Sweet Moments

Dear Friends and Family,

Michael did not bleed when they took out the breathing tube.

Dr. Wang finally found an ulcer that is a crater shape. 

He has layers of burnt skin in his throat. All his organs are strong.

One area is raw to the bone. 

In order to work on that issue we would like for him to heal from this trauma. 

We will ask Michael how he would like to proceed. 

Extensive throat reconstruction surgery is on the menu.

He had a sweet exchange with DylanGrace, who proudly wore her brand-new glasses on her nose. 

He formed the words “boo boo”, which is his nickname for her. 

Later he shaped the word “water”. He could not get water. I was extremely anxious for DylanGrace to come out of the room so he could rest. She stayed for 30 minutes so I had no chance to say “hi” because I thought it was too much.

To his brother Larry, who flew in from Dallas upon seeing him, Michael held up the middle finger, which is their brotherly hello.

Through this procedure Dylan and I both agreed that even him being half sedated and in discomfort and pain has not yet taken away any of his humor or loving personality so we haven't even come close to losing this fight.

More shifts are needed in the next few days. Please text me at 510 652-3136 for the early bird special and to reserve your spot in line.

Thanks for all your help.

Warmly, Martina and DylanGrace 

HAPPY

Our daughter witnessed her Dad loosing about a liter of blood. I was meditating for strength. She called 911.The bathroom sink needed to be cleaned by the Emeryville Fire Department. It is rattling my bones.

Happy I have to not deal with a dog of that size.

King

"I told him to hold out as a King would his staff". DylanGrace said to her Papa in the Kaiser Hospital last month.
 "Look out to your kingdom" ! 

 Photo and text by DylanGrace Voorhees March 2016

Migrant Catastrophe

My Mom and a long-time friend of our family, Susanna, greeted DylanGrace and I at the Düsseldorf Airport. We made our way to my Mom's house which was filled with good food, candles and warmth. Susanna brought a dinner of fresh ciabatta breads and an assortment of Swiss and Italian cheeses, tomatoes, olives and green grapes. As we sat around the table and discussed intently the German/European migration crisis and with an open world map between tea cups, we pointed out to DylanGrace where all the migrants and refugees were coming from and why. 

Susanna has been working for weeks in the arrival tents as a German teacher, a dinner preparer and as an usher for mime performers and greeting ceremonies. Children were arriving with naked bottoms and urine soaked shoes caked in feces as their families walked mostly through mud for weeks. All their clothes were stripped and burned in bond fires right behind the "welcome tents" and they were freshly clothed and fed. 

The other day German music (Schlager) was playing for entertainment until one Iranian man walked up to the juke box and plugged in his I-Phone filled with Arabic, One thousand and One Night oriental festive music and immediately groups of men and woman from countries like Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Albania, Morocco, and Iraq rose from their seats, clicked their pinky fingers together and lifted their arms in waves up and down as they flew with coordinated dance feet in circles round and round. The German volunteers whose eyes were filled with tears were asked to join their song and dance.

Susanna’s believes so many are coming now because of the the advent of the I-phone. Along with Twitter, WhatsUp and the like, many countries are now made familiar and the refugees crave the European and western life styles (as you told me all along).  Their lives back in their home countries consisted of fear, oppression, poverty and were unacceptable. They are change seekers who through civil wars and guerrilla warfare lost everything. They are forced to run but feel helpless to change or topple the strongholds of their own governments. They are regular people searching for a life of prosperity, education, and a better future for their children. 

Military intervention is always wrong (Okay, it worked one time against Hitler; that is good but it has never ever worked again). The governments think that they only have one option, the military one, and that one makes money, lots of money. Lots and lots of money and IT IS all about the money. They are in complete denial about what IS (as in To Be ) and how ISIS operates. ISIS will be overjoyed to force soldiers with boots on the ground, their highest wish and joy and the reason for the brutal beheadings. Their mouths start watering with the prospects of slaughtering a French or an English human being and it gets their heart-rates going even higher with happiness to encounter an American with his/her boots on the ground so they can kill them brutally. 

Here are three proposals I learned for finishing and drying out this terror group:

1) Prevention here in our countries. 

2) Help Turkey to close the smuggler holes at the border and protect the areas where smugglers and ISIS supporters can slip undetected to and fro which would also stop the illegal oil.

3) The introduction of Syria’s underprivileged and forgotten minorities into the political process and decision making. They were politically forgotten so they had NO choice BUT to join ISIS. We need to win them back to dry out ISIS. We need to dry ISIS out financially by stopping all monies, all weapons, and punishing sharply ALL supporters and all joiners and helpers.

4) Here in Germany we have five Million Muslims (only three thousand are violent). We need to bring these 4 million 997,000 thousand into our discussions and political decisions. The 5 million Muslims living in Germany are also hated by ISIS because they are NOT radical enough.

This is my offering to peace in the Middle East. 

Martina Konietzny

 written December 7, 2015 Published February 18, 2016

Dharma Daughter

The radiant light seems to be poisonous. Cancer in the ones around you can cause bad-tempered conceptions. Fondly I think of having the Dharma work from the inside out. 

When DylanGrace woke up the other day she was obsessed with putting on her friendship necklace. She was fumbling and trying and finally walked in front of the mirror to see why she could not get it on. She asked me to help and I just got frustrated as we needed to go and the breakfast was not touched yet. I thought how hungry she would be if she would not eat it now. I told her to come and we needed to go. The backpack was packed, the homework was done, the breakfast was not eaten, the car had no flat tire and we needed to leave as she was still trying to get the necklace around her neck. I encouraged her to eat her yogurt with raspberries. What a luxury and how spoiled we all are and do we realize most people live in a food desert even in California around the Pacific-Crest -Trail ! 

We stopped by the kitchen table where one of our guests, a Pacific-Trail-Through-Hiker had laid out his map for DylanGrace to see that he, in fact, had walked 2648 miles from the Southern Terminus at Campo to the Northern Terminus at the US Canadian border  near Manning Park, Canada over the last six months since April 27 and he just arrived back on Oct 20th. I asked him about his biggest challenges. 

Dylan still needed to fasten her necklace around her neck. I said it would not work as the clasp was broken and she denied it and the guest told us about the preciousness of water and the Trail Angels. I wanted to find out about the Trail Angels...I wanted to BECOME a Trail Angel, now in this moment. I did not want to have my daughter tell me one more time about a necklace she needed to close and could not get closed because yesterday she cut something off it. I told her that it broke and she denied that and said she cut something off it before and it still closed but now it did not close and I wanted to talk more about the Pacific Crest Trail.  Does my daughter ever realize how fortunate she is to have the opportunity to talk to a Pacific-Crest-Trail-Through-Hiker for breakfast? She did not even take the opportunity. He started his hike at the Mexican border and stuck his hand through the fence where there were two holes and he photographed it.

We finally sat in the car and Dylan wanted me to call her school, to let them know that we would be late because of the necklace that would not close. We were leaving at 7:33 AM and we had never left that late before. The necklace was still not around her neck and I had visions of tearing it from her and throwing the whole darn thing out the window.  I said just because it worked yesterday it still might not work today and if she liked I could bring it to a jeweler and have it fixed. But, no, she needed it on her neck NOW, not later. NOW!  I stayed calm thinking of turning the situation into a Dharma moment and manifesting the Dharma into my Daughter and I suggested that if one tries one version and it does not work one has to try to find another solution and try it from a different angle. The same way of trying will only give you the same outcome so I suggested she carry the necklace in her pocket. That idea did not work, so suggested why not try to make a knot, but no, no knot was desired.  Why could she not wrap some clear tape around the two ends of the necklace? That idea resonated with her and she said: "Can you help me?" We arrived at school, the breakfast not eaten,  but miraculously there was clear tape on my dashboard. WHY I will never know!  I wrapped one piece around one end of the necklace at 8:03 AM and I wrapped another piece around the other end and she hid the tape behind her nape under her long, blond, very cared-for hair.   I pleaded for her to take two bites of her breakfast and she did and she left and closed the door and hiked up the hill to her German Class as I hung my head into the steering wheel and cried, radiant light all around me.

Cancer is Nature's Way

It was already 9:48 PM last night and the lentils were trying to get soft.  I still had to sauté the veggies, onions, garlic, carrots and celery and add in the spices of basil and oregano.  The last load of laundry needed to be hung out on the line and a stack of dry clothes needed to be folded. The kitchen floor was getting soggy and I was having a secret love affair with my brand-new VITAMIX blender as I was trying desperately to recall recipes in my head tasty enough to be liked by a cowboy. Muscle building is on his menu today. He rides the bike and lifts weights, but dismissed my idea of my boot-camp trainer.

It was getting late and I was running out of steam and the dishes were piling high. The VITAMIX was so loud!  Yesterday garlic was okay to mix with avocado, spinach, kale (not too much kale just one or two leaves) and beets and fresh carrot juice (made with a juicer on the side), FlaxSeed oil to bind the beta-carotene and celery and cucumber all mixed with HempMilk. Did I already have the Plant Protein in it ? When Michael came by I gave him a glass of my concoction only to have him cough and scream that it was too harsh for his throat. I quickly gave him water and tried anew, left out the garlic... strange, yesterday the garlic was still smooth enough. Now I mixed in beets and did I remember the spirulina ? I usually can tell by the color but the beets took total advantage of their powerful color spectrum. Okay, more spirulina couldn't hurt yet if a dash too much, Michael would not like it and dismiss it. 

Quickly to bed, with seven hours of sleep not enough, but I got to squeeze by. Darn, if I just would't have cut the top of my left index finger, things would be easier.  Almost tore my ankle apart outside while hanging laundry and my toe almost was smashed with a 200 pound weight but it did not happen. Oh, is there still light in my daughters room at 10:33 PM! Yes, when I came in to ask she was writing the first amendment into her journal.  Why at 10:33 PM ??? I will never know. Her Dad usually makes sure that her SMART-phone is gone from 8:30 - 9:30 PM, then she can have it for the last hour, but needs to bring it to his night stand before 10:30 PM. He was deep asleep probably right around 9:50 PM. Good for him! 

I inherited yet another job. This morning 6:10 AM I was preparing two plain Strauss fat Yogurts, with  a few drops of maple syrup and cut up goji berries, chia seeds, fresh organic strawberries and pears (pears delicious and juicy), Brazil nuts and almonds all washed down with a hearty spinach omelet with a bit of cheese. My daughter was happy. She ate it all, in bed. Now quickly to make her lunch for school and bring the breakfast tray to her Dad and remind him to also eat ten organic blueberries. Fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon. I think cancer is NATURES way to WHIP you into shape. I did not know that alcohol is linked to throat cancer. Now a bit of Eric Satie Gnossienne 1-Alessio Nanni on the piano, I mimic him so. I want his hands to touch my piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOTpQpoHHaw