Over the years, we’ve been through more diets than one can count. I’ve read Wheat Belly, Grain Brain and a myriad of other books. As I loved potatoes, I was never quite determined enough to commit to the strict non/low-starch/carb for the love of one stem tuber! However, as my Doberman got older and finally diagnosed with breast malignancy and degenerative myelopathy and gradually losing control of her hind legs, I put her on an all organic mostly fat, limited protein and extremely restricted carbohydrate diet. The clickable title will take you to the astounding results in the full post….
Traditionally we separate companion animals from livestock in order to protect our own emotional selves: a way to prevent us from getting “hurt” when livestock becomes dinner. Children are discouraged to play with livestock and directed to forge friendships only with their pets.
Is it necessary?
More importantly, is it healthy to insist on such an “artificial” categorization?
What can we learn from wolves and caribou?
The clickable title will take you to my contemplation.
Misguided self-confidence does not match accurate results – sexing chickens turns out to be one of such unfortunate events that fits the statement.
My supposedly 5-hen-flock has 3 rooster-imposters, providing me 40% of the egg production….
The clickable title will help any homesteader avoid such disappointing results while saving time and money.
Most of the time, it is much easier to see the “outer clothing” of the matter than perceiving the “deep truth”. The latter requires clear-sightedness, which may not be possible with our sophistry and neuroses in the way.
As a result, a lone chick may die of emotional deprivation….
The clickable title will take you to the subject matter.
“Our chickens are welcome to stay and free to leave,” Karl Hammer said about his “working chickens”. It is indeed a high expression of chicken-hood.
Do humans “measure up”? How? Why not?
Often times, patients come to therapy but hesitate to look into the core of their internal life. The psychic injury of the past seemed still a fresh wound in their mind’s eye. The courage in facing what is “there”, as Karl’s chickens, instead of imagining what one believes is “there”, like my patients do, is no small feat.
The clickable title will take you to my thoughts on related matters.
Teaching chicken hatchlings were not only a lot of fun, but taught me plenty of their “birdness”, their individuality and how they learned best as well.
The clickable title will take you to my adventure with my young chicks.
Having had a close and intimate relationship with food and food making, it was not far fetched for me to want to make organic chicken feed for my hens. After all, I’ll be eating their eggs. Not to mention that they would most likely prefer the tasty variety than the extreme-heat-treated, artificially-vitamin-fortified factory-made everyday-is-the-same commercial feed.
The clickable post title will take you to not only the practical how-to on this matter.
Whoever said that only roosters crow had never met my wolf.
There wasn’t supposed to be any rooster in my supposed all-hen-flock….
The clickable title will take you to the fun post of surprising facts.
Ten days after I obtained my 7-week-old hens-to-be, I was in for a few surprises.
Fun, puzzling and most of all, surprises that I had never, for the life of me, imagined birds may have delivered.
The clickable title will reveal what I have learned….
Focaccia is undoubtedly my little helper, as the process of making it delivers me into a meditative state. In this case, a focaccia is never just a focaccia even though the concrete result of a beautiful focaccia would not last more than a few minutes after the steamy hot bread is out of the oven.
Life coaches or psychotherapists who don’t like the process of focaccia making would be hard pressed to find other ways to clear their minds….
The clickable post title would certainly boost your confidence in turning out a loaf of focaccia – anyone can do it, the simplest bread ever existed – and much more.
Stuart McLean died. The world is a worse place without him.
A happy life is not necessarily a healthy one. For me, emotional/mental health means that one’s existence in the world makes it a better place.
Mr. McLean led a healthy life from this perspective. And much more….
The clickable title takes you to my contemplation on his life, death, and the concept of “one-sided relationships”.
Vatican priest Krzysztof Charamsa resigned, on the arm of his lover, and stepped in front of myriad of news cameras. He seemed to be expecting applause – of course he received aplenty.
Why?
In the heart of the matter, does this have to do with gay rights? Vatican’s recently published guidelines for the training of seminarians? Should he be forgiven? Is it understandable that one may negate one’s previous vocational choice as grave as becoming a Catholic priest? Or, does the real matter have to do with pride? Entitlement?
Click on the post title to read my thoughts on an important matter of internal self-creation.
“I’m in pain, I can’t be helpful to others. A luxury I don’t have,” those were the words of my patient.
Understandable, perhaps.
Then there were the Star Whale and the Doctor, who were the last of their kind and who had experienced suffering like no other.
Yet they couldn’t bear to see our children cry….
The clickable post title will take you the hidden depth of Amelia Pond, and more….
“I don’t care if my neighbor lives or dies. She’s nothing to me. I only care about my mom and my brother,” once a 14-year-old patient declared.
Compassion derived from self interests and empathy based on universal empathy are planets apart.
Further more, if one has to choose, would one sink to the level of Donna, who saved her friends while endangering the whole world or would one take on Rose’s “hard lesson”…?
The clickable post title will take you to my observation on the topic.
Rose told the fictional Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson in The Girl in the Fireplace, “…you weren’t suppose to have either (the Doctor nor the “monsters”) and immediately encountered a stern reply, “Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened…!”
Such emotional acceptance and clarity is the first step for us to spend our limited lifetime in healthy self creation, instead of being stuck in the labyrinth of bitterness, wistful for a “better lot in life”….
The clickable title will take you to my thoughts on the matter.
Maeve in Westworld is a complex being. She blames her creators. She is enraged. She seems to feel no internal remorse at killing….
However the most relevant for my patient is her unwillingness to commit to one world. “Straddling” on the edge and hesitant to make the decision plagues “my Maeve”….
The clickable post title will take you to her dilemma and her emotional journey.
Cooking is not about what shiny equipment you have, it is about a creative process that allows you to turn any scrap of leftovers or whatever random items you have in your fridge or on your counter into a tasty meal. Good cooks are creative thinkers. Cooking and food making are meditative processes that allow one not simply learning a new dish, but using a specific knowledge gaining in a particular field as a tool for honing our creative thinking skill in general.
Sauerkraut making acted as such a tool for me here.
The clickable title will take to you the fun details of my learning to cook, not just sauerkraut making.
A dog was feeding on the body of a dead woman and defending his “prize” aggressively. He was shot dead by the police, who couldn’t wait a minute longer to get to the dead body, it seems.
While we may be quick to blame who looked like the perpetrator of a murder, we may commit an act of violence towards the assumed murderers as they may be either innocent or guilty of a lesser crime.
In quick action for revenge, we may commit murder ourselves.
My kindly looking dogs swiftly, without moment’s hesitation, killed a visiting skunk in their backyard with lightening speed.
Do we, perhaps, all have the inner makings of becoming murderers?
Given the “proper” trigger, in an unfortunate moment, maybe?
These are some of the lessons drawn from this post. As always, the title is clickable.
The domestic animal vaccination debate has been going on for more than a couple of decades. The general public holds vastly different opinions, so do the professionals such as veterinarians and veterinary researchers.
This post is a long overdue thorough review on what may be the “gold standard” of “least harm”-“most effective” way of protecting our best friends.
Click on the post title for all the related information and some tales of my best friends.
When a wound is infected, the traditional treatment is surgical debridement, for humans and domestic animals alike.
However, plenty of other less invasive and readily available remedies may be just as effective, if not more. In this post, I explore some of these treatments, including manuka honey and hydrotherapy.
The images in the post may be upsetting to some.
The clickable title will take you to the full text.
I have no argument with the scientists who “frankened” Atlantic salmon, as long as they are certain there is no health risk for the salmon consumers.
But what of cloning our newly departed beloved pets? Or human infants or young children who died of untimely deaths? Don’t these sentient beings have the right to choose whether or not they wish to be cloned? ….
These are just some of the issues I contemplated in this post. The clickable title will take you there.
A breeding female wolf was murdered by Banff National Park.
It was said that the Bow Valley Wolf Pack was getting “too familiar” to humans, after some tourists started feeding the wolves from their picnic coolers….
The death penalty sounds like it was conducted in haste.
Did they really think through the matter and try “hard enough” to find other options?
Did humans learn the “lessons”?
The Clickable title will take you to my carefully considered thoughts on this matter.
In an episode of Doctor Who – An alien ship crashed in London. Downing Street turned upside down. Big spectacle ensued.
At a church organized charity event, a devote Christian slapped her lifelong best friend at a moment of extreme rage….
The very next moment, all were erased from the earthlings conscious awareness.
How could it be? And why?
The clickable post title will take you to my attempted explanation.
“This Is Not a Day Care, It’s a University!” Dr. Piper’s article created a myriad of “love” or “hate” reactions, not just from university students but the whole world over. There is a similar misconception about psychotherapy as well. “Discomfort” may just be a necessary “devil”. If facing emotional truths is more important for us than “comfort”, that is. Without it to disquiet our lesser, unhealthy selves, it will be tremendously difficult, if not impossible, for us to succeed in creating versions of our better, healthier selves.
The clickable post title will take you to the depth of my thoughts on this matter, plus a little fun “twist”. 🙂
With unexpected depth, Victor, the fictional character in Mr. Selfridge, did not let willful blindness get in his way of self awareness. He further took action based on this awareness. At least in this instance, he became his authentic self. In the reality of life, we often fail in both or either steps.
The clickable title will take you to my thoughts on this matter in close relation to psychotherapy and life coaching.
“Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It’s harsh, and cruel. But that’s why there is us – champions. Doesn’t matter where we come from, what we’ve done or suffered or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world were as it should be. To show it what it can be.” These are the words of Angel, a struggling vampire in Joss Whedon’s fictional creation.
It is my firm belief that deep down, perhaps for some of us VERY deep down, we all have the “seed” of becoming “champions”.
The clickable title will take you to my contemplation on the matter.
Luka, the yearling wolf, does not believe she can only befriend beings of her own species. Perhaps it is not a “belief” at all, maybe she “knows” inter-species communication is within her reach….
Her journey may help your own establishment of a whole new world of friendships.
The clickable title will take you to Luka’s story.
