Greens, Beautiful Greens

It’s been a good week here on Ponce de Leon Street. Lots of juice, lots of veggies, drop-ins from the kids and a couple of friends. I thought maybe you’d be interested to hear what we had to eat today. I won’t even touch Spencer’s regime of supplements, as that’s another story.

One of the best parts of the week was getting our first delivery of wheat grass to turn into fresh juice. This is how it comes ~ our own little garden of greens!

We have had 2 shots each so far. We trim the grass, put it through our slow juicer, and then drink it immediately. The color is a brilliant green, and the taste is what I would call ALIVESince the juicer was already in operation, we continued by making a few bottles of fresh vegetable juice for Spencer to drink throughout the day. Here is what the juice looked like before we ran it through. Actually there was about 3 times as much kale, but I wanted the photo to show the array of veggies.

Because of the cabbage and carrots, it turned out a kind of chocolate color, still packed with nutrients from this array of kale, beets, carrots, celery, cucumbers, red cabbage, fresh ginger, fresh turmeric, and fresh lemon juice. All but the turmeric is organic. The juice is ultimately about 2 parts greens to 1 part everything else. It has just the right zip from the ginger and went down smooth as can be.

Within the next hour, I made our usual smoothie: coconut water, soaked chia seeds, protein powder, almonds, ground flax seeds, more kale, and organic frozen wild blueberries. We generally play a game of Bananagrams while slowly drinking this concoction.

I was visiting friends at lunchtime, and had a raw foods education for lunch. Wow! Spencer ate some left-overs. For dinner I shared some of the Three Pepper Soup and homemade almond crackers from my visit earlier in the day. I also roasted a thinly sliced head of cauliflower, which we ate with a sauce made from soaked cashews, white miso, lemon juice, and a few other ingredients.

Our general strategy is to boost Spencer’s immune system and alkalize his body. Yes, it takes extra time planning, shopping for greens, and trying out new recipes. But, as you know, the stakes are high. So we are on it!

And we are diggin’ it!

A New Lens

Photo by Chad Edwards taken October 28, 2018 at The Frog Pond in Silverhill, Alabama

Having cancer is an odd thing. You get a diagnosis after deciding that some aspect of your health is not right. You consult with an array of doctors and get some labs done, and then you enter a whole new world. Although we wouldn’t mind having our old world back, we are in a curious space where Spencer feels good a majority of the time. We spend a great part of the day together as usual: get out for a bit of exercise in the morning or evening, I prepare meals, we play a daily game of Bananagrams, we work at the computers and spend some time reading, and sometimes we go to the movies. This, in fact, sounds a lot like our days at home before the diagnosis. 

But there are differences. Walks can improve any mood at any time of the day, meals have been calibrated to boost Spencer’s immune system and alkalize his system (cancer does not thrive in an alkaline environment), our word game can reflect our current concerns, reading and computer work include the continuing study of cancer, and movie choices are more upbeat in a bid to bring in more happiness. Life is not as casual ~ we are breaking old habits of taking life for granted, hugging often in glee because we are together and also to lubricate our lives with gratitude. We are shedding stress that we didn’t know we had and filling that void with deep appreciation for the lives we have experienced and nurtured. We are fine-tuning our lives, even though we thought we had it all figured out.

There have also been some interesting additions around here. You might find this curious, but except when Spencer has had a specific project going, he has seldom played a lot of music around the house. Now that we are not touring, there is a line of guitars out of their cases just waiting to be picked up. Spencer has been obliging his instruments, making more music than he has in many years. 

Many of you likely visualize Spencer dressed in black, as he often does for a performance. These days, though, he has been donning more colorful clothing, which paints life with more cheer. Good move, Spencer!

And how about more rest? Americans are notorious for not getting enough. These days Spencer often retreats in the afternoon, deep breathing for an extended period of time. Sometimes it leads to a bit of a nap. His sleeping habits have changed, too, from restlessness and an inner alarm waking him at 4:30 am, to deep quiet sleep until a more civilized hour. We have read that the body works on eliminating toxins during sleep. That sounds pretty important under the circumstances.

The point is that you can always do more to enhance your awareness. I wouldn’t say that I am grateful for the entry of cancer into our life. But I can definitely see where it is changing certain aspects in a positive direction. And for that I am grateful.

Love,

Marilyn