Hi {!firstname_fix}

Well during this last week I have been thinking a lot about my trip to Montana. I decided to write about climbing the mountain. It really affected me. I think we might even say, it awakened something very deep. So the week has been a time of all my little molecules shifting around. I have changed my eating, I have gone back to the gym and am having a great time.

Please feel free to pass this week's newsletter on to your friends and family. Don't forget to let me know what you like and would like to see.

A copy of this newsletter may also be found posted on the web at http://www. radiantrecovery.com/weeklynewsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, use the link at the bottom of the page. Do not email me, do not get mad at me, just click on the link and you will be forever removed.

And be sure to visit our Radiant RecoveryŽ website and Community Forum regularly.

Warmly,
Kathleen

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October 18, 2004
** Quote From Kathleen **

Change the food and change your life.

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** Testimonial for the Week**

We were talking about meditation over at YLD. Several people shared that it was hard learning how to be quiet for 20 minutes. Here is a great dialogue that followed.

One analogy that I LOVE is that it's like training a puppy. Jack Kornfield puts it this way in "A Path With Heart":

You put the puppy down and say, "Stay." Does the puppy stay? It gets up and it runs away. You sit the puppy back down again. "Stay." And the puppy runs away over and over again. Sometimes the puppy jumps up, runs over, and pees in the corner or makes some other mess. Our minds are much the same as the puppy, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind, or the puppy, we have to start over and over again.

It kinda goes with the territory (smile). We are always practicing!

--val

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**Your Last Diet: More Than What You Think**

In our last chat, I outlined a number of the things that had emerged from my conversations in Montana - the tasks that those of us who are VERY insulin resistant have to do to get and keep the weight off. I am preparing some writings that I will share there to fill out what was started at chat. Love to have you join us if you want to lose weight.

http://www.radiantrecovery.com/YLD_signup.htm

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**Radiant Ambassadors**

We were just told today that with our universal breakfast program, we are now adding the universal lunch program as well. That means every child in our school can get a free breakfast and lunch. OY!!! I guess it's a good thing that they are being fed, but it sure would be nice if there was something of better quality to serve them. Some days the food is better than others..but some days...well, let's just say you have to look really hard to find something resembling a protein.

I am going to start talking to them more about what a protein is and see if they can figure out what the protein is in the lunches and in what they eat at home. They can be little protein detectives. I'm not quite sure when I will start this, but I'm thinking maybe next week, I can take a few minutes during ELD time to do this. Our time in kinder is so scrunched that adding in one more thing to the day is really difficult, but it's worth it and I will do it.

Elaine

If you love the program, consider joining the ambassador group. We are having a blast!

Come find us among the Online Groups

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**David's Corner **


Last week I told you about the soy milk maker. I told you that Kathleen was claiming it would replace her Starbucks run, but I was not convinced. Well, I stand corrected. No Starbucks. And my goodness is the office smelling good when I come in. Today she told me she is taking the money she is saving on buying soy milk or almond milk AND her Starbucks money and putting it in a can for a vacation. I told her I thought she should plan on taking me, but she just laughed.

We just got a huge order of wild rice in. I am so glad you all are loving it. Not only does it taste so good, but to me, it represents the best of what an online store can do in supporting a local tribal business. Most wild rice is what is called *paddy rice* - it is planted by big companies, harvested by machine and stored forever. The While Earth Rice is harvested by the members of the tribe out in their canoes. This is their sacred food, and we are invited share it. What a gift is that!!!

Please send questions and suggestions for items you might like to see in our store. YOU are building our store. Tell me what you want and we will sort it out.

Thanks
David

And of course, we have something for everybody in our store


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**Featured Topic**
Climbing a Mountain
by Kathleen DesMaisons
We started at the lake. The water was perfectly still and clear, an incredible color blue. I could see the stones shimmering on the bottom of the lake. The gold trees on the other side were reflected in the water. Stillness, total stillness. An image I will use when I am meditating and wanting to quiet my mind. That stillness is what I seek .

We went back to the car and then drove, up and up, around and around the switchbacks, catching glimspes of the tops of the peaks. It took a long time and we finally arrived at the Visitor Center that was closed for the season. Behind the Center is a board walk. Made of many planks, weathered to silver, it is wide and sturdy, safe and easy to walk on.

Bill asked me if I wanted to climb some. The board walk seemed safe and easy enough. I hadn't counted on the fact that it was going UP!. After the first few 100 feet, I thought I would die. I was gasping for breath, my latent asthma was commenting. I used my inhaler, and figured we could just go slow, a baby step at a time. I was laughing at THAT idea. Where had I ever heard such a concept!

So we climbed. Bill would say, you just need to go up that far. Ironically it turned out that *that far* happened seven times. I just kept climbing. Some folks were down below at the Center with one of those long horns they use in the alps. The music was rolling up the mountain. It actually looks like the alps up there. Bill said, *if you get to the top, you will be able to see the hidden lake. And there are some goats up there. perhaps we will see them*. I liked the idea of the lake and the goats.

We kept climbing. It was about 2 miles UP, very up. We did get to the top. We did see goats, a big male who sat there very still and looked me in the eye and then later, his wife and two babies. We stood at the top, looking at the blue lake below, very far below. I have never, ever seen anything like this. All my life, I have gone into REI for my *stuff* and fantasized about climbing a mountain. I imagined my movements, and the view, but it was my imagination. Here it was, now real.

Going down, I had to pee so I went off into a little stand of pines. After, I turned to my left and there was a big, flat mauve rock. I sat down on it and breathed the scent of pine and thought, *You are almost 59 years old, you climbed that mountain.* And my molecules said they want to do this more. They said they want me to have a body that suits me better. Inside I am so fluid, so supple, so joyous. My body has suffered from menopause and a little more *gist* that it wanted. Some extra pounds discovered themselves on my middle.

I want to be like that mountain goat, to climb, to be at ease there. I want to swim in the lake with a body that is me. The mountain moved me. Deeply. My body knows it did and my body will follow so that the mountain moving day becomes who I am.

ŠKathleen DesMaisons 2004.