A New Chapter

My silence for the last two years as a blogger was because my husband of 35 years had  become very ill and moved to heaven in January. I served as his caregiver and blogging was the last thing on my agenda.  Because I haven’t posted for a very long time, I lost the rights to joyousbells.com.  

Welcome back to Encore Now.  You can also follow me on Joyjourney.co.  I trust that our time together will be filled with love and joy.  This post is adapted from the Joy Journey post.

I have watched as Joe’s illness caused me concern,turning into stress and frustration.  I attended my sweet husband as he failed.  I tried to give him healthy food, vitamins, herbs and anything else that he would allow.  I prayed and I became desperate.  I would get unhappy with God and He would remind me that He had given us both everything that we needed for life and godliness.  Joe also  knew that but he was so deep in the flow of the disease that it had a firm grip on him.  I watched helpless with a broken heart.

During this time, I was blessed with a church family that came alongside.  One of my sisters in Christ became a care-giver with me.  She taught me so much.  My pastor and the men in the church encouraged me and when the final days came, they took the night watches for me as Joe struggled to let go of this life and move into the amazing heavenly realm.

Joe had Parkinson’s Disease for seven years and in September he fell and broke his hip.  As with so many people who have failing health, this was the beginning of the end.  He was in the hospitall for surgery, then to rehab and home health care; ultimately moving into a nursing home with hospice.

His home going was wonderful.  The atmosphere in the room was filled with the sweet aroma of heaven and stayed with me as I lay in bed with him for the last time.  It was the sweet assurance that all was okay.  The atmosphere shifted some but it never completely left the room until Joe stepped over.

I miss him but I would not wish him back.  He is free and in the loving arms of His heavenly family.  I will  join him one day.  Until then, I have work to do.  I have the joy of spending time intimately with my heavenly Father and my Big Brother, Jesus and being grateful to the Holy Spirit as He navigates me through each day.

I am beginning my new life doing what I love.  I am writing again.  Stay tuned as I will be an active blogger.  Thank you for following me in the past.  I hope that you stay with me in this Encore phase of my new life.

Freedom Isn’t Free

Freedom is a complicated subject.  We are only free as long as we see that there is a high price paid for freedom and that we have a responsibility to maintain it.  

When my children were in their teens and still at home, they had certain criteria that affected their freedom.  When those criteria were met, they had more privileges.

As a wife, there are limitations to my freedom if I want the relationship to be one of happiness and contentment.  It assumes faithfulness and truth.

The men and women who fought for our freedom in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and every war since have paid an enormous price for our freedom.  My uncle Jack was a ball turret gunner in a plane that went down over Belgium in WWII.

The Civil War and the life of Martin Luther King paid for the freedom of those who had been enslaved.

As a citizen, my freedom is contingent on my attention to the people we place in office and to be aware of what they do after they get in.  It is always based on my exercise of my voting privileges.

Have you ever noticed that people who aren’t free want to trap you in the same web that enslaves them?

A drug dealer wants you on drugs.

An alcoholic invites you to have just one more.

A thief will work to get you to steal.

A gang member will have an initiation that will ensure that you are guilty of crimes before you can be a member.

A smoker is all too willing to share a cigarette with you and teach you the ‘how to.’

A person driven by lust will try to get you hooked on it as well.

Advertisers want you hooked on prescription drugs, fast food, cigarettes, and a myriad of other products that are designed to keep you buying their products.

We have the freedom to say anything in this country and on the internet, but there is some speech that is designed to put us in bondage like pornography.

The ultimate price was on the cross when Jesus Christ shed His blood so that we could choose freedom

We are reminded of the rights and responsibilities that we have in the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,^[76]that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long-established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Our future freedom depends on our actions today.

I am gratful to God for all the freedoms that we have in this country.  We are still the greatest nation in the world.

 What freedoms are you grateful for this week of celebration of the independence of the United States?  

If You Have a Loved One With Degenerative Neurological Disease, Then Read This About the Ketones in Virgin Coconut Oil!!

First of all, I make no health claims and I am just talking about research about coconut oil available  on-line.  I found an article about the ketones in Coconut Oil.  It is touted by Dr. Mary Newport about the effects it had on her husband’s degenerative neurological disease and I am fascinated.  Her husband had symptoms of Alzheimer’s and mine has the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.   It seems that ketones in Virgin Coconut Oil may allow the of glucose in the neurological centers of the brain to be absorbed.  (At least that is what I think she said.)  Could this be a wonderful health secret for many diseases and symptoms?

Joe and I will be trying this out and following the protocol that Dr Mary Newport describes in her article, ‘What if there were a cure for Alzheimer’s and no one knew.”  Coconut Oil our new favorite food.  She also recommends using coconut milk for cereal and other places you might want to use milk.  So many wonderful ideas.

Other related diseases mentioned in the article include Huntington’s chorea, multiple sclerosis, ALS, type I and type II diabetes, as well as any number of other conditions that involve a defect in transport of glucose into neurons and other cells.   On the video (link follows), she speaks of possible applications for newborns as well.  I hope she is right.

Big Pharma will never pick this up as they cannot patent food.

The links to the information are at the bottom of the page!!

Only use organic Virgin or Expeller Pressed coconut oil.    Quality matters.

I found this cool recipe:

Frozen Chocolate Coconut Fudge

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup nut or seed butter (I use peanut butter, unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup (generous) cocoa powder
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup (generous) coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup raw honey

Mix together all ingredients. Pour on a piece of unbleached parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Spread out to about 1/4″ thick.

Place fudge in freezer. Let set for about 30 minutes.

Break into pieces and serve or put in container back in freezer until you are ready to serve.

Recipe and picture submitted by Tember, Quakertown, PA

Related Links:

Dr. Mary Newport – video interviews

What If There Was A Cure For Alzheimer’s and No One Knew –  Article –www.coconutoil.com/AlzheimersDiseaseDrMaryNewport.pdf

Dr. Newport on The 700 Club

Merliannews.com Mary T Newport  Alzheimer’s Reversal with Cocnut Oil

Coconut oil and Tumeric for treating Alzheimer’s

http://www.coconutoil.com/coconut-oil-research-alzheimers.htm