chill bumps to think of it.)

It's a hard lesson when we've learned that the dogma we've been taught as a child is erroneous. Jesus, the Buddha, and others have tried to teach us that we each have the power to harness energy and use it beneficially for all; religious leaders have, for the most part, twisted and perverted that knowledge into worshiping a certain person, a certain god, a certain philosophy, whether it benefits a few or not, and usually it only benefits those leaders' pockets. It's a hard lesson when we learn that our parents aren't really all that powerful after all, and that businesses and politicians lie and would stop at almost nothing in order to hold power and influence in our daily lives, often when that very same power and influence harms many. The whole point is that we shouldn't be worshiping any thing, nor should we ever believe that one person/thing is superior to us. We should be celebrating life and each other, whether through the yin or the yang. Stop being so afraid or resigned to the status quo; that powerful entity (whether corporate or a person or a god) is not more powerful than you! Stop being paralyzed into thinking that you have no power. Celebrate that you have the power to challenge that which most believe is superior; make a change for the better! You, and your community, and therefore the extended universal One have all the power and energy to harness at your disposal, if you just tap into it. The next time you feel afraid or unworthy or abandoned, remember that you have the power to change that. Same thing goes if you see an injustice being committed or a person who just needs a shoulder on which to lean: stand up for the person/being who is harmed, lend your shoulder! Don't accept the corporate/religious/political line that there is only one way/one solution; just as there are many ways, many solutions, there is more than one hand on your arm - there are many, but you must take that first step and connect.

This year when mama nature or our politicians or Big Business throws atrocities at us, we will desperately need our fellow mankind to come together as One. One arm, many hands: much more powerful than most people realize and accessible to all.

TIA Update, Solving the Baldness Issue, Happy New Year!

As we're about to go into the new year of 2013, my mind is a jumble of thoughts, feelings and lessons learned throughout the years. The following is going to be rambling - 'cause that's how I seem to roll these days - but hopefully enlightening (and entertaining!). My wish is that 2013 will be one of peace, calm and a lightening of the pervasive heavy-spirit that so many of us seemed to be floundering in during the past several years!

Re the pervasive heavy-spirit: I've watched with interest and awe all the recent stories of random acts of kindness. I've got to be honest with y'all: I still feel that broadcasting/bragging/publicizing any and all little kindnesses that one may do for his/her fellow beings makes me cringe. After all (and I feel the same way about public prayer ala Christian or Muslim fundamentalism) it's our innate humanness that should compel us to always seize the moment to be "good" or "do the right thing" and it's meant to be a private, personal karmic moment. However (you knew I'd pop that word in!), if publicizing acts of kindness compels others to do the same, it's totally worth it, and all that positive energy wafting through our universe benefits all of us! Anything that lifts our hearts and emotional well-being up is a wonderful thing.

Okey dokey - on to the baldness. I've suffered from a type of alopecia since my hysterectomy in 1996 (no estrogen!) AND it seems to run in my family. I've bought five wigs over the years to use when it's especially bad, and I've been as bald as having just a few baby-fine hairs on the front of my head. Back in 2005 I switched to a raw vegan diet, and that seemed to be the worst period of baldness, and I've alternated between being a total vegan to incorporating some meat in my diet since then, all to only partial success. Now I do eat a small bit of meat (bought from local humane, sustainable, organic farms) with a large helping of veggies at meals. For breakfast I usually eat eggs scrambled in coconut milk with several cloves of raw garlic, chopped onion, celery, mushrooms and about a cup of cilantro. Yummy, and all meant to lower my blood pressure. keep me healthy (I haven't had a cold or the flu or any other "bugs" for years), and keeping me full hunger-wise and full of energy throughout the day. But the diet alone doesn't help totally with the alopecia. So, over the years I've tried potions, salves, and other herbal remedies to solve the issue, but again, it only helped partially. What to do? I love my wigs, but good grief they're hot and sweat-inducing! Fast forward to sometime this year I just happened to be reading some random article on hair styles when a cosmetologist being interviewed mentioned that many women who suffer from hair loss lack enough iron, B-12 and biotin. Huh, I thought. I knew that too much iron is not healthy, and too little causes anemia. But how much is too much and how little is too little to not be on a medical radar? After several days of intensive research, I figured out the basic dosages, and now I have hair in abundance. Oh, it's all different lengths from growing little by little, and it took a few months to completely start growing, but no more shiny bald patch! So here's the "magic" formula that I take, all companies researched for their supplements' efficacy ratings and ingredients' purity: Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw Iron 22 mg., Country Life Biotin 5 mg., and TwinLab Mega B-12 Dots 5000 mcg. About the B-12: take it in the morning because it gives you a boost of energy, and you don't want to be up all night if you take it in the evening! Also, when you look for a B-12 supplement, make sure it's for sublingual (under the tongue) use. B-12 is best absorbed in this manner.

On to my recent TIA - mini-stroke - incident. I've had several neurologist and internal medicine visits, along with an MRI, an MRA, two complete blood tests, doppler carotid tests and a sleep study. It turns out that my right carotid artery has mild blockage, and the left carotid has slightly less blockage. The brain scans showed no sign of any damage, thank goodness! The internist immediately put me on blood pressure medication because my blood pressure was 173/101 (ugh) and wanted me to take a statin. I refused; last year it was finally confirmed by cardiologists that statins are toxic in otherwise healthy patients - among the permanent side effects are muscular-nerve loss, liver damage, and restless leg syndrome (this is when your legs get that "my skin is crawling!" feeling). The only people who are recommended to take statins are those who have suffered a heart attack or who have chronic, established heart disease. My heart is fine, oddly enough; it's my head area that's shorted-out :D. My mother died when she was 5 years older than I am now from congestive heart failure - her heart and lungs were filled with fluid, and she suffered from emphysema, as well. My heart's fine, my lungs are clear, I don't have emphysema. I DO have high cholesterol, but my HDL (the good cholesterol that eats the bad) levels are really good. Cardiologists are torn between admitting that cholesterol levels don't indicate heart disease and toting the Big Pharma lie that everyone needs to be on a statin. Look, from everything I've researched, statins are just plain poison. Period. And anyone who is past the age of 60 shouldn't be placed on a statin no matter what, in any event. So if you're over 60 and reading this and on a statin and haven't had a heart attack and your HDL is good (regardless of your other cholesterol numbers), your diet is good, just say no to a statin. So what to take in place of a statin to ensure your heart and arteries stay healthy? I'm now taking Solgar Vitamin B-6 250 mg. and Solgar Folic Acid 800 mcg., along with the vitamin B-12 - all three are necessary and vital for arterial health, y'all!

Those of you who know what a fervent believer I am re herbs, organic & gmo-free foods and all things nature provided to us for whole body wellness may be sittin' at your computer right about now thinkin' "Damn! If all things natural are so good for you, why are you sick, Kerry?" Here's the short and simple answer: I didn't start paying attention to my diet or to my environment or to, well, much of anything prior to about 7 years ago. Oh, I always ate a good portion of fruits and veggies, but I also ate a LOT of pure junk on occasion. My recent blood tests showed that my body is actually really, really healthy - my blood sediment rate, which shows inflammation, cancer, leukemia, etc., was the lowest it can be. This I attribute directly to taking white willow bark supplements: Two 400 mg. capsules twice a day, every day. I only started taking those in April right after I had the epiphany that my entire body suffered from inflammation during a poison ivy attack. Obviously, it works! Both my internist and neurologist were clueless as to the therapeutic value of willow bark, and both told me take aspirin every day to mitigate a possible future TIA/stroke. I am taking the daily low dosage aspirin, but I'm definitely taking willow bark, too. It's a literal life-saver. All those bouts of cancer, both of the auto-immune disorders with which I deal, bad food choices in the past, all of those have clogged my arteries and inflamed my body. I'm reversing that damage - there will always be some remaining damage, but it's manageable now - and so can anyone who really is sick and tired of being sick and tired. I still have flare ups of my disorders, I still have short-term memory issues (and those are likely permanent, unfortunately, according to the neurologist), I still stress out over injustices and earth and other beings abuse, but I am able to live body-wise better than in the past. On the cancer front, since I'm a DES daughter, my chances of getting breast cancer are 80% greater than other women; with all my life-style changes I've made in the last several years, I do believe I've reduced that statistic enormously (and if I do happen to get it from the genetic mutations DES has caused, I know it'll be a piece of cake to conquer it, too).

So what all am I taking on a daily basis that helps keep me functioning on an acceptable level (I use the word "acceptable" because all throughout my illnesses I've exclaimed, "Well, that's just totally unacceptable!")? In addition to raw garlic cloves and onions and a fruit smoothy that I consume every day (along with other healthy foods of course), here's my complete list, and yes, you may think it's overkill, but considering the excellent blood work report, I'd say it's vital, especially since there's no way I could consume all the food I'd need to consume in order to get the benefits that each supplement brings:

SUPPLEMENT	DOSAGE
White Willow Bark (Nature’s Way)	2 – 400 mg. 2x daily
Vitamin D3 (Country Life)	5,000 IU
Raw Iron (Garden of Life)	22 mg.
Bayer Aspirin	81 mg
Vitamin B12 sublingual (Twinlab)	5,000 mcg
Mega Taurine (Twinlab)	1,000 mg
Biotin (Country Life)	5 mg
MultiVitamin for Her 50-plus (Nature Made)
Ubiquinol CoQH (Source Naturals)	100 mg. 2x daily
Raspberry Ketones Complete	250 mg
Vitamin B6 (Solgar)	250 mg
Folic Acid (Solgar)	800 mcg

Milk Thistle (Nature’s Way)

80% Silymarin, 175 mg milk thistle extract, 150 mg Blessed Thistle

And here's what Jeff is taking on a daily basis (his needs differ from mine on a few issues):

SUPPLEMENT	DOSAGE
White Willow Bark (Nature’s Way)	2 – 400 mg.
Vitamin D3 (Country Life)	5,000 IU
Centrum Silver Men 50+
Phytosterol Complex (Vitacost)
Vitamin B12 sublingual (Twinlab)	5,000 mcg
Mega Taurine (Twinlab)	1,000 mg
Glucosamine, MSM, Vit. D Complex	Twice daily; glucosamine 1500 mg, MSM 1000 mg, Vitamin D 1000 IU
Ubiquinol CoQH (Source Naturals)	100 mg
Vitamin B6 (Solgar)	250 mg
Folic Acid (Solgar)	800 mcg
Milk Thistle (Nature’s Way)	80% Silymarin, 175 mg milk thistle extract, 150 mg Blessed Thistle

If you have any questions about the benefits that each supplement provides, just Google each - you might be pleasantly surprised, as I was, that many of them are written about in the medical websites and not just strictly in the annals of herbology/holistic medicine sites.

There's one more drug that I've been prescribed, and it's a narcotic. I have to get a written prescription each month from the internist in which to receive it, and it's an opioid. It's called Nucynta, and it's been a life-saver, too, although in a much different way than the whole-body wellness supplements and change in diet. It's the first drug I've taken for my fibromyalgia that actually works by blocking the muscular-neural pain receptors. In the past I've been prescribed a whole slew of medications, from Cymbalta, Tramadol, Flexeril, Lyrica, Neurontin, and on and on that helped not one whit, and indeed caused reactions when I took them - anything from acute hangover type symptoms to increased pain to suicidal thoughts to extreme edema. Nucynta doesn't cause any of these issues, it's not actually addictive for those of us who suffer from chronic pain (unless you're taking it because you're already an addict to pain medication), and as I told the internist, "Best.Drug.Ever." The side effects can be hallucinations, extreme drowsiness, and the like - especially in high doses - but I haven't had any of those and my dosage is small. It allows me to have a better quality of life. Just like the willow bark keeps inflammation away, the Nucynta keeps the muscles and nerves from constantly flaring up. But as with all opioids (or all pain medication), it doesn't help short term memory. At all (duh!). But it certainly keeps my body moving and has greatly improved my ability to walk, and that's exactly what I've needed. I have no idea if I'll take this the rest of my life; I would love to think that I won't need it in some distant future. But the fact remains that I'm approaching 60 and the likelihood of my neuro-muscular system reverting back to pre-hysterectomy, pre-fibromyalgia, pre-auto-immune disorder days is just about zero. So rock on, opioid, rock on!

The sleep study: This was really, really interesting, I thought. I didn't want to participate, kind of thought it was ridiculous, and then when I was researching I found that fibromyalgia sufferers almost always lacked Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep. These two stages are the most beneficial to one's health, and without them, you feel tired, cranky, run-down and like a truck has run over your body during the night, so I went ahead and participated in the study. I got to the sleep lab at 8:00 pm, they hooked me up to all sorts of electrodes - all over my head and chest - and I fell asleep about 10:30 or 11:00. Well, I actually didn't sleep at all as verified by the results. I had a few minutes of Stage 3 sleep and zero at Stage 4 (deep sleep). I feel vindicated by the results of my sleep study re the fibromyalgia; at one time this disorder was thought to be non-existent, then accepted but still treated with anti-depressants and epilepsy drugs, and was just officially recognized in June 2012 by the Social Security Administration as a disability. Therefore, if anyone is suffering from fibromyalgia and needs one more bit of scientific "proof", I'd suggest taking a sleep study.

One more benefit of the sleep study: Since my TIA happened on the right side of my brain, my extrasensory perception was altered in that I just wasn't getting any more dream visits, and I couldn't perceive what was happening to people around me (I wasn't picking up anything). I didn't feel as if I was a part of the universal whole, and my short term memory vanished. What used to be easy-peezy for me to recite/know/acknowledge just disappeared in the blink of an eye, it seems. Just as the earthquake here in Virginia set off a slew of neurological Parkinson-type reactions in my body, the sleep study electrodes restored my gift. Unbelievable, truly - I didn't even think about the causal effect of electrodes coursing through my brain, but the next night after the study when I awoke from a vivid dream visitation from my Navajo elder guide, I realized what had happened, and I was overjoyed! Back in business, baby! Except if I thought I was forgetting instantly what I dreamed of before the TIA, with the short-term memory loss now it's that much faster how quickly the messages are in and out of my head. I'm now sleeping with my journal under the pillow so that I can (hopefully) write messages down before they blip away. I've only had one that I recovered in time, but I'm working on it!

One last thing: I haven't been on social media much, and I keep forgetting to turn my phone on/charge it. If anyone has been trying to contact me, forgive me, please. I'm still mending, and it takes me seemingly forever to type responses. Even this blog post has taken me five hours to compose - jeez. If this is my new normal, then I reckon I'll have to adapt somehow, but I'll never give up trying to regain what I've lost! Keep on keepin' on, y'all - one day and one hug and one random act of kindness at a time.... 

Message from Beyond

This message is for a couple who recently found out the woman is pregnant. Your loved one heard you exclaim, "We're expecting another baby!" and is as delighted and overjoyed as you are. Your loved one is fully aware of what is happening in your life and sends much love and emotional support.