Hope for our Families: New Families Anonymous Meeting in Ypsilanti Michigan

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Hope for our Families is a small community and family improvement initiative founded by Peter and Rebecca Thomason. Through it we hope to share some of the things we have learned - usually through trial and error - about keeping our sanity while raising a large family (ten children, 18 grandchildren so far) ! We have lived and worked in the Ypsilanti, Michigan area for over three decades while being involved in numerous community-building activities.

Please visit our other blogsites by clicking here or on our favorite links for more specific information and pictures. The Thomason Family Farm (an urban micro eco-farm) can be seen at http://thomasonfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/
More information about Rebecca's Lionhead rabbits can be seen at http://sunnybrookfarmrabbitry.blogspot.com/
Peter's writing on other topics can be seen at http://notmyplans.blogspot.com

HOPE FOR OUR FAMILIES initially began in the winter of 2005 as a benefit concert to raise money for the 12-step program, The Family Foundation School, that one of our daughters was attending at the time. It then developed into a way to help raise community awareness about substance abuse, especially among adolescents, and recovery programs.

The concert was enormously successful on many levels thanks to the contributions and talents of many friends. We raised over $6,000 for The Family School and designated another 10% of the proceeds to help Daybreak, a program for adolescents jointly operated by Dawn Farm and the Washtenaw County Probate Court. Many of those who attended told us how refreshing it was to hear open discussion of our struggles and to see that it was possible for a family to work together to overcome a disease that has destroyed so many.

As we thought and talked during the weeks following the concert, we came to realize that there are many things that have helped us to become healthier as individuals and as a family over the last thirty years. Through this site we would like to share them with you.

Please feel free to share those things you have found to be helpful in your family life; we would love to hear from you!

With blessings for a great 2010 and HOPE FOR OUR FAMILIES,

Peter and Rebecca Thomason

P.S. If you leave a post or a comment, please tell us how you found our site.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

New Families Anonymous Meeting in Ypsilanti Michigan

We are excited to announce that a new Families Anonymous group is meeting Thursday nights from 7 - 8 PM at Holy Trinity Catholic Student Parish at Eastern Michigan University. Follow the link to the FA website meeting locator for more information. http://www.familiesanonymous.org/

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Eating Better to be Healthier

By Rebecca Thomason RN

Current public health projections of the incidence of diabetes in children over the next decade are that a shocking 50% of children will suffer from this avoidable disease! Increasingly, serious nutritionists are saying that the cause of this epidemic as well as America’s battle with obesity is not too much fat but too many foods that are high on the glycemic index. In other words, they contain too much sugar or convert to sugar very quickly.

This is true of those foods which, are staples of many of our children’s diets including: white potatoes, white rice, white sugar, and white flour. My own personal experience with these foods is that for the most part they are worthless. I call them "the worthless whites."
The problem with foods high on the glycemic index is that they are not only high in sugar or convert to sugar quickly but that they create a craving for more of the same. The body, overloaded with too much sugar converts it to fat and stores it in obvious places! The not-so-obvious effects of sugar on health can range from emotional instability to serious depression and drug or alcohol abuse.

Another effect of too much sugar in the diet is that it disrupts the normal balance of intestinal health, which is so important for maintaining the body’s homeostasis. The "worthless whites" feed yeasts that naturally occur in the body allowing them to grow out of control and overwhelm naturally occurring and equally important "good" bacteria. Some estimates state that one in three Americans suffer from yeast overgrowth and that many kinds of ill health can be traced to this lack of homeostasis.

Some of my current recommendations for healthier eating are:
Enjoy eating real butter (preferably organic, hormone and antibiotic free) and stay away from all hydrogenated foods especially margarine. The processes used for making them creates trans-fatty acids that keep circulating through your bloodstream looking for something to bind to. The presence of these "free radicals" has been linked increasingly to a whole host of health problems including certain cancers.
Stop eating fast (and fatty) food NOW and JUST SAY NO to the "worthless / wicked whites."!
Eat organic foods whenever possible and try to use meat more as a condiment than as the main dish. Better yet learn to grow your own. More next time on easy backyard gardening according to the "square foot" method.
Though it costs a little more we get sourdough bread from Riverside Bakery at our Ypsilanti Food Co-op. See this article about the co-op that was featured on the 2007 Eat Well Sustainable Table Tour of America http://www.sustainabletable.org/roadtrip/blog.php?id=107&bid=115 .
Read the book "Fast Food Nation" to get a better understanding of how serious this food thing really is and visit the new website of "The Healing Foods Pyramid," developed by two researchers at the University of Michigan www.med.umich.edu/umim/clinical/pyramid/
"Nourishing Traditions," and "The Complete Candida Yeast Guidebook," are two excellent resources for helping to understand the importance of eating well for good health. They both contain excellent recipes that can help you make the transition to a new way of thinking and eating. Remember, what you eat really does matter and you really are what you eat. We have found that learning more about food can be challenging but it can also be a lot of fun and it will still taste good.

An inexpensive source for these books (and books in general) is Barnes and Noble Books Online. Once you are at the site, go to the tab for USED & OUT OF PRINT and get a cheap copy. The shipping is usually $3.50 to $3.99 so just pick the price that you are willing to pay for one in "Good Condition" and you will generally get a great deal on something that you might otherwise have had to pay $25 or more for. See: www.barnesandnoble.com/

The Twelve-Step Path

Families Anonymous
These 12-step meetings for families of struggling teens were started in the 1980s and have proven to be an invaluable resource for thousands of us. Modeled on the 12-steps of AA and the Tough Love philosophy, FA members focus on learning to make better/healthier choices for themselves first. In so doing, they discover that they are much better equipped to help their children.

Our FA group meets on Wednesday nights from 7:00 – 8:00 PM at St. John Newman Church in Canton and is always open to new members. For more information on FA see: www.familiesanonymous.org/

Adult Children of Alcoholics
Written by Wayne Kritsberg and originally published in 1985, "Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome," is strikingly current. This book provides very solid and practical help for anyone who has ever wondered why they are the way they are and how they can change for the better.

Using his many years of experience working with adult alcoholics as a basis for his approach, Kritsberg focuses on helping families sort out how behaviors and patterns of abuse, violence, and sickness are passed on from one generation to the next. The best thing about the book is that it is ultimately directed at learning from the past to change the present so that the future will be better.

Apostolic Farming - A Vision of the Whole

Apostolic Farming: Healing the Earth by Catherine Doherty 96 pages — 4.25" x 7" — Trade Paperback
2nd ed., Madonna House Publications, 2001
ISBN 0-921440-03-0 — $4.95 U.S. (for more information or to order, click on the book title.)
[Note: Taken from the section of the Madonna House Apostolate website about Apostolic Farming and Saint Benedict’s Acres.]

The earth is weeping... how can we heal it? The heavy treads of our modern machinery pound the earth into submission — our society has become expert at efficiently taking from the earth, but what do we give the earth in return? Is this the proper stewardship of the earth that God has entrusted us with? Concerns are growing about genetically engineered "superfood" and pesticide use. Animals are being cloned for use as organ donors, and human cloning may be just around the corner.

The panic over "Mad Cow Disease" is a chilling example of the real price, which we may all pay for cows being fed cheaply instead of nutritiously. In this remarkably prophetic work, Catherine Doherty helps shed some light on these important issues, with practical, down-to-earth guidance for farmers everywhere—whether you are a backyard gardener or industry professional.

Drawing on experience of her father's extensive farm in twentieth century Russia, Catherine Doherty pleads for integrity in making the earth fecund with healthy foods.
Written from the perspective of a small farm named "St. Benedict’s Acres" developed by and for Madonna House (the community founded by the author), this book urges farmers to integrate Christianity into their farming, into the care of their portion of the Lord's vineyard.

The following quote is from a group that visited St. Ben’s.
"Last fall, we took a scenic drive to Madonna House to meet the people at St. Benedict's Acres... We were warmly greeted, and invited to have a big lunch. After lunch there was a short spiritual reading and then the men dispersed back to work in the field... We were touched by a deep peace of God's love with this community. We were impressed how this community village is also quite self-sufficient. The tour was very enjoyable... the warmth shared from the people was very easy to sense and the cross on the peak of the hill gave me a peaceful feeling of how we can work the land in harmony." — Ruth Freeman, The Draft Horse Connection

About the Author
Catherine Doherty has used her heritage as a Russian Christian as a matrix for responding to the needs of Christian life and work in the modern world. Her own personal pilgrimage led her to be "poor with the poor Christ" in the slums of Toronto and in Harlem; and later to the establishing of the world-wide Madonna House Apostolate.

A dedicated wife and mother, Catherine was also a prolific writer of hundreds of articles, a best-selling author of dozens of books, a renowned national speaker, and a pioneer of social justice. Catherine Doherty's cause for canonization as a saint is now under consideration by the Catholic Church.
For more about Madonna House and Catherine Doherty see: http://www.madonnahouse.org/publications/doherty/af.htm

What Do We Mean by Good and Evil?

July 2007
In the last four years I have lost my mother and brother to the disease of alcoholism. Last week, thieves tried to break into my home. In the last two weeks my neighbors have been robbed of four lawnmowers, a tank of gas, a bicycle, and one was subjected to rocket attacks at the hospital where she is caring for burn victims in Baghdad. I also found out that our soon-to-be-born grandchild is a boy, and does not have Downs Syndrome. We celebrated birthdays and a child moving back home. These were just a few of many good and bad events, a microcosm of everyday life in the world.

When I assess these happenings so that I can decide how to respond, some things are black or white, good or bad, but many questions of good and evil are not simple to answer. We all know how convoluted the logic can become. Horrific things are done for purportedly good reasons and, on occasion, bad people have done good things. The patriot, Nathanael Greene, turned the tide of the Revolution in America’s favor, by mercilessly killing loyalists who had laid down their arms. In the well known bible story, "Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho, and the walls came a tumblin’ down," along with infants, children, and women. The only person intentionally saved was a prostitute who did good by giving the Jewish invaders quarter and ground intelligence.

The question I struggle with is how to find a bottom line. Is there a universal definition of good and evil? Is there a one size fits all, way of talking about what is good for us and bad for us in a way that we can collectively understand and agree with? Since we don’t all agree on many religious or moral questions, are there examples in the natural order that we can look to, truths that are self-evident, like humankind’s natural longing to be free or our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Do they bear a kind of Goodness genome that simply has to be discovered or unraveled? To some degree the answer is "Yes," but in the final analysis - I think not. And this is why: in spite of all of the good things that we share a common appreciation for - a baby’s smile, a warm bath, a beautiful day, good health, good food, a safe home, a faithful friend – the forces which shape us all also make us different. This is as true for individuals and families as it is for micro and macro cultures. While many of our differences are to be appreciated and cherished there is the harsh reality that we have all seen or experienced where they create conflict, hostility, and violence. In the sociology of history, these factors are described as geography, economics, genetics, and ideas (this includes philosophies, religions, and ideologies). Additionally, language and technology play increasingly significant roles. Depending on how we respond, these forces literally make us who and what we are. One problem with trying to find a common understanding of good and evil is that the concepts themselves continue to change within the matrices that have formed us. Not only are there diverse views of good and evil inter-culturally but intra-culturally as well.

But what if, in a sense, all of the natural order, the state we are in, is "evil?" This is a hard idea to swallow because we know that there is good in the world and because the English word "evil" has such a negative meaning. We use it to describe a reality or an action or a state of mind that falls short of something better. We use it to mean the opposite of good or God. Some religions explain the state we’re in as a "fallen" condition, believing that a good creator could not possibly have made us the way we are. But, what if we are this way naturally? We don’t condemn other inhabitants of the natural world for killing and eating each other or for fighting over territory, we just say that that’s the way they are: dinosaurs will be dinosaurs, lions will be lions, bears will be bears. Perhaps, I say, humans will be humans - unless something changes. What if we experience an innate sense of frustration and longing for Something Better not because we, as a race, lost our innocence but because we are still in the process of becoming good? Despite our collective and individual negative experiences, most of us still have a sort of built-in hope operating in us. And, I think it’s not just a belief that things can get better in a vague sort of way but rather, an inkling or a glimmer of Something Better which, transcends all of our differences. According to this way of thinking, we keep falling short because we keep trying to change our nature instead of acknowledging what it is. Maybe we can only experience the good fully if, knowing who and what we are, we acquire a new nature that transcends the natural forces that have made us who we are? What if the Transcendent Good is another force entirely that has the power to do in and with us what we cannot do by ourselves? Eastern Christian tradition calls this process "divinization" or "glorification," a belief based on the bible verse 2 Peter 1:4 which says, "…through the divine promises you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world, caused by evil desires."

Participating in Al-Anon because of my family struggles has helped me to learn that I cannot change others. It has also helped me to find courage to work on my own shortcomings. Most importantly, wisdom helps me to know the difference between the two challenges. By staying in touch with God through prayer I’m learning to sort through my good and bad experiences so that I can respond in a positive and constructive way. The bottom line I have found is the realization that, on our own, the good we aspire to is impossible to attain fully, but with God’s help - all things are possible, even to be great.

Peter Thomason is a philosopher-carpenter who raises chickens and produce on his Ypsilanti city micro-farm. This article is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, "Not My Plans," a collection of essays, stories, and poems.

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

New Families Anonymous Meeting in Ypsilanti Michigan

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What Do We Mean by Good and Evil?