Much of my family suffers from seasonal allergies. They are on and off throughout the year, and aren’t limited to one particular season. Pollens, molds, you name it!

In my constant quest to provide natural relief and immune boosters to my family, I have recently been focusing on a particular area that, so far, has brought about noticeable relief:

HONEY!

Not just any honey. You have to be careful! You must seek out a local apiary that sells fresh, LOCAL, honey that is harvested and bottled seasonally and you must eat that honey in significant amounts to aid your immune system to develop antibodies to fight off the histamines that are jolted into action when your local pollens and molds start appearing during the various seasons throughout the year.

There is a blood test you can request to have done through your physician that will give you a complete outline of what you are allergic to, and what you are not, on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest. They test for everything imaginable and you may really be surprised at the findings. In our tests, we found that that the most significant allergens in our family were from eucalyptus, mustard and flower pollens. I went to our local apiary, owned by a family friend of over 35 years, and told him about the findings. He immediately gave us 5lbs of each type of honey – eucalyptus and wild flower, both collected and bottled over the past year from local hives within a 30 mile radius.

I started adding the honey to virtually everything they ingested – hot and cold tea, coffee, cereal, on toast, drizzled over baked squash, sweet potatoes, spoonfuls for the heck of it, over vanilla ice cream, in milkshakes, on peanut butter sandwiches, the list goes on.

Guess what? The symptoms have decreased so noticeably that we have almost completely eliminated the need for over the counter medications like Zyrtec, etc. Breathing is easier and sleep has become more restful instead of incessant sneezing, itchy eyes, and clogged nasal passages. It has really worked for us and I plan on keeping it up!

The other good news? Local honey is relatively inexpensive – just $5.00 per pound here in our Valley. Just be absolutely sure that it’s LOCAL honey you’re getting, and not just locally bottled. Most of the honey on the market is from China and while it might taste good, is not giving you the health benefits of local allergen immunity, beyond all of the other benefits of eating local foods.

Give honey a try! Don’t assume it’s not working if you don’t see immediate relief. It takes time for your body to build its immune system. Just keep it up and soon you may find that your seasonal allergies have lessened and you feel overall better than you have in the past!

I was stunned to realize that there are some seemingly oblivious people out there who continue to believe that global warming is simply a normal shift in the tides of mother earth, and is not a potentially catastrophic event that is looming in the very near future “as we are being led to believe”. I’ve seen some of these people go so far as to explain all of this as some complex, multi-national government plot of some sort. You can’t debate with them. It’s impossible. They won’t even look at the science behind the issue. In fact, the science is totally wrong or is simply a lie. They refuse to see what’s set before them. They’re set in their position and cling to it with everything they have (I guess the same can be said about those of is who believe this to be a very serious reality). I can only hope that the disbelievers are in the minority and not the majority, so that the changes that MUST be made will be made in significant numbers and that those who disagree with blatant science will have minimal impact to the efforts the rest of us are making toward turning this problem around. Aside from all of that, even if they are right and it’s all a farce, aren’t the changes we are being asked to make positive ones regardless of the urgency being put behind them? Personally, I don’t understand the resistance to it all save to go back to the fact that humans resist change at a fundamental level for a myriad of reasons.

I’ve made some serious changes over the years to my lifestyle and the way I interact with the world as a whole. I drive a Prius. We do have a second car, which is less gas-saving, but still gets 39 miles to the gallon. I only drive that during the summer and only on excursions where it’s warranted and we use it sparingly! The Prius averages me 66 miles per gallon in town. Can’t beat that!

We’ve long ago started growing our own food. This summer I began planting in huge containers because it really helped me with controlling pets that seemed to enjoy the food before I got to enjoy it as I won’t use pesticides. We had delicious bumper crops of cucumbers, tomatoes, and Serrano peppers of which we were able to share with others. This fall we’ve planted potatoes in large pots, along with sweet and yellow onions, romaine and red leaf lettuces, and sugar snap peas. I also have this insane urge to turn the side of our house, which was a dog run before we bought the place, into a long, well-secured chicken coop so we can have our own, fresh eggs. Seriously, my idea of having farmers figure out how to breed small, goat-sized cows for the suburban homeowner to have as a pet still seems viable. Fresh milk anyone??

I’ve switched to using antibacterial soap that is completely organic and natural with NO triclosan (this gets into the water supply and is breeding resistance to antibacterial medications). I use Seventh Generation laundry soap, which is totally organic and biodegradeable. I don’t use the heat function on the dishwasher. I recycle. I read labels. I cook from scratch wherever possible and limit prepared and/or chemically altered food ingestion. I buy locally grown food wherever possible. I watch where we go out to eat (fast food is a huge rarity rather than the norm). For example, there’s a place called Black Bear Diner here that just opened. Super yummy food, massive portions, very inexpensive. We ate there a couple of times and I thought, “oh great! we needed an affordable family restaurant that was good here!” But that was before they started leaving their nutritional information papers at the table shortly after opening. I took one look and couldn’t believe my eyes. THOUSANDS of calories in things that didn’t need to be that high. Over 3,000mg of sodium in 90% of their dishes on the menu!? I was stunned. Most people don’t even realize what they are taking into their bodies and don’t bother to take the time to become educated about it. Our demise is due in large part to our laziness when it comes to our health as individuals and as a species on this planet.

We are responsible for our own health and our bodies. That’s the bottom line. No one else can care about us and our families as much as we can. Did you know that the bottled water that the vast majority of us drink is extremely bad for us? Not because of the water, but because of the bottles that hold the water. The chemicals that are in the bottles leech into the water as it sits in storage. Of these chemicals is one that mimics the hormone estrogen. Not good. This goes for any plastic containers that we store food in. Look in your fridge. How many of your leftovers are stored in plastic? How much of them are eaten by you, your spouse, or more critically, your growing children?

Our advancements are amazing as a species. We are constantly coming up with new, exciting, and more convenient methods that seem to make life easier. But, as with everything in nature, there is a balance and things we enjoy can hold serious consequences. Look around. What do you suppose those are when it comes to our health and the rampant diseases that are prevalent in our society. Obesity, diabetes, cancer, rapid hormonal changes in our children… the list goes on.

Changing the way these things impact our lives is within our control, or at least the ability to lessen their impact is. The reality is that it means taking it slower, changing the way we interact with the world. Opt for health rather than convenience. Each of us can make a difference for ourselves, our families, and the world around us. We just have to start looking at the future impact, and ultimately we just have to care

Have you ever stood by a the side of a pond, watching the stillness of the water and the gentle ripples that spread out when the wind brushes over it? Have you ever taken up a pebble from where you stand and toss it into the water, watching it as the energy from the breaking water resonates outward  from its core? Have you ever taken up another pebble and tossed it into the water before the water has stilled once more? Did you watch as the same effect happened again, however this time, the two energy forces from the two separate pebbles collided? What happened to the ripples once they’ve touched one another?

Now, imagine the world is that very pond and each of us are the pebbles.  Imagine yourself being tossed into the world anew, each and every day, along with the other pebbles who are also hitting the water and creating their own ripples.

Now think, how will your energy affect others when you plunge your pebble into the stillness of the pond?

We can each make a choice as to how we choose to interact with the world on a daily basis.  Each day we are given a fresh opportunity to learn from our past and set our minds on how we will engage ourselves with the universal pond that we all share.  Each one of us has a responsibility to be conscious of our energy affect on others and how we engage with them. If we have made mistakes in the past, we learn from them as enlightened beings and move forward having learned what we needed to learn from any given situation. That is indeed why we were given the opportunity.

We should all strive to embrace the world and those within it in a way that is nurturing, and continue to model that behavior as an example to others. We should strive to accept our faults as human beings, all the while doing everything we can to overcome those faults by recognizing and acknowledging them and ultimately dealing with them head-on within ourselves.

We should always be aware that every pebble in this great pond we all must share is unique, different, blessed in their own way and while we may not always agree with every person’s, or pebble’s, means of interacting with the pond we share – perhaps they fling themselves into it with gusto, or perhaps they splash about, flailing and creating waves that batter and bruise the solitude and tranquility of the water – we should accept them for who they are, what they are, and how they go about life. We can also choose to interact and engage with those whose ripples affect our tranquility so much that we find solitude impossible by moving away from them peacefully, choosing to toss ourselves into the pond from another edge of the bank.

Ultimately it is up to each of us to learn more about ourselves and our affect on others around us. Doing so will open our minds, and our hearts, to what our life in this world is really about – spiritual enlightenment, self-acceptance, and personal empowerment with the greater good in mind above all things.

Blessed be.