| I
took a long road getting there. Twenty years earlier, hearing it said, "You
are what you eat,"
I began to contemplate that. I had grown up on a
cattle ranch, eating beef and all kinds of wild game --animal flesh 3 times a
day, and lots of it! My body had inevitably sought to balance this with the only
things available: fruits and sugary desserts and soda pop. In
addition to cattle, my family raised wheat; but I did not eat a whole grain of
any kind until I was through college and began to think for myself. I can remember
standing in a wheat field as a teenager, with my grandfather and father. They
were checking the ripeness of the wheat. Each of us took a head of wheat and squeezed
out a couple berries and tested them between our teeth -- and yet, in all those
years on the ranch, the idea of cooking a pot of whole grains and eating them
never occurred to me! (This was America in the 1950s and '60s.) Through
with college, free at last of the educational system, I began thinking for myself
-- at least somewhat -- and changing my diet. Eating very little animal flesh
(primarily because I didn't have the money to but it; what a blessing!). Eating
mostly brown rice and veggies -- though still considerable amounts of eggs and
cheese, and plenty of sugar and carbonated drinks. (It was also at this time that
I learned to drink alcohol.) I
was also introduced to the world of metaphysics then: the Seth books, Paul Brunton,
Paramahansa Yogananda, Carlos Castaneda. I started meditating. My diet continued
to change. I woke up one morning after a night of drinking, and the first words
out of my mouth were, "Why are you doing this to yourself?" There
was no good answer -- and that was the end of my alcohol consumption. For
years I was on a course of simply eliminating things from my diet: animal flesh,
dairy products, caffeine, white flour. After great and long effort, I freed myself
from the sugar addiction -- or so I thought. I was sugarless for several years,
living alone; but when I returned to a sugary environment, I discovered I was
still addicted. (It's only recently that the addiction seems to be truly gone;
now, when my housemates offer me banana bread or cookies or chocolate, these things
are not even tempting.) See,
I told you it was a long road! I'm approaching the answer to your question, though.
In 1994 I returned to the U.S. from awhile in Mexico. I had been living very minimally
there, with no cooking facilities; eating great amounts of fruit, no whole grains,
and everything uncooked except tortillas and frijoles (I was able to buy them
already cooked). I returned
to America not in good health. I knew I needed a change of diet, but didn't know
what to do. I was collapsing physically and emotionally, and was immensely grateful
to be given refuge at my mother's house. It would soon become apparent to me that
my condition was simply one of being outrageously yin: so yin, from all the raw
foods I'd been eating, I was literally dis-integrating! It
became apparent because this was when Macrobiotics entered my life. Only days
after my arrival at my mother's, she was given a copy of the book "Recalled
By Life" (Anthony Sattilaro), by a friend who urged her to read it. She
read it and offered it to me. I glanced at it, and it didn't appeal to me. Then
her friend urged me to read it; he was very enthusiastic about it. I still declined.
Finally, after his urging me three separate times, I still had no interest in
the book -- but it occurred to me that possibly Macrobiotics could teach me what
to do with my diet. I had
heard of Macrobiotics only a few years before, and gotten the impression that
it was a diet of almost nothing but rice. With this total misunderstanding, I
had dismissed it as kooky and possibly dangerous; and now I had no interest in
reading the book by Sattilaro-- but I went to the library and got a copy of Kushi's
"The Book of Macrobiotics". Twenty pages into it, Icouldn't put it down!
It turned my entire (mis)understanding of the world on its head! As I read the
rest of it, I kept saying to myself, "Why didn't someone teach me this when
I was five years old?!!" As
it turned out, I was then the one trying to get my mother and her friend to pursue
Macrobiotics....and neither of them did. I'm certainly grateful for the part they
both played in bringing it to me! | 
