Plant the Seeds of Love

In 1985 religionists and Bible scholars from all over the world met together at the Jesus Seminars to determine what Jesus really said. According to their research, Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus never claimed to be the only son of God. He is just the most famous one to use the God Power within. Their findings can be found in THE FIVE GOSPELS. The truth is he taught that we are all sons and daughters of God. We are all made in the likeness of God. Jesus was a human who knew how to use the God inside and that was the message to his followers - to be God and live God. I believe the quote goes something like - "Greater things will you do than I . . . " We all have this God power to create good and love. It is impersonal and responds to our thoughts or prayers. Every thought is a prayer and every thought is creative. It also responds to negative thoughts and there are too many examples of people with bad thoughts getting what they want. The phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" can be changed to "What would God do or What would Love do?" The meaning is the same. The more we take control of our thoughts and think what we want in our lives, the more we "DO" what Jesus or God would do. It is up to us to plant good seeds or beautiful and loving ideas in the fertile soil of our brains.

July blog coming in the next few days

Just returned from a great spiritual experience with 350 teens in California. Watch for my experience soon.

In Memory of Special Friends

Another tragedy hit today. A friend from the past posted on Facebook that Ben Butler suddenly passed away. Ben and I had a close friendship and more back in the high school years. After my high school reunion, he wrote me here and we got caught up. He had gone to Oklahoma State University and then graduate school and was nearing his PhD in his field. He had been very successful since leaving Hugo, Oklahoma. I am saddened at this news.
I had received emails from him on the email connected to the blog. Over the weekend, I was at a training seminar in Philadelphia. We were asked to release anything that might be in the way of going forward during the weekend. The first thing that came into my mind was the grief I have had since January.
I last wrote for my blog on December 31, 2010 when my husband and I had returned to bury my sweet little pet, Precious after a Christmas visit with my son. I knew then that my friend Brenda, also a friend from Hugo, OK, was near her time to make her transition. Brenda died on January 11 from breast cancer and bone cancer. And my writing has been on hold since.
I get up each day and feel this underlying feeling of grief. I go on, but the hurt is still there churning and looking for sometimes very inconvenient times to rise to the surface. I would hear Brenda in my head telling me she would come around and drop in but only if I didn’t start crying. If I cried she would leave. It was comforting to feel her presence around and her beautiful laugh. But sometimes I have just had to go ahead and cry. I tried to put the grief aside on Friday night, but weepy and grief stricken feelings resurfaced in my dreams.
Sometimes, many times to be honest, I didn’t get up very easily. I am not one to get into depression and didn’t recognize it for a while. But it was what it was. I was depressed. I didn’t write on the blog. I didn’t write new stories or continue the stories I have started. Some people might call it a writer’s blog. I call it a time to heal losing the best friend I ever had.
I am very sad to hear of Ben’s death. He was 58 or 59 as he was a year behind me in school. He was a great football player in high school and a good saxophone player in band. And he was a friend. I am sad that Brenda and my little Precious are no longer here. But one of the phrases that is going into the end of one of my books is “Silly humans, there is no death!” Their Lights will shine on forever, for the soul, the Spirit of God, is infinite. I will never forget you my friends. As for me, it’s time to write again. I am back world!

The Story of Precious

As 2010 draws to a close, I decided to check in on the blog and my emails that come through this address. It’s been a while since I posted. So much has been happening and so little at the same time. Our landscape business has been good and then not good. Winter is usually challenging but we are holding on. When I am trying to keep a positive attitude, I don’t write as much, well not the kinds of things I write here but as I checked in, I found some really good messages from a certain writer I know – me! I reminded myself what I need to do when things are getting a bit too challenging.

For instance, I am going through some grief again. At this point I do not know if my closest friend is still with us. The last time I talked to her brother, they were taking it one day at a time. She has been fighting the fight against both breast cancer and bone cancer. After several different round of treatments she had decided to stop. I was away in Santa Fe for a week with my son and his girlfriend. I had called and spoken with her son once and her brother another time. Then I just didn’t want to know if the news was not good. And another matter that I wanted to avoid was happening too.

Thirteen and a half years ago, the family went to Kansas. We had Autumn who had 4 kittens and her feral mother, Monique mostly living on our front porch. We had a friend who was coming by to feed the cats and dogs and check on them. They were happier staying at home. Besides, no one could touch Monique and she was only inside with Autumn to protect and help with her kittens. Monique was a strange little cat. It felt like she had been tame at some point but abused severely. She couldn’t meow and as long as we didn’t try to touch her, she seemed okay closed inside the porch.

Monique looked like a British Short Hair variety – black, average body, with short legs and pointed feet. The day after we left for our trip, Monique had 4 kittens herself but the person taking care of her had no idea. She had them well hidden under the porch and not being able to get close to her, he didn’t realize that her body shape had changed from a little round tummy to a flat tummy.

Monique had been having two litters of kittens a year under our house. The first litter never appeared. When she would finally appear after the second litter, she would only have one kitten. The last was Autumn. Autumn was feral at first but it turned out her daddy was a Maine Coon and they just aren’t wild. We eventually got Autumn to let us handle her and then she went into heat and had 4 orange male kittens. The sire of her kittens was there. He was wild too and was waiting to kill the male kittens. Monique seemed to have had it happen before and she stayed right there ready to fight him if he came too close. When we boxed up Autumn and the newly born kittens to move her inside, Monique got in the box too. And that is how we got her to move inside, not knowing that she was pregnant too.

Her four kittens all looked like Siamese cats. We had noticed when she was in season that she liked to wait for this big Tom that looked Siamese. We called him Big Daddy. He wasn’t full blood because he had a very square looking head – not a true Siamese. But his colors and her body shape made for 4 apple headed kittens with seal points. Only one was male and he had some longer hair. Sadly, the long hair attracted fleas terribly and under the porch was not a very good environment. He began to fail. She didn’t know how to help him and she stopped nursing him. The 3 females were getting weaker too. I tried to help him. He was a fighter but he just couldn’t make it. Then the second one went. She was a beautiful one with huge eyes and more of a lilac point. A lady came along and wanted to try to save the largest one. It wasn’t a good idea but I wasn’t having any luck. I took the last one to the vet. He said she had flea anemia but if I could keep her alive for 48 hours, she would make it.

I kept her in a tiny shoebox by my face in the bed. I combed off the fleas as much as possible. I used an eyedropper and fed her formula with Super Blue Green algae and an egg in it. I would take her out to Monique but the mother wouldn’t try to nurse her for a while. She and Autumn would wash and massage her down and I would take her back inside and give her a couple of drops every hour or two. After a few hours and staying up all night – I felt like I did when my children were keeping me up all night – her tongue began to get some color in it again. Once she made it through the crisis, her mom began to nurse her again.

We could assume that what had been happening with Monique each year was that as a wild cat she had to leave her kittens to find food. Either the tomcats or other predators, like under the house rats, were getting her kittens. She would immediately go into heat again having the second litter in June each year. The fleas under the house in the dirt from the wild critters were getting her second litter. She would manage to save one. The one we helped her save became Precious. Precious was my baby and she considered me her mother. I had decided if I could catch Monique, I would get her spayed and after recovery let her continue to live under my house as a feral – but spayed – cat. Precious was going to be 8 weeks old on Monday. The flea anemia had slowed her growth but she was eating solid food. On Friday morning I went out to the porch to greet the cats as I always did and found Monique had died. I didn’t know why. “Doug, Monique is dead!” A strange little cat that was very intelligent had come and given us Autumn and Precious (and Chang, our other cat) and then she was gone.

Precious was a very sweet cat. She was a little slow. We attributed it to the lack of oxygen to her brain when she was little. She had tiny short legs like her mother and a small head but she got fat even before she was spayed. After the operation, she got even fatter. She was shaped like a basketball with legs. For many years she was good friends with Scully, another cat who decided to come live with us. We didn’t get Scully and Precious spayed for a long time finding out that if you don’t let them breed, they can get very sick. So when we had to spay Scully in an emergency we decided that we should take care of Precious too. The vet came back and said that Precious had some tumors and she wanted to send some tissues of to be tested. That would be another $60. I said, “No, if Precious gets worse, I will put her down. I won’t put her through expensive cancer treatment that may or may not work. Precious seems to be fine for now and we will take it one day at a time.”

After their surgeries, Scully wouldn’t have anything to do with the other cats. She was content being alone. Precious always needed to be close to another animal. She was tolerated by Chang who lived separately in the back of the house and sometimes she would spend time with him. We had and have a white dove. Precious seemed to think that bird was hers. After a few years we began to let Chang go outside. Precious would want to go and would follow him around doing what he did. In 2008, Chang stopped eating and then stopped drinking water. The vets don’t really know what causes this ailment and can only treated it with cortisone shots, steroids. After a while they don’t work anymore and the cats just waste away. I call it the wasting disease. Chang died on Memorial Day. Precious then decided to attach to out current dog, Sukie. Precious did not know she was a cat, did not know she wasn’t human, and certainly did not know that there was a difference in cats and dogs. Sukie is a sweetheart. They became close friends.
A few weeks ago 13 year old and 5 months Precious seemed to have had a stroke. I had a dog that had a stroke at 16 years old. He had one in the morning and by night had the second and died in my arms. I expected Precious would have another within 24 hours but she didn’t. In fact, she seemed to recover. She gradually got to where she could walk again, even jump and get in a chair (though getting down she kind of fell on her face), and was walking and running normally. She was eating somewhat normally and drinking water. Getting in and out of the litter box was a little difficult. Soon she began to get litter clumped up on her feet. I figured out that she was urinating on her feet or down her legs.

We had planned our trip to Santa Fe for Christmas. Precious began to show the symptoms of the wasting disease. I knew the vets were expensive and could only offer a cortisone shot. But I couldn’t cancel the trip. We had our friend Buzz to stay at the house but when we left I was very concerned that Precious was not going to be here when we returned. On Monday, Dec 27, Buzz called. She seemed to have had another stroke and was not able to walk on Sunday. When he got up, our sweet little precious Precious had left us. I had to come home to her not being here ever again.

I believe she lives on but her physical presence is missed. Sukie keeps looking for her like she did when Chang died. The other cats are trying but they just aren’t my baby girl Precious. She was a cute cat and 100% unconditional love. So here I honor and praise what she gave us. I love you Precious. I am sorry I could not fix the problem. Please forgive me. Thank you for all the love and joy you gave us and for just being you. Rest in Peace my little one. We miss your presence though I know you are wondering around here wanting me to pick you up. It’s a new relationship and eventually you will find you must go someplace else. You will always be welcome here though if you want to drop in from time to time.

Who am I today?

September 6, 2010
Who am I today?

Not much has changed since last year as far as who I am and yet in some ways I change every day. Many people I know spent the high school years partying with alcohol and maybe some pot and having sex. For many the way to have fun is still to drink, smoke pot, pig out, and have sex. They are the same now as in high school. It seems a lot of them sadly have drank themselves into early graves.

The ones that went to college probably did the drinking and having sex too in greater degree. What the ones who didn’t go to college don’t know is that what they did in high school is pale compared to what the rest of us did in college. We all went through some sort of rights of passage just at different stages. We sowed our wild oats too.

Others had fun in other ways in high school – skipping class, doing somewhat stupid things, rebelling against authority in some way from breaking simple rules to breaking the law. The fun was in taking the risk, doing something daring. It was another expression of self-hood, another right of passage.

Unfortunately some of those who always followed the rules and always did what their parents told them may have passed away already at young ages. They never broke free of the invisible limitations that they grew up with. They never discovered their true self and lived. They died of broken hearts.

Some had inner peace when they were children and just seemed to be born knowing how to be happy. Those are the ones at the high school reunions that look like they are 18 while the rest of us look our age. They just always knew something that the rest of us have spent our adult lives trying to figure out.

And then others did the party thing for a while but have returned to their conservative upbringings – not drinking or doing drugs, not fooling around, and going to a church that fits their lives now whether it was the childhood church or perhaps they have ventured out so far as to change religions even though they approach them the same way their parents did the old church.

Who is Katherine Wheelus Dannels then? Well, I had my wild times when I was in college. I continued after college living the single life and ventured out across country to Sarasota, FL. I did my drinking at OU and some the first few years in Florida but gradually decided that I didn’t need alcohol to have fun. Even wine gives me an instant stomachache and sends me to the bathroom.

I explored many spiritual thoughts and ideas. I was a probation counselor for teens for a few years and then decided to go back to school to get a Master’s degree. Then I met my now husband and when I moved to Georgia, he followed. A few months later we married – almost 31 years ago.

There have been many divorces and remarrying in my high school class. There have been many very successful classmates. Many are busy with full lives and don’t communicate with the rest of the class. Others have stayed married but there have been infidelities and almost divorces. Others of us have struggled financially. We have all had our challenges.

NONE of the past shenanigans matters in the greater picture of life. The person I was in high school was very critical and judgmental. Many classmates know how my mom could be and I came by it naturally. But many others know the gentle loving man my father was. He had simple tastes and interests but his general philosophy was to live his own life and not look for negatives about others. If he made a comment about someone that seemed critical it was more of an observation, just a comment and not being mean. You could disagree with him and he wouldn’t get offended. He didn’t try to force others to have the same opinion as him.

My philosophy is to find the good in every situation. If it is challenging I see what I can learn from it. I believe where thought goes energy flows and that all thought is creative. I work on my thoughts all the time especially when my husband is being a typical Gemini. I enjoy walking in nature for fun and talking with one or two friends. I like to be around other like-minded people that want to enjoy life. I also like to be alone and quiet – a lot! I tend to shy away from people that complain, find things to criticize, and want to project their beliefs on the world. Now I am not immune to getting on my soapbox about certain things. I think life is to be enjoyed and that what we eat and think contributes to the way life is. Eating a standard American diet shortens life and ends up making a person dependent on medicines just to live, much less live happily.

If we are bitching all the time, we are putting energy into the things we are complaining about. I’d rather create beauty. I don’t do well with people who have nothing to do but hate and find fault, complain, and gossip. A wise young mother of ten said, “Have ten kids and you won’t have time to gossip.” I didn’t have to have that many children to find life is too short to waste it putting others down and judging them when I don’t know anything about their lives, or even if I do. Who am I to proclaim I KNOW how they should live their lives. I also know and believe that if there is something about someone else that is “pushing my buttons” I am projecting my own issues out and I need to go look in the mirror.

Whatever works for another person is all that matters. We are all doing the best we can to make it in the world. Life is beautiful one step at a time.

Random thoughts for Aug 31, 2010

It is the end of August and in a way, the end of the summer. It has been one of ups and downs, rain and very hot weather. There have been joys - seeing and spending time with my oldest son last week and my daughter the end of June. We built a natural swimming pool/pond and did very well. Then the hot weather hit and there wasn't much landscaping going on. We took some time off to visit my mother-in-law for her birthday and my father-in-law's birthday, Aug 20 and Aug 18 - 2 Leos that like to be the center of attention even at 80 and 82. It's no wonder they divorced 37 years ago.

Kansas provided nature at its finest with swarms of thousands of dragon flies, butterflies of all colors, grasshoppers flying in your mouth, praying mantises in abundance, cicadas keeping you awake on the warm nights, gold finches, night hawks, and blackbirds, and a parent coyote giving the pups a singing lesson on full moon night. Sunsets were varied and beautiful as usual. We tried to stay up many nights in a row to see the full moon next to Mars - no Venus - no Saturn - no the last official claim was Jupiter. I lost track of which one it actually was. On Thursday night it was supposed to be the biggest. I stayed up. It got to a certain point in the sky and then they started moving across the sky in the same position - it never got close. Then someone said the idea that it was going to be as big as the moon was an Internet hoax. On the other side of the sky Mars, Venus, and Saturn were almost lined up and bigger than Jupiter. But the night sky was full of stars and clarity. We saw something move across the sky several nights in a row that kind of bounced around with one big white light. We have noticed this before in Kansas. It doesn't move like an airplanes and they moved across the sky in opposite directions as the strange light. The airplanes usually have 3 lights, a red, a green and one white - not as big as the bouncy thing. We always end up wondering if our eyes are playing tricks on us when it starts bouncing around.

It was good (sort of) to see the family. The dynamics were the same BS and several people make no effort the have a better idea. In the midst of all of that, as I was able to get online, I found out that a high school classmate had passed away suddenly. He regularly posted on the class website funny stories and was in his own way quite a writer. (See previous post.) Before my trip I learned that my favorite published writer, Ted Andrews had passed away last October. I was very sad at the news of both of these men about my age.

I found myself screaming inside "Life is too short and can end without a warning for all of this childish petty bickering. Yes, all the drama gives you something interesting and different to listen to but find some joy to focus on and some love - if nothing else the beauty of the land!" But it isn't my place to judge or to tell others how to live their lives. I found myself increasingly hiding away in our little vacation like house and riding alone on the red 4-wheeler to the farm. It was fun except when that white pick-up truck would come flying down the dirt road and I would eat limestone gravel dust for five minutes. One day I put on sunblock before I took off for my ride - I had arms that looked like they had a coat of concrete on them after the dust from the trucks.

I am back in Georgia now. My 14 plus year old cat, Autumn just came by for a little holding - she doesn't like holding very often - and her kisses on the top of her head. She gave me some smiles and licked my hand and now she is washing me off of her. But that is Autumn. Zeus and Oden are more affectionate than usual and Precious is her usual hug me self. The dog is still mad at me and not eating yet. She does this for a few days when I leave her - though Buzz stayed here and she wasn't alone. She just has such a good pout when I displease her. When the act doesn't get anywhere she eats all of her food as long as no one is looking.

So life goes on. I choose to see the beauty and enjoy it. I want to make some changes and my husband and I want to produce income in more consistent ways. There are things we want to do and places we want to go. I look at it this way. If life as we know it is going to end in 2012, then let's live it up. Who knows what kind of life we will end up in next time? I choose to believe in moving forward to a new and better idea - right now right this minute. It is all good and all God. There is only One Power and I choose to use it for happiness. Katherine Ari

To honor Paul Lewis and thoughts about God

August 26, 2010
Yesterday, August 25, 2010 I turned to my high school class website. I am on a vacation this week in a tiny rural Kansas town where there isn’t much to do except, thanks to my brother-in-law, I can get on the Internet or just fight chigger bites. I had commented on a couple of subjects posted by some former classmates that carry on about local Hugo, Oklahoma stuff and so I went back to see if they had answered me. I scrolled down to see what posts followed my last story to find that two hours earlier one of the most regular posters, Paul Lewis, had died. The day before he was posting pictures and planning the next Hugo ’69 supper club meeting as usual.
I was shocked and saddened and frankly in disbelief. “This can’t be,” I thought as my mind tried to wrap itself around such a sudden announcement.
I didn’t know Paul really in high school. I knew who he was but I doubt if I ever had a conversation with him other than a hello here and there. The class had other reunions but for reasons unknown to me I never knew about them until last year in 2009 when someone found me online. The other classmates say Paul was a big help at the gatherings.
I got to know him on the site. He was really wise and funny. I wrote him that he should get his stories and jokes published. Some were not his own but it didn’t matter. They seemed to come from him. I know I frequently go to the site and I always look to his profile for new posting or at the least look at the profile list to see who has last posted. If Paul had a recent entry I was excited and eagerly went to his to read his latest.
The Message forum regularly had postings by him and Larry Lee and a few others who obviously are good friends, the men holding down the home front, the ones who stayed and kept Hugo their place for their adult lives. Their funny stories and conversations kept all of the Class of 1969 connected. Here is what was going on in Hugo. I felt connected and was a fan of Paul’s humor. He really didn’t know me but I felt I knew him.
He loved his grandchildren and children in general. I can’t imagine going to our website and not reading posts from Paul. It will not be the same. And I know that his close friends are totally at a loss for words. To lose a good friend is not one you prepare yourself for. I have said before death is the pits. It is the one thing that medical science has not figured out a pill to take to make it go away. My son says “death” is the pill itself, the way to experience grief and get through it. There is no easy way and everyone experiences it in their own way. There is no prescription, nothing but time itself to make it better and no matter how much others try to decide how much time we need they can’t. No one knows but me how much and how long it takes to grieve when someone I care about passes away.
And I do feel sad about Paul Lewis. I know his beliefs and mine did not necessarily match much or our lifestyles. Our religious beliefs differed. But as a writer myself I don’t have to sit down and talk in person to know the inner person when I read his writings, his stories, and his anecdotes. He told us a lot about himself on the class site. He shared a lot of love and I am grateful to have known him and his love for his family and friends through his words, his funny stories and jokes. I felt I knew him and that was okay.

We will all miss him and I send my love and prayers to him family and friends.
Page 2
As others have posted on the class site and I am sure more will comment, there are comments about his love of God and that he is now in a better place. I began to think about what I would want said about me if I were to transition to another dimension.
My spiritual beliefs are not traditional and I find myself wanting people with traditional beliefs to understand me. I believe that what works for one person may not work for the next but that there are truths that when the dogma and interpretations are removed, are the same for anyone.
I do not believe in a man God out there in the clouds. I believe that “God” is a Universal force that is responsible for everything in creation. We can agree on that. God is responsible for everything and is everywhere present all the time. I believe that Jesus found a way to completely connect with the Divine power all the time and his teachings say that we can do the same. He was one of us and not separate from us or above us. He promised we could do the same things as him and even greater things than He did.
I believe that this God force is impersonal. It can be used for good or bad but it is all God. There is only Power in the universe and we can use it for good as I think we should or we can use it for things that will hurt others. Do I love God? God is Love. I know love and I know that God is in me all of the time and that I choose to use the God in me to love, always love.
Going to a better place is the idea of heaven after we die. I don’t believe I have to die to get to that better place. I believe heaven is what I create in my life while I am alive. It is joy, peace, fun and enjoying life. I see beauty and love and peace of mind. I want to create these things and that is what I choose to see. It isn’t that I look at life though rose colored glasses and never see the dark side of life. I just choose to find the good in everyone and every situation. I believe the more I focus on joy, on good health, on happiness, on beauty, the more I experience a good place now.
And when I die or pass on, well I believe that the body dies but the Soul which is the part most connected to the Universal Power does not die, can not die, and like God is infinite. I don’t know where God will take me next. I hope if there is karma that by living a life of love that where I go next is a beautiful place but I don’t know. I haven’t gone there yet. All I really can control is how I experience the life I have right now. I choose to believe there are solutions to conflicts. I choose to see love and wonder and growth. I choose my thoughts and my actions. There is a fertile field that is my mind and it is constantly in a state of being ready for a new crop of productive thoughts. I decided some time ago to make every effort I can to control what is planted in the fertile field.
I am grateful to have known a man named Paul Lewis. He made me laugh and feel good. He contributed to my growth and some healing as I soaked up a new and better idea about being from Hugo, Oklahoma and the Class of 1969. I believe he shared his stories unconditionally and that was pretty cool. He felt comfortable telling them and didn’t fear that someone would not accept him. That pretty well says a man who had come to accept himself. It is an example we all can follow and a direction we can strive to accomplish in each of our lives. I am blessed by getting to know him through his writings.

Updates and On my Mind

Greetings readers and friends-
I have been absent from the blog for a while doing other soul searching and making some lifestyle changes. I have some great ideas for something new and have been concentrating my energies on finding funding for the project. It will take between $30,000 and $50,000 to shoot a pilot for an interactive virtual exercise program. My ideal is to contract with Sony-Play Station to make it and it will work on any kind of home exercise equipment, but I have to jump thru some hoops of fire, cross my "t's" and dot my "i's" and find them to do all of that in order to get this idea benefiting many people and many programs. I find out about many different programs that are benefiting certain charities and once I get the idea going, it will benefit a non-profit organization - that of the National Parks System - but I have to manifest the program.

Part of this idea would be very valuable for the effort to stop obesity in children. I know that the school systems are responsible for a large part of a child's day, but the real place that diet and exercise start is AT HOME. Parents must take responsibility to change their own diets and exercise habits and not depend on the schools to take care of the obesity problem. BUT it doesn't have to be gym type exercise that only 12% of society uses. It is a big task but all of society will benefit if we ALL start eating better, stop eating junk food, and start growing healthier children. It is also true that when we adults eat cleaner whole foods that we think more clearly and feel younger, look healthier, and make better decisions. It all works together.

I would like to find supporters - both financial and moral for these ideas. Good diet an exercise starts at home and I have some ideas of how parents can do more at home. I am also looking for contacts with Sony - Play Station, with Michelle Obama, with some of these successful business men and corporations that look for philanthropic causes. I have a good idea and want to find a way to present it without worrying that someone will steal the idea from me. If you have some connections or ideas, please let me here from you.

Hey Readers, Listen UP!

Message to my readers:

On my blog I have a way to check my readers/hits. Many days the numbers are low but sometimes, I have had readers but I never hear from you. If you want to comment – or just say hello – just comment and add that you don’t want your comment published. I would like to hear from you and every comment is forwarded to my email for approval before it appears on the blog. If there is a subject on your mind, even if it is not something I have covered before, just ask. I love to open discussions about things important in our lives. Thanks for dropping in to my “Aha!” moments. Katherine Ari

You Are What You Eat

You are What you Eat by Katherine Ari, February 6, 2010

Have you ever heard the expression, “You are what you Eat”? Have you given that much thought? I am here to stand on my soapbox to tell you that it is time you do think about it. What we eat goes into our body to make it function. If we eat food that is really not food at all, your intelligent body and mind does not know what to do with non-food. We would like to think that it just goes on through in body waste – but that is not the case. What happens is that is goes into fat cells. Considering we are becoming known as the nation of obesity, there are way too many of us that have been eating things our body does not know what to do with.

Some of you may say, “I’m not fat.” First of all, you don’t have to be overweight to have too much excess body fat. I have met many a person that appears lean that has other health problems. Another response is I don’t have any particular health problems but it will catch up with you. But even beyond the promise that bad eating and drinking will eventually catch up on your body, is that the bad food (and drink) choices do influence your life now. When you eat a clean diet, you think more clearly, you feel more alive, and it is a lot easier to tune in or hear what you inner higher power tells you is the right decision for anything in your life. You are more stable emotionally and think clearly.

I have studied many diets. I have tried many. I lost weight. But the weight returned eventually. The right way to eat is not just about losing weight. You ARE what you eat. If you want to be a whole healthy vibrant and energetic person, then you should eat whole, healthy, vibrant and energetic food. White sugar, white flour, white processed rice, chips loaded with fat and other processed or artificial ingredients, anything that is so far removed from the original grain or fruit or vegetable, food loaded with preservatives, foods with things on the ingredient list that you can pronounce much less know what they are, fats that are not naturally occurring, and the list goes on and on are NOT whole foods. They are sold to get you hooked and addicted to eat more and spend more and more money on them. Then add the foods laden with hormones, drugs, artificial colors, and fake whatever like BHA and GMO laced with pesticides and other unnecessary things. These things are not things the human body’s computer – the brain - knows how to digest. They go to fat and in other parts of the body throwing it out of balance.

Every pimple, every skin problem, every health problem – EVERY HEALTH PROBLEM can be traced back to prolonged bad diet. For a very, very long time the medical community denied that food had anything to do with medical problems. But food has everything to do with health issues – EVERYTHING! To get healthy is a permanent lifestyle change. You can’t eat clean for a few weeks or months and then go back to eating junk food and heavy sugar products. I know I can’t go back to eating sugar ever. It is an addiction like alcohol for the alcoholic. It will literally kill me. Non-food indulgence will undue in one meal everything I have accomplished and my progress for months. The more of us that refuse to eat junk food, the sooner the food industry will have to change what they sell, what they grow, and what they make their money on. You are what you eat and I can help you make the change you need to make.