Having come to a good resting place spiritually, I have a story within the former story to catch you up to the present...And then I'd like to invite you to walk along with me as I continue to take baby steps along the road to better health.
I don't even remember if it was three years ago...It's quite possible it was four or even more. At that time, we visited our dear friends who farm organically in central Virginia. They shared their milk, their raw, unadulterated milk, with us. At the time, we didn't understand the idea or reality of 'unadulterated' milk, but we, (meaning my husband and I), had long been lovers of natural living.
Over time, circumstances had taken us away from our own country home and we mysteriously landed a mere five minutes outside the city, surrounded by interstate traffic and even the ocassional sound of guns being fired in the night. We were blessed , however, with a sweet 1930's home and a beautiful back yard. Although we landscaped country-style, gardened country-style, and even had a few chickens for a while, country living it was not.
We thought this would last a few years. It has been about nine. And so, needless to say, we have always looked forward to our visits with our country friends.
As they shared their milk with us, they explained much about laws regarding raw milk, as well as the various health virtues of drinking it. My friend, Maggie*, introduced me to an encyclopedic cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, which teaches in depth about the most healthful whole foods and their proper preparation. I was so favorably impressed by the book that I ordered it within a week.
In an accordian-like transitional stage of our lives, with our household diminishing, growing, diminishing and growing again, I became so entrenched within immediate family and spiritual needs and issues that committing to the lifestyle changes encouraged by Nourishing Traditions was a 'no-wayer'. The book sat on a shelf above my range. And after sitting a little while, it sat longer...and longer still.
During this time, our friends continued their organic farming, but we had little time for visits and continued to understand only the fringes of what this lifestyle meant.
Then, my husband began to have symptoms of illness and I had my own growing set of symptoms.
But as God would have it, because of the spirtual search explained in my last blog, we reconnected with an old, young friend who was living, really living the Nourishing Traditions lifestyle. She didn't flaunt it, but just lived it out. Just like she lived out her Christianity. Through her, we discovered others...Some we had known for years without knowing their eating habits, and others we'd never met before...And slowly, we began to acquire tiny nuggets of new and valuable knowledge.
Eventually reaching a place where the accordian of life was beginning to pump more slowly, we knew we had to take measures to regain our health. We were babes beginning to crawl and coming to the understanding that beyond crawling was something better...walking upright.
Perhaps one day, jogging.
And maybe eventually, a full-blown, no-holds-barred, run.
I took the book off the shelf, sat in a comfortable chair with my Diet Coke, and began to read.
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