Hi Health minded Friends,

Hope you are all doing well on this last week of snowy February. Thanks for opening the note today.

I was going to email you all yesterday how I was unsure whether I would be open for business at Green Dragon due to the snow forecast. Then I changed my mind and decided I would go no matter how much snow we got. By 11 pm last night, I had my 4-wheel drive truck all loaded, I had completed shoveling the driveway of about 7-8 inches of snow. I would get up at 5 am, get ready, and go.

The alarm woke me at 5 am. I looked outside at what used to be our driveway (Our driveway is about 250 feet long with a steep hill) and was surprised to see what looked like the Sahara Dessert with all the snow instead of sand. I tried to push open the door, failing miserably. 15+ inches fell between 11 pm and 5 am, with heavy snow still falling. This was a bit much for me and my truck, so I went back to bed. As I am writing this note, it is 2 pm and still snowing. This is all bringing back memories of my days as a paperboy back in the sixties pulling my sled instead of riding my bike, and walking the drifts to the houses.

I called the office at the Green Dragon this morning and found out they had less than 1 inch of snow on the ground. Oh well! For those of you who came to the Hallelujah Hive shop, I am sorry I wasn’t there. I tried my best, but no matter how much I make up my mind to do something; there are forces sometimes stronger than me!

Health & Nutrition Classes!

This Sunday-At the Blue House at 9:45 am. Come see a great DVD on preparing raw, healthy foods.

Saturday, March 20th-At the Blue House at 2 pm. I plan to talk about the honeybees and the products they make. We are also showing a DVD called Health and the Hive, which is awesome.

For our Pittsburgh Friends!

I am driving my daughter, Amy, out to Pittsburgh on Monday. If anyone would like to give me an order, please contact me. I can drop it off at my sister, Linda Barnicott’s, house. You can pick it up there or I’m sure she will be happy to bring it to the church if you like.

SALES!

(At the farmers markets only)

· 2 lb raw honey

(Goldenrod, Wildflower, Orange Blossom) from Vermont &

Florida– $2 OFF

· 1 lb Wildflower raw honey

from Vermont–$1 Off

· Elderberry Formula (the smaller, 4 oz) Special $2 OFF For building the immune system and preventing colds & Flu.

· Cosmetics! All our natural cosmetics are 20% OFF

We have other great and even better sales going on at the markets along with quite a few new natural products.

“10,000 Years From Now”

Have you ever wondered where you will be, or what you will be thinking about exactly 10,000 years from now? I have. In fact, I have actually worried about it. That is the kind of mind I have always had. I not only worried about today or tomorrow, I worried about the far out there future.

When I was in my twenties searching for the meaning of life, I spent a lot of time writing down my thoughts, my questions, my dreams. I spent my twenties doing some drinking, drugs (medical & street), some college, some construction. I played some gigs on my horn and string bass. I went camping around America, drove over 8000 miles in less than a month. I tried to grow my hair long, I was in the hippie generation of course. I couldn’t grow my hair long like everybody else, it started to fall out.

I was once told that the scientists figured our sun would eventually burn out in a couple hundred thousand years. I actually got depressed. I thought that this can’t be. They “must” first invent a way that I can live on earth always, then discover a way to save the sun.

When I was 5 years old, my 11-year-old neighbor Margie Finan told me that when I die I can go to heaven if I trust and believe in God. I remember getting very upset. I did not want to die. I asked Margie if God would fix me up at that time and put me back on earth. She told me no.

I could not handle that statement and rejected the whole idea. I am 57 now and I remember that conversation like it was yesterday.

I am a scheduler. One of the few things I enjoyed about being a drywall contractor was that I got to schedule all kinds of things. I grew up wanting to schedule my life and beyond.

*What do you think you will be doing in 10,000 years?

*Where will you be?

Because I am a scheduler, I don’t want to look forward to heart attacks, diabetes, nursing homes and hell. These are not good things. I don’t want these things. Back in my twenties I didn’t seem to care much, but I find myself caring a little more, it seems, every day.

On the subject of hell, there was a builder named Herb, whom I did much drywall work for, many years ago, in the New Hope, PA area. We had many spiritual conversations over the years. He believed that when you die you become plain ions and float out into space and stay there forever floating.

Our last conversation was very interesting. I told him that Jesus would save his soul if he repented of his sins, then he will go to heaven when he dies. Herb told me that he did not believe in God, Jesus, or any of that.

Herb said that we are ions floating in space after we die. My last words were: “Herb, if you are right, then after we die, both of us are going to float into space as ions. (Boring in my mind) However, if I am right, then I will go to heaven (Because of Christ) and you will go to hell.” Scary!…

Herb became quite angry. Herb never hired me again after that. Was it possible that Herb didn’t believe in Christ, or that he didn’t want to believe? Could that be why he became so angry?

Now it would seem to me that if I believed in the Easter Bunny and you believed that the Oak Tree was God, I would think “good for you. You believe in the Oak Tree. You are probably crazy. So…that’s cool! …who cares?” Isn’t that the way the reaction should be if you plain don’t believe in something? Or is there more to it than just not believing?

On the subject of nursing homes, diabetes etc. I also have had many interesting conversations. Many say things like: “Well, you have to die of something anyway, what does it matter what you eat?”

Jack La Lanne is 95 years old. He says “Exercise is king and diet is queen. Together they make a kingdom.” He works out 2 hours a day, takes 40 supplements a day and eats right. He drives a red late model sports car. He says he is happily married and still teaches all over the world with his wife.

I don’t know if you have noticed, but there are a lot of celebrity people dying or dropping dead in their fifties and sixties right now.

That doesn’t mean that it can’t happen to me or you, but I would like to try to enjoy life without that worry or pain. Life is tough enough without worrying if I’m going to get cancer or have a heart attack everyday.

I will not pretend. Everyday lifestyle is an ongoing battle with me. I do not always win. Sometimes I lose. I sometimes eat too many sweets or too much pasta and gain weight. I sometimes slap Jesus in the face by sinning and hurting Him and my fellow man. I hate when I do that.

However, as long as I have breathe, I am going to fight the temptation to sin, eat wrong, and just sit on the couch and watch the idiot box.

My goal is to eat the right foods more and more. Eat the wrong foods less and less. Take the right supplements, exercise, and love instead of getting an attitude.

I do have a lot of great days where I (in my mind) eat right, exercise, and feel good. I find as time goes on, with practice, this is becoming more the norm.

I want to work in the markets and teach others about good diet, preventing disease, and living for Christ, to over 100 years old. Like Paul Bragg at 95 going surfing, I hope at 95, I can be a living testimony at the markets and all other areas of my life.

This is what I believe. This is what I was searching for in my twenties, but I was too full of myself and cream donuts to find what I was looking for.

Dear friends, good food, according to Dr. Lorraine Day, Dr Fuhrman, Dr. Norman Walker, Jack La Lanne and Doctor George Malkmus, are large amounts of greens, lots of fresh drinking water, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, fresh fruit and fresh vegetable juices.

Go for relaxing walks, exercise with dumb bells, take in the sunshine, dance, laugh, sing songs to people, our loved ones, our cats and dogs and to Jesus. Let’s love our enemies. We don’t have to like them. LOL! Have a vegan tomato pie with vegan cheese, tomato sauce, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, caramelized onions and veggie meatballs.

Thanks for putting up with me.

Hope to see you at the markets,

Mark

570-401-1353 www.HallelujahHive.com

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life………………………”Deuteronomy 30:19