Our nation is in a national crisis. I am not talking about the economic crisis as almost everyone in the country is fully aware of our abysmal economic climate. I am not talking about the moral climate where cheating and dishonesty are commonly practiced, where sexual perversion is the norm and where the concern for all human life and the protection of the innocent are disregarded simply for the convenience and selfishness of others who have more power. I am not talking about our mentality that allows people to think they deserve a house and a paycheck and food and drink and a car simply because they live here. I am not talking about the perverted view that everyone should be on an economically level plain. I’m not talking about the ignorance of our nation’s history in terms of moral and economic development. I am not talking about our climate where personal responsibility is shunned and gaining status and power and money off of the backs of others is celebrated. I am not talking about the fact that we no longer as a nation acknowledge a God who is involved and concerned in this world.

All of these things are tragic to be sure. Anyone of these things could be considered a crisis of monumental proportions. No, I am talking about the fact that all of these things are completely visible and any reasonable person would agree that these are all massive problems in our nation and yet we continue to walk this road nevertheless.

We have willfully chosen to continue down this path when we clearly had the chance as a nation to make a completely different choice. Tuesday’s election was bigger than simply voting candidates into office it was a foundational choice of which direction we as a nation want to go.

For many years now we have been traveling down the road in the manner in which I stipulate in the first paragraph. For the past 3+ years the speed of our travel has increased significantly. The vices mentioned in the first paragraph are many and varied and dangerous as most people would agree and yet we had a chance to take another turn toward decency and responsibility and heading for a destination that is good and decent on Tuesday and we chose not to. Instead, although people were in agreement about the abhorrent state of our nation, they voted for a side that has not only championed the foundational ideas behind our problems but vows to give us more.

I believe this to be an illness born out of a natural state of choosing to be deceived. I am not sure what people are hoping for in the coming years but any thinking person sees that when a ship is sinking and you put more holes in it then the ship only sinks faster. To believe that by adding bad upon bad and something good is going to come about is insane.

We have become insane as a nation (as a whole). That is the only explanation. Of course if you look at the county by county map of the presidential election (reflected more-so in the house of representatives) you see that we are not all insane. Most of the area of the nation wanted to take a step towards sanity but the densely populated areas for the most part want the insanity to continue.

There are many explanations to this but I will simply say that when deceived people get together with deceived people the consequences are massive in scope. Our major population centers seem to want the vices and debauchery and anything that involves the self-centered desires of sinful man. Of course not everyone is like this but there is enough influence in these areas that these things spread like a cancer.

When people knowingly choose these things we are beyond help. At the moment we have a percentage of the population who are in this category. I believe many others are deceived. Why would we think that someone who consistently lies is trustworthy? Only truly deceived people believe this or choose to overlook these things because they are bribed in one way or another. Any way you slice it, we are in deep trouble.

The red on the county by county map however still gives me just a bit of hope. Can we turn the tide here? Can we raise the blinders of the listeners and show the deception of the deceivers? I don’t know. Is it worth trying? I don’t know. We could be too far gone or this may be our open door to actually and genuinely start to help people actually see truth and reality as it actually is and not as many people see it.

We need the Avengers. We need leadership in our nation. I am not talking about political leadership. I am talking about heroes who will love and teach their neighbors. I am talking about people who will be courageous enough to stand up and speak for goodness, love, mercy and personal responsibility…among many other things that are necessary. We need teachers that will educate our people why the United States of America is the most powerful, the most influential and the most generous nation in history. We are on the verge of losing this but perhaps, just perhaps we have one more shot at it.

I believe the Obama administration will try to change the constitution and how our nation operates. It is just a gut feeling and a personal belief but it is based on sound reasoning. We may not be able to stop that but if there is even just a glint of hope then perhaps we should try.

We need people in their neighborhoods and online and on the streets and in the media and in schools at every level who are not only willing to sacrifice themselves to the cause of rescuing our nation but to be courageous in doing so.

If you saw the Avengers movie then you will know why I titled this article in this fashion. They were forced to come together and fight side by side through differences and personal agendas and whatever was in the way of their unity. Our nation is in such a balance that we may have well seen the last of the greatest nation the earth has ever seen or if we come together we may be able to stem the tide and even turn it. In doing so we could possibly see a country that we are once again proud of and happy to have our children grow up in.

It will take work coupled with patience, kindness, mercy, love and the willingness to put our brothers and sisters above ourselves. After all why would people vote in a government that promises to take care of every need they have in exchange for the destruction of much of what we once held to be dear and true? I believe it is because they feel hopeless and helpless and in their sinful and selfish states cannot see any other way out of their pain and cycles of shame they are caught in. We are taught we are victims and we have no way to care for ourselves. It is one of the greatest deceptions in history and the only antidote is that we allow people to see through the pain and help them to see that there is hope that is worth fighting for (even if small)…there is goodness that is worth sacrificing for…that we have one last chance to resurrect a dying nation that has done more good in this world than all nations combined in history and that it is worth hoping and fighting for.

Our moral strength as a nation has always been tied to our national belief that there is a God who is concerned with not only the affairs of individuals but also of nations. Our common belief that this God has given special mercies and protection to nations that at least honor Him to some degree and promote freedom and the sacred precious gift of life in general has carried us through even consequent generations that have lost much of this foundational belief.

Our economic strength has grown out of the concept that a free people have not only the ability but the responsibility to be creative and change the world for good. We used to believe that making money was good…that creating new products and services was good…that leading the way in new technologies to improve the general state of humanity was good. We used to believe that people ought to be rewarded for such things. We now hold the common misconception that people ought to be punished for success. It is a perfect system? Of course not…but it is the best and most powerful engine for economic good the world has ever seen.

Sane people can see these things as clearly as the sun shines on a bright sunny summer day. People who are deceived and live in a fog can be convinced that the sun is not shining outside when all they personally experience is the inside of a building. We need modern day Avengers, heroes who are willing to lead people by the hand to actually see and experience the beauty of the sun shining on a summery day.

We will be completely and utterly lost without those courageous people. Are you one of them? Are we willing to do this together or should we call it a day and “run for the hills” to let the deceivers and the deceived alike hasten the destruction of the nation we love and desire once again. We have never had a perfect nation by any means (far from it) but we had a good national heart and goodness that was the envy of the world and brought more good to the world than any other nation in history.

Will you take a stand and be one of the modern day Avengers? I would love to hear from you.

Thanks!

If you have never heard of National Soup Day then you are not alone. There apparently is a National Soup Month and also an International Soup Day that was put on October 1st 2011. But National Soup Day is much different than these things.

The International Soup Day involved feeding the homeless and other such things. I think that is great but this is not what National Soup Day is about. National Soup Month in January is an extension of a day that started as National Soup Swap Day. The day kept changing on people so they decided to make it National Soup Swap Month. From there it seemed to morph into National Soup Month.

Soup is very much an international food and so everyone can rally around such a great food. The only speaking creature that I am aware of that doesn’t much care for soup is the creature Gollum. When Sam makes soup from the “coneys” that Gollum hunts and kills it disgusts Gollum. He doesn’t want any part of it.

Therefore, Gollum is not invited to participate in National Soup Day as his proper appreciation levels for soup are severely lacking. Instead we will celebrate with those who are like-minded in their sheer enjoyment of soup.

In general soup is best enjoyed in the colder months but I want to liberate you from any hard and fast rule concerning when you are allowed to enjoy your soup. Go ahead and enjoy it any time. However, there is something special about the first Saturday in November. It is a preparatory period for winter, for Thanksgiving, for Christmas and for “hunkering down” when the time actually changes and it turns dark for an extended period of time every day.

Soup Day is also a time to celebrate the fact that we have survived Halloween as a nation. You may love Halloween but I think it is a dreadful concept. Anyhow…it matters not in the end but I happen to enjoy celebrating the passing once again of October 31st.

Whatever your reasons for enjoying Soup Day make sure you join us in commemorating and enjoying this beautiful food on the first Saturday of November every year.

I would like to take Credit for Soup Day but I have to give credit where credit is due to my friend Daniel. I am the inventor of National Soup Day (I added the National to expand the scope of our wonderful holiday) but Daniel is the inventor of Soup Day that is happening tomorrow.

We are in prep mode today for Soup Day tomorrow. I must say the house smells stunning at the moment and my salivary glands are activating. We thus far have shown great composure in our abstaining from enjoying our Soup Day early. Hopefully we’ll make it all the way through the night.

I would share with you our soup recipes but then I would have to kill you so I will simply share with you some photos that I just took of National Soup Day preparations. We invite you to take part in National Soup Day with us. And if you don’t want to…bah humbug to you too pal!

Being a Carnivore is sometimes necessary to fulfill some primal urges within the human soul!

No…we are not going to keep this huge hunk of meet in the soup pot without  cutting it up and adding other wonderful things but thus far everything is looking and smelling beautiful.

A highly secretive recipe. We can only show you the pot and tempt you through the glass in the lid but no more!

With one week before the Presidential Election in the U.S. I have some important things that I need to share. These things may cause you to think twice about the decisions you make in the next week. (I apologize ahead of time if this isn’t completely coherent in its flow but I am in a hurry and wanted to get it up. If I find the time I may rework it a bit but I think you will get what I am trying to convey easily enough…it is that important).

You may have heard about these things in the past or you may not have. I don’t have time to go into the reasons or the hows of why I know these things but I want you to consider them. Test them out…do research and work through them yourself. I am not claiming to have the corner on truth or anything like that but I spend a great deal of time thinking through possibilities and looking at trends and although I don’t have time to get into details or even research all of the details of these trends I believe it is imperative that I share with you what I believe to be happening today. This information will hopefully cause you to think twice or even three or four times about who you vote for in the upcoming election.

There are a few key areas in the economy that I believe will take on a much bigger role in the  shaping of the future of our nation. Rather than treat this like a commercial and tease you with this information I am simply going to share with you what I know and what I have deduced from these things and how they may affect our future as a nation…and in turn you.

These few areas of extreme importance to us all are:

• Energy
• Information
• Healthcare

More specifically…how are we going to handle technology and/or research as they relate to these areas in the political arena and how they will eventually affect us? If you are an investor and are looking for places to put your money, I would suggest you research the things I am about to share. My purpose for writing this article is not for investment purposes however, but for the very heart of who  we are as a people and what we are as a nation. I believe that these areas will in part lead the way to almost unprecedented economic development in our nation and will in turn give unbelievable opportunities for power grabs for those who have that in their heart and are in a position to take advantage of these things.

Let’s look at the energy issue first.

There are a couple of things I am convinced of in regards to energy. For the past six or seven years I have loosely been following the oil reserves we have in our nation. Most of you should know these things but I don’t actually know if many follow energy trends and the technology related to them or not. My understanding is that the U.S. has enough energy reserves that are untapped as to be able to completely change the face of our country’s economic climate in dramatic fashion. As I said, I have followed these things for a number of years and I am convinced that this is true.

There are a couple of areas that we need to consider:

• Natural Gas
• Oil

It is fairly well established that we have one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world (I believe we are in the top 5 in the world-or close to that). Our natural gas consumption is relatively low (not necessarily relative to the world’s consumption but relative to available and potential technological development and the possibilities connected to it’s potential usage) and our production is high. In contrast, countries like Japan and China consume a great deal of Natural Gas and their ability to tap into their own reserves has been limited. China is just now beginning to use technology (developed here in the United States) to tap into their own shale reserves. Japan has very few reserves at all but is one of the largest consumers in the world. India has few reserves but is a fairly major consumer as well. Need for these nations will most assuredly grow and that means they will need to get their Natural Gas from someone.

The European Union is second to the U.S. in overall consumption in the world and yet they rank down near the 20 mark in known reserves. Where do they get most of their natural gas? Mostly Russia which has far and away the largest known reserves in the world. The question to consider is this…who can provide cheaper sources of Natural Gas to the world?

Who is Japan and the European Union (not to mention individual countries like Germany and Italy) and India (among many other nations) going to buy their Natural Gas from? There are political issues involved with this but when it all comes down…they will buy it from the U.S. most likely. We developed the technology of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and we are developing the ability to get Natural Gas to these places overseas far cheaper than through the trans european pipelines from Russia to the European Union.

The U.S. has an enormous potential of becoming the world power of supplying Natural Gas to the biggest consumers of this energy source. This is great news right? Of course it is. This is especially good news in light of our current horrid economic climate.

There is a massive problem however in regards to our political climate in this nation. As our nation moves into the realm of massive exporter of Natural Gas the federal government will by default play a huge role in all of this. There will be choices to be made and who we vote into the presidency will be critical amidst these choices.

Right now there are very few methods of transporting Natural Gas across the ocean. The biggest potential for the U.S. is to transport it in the form of LNG (Liquid Natural Gas). The technology is available (it has been for decades–although much more efficient today) to be able to transform Natural Gas into LNG but we currently don’t have anywhere in the lower 48 states that actually does it.

However, there are about eight facilities currently planned and one already under construction. This one on the Texas/Louisiana border, owned by Cheniere Energy should be ready to be put into action in the next couple of years. Although there are eight facilities in the works, the Cheniere facility is currently the only one with the Feds approval. It is the only one licensed thus far. The cost of the facility is approximately 10 billion dollars but the upside potential (nearly a guarantee) of money to be made as a result of this facility is massive in scope. It will make the $10,000,000,000 price tag a very small investment for the amount of returns coming.

With seven more of these facilities in place the potential for world dominance in the Natural Gas energy sector is nearly a foregone conclusion in my opinion…namely because we will be able to provide the cheapest Natural Gas in the world.

Now what does this have to do with politics you might ask? I will get to that but first I need to briefly cover the issue of energy from Oil as well. The U.S. oil reserves are extensive. Our ability to get to those Oil reserves is second to none in the world. We developed the technology to get to our Oil. It is in place (just as we developed the technology to get to our Natural Gas reserves).

Our Oil reserves, just as with Natural Gas, are in huge abundance found in shale fields. Because of the aforementioned methods of “fracking” we are able to get to these Oil reserves through an economically feasible method. Oil production is currently skyrocketing as energy companies take it upon themselves to access oil reserves on privately held lands. Together with states like Alaska, North Dakota and Texas (pro-drilling states), these companies have been able to access some of our nations natural resources of Oil reserves. However, huge reserves are held captive on publicly held lands by our federal government.

There are a massive amount of Oil reserves in this nation that are untapped. How much of this is controlled by the Federal Government? I don’t know specifically but it is a huge amount.

In light of these two areas of Energy and how they may affect our economy, what do you think might happen to those in power when our full potential of energy is tapped into?

The political power that will be made available is almost beyond anything we have ever seen. I will spell out just a couple of things I see coming about as a result of the boon in these two areas of Energy.

First, since the exporting of Natural Gas includes huge plants to turn Natural Gas into LNG all of the permits and licenses and regulations will go directly through the Federal Government. We will almost surely have an energy boon but who will have the most to gain from it is the big question.

I believe that if President Obama is reelected and stays in office during this time he will figure out how to exploit this boon in Natural Gas production and exportation and will be able to create an enormous amount of wealth and power at the federal level. What will he choose to do with this? Everything about his history, his rhetoric and his character leads me to believe that he will seize as much power as he possibly can. He will have the power over licensing of these facilities to export Natural Gas. How will he use that to establish political power for himself. I will leave that to your imagination as I don’t have time to go into it all right now…but it scares me to death to think of the many ways.

In the area of Oil production since so much of our nation’s oil is on Federal Lands a very similar scenario is in place. Our Federal Government will wield an enormous amount of power over this energy sector. President Obama has already shown that he has the power to say “no” to drilling on public lands. What happens when he says “yes?” What will the financial gains be to the Federal Government and what will the stipulations and unspoken deals be in terms of favors owed and money transferred to individuals in governmental power? We already know that lobbyists spend enormous amounts of money to get what they want from politicians. Imagine what may take place in this area? With the greatest economic potential in our times at stake (and the potential power that goes with that), what type of power can individuals who hold the decision making strings gain?

I believe that our current president has CLEARLY shown himself to be untrustworthy, a liar, and someone who is more concerned with political power than anything else. He is devoid of character (positive character, that is) and I believe he will use the massive power potential from these two areas of Energy to make sure that he is able to finally transform our nation from a free nation to one that is essentially enslaved to the state.

How can he accomplish this? Simple…give out FREE handouts to people from the massive amounts of wealth that will be produced from these two areas alone. They will vote for him. It has proven true throughout not only our own history but in the history of the world as well. The more of a free ride people get, the more they will keep those in power who are giving them that free ride. It is a huge tragedy every time this happens.

What you have to decide is…how do you view Obama’s character? Will he want that much power? Will he use it to his advantage? Like I said, I think it is beyond clear what he will do. He will take advantage of the circumstances and create a power base like we have seldom (or perhaps never) seen in the U.S. It scares me to think of what he will do and I am convinced that our nation will forever change in very negative ways if President Obama is reelected.

What about Governor Romney? Whatever you believe about him, his character is very much in contrast to Obama’s. Governor Romney has shown in his lifetime that he genuinely cares for people and although he is very good at creating wealth for himself, he has never used his power to exploit people while he has been in public office. Governor Romney is wealthy from being in business. President Obama is wealthy from being in politics. Who is more trustworthy just from this info. alone? It is obvious. Governor Romney has not exploited his political position but President Obama has used his political power to gain more power at every stage and at every step.

History speaks for itself. The record and evidence (the true evidence) speaks for itself. Governor Romney will help our nation prosper (businesses and individuals) through the changes in Natural Gas and Oil that will be coming and President Obama will make sure that the Federal Government prospers and that he uses the money and power gained to ensure that he will stay in power for as long as possible. How far can he take that? I don’t know but I am skeptical that our constitution and way of life will survive long if President Obama retains the presidency through this next election.

I have not even touched on the areas of information and healthcare and the impact they will have on our nation and its economy relative to the Federal Government, but I believe the end results will be the same…more power to a President that is willing to exploit it but more wealth to our people as a whole to someone who is wanting to let Freedom be the guiding factor and not the thirst for power and control.

I wholeheartedly believe that Governor Romney desires our nation to regain its independence and freedom for individuals (not as much as I would like but exponentially more than President Obama) while I am convinced that President Obama simply wants to gain as much power as he possibly can. I believe he has no real compassion for the people of our nation but if he can exploit compassion to gain more power he is ready and willing to do so. History gives us plenty of evidence to support this.

Please prayerfully consider who you are going to vote for. This election is of unbelievable significance for the future of our nation.

Thanks so much for reading. Please let me know what you think below…

(Hopefully I will have time to write about the Information and Healthcare issues in the next couple of days but if I don’t I hope the Energy issues are enough to get you to think two or three times who you may be voting for in this election coming up. Plus I am sorry I didn’t go into more details but I don’t have time right now to do so. The time and space it would take to cover so many of the missing details would be too much with only one week before the elections. I am sorry about that).

I had a very interesting experience recently. In as much as my intention was to talk about religion in this section I need to circle back around and put some feet to what I talked about in part 2 of this series.

My primary message in part 2 was that we mistakenly give the mysteries of the universe in relation to energy a personality by the language we use. We spiritualize a portion of the physical realm that we don’t fully understand and comprehend.

The practical outworking of this belief system is that people remain selfish in their core beings. The reason for this is that it takes a truly spiritual connection with the person of God to truly change us. I know there will be plenty to argue that point but in the real down and dirty world of the everyday practical lives it shows over and over again in people’s lives.

Most people’s behavior can be modified by their belief system as long as stress levels do not rise too high. When those levels of tension and stress and uncertainty rise however, the selfish tendencies do begin to show themselves. These show up differently in different individuals but at a basic level this selfishness begins to assert itself in trying to control situations and other people or attempting to hide away and separate from others.

There is a whole conversation about shame and its effects on an individual which we will not enter into at this point but suffice it to say that a true spiritual connection will never be obtained through connecting to any aspect of the universe. True spiritual connections, in order for them to be truly life-transforming, must take place with some sort of entity that has personality and is outside of ourselves. People are internally changed by a true spiritual connection but not otherwise.

The interesting thing is that now it opens up another question…does it matter with whom you connect with? If we are indeed changed from within based upon our spiritual connections how much of that change is dependent upon the personality of the entity with whom we connect? It is an issue of engagement.

I believe in One True God who is full of Love and Grace and Compassion. I connect with this God. He has come to dwell with me and we interact and engage in a real relationship. The way that I have and am being changed has been contingent upon my actual interaction with Him. My actual change is evident as my ability to Love and show Grace and Compassion is growing…even when stress levels get very high. My selfish tendencies tend to be very much diminished as I relate to God.

Imagine if my spiritual interaction was with an entity that had malice and hatred at the core. My constant and consistent engagement with such a personality would eventually cause my core being to be more in line with that entity. It doesn’t matter if this entity “seems” good or not. What matters in a spiritual connection is truth. The truth of many spiritual entities are that they will appear good and kind and gracious while impacting us in our core with their true natures…that of being selfish and self seeking themselves. Guess where we end up? The same way.

A good test for a spiritual connection is (in an honest way) to evaluate who you are versus who you have been…especially when stress and tension levels rise very high. Are your selfish tendencies staying strong or diminishing?

In the Bible there is a list of what happens when people are truly engaging with the God of the Bible. This list includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control. It may not be easy for others to evaluate us if they don’t know from whence we have come. But if we are honest with ourselves, we ought to be able to have a sense of whether or not these attributes (or fruits as they are commonly referred to) seem to be growing in us or not. It becomes much easier to see when the stresses of life put real pressure on us. How do we respond then? It is a critical question to ask ourselves.

Back to the interesting experience I recently had. I am going to be very vague on the details so as not to hurt anyone but I need to share the essence of what this experience was about.

I attended an event where there were a great number of people who believed themselves to be very spiritually aware and enlightened. These folks very much believed in the connection with the Universe and the elements within the earth and much more.

Their language was very much as I talked about in part 2 of this series. They gave personalities and names to physical attributes of the universe and the world. They very much behaved as if they believed that there were truly personal interactions happening or at least possible with these material elements.

In general these folks were very kind, gentle and nice to be around. However, it was very apparent that when things were not going smoothly that those positive attributes quickly went out the window and the selfish tendencies that we all have rose up and took over. Many of these folks were living in a space where they lived as if they were transformed and changed but when reality hit them in the face their core attributes shone through clearly…those of selfishness that I talked about earlier.

I wrote part 2 over a year ago and it was such an amazing experience to see it lived out in such concentration at this event. It wasn’t just one or two people but nearly everyone who attended this event.

It was a fascinating experience that saddened me very much. I so desired that I could share the Truth as I have experienced it with them. For my life has truly been transformed and if any of you knew some of the life stresses that I have gone through then you would too believe what I am talking about. My life has honestly and truly been changed and those fruits that result from a true engagement with God that I mentioned earlier are evident even when stress levels raise to very high degrees in my life. I am extremely grateful for this and I so wish that these other folks who attended this event could experience the types of freedom that I experience on a day to day basis.

We will talk later why I use the word freedom but in the next section I will get back to talking about what religion is and how it has deceived the world in much the same way as the concept of “connecting” with the universe has. In fact much of the “new age” thinking in this regard has come about because of the lifeless aspects of religion.

But…that is for another time.

Thanks, and please leave a comment below. All of the comments on my blog (hundreds of them) were wiped out because of a glitch in that portion of the database. It was rather sad. Anyhow…I would love to hear from you.

In our modern day world that is so full of things to occupy our minds and attentions it is a common malady to be tired much of the time.

Most people end up drugging themselves with caffeine or a caffeine-like substance on a daily basis. Although caffeine has been shown to be a healthy part of an individual’s routine, it is only true in extremely moderate amounts. I love coffee but I will typically either make it all decaffeinated or 2/3 decaffeinated. I have found that this is enough to get the health benefits such as helping to ward off various cancers but not too much to stress my nervous system and adrenal glands.

Believe it or not, your adrenal glands will tire with too much work. You can do a search for adrenal exhaustion (or adrenal fatigue) and you will find that tiredness and fatigue are at the top of the list of symptoms. An overload of caffeine drives your adrenal glands and contributes to adrenal exhaustion in my opinion (I will share with you one day how caffeine has actually saved my life on a few occasions so I am not down on it. It just needs to be consumed smartly) if done on a daily basis.

I actually know people who have caffeine multiple times/day and rely on it for their energy boosts. The energy drink industry is massive. It is a sure indicator that people are needing more energy throughout their very full days.

I have a couple of ideas to help people: 

1. Get enough sleep. Dr. Archibald Hart did a giant study a number of years ago and determined that most people are sleep deprived all of the time. I have found that 8 and a half hours/night seems to be the very best amount of sleep for most people. I realize that there are a whole host of people that actually have sleep problems but one big step in addressing sleep problems could possibly be kicking the caffeine habit.

2. Drink enough pure water. The simplest way to stay hydrated and mildly detoxify the body is to drink enough pure water throughout each day. A good rule of thumb that I have found is 1/2-2/3 oz. of water/lb. of body weight each day. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, according to this formula you would want to drink 75-100 oz/day.

3. I have found a few helps in the supplement world as well. Without going into specifics of possible pathologies such as having adrenal issues, blood sugar issues, thyroid issues or others, I have found the following drink helps generally improve my overall health and increase my mental clarity and physical & emotional energy without  feeling any sort of “buzz” or anything like what caffeine will do to you. (There are also some patches that are very helpful called Energy patches from the Lifewave Corporation. I used to sell these but don’t any longer. However, I still think they are very good).

I now very much love this drink:

2 oz. Xtra Concentrate from Univera

2 oz. lemon juice

1 packet of Govera from Univera

12 oz. of water

This drink when taken on a consistent basis over time has really rocked my world. If you have read my blog you know that we are a family that takes herbs and supplements daily. I have been consulting for over 25 years in the natural health field and this is one of the easiest and overall best ways to increase and sustain energy levels while improving overall quality of health that I have found. It really works exceptionally well for increasing energy and stamina for athletes as well. Our family has had amazing success using this drink for a greatly added boost for soccer and other physical activities. We have some great stories in this regard.

Please contact me if you want to know more.

Thanks,

The US economy almost seems like a beacon of hope in a troubled world at the moment. However, anyone who has looked at it carefully knows that the inevitable (nearly inevitable anyhow) is coming. When we propped up our economy in 2008 and 2009 we began the process of prolonging and intensifying the probable meltdown.

We continue doing the same thing to this day. Europe seems to be crumbling as well as their currency at the moment which seems to make the US and the dollar a fine place to find rest and peace. I don’t see it lasting though and I believe that for every month and year that we prolong our need for a serious correction the harder and deeper and more substantial that correction will be.

At some point our correction will turn into our destruction if we don’t get serious about getting serious. Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital President, simply concludes “we end up with more rope to hang ourselves.”

I hope that I am not the only one out there who sees things this way. I think our willful blindness and short-sightedness will end up being more destructive than most people imagine.

If there is any hope it is only in God Himself as He is bigger than these things. Even in an absolute crash God is able to care for His people and walk through the very difficult times with them.

I believe that our family has been going through character preparation for such hard times and I am grateful for that.

I pray that we change our perspective as a free people in this country and start to make the hard choices. Nevertheless, I know God is trustworthy even if our entire economy comes crashing down around our ankles.

I thought I would post another poem I wrote during a Thanksgiving season one year or another. I don’t really remember when. I hope you enjoy it…

My Thankful Heart…

as i ponder on this thankful day

i wonder if all may come what may

to know the one true God is ever so

the one thing best…of this i know

tis turkey, sauce, potatoes mashed

gravy, pie and more is cached

within my gut expanded more than not

and i care?…not a second thought

no…family…children and my spouse

life and joy…our not so big house

some pets & cars…gas in the tank

these are those for which i thank

almighty God…His loving gift

to save me from the chasms rift

his Son and He in agreement do

rescue me and rescue you

through broken heart…amazing love

my life becomes…hand in a glove

where He does move and work His life

in and through our inbuilt strife

and beauty He does leave in me

not unlike a beauteous blooming tree

i’m grateful for these many things you see

for…He draws me daily through eternity

to dwell and live and laugh and shine

within the triune God divine

I rest and become one with Him

I laugh & sing with cherubim

for this you see is where I’m free

it is where I’m meant to be

embraced by Love in Father’s care

what joy to live forever there

Really?

I have been telling people for years that taking aspirin does not seem to be a smart choice. I was saying it long before the big kick to take aspirin as a preventative measure. I continued to say it while “they” (“they” are US health officials) were telling people to do so because it would supposedly help stave off heart attacks. And…I still today continue to think it is simply a “bad” idea.

An article came across Reuters yesterday talking about how researchers at St. George’s University of London, headed up by Dr. Kausik Ray, scoured through nine previous aspirin trials to take a fresh look at this issue for people without previous symptoms of heart issues.

Their conclusion? In short…the risk for internal bleeding is very great where the possible benefits are very slight. Dr. Ray simply says “I don’t recommend aspirin.”

My take? I think there is even another reason not to take aspirin. Quite simply it is horribly toxic. We used to do a simple demonstration at our seminars with aspirin. We would take a basic generic aspirin and put in into a tablespoon. Then we would heat it up with a light or something similar. Eventually the aspirin starts smoking horribly and ends up a black tarry substance.

My conclusion is simple. If aspirin is made up of tar, crude oil, or whatever, then your body actually has to deal with that somehow. Many medications have in the past been alleged to be synthesized from crude oil. I personally can’t back that up but I do know that aspirin when heated will turn into a substance that is strikingly similar.

Whatever the substance is, I am confident your body cannot deal with it properly or at least without a great deal more effort and energy than is probably good for you.

I believe the tarry substance is broken down only partially and gets caught in the internal workings of the body. This may create issues in blocking key internal pipes or simply putting the body under undo stress dealing with a foreign substance.

We put our bodies under more stress than they can handle already simply because of the environment that surrounds us. Do we really need to add to that with the food and medications we take? With the water we drink? With the internal air that we breathe? All of these things are largely within our ability to control.

Whether you believe the toxicity issue or not concerning aspirin should no longer be at issue. It seems to be fairly certain that the small amount of good that may come from taking aspirin as a preventative heart measure is far outweighed by the risks of internal bleeding that can severely harm you or even possibly kill you.

I still stand that taking aspirin ever is not smart because of the toxicity issue…but there is added on to that the internal bleeding issue…which makes it doubly or triply bad for the small daily use that US health officials recommend.

Please…take a very serious look at this issue before taking any more aspirin…especially as a preventative for heart disease…and especially if you are currently a healthy individual without any current symptoms of heart disease.

Here is a link to the Reuters article if you are interested:

Report Warns: Don’t Take Daily Aspirin For Heart

Thanks for reading,

How much do the experts know?

I spend a fair amount of time reading about the current nature of the world’s economy and it strikes me as almost humorous that it doesn’t appear as if any of the “experts” really know what is happening or what is coming.

It is in these times that I am grateful to not be one of those “experts” on the economy. The fact is it is much easier for me to admit that the times and signs are very confusing and therefore I am able to say that I really don’t know what is coming around the corner in terms of economic sustainability on a global basis.

As an example of the schizophrenic nature of the experts at the moment here are 2 articles that came to my attention today…both from the same source within the same email. I actually appreciate that fact more than anything else. This gives the feel that the organization isn’t trying to pretend that they know anymore than anyone else but are willing to present many perspectives of the same ideas.

Here are the two links:

David Murrin: Western World Is ‘Finished Financially’

and

Faber: Economic Crash Looms in China

One of these articles talks of the rising of China and the other talks of the crashing of China. Perhaps in the long run both are true or both are false…I don’t think that matters actually. The fact is that we live in extremely volatile times and it doesn’t appear than anyone really has a pulse on what is coming around the corner.

Are there things we can do even in uncertainty?

I would hope so but those things are not terribly clear. I believe you need to study diligently as much as possible and then make wise choices for you and your family. I certainly don’t have it all figured out. However, if you talk to some folks you will find that Gold is the answer, or Silver, or investing in Brazil, India, Iraq, China, Chile or whatever the case may be.

I have family in India and friends in Brazil and I have been to China and I will tell you that they certainly don’t have it all figured out either. In our economy that is so connected from a global perspective, I think the only people to arise from the chaos are those that make wise choices. Are we confined to our national economies today? Not so much. Can we as individuals rise from the economic uncertainty that looms large today? I believe we can.

It will look different for many people but there are a couple of things that seem more certain than others:

1. Healthcare in one form or another will always be at the heart of any economy. Preventative healthcare will probably arise as the preeminent actor in this play as at least a certain percentage of people will decide that they would rather start moving into the direction of taking more personal responsibility for their own health care and less reliance on organizations and governments to keep them “healthy.” In the not so distant past preventative health care was a luxury but I believe it will soon be a necessity as “quality healthcare” will probably diminish more and more as time marches on.

2. Relationship marketing (in whatever form) is growing as people are moving in the same direction financially as they seem to be in the proactive healthcare. There is a certain percentage of people who want to have more control over their own futures and a sense that very few of us can do it on our own. It takes teams and partnerships and cooperative thinking in terms of helping one another achieve economic success. The era of personal gain on the backs of others is heading south. The current trend is serving each other for economic success. This is not a communal success but a community of individuals who all become successful. It is the combination of care and concern for one another along with the desire to be personally financially successful at the same time.

Anyhow…that is how I currently see it. These aren’t the only two avenues for future financial success but they seem to be large players as the future seems to unfold.

I personally have many plans and foundations laid in these two areas along with some other areas that seem to be opening up. If you want to know more about my personal ideas just let me know.

Please let me know what you think about these things…thanks,

As always…hoping to serve,

Let’s see…I left off Part 1 with…

The universe is…QUITE SIMPLY A COMBINATION OF MATTER AND ENERGY. More about that later…

It is certainly NOT GOD. But, when we treat it like God (purposely or not) it brings with it a whole host of unintended consequences.

As I said in the first part…if we confer upon the universe a personality then we are essentially giving it (notice the use of “it”…a term that denotes an object and not a person), in all practical respects, the position of God or at least a god.

God, in all cultures, whether using a “G” or a “g”, has within it the concept of someone who has a will and a personality. The personality of God or a god does not have to imply any sense of goodness (as we often think) but there must be some sense of individuality or “personhood.”

If the universe is understood as simply an inanimate object (matter and energy) that we actually can interact with just as I am interacting with my computer at this very moment, then I don’t have a problem with that. I input energy into my computer and a similar energy is given back to me.

The problem is that we use language that “draws” us into an interaction with the universal forces of energy and so forth as if the universe actually has a personality of its own. So at an emotional level we may treat the universe as a god and miss out on some important aspects of what it means to be human…such as the search for meaning outside of ourselves within the scope of a greater personality or purpose than just us…ie—the search for God.

Therefore, I believe the language we use ends up dictating our own concepts about what it means to be human and what it means to be alive because those places within every human that long for answers and a connection with someone beyond themselves are satiated to a point of ceasing to look for those connections…believing instead, that those connections are already made in the unintended emotional and/or spiritual connection with the universe.

Back to the computer analogy…my computer is a very useful tool and as such has become essential in my day to day life. If I didn’t know anything about computers, however, I perhaps would come across it some day (as perhaps a middle ages european might do if he/she happened to be transported to this time) and think that it was an inexplicable and marvelous thing. In my ignorance I may believe that it has “magical” powers and eventually (in my ignorance) probably treat it like a god.

In my journey in these past couple of years and seeing how people treat the universe I believe it is a similar thing as my computer analogy. Too many people treat the mysteries of the universe similar to my medieval man would treat a super high tech computer. We confer upon the universe (simply because we have discovered some incredibly interesting aspects about the universe and the nature of energy) the ability to “give” and “take,” to “create” and other similar “powers” that would traditionally only be given to God or a god.

I also hear language like…”we are co-creators with the universe.” These types of statements not only imply that the universe has a will and a personality but that we have a significant connection with this universe where we somehow partner in the divine nature of it and all that that entails. Many people perhaps are referring to some sort of evolutionary process when they speak of a “creating” universe. But the language itself is enough to cause us to internally “act” as if the universe has a personality and that we can connect with it in such a way as to become a part of this “divine” nature. Our hearts and minds adjust to these things and we cease to seek an entity beyond ourselves as our nature is designed to do. Rather, we begin to “believe” that the divine nature is essentially found within us. In essence, if I figured out how to “tap into the power” of the above mentioned computer I may just believe that I was a “co-creator” with it when in reality I would simply be inputting energy to get an output of energy. It may not be an even give and take…but it essentially is a similar phenomenon as interacting with the universe.

Much of the modern day free thinking world would agree with me in as much as we can interact with the universe that it simply is a matter of an energetic interaction. However, the tendency is also to start connecting uniquely human emotions to this interaction and then the actions that we take no longer follow the beliefs we say we have. It is a very small leap indeed to start believing that our interaction with an incredibly vast and misunderstood energetic force such as the universe would turn into a “spiritual” connection without even realizing it. We begin using language that creates a “spiritual” interaction with the universe that we have given a “personality” to (even if only with our language) and then we end up acting out our lives in sync with these ideas…far from the place where we started. The tendency is then to look inside ourselves (after all we are a part of that universal energy that abounds and surrounds us) for that divine essence that we are so desirous to connect with. For…if we can connect with the universe in such a way as to bring out the divinity within ourselves then we have satisfied that need to connect with the divine.

So, the desire to connect with the divine actually takes place in our practical lives whether or not it actually has any bit of truth to it or not. We connect and interact with the energy that surrounds us (and is much bigger than us) as if that energy has a personality by using language that gives it the ability to “willfully” interact back. As we practically live out the idea that we co-labor with the universe we get a sense of satisfaction as if our innate desire to connect with something beyond ourselves has actually occurred. It then is a very small step to satisfy the second strongest urge inside of us…that of becoming divine ourselves.

We use language that opens up doors to places where the human heart and soul cannot possibly sustain a sane connection with reality. It does not take much to see that the human capacity to connect with the divine is not within our own capacity to do so…if we would simply be able to open our eyes and minds just a bit. Instead, the draw of the possibility of being able to create our own destinies and “visualize” our own outcomes is very appealing. It is so appealing and strong that it causes us to be blind to the simple realities that are so evident to anyone not caught in that mistaken realm of fantasy. We are certainly not divine and it doesn’t matter how much education or evolution one may go through human nature has never changed in thousands of years…and it is not going to do so in the coming “new age” either.

If you actually believe that you have the capacity of the divine and are living as if that were true, please take a deep look inside of yourself and then look at your life as it really is…not through the fantasy glasses you typically do. You will find that your tendency to put yourself first, even when it truly hurts others, is very strong indeed. You may believe that it is “love” that directs you but when that pressure really mounts then you will see the truth of what I am talking about. You will choose yourself and self-preservation will be your mantra and your typical mode of operation. Sure you can snap out of that because you may talk of “love” and such things but when things truly go wrong and the pressure builds…then your true nature will reveal itself to you. You can even put on a good show for long periods of time…but I know that neither the universe nor anything inside of you cannot and does not have the power to change who you are by nature.

This is also true of religious folks who believe they have the answers on their side. Most of the world of religion believe they have answers that others do not. However…they are many times not much further along in their true core understanding as to the nature of what it means to be human and connect with the divine than do those who connect with the universe.

More of this in part 3…