Beauty in Nature

I grew up in an isolated area along the Canadian Border, in Northern New York. It was time when a time the land still talked to the people. Nature was my mother in many ways, and interacting with nature taught me invaluable lessons. She is both fierce and beautiful, but always awesome.
On my other blog, mythicmusing, I have been writing about my experiences with a numinous image: reindeer goddess. Due to my interest in reindeer, I discovered the story of baby Blue: he his the first wild reindeer born in England since the Ice Age and he was born on May Day.

photo by Adam Gerrard/SWNS





In prior posts I have told stories of my adventures in hummingbird triage and rescue.
A colleague of mine at Pacific Paranormal Investigations recently pointed out a hummingbird web cam to me; meet mother Phoebe and her hatch-lings Hope and Hoku.

I hope these images are as inspiring to you as they are to me.

Me, ME, and Vitamin D

I have been incapacitated for weeks. A friend of mine, artist Teresa Mill, came to visit me. She brought freshly cut roses from the garden. They smell heavenly! Thank you, Teresa!

The past 2 weeks have been very painful for me. I have spent many hours at my doctors office, on 2 separate visits. The first visit was preceded by the worst body aches I have ever had. I was actually crying. I didn't have a fever, and there didn't seem to be one thing that was causing the all-over excruciating joint, muscle and bone aches. My kidneys hurt, too. I had to be seen by nurse practitioner. He was very thorough, but he did say one of those things that make ME/CFS patient's blood pressure go sky high: "Sometimes we give pain patients anti-depressants and the pain just goes away." I said, "Look at my chart. I have been on nortryptaline (20 mgs a day) for 16 years! And I have tried them all!"
"True", he said, after reading the chart.
So he ordered many tests for things I've never heard of, and other things I've been tested for numerous times.
Three days after the Dr. visit, I discovered the culprit for the horrible body pains: vitamin D supplements. I stopped taking them because I felt so terribly sick. Three days later, most of the pain was gone. (Last month I was found to have a severe vitamin D deficiency with a level of 16. This is in spite of my diet containing foods with a daily intake of 100% of vitamin D. )
I had to go back to my Dr.'s. It turns out that because my body can't absorb the D, taking the supplements makes me very sick. It's part of a mal-absorption syndrome. My Dr. explained that my bones are at risk, and need D asap. Normally, your body absorbs D through sunlight. Due to having zero thyroid function, going out in direct sunlight causes me to have abscesses on the skin. (Did I mention I have very pale skin with no chance of tanning?)
The other tests showed that my pernicious anemia is alive and well. No wonder I feel sad and blue. I've also got a virus that attacks the vocal chords. I can't talk. I was told this will take 6-8 weeks to run it's course. Chances are, I was exposed to it at the clinic. Oh Joy!!
Now comes the task of experimenting with different supplements and food combinations. Fortunately, my husband works for a health food store. Oh- and he is a musician who plays the Blues... and plays it like he means it.