Health, house, home, hearth, happiness, hope, humor – and many more – positive words start with an “H”. Did you notice?
Why is that so?
The “H” is the exhaling sound: Hhhh … It means we can let go. We don’t have to hold our breath because something will hit us from behind. We don’t have to exert ourselves – we can let go. We are at home - at Hhhhome.
When I take a cold shower after a warm one, I exhale. That one doesn’t come naturally. Naturally, one would hold one’s breath while the cold hits. By first exhaling and then immersing in cold, I tell my body: It’s okay! Just relax! All will be fine!
I bet the Hhhhh sound was born when the first man (?woman) found the first cave to live in. He sat down on his pile of bear hides, looked around pleased and exhaled: Home – finally Hhhhome!
Observe how you are running through your day: With your breath held and in constant fear of a catastrophe hitting? Or in harmony – there! Another one! – with your surrounding? Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
World Oceans Day 2011
June 8, 2011
Water is the most precious stuff of life. We drink it, we bathe in it, we revere it.
This morning I had a shower, then drank a sencha tea and ate a bowl of congee with sauerkraut and grape leaves. None of my morning ritual would work without water.
In August we will return to our cabin in Maine. It is small, but it is at the ocean, and so important for our family – most of our renewal starts there, every summer.
What is important today, on World Ocean Day 2011: That you tell at least one youngster to work on saving the waters, the whales, the life of our old Earth.
You know the Gaia hypothesis, don’t you? According to the Gaia hypothesis, our old Earth, Gaia, is an organism of her own – and we are just some lice in her hair. Isn’t that exactly the impression she gives us presently? She is shaking herself to get rid of the vermin on her surface by sending tsunamis, fires, tornados, earthquakes, torrential rains, floods, and plagues.
Regardless, if the Gaia hypothesis is right or wrong – it helps me to see my task better: To protect our old Earth as much as I can. Because she is the only home we have. Read More
E. coli And Other Food-Borne Dangers
June 7, 2011
My brother in Hamburg/Germany was one of the people who acquired the sickening E. coli bug EHEC that can induce the feared Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome (HUS). Fine now, except for some prolonged weakness, he was spared kidney failure and neurological consequences that are not rare.
Germany is far away – but don’t think that we here could not experience a similar outbreak. Truth is that many U.S citizens come down with food-borne illnesses all the time: The number is estimated at several millions per year, and it is thought that they cause about 5000 deaths every year. The death toll in Germany stands at 22 (I avoid the word “only”) – let’s hope it stays there.
Interestingly, the germs that are spoiling fresh produce now have likely originated in our modern ways of animal husbandry: Huge feed lots, mass slaughtering, antibiotic over-treatment might all have led to this outbreak.
What can we do to avoid food-borne disease?
1. Eat less meat – once or twice a week is enough. Avoid deli. Insist on naturally raised animals.
2. Consider growing your own lettuce – which can be done in a pot on a balcony.
3. Do not use raw milk (and if you ask me, avoid all dairy anyway!)
4. Throw out everything from fridge and pantry that is beyond the expiration date and/or looks suspicious. (If you are at it, you can also throw away unhealthy stuff – like sugary, starchy, calorie-laden things!).
5. Throw bulging cans away.
6. Don’t keep foods that are known to spoil easily, like mayonnaise, longer than a day.
7. Wash your hands after each bathroom visit and before you handle food. And wash them again, after you have discarded the peel or rind, or have touched poultry, meat and fish.
8. Wash everything washable with detergent, then rinse thoroughly.
9. In unclear situations stick to fruit and vegetables that can be peeled.
10. Filter your water – a filter can keep out microbes.
11. Cook meat and fish well. A good sushi place can probably be trusted.
12. And if you think you ate something bad: Induce vomiting (but surely not as a habit!!), and/or take some GSE for a few days (16 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract three times a day in water diluted. Never take it undiluted – it is sort of caustic!).
Avoiding contact and contamination is one side of the equation. Keeping your immune system strong, is the other side: End every warm shower with a cold one (see earlier blogs for contra-indications!), get enough sleep before midnight, make sure you are safe but don’t give over to excessive worry, stay in shape by walking every day, and eating more vegetables … cooked! Read More