Issue 8 – November 2020

Dear friends,

As the sun lowers in the southern sky, lengthening our shadows in the autumn shafts of light, the air grows cold and crisp and life and warmth turn inward, toward our own inner sources of life and regeneration.

In this issue we ask the question: What is health? And what is Health Creation?  Some members of our board share their thoughts and experiences on this question, including how death and illness can be expressions of health.  With death processes we cleanse and release, preparing a quiet space, an emptiness, for reflection and renewal, much like the withering of fall into the stillness of winter are integral stages of nature. 

The word health is derived from the Old English “hal”, to be “whole.”  Lisel Mueller’s poem reminds us of this continuum, how life ceaselessly shares with us it’s secrets, through it’s blossoming and withering throughout our lives.  It is not just birth but death that brings life, that makes us Whole.  May this season be a time when we can reflect on what in us or in our world may need to die in order to be renewed.  And may we give thanks for what exists, for in the present lie the seeds for our future.

Monet Refuses the Operation

By Lisel Mueller
 Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don’t see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.
Fifty-four years before I could see
Rouen cathedral is built
of parallel shafts of sun,
and now you want to restore
my youthful errors: fixed
notions of top and bottom,
the illusion of three-dimensional space,
wisteria separate
from the bridge it covers.
What can I say to convince you
the Houses of Parliament dissolve
night after night to become
the fluid dream of the Thames?
I will not return to a universe
of objects that don’t know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent.  The world
is flux, and light becomes what it touches,
becomes water, lilies on water,
above and below water,
becomes lilac and mauve and yellow
and white and cerulean lamps,
small fists passing sunlight
so quickly to one another
that it would take long, streaming hair
inside my brush to catch it.
To paint the speed of light!
Our weighted shapes, these verticals,
burn to mix with air
and change our bones, skin, clothes
to gases.  Doctor,
if only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim this world, blue vapor without end.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FHC.

Homeopathy and Anthroposophic Medicine Need Your Help!!

The FDA is proposing to treat all homeopathic medicines as illegal. This means the agency will be able to withdraw any or all of them at any time. This is a serious threat to the use of homeopathy (and Anthroposophic medicine) as a healthy, alternative medicine. Our friends at Americans for Homeopathy Choice (AFHC), a consumer group initiated by mothers, has submitted a petition to the FDA urging the agency to reconsider. The petition is supported by 20 leading homeopathy organizations, including PAAM.

Now, we need your help. We’re submitting comments to the FDA in support of the petition. When you leave a comment through the AFHC website, it goes directly to the FDA, as well as your members of Congress and other federal officials. Our goal is 100,000 comments by Dec 2nd. We’re currently at 20,000.

Here’s how you can help:
Click here to be taken to the comment page on the AHC website. A comment has already been prefilled for you by AHC, but if you’d like to leave your own, you can certainly do so. If the pre-filled comment reflects your position, you can just fill in your name and press the “Leave Comment” button. Your comment will go to the FDA, the White House, and congressional representative in both houses. Your address is needed to send the comment to your representatives. Some of them also require your phone number. The whole process is safe and standard procedure. Rest assured, your personal information is never given to anyone else outside of Americans for Homeopathy Choice.

Anyone and everyone can comment! There is no minimum age requirement and you can still comment, even if you live outside of the US.

Please share this effort with at least 10 friends, family members or colleagues!
Many voices make an undeniable impact that can significantly affect our freedom of choice in health and wellness.

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Another Important Petition from our friends at Eliant:
Age-Appropriate Use of Digital Technologies: Petition Launched by the Eliant Network and the Alliance for Humane Education

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Inspiring Features to Expand Your Interest and Discuss with Friends!

• The Inner Path of Self-Development: A Remedy for Burnout, a talk originally given by Dr. Steven Johnson at the Mistletoe & Integrative Oncology Course in October 2020. Although the talk was intended for doctors, we feel it bears relevance for a broader audience. We hope you find insight and inspiration in it. This password is required: HEALINGMEDICINE
• Healing in the Peaceful Home during COVID, a blog post on The Parenting Passageway
• Health and Learning are Deeply Interconnected in the Body: An Action Guide for Policymakers put forward by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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