DAIRY, ASPARTAME & SACCHARIN FREE

Did you know that IMPERIAL LEATHER SOAP contains milk?  No nor did I until I had cause to start reading labels to prevent a nasty allergic reaction to all things dairy.  I would never have thought that SORBET on a restaurant menu would contain milk proteins (thanks to the staff for pointing this out).  Then you innocently buy a bottle of red wine only to get it home and find that too lists 'milk' in its ingredients! WHY, why is there milk in my soap and a favourite alcoholic tipple?

Goats cheese, soya milk, yoghurt, cream and custard have now taken up residency in the fridge.  I have found dairy free biscuits, chocolate, cakes and brownie mix in either supermarkets or health shops.  It is not easy to find these things at first.  It is very time consuming but very necessary to read all the labelled ingredients.

All food products labelled 'Diet' or 'lite' contain aspartame apparently.  I have swapped Diet Coke for ordinary coke so far but now I realise it, or saccharin, is in some fruit juices, chewing gums, sweets etc. so I have to extend my research and will be naming them as I find them as I am sure other Hives suffers would appreciate the information.

If you have an allergy to any of the dairy products or sweetener ranges do tell me what alternatives you have found and where from.  With grateful thanks.

TREE

What kind of tree did the lumberjack choose?

Or did the tree beckon him somehow?

When he swung his axe did he know the trunk’s fate

As he wiped the sweat from his brow?

 

Who carried the felled tree from its natural place

And laid it on a pile?

Whose hands chose the stump that would

Journey that famous mile?

 

Who shaped the wood beneath its bark

Into a shape of endings?

And how did the inner rings of that sad tree

bear its anguished rendings?

 

Did it know its job that day

When carried through the crowd?

Did it lighten its weight by a trick of nature

Underneath that very black cloud?

 

Did it scream with pain when the nails entered

And held a lasting Saviour?

Did it ooze its sap into His wounds?

Healing was its last favour.

 

When breath was done and night did fall

Did it weep the water out?

With the body gone did it start to rot

Knowing what that had been all about?

 

Had God bestowed such wisdom upon it

And planted a seed of energy

That knew the Truth and all that would happen

A miracle for human race to see.

 

So that when the tree lay discarded

Its powers released and purpose completed

Sent message to the earth –‘it’s time!’

And spring sprang forth, death defeated.

 

New shoots from undergrowth burst out

Colour amidst the gloom

A ray of sunshine hit the ground

And broke the world’s grip of doom.

Then rain it fell so softly

And washed away the stain

The moss was moist upon the bark

Brown forest becomes green again.

 

Did we thank the earth for providing

The palms, the hyssop and ash

Did we even notice the donkey, the cockerel or birds of the air

When we were wrapped up in our own life’s dash?

 

Slow down and smell the roses

They are especially for you

Each year more precious than the last

And worries you need so few.

 

Because the cycle of nature tells us

All will be well if you Trust

Everything is given for a reason

As part of a plan you are a must.

 

 

So go about life reassured

You’re important not just for a day

With treasures all around us

Make sure of time to play.

 

Say hello to a tree and hug it

Or put your ear to its stem

Listen to the whispers of breezes

As it was when the world first began.

 

Tree stood in the Garden of Eden

God’s knowledge it did hold

It was to be a part of life

That forever would be told.

 

Sue Flint ©

Communication

Communication used to mean one of two, then three, things in my early days (clue re my age).  People talked to each other or they sent letters in the post.  A red telephone box on the corner of a nearby street was a third option for emergencies or convenience if you had the right change and knew how to operate 'press button A or B'.  Large black handsets on wired dialing boxes were respected and valued by the communities in which the stood.

Then the installation of the cream dial faced telephone entered our home.  Long chats, with boyfriend or one of my girlfriends whilst sitting on the stairs, was a great luxury.

How far we have come in such a short time (well, just a few decades).  Now I am bombarded with ways to communicate with my family and friends, even celebrities and strangers!  Here are just the ones I know about or use:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email (this replaced the posted letter but notice I have given it third place!)
• Instagram
• Skype
• Face time
• Blogs
• Text messaging
• Phone (no longer a 'telephone' which is mostly a mobile rather than landline)

I even 'speak to' friends who play the on-line game Words with Friends, so my choices of communicating are vast (for a woman of a certain age).  It comes very natural and unquestionable to those younger, it is acceptable to be on your mobile whilst at the checkout in a supermarket or on your train journey home.  Privacy is not worried about it, seems to me. 

I am new to Twitter, just getting to grips with it and trying to work out why some people put the same message on 3 of the above mediums.  Are they for a different set of friends, is it for a different reason?  No doubt if I persevere I will 'get it' and enjoy it like I do with Facebook.  But all these communications take up time, of which is very precious, and I'm so much slower than I was 20 years ago (annoyingly).

So every now and then I try NOT to 'log on', to have some non-communicative hours or day or weekend.  However, its very seductive to see who has 'Liked' or 'favourited' my 'post'; to 'follow' what others are up to (silent stalking?), or to add 'comments' to others 'blogs'. 

I love the positivity of Facebook, the encouragement and the keeping in touch with friends at home and abroad.  I like seeing people on Skype and chatting for free (? well after the internet/phone line fees are paid).

Emails and sending photos electronically is fab, but some days I have been alone for 10 hours and not spoken to a soul!  But I have communicated!

Phone boxes are no longer respected, letters hardly ever come through our letter box and the only calls on the landline are nuisance telesales calls!  No wonder coffee as shops are so popular these days - people meeting to talk face to face.  My age has some perks! Coffee and cake and silent mobile phones.  No iPads, iphones, just icontact.