Healthy Environment or Not ???

Hello Friends, Family and Fellow Hikers,

         It has been a while since I last wrote anything. I have had alot of stories on my mind for blogging but being out on the trail it is hard to compose them all. This post though is one I have been thinking on  since the first week out on the trail. It is about health.
         We as a society seem to always be focused on Healthy Living....but what is truly Healthy Living? Is our green life style in today's society healthy? Is the latest green flooring and counter tops healthy? The foods that are marketed to us in pretty wrappers that say " Organic", Healthy? I would have to say NO, to all of the above. I would like to have considered myself to be a healthier, health conscience person but after leaving our Natural Farm and walking on the trail, I have decided I was not " Healthy".
         You see, This is what I mean and this is being frank and may disgust you but it is the honest truth and from actual self walking research. Our family have been walking now for over a month and have walked 600 miles in from snow and ice to now sunny, humid weather. I have been observing my families health while on this trail. The things our bodies have gone through is amazing. You can not buy this kind of Natural Detox in a bottle, nor can you get a fancy prescription for it either. This kind of detox takes alot of sweat and miles. I must say it truly has been a neat yet gross thing to watch.
          I am a cancer survivor and have been through chemo and radiation and have a compromised lymph system. My husband has psoriatic arthritis and takes a biologic and our daughter has asthma, as well as myself. I have always used natural cleaners in our home and thought this was healthy. Well, it is better on you but you are still toxic and do not know it. We were very toxic at home and did not know it. Since the first week on our walk, we began to notice things, smells, colors, vision differences...... the list grows longer.
           Our first day on the trail we hiked 18.5 miles and we average 18+ now a day and our longest day has been 28 miles for a day. We walked at home 10 miles or so a day and this detoxing stuff never happened. I have come to realize that we were recontaminating ourselves in our home. This is what I mean, I began to sweat and my sweat started changing colors. My undershirts began to stain black, yes, black. This I feel was detoxing mold from our bodies. Our bodily fluids were orange for a while,urine of course. Then as time went on it began to improve. Our vision became clearer and sharper. Our hearing enhanced, my husband whom has had several operation on his ears began to hear things in God's creation like a dog panting from a far distance. This has been amazing!
           We noticed after a hotel stay or two, we would have blurred vision or like a film on our eyes and we would sweat, smelly sweat, not normal sweat and we would have lingering headaches and swollen feet. This has been an experiment and now I am writing about it. Our bodies have gone through a cycle of getting rid of all kinds of toxic waste we never knew we had and now we are feeling better. We are becoming I think how God meant for us to be. HE gave us dominion over the animals.....How can we be over them if we can not hear them? Smell them coming? See them??
Now when we are walking on a trail we smell flowers before we are near them. We smell water before we see it and we can smell animals whether reptile or mammal and tell the difference between them. We have always heard that the military feeds their people what the enemy eats so they would not be recognized and that was always foreign to me but not anymore. Humans have a smell and it is not really a bad odor but a natural smell of salty sweat but in the beginning it was an awful smell. You can not imagine what you smell like right now. We are living outside in God's creation and walking everyday in HIS creation and we are becoming HIS creation again.
        I feel like we need to eat from the gardens again and eat local not foreign foods and eat seasonal foods and work and exercise hard daily and we may become HEALTHIER, maybe not 100% but better. We are not at 100% yet either but, we are getting healthier I can not imagine what we will be like in 4000 more miles. I hope this does not gross you out but will make you think more about your living environment and question it. Is it truly a Healthy environment or not, probably not. A friend of ours wrote a book called The Land that Calls Me Home...by: Hughey Reynolds and it is about natural farms and God and I highly support this book for all who is interested in Healthy. I really think God wanted us to eat from the fruits and veggies and meats that are local and fresh not imported. I want to eat more from this season and then whatever is fresh next season and so on and see how Healthy we become. I pray you will be encouraged to do something about your own health and see what happens to your life. Get out in God's creation and explore a truly healthy way of living physically and spiritually and enjoy living.

God Bless You and I love you ALL,

GentleFir

Calling on God in the Mountains and the Valleys........

Hello Friends, Family and Fellow Hikers,

       I have been thinking alot lately on what my new post would be on and this is what I have been dealing with lately. We have been hiking in West Virginia for a while now and the mountains have been a daily ordeal in my life. Every day has been a physical challenge for me and yet it has been spiritually encouraging. I know this may sound contradictory but it is the truth. I have had to physically push myself to the limits to get up and over these mountains each day and then decend down into the valleys and back up and over again and again. I have found though with each daily physical challenge that has been before me, I have prayed for strength and will power and comfort of God. I have sang praises in the storms, I have just quoted scripture that has had to do with the mountain or valley before me and HE has met my need. Every day has been a new day, my beautiful surroundings, my physical struggles, my spiritual walk, my song on my heart and much more. This walk of love has not only blessed others we have met but has blessed myself more. What I mean is my walk with God has been truly blessed, I have not had a day that I have not had to totally rely on God for help to complete the task before me, the mountains and the valleys. I have found that the mountains are hard to push up and the valleys are just as hard sometimes harder on the knee pain. Yet, God has given me the strength that I have needed just when needed. He has never let me down. So, if you are on a mountain in WV or somewhere else praise God for all of your pains and joys. If you are in the valleys of dispair, praise God for He cares and will give you the strenghth physical as well as spiritual that you need. I have grown alot spiritual and have alot more growing to do but in all of the physical pain it has been more than worth it spiritually. I pray that whom ever reads this will think about talking to God and truly seeking Him in every situation in your life for I know HE hears and cares for you. So, praise HIM on the mountains and in the valleys always and He will carry you up and over each one. I hope you will continue to pray for strength and protection over myself and my family as we Walk in Love across our Nation.



Lord Bless You All and I love You,

GentleFir
Backpacking Believers