Challenge: community-building on the go

I’ve been wondering, how do you create/foster community when we are on the move so much? When we are so busy? This has been a real challenge for me. I have a few ideas now:

*make people feel safe and welcome in your presence

*hold people accountable, but resist judgements

*take time regularly to let people know that you love them. Love is a feeling of connection.

*Hug them, feed them, tell them what you’re thinking regularly

*let people know you’re there for them

*send notes, gifts

*make time for intimacy, share your fears

*with less time, we feel rushed to do activities with our time together, but we must take time to connect at the start, check-in

*create traditions, even if that’s nicknames, handshake, weekly call/meal

*stop activity if someone is feeling unloved. Not worth it. Check in. Keep trust accounts and transparency high.

Those who know me know my shortcomings in this area. Please help me put these into practice. Thank you!!

Shedding

Sitting on the dock of my energy
Watching time go by
I’ve come so far
I can’t go back
Wondering
Why these compulsions
What good could come of them
And dying to escape
The rational

I Wore Shoes Today

Well, sandals actually, but given I’ve spent much of the past 4 months barefoot that does deserve a headline.
image

I wore sandals someone bought me from Pakistan that have flexible soles, don’t constrain the toes, and have a heel strap so that the foot strike isn’t dramatically altered.

When I went to Pakistan for 10 days, I chose to wear shoes (flip flops) in order to avoid any delays or confrontations with foreign authority, and to avoid drawing extra attention to my blonde, 5-10, blue-eyed self. I was attending a friend’s wedding, after all, in a semi-hostile country, so this wasn’t the time to make a hard stand for my foot freedom.

In those 10 days, probably within the first 5-7, I lost a protective layer my feet had built up. Basically one layer of skin on the balls of the foot (and a patch on the heels) turned white and shed. Up to this point I hadn’t really known how the feet had adapted to mostly concrete sidewalk-walking. I knew my feet felt more “plasticized” on the bottoms. So that was interesting. Seems a layer of skin just somehow adapts to the rugged pressure but dies when not used. I got my “baby feet” back pretty quickly.

So upon my return from Pakistan, it took about a week of city barefoot walking again and the skin on my foot started getting too sensitive to walk on. But this time, a new complication. I think that the sandal-wearing for 2 weeks actually helped my arches build up a bit more than barefoot walking does (when I keep the same ball-of-the foot striking emphasis). Also, I became dehydrated/malnourished and experienced bad foot cramping upon return. So when I started walking barefoot again I could really feel my arches cramping, especially in my left foot.

And the cramping was not in where one typically thinks of the arch, it was more in the middle of the sole of the foot, where the arch also exists, and where I know my “arch” is more atrophied. So it was actually kind of nice to feel that area activated for the first time in my life. I spent some time massaging it, which helps, and am still dialing my nutrition and salts back to a healthy range. I became riboflavin-deficient as well, evidenced by cracks in the corners of my mouth. I hadn’t experienced that since I was a vegetarian. I digress.

So wearing sandals yesterday and today enables me to keep my arches activated while letting the sore spots in the balls of the foot recover. I think I might go ahead and do 6 weeks in these sandals just to build the arches up, since I’m failing to “exercise” them at home. The downside is that I will lose a little bit of my balance capability, my foot toughness will have to start over, and I don’t get to be barefoot, which is simply an awesome continuous sensuous experience.

I’ll give it a week and re-evaluate I suppose. The other thing is I will get a lazy and start heel-walking more, so I will have to stay on extra conscious alert.

Finally, I have been putting more emphasis the past few days on walking with the feet slightly farther apart. It feels amazing on the sacrum/low back, even if it still feels awkward due to my current calf bone shape and femur rotation, which I suspect will take another 6 years to re-shape!

20/20 No More Glasses Experiment Back On!

I’m determined to restore my own vision naturally. Time for a new protocol!

I have a hunch the focus exercises are way more beneficial than the eye exercises, so I’m swapping emphasis. Also, I think one has to “correct” for the anount of near-work focus one does. Will try to incorporate that as well!

No corrective lenses for one month

Morning:
1-2 Eye Exercises for controlled Eye Movement
5 Minutes “Far Focus” exercises with plenty of blinking (2.5 mins each eye)

Throughout Day:
Balance each focused “near-work” phase with one “far-focus” correction

When walking, each trip perform at least one intense “far-focus” to avoid “lazy eyes”

Evening
1-2 Eye Exercises
5 Minutes “Far Focus” challenges

Community and The Quest for Achievement

Standing at a new crossroads in my life…

I have a lot to think about.

I’m at a friction point, where I am not making enough money to support myself, and I’m feeling the need to figure out how I can be most useful/valuable to society so that I can escape being broke all the time. Being broke means you miss opportunities. You miss family. You miss the spontaneous part of you that can’t just go do what the heart desires. Being broke holds me back. Some might argue this is a good thing! But it feels more deflating and restricting than helpful really. I’m not sure that others are being helped by it. Looking at my tax history, I learned that I managed to get by on $200,000 for six years in San Francisco. That’s 33K/year, in a city where the median income is like $80K/year. It sucks.

I’ve spent the last six years making conscious choices around what I want to do with my time and energy. That is significant, given that my college years were very much guided by me not feeling safe to pursue what I enjoyed doing, to some extent. I started my own business(es), I coached college athletes, I became a yoga teacher, and I worked for a federal government contractor. And I tried every part-time job on the side that would accept me, which led me to meet dozens of amazing people, not to mention create 6 new amazing families via egg donation.

But none of it really panned out. I learned that I do not like setting up a shop and running it. Correction: I like setting up a shop. I do not like running it. I learned that federal government work is really interesting – but I do not have the patience to jump through hoops and red tape. I learned that I loved teaching athletes new skills, being outside for work, and learning more about health and wellness, but I have zero interest in becoming a head coach or staying with any particular program.

It’s like with my Chemical Engineering degree. I loved learning about the environmental side of it. But I’m not all that interested in the daily job of cleaning up the environment. I’m not all that interested in creating new chemicals. I’m not all that interested building facilities that extract oil.

After all this, I start to feel judgmental toward myself, like, jeez, some people would die to have just one of your opportunities, yet you’ve passed on all of them. And have no interest in going back to any of them.

People listen to my life story with wide eyes and a slack jaw. So far, it’s a meandering, somewhat bold, and suspenseful story with no defined ending.

So I’m at a new juncture.

I have friends who have tried to cheer me up, saying, it will all come together eventually. All these experiences and skills will somehow culminate. But now I’m just frustrated. Financially, and directionally. I’ve cast a wide net, and pulled in many nuggets of wisdom (i.e. failed a lot), but have no idea what to do with them from here.

I got super fired-up listening to Obama and Romney talk about healthcare and the economy. It reminded me that health is simple, and we find myriad ways to mess it up. And now the whole country is suffering economically and creatively because of it. And I want to help. I just want to feel really helpful actually. And although I love the Mother Teresa axom of helping one person at a time, the person closest to you, it doesn’t get you far if that one person isn’t paying your rent and your back taxes and your student loan, feeding you, and helping you travel to see your family, and paying for your continued education, etc. etc. etc.

So I want to be helpful on a larger scale. God knows I have enough talents and skills to do that.

I think I’m on a new path about how to work within a community.

The closest thing to a community I experienced growing up was our church and school systems.

My parents were separated from their communities in a lot of ways. My father often worked out of state. My mother stayed at home with us. We viewed the wealthy with suspicion, so it was more of an antagonistic rather than synergistic relationship. When you’re accustomed not not getting enough, not having enough, you can start to blame the system, and the “haves” for your condition.

Perhaps I’m just on a final push out of the poverty mindset. I want to be able to connect with others in the community and even in the nation to accomplish things together. It’s just that I’m not sure where to come from (I have no organization nor a clear sense of trajectory). And I’m not sure where to go!

I think this is what is delaying my “Center for Public Wellness” concept that I had spent the past few months contemplating and defining. I want to organize people on a large scale, but I’m not sure I have the skills to do so. In fact I do not have any demonstrable skills in this area. It may take only a small spark to light a fire, but…

Just Leaving

We snuck in the side gate
It wasn’t my idea
Ivy creeping up on
An old institution
Crumbling, Dark, Abandoned
Once great
A basement full of dusty memos,
Signed promises, and
Forgotten records
Old news
It’s unhealthy in here
The lead
Asbestos
A dead pigeon
The news is forty years old
As I hurried out,
She saw me rush
“Are you with Property Management?”
No.
“So you don’t belong here.”
She stated sternly
Yep,
I said,
That’s why I’m leaving.

Vitamin D and Menopause Symptom Relief

Professor Rees, and whom it may concern:

I am respectfully submitting a hypothesis I have come to regarding the link between menopausal symptoms and the importance of Vitamin D.

I am a hobbyist health researcher and educator, an athletics coach at San Francisco State University, with an Environmental Chemical Engineering degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, MT, USA.

I began studying this topic after suffering through my mother’s and now a dear friend of mine’s menopausal symptoms. My mother suffered horrible bleeding for years, which was only stopped by a hysterectomy. My friend has had very strange symptoms for the past 3 years, including unbearable hot flashes and a collarbone popping out of place suddenly.

Putting their stories together, I found a common link: Both women spent nearly all their time indoors while their menopause was beginning. My mother, because her dog passed away, and then moved to the northwestern United States near Seattle, WA, which is known for over 300 days a year of no sunshine. She told me that she went on a walk one day, and was stalked by a truck driver from a nearby truck stop, and decided it was unsafe for her to walk during the day anymore while my father was at work.

My friend opened a business 6 years ago, and has been working 5-6 days/week indoors at her business. Living in San Francisco, CA, it is often overcast or foggy, and she hasn’t gotten much sunshine at all.

I understand the role Vitamin D plays in bone health. But I think it is important to consider Vitamin D’s effect on Iron (Fe) to understand how it can exacerbate menopause. I will start off with the statement that I believe it is not in our birthright to suffer unduly from processes that have been a natural part of life for hundreds of thousands of years, such as menopause.

Vitamin D is made useful in the body via contact with Iron. Therefore, it is plausible that without adequate Vitamin D, Iron levels may rise proportionally in the body. We know that menopausal women have high iron levels and low estrogen levels.

The body does not have a need for extra iron, so I believe its response to rid itself of the extra iron is to signal production of testosterone. Testosterone would cause a woman to want to exercise like crazy, or have sex, and she would feel anxious or moody, i.e., testier unless the testosterone’s demands are met. Why more testosterone? Because when the body expends energy anaerobically, it builds up an aerobic deficit and must take in large quantities of oxygen.

The body could use that oxygen to convert the extra Iron to hemoglobin, thus keeping body chemistry safe. However, women don’t always jump up and exercise like crazy when they feel extra levels of testosterone. They might just get more anxious. Extra testosterone causes very uncomfortable hot flashes. (I know this because I was an ovum donor six times and hot flashes was a side-effect of the testosterone they gave me for the treatments).

Too much testosterone can lead to other unpleasant effects associated with menopause, such as PCOS (Poly cystic ovarian syndrome) and the heavy bleeding and cramps which accompany it.

Unfortunately I am too busy to pursue research of my hypothesis on a large scale. I am going to have my friend supplement with Vitamin D or begin safe UVB exposure to see if we can reverse some of her worst symptoms. I am confident that she will improve.

She is currently supplementing with 1000 IU D3 as well as 1000 IU D3 in her multi-vitamin. I read online that approximately 1000 IU’s/minute are synthesized by the body when exposed to UVB rays, and that, for light-skinned people, 10-15 minutes of sun exposure/day is adequate. This means, due to the negligible sun she is getting on her skin, she is under-supplementing her D3 by at LEAST 8000 IUs/day, assuming the absorption rate of her supplements is 100% (a poor assumption I’m sure!).

I would appreciate any response you would have to my inquiry, and hope it can be helpful. Perhaps others have already reached the same conclusion for a hypothetical pathway back to health.

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

Christina Margaret McKinstry

Adventures in Pakistan

I awoke this morning at 6am to the sound of a loudspeaker Muslim prayer call in the distance layered over a wild rooster crowing and other tropical birds chirping. The birds are the most active in the early morning, when it is cool enough to be active. It reminded me of my time in the Dubai airport on the way here. The airport prides itself on minimizing announcements over the loudspeaker to keep the airport experience pleasant. But out of nowhere around 6 am, a woman started singing/chanting a very beautiful song/prayer over the loudspeaker. It must have gone on for 5 minutes. I actually love the public chanting/singing, it is calming and unifying in some way.

The last couple days have been very relaxing, as I’ve mostly stayed at the home while the city is consumed with protests over the recent sectarian suicide bombing of Shia Hazaras in Quetta. Sit-ins have been staged all over the country in protest to the violence. Most businesses and schools were closed in Karachi as people did not feel safe to leave their homes and travel through the protests during the day. We have, however, gone out each night for dinner quite safely. The newspaper said the protesters are mostly Shias, who want the government to step-up and help stop the genocide killings of their people.

In talking with one of the relatives, they have encouraged their children not to get involved in the political protests. They expressed uncertainty about the future of their country, and fear for their children’s safety should they try to make a stand. It seemed somewhat defeatist, like the country’s problems are bigger than they feel they can affect. They are in survival mode. We have it so nice in the US, we might get tear-gassed during a protest gone badly, but rarely do we fear for our lives. I can understand a parent’s concern, while it concerns me that they are releasing their control of their country’s future in exchange.

Gas stations have been overwhelmed because cars and commercial trucks did not fill up for a couple days then needed to all at once. There have been a couple small bomb blasts in Karachi, but thankfully with no injuries. The paper said they are probably meant to frighten the protesters. According to the paper, the Shias in Quetta are refusing to bury the dead. The coffins line the streets, 89 so far with more to come. The paper showed one woman holding up a homemade sign: “If being Hazara is a crime, I feel great to be criminal!”

Because of the vast class differences, there is no more safety/security in everyday life. The US should take note of this, as they are headed toward greater class disparities. For example, here in Karachi, those with any money have their homes built like a mini-compound. There is an armed guard, very cheap, uneducated servants and drivers, multiple locks on the gates and doors (interior and exterior), and even the bedrooms in the house are locked when you leave so that the servants are not tempted to steal anything. If you are carrying any kind of valuables on you, you make sure your driver drives very fast to your destination so that you are not followed/hijacked. In general, it is safer not to stop your car, especially in more remote parts of the city.

At the last wedding party we attended, most of the guests had left and our smaller wedding party was eating catered food and having a lovely time chatting. We were kind of lost in discussion, when one of the men noticed that the laborers and caterers were starting to fill up the wedding tent toward us, staring and lingering for no good reason. He advised us to leave in a hurry, together, making sure not to leave a single car behind the group. And we sped home.

The upper class loves living here, because you can live like kings and queens, having 5-star dinners at country clubs, servants to take care of all the daily chores, leaving you free to have a very easy life. But that luxury comes at a steep price. Pray for the Pakistanis that they might realize a state of greater equality, freedom, and safety. And pray for the US that they might see where class inequality could lead them.

Illusions and Guides

A taste of forever
The golden ship which sails generation to generation
And the disappearing island I keep throwing my anchor upon
And each time
A new palm tree
A whiter beach
A more mild breeze
Clearer water
More exotic fruits and animals
A more forceful typhoon
And you
The one who stays near
Two steps ahead
My guide
Collecting me in your arms between voyages
Rocking me in your gentle waters
Showering me with love
Reminding me that the flame evermore dances within
Perfecting me
As we sail toward our dreams