Esmin Green & Edith Isabel Rodriguez both died on hospital floors almost a year to the day, Rodriguez 6/13/2007 and Green 06/19/2008.

Another death of a woman has occured, and renewed calls for health care reform are rising even higher.  But, in these cases its not the reformation of the health care system but, of the human  heart and mind that should be reformed.  We certainly could slant these stories to show that this is a lack of respect for women, or the continued expression of racial discrimination or an American backlash against immigrants coming to the U.S., yet truly this may not be the case.  It’s more of a case of the lack of humanity, a hardening of the heart, a turning away from the compassionate heart and the love of Self ,the God within.  Where is the love?  Are we living in a world devoid of love for ourselves?  You may wonder what loving ourselves has to do with the treatment of others.

Self love, not selfish love but, love of one’s self, is the beginning of true love.   We live in a world that loves the Lord, loves God, has deep love and reverence for Allah, loves life, and all too often many people don’t love themselves.  How can you love another, a Spirit without loving yourself?  I know of no God or Goddess that requires you to love them and  allows for you to turn your back on yourself. The God that allows for the love of it and not require you to love you, is a false God, a God of the human imagination,a an expression of the human ego.  Would not this God require for you what it requires for itself?  Self love opens the gate of light that allows the true self to see The Most High in one’s self, to see The Most High in all things. This Most High God/Goddess knows that when you love yourself you are loving and reverencing the The Most High in yourself and, that God is living in every man, woman and child and creature on this planet and you could no less love that God and not love yourself and you fellow human relatives.

Because the people working at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York where Esmin Green lay dying on the floor.  And, where Edith Isabel Rodriguez perished on the floor at Martin Luther King Hospital’s ER in Los Angeles, California could not see the God in themselves, could not see the God in these women they, allowed them to die like animals on a slaughter house floor.  Because the people working at these facilities could not see themselves in these women as they lay dying, a little piece of them each died the moment their sisters died.

The coconut can save your life

Coconut water has the same properties as plasma, during WWII it was often used by the U.S. military for blood transfusions when marines and soldiers were injured.  Most recently, coconut oil has re-emerged as a source of health.  For many years “they” told us that coconut oil was high in fat and was bad for the body, yet  we find in fact coconut oil lowers the LDL (the bad one) cholesterol.  the lowering of cholesterol is a direct result of the ability of coconut oil to stimulate the thyroid gland function.  Coconut oil can be taken directly by mouth, you can cook with it as it can withstand heat up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit with out breaking down the essential elements that are healthful. 

Albert Schweitzer ran a clinic in Lambarene, Gabon West Africa and he sad that “it was many years before I saw a single case of cancer.”  He believed the appearance of cancer was caused by the introduction of the European diet to the Africans.  So what do you eat?  How do you eat?

There is a psychologist that appears on a local radio station here in Atlanta from time to time and he says the human mind looks for the negative in things and is set to quarrel naturally.  I have often objected to this theory.  But, lately I am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that he may be correct yet I am unable to totally accept his view.   There are many people that live on this level of life, the fear level, I suppose so many that he can draw his conclusion.  I sadly, am beginning to believe he may be right.  I don’t want to believe this, but it may certainly be true.  I have shared good news with family and friends and it seems that they would prefer I share some negativity or pain, which I try to avoid putting into the ethers, to be in misery, a lifestyle I refuse to accept.  Misery!  Unfortunately most people are living in fear and that fear is expressed in many ways, anger, sadness, greed, sorrow and misery…you name it.  And, yet they want you to wallow in their sadness and sorrow, misery loves company I guess.   But, why would people choose to live their lives on the negative?

I found this gem on our sister’s blogsite Hagar’s Dauhgter, written by one of the most insightful commenters in the blogshpere, Khadija.  In her post Khadija gives some well needed lessons, no let me be more correct, she gives well needed wisdom that we all should heed. 

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Hard-Earned Insight #1: “I don’t know” really means that I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s not good to assume that not knowing is simply the entry point to getting bad news. Only God has perfect knowledge of what’s going to happen. Projecting 100% certainty of the worst outcome is infringing on God’s space. We cause ourselves unnecessary misery by presuming to know more than we do.

Hard-Earned Insight #2: Even if one does know 99% of what’s going to happen, that unknown 1% can make all the difference in the world.

Hard-Earned Insight #3: It’s not just poverty or lack of access that keeps people from medical care. Sometimes people don’t go to the doctor until it’s undeniably necessary because they feel certain, and are afraid, of what they might find out.

Last Wednesday, I was scheduled for a follow-up mammogram and ultrasound. I’ve had follow-up, diagnostic mammograms a couple of times before over the years. Alhamdulilah [Praise God], I’ve been okay so far. Alhamdulilah, the doctors said I’m okay now. I’ve been terrified each time I’ve had to go for a follow-up appointment. Here’s why: Two dead grandmothers. Two dead grandfathers. Two dead aunts. One dead cousin. All dead from cancer. They are the reason why I was assertive with my HMO and insisted on having yearly mammograms when I was 28 (which is many years younger than the recommended age).

My father survived a bout with prostrate cancer. Despite being a suave and grumpy old man who disobeyed the doctors’ post-surgery instructions. He refused to slow down his activities after surgery because he was in denial about being ill and needing rest. He’s still alive and kicking more than ten years later. My uncle [by marriage] survived a bout with prostrate cancer. Despite being a grumpy old man who procrastinated in scheduling his surgery. He was in denial that he had cancer. He’s still alive and kicking more than ten years later.

Then there’s the ongoing situation with one of my born-again colleagues from work. She discovered a lump in her breast. Instead of following the recommendations to have the lump surgically removed, she opted for prayer and herbs. I’ve seen this behavior before with other people. Somehow, they feel that it’s being disloyal to God to avail themselves of modern medical care in these sorts of crises. I’ve never understood it.

Why can’t people pray, use the herbs, AND modern care? It also sometimes seems that people want a spectacular, supernatural miracle from God. Instead of the “mundane,” everyday miracles produced by His Grace in allowing scientific discoveries. The colleague’s cancer has spread to her bones.

With my HMO, there’s typically a weeklong wait from being told to come in for a follow-up mammogram and the scheduled appointment. A week of dread and sheer terror. Even though intellectually I know better, I’ve always perceived not knowing as just the entry point to receiving bad news in this kind of situation. I watched most of my deceased relatives suffer. During this week of waiting, I traditionally engaged in escapist behaviors to crowd out my very vivid memories of their suffering. In the past, I’ve arranged a whirlwind of social and workaholic activities to make sure that I didn’t have a single free moment to think.

Not this time. What happens when these external mental crutches aren’t available? I had better learn some other coping skills. I decided to do my normal activities, and use this situation to engage in tazkiya [purification]. This was an unpleasant opportunity to practice disciplining my thoughts. Alternatively, as the Bible refers to it, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5. I also decided that this time I wasn’t going to mention the follow-up appointment to anyone until after it was finished. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a stoic person. I’m all for bringing loved ones to appointments for support, and have done so in the past. Just not this time. This one time, I had to work on my thoughts myself.

That’s how it came to be that I was sitting in the outer waiting room in the Mammography department at 9:00 that Wednesday. When I was 30, I had to come back for a follow-up appointment, and had a crying, sobbing, meltdown in that same waiting room. As I said, I’m not particularly brave. I scan the room. Many elderly women with blank expressions. A couple of younger women in their 20s. One of the younger women looks misty-eyed. I smile at her. I don’t know what else to do. Finally, I start staring at a page of the book I brought with me. I’m quickly called in to do the mammogram.

Once I return to the inner waiting room after the mammogram, a muttering, sputtering woman of indeterminate age arrives and plops herself down in the chair next to me. Wonderful. She’s doing a lot of “street lunatic” behaviors. Muttering under her breath. Groaning softly. She quietly gets up to stand in a corner of the room away from everyone else. She’s not quite disruptive enough to warrant calling security. She also didn’t follow instructions and had apparently taken off all of her clothes. I know this because she’s wearing only one gown that she leaves wide open in the back so everyone can see her cheeks. How not lovely. An elderly woman sweetly reminds her to put on the second gown to cover up. I scan the inner waiting room. All the other women are elderly, except for me and the nut. One of the elderly women has an oxygen tank. Great. That means that it’s on me to intervene if the nut does something menacing to one of the elders. I take off my glasses just in case. Just great. Even crazy people need medical care.

I spend the next 4 hours waiting to do the ultrasound. I pray, watch the nut out of the corner of my eyes, intermittently watch television, and stare at the book I brought. While sitting there I learn that a Black couple, Jesse and Angie, are back on All My Children after over 20 years. I haven’t watched a soap opera since college. Thankfully, the nut is one the first women called to leave for her procedures after about 2 hours. I had decided that I couldn’t leave the elders alone with the nut. If I were called for my ultrasound before the nut, I would have to bring her to the attention of security.

Throughout the week, it’s been a constant battle to silence my internal chatter of fearful thoughts. It’s hard to disrupt what I call the spin cycle of negative thinking. To varying degrees, we’ve all experienced this at one time or another:

I’ve found that the earlier I can disrupt this spin cycle, the better I feel. Refusing to project a negative outcome feels better than distracting myself from brooding about the projected negative outcome. It’s been difficult, but the idea has started to sink in that “I don’t know” really means I don’t know. Uncertainty means that the outcome could be positive as well as negative.

If there’s something that you haven’t attended to, call today to make an appointment to see your doctor. Don’t delay. I know that it’s upsetting, but it has to be done. Lay down the burdens of denial and negative assumptions. Everyone should pay at least as much attention to their health as they do to maintaining their cars.

Again, I’m not all that brave. After getting the good news, I could barely keep myself from literally doing a wind sprint out of the hospital. I wanted to get as far away from that place as fast as possible. As it was, I walked very briskly out of there; and I was jogging toward my car by the time I got to the parking lot.

Since Tai Chi Chuan is becoming ever more popular in the U.S. many of the teachings and much of the  information surrounding Tai Chi is concentrated on the health aspects of the art to the exclusion of the martial applications.  Tai Chi Chuan is Supreme Ultimate “Force” or ”Fist” or ”Style of boxing” and was developed as a martial art at its inception, which brings me to the thought concerning exclusion and absolutes.

There is a teaching that says “From the unreal comes the real”  another discipline teaches that “Rain is real, how then can its cause be unreal.”  These teachings appear to be at odds with each other and in fact contradicting.  However, neither is incorrect, but both are correct.  Each lesson above is appropriate for a certain level of study.  As we continue to study, attaining more knowledge and wisdom we find, that which is substantial, can be at another time insubstantial.  For instance, what if you come in contact with a block of ice giving the appearance of being very substantial, so much so that you could actually pick it up and move it at your pleasure.  Yet, the block of ice is water moving on a slower vibration.  So you move it inside your garage forgetting about the heat and this same block of ice begins to move into a more subtle form that you later call water which you can no longer pick up and move at your will.

In so much as ice can become fluid water and fluid water can become ice, when practicing Tai Chi Chuan we should be just like the water in our study and play.  We should become like the water moving from fluid water to a block of ice back to fluid water as each situation presents itself.

I have been thinking of dreams lately.  I have been having consistent dreams, that are very clear and and very real.  Often I am left with a sense of foreboding, like something is about to occur.  Recently my mother has become ill and my father had to be hospitalized for a short stint, but he is recovering at home.  As for my mother , she has been in the hospital or a nursing  home for the past month.  During this period my dreams have intensified.  I have always been a dreamer and I have lived out many of them, so with these recent dreams I’ve been having causes me to wonder if I should be preparing for the possibility of a coming change.  Some cultures teach that the dream is real and we are weaving our future through our dreams.  I will prepare and listen to my dreams.  Do you see dreams as messages?  Have dreams affected your life after you awaken?

I got this post from my Sistah Goddess.  She makes some serious points about the food some of us eat, the prices, and just the simple fact that many “famines” are man made artificial ploys for continued control of the world.  One point that stands out the most for me, is her urging to plant your own garden, no matter how small, this is the season we should work our abilities to feed ourselves.  You can check Sistah Goddes by clicking on the sidebar, please check her out.

“To plant or not to plant is the question of a fool…”  Breeze, from the CD Word Sound ‘ave Power.

EEG image of brain waves

In Tai Chi Chuan there is a concept, that the body follows the mind.  In that, when one is playing Tai Chi the mind leads the body to the next posture.  You will picture the movement from one posture to the other, immediately your mind will send chemical messengers or hormones to the muscles and Chi will make the mental pictures of the mind manifest physically.

This is our daily movement in all that we do, yet most of these manifestations occur without conscious thought.  We think and speak our existence into manifestation minute by minute but, never give a thought that we are in fact creating our destiny.  This gives rise to the English word, mindful or to be full of mind.  So, what if we really thought about our intentions during the day?  Would this not give us more power over our daily tasks?  Could we not create much much more for ourselves?

There are many ancient text that teach us that life and death is in the power of the tongue.  Knowing this we should first think, examine, and weigh carefully before we speak since what we say is a seed planted that we will later reap the fruit.  Tai Chi teaches us patience and that each ending opens to a new beginning and that each step, posture, and breath is energetically connected.  This teaching conveys just how we are connected to one another, related.

Our minds are the key to our destiny, building and reshaping our future.  How can being mindful or full of mind help create your future?  With each and every day there comes new challenges and changes the direct and re-direct our future; create changes in our lives.  How can you create your own destiny?

 Avion flu virus H5N1 has killed another human.  You may say big deal, but this time it has been confirmed that it was transmitted from human to human.  All previous cases were transmitted from fowl to humans.  The World Health Organization  conducted serological testing on a family in Peshawar, Pakistan northwest of Islamabad where three brothers were diagnosed with H5N1 avian influenza.  Now, the twist is that only one of the three men worked with fowl, the other two didn’t.   Yet, all three were ill with the virus.  Two of the brothers have recovered from the illness, but one of the brothers died, and he didn’t work with birds.

This is where we have to become more vigilant in how we take care of our bodies.  We cannot become lax.  If you’re not paying attention now is the time to get on point.  I am not advocating fear, but warning those that don’t protect their bodies.  We are at war on many levels, and we can be sure there is a war on the cellular level.  It is our duty to protect ourselves and our families.  One of the many ways to protect our lives is to increase the strength of our immunes systems.  Our immune system is the front line of protection against foreign intruders to our bodies. 

So how do we strengthen our immune systems?  First, reduce your stress levels.  Next, we want to take in good fresh local (if possible) fruits and vegetables (organic if possible.) Increase your water intake and I’m not talking about tap water.  Avoid anti-nutrent foods, these foods actually use up your nutrient store to metabolize it.  Such foods (feed)  are white sugar, white rice, white bread, buscuits, soda, fast food and DAIRY.  Stay away for dairy.  Milk does a body bad!  Last, but not least, EXERCISE, get oxygen into the body remember oxygen is like fire that fuels the body.  

NONE CAN SAVE US BUT OURSELVES!

Veve of Papa Legba the Spirit of communication.

 What do I lose if I lose my ego?  I lose nothing!-Boukman Eksperyans

I Like to stay away from politics on this site, I created it for a separate plane of thought, however this post may fringe on the political.  As we gain overstanding we k(no)w-ledge that spirit is not separate from the physical, but intertwined for the uplift or the demise of the self.  Just as we take in proper foods on the physical level, taking not only the physical properties of the food but, also the essence of the lives contained in the living plants we consume.  This is the reason for eating live/raw, but I digress.  In all that we do physically do there is a spiritual blessing or consequence created by our own actions.  As an ancient Chinese proverb goes “from the unreal comes the real.”

So it is when we speak.  When we speak words out loud we activate movement on the spiritual realm.  I came to these thoughts as I have followed the words of Sen. Barak Obama over these last few months, and it has occurred to me that he is speaking into existence his own future.  This experience of campaigning has been and is very expensive spiritually for the Senator concerning what he is setting forth by his own words, and he is not hesitating to pay the expense.

Mathew 16:26 “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

 Senator Obama is questioned about his personal beliefs like no other candidate in this presidential race at this moment and probably in the future.  His is asked to denounce, condemn and repudiate statements that he has not made.  He is asked to do this about people that are considered icons in the Black community and he has done this with a happy countenance and without hesitation.  He has capitulated to the hidden desires behind these questions mostly by whites, by 1) denouncing the support of Min. Louis Farrakhan.  2) Denying any political kinship with his minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright and 3) Bowing down to a question by ABC”s Terry Moran during an interview on Good Morning America.  Moran asked Sen. Obama “if he is a Black man or an American“, Sen Obama responded “An American, absolutely.”  Was he denying his Blackness?  I was hoping that he would have repudiated, condemned and strongly denounced the question by Moran, but he didn’t.

Mathew 26:34 “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the cock crows you will deny me three times.”

In the spirit of the Apostle Peter denying Yeshua three times, Sen. Obama has, in essence made crucial denials three times concerning Black people by denouncing the support of Min. Farrakhan, the words of Rev. Wright and even omitting being Black, but is “An American, absolutely” in front of the whole world.  Sen. Obama has set in motion his spiritual karma by his own words.  Should he win the presidency of the United States, he will have created his own blessing (depending on your point of view) and possibly his own demise.  Maybe he doesn’t really realize the power of his words!