The First European- 20,000 B.C.

The First European- 20,000 B.C.

This is my latest book- a fantasy novella, yet I think it has lots of evolutionary ancestral ideas baked right into it.  Here is the first chapter for you- see if you like it:

I was on watch, for my tribe- the Moon Tribe.  I sat outside of the campfire, beyond the shelter of our cave, with my flint spear close to my hand.  As Wotan, in my 25^th year, I was the pride of my tribe- this is not an empty boast, I was strongest by far, and always called upon for guard duty, and any other thing that was dangerous.  

As I looked out over the cool night, I watched for any signs of the invaders.  Many there had been, more and more.  Gonga, our medicine woman and the leader of our tribe, had told me that in the past, there were only the Moon People.  Other tribes there were as well, but they were as we are- fair of skin, and bright of eye.  But the dark invaders had come, and kept coming.  

They were tall, and swift in running, swifter than the folk of the Moon!  My friend, D’aan, he said that they were swift of foot, but they were weak, weaker than a woman of the Moon.  I only knew that they were endless; they came from the far south, into our wonderfully cool land- and they wanted to take it.

So I thought, as I sat gazing out over the moonlit landscape, so lit by our goddess, the Moon Woman.  Sometimes she was full and round, as if to bear a child, and then the night sky was bright and happy, as is an expectant mother.  That is when it was easy to be on watch, for all was easily seen.

Tonight, the Moon Goddess was skinny and small, like a curve of pale silver in the sky; and I was sad, for soon she would disappear for several nights altogether, leaving her people alone.  These were the worst of times for watching at night, and for our tribe.  Often, we would wonder ‘Will she come back?’  But, as Gonga always said, we were silly children, for the Moon Mother always came back, and got bigger and bigger once again.

I saw a flash of something then, something that made me intent.  A flash of ebon limbs, glowing briefly in the feeble crescent moonlight.  I picked up my heavy spear with the thick flint blade I had carved out, and went forward silently.  I can be utterly silent when I so desire, my leather clad feet gliding over the rocky landscape like a caribou.  I crouched, waiting.

A shape shot before me, and I moved to the side, quickly.  Most of my people are strong, but they are not really quick, or fast.  My mother told me I am of another lineage, from long ago, when some of the invaders mixed with my ancestors, on one of their forays here.  I don’t like that I am similar to the invaders in some ways, but I do like it that I have some of their abilities- nay- all of their abilities- and more!

The slender spear shot past me, striking a rock face to the side, splintering the narrow spear shaft.  For the dark ones, though weaker, can throw thin shafts long distances, with uncanny accuracy.  They are unmanly warriors, I think, for they kill from far away, rather than being brave, and fighting one-on-one, where the mightiest prevails.  But, they do have this dubious ability, and it is devastating to my people.

But I have it too!  I snarled briefly to myself, and then stopped abruptly.  I may be able to throw a spear like the invaders, but I also have their savage viciousness and savagery, I will admit.  I keep it in abeyance amongst my peaceful, wonderful people- but when it is needed, I let it come forth!  Like now, when I feel my blood stirred up from attack, and I want only to protect my Moon People against those dark ones-

All at once, there he is- one of the invaders, standing upright as they all do, with another slim spear at the ready.  His spear is like a small rod, really, with a tiny, ever-so-sharp flint tip- it almost looks like a toy, until you see how they can throw it swiftly and accurately, going right through the heart of caribou or Moon Folk alike.  

He looks supremely confident- they usually do.  These thick-lipped, dark-skinned invaders look at us as if we are animals- once again, I involuntarily snarl in rage.  He hears me, and looks suddenly directly at me- I have unconsciously risen, and am staring at him challengingly.  He stares back, surprised.

These folk are tall, much taller than my own peaceful people.  They look down on my people, feeling empowered by their height, and enjoy killing them needlessly, though there is space and land enough for all.  So says my chief, the Great Grandmother of my tribe, and she is right.  I will protect her!

With a slight smile, the black-skin- we call them Nubians, after the land from which they come- looks at me with a confident, superior smile.  Then, he backs off, warily, readying his spear.  He has noticed that, unlike most of my folk, I am at least as tall as he.

No- taller!  I laugh, and now he backs up, afraid at last.  Another of his people comes up beside him, and then another- this is, indeed, one of the Nubian’s endless robbery and invasion attempts.  It is as if the great cave cat had come against my people, the saber tooth as he is called, and I feel as I did when I had slain such a great cat, not that long ago.  My people still sing of it, saying I am the only one of the Moon People to ever kill one of those terrible cat people.  I did, and I still bear the many scars of slaying that mighty warrior of the felines- I honor his brave spirit, and my future women will sing of him,

With a laugh of defiance and anger, I run swiftly towards the invaders.  I hold my spear overhead, shouting in rage.

I see them freeze.  My people are not tall, but they are mighty thewed, with arms that could snap the thin arms of the invaders easily- if only they could get close.  They rarely do, since their run is shambling; their legs short, although powerful.  And, they cannot raise a spear above their heads to throw!

No, strange as it is to me, they can only hold their heavy spears down by their sides, to thrust and stab.  However it may be, their arms are not constructed to lift overhead, and throw with a twisting motion for a distance.  Only the Nubians, those dark invaders hold this power to so devastate a superior rival, animal or human, with this craft or guile. But I am different- I am Wotan, a mix of the hated invaders and my own wonderful Moon folk.  And so, I was equipped to take vengeance!

Another spear shot towards me, a quick throw from one of the invaders.  I evaded it as I ran, and then threw my own spear.  My spear was twice the weight and size of those used by my attackers, and I’m sure they never even considered that I could actually throw it, as of course my people could not do so.  But I did, powerfully.

My spear not only pierced enough to gain the heart, as did those thrown by the invaders, but heavy and hard-thrown as it was, I knocked the one backwards enough that he knocked over the man behind him.  My spear went entirely through the first man’s body, and right into the second!  It was not enough to kill the second outright, but he fell to the earth with a horribly shocked expression on his face.

But I was used to such expressions from the invaders- I plunged ahead at top speed, right at my original antagonist, who had thrown his slender spear at me.  Another thing about me: my speed is even faster than that of the invaders, who scoff at the speed of the Moon folk.  

He was so shocked, he never really moved.  He just froze, as I ran up and looked down at him with my bright blue eyes.  I smiled, but not in a friendly manner, but more how I felt every time I saw one of these invader folk that seemed determined to stamp out the tribes of the friendly, welcoming, intelligent and peaceful people within whose tribe I had been raised.

To his credit, he drew a flint knife at his side, stabbing murderously upwards towards me.  My smile widened into a savage grimace as, noting his attack, I grabbed his head, twisting it violently.  He dropped his knife, and as he did so I literally tore his head off of his shoulders.  

The other dark man was struggling to rise, pushing his dead brethren’s body off him desperately as he rose up to stand.  He readied his spear against me, and so, wielding the detached head of his cohort, I brained him with it.  He fell, never to rise again.

As I say, I am not like the others of my people.  I have their red hair, white skin, and light eyes, as well as their powerful physiques.  In that, I am unmistakably of the Moon Tribe, and for that I thank the Moon Goddess Losna!  

But, as I said- I am tall, taller than the Nubian invaders even, and much stronger.  I can run as fast, nay faster than most, and can throw not only like them, but my spears fly farther and faster, while also being much heavier.  None of this is to brag; in fact, for most of my youth I was ashamed of my abilities, and tried to hide them.  But Great Grandmother noticed, and taking me aside, sat me down in the mouth of her own special, sacred cave that faced the nighttime moon space in the sky.

“Wotan,” she said in her musical voice, “you are a special boy.”  At the time I was only 12 or 13 yearly cycles of the seasons.  Already I was as tall as most of the men in our tribe, and heavier limbed than many of them as well.  I had begun to wrap the heavy skins that we wore as clothing about me to conceal this fact, of which I was ashamed.  

Great Grandmother, who was the priestess and the chief of our tribe together, sang then to me, her long, straight white hair framing her face and flowing down her back.  Our people are a musical, poetic folk, who live to tell our stories beneath the light of our sacred moon goddess.  Her song revealed to me her thoughts, as she was an accomplished singer and poet, and she so revealed more in her song than any could simply by speech alone.  I understood, and nodded to her in gratitude.  

My abilities were a gift, granted to me by the Moon Goddess, great Losna!  Never more did I hide my great frame, or slump to conceal my height.  Now I was proud- Losna had given me these things, to help and protect my people!  

I told all of this to my good friend, N’desh, who I had known since birth.  My own mother had died in childbirth, and I suspected that it was because of my own size even then that she did not survive.  N’desh and his mother, M’lani, and father Bron had taken me in, as had the rest of the tribe.  The Moon People are really one large family; no one is alone here.  The women rule, and they rule in amity and love, as a loving family beneath only the wise counsel of Losna, the moon, and her voice on this earth, Great Grandmother Gonga.

But now, as I said, I am in my 25^th cycle, and Gonga has made me her war leader, which I have been since I was 16 summers.  It is summertime once again in the great land of the Moon folk, where we have lived forever.  And in summertime come the invasions from the south, of the Kushites of the dark skin, who come to kill us, and take our mammoth meat, loot our caves, and kill our people!

As always, when I think of this, I grow angry, which is something the rest of my tribe seems seldom to do.  In this way too I am different.

Black Nights Matter!

This is the true iteration of this endless plea, and is one that actually makes sense!  Black Lives Matter means very little indeed.  But Black Nights Matter- well, this is important stuff.

If you are sleeping in a room with windows that let light into your bedroom, you probably have no idea that this is one of the most pernicious things that you can do to your health.  For hundreds of millions of years, our ancestors have had light only within the window provided by nature- from dawn til dusk! 

But now, mostly within the past few decades, and increasingly since we started staring at screens, computer, phone, and tablet- all emitting tons of blue light- with is the light that is supposed to jar us awake in the morning- we are subjected to this stimulus not only in what is supposed to be waking hours- but late into the night as well!

Many people have taken this still further, setting their TV’s on timers, so they fall asleep to the blue light emitter that is tv, as their body is attempting to fall asleep.  Talk about upsetting the circadian rhythms!!  Just imagine how upsetting, how confusing this is to our inner ‘clock’, something that has been inviolate since before the time of Christ.  Our health, overall, can only suffer in a huge way.

Some of the most serious potential problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure or stroke. ... Chronic sleep deprivation can even affect your appearance. Over time, it can lead to premature wrinkling and dark circles under the eyes.   If sleep deprivation goes on long enough, for perhaps a couple of weeks: the result is death.  After only 48 hours your body goes into ‘micro-sleeps’, where it sleeps despite your best efforts, even while you try to remain awake.  (You’re not, really, for stretches where you might appear to be).

The bottom line is this: if you are staying up late at night, watching TV or your computer or phone, you probably are feeling virtuous- “Hey- I’m getting all of this work done!” 

You’re not.  You are screwing yourself out of health, just as much as if you skipped exercise or eating well!  More, actually!  Sleep is crucial to health and wellness- not to mention fitness.  You need a regular schedule of good nights of sleep, as much as scheduled exercise, or good daily nutrition!

I hope you realize at this point that the whole point of ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a political stunt- nothing to pay any attention to at all, if you are a thinking, rational person- it is pure propaganda of the basest source.  It just made a good headline!  And probably, if those fake ‘leaders’ who so espoused this ‘movement’ would get enough good sleep, they would realize how nonsensical their points really were.

But my own point is nonetheless perfectly valid and important: 

Get good sleep!  Every night- black out your windows with curtains, get to bed early, and try to maintain this, day after day- get to bed early, get up early! 

So much of the Paleo Prescription is just good-old grandmotherly advice: get up early- exercise every morning, eat a big breakfast, a big lunch and a light supper.  Spend time with your family in the evenings, ala ‘Little House on the Prairie’- play fiddle or other music, sing and dance, and otherwise connect with your family and tribe!   Pretend you live in the wonderfully successful Small Town Americana that has been so unfortunately discarded and denigrated by the Left. 

Paleo Life was enshrined in Small Town Living of the early 20^th century.  It was ancestral in so many ways, and when that lifestyle was discarded in favor of ‘modernism’, America lost her heart and soul!  Norman Rockwell was thrown on the trash heap as outdated, and racist…

This was the discarding- orchestrated by the evil, socialist, Marxist LEFT: a planned outcome, one that not only cast aside the proven ideals and ethics of Conservatism- but also threw aside the proven maxims of tribal living, like:

Monogamy

Two Parent Families

Self- Sufficiency

Tribal (Local) Government, not BIG Government

Health and Wellness done within the FAMILY, not in Big Medicine environments

I  could go on, and on, for a long, long time.  But for that, you need to listen to all of my podcasts! 

Just remember now that, you need to sleep 8 hours each night!  After that, diet and lifestyle matter- but not until you understand that :

Black Nights Matter!!

Check out this episode!

Protect and Fix your Joints on Paleo Quick tip of the day podcast

The older I get (and I turn 66 on Friday April 6, so I know what old is), the more I see protecting your joints as crucial.  Muscle can be built, even tendons and ligaments can be gradually strengthened, but the joints are in need of maintenance which they rarely get!  When we are young, we literally take our joints for granted, and beat them up exercising to build muscle, compete in sports, and otherwise propel our bodies around.  

This is all fine, but it points out the old adage that ‘youth is wasted on the young’.  If I was young again, I would do what I do now:  first thing upon rising in the morning, I put my ALL of my major joints through a brief warmup.  I do it right in the bathroom, so as not to disturb my wife.  (I am an early riser).  

I start with just stretching my arms upwards, as high as I can, one arm after another.  I rotate my head on my neck each way similarly.  Then, I put my hands on my hips, and rotate a few times in each direction for the hip joint.  4 to 5 reps, easily, just to get the synovial fluid going in the joints.  

Next I put my hands of my knees, and rotate them in each direction.  Then, I do the same for my elbow joints and wrist joints (I do them at the same time), elbow joints, shoulder and hips together, one quarter squats, and another easy twisting motion.  This whole thing takes maybe 2 or 3 minutes- I will post a video to show you how it’s done.  Easy to show, hard to describe.

The beauty of this is not only does it start your joints with an easy warmup, it also wakes you completely up from head to toe!  No more groggy mornings until you get your coffee.  

I used to lift heavy weights, and now realize that was a mistake- especially for the joints!  Lifting later at a really slow cadence (Superslow ala Ken Hutchins) was a huge improvement, but still too much, and unnecessary.  The weights were less, but still damaging to the joints.  

Now, and for well over a decade, I do bodyweight exercise along with isometrics and ‘virtual resistance’, which is putting the body through a self-resisted protocol of complete motion.  The resistance is self generated in this, and is the key to not only building and maintaining muscle, but also in rehabbing damaged joints from sports and weight lifting injuries.  It took me a little while, but now my joints are perfectly healthy, with all of my knee and shoulder joint injuries healed!  You can do this as well.

The other key thing I recommend doing daily is stretching, methodically.  It doesn’t have to be yoga, but gentle stretching is essential for your health!  You need to get on the floor, and I do it mid-way in my morning workout.  I don’t want to explain it in words, but again will include a video.  A picture is much easier to comprehend than a wordy description!

The final thing to remember is to not injure the joints!  Even in body weight exercise, you can do this- the pushup can be hard on the shoulder and elbow joints, also the wrists.  When I do my pushups, I usually either do them on the Perfect Pushup device (since it rotates, taking off the strain on the joints), or else on my gymnastic rings in the basement- the rings are the very best, joint-protective, and incredibly effective exercise tools around!  Cheap, very effective, infinitely scalable (you can make pushups really easy, or else really hard, or anywhere in between), and great for many other exercises, including pistol squats that do not hurt your knees one bit!

Then other thing to do is to clean up your diet!  Gluten especially will make you susceptible to autoimmune attacks, where your own body attacks your tissues and organs.  A common target is your joints, and you are then a sufferer of Rheumatoid Arthritis!  If you tend in this direction, also eliminate all nightshades from your diet as well as gluten.  Often, just as in type two diabetes, this disease can be reversed, just by changing your diet.  

So there you have it:  save your joints, and move comfortably, strongly, and happily throughout your entire lifetime.  It just takes stretching, lubricating your joints each morning, and cleaning up your diet!  As a side benefit, you will also find yourself lean and feline, like a human cat, for the rest of your life.

Keto is NOT the Ultimate Goal

I am getting a little confused by the paleo community all seemingly running like lemmings into the land of Ketosis!  As if, all of a sudden, the goal of ancestral living is to just get to ketosis, stay in ketosis, and glory in ketosis…

 

Getting into a ketogenic state is important- it is one tool in our paleo health toolbox.  I don’t deny this.  But to go on and on and on about KETO, and never mention the other essential parts of healthy ancestral living, well, it’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face.  It’s like when, early on, all that was talked about seemed to be crossfit.  Just like the Keto craze, this made Crossfit the centerpiece of paleo exercise (it never was for me), and the extremes people started to take it became dangerous.  It just became a form of organized overtraining, and a sure way to get injured, and burn out ultimately.

 

Ketosis is a therapeutic tool, primarily, and should be used sometimes, but that is all.  Some may need to use it more extensively, since they are more damaged than most- but ideally we want to get to a point where we dip in and out of ketosis, not just stay there since it’s ‘better’.  It’s not, it’s just one form of fuel we need to be able to use if we want to be healthy and happy.

 

Just as important to my mind as going into ketosis is to consume enough healthy superfoods!  Greens, veggies of many sorts, sardines and other wild caught seafood, good pastured fats- it’s actually hard to get enough of many highly nutrient dense foodstuffs when eating in such a manner as to keep us keto.  Some carbs are good for our precious gut biome, (remember that)?- and it is a good thing to be able to metabolize things like some beans and tubers on occasion. 

 

Also, thinking endlessly of Keto, it is easy to become obsessed with it (just like Crossfit), and to become literally afraid of foods!  “Oh no- if I eat that apple it will take me out of ketosis!”  That sort of thinking.  And this way lies madness.

 

I think it’s time to go back to the old Paleo description, with all of the attendant things that go along with that paradigm.  Wild caught seafood, pastured meats, eggs and high fat dairy.  Vegetables, some fruits, and nuts in moderation.  Checking blood levels for sugar and insulin levels can become crazy obsessive really quickly, and concentrating on fats to the exclusion of most other sorts of good, healthy foods can leave us under nutrified.  (I just invented a word!)

 

Besides- it everything goes Keto, I would have to change my moniker from PaleoJay to KetoJay, and I don’t see that happening.  Same with CrossfitJay, especially since I kind of hate Crossfit, and what it has become.  In fact, every time something becomes a fad- it’s time to step back and reassess. 

 

Oh gosh- I have to go now- l just got an alarm on my iphone that it’s time to take my keto esters -gotta go! 

Check out this episode!

Big government is the ANSWER! podcast available now

Here at PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe, I try to usually have kind of a large, world-view of things.  As opposed to my other podcast, Paleo Quick Tip of the Day, where the goal is mostly to convey a quick idea or strategy to improve health, fitness, and wellness overall.  

And that is how my latest focus here is on worldwide events, rather than on one-on-one ideas of paleo living.  For I have come more and more to believe that a Big Government, GLOBALIST elite view of the world, our nation, and and of the people that make up our world is the biggest single threat to both our health, and our very LIVES that exists today!

I think a sparsely populated, natural landscape is vital for the health and wellness of a people.  There needs to be ample room for wildlife to coexist with humanity in symbiosis, and to achieve this the natural habitat (woods, trees, clear streams and rivers) needs to be preserved, nurtured, and enhanced.  Also, too many people is a strong deterrent to having such an environment!

In the United States and Canada, along with Australia and western Europe, such a balance has been achieved and maintained for a long while.  Up until recently, when misguided, leftist, big government elitists  have begun their great experiment- where they take vast numbers of uneducated people, people of different races and with totally anti-freedom western world views- and begun importing them into countries that certainly don’t need them, and for the majority of those that live there, do not want them!

Thus “great experiment” is well underway, having put millions each year of people into countries that have no need of them.  This is big, left-wing, Marxist inspired politicians that are doing this, in Germany, England, France, Norway, Sweden, Canada and the USA.  It is insidious, and being done against the will of the majority of their own countries citizens- but then, this is how the left works.  Big Government decisions are made for political expediency, not the overall good.  The overall good is done on the local level, as was envisioned by the founding fathers of America- you know, those ‘dead white males’ that are now held up as evil monsters?  Because some of them owned slaves, back when every country on the face of the earth owned slaves??

And nowadays, to be considered a racist is to be considered worse than being a murderer!  Ridiculous- if I believe one breed of dog does better at something than another, am I a dog-racist?  No, just a realist.  But- get ready for it- some races of humans are better at certain things than others.  Common sense, really:  Why do blacks dominate the NBA, and many other sports?  Because they have evolved in ways that make them better at those types of things.

And why are Asians so good at things like engineering?  Because they have evolved in ways that make them better at those types of things.  We all have our forte’s, and we all excel at certain things.  Such is simply reality, not racism.  

And Western civilization is definitely a “white thing”.  Freedom, small government, self-direction and autonomy- it took us thousands of years to develop all of this, and it worked, and still works, very well indeed!  Too well, I think, for those Big Government types who want to micromanage us, and put us into crowded, awful situations where we need their help, or at least where we think we do.

We don’t.  Can you imagine a paleolithic tribe, inviting other, alien tribes; tribes from far away, with different customs and religions that we find abhorrent, like child marriage to old men, genital mutilation and subservience of women, cannibalism- well, the list goes on and on…  to invite them to live among us?  And not only that- to give them a living- money and food and many other things of our civilization- and then let them tell us how we don’t live according to their standards??

It’s absurd, but it is what is happening right now.

Imagine where you live.  I hope it is a small, dead end coulee with just a handful of residences, each with at least several acres.  Hills, streams, and with wildlife in abundance- this is the dream of the founding fathers, a small holding with minimal government interference, where a family can live free of crime, pollution, traffic and together in a common “tribe” of a shared culture.  Western civilization, a small version of the ancient Greek city state!

I am envisioning my own surroundings, my own valley in rural Wisconsin.  Now, imagine that, into this idyll, the BIG GOVERNMENT in Washington D.C. decides to import thousands of alien people.  People who don’t speak English, can’t read or write, and with a culture completely alien and repugnant to you and yours, and who instantly hate you, and try to regulate how you live?  Sounds horrid, right?

Well, that is what is going on right now- in Europe, Canada, and especially right now in South Africa!  South Africa is the worst area right now, since the white Boers, those who carved this piece of wonderful Western Civilization out of the wilderness in the 17^th century, are now being killed.  Their farmland is being stolen, they are being killed and tortured, and their modern country is being turned into a hellhole.  But of course, it’s not ‘polite’ to mention it!

We all have our own ‘tribes’.  Those we have evolved to live amongst, over eons; those like ourselves.  And there has never been a successful, multi-racial nation.  South Africa was, but only while the whites ruled completely; once the blacks took over, the whole civilization collapsed.  This is truth; it is hard for many to accept, but that is like the paleo diet and lifestyle- most find it unacceptable, and fight to deny it, and how it can improve their health- because it runs counter to what they want to believe.  

Who doesn’t want to believe that we can eat whatever we want, and it makes no difference to our health?  That modern medicine will fix anything that is wrong with us, and we don’t need to change a thing?  

And that all people are the same, and Big Government, just like the benevolent entities of Big Medicine and Big Pharma and Big AG, can keep us well and happy- we don’t need to do a thing- they will take total care of us, perfectly and forever!  

We can just look out our windows, watching the busses roll in, while legions of foreigners can move into the huge, multi-rise apartment buildings erected by HUD, swamping our schools with multi-language teacher requirements, and displacing our wildlife and polluting our small streams.  Our property and other taxes will go through the roof to support them all.  Crime will explode, and if we try to protect ourselves we will be called “racists”.  Our guns will be taken away, luckily, but the invaders will have plenty of illegal firearms.  

Not to worry- Big Government will protect us!  They always do a great job. 

Natural Hobbies for Natural Health

Let’s say you want to be healthy- a healthy, paleo type of a person!  You clean up your diet, substituting good fats and pastured proteins for your processed carbs and sugary stuff.  You start to exercise, and use body weight movements instead of machines and weights, and start walking and sprinting barefoot instead of jogging long, slow distances in heavily cushioned running shoes. 

If you are doing these things, I guarantee you are now far more fit and healthy than before- congratulations!  If you also meditate or pray on a daily basis, and drink a paleo green smoothie as well; why, you are not only healthy, you are (or are becoming) one of the most healthy and fit people on the planet!  Congratulations!!

Now, you can just watch televisions endlessly in your free time, or perhaps crochet and start concentrating on your collection of Hummel figurines…

Well, NO.  Your total lifestyle needs to be in sync; that is, to be a lifestyle that makes sense, a way of living that embodies the real values of a person grounded in the reality of the paleolithic, or at least in the real values of necessary and desirable things, not just trivialities. 

What brought this to mind it the time of year: tomorrow, I will start my maple sap collecting, and then boiling down into syrup!  Each phase of life should be centered around what is truly important, and necessary for life.  This week, the snow is almost gone, and though the wet mud is still all to prevalent, it must be braved!  For the maple trees are ready- they cannot wait.  When it is still below freezing at night, and gets into the high 30’s and 40’s in the daytime; why, that is when the syrup runs.  And so, it means I need to run as well, through the mud and back again, drilling small holes into my trees, putting in the spiles, connecting the tubing, and otherwise setting the stage for the sap to run into collection buckets. 

After a bit, I’ll need to start a wood fire, upon which I place a big pot or two of sap, which I keep filled as it boils down, lower and lower as the water vapor boils away, and the sap gradually thickens more and more into the dark, potent brew we call maple syrup.  A sweetener, like raw honey, that is far from just a sugar- it is a sweetener with many other compounds within it that benefit our health.  For instance- did you realize that maple syrup has an anti-oxidant cocktail of beneficial compounds: it has some that are found in tea, and some that are found in flaxseed?  For a sweetener, it is very healthy indeed.

For me, maple tapping not only gets me out into the early sunlight of spring (at last!), and into building a big fire to keep going all day long; it also gets me out into the woods, back in touch with nature!  For, although I walk in the woods all winter long, even when ski poles are the only thing that help me to stay upright on the ice, when I’m out in the spring I hear the awakening sounds of nature all about me.  Birds, small animals, deer, and even carnivores are stirring all around, reminding me that I am but a part of all of them. 

Often, I will find myself automatically feeding sticks and logs beneath my fire, while replenishing the sap in the cook pot- but my main attention is on the woods and environment around me.  The tending of the roaring fire, and the continual pouring of sap and then replacement of the buckets is automatic.  A background activity that keeps me in place in the woods.  It makes me a part of nature itself.

Before I know it, it will be time for lunch, and I will go up to the house to eat.  But all too soon, I will know the drip buckets are full, and the fire is getting low- so I will add more sap to the cook pot, and add more logs to the fire.  The process is not too arduous- it is all just about right- enough to keep me working and busy, but not so much that I can’t stop often to appreciate all that is about me.  This will go on all day…

And for the next few days, probably all week.  And I realize now, as I write this, that although it takes up my days at this time of year, that I look forward to it all winter long!  The first sign of spring!  A moment when I can get outside without being burdened by heavy clothing, when I can smell the vegetation once again in the mud, as the soil reawakens once again with LIFE.  When life once again becomes infused with something fecund, something sweet, not just the endless sterility of winter.

Just as gardening is rejuvenative later on; maple sapping gives me a jump start!  These natural hobbies are as important to me, and my sense of place in the world, as my very health.  And, quite honestly: without them- I would have no true health- not at all!  I would be cut off from nature, purposeless, like a nursing home resident confined to a bed, or an office worker who only watched TV after work and ate TV dinners. 

Thank God for the work of tapping trees outside tomorrow!

Check out this episode!

Is a Green Smoothie Really Necessary for Health? on PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe podcast

No- but it sure helps!  

The hierarchy in my mind to get, attain, and keep really good health is first to make sure your nutrition is good and wholesome, and this includes getting pure water.  This is the prime directive of animals the world over- get good nutrition!  

After that, surprisingly to most, is getting quality sleep.  Sleep is right up there with shelter- it does for your body and brain, spirit and outlook just what nutrition does- it enables you to stay alive, and to not only suffer along, barely making it day to day, but to thrive.  We are meant to thrive on this earth, and in a natural state we would, without the intrusions of governments and other rulers that control us and don’t allow us to run our own lives.  

So, since the food we take in is central to our health, we should strive for the most nutritious food we can find.  Nutrient dense foods, foods that are so packed with the many vitamins, high quality protein, good fats, and plentiful anti-oxidants we need to be super healthy.  And, right up there with super healthy foods such as pastured beef liver and wild caught sardines is a blender made smoothie!  The state of the art blender to use is the long-running Vitamix, but there are others that will get the job done as well.

The advantage of a blended smoothie such as this is that all the vegetable and fruit used is in it- all the fiber, and all the nutrients as well.  Cooking can destroy some nutrients, although it can also make others more bioavailable.  So you want raw veggies and berries, along with the cooked ones you also consume.  Both are valuable, and necessary!

How do you make such a smoothie?  Here is a link to a post on www.paleojay.com that I did some time ago:

 http://www.paleojay.com/search?q=paleo+smoothie   

Not much has changed, although I make minor changes to the ingredients, which I list at this link: 

 http://www.paleojay.com/2011/07/paleo-quick-start-smoothie-ingredient.html

You can copy me exactly, or change up some of the ingredients to suit your own taste and goals.  But the basics of making a quality blended smoothie never change- some healthy liquids like full fat kefir, green tea, and coconut milk, green veggies, a raw pastured egg or two, citrus and berries, spices like turmeric and ginger, and vitamin D liquid.  It kind of depends on what you have on hand, and what agrees with you as an individual.

After you’ve fulfilled your nutritional needs in such a manner, you can add in some real foods you have prepared around your family table.  And that takes care of your last needs, those of family and community!  Your TRIBE.  Get together and enjoy spending quality time with friends and family, on a daily or near daily basis.  For that community is just as important for creatures such as us, long term, as is good food and water, sleep, and exercise.  We need it all, but it all starts with nutrition.  A blended smoothie is job #1!