A year ago today, my best good buddy Choca died in my arms. Many of you were part of my community here at the time and remember it. It kicked off a year of loss: our dog, our unborn baby, my job. This is why I was convinced Sassy wouldn't make it to 2022. Choca was my hiking partner for many years, and because she never said anything, I came to enjoy silence rather than the adrenaline and distractions of my life off the mountains. I think my career in TV news eventually ended because of that - as the silence allowed me self-relfection, which brought self-awareness, and with it, awareness of the world around me. Choca's death was a violent one in the sense that natural death, I've heard, isn't always how movies depict it. This was the first time I'd ever been there for a last breath and for months after it, I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and had other unexplained health problems. This may seem an odd reaction, but as a child I accompanied my doctor parents to hospitals and witnessed sickness and dying at a very young age. Avoiding death, while trying to understand it, became a driving motivation for me. Perhaps it is, in part, why I went to seminary and eventually became a reporter. I sought distraction from my own mortality while also seeking to control it through knowledge. A losing combination. In the book he wrote about his wife's death, CS Lewis said, "No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid." That was my experience. And I had no choice but to sit through it. Then to confront it again and again throughout the rest of the year. But as I sat quietly, I realized something. I had believed that if I could unlock the secrets of death and finally come to peace with it- the ultimate question of existence that has eluded philosophers for centuries - I would finally come to know God. Instead, after last year, I now believe that I had gotten it backwards. Instead, it is coming to know God that brings one peace about death (and all other things for that matter). And thus begins a new journey, not of the head but of the heart. I'll end with another quote from a favorite Lewis book, the last lines of Til We Have Faces, “I ended my first book with the words 'no answer.' I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words. Long did I hate you, long did I fear you.” Blessings to all of you on your journey. Thank you for being a part of mine.
The CDC says lettuce from Taco Bell that originated in Mexico is linked to a parasite-caused, explosive diarrhea outbreak in the Midwest. Of course no health official or media outlet is telling people NEVER to eat salad again. But when raw milk makes headlines, that’s exactly what we see. The reality is that there are health benefits in raw foods. Eating anything is a risk. If you want to take your risk at Taco Bell, go ahead, I stand by your freedom to do so. I will continue to drink raw milk. Everyone MYOB.
Don’t forget your freedom to buy Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil! I used to have chronic cavities and this stuff saved my teeth long before I overhauled my diet. Use promo code “ALISON” at check out for 10% off.
https://greenpasture.org/
The kids and I want to get a barn cat but Lynn has put his foot down. No cats! Why? Because he is allergic and is SURE we will eventually bring the cat inside despite our promises that it will remain an outdoors animal. Where does he get this crazy idea?
As they say, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. So I keep my smile nice and pretty for all the times I have to bat my eyes and say, “whoops!” I take the fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil blend from @greenpastureproducts. It healed my chronic battle with cavities 15 years ago. If you use “ALISON” as your promo code at check out, you get 10% off. https://greenpasture.org/
By the way, if you want to see this video with music in the background, here is the YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzNIToesCYA?feature=share
Owning livestock is like running a suicide prevention hotline. Almost every day, one of the animals is trying to bring itself to a slow and painful death, or sometimes a quick one. When I came out to put the chickens back in the coop one night recently, I saw that our rooster and a hen had gotten stuck in between the tarp and the coop. I have no idea how long they’d been there. What they were trying to do in privacy, I don’t even want to know. But they could have died from heat exhaustion in this weather.
This is why I avoid Chicken brain by taking the fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil from Green Pasture. It’s a great food-based source of Omega 3s - and because it is fermented unlike most fish oils, it preserves nutritional value. Not to mention, the concentrated butter oil brings in necessary vitamin K to absorb the vitamin D and vitamin A in the cod liver oil. Get 10% off at checkout with promo code “ALISON”. https://greenpasture.org/
(Also, no Farm Report live ...
Monologue: OpenAI Could Kill SoftBank and Oracle - Better Offline | Podcast on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0fkN2L9lCtn6Rb2eNY5Evd
DISTURBING... This Has Me Questioning Reality - YouTube
Beware of any new proposals for a "research facility" in your area.
One data center in my state expects revenue from land taxes. To that town to go up from about $31K/year. Up to about $1 million/year once the project started. It is already partly built and running, so they already make that and more. To what is estimated to be $150-$200 million/year. It's huge, so it won't finish till about "2030". But is already running in part, being built out in stages.
This is why politicians don't care what we think in many places. And even if they are voted out, they have fall back plans. They are invovled in "meetings" and discussions. Where they know they will be taken care of.
But beleive what you want, it will all play out. Let your so-called representatives know what you want. But don't be surprised if even your vote them out or protest fails.
