There's a Lie In Belief

“There’s a lie in believe.” That’s how my mother taught me to remember how to spell the word believe.

Do you believe that belief is a lie? Do you only believe in what you can see, hear, touch, smell, taste?

If you answered, “Yes!” then I invite you to take a little trip with me into the land of imagination, into the arena of possibility that there is more to the world than meets the eye.

What can the eye see? Here’s a graph of what the eye can see, and all the wavelengths that we can currently measure:


Source: NASA at http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/01_intro.html

A Little Slice of the Spectrum

The little rainbow in the tiny slice above the eyeball about 2/3 of the way across, is the area that we can see with our eyes. The colors we see are different wavelengths of light in that tiny band. Bees and butterflies can see in the visible and ultraviolet range, and many flowers have ultraviolet patterns to attract them that we cannot see in visible light. Cats and many other animals can see quite well in the dark while we cannot. Snakes use infrared sensors to help detect prey.

Invisible Light All Around Us

Infrared lightwaves are used in your TV remote control and in thermal imaging, and we can see some of this light with night vision goggles. Did it exist before we discovered it? Of course. Same with X-Rays; we discovered them, we didn’t invent them. They are moving through us and around us right now even though we cannot see or feel them.

So let’s look at some less obvious examples. Ask yourself… Think of someone or something that you love. Can you see love? Touch it, taste it, smell it, hear it?

Can I see my thoughts? Can I prove that they exist? Can they be measured, seen, heard or touched? So do your thoughts exist?

What about the Big Bang? We have scientific descriptions of what happened fractions of a second after it, but cannot measure far back enough to what happened at the moment of creation. If nothing was here, what made it happen?

What Makes Your Heart Beat?

What is it that makes your body breathe and your heart beat? You can say it’s a biological function, an electrical impulse. But what is underneath that? What makes that electrical impulse? How do the heart cells know how to do that? How does the heart know to beat a certain number of times per minute? And how does an intestinal cell know how to allow nutrients into the bloodstream, and keep out that which is not useful?

The other day, a friend studying to be a nurse said, “If you don’t believe in God, study microbiology!” Something astounding is orchestrating it all. Could any human create in a lab a system so complex as a human? Could any human create a tree? Could any human create a solar system? Take a look at the stars and realize that they are floating I a seemingly empty vastness. What keeps them in place? We can explain it scientifically, but what created the laws of gravity and other laws of physics? Why does the universe continuously function according to those laws? What exactly is life? 

I invite you to start asking deeper questions, and to allow a bit of discomfort in the fact that there are some things that we will not be able to explain within our lifetime.

How about you?
Do you believe in things beyond what you can see?

How My Fat Cat Became a Fit Feline

At 6 months old she was sleek and slim

I recently got my fat cat to lose more than 3 pounds and become a fit feline. That may not sound like much, but for a cat, it's quite a bit. And she did it in about 3 months.

Most of my articles are about spiritual growth, but so many friends asked me about this that I decided to write a special article about it for them. She's been a great spiritual teacher, and opened my heart more than I could have imagined.

How She Became a Fat Cat

My cat refuses to wear a collar, but she is obviously not starving. The shelter where I adopted her said she was rescued at 6 weeks old, starving and flea-infested. They nursed her to health, put her in foster care, spayed her, and when she was old enough, put her up for adoption. I was the lucky one she chose when I went to the shelter to find a cat.

She was up to 18.3 LB for 3 years

I had not notice that she was gaining weight. One day about five years ago, she wasn't feeling well, and I took her to the vet. She had a blood infection because her blood sugar was high. The next five years were a maze of figuring out a better food that she would eat, blood glucose curves, insulin shots, and a journal of what she ate and drank. I was spending upwards of $200 per month on her prescription kibble and canned food, insulin, sharps, and supplements, not to mention visits to the vet. And she just wasn't losing weight. I put her on a high protein, low carb food, but she remained my little gordita.

Bilingual Coat of Shame

That's when I discovered that a neighbor was feeding her. Probably some inexpensive, poor quality kibble. Meanwhile I was spending more and more on fancy prescription food, struggling to keep her healthy.That's when I made her a shirt that my friend Sherry dubbed the Coat of Shame. I live in a condo, and I still put it on her once in a while in case she tries conning any new unsuspecting neighbors into believing she's underfed. She's good at that.

And once in a while I'd wonder if there was a grain-free food, because cats aren't meant to eat grains.

The Turning Point

I went to a presentation by Dr Jona Sun Jordan on Pet Personalities. My cat is definitely the personality type run by food. I'd say she's obsessed with it. At the end of the talk, I briefly shared with Dr Jordan my struggle to get my cat to lose weight. Her advice made a huge difference in my cat's life and mine.

At her suggestion, I switched my cat cold turkey to the grain-free raw kibble she recommended. When I went to the local feed store to find the kibble, there was a woman outside who was giving away samples. My cat loved the new food! So I switched her with no turning back.

A Dramatic Drop in Blood Sugar

I checked her blood sugar 4 days later, and it had dropped more than 40 points! I was sold! She had been on Insulin for 4.5 years, and it's more dangerous for her blood sugar to be too low than too high, so now she'd need a new dose. But she was till begging me constantly for more food. So I did a glucose curve with insulin and without. Armed with the numbers, I made an appointment with Dr Jordan to learn more. And it just kept getting better.

Kitty's New Diet and a Brilliant Idea

She used to get 1/4 cup of kibble and 1/6 can of wet food twice per day. Her new diet was 1/8 cup of Nature's Variety grain-free kibble and one 1 oz medallion twice per day. Se also gets a snack of 1/2 a sardine at mid-day.

Dr Jordan made a brilliant suggestion. Instead of feeding her in a bowl, I make her hunt for her food. 
I divided her 1/8 cup of kibble into a half dozen little bowls. First these were placed in her usual spot, then I moved them further out. One day I hid them around the living room. She didn't really understand, so there I was on my hands and knees, looking under the sofa, behind he table, teaching her to hunt for her food in the living room. It worked. 

Not only does this provide mental stimulation for her, but she no longer views me as her only source of food. I might still have a few little dishes in my hand, but she's checking under the table, under the chairs, and next to the refrigerator, instead of coming to me for food. I love it!

The raw medallions are frozen raw meat. It's the same food for dogs and cats, and you can choose from duck, chicken, rabbit, venison, beef, and lamb. They pressure treat the meat to ensure that there are no harmful bacteria. It is ground meat, organs, even bone. Apparently all the problems with animals eating bones is only when the bones are cooked. dogs and cats are meant to eat raw bones and are able to digest them within 24 hours.If your vet ever gets x-rays from a vet that isn't familiar with this, they may be recommending emergency surgery because bones are supposedly quite dangerous. But not raw bone. Our critters were designed to digest raw bone. And they get nutrients from it, so she no longer needs the glucosamine supplement, which had sugar in it.

Transitioning to the Raw Wet Food

She didn't eat the raw medallion the first time I gave it to her. So I put her regular canned food in the dish with it, and she ate both. The next meal, I gave her just the raw, and she's been on that ever since. She loves it. If they had mouse and gopher varieties, I'd buy them, but I imagine that that's a quality control issue. Can't go catching gophers from people's yards when they may have been poisoned or eating who-knows-what.

November 2013 slimmed down to 15.1 LB

She's Lost 3 pounds 

After 4 months on this diet, she is a svelte 15.1 LB, and the vet said she's "a little on the chubby side", which is much better than obese! She is able to jump onto the coffee table again, and has more energy than she did before. Oh, and her dandruff cleared up within a few days of starting on a raw diet.

I did several spot-checks on her blood sugar in the next 2 weeks, and wrote up a report to take to my old vet so they would know about it too. Hopefully they will jump on the raw food grain-free pet wagon!

Lia was diabetic for long enough that she may need to go back on insulin, but at a lower dose and with an eating plan that works with her body instead of against it. I am so glad to have found out about this grain-free raw pet food, and I know that my cat is too!

Lia is now at 14.5 pounds! She is almost at her teenage weight! Guess I'm next!

Happy munching!

How About You?
Have you tried raw for your pet?
Did they like it?

Please comment below.
I'd love to hear your stories!

Not Feeling the Thanksgiving Vibe?

As you make your plans for Thanksgiving, what is on your mind? Food? Travel? Dealing with the In-Laws or that one cousin. you know the one I mean.

There were years when I only saw what I didn't have, what I wanted, and how unhappy I was. Lately I have been giving thanks every day. I have so much to appreciate in my life. And as I have been reminded in a few places lately, appreciate means to raise in value. So for those times when I forget to be grateful for what I have, here's my fallback list of the things I appreciate in my life. When I think of them, their value definitely increases.

Eyesight

For many years, I have been grateful that I can see. Such a big thing, and so easily taken for granted.

I can see with my physical eyes and with my inner knowing. I have good color perception. What must it be like to be color blind? Does the world seem more interesting or more rich to me because I can see all the amazing colors and the subtlety of shades? I know it would seem less so if I suddenly become color blind.

Working Parts

I have two arms and two legs that work. There were injuries in the past to feet, knees, shoulder, that made me appreciate that so much more. And every finger... You know when you have cut or injured a finger or thumb how much you need it. I have lungs that work quite well despite having asthma. I have a heart that beats and circulates my blood and a digestive tract that processes whatever I throw at it. All of these things could be taken for granted so easily. And I have taken them for granted quite a bit.

Modern Conveniences

I am grateful to have a safe place to live... a roof over my head with
neighbors I like. Then there's the miracle of indoor plumbing. Another thing that I take for granted, but something that I get to enjoy every day. It's something that more than half the world's population doesn't have. A hot shower, a flush toilet, electric lights, clean drinking water and clean water to wash my dishes. Some of them are miracles that my grandparents didn't have as children. Nor did they have a telephone, television, or even radio for much of their lives. Not to mention computers or even calculators, which became available in my lifetime. Not to mention the mobile devices we all love so much these days.

Freedom and Choices

I was a child when John F Kennedy, Dr Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. I am grateful that I lived when they did. I am grateful for what they did for our society and the changes since then. I am grateful to live in a country where I have freedom, especially as a woman. My mother was born 5 years after women got the right to vote. Hard to believe. Back then, women didn't usually have the choice to work outside the home unless they were a teacher or a nanny. Maybe a librarian.

I am very grateful that I had the ability to choose if and when I would conceive a child. My parents did not have that choice because they didn't have accurate information about fertility. I am forever grateful that I have access to volumes more information about my body than my parents' generation.

New Thought

I am grateful to have found the New Thought movement, and the Center for Spiritual Living. Attending services there and being exposed to the ideas and culture there have made all the difference in my life and my world.  By going there, I have learned to look at what I have, where I want to be, and to know that I am so much more than my story.

I have found lifelong friends there. I have changed the way I think about my life, my past, my present, and my future. I have replaced beliefs that no longer serve me with new habits that do. I am living more often from the One in me that knows that It knows.

You may have heard of the practice of keeping a Gratitude Journal. Every day for a month, write down at least 5 things that you are grateful for. It helps jump-start noticing the good in you life. And you will start noticing more things to be grateful for. Have you tried this? I'd love to hear how it went for you.

My Second Life

And I retired from a job with a good base income to build upon. Not enough to become complacent, but enough to cover the basics. I am so happy to be writing and singing, to be living life the way I wanted to, but didn't allow myself to when I thought I had to be practical to earn a living.

The world is changing, and my personal world in particular is changing.
I have so much to be grateful for!
And I can't wait to see what comes next!

How About You?

What are you grateful for?And what do you picture yourself being grateful for one year from now?

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