Day to Day on the Road
Willy Nelson has a famous song. It was a wonderful liberation to be on the road again. And then it was Mexico for more than 3000 miles; onward through Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and now Panama on the Pan-American Highway another over 1000 miles: December to the end of May.
Apart from all that driving: think that I am always at home in the great Red Bear, the name I have given to this 1 ton Ford Club Wagon. What on earth am I doing and how am I able to sustain myself? What has it really taken me personally to make it so far?
Many of you cannot imagine life without something from the medicine cabinet but I am using only my two hands and a comprehensive system of meridian therapy I have practiced as a kind of yoga since 1971. When I awaken, I often also perform Health Regenerations Exercises which came from a book about healing sports injuries by a young martial artist.
When I move my energies around every day, my body retains its youthful form and function which mitigates to a high degree that I do not walk well or enough. All this amounts to a daily tune-up.
Although I have proven to myself over and over all these years that this not only works very well but that the continuing practice has probably saved my life when I was poisoned with Roundup in 2008, I have yet to find the right way to communicate to anyone else that working on themselves works.
So, once energy moves around increasing its capacity and flow, next is breakfast and dinner.
In age, it is probably better not to eat so much and I find 2 decent meals a day very adequate. Meals begin with the stored grains, seeds and nuts that I brought with me, in 3 five gallon buckets and 3 Trader Joes cooler bags one of which is the larder, cutlery and condiments bag with extra virgin olive oil, Dr. Bronners Liquid Aminos, Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, Himalayan salt, cayenne pepper as the basics. I have not found any kind of hot salsa that I like anywhere. The American Mex is really quite good, you know.
I soak the grains and seeds in a container with vinegar to release the non-nutrient phytic acid for about a day, morning to the next morning or even a little longer. After pouring out the soaking water, the sprouted food is enzyme rich, protein balanced and delicious either raw and uncooked or sizzled in the pan with veggies and maybe a egg or two.
I can chew away on it with fresh avocados, tomato, and cucumber for about an hour. There is plenty of time to give myself nurturing by food for the body and food for my heart-mind as I quietly observe my surroundings often sitting on the step at the sliding door.
There are often all kinds of birds where I have been parking. They are perched nearby, soaring above me or singing their dittys in the trees and bushes. Their naturally innocent wisdom lifts my spirit and soon I am laughing. Raven has her way to give messages as she calls from the vaults of the sky
Grocery stores in Mexico and Central America are not the same as even our least: Safeway, WinCo or Ralphs/StaterBros or the like and not at all like Trader Joes or Whole Foods types of stores. In larger cities, Wal-Mart is more likely to have some kinds of American food: real butter, a selection of cheeses in the dairy section, real milk without all kinds of extra ingredients turning it into a product which is not milk; sometimes whole grain breads and once in a while Haagen Daz ice cream (my downfall): don’t you know that it must be eaten right away because I cannot keep it cool! Yum! I can also find there whole European chocolate. Aren’t we relieved and happy to discover that chocolate is really quite good for us.
But just about in every store in this whole territory, the shelves belong to Nestle, Kelloggs, Quaker and General Foods and their sisters. Coca Cola is a staple food: the trucks are so prevalent a part of the towns, the business is so lucrative that there are young men, my grandchildren!, in camo, vests and carrying firearms to discourage theft.
These same young fresh faced grandchildren, open the computer locked security doors of the banks carrying their side arms. And these children are at the doors of the large department stores also carrying firearms.
I can’t help it: I say to them in English which they do not understand: I am very sorry that you have to carry a gun to hold a job.
The indigenous diets are probably much more wholesome and simple: they are based on corn: sin maize, no hay vida: without corn there is no life. In every country there is the typical corn tortilla either of flour or meal from the familiar Mexican flat types to the corn meal patties of 3 different sizes here in Panama. Non-glutinous grains are much better nutrition without the gluey mucous from wheat, rye etc. making marginal digestion. I learned late to avoid wheat and glad for it on this Journey.
Fresh food is pretty easy.
As soon as I crossed to Mexico, it was obvious to me that a great deal of what I found especially in the smaller aborrates (grocery stores) was locally grown food trucked from the fields maybe as far as 10 miles away. It was also likely ‘clean’ because generations of these poor farmers cannot afford the petroleum based NKP fertilizers nor assorted pesticides.
Of course, nature herself works perfectly well with all that organic kitchen waste and other composts creating a harmonious, more balanced soil enriched and free from harmful insects or disease. Go figure: our Great Mother has a bigger idea! In the US you have to search for organic and still be diligent to check the labels.
One final piece is the array of whole food supplements I carry along with me. I cannot sprout wheat or barley grass so I have powders for the alkaline drinks. I brought colloidal silver for immunity. I have probiotics and chewable digestive enzymes to maintain intestinal integrity. I have extra Vitamin C when I do not have enough fresh food and Vitamin D once in a while. I am in the sun everyday well over the hour recommended.
Understand there are only 2 principles of health: hydration and alkalinity. We must drink enough clean water with the addition in food of natural, unheated, unbleached salt without any added pouring ingredients. All bloods types are naturally 7.36 pH slightly alkaline. By choosing food to maintain that alkalinity, we unburden the systems of the body of the need to constantly detox especially excess acid from a preponderance of meat, chicken, pork, dairy foods, all grains, whether stark white or whole grain flour, sugar, alcohol and sodas allowing it to energize a high powered form and function over a prolonged lifetime.
These are lessons I learned and put into practice which are paying off big time as I am presently wearing 8 decades.( the next zero birthday has an 8 in front of it.)
Imagine that all this crazy health nut stuff is what has ultimately made the journey possible. I am able each morning to wake and rise, to exercise, get into the driver’s seat and drive. I am able to be here in the tropical climate, to be lighthearted and grateful to be here in the hostel or visiting with friends or wherever alive and well.
So I decided to share some of this simple and profound knowledge with you so that you understand what it really takes to make a life. Money is not the object of the game, in my view, health and well being, spiritual progress, giving something to each and every person I meet and to ultimately give back something to the world that it most sorely needs. These practices and these ideas refine my sensibilities and I hope somehow vicariously will also refine yours.
If you have any questions about any of this, please contact me directly at Lotuswfive@gmail.com and I will be thankful to respond with my best knowledge.
Thank you very much. Many blessings and much Love, Amraah