Sarah's Joys

Wednesday, October 18, 2017 The Re-Leaf I will never forget the first time I ate a beet. This wasn’t just any old canned or supermarket beet, no. This beet had started as a seed that I planted, watered, sang to, pulled from the dirt and rinsed off. I thought I didn’t like beets, but I was wrong!  That experience has happened many times over as I’ve learned about and grown a wide variety of fruits and vegetables over the last few years.  That is where my journey into natural medicine began. As I worked on the farm I began to change--physically, mentally, and spiritually. I found that eating whole foods gave me more energy, and instead of craving junk, I started to crave fresh salads and crunchy raw rainbow carrots. My taste bud’s idea of “sweet” changed from candy to candy cane beets.  I learned about the powerful anti-viral properties of garlic and oregano oil. I’d never been one to rely on pills much when in pain, and began to learn what a...

Monday October 23, 2017 The Last Days It’s 1:32 PM. I’m in the hammock again, for the first time in days. This weekend was a blur of garden shops, lines, and honest to goodness hard work! Right now, I feel drained. Mostly emotionally and mentally. Physically, it really felt great to begin working with the earth. I miss everyone. I’ve been making great connections here in Puerto Rico, but with the state of life, social interactions are few and far between. Also, I’m a very touchy-feely person. So next time you see me... please give me the biggest hug ever--they’re medicine for my soul. I leave the island in 39 hours. It’s always been hard to leave from here and my heart already hurts thinking about it. Especially leaving behind seed babies!!! But I know they’re in good care. I’ve asked Yuri to send photos of them every few days. I want to thank you all again for taking the time to read these blogs. Your support, comments, care packages and words of love h...

Sunday, October 15, 2017 The Status It’s Sunday. It’s hot. And today, the mosquitos are relentless! How am I doing? Sometimes it’s a struggle to answer this question. Not because I am unwell or upset, but because it's difficult to describe how different the world I'm currently living in has become.  It has been almost a month since hurricane Maria.  Less than 15% of the electrical grid has been re-established. This means a large number of businesses are not operating. Many people have lost their jobs, or they're unable to work. Many businesses which are open rely on generators, and these are expensive to run. The people who are able to go to work have commutes that are now 3 to 4 times longer, due to the lack of working traffic signals. There are fewer than 70 hospitals operating--and only 44 of them have power. Lines still wrap around buildings for ATMs, Grocery Stores, Costco, Walmart, and Home Depot. Food, especially fresh produce, and water is still ...

Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The Heavy   It’s easy to get caught up in the suffering. All around there is destruction, death and disease. It will not be going away anytime soon and is not confined to this island. I had started to spiral into a state of panic. Alarmed by all I’ve seen and becoming desperate to show the whole world what is happening. The Heavy began to weigh on my heart.  Luckily, I am blessed with friends and family who kindly remind me that suffering leads to fear and then I think of Yoda, who reminds me that fear is the path to the dark side.  Over the past couple days, I have felt grateful to use my skills assisting others with their very meaningful and noble endeavors. I've made new friends, rekindled my passion for photojournalism and editing, and taken some of the load off the shoulders of very busy people. Even so, I must remember that this is not where I am to focus the majority of my energy. Because of my character, I have ...

Saturday, October 7, 2017 The Thirst I should have taken more photos today, but I was too busy trying to wrap my head around what is happening. We started off early this morning, Yuri had a list of places he needed to go to which included Costco and the bank.  The bank, at a nearby mall, was our first stop. We drove into the mall parking lot and noticed the very long line wrapped around the corner of the building. Upon entering the mall, we saw that the line zig zagged inside as well, and it was not moving. Yuri determined that they wouldn’t even service everyone in line before closing, so we went to try our luck at finding water.  As we walked inside the mall over to KMart there were people sitting every place you could find an electrical outlet. Every single outlet was taken up by one type of electronic device or another.  We scanned Kmart for water, none on the shelves where the water should be. Further down, gleaming like the pot of...

Friday, October 6, 2017 The Mouse It's 10:41 pm. I was sleeping soundly two minutes ago. So, I’m not a squeamish person. I like animals and insects, bees don’t bother me, and mice don’t make me scream... UNLESS THEY ARE CRAWLING ON TOP OF ME!  I felt a disturbance near my feet, woke up, and realized the mouse was scurrying up the sheet covering my legs. I shook my uninvited bedfellow off, let out an audible cry of distress, and then quietly called out to one of the guard dogs on duty. He's now on patrol. The last two days have been a whirlwind of mostly mental activity and lots of communication. Considering the previous two weeks of almost total silence, I'm finding it more difficult to be in constant contact. Hopefully I will find a way to balance this aspect of modern life. I went on a mission this afternoon to visit a few streets I’d come to know well over my time here. I joined Yuri on his drive into the Santurce area for work, and from there, I wal...

Wednesday, October 4, 2017 ReGeneration I am writing from one of my favorite places in Puerto Rico... the inside of a hammock. The sun is setting and soon we return to "vida sin luz." Finding our way using flashlights, listening to the now familiar sound of generators humming, and eating dinner by candlelight.  It gets dark early here. it's 6:23 on Wednesday, and when I go inside to do something I'd forgot, the flashlight was handy. We are very lucky. Yuri's next door neighbor runs a generator at night and generously extends a cord over for our use.  Despite the war against tiny terrorists (mosquitos), the battle to save our produce from the jaws of a rat-sized mouse, and our longing for the sound of music... I feel better today than I have in quite a while. I spoke with Bryan on the phone this afternoon and he said "You sound more you." I feel more me.  Maybe one upside to not having music to listen to is that I can't stop singi...