Breast cancer and the Pink Ribbon distraction

If you know someone who has or has had breast cancer, what I’m about to say make shock you, or even make your angry ~ I don't give money to breast cancer charities.

It’s not that I don’t care, or that I don’t have compassion. It’s tragic that so many women are succumbing to this dis-ease. Let’s look at this word. DIS EASE.

Why are so many women uneasy with their breasts? Why are they creating dangerous growths in this part of their body? Cancer is a disease of the 'environment'. What environment has been created within a woman's body which allows this cancer to grow?

I don’t give money to research because I believe we already have the answers and if money is to be given, it should be given to the promotion of breastfeeding and self-care.

Breast cancer, whether we like it or not, is a massive wake up call to reclaim breastfeeding and to reinvent our FEMININE role as mothers. How much more obvious does it have to get? Our breasts are screaming out to us. We live in a time where mothering is so far removed from what Nature intended. Something as big and tragic as breast cancer is NEEDED precisely because the 'wound' reveals the cure.

Looking for lumps in our breasts each month is a way of drawing them into your reality. I realise what I’m saying is completely counter to mainstream beliefs. But I do believe that if you look for fish scales on a cat you’ll most surely find them.

Breast cancer is rampant. In fact, in the USA, it’s the major killer of women between the ages of 30 and 50. In the UK, 1000 women a year die from it.

Physically, there are many reasons for this, however, numerous studies have shown that the longer a woman breastfeeds for the less likely she is to develop breast, ovarian or uterine cancer.

With so many women opting to not breastfeed, it's not surprising that breast cancer rates are sky rocketing. Mess with nature's plan and we pay the price.

Any disharmony in the physical body is a symptom of discord on an emotional level. Our body is essentially the last place it manifests. Ironically, we then try and treat the physical body rather than healing the cause. I believe we must address the metaphysical reasons for breast cancer as well as the physical.

Our breasts are symbolic of nurturing.

Metaphysically, which means to look beyond the physical, problems with the left breast have been associated with a refusal to nourish and nurture one's self. These are the people pleasers, always putting everyone else's needs way ahead of their own. Some people do it willingly, others with a more martyred tone, making it quite clear that it's a burden but they have no choice. The irony is that these people, who are willing to do so much for others, tend to feel unloved. You’ll have heard people like this say “I’ve given up everything for so and so…”


At the right breast, problems manifest for those who have trouble giving life. They tend to express it through dictating the relationship, being over-bearing and over-protective. Their path is to learn to trust that relationships can be safe without control, that love is a two way thing ~ given and received.

Breast problems, such as cancer, can be treated chemically or naturally. The true healing though, must always come from the emotional body, otherwise the issues will manifest again, in a louder way, until the message is heard. The Celestial Amplifier will just keep getting louder. When we follow the middle path of balanced expression, we find our attention in the area of the heart, rather than the breasts. This is an integration of mindful awareness. We need to nurture our self as well as others.

Let’s find a wholesome, positive way to give attention to our breasts.

Firstly, let’s encourage a new language where breasts are honoured for being important, beautiful, vital and expressive aspect of our being. Let’s integrate holistic health care which sees massage and exercises, such as yoga or pilates to build up our pectoral muscles. Let’s stop seeing breasts as only being visible if used on pornographic magazines. Let’s remove the cultural embarrassment of breastfeeding.

Being mindful of seeing the heart area positively, will help us find balance and peace in relation to breast health.

It is interesting that pink is used for the ribbons in breast cancer awareness programmes as it is associated with nurturing. Breasts, too, are associated with nurturing. They are symbolic of mothering ~ this of course doesn’t just mean the way we relate to our children, but also to others in our family, community or the world at large. When we have problems with our breasts it is mirroring our insecurities in how we feel we can nurture or protect them. It’s interesting to note that our breasts call out to us when we don’t nurture ourselves adequately either.

Understanding that the breast is about nurturing and nourishment, we should look at issues of 'the mother'.

Metaphysicians have found that there is a direct correlation with the way you were mothered, and issues developed in the breasts.

It’s too easy to become workaholics or whatever in order forget childhood, and it is just as easy to whine about what we went through with our terrible parents, but the lesson for all of us is that we weren’t put on this earth to look out for everyone.

We must practice self care and self love first. If you’ve been on an aeroplane you’ll know that the air hostesses always tell mums that in the event of an emergency, they must put on their own oxygen mask first. It’s a brilliant analogy. I remember the first time I heard it, I thought “are you crazy? Do you REALLY think I’m gonna put a mask on myself first? NO WAY!” But, you know, those air hostesses are right. We have to give ourselves oxygen first…not just on a plane, but in life, as mothers. It doesn’t mean abandoning babe or going off for a girls’ night. It’s in the simple things…drinking when thirsty, going to the loo before your bladder bursts...sitting down for five minutes when you’re exhausted.I don’t think we should hesitate to help others if they ask for it, and we can willingly do so. We must do it with pleasure, joy and love, not resentment or obligation. It’s always ok to say NO. When we say to another, we’re saying YES to our self. It always helps to look at it from this positive angle.

We can always offer maternal love and nurturing to those we love…but that doesn’t mean we need to smother them.

If you wish to avoid breast cancer, do the obvious thing and breastfeed your child until s/he is ready to wean. Avoid processed foods, and eat fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and herbs as close to their natural state as possible. Drink plenty of pure water. Breathe fresh air. Leave a peaceful lifestyle. Meditate. Allow happiness and harmony to be your currency of choice. Find balance in your day to day choices.

Next time you consider donating to breast cancer research, take a moment to consider whether than money might be better spent on prevention through the promotion of breastfeeding.

The Drinks Are On Me ~ UK Tour

I mentioned previously that I’d be taking The Mother magazine and related projects out into the public more this year…and these past few weeks have been spent busily hatching such ideas.

Confirmed breastfeeding talks include:

Brighton Friends Meeting House
Thursday evening, May 1st 7.15pm. I’ll also be joined by Patrick Houser, author of the Fathers-to-be handbook.
(Book through www.artofchange.co.uk )

I’m speaking at the Natural parenting seminar in Cambridge on May 2nd at 2pm
The topic is: Breastfeeding ~ the heart and soul of parenting.

Birmingham ~ mid may (date to be confirmed) ( www.artofchange.co.uk )

Manchester ~ 22nd May 7pm Friends Meeting House (book through www.artofchange.co.uk)

Check the website for details of other talks around the UK.

I’m sitting on some other exciting TM news which I’ll blog about in the next week or two.

Have a fabulous week!

Children as teachers

Children as such incredible teachers. When I first heard there was snow forecast for Easter weekend, my heart sank. It’s not that I don’t think it looks pretty or anything ~ it looks stunning when it blankets the fells (hills) and fields around here, it’s just that, I don’t like the cold. I really can’t bear it; my bones ache. Give me mild weather and rain any day….though my preference is 30C and not a cloud in the sky! However, I rose to the challenge and allowed myself to live in the moment and be accepting. On Easter Saturday, I sat in one of my favourite places, Bluebell Bookshop in Penrith, and continued reading a book I’ve had my head in each time I visit there…I looked up from my cosy spot on the sofa and saw the snow falling. Beautiful! I realised that if it was December I’d be so caught up in the romance of it all (cue: Christmas carols, the bookshop café lit up with candles) ~ and again, caught myself, and realised that the labels I’m putting on the weather are what causes the problems. “It’s Easter, it shouldn’t snow. I don’t like cold..bla bla.”

I was warm, and I indulged in the BEST hot chocolate this side of the equator. In silence, I sat reading a fabulous book….there wasn’t anything wrong with my present moment. And that’s all we have, isn’t it? Right now...here now.

Children know this. My girls were up before breakfast on Easter morning ~ sledging and snowing. I was snugged up in bed!

We don’t do Easter in the sense of how the masses *celebrate*...No eggs here! Paul and I always do a little treasure hunt for the girls. Most years I wrap up a collection of dried fruit and nuts and then hide them in the garden at the end of a very long list of clues. This year I asked Paul to make up the clues…a very sneaky way of getting the girls to do mind-expanding maths! The clues involved lots of square roots (ouch!) and having to do them to get to the next location. And all this was done in the dining room because the weather wasn’t conducive. But, rather than have their brain turn to fuzz over maths, they were totally up for the challenge and there was lots of laughing!

It’s far too easy to believe we’re the ones guiding and teaching our children. Day after day revelations come to me ~ and this happens because of observing my children; my blessed teachers.

Beautiful faces, friendly spaces

Beautiful faces, and friendly spaces

Ok, ok…it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog. It’s not for not wanting to write…it’s more a matter of balance between long walks with the girls, launching my book, travelling to America, getting a magazine to the printer, editing the next magazine, finishing up the last part of my next book…and, of course, stopping to smell the roses!

When I last blogged, I was preparing for the official launch of my book, The Drinks Are On Me ~ everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding. We launched it in Bristol at Seven Generations (eco café and bookstore) to a lovely audience. I met old friends and made new ones! I was rather choked up, to say the least, to see faces that I’ve not seen for a few years ~ beautiful faces which came into my life through The Mother magazine. My family and I had the great pleasure of staying with the gorgeous Alex, Anton, Hugo and Naomi...a wonderful family ~ generous, kind, like-minded, wonderful people. It really made our stay in Bristol a time to remember.

Twelve years
Bethany turned twelve on March 13th ~ my marker of twelve years of full-time stay at home mothering. I could never have predicted the landscape of such a journey. As for Bethany, I’m thoroughly enjoying watching her become more of who she is. It’s a very odd experience watching your child physically develop into a woman, especially while the emotions are waiting to catch up!

Stars and Skyscrapers

I recently went to New York to appear on a chat show ~ discussing full-term breastfeeding and stay at home mothering v. career women (as if you can’t be both???). Due to contractual obligations, darn it, I am not allowed to blog about the experience… they probably knew I'd be less than impressed with their underhand and completely dishonourable tactics!

New York was a shock to my little system. The last time I was there was before I became a mum. I’ve changed so much as a person in that time, and my choice of living away from a town or city is a reflection of such changes. Spending three days in non-stop traffic noise (think constant taxi beeping, fire engine sirens every few minutes, followed by more honking!, etc.) was taxing to my soul. Two weeks after my return and I still feel jaded. I felt such relief and joy when I returned home and heard not a single sound outside at night. I shall never take this peace, or beautiful countryside and starlit skies for granted again. It has certainly had me reflecting on people’s different destinies and lifestyle choices.

Being able to look out of my bedroom window to a starlit sky, not spoilt by light pollution, is something I treasure. When I looked out of my hotel room, I was stunned that the 20 story building opposite me on Seventh avenue (aka Fashion Ave) had lights on in EVERY room, all night long, even though all the staff had gone home. That’s obscene! Don’t the ‘mericans know anything about turning lights out?? In a room where windows didn’t open, and the central heating couldn’t be turned down (I don’t have central heating in my cottage so it nearly killed me), I felt like a trapped lion, pacing back and forward…sleep eluded me. As I looked down the ten stories to the street below, I saw someone sleeping on the concrete. It was all so wrong, wrong, wrong. Here I was, stuck in a room I couldn’t sleep in, while he was on cold concrete. It occurred to me that if I went down and asked him if he wanted a shower and a bed, I’d probably be put in jail! It was, however, one of those moments in life that really brought home to me how one person’s success/tragedy/triumphs/failures are everyone’s… We’re all connected despite the illusion of being separate beings.

Ecologically, flying to New York for a few days is not the way to reduce a girl’s carbon footprint. I’m well aware of that. My intent (and justification), however, was to awaken the masses (an initial audience of 11 million and then syndicated around the world) to full-term breastfeeding ~ one aspect being the horrendous pollution and destruction caused by the artificial milk industry! For example, a dummy (pacifier) takes 450 years to decompose ~ that’s eighteen generations. In one year alone, American women throw out enough artificial milk tins to circle the Earth one and a half times. Breast milk is the ultimate in local food. Breastfeeding shouldn’t be a cultural embarrassment. It is something to celebrate and encourage. In these times of ecological uncertainty, we should be moving heaven and Earth to wake women up to the consequences of not breastfeeding. BOTTLEFEEDING AFFECTS ALL OF US.

American TV

Trapped in a hot hotel room, I resorted to watching American television. OMG!!!! Have you ever watched it? Wall to wall adverts for every legal drug going…Barbie dolls selling drugs which they claim help with ‘my asthma’, ‘my constipation’, ‘my insomnia’. The whole tv industry is subsidised by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s like 24/7 hypnotism. What a cultural nightmare. There’s no sense there of taking responsibility for one’s self ~ adverts also cover plastic surgery, legal firms and so on.

Given that the average American watches 6 hours of television a day (equates to fifteen years in a lifetime), those with investments in the drugs industry are laughing all the way to the bloody bank! I kept shouting at the screen (under the illusion the Yanks might hear me ~ yeah, I know, not likely above the taxi horns!) that you don’t need drugs. Take valerian tea for your insomnia, eat raw fruit and vegetables for your constipation, breastfeed your kids to avoid asthma or practice Butyeko, meditate, love yourself and you won’t need plastic surgery ~ beauty comes from within!!!!!!!

Photographer ~ Birth balance

While in New York I had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with a new photographer for The Mother. Judith’s pictures will start gracing our covers from Issue 28. I’m very excited. It was great to meet with a like-minded soul while in the City that never sleeps (never mind the city not sleeping, *I* didn’t sleep! ~ I’m still trying to catch up) See Judith’s great website here. www.birthbalance.com

I had a lovely dinner at Blossom (on 9th Ave) ~ an organic vegan restaurant. What a treat! Such a place is a luxury when you live rurally, as I do. I’d have to travel a few hundred miles from here to find an equivalent place. The company was fab, too. I dined with a lovely woman I met who worked on the tv show. Brooke is very special, and it is warming to know that even within the high-ego industry of television there exist people with 100% integrity.

On the show, I met a LLL leader who was there with her 2 year old. Kim was another wonderful soul ~ something which I really appreciated during my time there.

At about 3.30am, as I lay in bed cursing the noise outside my window, a large explosion occurred. Hmmmm. What’s that, I wondered. Twas pretty loud!! And then, then the traffic stopped.

Turns out someone had thrown an explosive device in Times Square ~ right near to where I was staying. No one was hurt ~ thankfully. But for about five hours there wasn’t a single piece of traffic. No car horns, no sirens. Bliss. Too bad that I was too wired up by then to be able to make the most of the quiet and get some sleep.

Flight to NY ~ the challenge of unattached parents

The flights highlighted how challenging it can be to parent children when we don’t bond at birth. I observed two women who rarely touched their children. Heartbreaking. My return flight (about 7 hours because we were stuck on the runway at JFK for an hour) consisted of a toddler screaming the whole time. Given I’d only had about five hours sleep in five days, my patience levels were zilch. The mum was a doctor and the dad a psychiatrist…you’d think, between them, they might know a little about holding a child and offering comfort? What do they learn in order to get their degrees? Cor blimey! It’s not bloody rocket science. CUDDLE HIM. All the mother did the whole time was say “Adam, shut up. Adam, the man will come and get cross with you if you don’t stop screaming. Adam, sit down. Adam this, Adam that.” I don’t ever want to hear the name Adam again. On the outbound flight, the poor little baby was strapped into a cot for the duration….again, no body contact, no smiles, no nothing. The mum was only interested in watching the inflight movie. Is this how we’re bringing up the next generation? Devoid of human LOVE? Neither mother was prepared to live in the present moment and simply be with her child…she wanted to escape.

Our cultural messages are such that distancing ourselves from children’s needs is considered normal and right. The consequences of not meeting our children’s VERY REAL needs of love, affection, touch and joyous body language ~ as well as validating them for who they are ~ remain with our offspring for life.

I did the long-haul flight from Australia to the UK when our girls were almost three and one. It’s a long way and hugely taxing on the senses. Eliza took her first steps in Dubai airport to the cheering crowd of air hostesses. Not once did my girls cry or cause annoyance to other passengers. Nor did they have the pain of blocked ear drums ~ they were breastfed during take off and landing. I’m not saying I’m a better mother than the two women I observed on the flights. What I am saying though, is that when we’re bonded with our children, then we have an ESP-like quality which means we can meet their needs ahead of time. They don’t need to go into distress mode. When we’re bonded, we instinctively know what our children need, and equally, we know how to meet that need.

Oprah ~ A NEW EARTH

Not all is bad Stateside… there are some people who give me such hope for our collective future. Oprah is one such person.

In case you’ve not heard, the divinely wonderful Oprah Winfrey (the only woman in the world, besides my mum, who I’ve put on a pedestal) is hosting a weekly tele-class with Eckharte Tolle (author of the Power of Now). They’re discussing his book A New Earth ~ awakening to your life’s purpose. Just go to her website and hit the link. You won’t be disappointed. I’m so excited by this outreach across the world. www.oprah.com I suggest that, rather than watching it live, you download the show a day or two after it airs, and then you won't get the adverts!

It is without doubt the highlight of each week for Paul and I to be able to watch this programme.

Talks/mentoring ~ Bringing The Mother magazine alive (to a town near you)

This year is bringing a lot of change into my life ~ personally and professionally. Paul will be home as both a full-time parent and working on developing The Mother with me, and this will allow me to take my work (books and magazine) out more into the world. If you’d like me to talk or give a workshop in your town or city, please contact Barry at the Art of Change. Or you can visit www.artofchange.co.uk and see if I will be speaking near you. First on the list will be Manchester. You can also visit The Mother magazine website to see some of the topics I talk about www.themothermagazine.co.uk

If you’d like mentoring on your continuum/attachment journey, then I invite you to visit my website www.veronikarobinson.com

Vaccination

See this extraordinary story in the respected UK establishment journal - The Spectator.
"The Wakefield Witchhunt" - Melanie Phillips - The Spectator - Friday, 21st March 2008
This is also the first time respected political commentator Melanie Phillips has ventured into this territory for some years. That alone is significant. The fact The Spectator has published on this is all the more significant.And remember also the extraordinary piece in The Spectator last May 16 by former Sunday Times Health Editor Neville Hodgkinson:-

What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 Part 1
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 2
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 3
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 4
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 5
What killed Sally Clark’s child? Neville Hodgkinson 19 may 2007 - Part 6

Easter
I'm dreaming of a white easter.....snow this weekend...just when I was all set to bring life to my garden! Whatever you're doing, have a lovely weekend. Enjoy your family, live in the present moment...and practise gratitude!

With love, veronika

karma

No, friends, I’ve not forgotten my blog…I’ve been fully stretched and the weeks just all morph into one. All *should* return to normal after the weekend.

What follows is something my mum sent to me about 15 years ago. I came across it yesterday when doing my ghastly taxes ~ you know, that big box with dozens of papers that you've got to compile into order by the end of January. I grew up with a belief in the Law of Karma ~ as you sow, so shall you reap. Every action has a consequence, etc. I believe this is a healthier, more liberating look at our old friend karma. Have a gorgeous week ~ Veronika


Choosing your own lessons

Karma is not a law.

Karma is not given out by Karma Lords. It is not even a law. The truth is…it is one of many forms of decision making. It is one of the many ways you make decisions about what you want to learn. It is a vehicle that you use. It is not a law by which you must abide.

It is about what lessons you want to embrace; to tackle and embrace. Please note the words.

All along you have been choosing them. It is time to choose expansive lessons. It is time to choose what is right and good about you ~ your determination, your inventiveness, creativity, self-reliance, resourcefulness, commitments, courage; your love, passion and compassions that live inside of you.

Happy New Year

Dear reader,

Wishing you a sparkling, bright, brilliant, peaceful, loving, abundant and truly gorgeous New Year! Enjoy every single day, and live it as if it's your last.
~ Blessings, Veronika

I AM THE NEW YEAR
I am unused, unspotted, without blemish,
I stretch before you three hundred
And sixty-five days long.
I will present each day
In its turn, a new leaf
In the book of life
For you to place upon
It your imprint

I AM THE NEW YEAR.

Each hour of every day, I will
Give you sixty minutes that
Have never known the use of man.
White and pure I present them;
It remains for you to fill them
With sixty jeweled seconds of
Love, hope, endeavor, patience
And trust in God.

I AM THE NEW YEAR.
I am coming -- But once past, I can
Never be recalled, Make me your best!

Author Unknown

Life begins at 40!

Life begins at 40, or so they say.
If it’s true, then I’d say it’s a rather exciting prospect.

Others say that by 40, life’s half over. Not surprisingly I slept till 10am today, not sure which half of the cup I was looking at!

This morning, I awoke with the sober realisation that I’m never going to morph from my Ugly Duckling school-girl image into a babe! It simply ain’t gonna happen. Darn. The wrinkles came a while ago, so there was no rude shock in the mirror.

What I lack in physical beauty, I make up for in other areas of my life where wealth abounds with nothing short of divine beauty. I have a soul mate who daily blesses my life with comfortable, affectionate and deeply loving companionship. He makes our relationship loving, fun, easy and truly beautiful.

Our daughters are happy and healthy. My work brings me great joy, pleasure, satisfaction and contentment. I truly love what I do.

I may have a pathetic looking bank balance, but I’m debt free. It’s so nice to not wear the heaviness of “I owe, I owe” 24/7. There isn’t a price you can put on such freedom.

So is it greedy or selfish to be asking the Universe for a few more things? Such as a bit of extended time in the sun? Nine years of British weather is taking its toll on my heart and soul ~ not to mention my once tanned skin! And how about a home of our own, or at least one that FEELS like ours ~ somewhere big enough that I’m not forever stepping on children’s toes or cat’s paws. A home with a large open plan kitchen ~ the hub of the home filled with friends; somewhere with views as lovely as what we already have; somewhere with spring water, and acreage for being self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. Is it really too much to ask? I know it would benefit so many more people than just me and my immediate family. And while you’re there, Universe, please chuck in some great friends local to where we live. It would make all the difference.

I awoke this morning to a ‘living’ card from Paul telling me what our relationship means to him, followed by breakfast in bed ~ a Blueberry smoothie made by Eliza. Bethany lit a thousand and one tea light candles (or so it seemed). She gave me beautiful mango soap and a lemongrass bathbomb! Smells amazing. Quite a while ago, a friend gave the girls some vouchers for a shop called Lush. A week or two back we spent the day in Edinburgh and the girls spent ages in the shop choosing their goodies. Bless them, they gave me their well-thought out pieces.

Not that I needed any more chocolate after this past week, but they made me a beautiful chocolate and ginger cake this morning. Eliza created me a mini-vision board with a hand-drawn picture of my family and us all standing in front of a tropical island. Bring it on!

As I imagine the next forty years, I hope to reach the end with my beloved Paul still by my side and our love even more richer, if that’s possible. Bless him, he’ll be 99 and I’ll be a spring chicken at 80!

I expect my daughters will make me a grandmother. I have absolutely no doubt I’ll be much better equipped for that role, than the one I currently do as a mother. Maybe the girls will have taught me to knit by then.

I’d like to think that in the next decade, I’ll have made sufficient changes in my life so that my mum, as the wise elder she is, can live with us. It would bring such joy to her and my family to not be separated by oceans and countries.

I hope to have The Mother magazine readily accepted into mainstream circles without editorial compromise of any description.

I trust that the time and space to write the rest of my books will manifest easily…and to have a ‘writing’ room from which to do it.

I imagine having the resources to help nurture all my daughters’ talents.

And for me, I’d love to learn the cello! I hold on to the belief that we’re never too old to learn a new skill! The sound of a cello goes right into the depths of my being.

In the end, though, a bit like the old ‘what would you do if you won lotto?’ question, there’s very little I want for myself, but a whole lot I want to give out to the world.

As a child, in High School, there was a plaque on the wall which used to annoy me, because I believed that the soul had many lives and we didn’t come here just once.

However, now that I’m old and wise (LOL) I can see it in the sense of “I” as in Veronika, rather than I as in the soul.

It’s a saying I’ve really grown to love:

I expect to pass through this world but once
Any good therefore that I can do
Or any kindness that I can show for any fellow creature
Let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

CHEERS!

O Holy Night

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas
if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7

Today’s the winter solstice. As I write, I can see thick frost sparkling in the moonlight ~ truly a picture of mid-winter beauty.

I’ve been admiring my garden a lot lately, not because of luscious summer growth, or abundant vegetables, but because of the simplicity it wears at this time of year. Winter kills back everything but the spruce, holly, ivy, and my beloved eucalyptus (which I grew from seed ~ a treasured, fellow native). The stark nakedness reminds me of the purity in simple things. With very little light during the day time, I still find moments to reflect on how, despite the hibernating tendencies I have when it’s so darn cold, stunning life and nature are when we peel back the layers. It’s just so easy to miss this in the busyness of modern life. So easy to forget to breathe in LIFE.

The oak trees, silhouetted against apricot sunset skies, fill my senses to bursting point. It almost makes me weep to see the stunning views where we live. All around me, Mother Nature mentors me through the festive season. She shows me that beauty is felt, as much as seen.

I absolutely love Christmas. I despise the crass commercialism associated with it, and stay well clear of frantic shoppers and adverts! For me, it is a time to be with loved ones ~ celebrating and loving. I only need to hear Perry Como singing carols and I’m completely Christmased up! My inclination to hide away for the winter is symbolic of a deeper inward journey ~ a reclamation of my spiritual life ~ a time to put the rest of the world on hold as I explore my practices, beliefs and rituals, and consider how I can bring them back from the deep unconscious, and gift them out into the wider world.

As a child my mother created magical Christmas times…memories which will stay with me for life. I always strive to bring that magic forth for her granddaughters. It’s a legacy that would be such a beautiful tradition to pass down our family line. I know if I never gave my girls another Christmas present again it wouldn’t detract from the love, joy and passion they have for this season. They’ve felt the true meaning of Christmas and that is what they look forward to. To them, the highlights of Christmas are food and candelight.

I told them recently about a survey asking children what they got as presents last Christmas and how none of them could remember. My girls were able to recall all their gifts from the last few years. I wonder if it is because the items held meaning and also because we don’t do ‘overload’. Present opening isn't an expedition through dozens of gifts.

A few years ago I stopped doing Christmas cards. I’ll be honest ~ it was a really difficult decision. You see, I’m not an eco-scrooge (as one newspaper columnist described people like me), and I’m not trying to ruin Christmas by apparently being anti-social. I came to know so many gorgeous people through The Mother magazine (and our camps), that the list of people I felt genuine affection, love and care for, just grew and grew. For me, the solution was to stop doing cards at all, and to just do presents for those who share Christmas Eve under our roof. I can honestly say I have no regrets!

I truly love how special it feels to receive cards and packages in the post. I’ve learned to trust that it’s ok to receive cards and not ‘have’ to send ones back. I do, however, phone or email as many friends as possible over the festive season.

In childhood, our presents weren’t wrapped. My mum would bring them out after our evening meal and put each child’s presents (there were eight of us) in little piles beneath the Christmas tree. As we all sang our carols, in English and German, our eager little eyes would be surveying the floor wondering which selection of goodies was ours.

I still celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. It feels so magical in the evening by candlelight, and the fire crackling. I do wrap presents, but again, like everything else around Christmas, I keep it simple. Tonight, as I was wrapping, the girls said it reminded them of Little House on the Prairie (there’s a beautiful Shaker-style simplicity to their lives). You see, I use brown wrapping paper and some string (raffia or hemp) to tie it up, and add a holly leaf. It may not be glamorous, but it is genuinely pretty.

Bethany and Eliza have been preparing a Christmas concert for weeks ~ carols on the violin and piano, and I believe a play is in store too. The excitement they feel at their contribution is worth bottling! It could be titled Essence of Ecstasy and would heal depression the world over. Each year since they were toddlers, they've taken part in the local nativity at the chapel. We recently showed my stepdaughter Hannah (who was over from New Zealand for a couple of weeks) videos of the girls growing up as she'd not seen them for nine years. The highlights were watching them at each nativity. Truly brought tears to our eyes ~ and a lot of laughter!

My goal with any presents I give is that at the end of their life cycle they will be fully compostable. Mission accomplished! God love my local bookshop ~ Bluebell! If you’re ever in Penrith, do go there. And ask Derek for his wonderful hot chocolate! If you go in December you might just hear Bethany tinkering out Christmas tunes on the bookshop piano. And Indigo in the arcarde is great for knitting needles made of bamboo or birch. Shhhhh. There are two young ladies who love going to the weekly Knitting Cafe in town.

It helps enormously that the girls have so many genuine passions ~ food preparation, art, music, sewing and knitting, dancing, singing, history, horses, cats etc. Finding gifts they’ll love is such a pleasure.

We haven’t had a Christmas tree for a couple of years now. We used to get various evergreens with roots, and then plant them out in January. This year we’ve pruned the spruce a bit and put some branches into a large vase of water. Our decorations are simple ~ hand made from wood and felt.

The rooms are adorned with fresh holly (and those divine red berries) and ivy.

It doesn’t feel any less like Christmas because we’ve abstained from acres of commercially printed wrapping paper, pine trees or play stations; or stripped supermarkets of food. Our Christmas meal is made from local veg bought at our weekly organic farmers' market, and our wholefood order through Suma. The more I consciously simplify the season, the more beautiful and real it becomes.

I have it on good authority from Santa, that deep in his grotto, the number one present request from kids is play stations/nintendos/mobile phone and loads of 2 and 3 year old girls wanting televisions for their bedrooms. (Weep). What will become of this generation of children raised on electronic media?

Very, very occasionally Santa meets children who would love a book, a baby brother or sister (grin), or who ask for world peace, but on the whole, they mostly want a list ten foot long of electro-gadgets worth the equivalent of our monthly household income….and the parents stand alongside them nodding to santa that it’s ok to get these things. Hate to think what they'll get next year, and the year after!

The Iroquois message is of leaving the world a better place by our actions ~ what does OUR Christmas mean for our family-line seven generations from now?

However you celebrate this season, enjoy. With my warmest, brightest and most sincere blessings for an abundant, joyous and divinely rewarding 2008. Love your family, and love Mother Earth.

Chat soon!! ~ Veronika ~
Winter Solstice, 2007
Chilly Cumbria, UK

Open Eye Campain ~ online petition to Downing Street

If you're worried about the increasing 'schoolification' of children's lives (especially the under fives), please sign up to this petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OpenEYE/

We CAN make the government take notice if we join together.

With gratitude, Veronika

Calling all lactivists!

Hello from chilly Cumbria ~ where it looks like a divine winter wonderland this morning.

I previously mentioned my book launch would be held in Brighton on February 6th, however, the wonderful Trevor Gunn is talking there that night on comparing natural immunity with vaccination, so we’ve changed the date and location of my event. He's a fabulous speaker, so if you've got any questions on vaccination I thoroughly recommend listening to him.

My book launch will be held at:

Seven Generations shop
Bristol
Sunday, 27th January, 2008 at 3pm

I’ll be talking for about 75 minutes on why breastfeeding is vital for humanity if we wish to continue existing as a species without sinking into complete physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual dysfunction. I will be addressing the impact of not breastfeeding on humanity’s heart chakra; how personal and planetary peace begins at mother’s breast; full-term breastfeeding, and whatever else can be comfortably covered in that time. There’ll also be ample time for your questions.

Along with the fab team from The Art of Change, my family will join me to officially launch my new book on breastfeeding called The Drinks Are On Me (everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding).


Visit www.artofchange.co.uk or www.sevengenerations.co.uk for booking details. Please note there are limited seats for this event, so if you plan to come, don’t leave it till the last minute.

Seven Generations Trust

Seven Generations is a community owned & run social enterprise which seeks sustainable solutions to the problems humanity currently faces. They are a conduit for ‘missing information’ to enable us to make life changing decisions - for ourselves, our children & the generations to come.

They have the best eco-cafe-bookshop, in the heart of the Montpelier, just 10 mins walk from Bristol's city centre.

0845 330 3934
info@sevengenerations.co.uk
www.sevengenerations.co.uk

Dates for your diary: Jean Liedloff's UK tour, launch of The Drinks Are On Me and Parenting Seminar

Hey girls…some dates for your 2008 diary. What a year it looks set to be with the Jean Liedloff tour in April! I’m soooooooo excited. Her book, The Continuum Concept, played a huge role in our parenting journey, and touched a place deep inside me. I reread it recently and it was as if I only read it yesterday…the words, the intent, all so familiar and deeply ingrained in my being.


Jean Liedloff TOUR

Jean Liedloff’s first visit to the UK in twenty years looks set to be a brilliant tour. She’s passionate, humorous, and a great story teller. This is an event not to be missed. There’ll be plenty of time for questions.

Wed 9/4/08 Chequer Mead, East Grinstead, West Sussex

Fri 11/4/08 St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London

Sun 13/4/08 Sussex University, Brighton (afternoon)

Tue 15/4/08 University of Bristol

Thu 17/4/08 University of Leicester

Sun 20/4/08 University of Salford, Manchester (afternoon)

Call 01342 823809 for more details
All talks in the evening unless stated otherwise

For further info, contact The Art of Change www.artofchange.co.uk


Natural Parenting Seminar
I’ll also be speaking at the Over Conference Centre, Cambridge on May 2nd

There’ll be workshops, yoga classes from Birthlight, practical demos, live music, lunch and refreshments. To book or see the programme, and find out who else is speaking, visit www.inspiralonline.com/events or phone 01799 525 716

I look forward to meeting many of you at various events in 2008. Until then, do keep warm!
~ Veronika

Home Sweet Home-based learning

If you read The Mother magazine you’ll know that my girls recently returned to home education after eight months in school. The detoxing process has been interesting, and it’s such a joy to watch my girls rediscovering who they are; their passions, and how they use their time.

My initial thought when they said they wanted to be home educated again was ‘no time for me anymore’. Despite my angst at their school days, I made full use of their 5 day a week absence. I grew to love my patch of day ~ the silence; space to think and create. I did not, however, enjoy our day to day life being dominated by an external routine, or having to cram in ‘time’ together between 4 and 8pm. And I certainly did not like much of the stuff which was forced upon them in school.

We’ve all easily settled back into a comfortable rhythm and it is bliss! We feel like a family again.

The girls have found a gentle pattern to their days and are bounding with enthusiasm for plans, plant potions and picnics by the fireside! Our cottage is again filled with the noises of growing girls ~ fingers on the piano warming the room with Christmas carols, decorations being made for the Spruce branches which will serve as our festive tree, lyrics being written, songs sung, essays written about composers and artists, violin lessons, and unending food preparation. I no longer get a moment to myself until they’re asleep at night, but I wouldn’t trade this for school life.

School was a painful and steep learning curve for me. I hate the effect school has had on them, and yet, I’m glad they experienced those months as it truly confirmed everything I feel about how children learn.

Parenting is such an unpredictable journey. We simply don’t know where the path will lead and what choices will be necessary on the way. As with everything in life, the balance of our days must rest on trust.

www.savechildhood.org

Further to my last blog about Saving Childhood, and the government's plan to destroy childhood with the implementation of the Early Years Foundation Stage, please join our campaign at www.savechildhood.org (if the petition isn't on it yet, it will be shortly, but do visit it to get more info about how you can help).

PLEASE...our kids need us to act!

OPEN EYE CAMPAIGN

SAVE CHILDHOOD

Please save our toddlers ~ they need YOU.

For six years The Mother magazine has been campaigning for a return to Slow Childhood. What do I mean by that? Slow Childhood is where children are respected and allowed to meet their developmental milestones according to Nature’s Timetable, rather than some human-devised concept.

Yesterday I was one of signatories to the Open Eye campaign, officially launched in The Times. Spearheaded by no less than The Mother columnist Dr Richard House, it aims to cause a (to quote the good Doctor) “legitimation crisis around this legislation of such magnitude that the government will find it impossible to implement it.”

That’s my boy! Go get ‘em, Richard.

The government MUST be tackled on this piece of legislation as the consequences, once implemented, are absolutely dire to the well-being of our children.

My editorial in issue 26 of The Magazine urges concerned parents and professionals to join our campaign and stop the government’s proposed Early Years Foundation Stage (for 3 and 4 year olds) being implemented in September 2008.

It is, in actual fact, a curriculum for ALL children

from birth to five years of age.

It’s Big Brother gone Psycho.

These compulsory measures which include chubby-handed 3 and 4 year olds barely out of nappies being required to read and write sentences (even if they don’t understand them!) will lead to a whole host of behavioural and educational problems. The anxiety induced in these little children will crush any enthusiasm for learning, if not for life itself.

Our campaign letter states that “An overly formal, academic and/or cognitively based ‘curriculum’, however carefully camouflaged, distorts this learning experience.”

The legislation will cover all children, whether in state, private or voluntary sectors ~ it will include Steiner schools and registered childminders! It will put many experts in child development in the position of having to contradict their own understanding of child development.

Dr Richard House reckons there is a strong case for mounting a legal challenge under the human rights legislation. All I can say is watch the government come undone over this one!

The whole document is authoritarian and prescriptive with 72 early learning goals…ironically, some of them include things that many adults haven’t even achieved! (and are unlikely to achieve.) It's enough to make a girl go grey overnight.

Anyone who knows the first thing about holistic child development will see that the shabbily camouflaged curriculum is seriously flawed, though it would be more accurate to call it legally-enforced child abuse. It completely IGNORES a child’s neurological and psychological needs, treating them as nothing more than information gadgets, mini-computers, sponges to the governments' every diktat.

It’s a bureaucratic controlling

of toddlers’ lives

which is completely counter

to more than twenty solid years of research

into how children learn ~

and what most people instinctively know.

The government’s plan is to insert a POLITICAL KNIFE into the very heart of family life and destroy the close, loving family bonds which all young children need in order to grow, thrive and learn. It makes the assumption that all children are the same. As any parent knows, no two children are the same, not even within the same family.

If the government looked at other countries as an example of what works for children, they would never have come up with such an insane programme. Whatever it is they hope to achieve with our toddlers simply can not happen in the controlled environments they wish to create. They want all children from birth to five years of age to have the SAME day to day experiences. I also suspect it is being driven by a desire to get mothers out of the home and into paid employment. After all, what could a mother possibly teach her toddler?

Beverley Hughes, The Children’s Minister, claims that this plan was widely consulted on (it WASN’T ~ it was a controlled consultation) and that it has the backing of the vast majority of early years specialists. However, she has shown no evidence for this statement. I’d like to see it.

She claims it is a play-based approach to learning and children will be observed to make sure they’re developing ‘normally’, but who decides what is normal? Her claims that early years education has a positive impact on learning is a misrepresentation of information.

Her use of the term play-based is incorrect as the documentation clearly states (repeatedly) that it is of ‘structured’ or ‘adult directed play’. This sort of ‘play’ (for lack of a better word), is a way for adults to control and create the outcomes they perceive the children should be reaching for. This is counter to how children learn and is in complete ignorance of free play.

The Government’s outline is very clear in its goal to ensure that all childhood experiences are the same. Only a parent will fully understand a child’s emotional and developmental needs. This shouldn’t be judged by a ‘national performance target’.

Ed Balls, The Children’s Secretary, needs to be given a copy of the EYFS document so he can see just how hot the water is for the government.

We MUST let the children play. This is absolutely VITAL for their well-being and enjoyment of life. I can promise you, if we don’t, it won’t just be teenage ‘hoodies’ that adults are scared of.

You can download the British Government’s EYFS documentation in full at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/eyfs/site/resource/pdfs.htm

‘EYE’ standing for ‘Early Years Education’ - which, we maintain, needs to be kept open and free from overweening, infantilising government intrusion, however consciously well-intentioned it might be.

I hope to post a website for the campaign on this blog in a few days time..
In the meantime, if you want to find out more,

You can contact OPEN-EYE with your experience and views at: r.house@roehampton.ac.uk or
richardahouse@hotmail.com

BUY NOTHING DAY

During the week, I dropped my step-daughter off at the Metro Centre in Newcastle, on her way back to New Zealand. It’s a massive shopping centre with ten thousands car parks. I’d never been there before and I can swear I’ll never go there again. I felt physically ill by the shop-a-holic fever which swept through the place. I know Christmas is coming up, but there was something else in the air...almost a fear that the world would end, and if only, IF ONLY, they could buy just one more thing, it might save them.

I pointed out to my daughters that almost all the things for sale would end up in a landfill and not readily decompose ~ except things from the bookshop.

Our culture raises babies on fast food (formula) and weans them onto more consumerism. Every baby I saw in that shopping centre was stuck in a pram, and had a dummy in its mouth ~ a bit of plastic which will sit in landfills for up to 450 years. What sort of children are we raising?

Today’s a celebration for those who’d like to show a little more respect for the planet ~ it’s called BUY NOTHING DAY. Just 20% of the world’s population consume 80% of our natural resources. Where's the fairness in that?

Everything we purchase should have us questioning whether we really need it, who has produced (that is, was it made ethically, through child labour, virgin forest destruction etc), how will it impact on the environment?, etc.

Like many people, I can get quite frustrated with the cost of ‘living’ and, indeed, living in a consumerist culture. I was sharing with another mother the other day that the best things in life are free. I wouldn’t swap the love in my family for any amount of money. There are some days when I swear I could just reach my hand out and 'touch' love in the air. My daughters know we are rich beyond measure.

Buy Nothing Day is about developing a CONSUMER CONSCIENCE. Being eco-minded isn’t just about recycling. In fact, recycling is pretty much a last ditch effort. Our focus should be on ‘do I really need this?’, and if I do, then can it be reused.

I recently *needed* some more bookshelves and for years I've made do with a hard dining chair for my computer area. Within days of being on freecycle, I received a very comfortable computer chair and three next-to-new bookshelves, as well as a piano stool which I’d been seeking out for quite a while!

We need to move away from our culture’s obsession with everything we own being brand spanking new, in the latest colours, or twinned with what some celebrity owns. We need, in short, to stop being so shallow.

Of course, you COULD buy my new book (not today though, get it on Monday!!), or get your library to stock it so loads of mums and midwives, and with luck, health visitors, can read it! Let's get babes back on the breast and away from all that crap in a can. Let's save this planet from the formula milk industry and all the pollution it causes.

The Drinks Are On Me (everything your mother never told you about breastfeeding) as recommended by The Independent on November 13th...now available from www.artofchange.co.uk Enjoy!

GUNPOINT MEDICINE

Children herded like cattle into Maryland courthouse
for forced vaccinations as armed police and attack dogs stand guard

Today’s blog is a piece from NewsTarget by Mike Adams. I'm too speechless to comment.

(NewsTarget) Following the State of Maryland's threats against parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated, children were herded into a Price George County courthouse being guarded by armed personnel with attack dogs. Inside, the children were forcibly vaccinated, many against their will, under orders from the State Attorney General, various State Judges and the local School Board Director, all of whom illegally conspired to threaten parents with imprisonment if they did not submit their children to vaccinations.The State of Maryland has now turned to Gestapo tactics to force its medical will upon the People, stripping parents of any right to decide how they wish to protect their own children from infectious disease.

Health authorities there have already announced their intent to essentially kidnap parents and throw them in jail, removing them from their children for up to thirty days if they continue to refuse to have their children vaccinated. This will all be conducted at gunpoint, with armed personnel and attack dogs at the ready, making sure nobody steps out of line, and suppressing any attempt at public dissent against the Orwellian vaccination policies.The entire campaign against these parents is blatantly illegal. There is no law in Maryland requiring the vaccination of children, thus parents who refuse to do so may not be legally charged with violating any law. Instead, Maryland health and school authorities are using Gestapo-like tactics, threatening to charge the parents with child truancy violations, criminalizing them for daring to protect their children from the dangerous chemicals found in vaccines (including thimerosal, a chemical additive containing a neurotoxic form of mercury).

The desperation of organized medicine is becoming increasingly apparent
As more and more parents are becoming informed about the dangers of vaccinations and their link to autism, state health authorities are increasingly turning to "Gunpoint Medicine" to force the People to submit to the poisons of conventional medicine. Parents who attempt to save their children from deadly chemotherapy chemicals are being arrested and having their children kidnapped by Child Protective Services (see http://www.newstarget.com/Abraham_Cherrix.html ), and oncologists who used to be armed only with radiation machines and chemotherapy injectors and now arming themselves with U.S. Marshals and other local law enforcement authorities who are using loaded firearms to enforce "the will of the State" against parents who resist.

Even the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) announced its strong opposition to the Maryland "Gunpoint Medicine" vaccination campaign. In a press release published Nov. 16, the AAPS states:The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons today condemned the “vaccine roundup” executed in Prince George’s county Maryland this week, and promised to do everything it can to support parents who refuse to immunize their children. “This power play obliterates informed consent and parental rights,” said Kathryn Serkes, director of policy for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), one of the few national physician groups that refuse corporate funding from pharmaceutical companies. In a scenario reminiscent of cattle round-ups, the state’s attorney has issued summons to more than 1600 parents of children who have not provided certificates of immunization for their children. But instead of toting a cattle prod, this state’s attorney chooses to wield a syringe to keep the “herd” in line.

Gunpoint Medicine: Why drug pushers must now rely on Gestapo tactics

Conventional (pharmaceutical) medicine is the only system of medicine in the world that is so unpopular with informed consumers that it must be administered at the barrel of a gun. There is no other system of medicine anywhere in the world that resorts to such tactics to recruit patients.At the Nov. 17th event in Maryland, activists Jim Moody and Kelly Ann Davis from SafeMinds (www.SafeMinds.org) were able to get in front of TV news cameras and voice their opposition to the coerced vaccination policy. Yet, amazingly, most parents just lined up like cattle ready to be branded, not bothering to question the sanity or legality of the very system in which they were now agreeing to participate.

A health freedom blog called Center for the Common Interest (www.CommonInterest.info) also covered the event, and it reports that a local activist named Donovan Hubbard videotaped the event and plans to make the video available online. (NewsTarget would like to contact Donovan and / or publicize his video. If you know of a way we can contact him, please call us at (520) 232-9300 to let us know...)

What's next for Gunpoint Medicine?
As the truth continues to emerge about the extreme dangers of vaccinations and pharmaceuticals, Big Pharma is becoming increasingly desperate to coerce the public into relying on its products. It is now working closely with state authorities (including Governors of several states) to mandate the use of vaccinations on young children. This results in the criminalization of parents who refuse to subject their children to these dangerous chemicals.In effect, Big Pharma is hoping to turn natural health followers into criminals.The FDA has already criminalized nutritional supplement companies who dare to tell the truth about the health benefits of their supplements. (Read the true history of armed FDA raids on vitamin companies here: http://www.newstarget.com/021791.html )

Next, parents who refuse to subject their children to the chemical pharmaceuticals proposed by Big Pharma will be criminalized, rounded up and incarcerated for "refusing to comply with public health policy."


This is all being done by the State in the name of "protecting the children" from their own natural health parents. (Insane, isn't it, to think that protecting your child from toxic chemicals is now a criminal act in the United States?)The end game of all this is to apply Gunpoint Medicine tactics to everyone: Adults and senior citizens included. Anyone suffering from high cholesterol, for example, who does not submit to Big Pharma's statin drugs could be arrested, strapped to a table and medicated against their will. People with cancer could be arrested for choosing to treat that cancer with safe and effective botanical medicines instead of patented, high-profit Big Pharma drugs.

If you think the prisons are full enough right now from all the arrests for marijuana possession and other victimless crimes, just wait until the State starts arresting all the natural health moms and dads across the country who refuse to participate in the utterly insane and extremely harmful system of medicine that now dominates U.S. health care today.

The State is very clear about medicine: If you want to remain a free citizen, you must submit to the synthetic drugs made by the very same corporations that now control government health regulators. Any person who resists such "treatments" will be branded a threat to public health -- a designation just beneath "terrorist" in the eyes of many government bureaucrats. As such, they believe there is no limit to the level of force they may use to coerce such people into submitting to Big Pharma's chemicals. Today, it's armed guards with attack dogs. Tomorrow, it might be water boarding or other torture methods. Think that's impossible? Think again: Just five years ago, nobody in their right mind would have thought that parents who did not want to get their children vaccinated would end up in prison, their children kidnapped by state authorities and forced to subject themselves to dangerous chemical injections at gunpoint. Yet that is precisely what is happening right now in the state of Maryland. It happened on Saturday, in fact.

Where is the outrage?
What's most interesting about this issue of using the threat of imprisonment to force vaccinations upon children is not necessarily who is speaking out against it, but who has chosen to remain silent.The American Medical Association, for example, has said nothing in opposition to the policy. Neither has the Food and Drug Administration. Where is the outrage from the Maryland Hospital Association? None of these organizations seem to have a problem with Gunpoint Medicine. The idea of rounding up parents and coercing their children into receiving injections of toxic chemicals does not seem to bother these organizations. And why should it? All of these organizations are closely tied to Big Pharma. They're all in favor of vaccinations for all, it seems, and I have no doubt that some individuals in these organizations (especially the AMA) are strongly in favor of the Gunpoint Medicine coerced vaccination policy being played out in Maryland right now.Organized medicine believes the People are too stupid to be allowed to make their own health decisions. Bureaucrats and physicians should be the ones making these decisions, we're told, and any person who disagrees with such decisions should be labeled a criminal, arrested and prosecuted. This is no exaggeration. It is, in fact, a shockingly accurate description of Maryland's current vaccination policy.It wasn't too long ago that Americans would have stood up and rallied against this kind of medical tyranny.

The major news networks would have denounced Maryland's vaccination policy with strong language and harsh accusations. People would have been marching in the streets, demanding their health freedom. But today, it's a different America.

The People are drugged up on pharmaceuticals and dosed on fluoride. They're too intoxicated to think straight, and they're frightened into submission by a fear-based government that invokes domestic tyranny at every opportunity to control and manipulate the People into doing whatever it wants.


The "free" America we all once knew is long gone, and it has been replaced with The United States of Corporate America, where police tactics are now used to enforce hazardous public health policies, and the people who run the State no longer think there's anything wrong with rounding up the population at gunpoint and performing large-scale medical experiments on their children. That's what modern vaccines are, after all: A grand medical experiment whose effects will only become known after a generation of mass poisoning has come and gone.

About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and adult gymnastics. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org

Would you drink a vaccine? WHY NOT?

October 1, 2007

Ojai, CA -- On January 29, 2001, Jock Doubleday offered $20,000 to the first U.S.-licensed medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO to publicly drink a mixture of standard vaccine additive ingredients: http://www.mercola.com/2001/feb/10/vaccine_offer.htm The offer had no takers.

On August 1, 2006, Doubleday increased the $20,000 offer to$75,000: http://www.vaclib.org/links/jockslinks.htm#press The new $75,000 offer had no takers. THEREFORE . . . On June 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $80,000. On July 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $85,000.On August 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $90,000.On September 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $95,000.

On October 1, 2007, the offer was increased to $100,000.

The offer will increase $5,000 per month, in perpetuity, until an M.D. or pharmaceutical company CEO, or any of the 14 relevant members of the ACIP (see below), agree to drink a body-weight calibrated dose of the poisonous vaccine additives that M.D.sroutinely inject into children in the name of health.As of November 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $105,000.As of December 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $110,000.As of January 1, 2008, the offer will increase to $115,000. . . . etc.

This offer has no expiration date unless superseded by a similar offer of higher remuneration. In health, Jock DoubledayDirectorNatural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation

http://gentlebirth.org/nwnm.org/nwnm_org.html

Optical Illusion

In March this year, my daughter Bethany was squinting a lot. Was it a ‘habit’ that developed from an unmet need and a way of getting some extra parental attention? Was she reading too much? Paul suggested we take her to an optometrist. Against my better judgement I went. I avoid the medical profession, and opticians come under the same category. I was horrified when he said she needed glasses for all ‘close work’, like reading, sewing, knitting, drawing, etc.

He said to come back in six months. This man, with the social skills of a dead ant, was very dismissive of any holistic approach, including pin hole glasses. I bit my tongue.

For the duration of the six months I felt uneasy. When her check-up was due, I chose another optometrist. There was panic and they said her eyes had deteriorated rapidly in six months and prescribed her ‘new glasses’… Here’s an irony, they wouldn’t even use her old frames without charging me £20 for the recycling pleasure. I didn’t find this woman’s social skills to be much better than the last optometrist's.

They said Bethany needed to see a specialist. Thank Goddess for that!

When we travelled over to Hexham hospital to meet him, I was immediately struck by how pleasant he was, his FANTASTIC eye contact, and his honesty. He was stunned that she’d been prescribed glasses in the first place. Her vision is normal. Apparently, according to him, many children are being prescribed glasses in the UK ~ no coincidence that the optometrist gets £20 from the government each time a child gets new glasses.

Until we saw him, I’d been planning to get hold of a holistic eyesight book from Findhorn Press. I’d read excerpts online about the metaphysical reasons for various eye disorders and felt this to be the path we would have pursued in remedying the situation.

If your child has been prescribed glasses, listen to your heart and consider getting an opinion from a specialist who has no ulterior motive.

Environmental implications of not breastfeeding affects EVERY plant and animal on this planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yau-Y7tWaPo

hello everyone...today's blog is an invitation to visit the Youtube snippets of my book The Drinks Are On Me. The wonderful Barry Durdant-Hollamby (aka Art of Change man) has created three mini films (and his home educated daughter Sophie is singing to it). This one covers the environmental costs of not breastfeeding. You can link to the other two films while you're there...And watch for more to come.

Have a fab week
Veronika

GOT MILK, WILL SHARE

Apologies to those people who check in to my blog each week. I’ve not really fallen off the edge of the Earth, despite those rumours! It’s been a hectic month or so, for various reasons, and will become apparent in my blogs over the next few weeks.



(Wet Nursing is the nursing of another woman’s baby for money. Cross Nursing involves the one-off or occasional breastfeeding of someone else’s baby while you continue to nurse her own child.)

When I was pregnant with my daughters, I had a pact with my lactating friends that if I couldn’t breastfeed for any reason, they’d breastfeed my babies. We were Milk Systers, and our vow was solid. Obviously I would do the same for their babies. I am one of *those* women who’d happily share my breast milk with another woman’s baby ~ friend or stranger. Like any aspect of breastfeeding, whether it’s breastfeeding itself, full-term breastfeeding, tandem nursing, breastfeeding in public ~ how you feel about it will depend on your frame of reference.

I have shared milk with other women’s children (with their permission) and although it is initially strange having a child who’s not your own, in your arms and connected so intimately, once the old oxytocin (love hormone) kicks in, you simply know that you could breastfeed the World’s Children. Yes, love is that big. Breast milk is liquid love and true love knows no bounds.

Some people are absolutely horrified at the thought of feeding someone else’s child, yet have no qualms about their baby sucking from a cow’s udder ~ even if the experienced is camouflaged and one step removed by being mixed with other ingredients, freeze dried and then re-hydrated into a bottle.

There’s no question that the breastfeeding relationship between a mother and her child is sacred, even holy, ground. And as an advocate of breastfeeding at the breast, rather than a mother’s own expressed milk in a bottle, it might seem odd that I’d be in support of wet nursing or shared feeding (known as cross nursing [horrible expression]). Here are my reasons:

I’m not in support of expressed milk as life-style choice because breast milk is designed to be consumed as it is made. It is age and (developmental) stage specific to the mother’s child and was never meant to see the light of day.

Breastfeeding is a complete package that involves so many aspects of the child’s being ~ physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. My preference would be for a child to be nursed at another woman’s breast (as a temporary measure, or permanently if her own mother is dead or extremely ill) than to consume ‘old’ (even hours old) milk from a bottle.

Breast milk is a *living* food and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

My main thoughts about wet-nursing/cross nursing are:

1.) It should be a gift of love, and not something measured by money, unless the lactating woman is doing it long-term as a career.

2.) I believe mothers should support each other when new babies come along, and be willing to share their milk so that asking the baby to drink from a bottle (expressed milk or formula) is not necessary. (Please note that a mother’s expressed milk is always the first choice of supplement, but where possible offer it off a finger, pipette or spoon, rather than a bottle. Allowing the baby to nurse from another mum enables the sucking reflex to develop)


A child will not breastfeed if it doesn’t want to! You can’t force a baby to breastfeed, so the concerns from some quarters of LLL that it might cause psychological harm, I believe, are unfounded.

If you want to look further into cross nursing, the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers takes a more liberal view than LLL.

I have heard someone in LLL say that if a mother cross nurses another child, it may reduce her own milk supply. This flies in the face of what I learnt during my breastfeeding counsellor training (ironically with LLL) AND from my own experience and that of other mothers world-wide. Milk is made on demand. If you’ve got two (or more) children feeding at the breast, then your body will make more milk to suit the need, not less! A woman can easily provide breast milk for about five children at any one time if she wanted to.

To be clear, though, once a baby gets to a certain age, say 4 – 6 months, it may not want to breastfeed from another woman, either because her voice is different, or her let-down is unlike what she’s been used to. As with any aspect of breastfeeding, let your baby be the guide.

The ideal person to breastfeed your child in a cross nursing situation, is a mother with a baby the same, or very similar age, who is healthy, drug free, and in a good mental and emotional state. She should not consume caffeine, alcohol, smoke, or have large amounts of sweetener. Ironically, some milk banks allow lactating mothers to have up to 7 cups of coffee a day. Seven cups? I’d have a heart attack if I had seven cups of coffee in one day. Just one cup of coffee (or a mouthful of chocolate), and I can’t sleep for about 30 hours! I do not understand this about milk banks. Why would it be acceptable for babies to have breast milk loaded with caffeine? It’s insane.

My experience of women who cross nurse is that they are more than happy with having had their baby fed by another woman, and themselves having breastfed another child. Clearly this cuts against our cultural bias of it being an ‘adulterous relationship’.

Babies must receive breast milk. When our culture finally wakes up enough to realise the significance of this, personally and collectively, then all squeamishness about wet nursing/cross nursing/full term breastfeeding etc., will fly out the window. And not before time!

Cross nursing can be used in emergencies, or to help stimulate a mother’s milk supply if her baby hasn’t been latched-on enough (eg. baby has Down’s Syndrome or is premature). Women who choose to breastfeed an adopted baby, can stimulate their milk supply by nursing an experienced breastfeeding baby.

It’s nothing short of child abuse, in my opinion, to give newborn babies anything less than breast milk, and ideally from the breast. But hey, it’ll take a while before our society wakes up to this. If ever in doubt about what a baby needs to drink, remember, HUMAN MILK FOR HUMAN BABIES.

One of the reasons people are so uncomfortable with the idea of wet nursing, is because of the use of intimate body parts (not so intimate when splashed on the covers of lad magz) and exchanging of body fluids. Funny, though, how one night stands don’t come into the same category.

I believe another difficulty we may have with cross nursing in Western culture, stems from the idea of ownership. We simply don’t know how to share. We’ve been raised to believe in my, my, my or mine, mine, mine. It’s a strong, bold and beautiful woman who transcends this patriarchal line and offers her breast up to another child, and indeed, trusts another woman to nurture her child.

Milk Banks

Milk banks have their place, but I’d rather see women sharing their milk directly from the breast to child. The process involved in making donated breast milk available to babies in NICU or elsewhere, defeats the purpose of providing the benefits of breast milk (to my mind). However, I’d certainly recommend donated milk from this source over formula. Beware though of a particular company marketing donated breast milk for babies in NICU at extortionate prices.

Each country with milk banks, have their own guidelines for donor mums. In some countries, if you’ve had a blood transfusion, are vegetarian/vegan, drink herb teas, etc., you are unlikely to be allowed to donate. Some countries have a blood transfusion deadline of about 20 years ago, some countries one year ago. There’s certainly no universal consensus on this.

Many women happily consume raspberry leaf tea or fennel tea while they’re lactating. Excluding these women from milk donation is ludicrous, and a joke given it’s ok to have seven cups of coffee a day! Excluding women like me, who abstain from flesh, is ludicrous. Our children have thrived on our fennel-laced breast milk.

My main reservation with milk banking is that the milk is pasteurised and pooled (with other mother’s milks). Any *living* food is rendered inadequate by heat treatment. Some places, like Norway, are experimenting with offering ‘raw’ breast milk for babies in need. This is a much more enlightened approach.

For many centuries in Britain, it was common for wet nurses to feed babies. Sadly the reasons used including protecting a mother’s figure (!!) or allowing wealthier women to be emotionally removed from their children. Wet nursing went out of fashion when doctors believed some infections might have been transmitted through breast milk…and lo and behold, crap in a can was invented for women who *didn’t want* to breastfeed.
I believe it is highly unlikely that a woman who is passionate about breast milk, would knowingly breastfeed another woman’s child if she had a transmittable/infectious disease.

The media has recently latched-on (no pun intended!) the idea of wet-nursing, no doubt to ignite people’s interest in something unusual, however recorded history shows wet nursing occurring as far back as 2000 BC in the Code of Hammurabi. A wet nurse was hired for Moses and written about in 1250BC (Old Testament’s Book of Exodus). Turned out that the wet nurse was actually his mother, but the employer didn’t know that!

In 600 AD, The Koran suggested wet nursing.

It’s always been controversial, and like many things, comes in and out of fashion. It was in the middle of the 19th Century that physicians sought out a substitute for breast milk. And the rest is history. Separating babies from their food source has been our undoing. Women were fooled into believing that artificial feeding was to be respected.

Ideally, a child will receive breast milk from her mother’s breast. But we don’t live in an ideal world and so we must be open to wet nursing and cross nursing.

One of my favourite cross nursing stories (although very sad) involved the mother of a three month old baby who was injured in a car crash.

The mother was unconscious, and clearly unable to breastfeed. Fortunately, the ‘aware’ father, although he was also injured, knew that the mother would not want the child to have formula, so he asked for donations of breast milk. When one of the women turned up at the hospital to express her milk, she thought it seemed a bit ridiculous to express it into a bottle, and so, with the father’s permission, breastfed the baby. For the duration that the mother was unable to breastfeed, five women took turns breastfeeding the baby. To me this is a beautiful story of sisterhood. The tragedy is that this understanding, this support and love, is so rare in our society.

Another story which warms my heart is of Judith Waterford ~ a wet nurse. On her 81st birthday (back in the 1800s) she was still producing milk for babies. During the prime of her wet nursing years, she managed to produce four pints a day.

If you have a personal experience of wet nursing/cross nursing, either breastfeeding someone else’s child, or your child having been breastfed by another mum, and might be open to taking part in a SENSITIVE documentary on the subject, please get in touch with me. If you get in touch, there is no commitment to be involved. (UK women only, please).