I have come to appreciate the stars, the planets, and the phases of the moon. They affect our fate in ways we cannot fathom.

Back in my Creighton days, my friend Cat, a lovely woman I have known since early, early childhood and a woman who now is a brilliant folk musician (www.catkinsey.com) sent me an interesting day-to-day date book called "We'moon"....it features all sorts of poetry and art by women as well as daily reports on the phases of the moon. To be quite honest, I didn't look at the calendar much that year, but then when I was trying to choose a month-by-month wall calendar, I spotted We'moon on the Wall 2004.

You may be curious to know how significant July 31st was in our lives. It falls between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. It is called Lammas. According to the calendar:

"Lammas is the cross-quarter day initiating the harvest season. Paradoxically a time of both riches and risks, we celebrate those efforts that have been fruitful and carefully tend those yet to bear. We revel in our luck while the moment is lucky, knowing nothing is certain."

The next paragraph talks about how to celebrate it, a very earthy hippie pagan ritual in which I cannot say I participated. I did something else instead. I didn't "choose" to do it. In a way, it chose me. It moved me.

This past weekend was an extremely monumental time of my life. I cannot go into details about what has happened, but doors opened that were closed for a very long time. Words were exchanged that were almost two years overdue. In turn, however, I have made someone important in my life extremely upset because I "rode the moment," by doing what I still believe in my heart was the right thing to do and the right time to do it. I hope someday this person will understand. And I hope my stuff isn't thrown out on this person's front lawn for the possums to eat.

When you go through something like this that turns the world inside you upside down, it's a little difficult to sleep. I will tell you the magic sleep formula I used to lull me into nine hours of peace:

Two benadryl, two valerian, and two calcium citrate. I was about to add on the melatonin, but what do ya know? I fell asleep just fine without it.

And as for the diet, when I get stressed out, I'm not an emotional eater, I'm actually an emotional faster which I think is probably worse for a Type A who is supposed to get six small meals in a day, but it happens. All I "ate" yesterday was a big tall glass of iced green tea (unsweetened of course) and a small bottle of Green Goodness." And before bed, an egg. My gut was so disturbed by lack of sleep that I don't think I could take more than that. Today is a better day. I ate more because I slept more.

To all who have left comments in my guest book: I am not intentionally ignoring you. It's just that for many months, my Outlook Express was down so I couldn't just click on the link to your email address and respond promptly. That, and if you haven't noticed already, I'm kind of a long-winded writer. It's difficult for me to give a one line answer to your questions when there is a mad scientist brewing with all sorts of routes and detours in my head. However, once I get through the personal stuff in my life, I'd like to be a little more dedicated to my readers questions and concerns and offer more encouragement. The Blood Type Diet has brought so much health and inspiration into my life and I do want to give back. I send a lot of my patients to the website. One of the managers at my store had a baby and I actually lent my Eat Right for your Baby to his wife (even though I don't have any babies I still bought the book last year because I was fascinated!). She really digs it. I got to meet the baby today! What a cute baby!

That's all for now. Wish me luck in some extremely crucial interpersonal damage control.