Who Controls You?

This is perhaps the biggest question you will ever ask yourself. Actually, it is the biggest question because of the answer that lies deep in the recesses of your mind.

The fact is, someone is in control. Most people would like to think it's them. "I know who I am, I know what I like and I'm in control". We've all heard it. Maybe you have said these words yourself?

So who would be in control of you if not yourself? The clue to that answer is in your values or at least the ones you think you have. Ask any child what they like and they will almost always say, "Nature", "Playing", "My best friend", "Ice Cream", and so on. And with the exception of playing, most would agree, presuming we actually have a best friend.

But ask a child what their values are and they will usually have but one answer; "To be nice to one another".

Pretty simple, eh? But look around at the world we live in. It is hardly a collection of people and nations 'being nice to one another'. In fact, if you consider the Amazon rain forest "nature", just look at how much we love that.

Ice Cream! There's something I can get my spoon around! Sure enough, we are one massive bunch of over-eating, over-consuming, artery-blocking people. And if you aren't there yet, you're on your way.

Yep. We have values, but what they actually are isn't determined by us. It's they things we hear that make us feel good enough to say, "You're god-damned right!" It's true. We hear about the U.S. being the most powerful country, it makes us feel good (unless you aren't actually from the U.S.), and you say, "You're god-damned right!" And we hear about the U.S. being a world leader, you say, "You're god-damned right!"

And then you hear about, "The American Dream", and you say, "You're god-damned right!"

The only problem is that we don't know and certainly have not experienced, "The American Dream", until someone else defines it for us. And we don't know if invading Iraq is a good idea until someone else defines why it's a good idea. Even after we find out that the premise for doing so is, was and will forever be, completely falsified (For those who don't know what this word means, replace it with, "built on a pack of lies"). We continue to argue the validity for invading Iraq. We claim ownership of whatever we catch in the media. "The region was unstable", or, "Suddam could have been working on weapons of mass destruction", and so on.

And as you read back these reason long after the fervor of the moment has passed, doesn't it ring a bit tinny?

Are you old enough to remember the news of the sixties? Well, not exactly the news but the news programs? Do you remember how, most of the time, they reported what was going on? Do you remember how you rarely heard a comment about the news? Back then, people were shocked when Walter Cronkite removed his glasses and showed the hint of sadness when he reported that the then President of the U.S. had been assassinated.

Well, "news" is no longer the reporting of the facts. It's not even the reporting of the facts and then making a compassionate remark... or a sarcastic remark. No, it has turned into the fabrication (lies), of the owners and managers and writes of stories with a subsequent rant or slated opinion about the false story (or in some cases, the actual story with missing details).

And it is this slant (all opinion is slant, including this blog), that people gravitate toward. They find the dry news of public radio and the CBC and BBC as "boring". Why?

Willful Ignorance

There is a certain 'in the womb' comfort in releasing control and letting others make the decisions for us. Do you remember your mother or father carrying you from the back seat of the car, into the house and into bed? If you do, let me ask you a question: HOW do you remember this? After all, you were asleep, right?

There is a certain comfort in knowing that someone else will take care of you. And if that means all you have to do is agree with and adopt the slant, the opinion, the identified scapegoats, then that's the price you have to pay, yes?

Intellect is about self-determination. It's about analysis without fear. It is NOT about letting someone else define our biases, our enemies, our hatreds and our points of pride. If you LIKE being controlled by others, then this is your time and the U.S. is your place.

Why? Because the DREAM IS DEAD. You know what I am talking about? The American Dream of self-determination and building a better life for your children. The American Dream of fairness and reason and doing the right thing. The American Dream of treating others with respect and getting that respect in return.

It's gone.

Dead.

Why? Because we surrender that dream when we let others define our values, set our likes and dislikes, determine how many jobs will be available, what cities will be abandoned and which countries will be invades... all with our willful and ignorant support.

When we agree that freedom must lose for us to be safe, we have literally subjugated the American dream. We have allowed others to make our decisions.

And we have relinquished control.

Sure enough, we have given control to someone else. The opinion makers, the products makers, the spinsters and changers of reality... the definers of our reality.

The last vestige, I assure you, is free speech. For it is only here in free speech that we can dissent, disagree and express a higher vision than that which is sold in the media.

DO YOU THINK?

Am I wrong here? Please take the time to read, "The American Dream" by George Carlin. It is the text version of his HBO Comedy Special, "The Big Picture".

WARNING: This includes explicit language.

"There's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason that will never,ever, ever, be fixed. It's never going to get better; don't look for it; be happy for what you got. (...) Because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, they've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, the City Halls; they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls!  

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I'll tell you what they don't want: they don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. That's right.

They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table to figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard thirty-fucking years ago. They don't want that.  

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they're coming for your Social Security money.  They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you sooner or later because they own this fucking place. 

It's a big club and you aint in it! You and I are not in the big club. By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long, beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. 

The table is tilted folks. The game is rigged. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hard-working people; white collar, blue collar, it doesn't matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest, hard-working people continue (these are people of modest means) continue to elect these rich cock-suckers who don't give a fuck about them. They don't give a fuck about you. They don't give a fuck about you! They don't care about you. At all! At all! At all. You know?

And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, what and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes every day. Because the owners of this country know the truth. It's called, "The American Dream" because you have to be asleep to believe it."

I can go in to great length and detail as to who really are these people who control the United States and the World but of what value would that contain. Say I informed you that it was, "Joe Johnson". Then what? 

THE TAKE-A-AWAY

The lesson we want to derive here is that our own self-determination and values and direction can only be ours if we selfishly grab it and never let it go. It means that we pursue intelligence, truth and never shy away from that. 

The only way growth and freedom occur is when we education ourselves with facts that can help us navigate our own path. And we need to never be so mentally lazy that we spend our days and evenings in pursuit of distraction. For distraction is designed to remove us from reality. On occasion, this is good but as for our main activity being television watching and Internet game-playing instead of reading and contemplation - this would be the "Willful Ignorance" I spoke of earlier. 

We must remain diligent to who we are and what really matters... every day.

ORIGINAL PERFECTION (Part Two)

After experiencing spiritual healing and spiritual connection in Brazil, psychiatrist, Dr. Jeff Rediger had the following observation, the following conclusion, the following truth:

"In short, we all matter far more than we typically have a clue about. And love is what is real. We tend to believe in what we can see and touch and believe that the world as it appears to be is the real world. Reality is both revealed and concealed by the world we see with our eyes and that none of us are who we appear to be."

I found out that Dee Wallace was to speak in a main hall of a Women's Health Fair. I felt driven to see her speak before I left. It shattered the "Illusion of Lack" we all suffer from, either because we were taught that we were flawed and unworthy of God's love at birth, or that we somehow inextricably ruined any chance for God's love in our life. 


The "Illusion of Lack" is just that, an illusion. Please read and contemplate these words. I did when Dee Wallace first spoke them and I kept notes to review them over and over.

ORIGINAL PERFECTION

     We are taught that ideas come from our brain. This is not true. We are 

     taught that the answers that we seek in life come from intense thinking. 

     This is not true. The true Answer-Giver is your personal Energy. 

     [NOTE: I would use the word, "Spirit"]

     She pointed to her solar plexus when she said this. It is our energy that 

     moves us, leads us, reminds us, impels us. Once our energy decides we 

     want something, it is only then that the brain is engaged in order to 

     achieve it. 

     If we attribute other people as the source of our better selves, we miss 

     the opportunity to be full, complete, free and creative. We miss the 

     opportunity to be all that we might be. Rather than assign love from an 

     external source, we must assume ownership of that part of us that is 

     love. Many attribute love as from a divine source, namely, Jesus or his 

     father. The fact is, any time we remove that part of us and give it to 

     someone else to credit them, we lose out by ignoring our true selves. 

     Therefore, we must take on that attribute, that power. We own it; 

     it is ours; it is us. We must credit ourselves with an appropriate and 

     accurate definition. As far as love is concerned, it is divine. Therefore, 

     it is natural and good to claim it by saying, "I Am Divine Love". 

     

     The first step in becoming a whole person is to heal. Healing is something 

     that must happen after we are injured. If we are injured, we are compromised.      

     Healing is an absolute requirement as our first step toward a whole you. In 

     order to heal, we must give up our story. We must let it go. We can no 

     longer carry our story with us like a heavy load everywhere we go. We 

     cannot heal AND lug our story around. We must give it up, let it go. 

     "I was abused", 

     "My father was an alcoholic", 

     "My mother was distant", 

     "My brother treated me like a football", 

     and so on and so on. 

     So how do we give up our story? We must forgive those people that 

     inhabit our story. To do this, we must first choose to forgive. Once 

     we choose to forgive, we must choose to forgive today. Then we can 

     forgive those in our story, our lives, all of those who are characters 

     that have contributed to our failures, however contrived.

     Why do we want to forgive those ones that are ultimately either 

     unforgivable or not deserving of our forgiveness? The reason for 

     our forgiving these ones is not for them. We don't have to face 

     them and verbally inform them that they are now being forgiven. 

     We forgive, by ourselves, for ourselves. Forgiveness must happen

     for us to heal. Forgiveness must happen for us to be whole and 

     creative and alive.

     Once we choose to forgive, we simply let it go. For us, right when 

     we are ready.

     If you knew that the second you did this, your goals and desires in 

     life would come to you, how long would you wait to forgive?

     We are all creative forces. All creation begins with us, from us, from 

     our energy. Some say vibration, some say frequency, some say aura. 

     However it is described, creation begins with our own energy. We are 

     responsible for that creation and deserve to trust it, be credited with 

     it and to own it. It is ours. The creative force, that motherly force of 

     birthing comes from OUR energy. Our creative force does NOT come 

     from our head; our brain. The brain is a tool of our energy.

     When we seek to be something or achieve something or to acquire 

     something, the solution never lies in our mind. Our conscious mind 

     is never the source of these actions, ideas and achievements. 

     Likewise, our conscious mind can never help you unblock that which 

     holds you back. To release restrictions in our lives, we must first 

     forgive, then heal, then use our energy to draw the success of 

     release to us. So many of us live with mental and emotional 

     restrictions that disallow us to be what we want to be, to do 

     what we want to do, to live life to the full. 

     If we desire riches or health or creativity, we must be free from 

     restrictions that only our own energy can accomplish. So why do 

     we hold on to that which limits us, rendering us a complainer and 

     a discontented person? If your boyfriend is a jerk, why don't you 

     leave him? If you want to start a business, why do you stay at the 

     job you hate? The answer is usually because it makes us feel safe. 

     If we don't move, we are safe, or so it would seem. 

     We must give up that which makes us safe. This is where true 

     healing begins. If our parent told us a negative thing about 

     ourselves, we carry it with us all of our days, unless we choose 

     to heal; unless we choose to forgive; unless we open the way to 

     understanding and action and love.

     Choose to heal now. 

     Choose to forgive them for YOU. 

     Make It Your Joy to Forgive Them All.

     Then we are ready to look at the next thing that, perhaps we 

     have never seen before. 

     What do you really want? What do YOU really want? Joy? Money? 

     Success? Freedom? Whatever it is, you must ask this of yourself:

     What would you need to do for it to happen? Then comes the other 

     issue which relates quite well to the Yin and Yang. If you want 

     something, and you seem to always lament the fact that you want 

     it but don't get it, could it be because you are looking at that which 

     is the opposite to what you want INSTEAD of what you want? 

     If you want riches, why do you spend so much energy focused on your 

     poverty? If you want good health, why do you spend so much energy 

     focused on how lousy you feel? If you want to lose weight, why do 

     you spend so much energy focused on how fat you are?

     The question is: 

     Am I Totally Focused on What I Need? 

     Do you want courage?

     Focus on THAT. 

     Do you want to lose weight? 

     Focus on THAT. 

     Do you want money?

     Focus on THAT. 

     In other words, focus on what you want - not on what you don't 

     have or what you aren't. And you can even look at your life and 

     find those things that already succeed with you. Perhaps you are 

     a good speaker or writer, a good artist or mechanic. When you 

     think about WHY you are a good this or that, you will find that 

     whatever it is; you have Focused on that thing. 

     FEEL GOOD, HAPPY AND EXCITED. 

     Stand up if you are able, close your eyes and run in place very fast, 

     yelling, "I Want Joy", or "I Want Good Health"... This physical activity, 

     even if it is shaking your head vigorously while sitting down changes 

     your state of energy. It also removes your brain from getting in your 

     way. Your brain will remind you of whatever you want. By doing the 

     STOMP Exercise, you open yourself up to your own energy, even if 

     for but a few seconds. It works and can keep you in tune with your 

     own motherly, creative, healing, forgiving, good, happy, excited, 

     achieving energy.

     Love Yourself. 

     This sounds quite trite. It sounds selfish. It sounds too simple. 

     And yet, if we want to live for ourselves and NOT for those negative 

     things we have been lugging around our consciousnesses, we must 

     Love Ourselves. 

     Love Yourself. 

     Everyday, when you wake up, look into the mirror with your eyes 

     wide open and say, "I LOVE YOU". Everyday. Do this! By the fourth 

     or fifth day, you will feel some new energy about yourself. You 

     will be a person with love inside you. It will be your energy. 

     And you will be a lover and not a judger. 

     Who is hardest on themselves if it is not ourselves? 

     Love Yourself. 

     Commit to this daily exercise.

     Say, "Hi. I Love YOU. And Today I Intend to GIVE YOU Everything You Want". 

     Try it. Day after day. You will soon realize that you will get everything 

     you want. You will be love. Love YOURSELF for the JOY of YOU. There is 

     only ONE YOU. And you are truly a creative energy, a force of will and

     accomplishment.

     ALLOW Everything GOOD to Happen to YOU. 

     This is your power, energy, will, destiny, success, legacy, reality, LIFE. 

     ALLOW OTHERS to find their own road. 

     We are on OUR road - they are on THEIRS. 

***

And there you have it. Rolled up like a pastry there are many layers of power and truth in all of this chain of discussions, discoveries and ideas I have entitled: ORIGINAL PERFECTION.

And there is so much more to come!

ORIGINAL PERFECTION (Part One)

The following is a quote from a guest on One Radio Network with Patrick Tempone. Please read and contemplate what is being said and what it means for you.


ORIGINAL PERFECTION

Many ask; 'If we are exposed to the wisdom of the ages, why are we not wiser?'

By shifting our beliefs, it seems magical. As if the outside world has changed. All of a sudden, you get luckier! It's about aligning our mind, body and spirit in one united consciousness. that creates a divine spark.

It can be overwhelming for any person when you look at the huge and daunting world and compare it to you. You are alone, small and powerless and the world is so huge and beyond our ability to even understand...

... but reality itself is with your thoughts and your thoughts create reality. And it feeds inot a collective consciousness field in which we all live in. That field of consciousness feeds us and we feed to it.

When you wake up in the morning and think about your day, it is your internal dialogue or thoughts that is a vote on how your day is going to be. Do you really want the world to be what your thoughts are?

What your thoughts are and what you are thinking is your vote on how you want it to be.

Habitual Thoughts

Most of our thoughts, especially the negative ones, are habitual. Do you want to change those thoughts?

Become the peace you seek.

STOP Praying for Peace.
STOP Hoping someone else will do it.

Become Peace.

Galvanic Response - What Does It Mean?

The Galvanic Response refers to chemical reaction creating an electrical impulse or series of impulses. We have all heard that every time a plant is cut, it "screams". Well, the fact is, there is a galvanic response and put through an audio amplifier, you can hear it rise and fall based on what is being cut.

Now here is where it gets extremely interesting and perhaps some secret truth lives:

If you measure the galvanic response when you CUT a branch or stem from a plant, then sit down before a plant and merely THINK about cutting that plant, the galvanic response is HIGHER!!!!

There are many ways to explain this phenomenon... NOT. Only one: plants sense our INTENTIONS more so than when we actually lop off their parts!

If you believe that all living things have spirit, then here is a question: Do you think there is a pool or plane of common spirit or spirit connection?

Have you ever noticed your pet getting excited minutes BEFORE your mate comes home? I sure have. Kodiak, our sheltie, will do circles and smell the front door and get excited. 2 or 3 minutes later, in comes Eve.

Perhaps you have an alternate explanation for this? For now, I am siding with a common spirit plane.

Ever been in a room and sensed someone else was in that same room? I have... all of my life. And from the time I was a toddler, I would turn around and SEE a person. I would TALK with that person. I would LEARN their name.

Recently, I was cooking some soup in the house, all alone. As it was very quiet and I was focusing on the soup, I sensed someone was behind me. I turned and there was a woman standing at the kitchen window. I looked at her and she gave me the clear message that this didn't involve me. Not in a rude way, but when you turn and see a new face, you wonder, yes?

She was looking at someone at the front door in the living room. I peered around the wall and saw Kodiak staring at the living room front door. So I looked. It was a young man, a bit heavy and taller than I. Without uttering a word, I continued to watch him, then the woman looking at the young man.

THEN, the young man walked toward the hallway and started down the hallway. I looked at Kodiak who hadn't moved and he was following the young man as he walked down the hallway. When the young man went out of sight, Kodiak looked up to me.

I returned to my soup. No fear. No threats. No discussion. Just a little lesson that animals see and sense things not apparent to a busy mind.

This has happened so many times and in so many places in my life, I can tell you that I don't need to guess what's happening. I don't have to pretend that people who die, remain dead. In fact, only their body dies.

When it was time to put our other dog, Kutie, down, Eve and I was kindly given the opportunity to hold her as she was applied drugs for a smooth passing. When the Vet injected the sleeping drug, she fell asleep. Then, once the drug to kill her was administered, I felt a rush of energy rise upward. I felt it right through my hands.

For me, I have concluded that there is a spirit realm that is so real and connected to all that is... it makes our physical world seem almost disconnected from it all.

Except this gift given to me to regularly sense those who have shed their physical body.

Please know, I don't subscribe to religious belief or explanation. I am only sharing something with you that has been part of my life since I was very young. And it continues.

For some reason, I don't have to enter a meditative state. Just a quiet one, as when I am designing something on the computer or painting or drawing.

If in fact the galvanic response measured in plants when a person just thinks about cutting it is real and greater than the act, this would suggest that there is another realm or facet of communication and connection. I believe it.

Do you?

The Big Six - Sprouting Progress Report

Well, it is harvest time for the Big Six Sprouting Project! And what an education I got! Fact is, I really didn't know if any of them, other than the Mung Beans, would sprout. Here is a list of the original Big Six:

1. Mung Bean
2. Flax Seed
3. Wheat Berry
4. Sunflower
5. Lentil
6. Adzuki

This is a very exciting list indeed. As you may have already read, Mung Bean sprouts were my first sprouts I had ever tried to grow. And they grew beautifully. So I was quite confident that they would do well the second time around.

What were the results?

I really only got about a 50% acceptable yield. And as I had to travel for about 40 hours out of the house, the watering regime really tried some of the seeds. For example, take a look at these:

This is what happened to the Wheat Berry sprouts. They sprouted but because my watering regime suffered, they then grew blades of Wheat Grass!

I counted this as a "Win-Win" because I always wondered if I could actually grow Wheat Grass simply in my own home without any fancy growing system. For there are many out there. And the photograph testifies that you can grow Wheat Grass simply but starting the sprouts and then stop watering for two days.

Good to know!

So, in lieu of the fact that I don't really have healthy Wheat Berry sprouts, what shall a raw food enthusiast (albeit beginner) do?

As this is a sprouting adventure, I first decided to find the sprouts. As you can see, they are quite small. Not the way they should be but skipping the 4-times-a-day watering schedule will produce rather anemic looking sprouts every time.

Being the enthusiast at heart type person I am, I felt they were just beautiful never-the-less. For you see, this is life. Life-giving, Alive-food and it is amazing that where there was nothing, with a little water, life happens!

Tell me if you don't think this is utterly amazing, life-engaging, exciting and tantalizingly wonderful?

Well, my apologies to the lovely Ann Wigmore, I don't have a Wheat Grass Juicer. In fact, I don't have a juicer of any kind. If you have read my blog at all, you know that all I have is the amazing Vita-Mix.

So, from the incubational canning jar to the no less amazing...

... Vita-Mix! That's right! I can't juice but I can LIQUIFY! And that is what I did. Of course, being the happy raw vegetable fan that I am, I added the Wheat Grass with Wheat Berry Sprouts and Wheat Berries into my lovely mid-morning mix!

So... what else is in it you as? This is not a major all-out mix but here is what I put in it.

I am down to my last carrot so in it went! Yummo! Love carrots. Loved them more when I was a boy in the sixties because they had a larger flavor profile back then. I am told that all carrots these days are GMO's. What does that mean?

According to Wikipedia:

               A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered

               organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered 

               using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known 

               as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, 

               which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This 

               DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. 

               Transgenic organisms, a subset of GMOs, are organisms which have inserted 

               DNA that originated in a different species.

So, like it or not, we all live in a brave new world, where the bottom line is king, production is queen and the princes are their servants. Us? Well, we are the fodder of the earth, as it were. The paupers, the indigents, the consumers. So our word is rarely heard.

Do we  have alternatives? There are many but are they accessible to us? Could we go to ECHO and buy us some seeds from the old carrot days? Not likely. Could be find some hermit in northern Canada who will sell some to us? Not likely. But there MUST be a solution...

Back To The Vita-Mix Mid-Morning Yum Yum

What else did I put in the mix?

I found some small, fat zucchini at the Roseville Flea Market. The produce section there is amazing and with a patient eye, you can find all kinds of good buys of healthy and fresh vegetables and fruits.

Raw broccoli is a gift. A pure gift. You know, once you try raw vegetables, get off of soft drinks and sugar, you learn how sweet these vegetables truly are.

For example, broccoli. Cooked in a Vietnamese garlic sauce - well, they are out of this world. Those lovely florets hold all kinds of seasoning. But raw, these are so sweet and the florets taste like a mini forest.

And who knew zucchini was so sweet RAW? I sure didn't. Seeing yet another plate of fried zucchini on my plate only evoked disappointment. However, the vibrancy and liveliness screams in raw zucchini.

Do you want to know another secret that raw food enthusiasts already know? CABBAGE is like SUGAR!!! Raw cabbage is so delicious you can eat it like an apple. And don't talk about gas! I never get gas when I eat cabbage raw. That's right! Why? I don't know. Cooked, it's lovely and gassy. That's the truth.

In fact, cabbage is on the top ten list of gassy foods. Too bad they don't talk about how wonderful it is raw. Yeah Baby!

Now, craving sprouts, I saw a bag of fresh sprouts at the market and decided I just needs some plump sprouts for my raw veggie liquifying (I call this juicing and need to apologize to any whom I may have misled. Until I get a juicer, just interchange my terms here.) and consumption!

These are lovely and I eat them all the time. Yes, I prefer to eat them from my sprouting garden but this BIG SIX project didn't go so well.

And do you know what kind of sprouts are found usually in these bags at the market?

You Guessed It! Mung Bean Sprouts! The most commonly available sprouts in North America. Why? Hardiness has to do something with it.

So I also added bell pepper (which tastes NOTHING like cooked bell pepper, by the way), into the mix. It's fresh and lightens up the flavor profile. Also I added my wheat grass mix.

I can see celery in there too, which I ran out of as well. There is some 100% grape juice, some other juices and a hint of soy milk. And away it goes!

Here is it in process. Setting the Vita-Mix on low and easing the dial upward, this is what you get. See all of the carrot and zucchini pieces? You won't for long as they all will, in essence, liquify.

Here is how much celery I put in. I don't care if the celery leaves are in there. Or how clean they are or how perfect looking they are. It's all in the mix of raw veggie fun!

SPROUTING WOES

So how about the other sprouts. I don't have all the photographs. They were lost on another computer but I can include some that I found.

You can see that the sunflowers never really got off the ground and when they did, they sprouted and went to leaves. Still, they were yummy!

Also, the Garbanzo beans really didn't do well.

What Did Well?

The Wheat Berries, Flax Seeds and Lentils. The Mung did well but not as well.

What is the lesson? Water, water, water, water.

4-times a day like a little daycare, you must keep these guys wet. I also found that once the Flax started sprouting through the cheesecloth, there never was enough air flow to keep them healthy.

I AM NOT DISMAYED!

Still, what a wonderful set of lessons to walk away with. Air flow is key. So perhaps it is time for me to visit the local co-op, pick up what seeds they have that I can't find elsewhere and also some hard plastic grated lids.

So there will be more sprouting, more reporting, more testing, more tweaking and more joy. That is what happens in the process of learning to grow large, healthy sprouts!

Have Fun Sprouting!