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I just noticed that I have been away for over a year. Not good. I'll try to do better.

However, I just finished reading Michael J. Fox's book "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future" , in which he said that your life can be going along smoothly and you hit a patch of ice on the road, spin off, and everything changes. That is a description of my last year and a half, and I wanted to reflect on it.

A year and a half ago, I was blissfully conducting workshops and giving lectures to awaken American's to their wild food heritage and growing Dandy Blend (the business) very successfully.

Having reached the age of 70, I was struggling with a lot of arthritis in the knees, and doing some water therapy. All of a sudden my left hip went out, and my left leg went numb. As months went by, I graduated from one walker to a more sophisticated one, had to give up therapy because I could no longer get there, and was told by my ostepath that it was just the hip going out-- I'd have to replace it. Going up and down stairs was next to impossible, so we arranged to build a one level house near our children who were working the Dandy Blend business with us, and moved. (that is making a long story really, really short).

In July 2010, my wife retired. We went on Medicare and supplements, and I changed doctors. I had an MRI; it showed a textbook example of spinal stenosis. So I scheduled a lamenectomy and spinal fusion for L 3, 4 and 5 for December.

We moved in November, they operated in December. It is now January and I am back home from 4 weeks of undergoing therapy in a nursing home, and am progressing nicely, hopefully to a time when I can go back to doing lectures and workshops. Meanwhile, the kids are running the Dandy Blend business, and have taken over the tasks that kept me from what I most enjoy doing. So when I AM well enough, I won't be tied down and can get back on the road with the motor home and travel.

One thing the last few years has demonstrated to me has been an example of Fox's reflection that the limitations that come upon us are really a gift, not an impediment. When we first are restricted, we fight it, not wanting to admit that we can't do what we always have done. However, when it is clear we will no longer be able to live life according to the old status quo,and resign ourselves to it, we ask "what are we left with-- what capabilities do we still have", and find that we still have our voices, and can still teach. I realized that the time has now come to teach others in our family and others interested in doing what I do HOW I do it. We become mentors, passing down what we've learned to those on their way up.

And so that is the way it is. The family is now ready to take over the family business, and I am very proud of them.

We have a new website at www.dandyblend.com , and I will have a blog in there where I can share Dandy Blend things with you. This blog will stay open to share insights I get on life that I might want to incorporate into articles or books sometime in the future. Be well.