The Photograph

The photograph is an incredible imprint of a moment in history...This past summer, it took on new meaning for my husband and me at a surprise 40^th anniversary dinner...Poster after poster of photographs were on display depicting our life!...Today, as I began to take down these pictures and place them into a special commemorative album, I soon realized how many special moments were created and caught on film...Our 40^th anniversary was an incredible milestone....How had we done it? ....   What we did not realize on that special day, in August, was the effect our 40 year union had had on our adult children..... The surprise party for us was the ‘wedding reception’ we never had  40 years ago!

Today’s  slow, meticulous dismantling of several hundred pictures, spanning over  40 years, reminded me of the many moments of love, hilarity and caring that had occurred....  There were pictures of our teen boys adorning themselves with wigs of long colorful hair to surprise me at a Bon Jovi concert in Toronto, ..Then there was the time our boys, dressed in suits with dark glasses, drove a family friend to our barbecue, pretending she was a high profile dignitary, as they whisked her away to her destination....Presidential treatment comes to mind... We all laughed as I snapped yet another picture of the secret mission infolding before us.....   Family pets of many kinds, some long since gone, are forever remembered because photographs made them a lingering memory for me....  (A strip of 15 pictures will remain intact and framed,  too  gripping to lose in the confines  of an album)..... (The video camera, a cumbersome bit of machinery back then, was never in my arsenal of ‘picture taking’ tools.) ...Today's digital camera is a marvel to behold!

The unexpected, unrelenting, imaginative, and simply wonderful moments created by our family and friends reminded me that an eclectic life had unfolded and continues to unfold...Photographs tell the complete story... Pictures of the places we’d visited come alive because of a husband who always wanted to travel and whose incredible sense of direction opened up new vistas for all of us... Our sons were very lucky to have a father so talented and immersed in their lives, every step of the way....Pictures of our life together had become an interestingly woven tapestry for our assembled guests to view and for us to enjoy, forever.....My incessant picture taking had not been for naught!

The cornucopia of snapshots, grouped thematically and chosen with care, were a marvel to behold-still.  Our precious girls, daughter-in-law and “Lucy”, had worked their magic, painstakingly,  to bring these pictures to life....I marvelled and cried silently at those pictures, a world that might not have been had we not had children..... My ‘picture taking’ had served a purpose...  Countless hours had been spent scanning then choosing these photographs for presentation. ...  Their impact was profound..... (A professional photographer, a close family friend, praised our children for the quality of their display)... The moments of yesteryear were now up close and personal, a tangible, immovable feast for us to view over and over again, a continual reminder of our  five children’s mind numbing surprise.

The pictures taken on our anniversary added yet another dimension of visual proof that something special had happened that day... Detailed planning had gone into the execution of this event. The pictures told this newest story..... But it was the people: a mix of many who have touched our lives over the years made our 40^th, an event we could never have imagined....   The pictures- still life, full of purpose and promise, helped me see what a wonderfully orchestrated history 40 years had brought...The snapshots said it all.... And I cried some more.....

An Alliance with Food

Good health and good food are closely connected. ... It’s an alliance that has stood the test of time... Food choices are not about what we like but what the body needs....A trip to the local food market, a few months ago, opened my eyes to yet another nutritional WOW moment... I had stopped in for a couple of items, early one morning....  As I approached  the  check- out lane, there in front of me, lay a  lush forest of greenery, so pure in colour and fragrance ( with some  frozen fish), that I jokingly remarked to the customer,   “Where are the Twinkies”?...  He then began his story. He used to work in an animal clinic, in close connection with the doctors there. ... Many times, he remarked, an animal’s suffering or chronic condition could only be addressed with a prescription or a change of the animal’s commercial pet food. Sometimes, these medical anomalies were overwhelming, he added. ... I listened as he recounted the years of watching and working with dogs, cats and other creatures. ... Our conversation continued, outside.

As the owner of a reptile store, he talked about the serious afflictions that some breeds of dogs displayed, sometimes a characteristic of the breed or simply an expected outcome of ill health or the aging process. ... His thinking about pet health evolved. Could there be a better way? ...  Old patterns rarely resulted in new outcomes. ... Aging takes its toll on every living creature.....It is incumbent upon us to change our thinking and habits as we gain insights into and accommodate the new reality of ill health, injury and aging with our loved family pets and ourselves. ...  The ‘pet’ store owner’s recipe for  health success was simple and unadorned. ... His methods of blending and juicing these ‘super’ vegetables, to help restore good health to his pets, were inspiring....  His pets were now healthier and happier for the changes he had made. ... To his animals, he was a miracle worker. ...  I was moved by his story. ... It was simplicity at its best.

Remembering the pet food recall/crisis of a few years ago in Canada, the United States and beyond, it now seems prudent to reconsider our total reliance on an industry that we have trusted, implicitly, from the beginning, to feed our furry offspring. ....  My confidence in the pet food industry was shattered, back then, after it was revealed that a foreign 'plastic' material that mimicked a food substance was found in pet food, intentionally put there by a third party....The deaths  of cats, dogs and the disabling of many others destroyed the lives of pet owners. ...  We weeped at the scale of the tragedy. ... The bottom line had been the great motivator in this crime.

Several years ago, a routine blood test was taken for our 10 year old female retriever. ...The test revealed that she was dying and had only weeks to live...  ( either her body was killing off her red blood cells or she had leukemia).... I was numb.... The doctor immediately suspected the ‘painkiller’, she was taking,  was causing this ‘side effect’....  And it was!...  A similar drug was begun immediately.... A few months later, though, that drug was stopped. ...  Our dog had not displayed any pain...(What was I thinking?) ...  Both drugs were painkillers...  The second drug was killing pain; the initial one was killing our dog!! ... This newest lesson hit home in dramatic fashion. 

Drugs given to help/heal, initially, can, sometimes, become a lethal weapon, later.....When I believed our dog was dying, I began giving her Rooibos tea (in her food), a red hued African tea known for its superior cancer killing/antioxident properties. ...  (She had nothing to lose, I reasoned)...  Like the gentleman who took a forest home to his pets, I added Rooibos tea -(caffeine free)- to my dog’s diet whose false positive diagnosis opened up a new way of thinking, believing and doing....   She lived nearly two more years - drug free and with tea!

The Pharmaceutical Giant in the Kitchen

A recent discovery by the Momsey has helped shift a new light on one of the pharmaceutical giants in the kitchen: the common, everyday apple.... Though berries, leafy greens and other colourful fruits and vegetables have been exalted for their super health benefits, attention should now be focused on the humble apple, a star in its own right. 

Apples have been an important ‘diet’ food in the lives of our dogs for  over 14 years.... It was the proverbial ‘an apple a day’ regimen begun, many years ago, out of a concern for our pets’ teeth and gums that made apples an important part of their daily diet. ... It’s funny how you start something for one reason and continue for another... Now, this dynamic fruit has been pushed to its nutritional limits with a recent discovery of a natural acid found in its peel that helps to build muscle and burn fat. 

When our 13 year old retriever, ‘puppy boy’, (88 pounds), began experiencing coughing spells recently, I began to have a renewed love affair with this common fruit knowing its power as a protective veil for lungs. l soon began to juice apples to address our pet’s periodic wheezing and coughing with 'apple juice'. ...  It would become his 'cough medicine’ whenever needed.... Then came this newest discovery proclaiming apples supremacy in combating muscle decline and fat accumulation, as we age.... 

In the Autumn 2012 issue of Living Well Naturally, a magazine published by Natures’ Emporium, a Canadian whole food market, the author of the article on apples, Dr. Mark Rosenberg, wrote about ursolic acid’s prominence in apple peels that reprograms genes to build muscle and burn fat.... This scientific discovery further reinforced the benefits of eating both the apple and its peel, something we have been told to do all of our lives, anyway. ... 

Apples are tops in health benefits! ... They are now juiced regularly for our dogs. ... Fewer and shorter coughing episodes have been noted since the 'juice' was added to our 13 year old's diet. ... A recent sprain he suffered made moving and getting up even more difficult. ... The formerly discarded apple peel and its pulp are now front and center at every meal for this reason, ( in addition to a recommended joint support powder)- helping to strengthen his muscles etc....  This new power of apple peels, supported by science, cannot be ignored....  Our dog, and his much younger companion, receive apple/carrot/celery peel in their food, the residue that remains from juicing...This fiber mixture is another added benefit to their daily diet. ...  (Seeds and stems are discarded).....Red delicious apples are used mostly because of their red peel.... (More red colour equals more anti oxidant value, I have learned)....

It is amazing what you can learn when you read  the ‘free’ magazines found in the ‘grocery store’...In Free Kittens, Puppies for Sale, I wrote about the seeming diminished, undervalued treatment of ‘free to a good home’ pets...Does a ‘Please Take One’ magazine also imply a diminished value of this free publication?.... We ignore ‘free’ magazines at our own peril.... It was this free publication that enlightened me to the awesome powers of the common apple...We don't know what we don't know!

I am now in awe of the apple, more than ever. It has always seemed to be the granddaddy of all fruits.  Now it is king and I am its humble servant!