In My Beginning!!!!

In the beginning, there was: “Drugs, Sex & Rock-n-Roll"…????

And GOD said, “HEALTH BE!!!!”

Lo and behold – I woke up at "The Optimum Health Institute of San Diego"????!!!!

I started growing “marijuana” when I was only 13 years old.  Now, I’ve been growing “grass” pretty much my whole life; the varieties have changed; I have gone from smoking “grass” to drinking “grass” – but I AM into “GRASS” big-time, and I AM into WheatGrass!!!! to stay – marijuana not so much????  For many years, I burned grass and pushed gas, now I burn gas and push grass – WheatGrass!!!! - that is.  Sometime in 2003, a co-worker started calling me “GrassMan.”  I have been known as the WheatGrassMan!!!!” all these years and now I AM the self-proclaimed “GiveHealthMan!!!!”  "Let us hold each others Heart tenderly????"

It was mid-summer and I was more excited about starting high-school than I was goofing off all summer.  Even as a boy – I LOVED school and rarely, if ever missed a day – I wanted to go to school even when sick; there were times when I was forced to stay home against my will.  I LOVE education and I AM blessed with ever-increasing passions for pursuing knowledge and wisdom.  Today, I LOVE learning on my own even more than I LOVED SCHOOL.  “…develop burning yearnings for learnings; have insatiable desires to be, to do, and to HAVE; dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become!”

My mother’s boyfriend, Jim & his friend John took my brother and I to the gravel pit to shoot clay pigeons.  We were in Jim’s royal blue Plymouth Furry III; the 383-hemi 4-speed was loud and FAST and with the white convertible top down - we had a “blast”!!!!  I was so happy because my first time shooting a 12-gauge shotgun did not, as Jim & John were eager to see, and had told me, “It’ll knock you on your ass!”  They got their laughs – it did back me up two steps and my black & blue shoulder hurt for days.

I didn’t know it then, but what the shotgun did not do - alcohol was delighted to do.  They stopped at a liquor store on the way home to get a 12-pack of Falstaff.  They handed me a can of beer; I took a big swig, and beer came out my nose, my mouth, all over me, my brother and Jim’s car - I LOVED it – Jim & my brother, not so much.  I offered my brother a swig, he declined, so I downed that beer in about 30 seconds.  I can still feel that first “buzz” hitting me and I became an “alcoholic” with one can of beer.  I never had a chance to be a “social drinker;” I drank for the “drunk” from the start – so you see – I did get “knocked on my ass” that day.  I began drinking anything I could get, before I ever made it to high school – from then on, it’s was “Drugs, Sex & Rock-n-Roll,” for this kid - baby!

A friend and I were caught smoking “grass” in the PE-locker room the 3rd week of the 9th grade; we were suspended for the rest of that semester.  I never went back to high school; remember, I was so looking forward to it.  I was having too much fun reading while renting surf boards on the beach – great job for a boy feigning to be at school.  I have always LOVED reading & reading & reading & reading some more on my own – it wasn’t “textbooks” I was reading mind you, but I was reading while, "I really should be back at school."  I realized sometime later that a loving Universe had to spare me “High School Indoctrination” to educate me in ways that promote and empower HEALTH & HEALING.  I started at Phoenix College in 1977, just as I would have done, had I gone to high school.  I graduated 3 years later with distinction honors.  I like to think that I got four years of high school and 2 years of college all in three years.  At one time, I worked three part time jobs while attending college full time.  I love to joke whenever I make a mistake with money, “you’d never know that I had a year of calculus – would ya, my calculus skills have kind-of gone the way of my hair – ‘ha-ha-ha’ - but I’m keeping my sense of humor; I have a CHOICE about that,” remember, this word - CHOICE - "A Gift of Health!!!!" is simply CHOOSING to CREATE HEALTH????!!!!

Fast-forward to June 1994: My whole life revolved around alcohol because I had been tending bar for over 15 years by this time.  I made good money tending bar and I drank every single day.  I even bragged about it, telling people, “I have not gone even one single day without drinking for xxx-many years.  A girlfriend's father dubbed me, "The Gravy Davy;" He said, "man, you really like to pour it on!"  I refused to believe I was an alcoholic because I always made it to work on time and I managed to stay clear of some of the more serious trouble my drinking buddies got into.  I deceived mostly myself; TRUTH is, I was a “functional alcoholic” of the most “self-deceived-kind”????  Today, I AM 20+ years a "sober alcoholic" who still attends AA meetings.

One routine, miserably hot summer day - destiny befell me; I went to work thinking it was just another day, not a clue that my life was about to be profoundly transformed whether I wanted it to, or was ready for it to, or not.  I was the “manager” at “Van Winkle’s Steakhouse & Country/Western Night Club” with two full bars and live-bands on weekends; I was a crucial-cog in the 24/7 drunk, drugged and sex-crazed “Van Winkle’s Nightclub Shit-Show.”  When a cook or waiter or bartender was a “no-show” for the day – I got the job, so I was tending bar this night when, the cook, Kirk, lost his temper and started busting up the kitchen; he had taken 5-gallon buckets of salt, sugar and flower and had thrown them all over the place.  I told him, “You have two choices; get the hell out of here before I call the cops or clean up your mess.”  He started to clean up the mess – and then started busting things up again – I told him, “The cops are now on the way and you better get out of here, while you still can – otherwise, you’re going to jail.”  He took the broom and with a “full-roundhouse-swing” whapped me on the left side of my face.  I tackled him; I had him held tight and shouted at him, “Now, KIRK, I can hold you till the cops get here; if I let you up – you better run and run fast cause otherwise you are going to jail.”  He promised me he would, and he did leave without further incident and I told the cops that because he had done as I had asked, I did not want him arrested.  Looking back, I’m actually impressed with myself that my instinct was just to hold him when I could have easily “kicked the shit out of him”????  With my face and eye only beginning to swell, I got to finish the night as not only manager & bartender, but COOK too – lucky me, huh????  You see how deeply involved I was in this most unhealthy "lifestyle"????  I was one who could do it all in that business then, and now I AM one who can do it ALL in the fields of what is known by many people as “Alternative Health”!!!!  Perhaps one day, “HEALTH” will once again be what it should be and that is, simply “AGAPE LOVE”????!!!!  "Healing is freedom at last, loving, laughing, forgiving and letting go the past!!!!"

Anyway, this seeming tragedy turned out to be a real “blessing in disguise” for me; it served as an omen that it was nigh to make some long desired changes in my life. The whole left side of my head was swollen, black and blue, and hurting like hell; and, Van wanted me to work the next day.  I said to him, “Do you really want me serving your customers looking like this?”  I just told him, “I’m taking a week off!”  

I made two decisions - big CHOICES were made that week:  #1) I was no longer going to tend bar or even work in restaurants any longer.  I did not return to work at Van’s; I have only been slightly tempted to return to the “bar-business.”  #2) I was going to stop smoking no matter what.  I started smoking shortly after that first beer and for many years, I puffed out more smoke than most chimneys, smoking 3-packs a day.  Today, I believe that a “LOVING GOD” had too – even though, and because HE had tried gentler methods many times, HE was forced to “GET LOUD” and so HE DID - HE “whapped me - smacked me good - wham - right upside-the-head with a broom to sweep the shit out and knock some sense into me”????  Pain can be GOD's megaphone.  “When the student is ready – the Universe provides the teacher!" & “When the Universe is ready – a student becomes the teacher!”

At that time, I was smoking three packs of cigarettes & drinking at least a pot of coffee every day; I was eating bacon & eggs for breakfast, pizza & burgers for lunch, steak or porkchops for dinner, more pizza & salty crunchies for snacks and washing it all down with beer and vodka.  Oh, need I mention, my overall health was poor and deteriorating rapidly????  My pain had become greater than my fear of change and it just so happens that “the hardest CHOICE I have ever made - turned out to be the best thing I have ever done.” 

All that to get to this: Even in the awful “beat-up basket-case condition” I was in, The Optimum Health Institute of San Diego graciously allowed me to check-in on July 17, 1994????  I have never smoked another cigarette and today at 65 – I enjoy a "Quality of Health that heretofore, I never thought possible."  I AM having the time of my life while achieving “The Best of Everything”!!!!  

'Tis powerfully paramount – NOW!!!! – YOU CAN TOO!!!!

'Twas Adam who did eat, as Eve had done and still you must ask, "WHAT really rules????The very same "energy" that moves the sea is the "energy" in me - it is never ending and ever increasing!!!!

This story is just beginning; the saga is ever ongoing and never ending, thus this site is always "under construction" as the story continues and updates are required…so “ya-all” be sure and come back now, ya hear "for the rest of the story" and real soon too, please????!!!!  Galaxies of Gracious Green Gratitude for perusing our WORK!!!!