TRADITION.... Our Formative Times

Today is the day in the US, where most people turn their attention to the television and the last football game of this season.  This is Superbowl 44, which means that I was 5 when the first one was on TV.  I wasn't aware of the game until much later, when a very good friend's family had a birthday party for her for her 18th, which was actually in mid January.  So why is there a difference of three weeks now?  Commercialism. 

The reality is that there are many companies and people who have benefitted from the times that we innocently went to these games and halftime shows which were much MORE about sheer entertainment than they are today. 

Maybe I'm guilty as well.  I've tried to 'capitalize' on the amazing cooking that I'm the very fortunate recipient of here in Grand Junction; it's not every day someone like Pablo Blanco comes along in a community like this.  The food WAS and IS excellent as always, and it's been really neat to record it and hope that in the future I'll be able to string together people who like to eat, cook and be merry .. and healthier because we'll learn from each other. And since Pablo doesn't do anything unless there's something in it for him, he'll get a clean kitchen, courtesy of me.  Ironically, a few years ago I wouldn't have been able to clean the floors of his large kitchen and great room and now I look at it as a workout for keeping me in shape. 

As I watched the commercials, they are not what they used to be, which was 'innovative' and 'inspiring' and they 'changed our paradigm'.  It seems the bar just keeps getting higher and higher and harder and harder and something 'simple and basic' might have been what got 'attention'. I'll never forget the response that the famous Apple computer advertisement had in the early/mid 1980's ... it got everyone's attention because with all the noise of the game and other advertisements, theirs was haltingly silent and everywhere, people reported the next day -- they stopped and paid attention.  Today, from my observations, people are overwhelmed with the vast amount of information available to them, particularly through the Internet, and I want people... people ... to grasp onto the rope of progressive, valid, streamlined and FUN information and benefit from better health more simplistically. 

For me, it wasn't a really 'easy' weekend.  Saturday was basically a workday.  And today is not only my brother in law's birthday, but would be the 85th of my mother.  She died at age 62 due to fifty years of smoking and alcoholism which, per her best friend and sorority sister, began in college.  We talked about that for the first time when she came to sit with us the day after mom died.  Suffice it to say that I appreciate all the aspects that my mom shared with me which have contributed to what I am and have today.  Today at Pablo Blancos there is compost for the garden and I like to think about weaving in those concepts, which are integral to health care in an 'integrative medicine' perspective.  The naturopaths on the team bring that to the table every time they talk about food.  Soils -- and as Deirdre Rawlings, ND said to me last night when we talked via Skype: "Food is very intimate -- we put it into our bodies and it literally becomes part of us."  I look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with her, as she is to me, the 'one stop shoppin' and 'best bang for your buck' that I've ever seen related to health care.  Her breadth of knowledge incorporates psychology, the depth of her knowledge particularly about nutrition is stunning and comensurate with what I've learned from Christopher Lepisto, ND -- my naturopath here in Grand Junction and HERE on Lumigrate for YOU to download videos and learn from.  Deirdre has new developments related to working with people via the Internet and it's really exciting to see how we had the same general idea and now can collaborate and be synergitic for you who want information through the internet.

I look forward to branching out now and accessing leaders in the field of integrative medicine beyond my 'back yard', which is still the greatest place on Earth (from my perspective) and bring solutions, i.e. 'information and knowledge', to people like my mother and my family, which has much tragedy going on unnecessarily. Everyone around someone who has a chronic condition, whether it is pain or alcoholism and all the others, ends up with their lives affected.  Their work situations become involved as well, and there is a huge toll financially to companies.

Today it was FUN work to record Pablo and his gumbo, while at the same time I am thinking how much work there is ahead this year to develop what we have pulling together to have it be productive for the people who are interested.  I know there are a LOT of experts who are now interested in contributing to Lumigrate and there promises to be a very "delicious gumbo of information" here at Lumigrate.com.  I'm looking forward to developing relationships, products and information which can be of enjoyment, relevance and benefit to those who might want to join in the 'gumbo', which today I learned from Pablo Blanco means 'amalgam' or 'enmeshing'.  Much easier and enjoyable to experience with the palate and a complete history lesson with someone who is a good teacher and has such history and ties to New Orleans, Louisiana State University, and the ground.  Pablo said that two things have taught him patience: cooking and fine furniture woodworking.  I think he's forgotten HIS roots a bit, and the animals and ground that he worked as a child.  THAT is what allows two people as different as he and I -- who get into as much conflict as we do within minutes of my entering the kitchen -- to survive to have a wonderful friendship now:  I grew up the same.  My 'mama', as Pablo would call her, got interested in my little garden and took it to a WHOLE other level when she was about my age now.  "Organic Gardening" was a pretty new concept in the 1970s, and that is one of the best things I shared with her outside the many lengthy conversations we had in the kitchen area which was her 'perch'.   

With that, I want to say that I had a nice time yesterday getting a 'prelude to a blog' from the folks at Bay Recovery related to a conference they were attending in San Antonio regarding pain, which I'm due to get more details and a full report on from him when he has some time soon.  Dr. Rand said he was focusing on medication and sleep, and in reviewing the Bay Recovery website and PDF/brochure I downloaded, I sense they have all KINDS of things that could only serve to help many who are not having the most appropriate pain management program currently.  So I look forward to Lumigrate bringing more of that information, as we're able to reach people who want and need the information. Hopefully they find our quiet little website and it catches their attention.

So for all those in pain, whether it be emotional or physical or those that have the wisdom to know those two things aren't inseperable --- stick by us as if you were wanting to sample brisket that was going to lead to you "'slappin' yo' mama'' and saying 'why didn't you cook like this for me?", per Pablo Blanco.  I know his 'mama' and she is the most lovely and strong a woman as there ever was.  He says 'she might not understand that', but on what would be MY mother's 85th birthday, and having spent some time with his 'mama' last Christmas when they were ALL here for a snowy, wonderful Colorado Christmas, I trust that most people will understand and I even think she'll understand it as well.  These expressions that come from another culture within my own country are really intriguing to me, just as the food is.  There is much more for us to learn in this "gumbo" about pain and life. 

Keep reading and writing here... there are some amazing people collecting.  This much I know.  ~~ Mardy

Link to Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD website: www.nutri-living.com

Link to Jerry Rand, MD's Bay Recovery Center and Medical Clinic: www.nutri-living.com

Link to Christopher Lepisto, ND's videos on Lumigrate.com (on Detox and Cleanse, Food Allergies and a free 20 minute Chronic Illness: Full Barrel Syndrome.  www.lumigrate.com/catalog/seminars