Going All-Natural

I recently purchased a book called "The Self Health Revolution" by J. Michael Zenn at my local Whole Foods store. What a great book!

This book summarizes what's wrong with our food and why so many Americans today are overweight, suffering from diabetes and heart problems.

I highly recommend that everyone check this book out. It's short, easy to read (the author uses a lot of humor!) and is packed with information about how to live a healthy life.

I've made a few changes to my lifestyle after reading this book - and one of them has resulted in rapid results. For the past year and a half, I have been struggling with terrible skin problems. I've had worse acne as a young adult than I ever did as a teenager!

In my search for clear skin, I've done everything short of seeing a dermatologist (which I've put off because I am convinced would only result in the Doctor prescribing either Acutane (a very bad drug which has terrible side effects) or the Pill (which I object to on moral grounds)). I've tried every over-the-counter product out there; I've purchased all the 'kits' - ones on TV, ones at the drugstore, etc.

Nothing worked. Most of the products left my skin red, burning, or flaky (they made my skin so dry it peeled!)

I even tried the oil cleansing method. My skin DID get a little better with this method (and thankfully, there was no peeling!) but it ultimately did not alleviate the problem.

So after I purchased this book, I was shocked when I started reading about what kinds of ingredients are in our personal care products, including skincare.

Given that our skin is very porous, everything we put on it is absorbed into our system. (Think: That's why the medical profession uses patches to dispense medication into our system...). What I discovered from reading this book is that some common ingredients in our skin care and personal care items (shampoo, conditioner, etc) are toxic, including:

Propylene Glycol
Butylene Glycol
Polyethlyne Glycol
Ethylene Glycol -

Here's the kicker: two of the three ingredients in ANTIFREEZE are GLYCOL-BASED.

So using products with these ingredients are somewhat akin to putting ANTI-FREEZE on your skin - which remember, is a highly porous surface which absorbs anything you put on it, delivering these chemicals into your system.

Even worse, the "glycol family' are not the only harmful ingredients which show up in these types of products. Additional toxic ingredients include:

* Mineral oil, Paraffin and Petrolatum (Petroleum products)
* Parabens (have been linked to cancer and have hormone disrupting qualities).
* Phenol carbolic acid (can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma and even death).
* Acrylamide (linked to tumors in lab research)
* Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate - (found in car washes, engine degreasers, garage floor cleaners...and in over 90% of personal care products)

And the list goes on.

Needless to say, I was appalled when I read this. I immediately went out and bought some organic alternatives to the face washes, shampoos, and lotions that I had been using.

While looking at some alternative products, I came across a kit called "Organics to Clear Skin" by Juice Beauty. I was interested. As I mentioned before, I have struggled for the past year and a half with skin problems.

Although the kit was a bit pricey (although still around average for what you would pay for a comparable acne treatment kit in a drugstore), I decided to purchase it.

I've only been using it for a week - but the results have been AMAZING! After three days, my skin was already noticeably healthier, softer, and clearer. A week into the treatment, my skin looks even better! Old scars and pimples are healing. No new pimples have developed (*crosses fingers and hopes this trend continues*)

The cleansing gel is made out of fruit and is light and fresh. It doesn't have a perfumey smell- but the smell isn't bad either. It's natural, I guess. The blemish clearing serum smells great, and the moisturizing lotion - even better. Again, all natural smelling.

After using these products, I have NO itchiness, no redness, no peeling, etc. which I had with practically every other product I had tried. My skin looks great! I'm excited to continue and see what happens over time.

All of this has made me think about what I put in my body on a daily basis. Now, I want to make sure that I am eating foods as close to their natural state as possible, and without adding anything harmful. I want to be healthy from the inside out.

Call me a food-snob or a health-nut, but I think I'm going to be buying organic from now on.

Endings and New Beginnings

These past few weeks have been a time of great transition in my life. Graduating from Notre Dame. Moving to Chicago to start a new job. But the hardest of these transitions has been discerning whether to leave or stay in what I thought was a long-term relationship.

A friend - with whom I recently had the joy of reconnecting with -- put this on facebook just a few days before we met up, and at a time when I was particularly struggling with the decision:

"Porta itineris dicitur longissima esse" - 

the door is the longest part of the journey.

In my discernment, I have tried praying novenas to get an answer; nothing has surfaced - yet. While I am willing to forgive and work at the relationship, I also realize that I have to be true to myself. These past few weeks apart have not been as sad as I thought they would be. Instead, I've had time to reconnect with myself and with my deepest passions, passions which I thought I shared with this person, but which I have come to realize were never there in the way that I had hoped. With this realization, I've felt free to explore the expansive city around me, even if at times doing so reminds me of my loneliness.

Although things did not turn out the way I expected, I find myself reflective and grateful more than anything. Grateful for what I learned about life, about love, about myself. Grateful for the love that I received and the ways that this made me grow. I only have a few small regrets, which I realize have been the seeds of new insight and new wisdom, and I suppose if I had the chance to go back and do it all over again, I might have changed very little.

And so I believe that starting today - I am walking across the threshhold of that door and into a whole new realm of possibility. I know that the journey ahead will be filled with little moments of sadness, but also filled with hope.

101 Things in 1001 Days

I was inspired by my friend's blog to do the following exercise - come up with a list of 1001 things I hope to accomplish in 1001 days. 

By Saturday, May 3, 2014, I hope to have accomplished the following 1001 things:

(in no particular order):

1. Run a 5k

2. Finish reading all the Harry Potter books

3. See all the Harry Potter Movies

4. Walk the Camino de Santiago

5.       Go on a Pilgrimage to Lourdes

6.  Go on a Pilgrimage to Fatima

7.  Go on a Pilgrimage to Montreal to see St. Andre Bessette and Saint Joseph’s Oratory.

8. Get Certified as a Pastoral Associate in the Archdiocese of Chicago

9. Get a Black Belt in Tang Soo Do

10. Purchase a new car.

11 Build up my savings to $5,000.

12. Make pysanky for all my relatives for Christmas

13. Travel to the Northwest USA

14. Volunteer for an Animal Welfare organization

15. Become a Big Sister through the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program

16. Sponsor a child through World Vision or Food for the Poor

17. Get involved with Communion & Liberation

18. Smoke Hookah

19. Write a book on (Divine) Love.

20 Become carbon neutral

21. Take a yoga class.

22. Help a friend of mine go on a date.

23. Start working on a degree in counseling.

24. Become fluent in a foreign language (either Italian, German or Arabic - since I've already worked on them!)

25. Study French.

26. Get a Massage.

27. Get a secret published on PostSecret.

28. Study non-violence.

29. Read through the entire Bible.

30. Re-read the Confessions of Augustine.

31. Re-read the Odyssey.

32. Read the Desert Fathers & Mothers of the Church (selections)

33. Read the Fathers of the Church (selections)

34. Get a Spiritual Director.

35. Learn to make a great curry.

36. Learn to knit something other than scarves.

37. Go through all my belongings and donate 35 items.

38. Donate blood 5x.

39. Send Christmas cards to all my friends.

40. host a fancy dinner party for other catholic single young adults.

41. Try Ethiopian food.

42. Read or watch the news daily for a month.

43. Get a Netflix subscription.

44. Get a Wii- and get the Just Dance game!

45. Go on a silent retreat.

46. Exercise 2x a week - every week.

47. Attend an adult Summer Conference at Franciscan University.

48. Go to a Taize gathering.

49. Write my autobiography.

50. Clean my bathroom at least once every two weeks (don't judge!)

51. Practice meditation.

52. Study spanish.

53. Visit Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City.

54. Get a pet (cat or dog!)

55. Have my immediate family visit me in Chicago.

56. Get engaged.

57. Go skiing.

58. Earn enough frequent flyer miles to get a free flight.

59. Get something cool from my credit card rewards program.

60. Master the art of Extreme Couponing.

61. Go out 2x a week - be more social!

62. Get married.

63. Get a pedicure.

64. Read the Brothers Karamazov

65. Remain 120 lbs.

66. Dye my hair.

67. Bring Communion to the homebound.

68. Befriend a homeless person.

69. Pay off my graduate school loan ($8500).

70. Make a new best friend. 

71. Commission Anne Marie to write me an Icon of the Holy Family

72. Write a Parent Newsletter for the CCD program each month.

73. Welcome 10 people into the Church through RCIA.

74. Read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

75. Read 3 books by Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger).

76. Go see a dermatologist.

77. Get my bike fixed.

78. Bike ride to work whenever the weather is nice.

79. Register "my" car under my name.

80. Switch my driver's license to Illinois.

81. Register to vote in Illinois.

82. Vote in every election.

83. Become more politically active / involved in my community.

84. Meet Cardinal George.

85. Write a book on the culture war / polarization in the Church.

86. Reduce my grocery bill to 65$ a week.

87. Plant a tree.

88. Give everyone I buy gifts for for Christmas - something from the Heifer project or Ten Thousand Villages.

89. Wake up early to watch the sunrise.

90. Learn how our government system actually works (I never took civics!)

91. Go to a concert.

92. Go to a Sox vs. Cubs game.

93. Sell 15 of my old books on Amazon.com

94. Travel to visit my college friends.

95. Write to my nun friends.

96. Discern what to do about current ‘relationship’ – move forward or move on; and do it.

97. Join the adult kickball league here in Chicago (WAKA).

98. Take a cooking class.

99. Bake a Key Lime Pie from scratch.

100. Run the Holy Half Marathon at Notre Dame.

101. Be intentional about having a real Sabbath day each week.

AWESOME ARTICLE

A friend posted this link to her facebook wall and I thought I'd share this great article. It manifests many of the same sentiments I've stumbled upon over the past several years.

http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2011/06/gentleness-in-the-real-world-1.html

Small Steps Together: Gentleness in the Real World

As I've watched college students graduate recently, I've noticed a distressing trend. Campus ministries are becoming better, teaching orthodoxy without hesitation. Genuinely Catholic colleges are brimming over with zealous young people.

And yet.

There is a harshness, a sort of snobbery happening. I watch in not a little horror and listen to what they are saying, as they measure other people by their overt acts of piety, while they size people up and discard them like the stuff of  yesterday's recycling bin because they don't fit the new collegiate image of perfect holiness.

And I can just imagine that several years hence, they will go together with their young children to a playdate. They will meet another young mom at the park. They will inquire as to how many children she has. And when they discover that she has two, four years apart, they will say something sanctimonious about how they are open to God's plan for having children and has she ever heard of NFP? She will sit and wonder briefly whether she should tell them about the two years of cancer between the first birth and the second, about how desperately she prayed for this second child, about what a miracle he is. That young mom, with the two children widely spaced, will have just learned how some people of faith can judge one another. Litmus tests. Checklists. As she raises a family in the real world, she will see that attitude given voice over and over and over again, while Jesus weeps for his Church, broken and divided.

What's the opposite of gentleness? Harshness. Hard lines.  Brittle rules. 

So there you are, you all grown up and graduated and out in the real world! You've come so far. You've left behind the safety of campus life, the happy campus ministry, the structure of academia. You've gone and gotten yourself a real job in the real world. With a real cubicle and a good excuse to shop at that very fine career wear store. Good for you!

You have a zeal for the faith that can be spotted a mile away. You wear it proudly splashed across your chest on more than a dozen t-shirts collected over the years of vibrant Catholic education. And you've come to embrace all those devotions of our faith as you've learned of them in your coming-of-age. You are on fire for your faith and you are eager to go out there into the real world and tell everyone just how Catholic you are. 

May I whisper a word or two to you? 

Gentleness. Humility.

Out there, in the real world, be mindful of gentleness. Don't beat people over the head with your religion. Really. You don't win souls for Christ that way. Actually, come to think of it, you don't win souls for Christ at all. The Holy Spirit does. You just listen--quietly--for the prompting of the Holy Spirit. You just pray--fervently--that you can be His instrument. And please don't think for one moment that you are better than the guy who goes to lunch at lunchtime instead of going to Mass. You're not. You are broken and messy and in need of a savior just like he is. You have been given the extraordinary gift of grace and the blessing of faith. Given it. God gave it to you.

You didn't earn it. You don't deserve it.

Humility. You know God in the Eucharist. You are blessed. He blesses you. Now, go bless someone else.

You are going to meet so many new people in the next few years. No matter how high-powered your job, no matter how life and death your decisions, you are still and always a woman of God. You are called to be as gentle as the Blessed Mother. Here's a hint towards beginning relationships and continuing relationships with gentleness: Be the girl who walks into a room--any room, every room-- and says, "There you are! How are you?" Don't be the girl who bursts onto the scene and shouts, "Here I am! Be like me!" It's not about you. It's never about you. You are a servant of God. Serve. 

I know how dearly you hope to find a Godly man who will sweep you off your feet and be the husband to the wife and the mother you feel called to be. I know you want him to be as committed to the faith as you think you are. Don't judge every person you meet with a checklist in hand. Whether it's the girl you keep bumping into in the cafeteria, or the guy who seems to ride the same bus route on your commute, don't issue litmus tests. And for goodness sake, don't do this:

Every guy I know gets slack-jawed when they watch this video ( which made the rounds last year and caused more than one married Catholic mom I know to laugh and cry and shake her head in disbelief). At first we thought it was a joke. Then, we started reading comboxes. Not a joke, at least not for some people. Who could possibly live up to this? A second-hand relic? Honey, if you think you are marrying a saint, you are in for a rude awakening. Marriage is our path to sanctification. We don't marry into sainthood; we journey towards it together. 

Here's the thing: you're going to miss a lot of good people if you make up checklists like that. And you might just miss God's plan for you, both in terms of men and real, good girlfriends. Some of the best husbands and fathers I know couldn't have checked off more than one or two things on that video when they were fresh out of college. They grew into good, holy men, often because of girls who loved them, believed in them, and shared the grace of Jesus with them. And I know people who can check off everything on the video list and, sadly, they aren't very good husbands and fathers. While lots of people can follow the rules and lots of people can do numerous acts of piety and devotion, they aren't necessarily people after God's own heart. Following the rules does not automatically equal holiness.

And isn't it interesting how in that whole long list, not one act of mercy is mentioned? You want a good husband and father? Find a merciful one. Here's a far better checklist:

• To feed the hungry;
• To give drink to the thirsty;
• To clothe the naked;
• To harbour the harbourless;
• To visit the sick;
• To ransom the captive;
• To bury the dead.

• To instruct the ignorant;
• To counsel the doubtful;
• To admonish sinners;
• To bear wrongs patiently;
• To forgive offences willingly;
• To comfort the afflicted;

In the real world, those acts of mercy can take many, many forms. Perhaps you'll find him ladling soup in a homeless shelter. That would be an easy one to spot. Or maybe he's the young medical student who circles back after a long day of work to read stories to the pediatric patients. Maybe he's the guy who listens patiently as his grandfather goes on and on about a distant memory not quite still within his reach. Or maybe he's the one who's working fulltime and getting his degree because he dreams of a large family and wants the means with which to support them. Is he the guy next door? The one who "only" goes to Sunday Mass, but who also cheerfully picks up two young soccer players and drives them to practice three times a week because their mom is bedridden? And all the while, in the car, he is their friend. Their real friend. A strong shoulder to lean on in a time of crisis at home. Just a real good guy. Look for a real good guy. Someone who will journey with you.

Don't dismiss someone just because they aren't as outwardly pious as you are. Don't dismiss people at all. There's a big world of people out there. And some of those people are people from whom God intends you to learn. Even if, at first glance, it looks as if they aren't nearly as holy or smart or good as you are. Even if they aren't as holy or smart or pious as you are.  They, too, were created in His image and each person--each and every one--is valuable. And worth your time. Don't discount someone because they aren't as up on theology as you are or because they don't "have religion."  

Remember "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Corinthinians 8:1) 

And, to make it all trickier,  zealous people have to guard carefully against Pharasaical sins and scrupulosity.

Whether we are growing closer to God or growing closer to people, it's not about checklists. It's about relationships.

Relationships beg coming alongside, walking together.

School is finished. Now begins the real work of cultivating a teachable spirit.

It's about listening.

It's about serving.

It's about nurturing. 

It's about loving.

It's about a gentle spirit.

All the time.

It won't be easy. The gentleness thing. Pray for the grace to be gentle. We're all human, remember? As you go about your day in your busy real life world, you will brush up against broken, hurting, sinful real life human beings. They are just like you. And when you know that you are broken, too, saved by grace and gifted with faith, you will be genuinely gentle. You will look to people and assume that there is something to be learned from them, something good in them. You won't assume that because you are more pious, more obviously active in your faith, that you are closer to God. Instead, you will see Jesus in the poor, in the ordinary, even in the partier in the apartment next door.

 "This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalized and still others to hope for God’s mercy. And so He bade us to be gentle and humble of heart." -- St John Bosco

And in the end, He won their souls.

Go gently into that real world. Grow gently into a woman of genuine faith.

And God go with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~