He’s Here!

by Maria Theresa Maggi on April 18, 2023

And I got to visit when he was 10 days old.  Absolutely over the moon. Mom, Baby and Dad all doing well. Love them all so much. Happy Happy Spring!

Maria (moonwatcher)

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“Cotton, Me, Hat, Sea,” taken by my son at our beach access a few months ago.

Hello Dear Readers! As they say on social media, “it’s been a minute.” I have indeed been busy with other pursuits (like finishing another quilt for grandson when he arrives next month). but I wanted to pop in here and mark what is, on February 14, 2023, 27 years since the “probable” diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and 15 years since I began eating low fat whole food plant based in a way that turned the downward spiral around for the unanticipated better.  It’s a milestone for sure, and I wanted to mark it with you.

In early 2022, I bit down on a raw carrot and two teeth with longstanding cracks in them directly above and below each other both broke apart in one instant. This meant a return to a series of dentists appointments which would ultimately result in two new crowns. But along the way I also knew this meant digging out the old fillings, which meant having to be effectively sedated, and both of those things meant metals from the old fillings likely being released yet again into my system, along with the residuals of the pharmaceuticals that would make it possible for me to endure the treatment. I sensed that I needed to do something to strengthen my system and get it ready for all this.

At the time my son had started drinking celery juice. Then my friend and neighbor also started. Two people in two weeks peaked my interest. I discovered my friend here was following something she called Medical Medium information and she loaned me the book on Celery Juice.  I gobbled it up, and just knew–this is something I need to do to get ready for the dentist.

I also remembered that when that book came out in 2019, someone I knew and respected and liked from Idaho had posted about it. This someone was suffering from some severe mystery auto-immune health problems and she posted how this was a game changer for her, along with some links to some portions of the book. I remember reading it at the time and thinking what I always thought about things like this. It ran along these lines (and is informed by the general discouragement of the plant-based doctors about juicing): this sounds interesting but I don’t have a juicer, I can’t afford a juicer, I don’t want a juicer, I’ll just eat the celery. And at the time, that was that.

But having to get ready for the dentist proved to be a powerful motivator. After a couple of weeks of trying to whir the celery in the blender or food processor and then strain it as in making nut milk, I broke down and bought what I affectionately called, “my little baby juicer.” I had seen someone effectively juice celery cut into pieces with it in a video and I was on my way. I have not looked back.

For me, following Medical Medium information is best characterized as an elevation of my low fat plant-based lifestyle. The information shares some familiar  components with advice from the plant-based doctors: eat low fat eat whole foods, indulge yourself in the healthy aspects of all kinds of potatoes. And it also emphasizes many herbs that were familiar to me and have been key allies for me over the years: first and foremost, lemon balm, but also nettle, ginger and many more. These were old friends. MM info advises staying away from what it calls “troublemaker foods,” such as eggs, dairy, gluten, soy, and GMO corn. Those are all a “check” for me, and relatively easy to do.

But the game changers turned out to be the things that were different. One was adding something, the celery juice every morning on an empty stomach, and the other was taking something away we in the plant-based community love to no end. That something turns out to be vinegar.

At first I didn’t think I could do it. After all, it’s the basis of almost all low fat plant-based dressings. But when I learned from the Medical Medium perspective that what it basically does is ruin the protective enamel on teeth over time and also sort of pickle our organs so we can’t absorb the good stuff we need to heal, I resolved to try, but I steeled myself for the worst.

The first recipe I tried this way was one using riced cauliflower, zucchini and green onion. Instead of any vinegar, the “sauce” for the sauteed zucchini was lemon juice, maple syrup and red pepper. I was astonished at how delicious it was and how much I liked it, and helped by the gazillions of recipes for free on the Medical Medium site, I was off to the races.

Between the celery juice, which, among other things like healing the gut, can help remineralize the teeth, and leaving vinegar aside, I had more comfortable dentist appointments than I anticipated. I even was able to have the crowns seated without taking an oral sedative, something I could not do the last time a few years ago. And on an everyday basis my teeth are no longer chronically sensitive. It’s like I have a new lease on mouth comfort.

The other MM practice I adopted at the same time is having the MM Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie every morning after my celery juice. Smoothies are not high on the low fat plant-based pyramid either, but when I first read about what it can do for you in the celery juice book, I knew instinctively “I need this.” And I’ve had it every morning without fail since the first day I gathered all the ingredients. I never get tired of it.

There is so much to learn, but this info has put me on a path of enhanced healing I could not access after all these years simply on a plant-based diet. Besides improvements in my mouth, stellar improvements in my gut, healing of intense and weird sciatica symptoms that have plagued me off and on since 2019 are gone or much improved.

And there is a spiritual dimension to this practice that feels very comfortable to me: meditations on the moon or on some aspect of nature, healing and life-changing angels to ask for help, for instance. So I’ve embraced it as a good way to eat and approach food as medicie for the rest of my life. I haven’t done any of the advanced cleanses, but I stick to my morning heavy metal detox cleanse (lemon water, celery juice, heavy metal detox smoothie, apple if still hungry) until noon every day and it’s been a great healing boon. And, of course, mo more vinegar for me.

I’m at the point where I don’t care to convince anyone to try something or argue about which approach to healing is best. But this MM info has allowed me to incorporate a lot of disparate aspects of my healing practices and concentrate them to a new level of effectiveness. I’m ever grateful for it, and for Anthony William who receives this healing information from an entity called Spirit of Compassion. This, too, in my long life of knowing, practicing and loving alternative ways, makes intuitive sense to me. It has nothing to do with AW’s personality or social media presence, but with the way the information he shares resonates with me. The first revised and expanded book Medical Medium, gave me all the essentials I needed to address my own conditions from this perspective, and though I delve into the other books, too, it’s still my compass.

I love how life continues to surprise me. My son was laughing that while he drank celery juice for a few weeks and cast it aside when it didn’t do for him what some influencer claimed it would do, I have made it into this whole healing tool. And it makes me giggle to think that decades ago before Mike was even born, his Dad left a book at my house when we were first dating that had a title something like “Juice Fasting for Your Health.”   Mike’s Dad never actually did it, just wanted to so he could keep himself in shape for his roles on the stage. I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, but it stayed on my bookshelf for a long time. Now I’m not really juice fasting, but of the three of us I am the one who actually picked up the essence of what juicing can do for us, thanks to Medical Medium info, and ran with it. The fact that I can continue to surprise myself and expand my healing like this, even at 67, is a blessing beyond compare. I wish you all the blessing of healing surprises of your own ,whatever they may be, in the days ahead. And Happy Anniversary to me!

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Life Is A Surprise

November 21, 2022

This little purple alyssum in a pot in my backyard wanted nothing to do with blooming this summer when all the other flowers were taking their turns. I would water it when I watered all the others, because we had a very dry summer here at the coast, and look at it mournfully when it […]

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Summer Greetings: I Keep Looking For The Deer

August 9, 2022

Summer Greetings, Dearest Reader. It’s been a long time. Before Summer turns to Fall, I wanted to share with you some of its gifts to me this year. I discovered that after so much practicing and watching of  videos of how to cut up mangoes and trying to perfect my technique over the years, that […]

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The Root of My Slow Miracle Blessings: A Public Service Announcement

February 13, 2022

On Valentine’s Day 2022, it is my 14th anniversary eating low fat whole food plant based (and vegan) and the 26th anniversary of receiving the diagnosis of MS. I try to mark this day each year with a post. This year I’m obsessed with the idea of roots and foundations. This tree with its root […]

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Squash Milk

January 28, 2022

I was recently reading a LiveKindly article about how mainstream chefs are being compelled into plant friendly and vegan recipes by the rising tide of interest in eating vegan. The article also touted young food influencers eating and cooking and foraging vegan–and in this mix, along with The Korean Vegan and Alexis Nicole (blackforager on […]

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Season’s Greetings, Doodles, and Stories

December 13, 2021

Holiday greetings, my dear readers, however you celebrate, It’s  been a while since I’ve posted so I thought I would try to catch you up a bit. As I may have mentioned, one of the things I turned to that helps me cope with missing my foster grand baby is what I call “doodling.” Months […]

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The Quality of Mercy. . .

October 31, 2021

. .is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. . –The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare Though my neighborhood is not formally a retirement community, the lion’s share of my neighbors are retired. in addition […]

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In The Running

October 7, 2021

When we head down our street toward the beach each morning there’s two ways we can get to the access. One is to turn left and the other is to go straight and into what looks like a dead end with a house facing the ocean before turning left and eventually ending up at the […]

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In Honor of The New Moon

October 3, 2021

I have a new post about my slow miracle in the works, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you all another slow miracle accomplishment. I have finally, with the help of friends, figured out how to get paid subscriptions up and running to my Substack Newsletter, Maria’s Star Garden. If you enjoy […]

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