We are Family

[curt]

We don't need another / a new discussion to prove it.

It is as it is.

Let this "fred" (discussion thread) live under the theme .......

long live this family

brothers, sisters, brethern, dogs, cats and birds, ants and flees, water and air and gas and Clare and Jim and him and the window Simm (??) and you and me and he and she and we and them and us and puss (???) and fish and the dish (it's on) and paper and pen.

Yip.

[Mark]

Fifty-two is a landmark, Cal--congratulations on as many years as there are weeks in a year and cards in a deck. I'm not sure what it all means, but it must be significant.

Resting and spring cleaning are way that I would celebrate, but I'd also try to find something special to eat. Yup, meds cause complications. I hope you find time to do some serious googling and see if you can find some helpful herbs. I have a friend with serious health problems who sticks to natural cures. They don't always work, but they've never made things worse or had any deleterious side effects. It takes a great deal of endurance and patience, but the price of quick results is often long term misery.

My upstairs neighbor, on the other hand, also has serious health problems, but goes to the doctor and takes pills for every symptom. Yet the first time my neighbor reported any spectacular improvements was a few days ago, a week after going on a vegan diet. I wasn't able to stick to the diet myself, but I got some potassium supplements this morning and I'm trying it again. I don't eat enough bananas because they're not locally grown and I don't want to buy from companies that use death squads, like Dole and Chiquita.

[Mouse]

It is easy to get Fair Trade bananas here.

I've been missing interest in my diet lately, and little appetite anyway. Trouble getting to the shops meant I didn't manage it last week, except for bird food.
And I've had a bad cold and tore a muscle in my back on Wednesday, had a row with the doctor to get her to visit me at home.
How did I tear the muscle? It seemed to tear itself.
I had felt suddenly buoyant after crying in the morning, (though I wasn't depressed, it's just part of the job these days) and thought I could really do it this time, use the recorder, send words out that way, and began to find a way to the mike stand, to free it from the impenetrable accumulation of concrete thought and even made it up the stairs with fabrics to file and enjoyed for a few minutes the feeling that I could do this work and make all these things after all. And I cleared the top of the walnut dressing table that was my Auntie Terry's, she of the adventurous mind, and the pain arrived and placed it's hand on my back, like a brother.

Tomorrow my daughter will bring me supplies. And there has been enough tea and coffee, sugar just running out. I've lived here 20 years and cannot ask any neighbour. Even one who had been kind not so far away is now off the helpful person list. She is one of very many who find my attitude towards their Apocalypse impertinent, after all I am going to burn in hell for all eternity she thinks. Ha. Ridiculous. I'm bound out into the wide blue yonder.

I always get myself a birthday present in advance, and wrap it properly, just to be on the safe side, and have often appreciated this considerate approach.

[curt]

Good is cast upon you, LOM, Cal, Mouse, Mark, Pan, Bo & all the others, each and every one of you. Don't ward it off. Instead, accept it as a gift.

A real breakthrough today, after hours of increased pressure and pain. For the first time since I was a wee wee lad, I can breathe freely through this pointer in the middle of my face. Oxygen, oh sweet oxygen... I had forgotten how good it tastes.

The only true Church is the Forest. All is one and one is all. Tomorrow, I go to my Church, to smell the scent of love and truth for the first time as an adult and for the first time on this continent. This is intense. Good be with you all. Cry, for tears are good for your dry eyes. Mine too.

[pan]

[littleoldme]

Mouse, how truly disappointed your neighbor will be when she finds there is no hell for you to burn in. It amazes me how the uncharitable believe themselves worthy of any place even resembling a "heaven".
It's good to get your own, that way you're sure to get exactly what you want, lol.

[pan]

Turned 52 in April.- the Spring over here.

Are thoughts are with you , hoping they balance the meds and the meds have the desireable effect.

[littleoldme]

Happy belated.
Dealt with the haywire hormones during menocraze,
so I can sympathize on that part.
Have a nice rest on your leave.

[pan]

A friend terms it "mental pause".

[Cal]

OMG ... is what I have been through the last month what menopause is all about? How long does it last? If I have to live through much more of it I think I will have to be institutionalized.

[Mark]

No, Cal. Plenty of females go through menopause without any symptoms at all, the same way that many never experience PMS.

For some reason, at menopause the body may stop giving the normal signs of a full bladder, and instead registers only a slight increase in body temperature. If this is noticed and quickly reacted to, it disappears, but if it isn't noticed and urination is delayed due to the absence of the usual signs, it turns into a hot flash.

Our feelings are as much a part of us as our arms and legs. Diagnosing human feelings as illness began with that fraud Freud and is a form of sexism designed to perpetuate patriarchy.

The reason we feel bad is because we feel bad. The reason we feel good is because we feel good. If my best friend dies or my house burns down and I feel good or feel nothing at all, THEN I have a mental problem. Otherwise I'm just feeling bad because my best friend died or my house burned down, and that's perfectly normal.

Bernays followed the Fraudster and was succeeded by Seligman, who "discovered" the torture technique for breaking people's spirits called "learned helplessness," AND another torture technique called "positive psychology." It is inhumane to expect animals or people to continue struggling when they are held captive and punished for struggling, and equally inhumane to expect animals or people to be happy all the time no matter what their circumstances or level of awareness may be.

Anyone who diagnoses normal human responses to reality as illness, places an additional burden on those who are already suffering. Now, not only am I suffering, but I should not be suffering and I am to blame somehow for my own suffering. Bullpuckey!

Traumas have to be worked through, endocrinal disturbances can sometimes be helped with herbal or dietary changes, and physical pain is not mental illness.

I love you, Cal, I admire your strong spirit, your passion for truth, and the way that you don't let your intellect diminish your compassion for others. Rough times are rough times and as we get older we lose our resilience the way that an old Spalding ball loses its bounce. All we can do is try to remember that in a lifetime of bounces, what goes down must come up again. Maybe not as quickly, but you can't judge a movie by a freeze-frame.

[curt]

I aint never seen a minnow pause. They sure cute lil fish, just like biggins but only small. Make that tiny.

Oh, the forkerz ne'er walk alone. Nope.

[littleoldme]

Oh heavens no, you still have the night sweats to look forward to, that's where you're cooking from the inside out. And some little old lady follows you around and hides your stuff like your keys purse etc and thats just some of the high lights lol mark may I say bullshit you haven't been there I have.