My Word of the Day

Charlotte Hornets:  The only mascot for Charlotte’s NBA team.  B**cats beware, we’re going to keep the hive alive. 

Hey guys, do you remember the great and magnificent purple and teal paraphernalia that marked your childhood, adolescence, mid-life crises, or perhaps senior years?  If you don’t, then you may have fallen into the deep, dark, b**cat den, and you must get the heck outta there! 

Anyway, the Charlotte Hornets greatly marked my childhood, and I would like it to continue to be apart of my own mid-life crisis through grandmother-ing years.  Please, click the pic and sign the petition.  We’re all in this together.  B**cats, beware of the nest…

ga-dv-ne-ha: Meaning, ‘I do’ in Cherokee 

In ode to my cousin getting married today, I invested some time researching our Cherokee bloodline, which provided an interesting spin on the wedding tradition.  First, after the bride and groom are blessed for 7 days, they approach a sacred fire pit ceremony, both wrapped in a blue blanket.  This is awkward—I feel it’d look like either a potato sack race or conjoined twins waddling around a fire.  Either way, blankets are cozy and it beats the hell out of pricey wedding dresses where you’ll need a tummy tuck or something (do they still do those)?  Anyway, in symbolism of starting their life together, the priest will remove the blue blanket and replace it with a white one.  I, for one, think this is a disastrous color for that kind of symbolism.  White gets so dirty so quickly!  

Here’s the cool part, instead of exchanging rings they exchange food.  Yep, these are definitely my peeps.  The woman usually gives the man cornbread and beans symbolizing nurturing him as well as providing nourishment for the household, (aka staying in the kitchen).  The man gives the woman vineson, ham, or some type of meat which symbolizes providing for the household.  I’m not so sure who got the better end of the stick here.  If I were to marry a cherokee man, he’d have to go kill a fake deer is all I’m sayin’, or I could just keep my beans and cornbread.

The proposal and divorce processes are quite the events as well.  If a man wants to marry a woman, he is to kill a deer and bring it to her door.  If she has the hots for him, she’ll take that deer and cook the best meal they’ll ever eat together.  If she’s hatin’ on him, she’d just have to leave the deer outside for him to retrieve.  Can you imagine how embarrassing it’d be to keep going by your crush’s teepee to see if they ever accepted your deer? You’d probably give it about three day just to make sure, too.  Talk about fear of rejection—that’ll definitely do it. 

Another really cool factor is that if the man doesn’t please a woman, she can simply divorce him by putting a deerskin outside of the home with his belongings on top of it.  This is a sign to hit the road jack, back to your clan of the woods!  On the other hand, men have to have permission from their own clan to divorce.  

So, let the wedding festivities begin! 

Water: Drink it. Often.

Vitamin B-12- essential.

Yeah, I’ve been pretty fed up about losing my keys all the time, or putting something down and immediately thinking I put it somewhere else.  I thought I was having an early onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s, however I was probably experiencing a lack of good ol’ B-12.  I’ve learned that If you’re vegan/vegetarian (I am), B-12 is a greater need since we will most likely eat foods lacking the vitamin.  Also, it fosters metabolism or energy and your overall nervous system. So, if you’re feeling fatigued or can’t remember where you put your life all the time, (that’s me)! try increasing your intake.  So far so good!

parasite cleanse- i s’pose humans need to do it more often.  

I have finally listened to my sister speak of parasites being the cause of a lot of our symptoms of being ill.  Today is day 2 of my parasite cleanse, so I’m going to see where this takes me .

Useful antagonists are:

-black walnut leaf (or extract)

-Wormwood herb

-Quassia

-Cloves

-Male Fern root

-Pumpkin seeds

-Garlic

Arugula: spicy leaf full o’ yummy love and A/C (vitamins, that is).

Oh, arugula. I was introduced to this amazing food by a friend while in Napoli, where it is a prominent item.  Ever since, I’ve tried to sneak it in as many meals as possible since it is just that good. Today, I included it in my lunch and dinner!  For lunch, I put some in a spinach wrap and added dijon mustard, grated parmesan, diced tomatoes, and black beans. For dinner, I used it for a large salad with all kinds of good veggies. 

for more info., you can click on this, or click the pic above!

NOM.

pet therapy: the use of animal love to help humans <3 life. 

While on my “layover” in my hometown, I have acquired a job that I have fallen in love with.  Working with animals has alleviated a lot of things going sour in my brain, and it has been proven to help others as well.  I’ve also realized that maybe taking a break from the mental health field may be giving me a mental break too.  Fortunately, I am able to provide a helping hand to a paw by giving back the same amount of love they give me. 

This transformation in my career can be relative to when I transferred to Hunter College in NY, when I became involved with a study on the Adult Attachment theory.  At that time, I was primarily interested in working with children in clinical settings through “play therapy,” which entails devising coping mechanisms, (i.e. affection, molding clay, physical exertion)  to ease potential agitation and foster relating to others.  

Major players of developmental psychology such as John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, and William Blatz supported the Adult Attachment theory which generally stipulates that the interpersonal/social relationships that adults have are mostly derived from their connection with a caregiver during the first years of their development. Furthermore, in order to form a relatively “normal” connection one’s surroundings it has been identified that affection, (or as Ainsworth puts it, security) is essential. In other words, the more distance and anxiety an adult maintains, the more distant the child will be when understanding oneself vs. his/her relationships.

This idea goes hand in hand with my work at Greenville Humane Society*.  Similarly to humans, the first stages of a pet’s life are crucial to their development in feeling secure in their environment. Adoption, fostering programs, and pet therapy are all wonderful options in order to aide a pet’s health and happiness.  Pet therapy moreover is used to help humans socially and cognitively.  I feel that it can be used to gain a sense of security in the world through affection that an adult may have lacked within the early stages of development. Either way, it is a “win-win” situation, and I <3 <3 <3 it.

*Check out the GHS site and donate if you can! We are opening on May 26th and need your help!