Adytum Sanctuary

Adytum Sanctuary

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Destination: Major Fun at the Packwood Flea Market! By Katherine A. Carroll, NTP, Associate Editor, Health Freedom News

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Okay. I admit it…Adytum Sanctuary www.adytumsanctuary.com  has been up and running 6 ½ years now and I’ve never been to the infamous Packwood Flea Market http://packwoodfleamarkets.com/events.aspin the great Pacific Northwest held every Memorial and Labor Day weekend. Plenty of our guests have been and we’ve always been busy working. 

Off We Go!

We had a couple celebrating their 5th anniversary in the Star of the North https://adytumsanctuary.com//readmorestar.html
and 3 fun-loving women in the Orion Suite https://adytumsanctuary.com//readmoreorion.htmlwho were attending Mark Bolender’s horse event which entailed going through a challenging obstacle course. http://www.bolenderhorsepark.com/ Despite  Adytum Sanctuary  being booked,  we pursued our own fun and found out some of our guests had beat us there! 
People come from all over the States to experience this particular flea market. Massachusetts, West Texas, Eastern Washington… they were there, hundreds of them, so many that the internet and phone services were overwhelmed and shut down.  We drove 40 minutes in steady rain, past the logging town of Morton http://www.visitmorton.com/where our optometry clinic, Medical Vision Center www.medicalvisioncenter.com  is located.
Medical Vision Center and Nutritional Visions Natural Health Center in Morton, Washington

You have to realize, Packwood is the end of the line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packwood,_Washington 
If you want to be buried the country, move to Packwood. I have a friend, an ex-General in the army who spoke daily with a past President. He resides in Packwood bordering Gifford Pinchot forest land on a compound that is impregnable. So this tells us something about the kinds of people who locate here… On one end of the spectrum, think rugged individualist with a high-powered gun and you have capsulized Packwood in a nutshell and on the other end of the same spectrum, those live there who crave deep peace and an escape from the World. For many, Packwood is a second vacation home site.  
 

Into the heart of the Ancients….

Passing Packwood you can catch the Grove of the Patriarchs, a must-see as you sense your frail humanity being dwarfed by these Ancients. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g143044-d145868-Reviews-Grove_of_the_Patriarchs-Mount_Rainier_National_Park_Washington.html  As you head left at the Y in the road and run into  Ohanapecosh http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/ohanapecosh.htm  where we followed a herd of elk and a lone bear last Spring, past neglected hot springs and an old resort from the 1920s where people came to take the waters.
Heading farther on the right of the Y you encounter White Pass Ski Resort http://www.skiwhitepass.com/ in 30 minutes. Here I learned to cross country ski, foregoing skiing in their million dollar chairlift and lodge expansion at the top of the mountain. Yakima http://visityakima.com/ is about an hour and a half still and has wineries you’ve surely read about along with Walla Walla http://www.wallawalla.org/ farther still up the highway. But back to Packwood for some fun!
 

Something Old….

There are new things for sale and old things for sale at the Packwood Flea Market with every walk of life coalesced to buy them and nearly everyone with something to eat in their hand -simply hundreds of people invading Packwood, the colorful little town at the foot of the mountains. It’s a beautiful day here at least unlike ‘winter hanging on’ which we drove through . 
Quintessential Late Spring Day in Packwood, Washington
The pure white clouds are big and puffy matching fresh snow topping the mountains. The air is about 65 degrees. The hills are verdant with new spring growth. It is truly the quintessential late Spring day as I step into the Child-zone.
“I spent the first half of life learning to become a man. I will spend the second half learning to become a child.” Picasso.
It could have been a dog parade instead of a flea market that we’ve come to see with every variety of mut and purebred represented, leashed and getting along perfectly!

We Fell In Love With the Great Dane

We stopped by Betty’s art gallery and checked out her fresh inventory then dipped into several  antique stores which immediately met our noses with the musty smell of ancient possessions and long-since forgotten tools and ways of being. Later, we climbed the steps to the historic Packwood motel; tiny, quaint and with an amazing bear skin on the wall which took us back to the early 1900’s.

 

Let the Fantasy Begin!

I’ve always loved this town because it has character and a distinct flavor all its own.  Packwood takes you away from the City and all of your cares, into the present moment life of a Child, to be sure, and the mountains of rough black stone which line the highway, the giant Fir, the lush meadows, and wide open sky which rival anything Montana boasts is seriously breathtaking. No wonder we always see hundreds of elk here http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=48249.0
Packwood is found after passing ‘Big Bottom’ country along the way, so named because the Cowlitz River,  which we view from Adytum Sanctuary as frigid emerald green water, accelerates its initial flow through a lush, flat valley full of horses and cattle.

Through the Rain…Lush Meadows of Big Bottom Country

Yes, too, there is a correlation among some of the inhabitants, I confess, to this unfortunate ‘big bottom’ name and the ‘party’ food at the Flea Market didn’t help things.

Party Food!

We crawl through town bumper to bumper 5 miles an hour. While we’ve seen vast herds of elk in the past, now we see a carnival atmosphere and they have escaped to the high country. $5 for parking and we’re walking under an unexpectedly blue sky with Cottonwood tree fluff blowing like snow on a late Spring breeze. The air is scented with my favorite Caramel corn sweetness which seems to typify fairs and carnivals.

 I’m continually struck by the amount of dogs of all sizes on leashes in various tutus and polka dotted sweaters as I am seeming miles of stands and concessions in this sleepy little forest gem.

Doggie Fashion Extravaganza in Packwood, Washington

God was smiling on Packwood today because the coat I brought was left in Donn’s Raptor and we walked in sunshine and 65 degrees. When we left a few hours later, following a solid caravan of cars and motorcycles down the road west to eat dinner at Plaza Jalisco for our favorite Spanish omelette with rancho beans http://www.eastlewiscountychamber.com/PlazaJalisco.htm , the rain was still pouring earnestly…

Heading Back to Adytum Sanctuary in Showers

we were in a magical pocket of sun and fun- and it was! Donn said, “I love the way you always get so excited…” as I took picture after picture and spoke my impressions for later writing into the Evernote on the iPhone.

Packwood’s transformation into a fantasy of fun was marked with the painted faces of starry-eyed children, wispy cotton candy, snow cones with bright blue syrup, corn dogs, elephant ears, fried apple slices on a skewer dripping with a sugary syrup, beer gardens, Cowboy BBQs, pulled pork, and every imaginable variation- even Thai food at the base of a Pacific Northwest Mountain.

Guess He Doesn’t Have Kids…We Were The Recruits in the 60’s

We passed an ice cream stand with a John Deere motor powering two large “hand-cranked” homemade ice cream machines. We walked forever before we found ONE single healthy option…savory nuts. (Note: there is a wide-open market for healthy foods at these things…where are the entrepreneurs who will create some healthy options in a carnival setting? Find a need and fill it….the secret to success!!! How about coconut water, iced green tea, kombucha, coconut ice cream made with stevia, RAW savory nuts, dehydrated kale chips, dried fruit from Yakima, wine from Walla Walla, and raw chocolate (Donn’s original creation- and to die for- is at the end of this blog…)

Donn Speaking with Ed English and Grandsons, Wife Sue in the Background

The creativity at this market was truly amazing. Some of our favorites were Ed English’s bonsai and a company in Yakima making wine barrel chairs, wine racks, and dog beds. There was a chair made with old skis and so much more you will see in the slideshow. https://picasaweb.google.com/katacarroll/PackwoodFleaMarket

The sweet scent of kettle corn, BBQ, hot dogs and fries mix with wood smoke, Fir, and fresh mountain air reminding me of every fair and camping trip I ever went on as a child. Every dog that has ever been left at home is here today and dogs for sale too.  Dogs with purple and rose colored pom poms and dogs in polka dotted sweaters; dogs who were dog- tired and sleeping on the sidewalk with their tongues hanging out

Dog Tired, To Be Sure…

and large puppies who were clearly in need of a nap. Dogs so big a child might mistake them for the Christmas pony. And strangely, no dog poop! I dodged spit in Beijing and in Packwood, there was some restraint among our animal friends in effect evidently.

I haven’t been inside anything like this in ages…a little like walking through the distortion fun-houses at the annual County Fair. To see a carnival in the pristine wilderness was disconcerting but somehow magically fun at the same time, enough to make me want to go again in September….
Remember These?

The flea market is a contrast between reminisces from childhood: old games  you played like Chinese Checkers, hardcover detective books secretly read in bed after lights out,  cherry tobacco in a pipe stand like the one Grandfather had near his favorite chair juxtaposed between possibilities of the future like meeting a Great Dane and learning what a wonderful family dog they are and falling in love…

Oh Baby!

unexpectedly opening your heart up to possibly having one and a greenhouse too…all more work, yes I know…but kind of irresistible at the same time in this enchanted setting.

We talked to Wayne,  in his 60’s, about buying a greenhouse http://www.solargemgreenhouses.com/ and got an unexpected lesson in medical marijuana laws and  growers in Oregon who buy from him keeping their operations top secret not letting the greenhouse delivery trucks go up the road all the way to their clandestine sites. He told a sweetly corny joke as we said goodbye…What I thought was all about the past, going to this flea market, turned out to be about the future too because we’ve been talking about having a greenhouse at Adytum for years and will accept delivery shortly on ours. Year-round kale (and kale chips) now…
Adytum Sanctuary Garden Will Have The Biggest One In Hopes Of Increased Self-Sufficiency

Donn was looking for one vendor’s site in particular…a friend of his who does bonsai, Ed English https://www.facebook.com/ed.english1. We walked down every alley way- and there were many as this market which goes on and on and on…and finally at the end of one side of the very long street we found  him! His was the best site by far, even though we had passed antique horse-drawn buggies, ancient tractor toys for kids to ride on, an accordion, a unicycle, crossbows, Samurai swords, and knives, and so much more outrageous and interesting stuff.
2013 Raptor vs. Buggy- Take Your Pick

Ed had been to China in the 60’s and told a story of dating a woman when he was 17. She wore a traditional kimono. During their walk into town on their first date, she said in polite Chinese, “Excuse me…” and stepped off a few paces, hiked up her kimono, and peed on the side of the road to his astonishment. Wish I’d have thought to ask how that date ended… I was sharing with Ed and his wife, Sue, about my recent trip to attend Codex Alimentarius’ meeting on food additives in Beijing, China and seeing glamorous, exquisitely beautiful women raising their white surgical masks to spit on the sidewalk (which I spent much of my time dodging…) Things are different here in America but admittedly I didn’t see the obesity in China either so take your pick of things you’d like to dodge.
The Dragon King with the World In His Grasp…

I had passed all the food stands and all the vendor stalls with my wallet intact but succumbed to Ed’s red soapstone Foo Dogs, Chinese Dragon, and a gong; estate items left when a Chinese national’s parents died. I will treasure them as I treasure learning to love Beijing despite its roughness.

I Loved Watching This Little Emperor Getting Photographed at the Silk Market In China, 2013 

China carved a big place in my heart to be sure and I anticipate going back in March for the next Codex  meeting where Scott Tips, President of the National Health Federation, myself, and the rest of the NHF team will protect your health and health freedoms. Scott Tips, also FDA specialist attorney, spoke no fewer than a half a dozen times to reduce aluminum in our food and beverage supplies by 50% and completely eliminate it in others. (Aluminum is in sauces, hot cocoa, biscuits, pancake, bread, and muffin mixes, frozen pizza, etc. http://www.thenhf.com/article.php?id=3649

NHF President Scott Tips Speaks for YOU at Codex Alimentarius Where Standards Are Set For What YOU Eat and Drink

 Note to past guests: if you see large blocks of time removed from availability from Adytum’s booking calendar, please call me at 360.790.2011 (cell) and most likely you can still enjoy Adytum in my absence; Donn will be there to let you in!
300 Year Old Bonsai, Front Right Lower Corner

Ed had a 300 year old Bonsai I’d have loved to have purchased. It was taken from the 6000 feet level of a nearby mountain and was buried in a rock. He was able to secure it with the tap root intact and it’s remarkably beautiful today evoking strength and longevity. He had bonsai in maple burl bowls that looked like stone. You won’t see anything like this anywhere else, I guarantee you. The creativity of this man is admirable and he reads and researches bonsai and Chinese history and dates questionable women (:  (sorry Ed, couldn’t resist!! Sue, you escaped that comment!!)
Puff The Magic Dragon….



A flea market becomes a metaphor for the passage of your life in eras held in the shape of the possessions you no longer possess but which are now woven into the fiber of your being to shape and mold you and live forever in memory. Katherine A. Carroll

The Labor Day Packwood Flea Market is even bigger than this one! I can’t imagine. Adytum Sanctuary is filled with the treasures of travels but now it holds local fun and a memory I will never forget- the first of many Packwood Flea Markets.

An Adytum Original created by sometimes Chef, Donn Carroll, OD
Mix in food processor the following:
12 TBS raw cacao nibs made coarse or fine in a coffee grinder (http://www.longevitywarehouse.com)
3 TBS Almond butter
2 TBS Sesame butter (Tahini)
2 TBS Pure Synergy Superfood (http://www.thesynergycompany.com/v/pure_synergy.html) optional
1 TBS Carob powder
3 Squirts of Omica Stevia toffee flavored (http://www.longevitywarehouse.com)
1 TBS honey
Pinch of sea salt
Heat 1 cup of coconut oil into liquid oil on low, then pour into food processor and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Pour into soft molds then refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour before serving.
Optional:  Add raspberry jam as topping when serving.  Sprinkle raw unsweetened coconut in mold before adding the cacao/coconut oil mixture.
You can make the basic recipe with just the cacao, coconut oil, and a sweetener like stevia then experiment with any of the other ingredients to your taste.  My favorite is with Tahini.

Catching Up with YOU!

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Kat on Break From Codex Alimentarius at Forbidden City in Bejing, China 3-13

Many of you have expressed interest in staying abreast of nutritional solutions for ocular issues. There is a new post up at http://medicalvisioncenter.blogspot.com/ which will publish in our magazine, Health Freedom News (HFN) this month. HFN is the quarterly publication of the National Health Federation of which I am an Associate Editor, and this article will appear on a few other news sites as well.

If you know of someone with macular degeneration, if you have it as part of your family health history, or if you have had your gallbladder surgically removed, or if you just have trouble digesting fats then this article will give you practical, logical suggestions to impact each of these in a positive, healthful way.

We Need To Start At Birth Protecting Our Priceless, Magical Eyesight!

I invite you to sign up for email alerts when we put new material on the Medical Vision Center blog. Next in line is an article on one of the main complaints patients present with to either Medical Vision Center in Morton, WA or Martin Way Vision Center in Lacey, WA; ocular allergies. Research indicates studies which show how this problem can be helped in an unexpected way.

Our Main Practice In Morton, WA. We Were The First To Include a Nutritional Therapist – two actually- & a Dispensary On-site & the Health of our Patients Has Improved Along With Their Eyesight, Which is an “Early-Warning” Signal 

I continue my private nutritional therapy consulting practice and dispensaries at both clinics and of course, publishing in magazines to share this knowledge that you will be hard-pressed to get at any other optometry office anywhere.One day, hopefully every eye clinic will have a nutritional therapist on staff but for now, you have the blog and a personal consultation if you need it. If you know of someone who needs help to impact their ocular issues with diet, supplements, and logical strategies I can be reached at katacarroll@gmail.com or 1.360.790.2011.

NHF Scored HUGE Victories for YOU by  Attending The PWG Session Prior To Our Attendance at the General Session

I recently accepted a full-time position at the National Health Federation after being a volunteer for 19 months. In addition to the extremely FUN job of working on Health Freedom News, I was made Editor of our e-newsletter among other responsibilities. This is another incredibly FUN project and a way to share health, protect health freedom, and change the World for the better with your help! There will be firsthand reports on Codex meetings and what NHF accomplished there, there will be studies and health articles, the top shared links on our National Health Federation Facebook page (have you joined us there yet? I post news every morning and again, your health stands to improve vastly from these articles from many respected sources), and much more. Please sign up for the e-newsletter at www.thenhf.com so we can stay connected in yet another life-changing way!

We All Need To Claim Our Right To Inherent Health With Wisdom & Discipline

Have you noticed the common thread here? I want to invest in your health and in the betterment of the World because we are capable, strong, and well when we are functioning most effectively in our gifts for the good of all! Health is a treasure to be jealously guarded and nurtured and it is my passion. Stress reduction is such a key part of that…having time to nurture our creativity and deepen our love. Adytum Sanctuary remains the strong tower I run to, away from the pressures of the World, to renew my body, mind, and spirit and reconnect with all that really matters in life. Adytum grounds me and it is our pleasure to share this magnificent sacred space with you and yours….

The Orion Courtyard, The Vineyard, Lake Mayfield, and the two Rivers…Peace is Back

Adytum Sanctuary remains a true sanctuary to us all- us included! As you know, with the extra demands on my time, we have a new website reflecting the changes: www.adytumsanctuary.com but you will  find Adytum welcomes you as she always has: with love, grace, serenity, and an invitation to reconnect with all that really matters in life…here in this rugged Pacific Northwest beauty. We’ve had several guests lately using the Star of the North to meet family ‘in the middle’ with some coming from Portland, OR and some from Seattle, WA.

Need More of Adytum?

The Spring migration is accomplished and Evening Grosbeaks are back, every bird we see is busy nest building, and the eagles are here again as well gracing the blue, clear skies with their stunning majesty. The flowers are up, leaves and blossoms on the trees and the DeGoede’s Bulb Farm is bringing its tulip magic to the Northwest. The trails are clear as some kind souls came to collect maple and fir that we had offered. Still more where that came from if you need firewood. Some have even brought their portable sawmills and made lovely lumber to make dining room tables and furniture from.

Tulip Time at the DeGoede Bulb Farm

Fishing season is about to open. Our kayaks are available- just bring life-jackets please and enjoy a spot on the Tilton River that is quite secret where you take your pick of 2′ long rainbow trout swirling about the kayak, where there are waterfalls, water oozels, eagles, steep canyon walls covered with ferns and rainbow-tinged rivulets of water coursing down to land in the emerald waters of the Tilton. There will be no one here in this sacred space most likely. It is extravagant privacy at its ultimate best. We are anxious to get back to our favorite waterfalls and catch them at their volume. And the mountain bikes have been out multiple times already! Don’t let this season pass you by!!

It Won’t Be Long Now…Pure “Other-Worldly” Peace…I Know How They Feel

So…we are excited to see you again this season. Because of many travels planned for my work with NHF please reserve early as inevitably some weeks will have to be blocked off in my absence. Here are the links I mentioned above and I hope to enjoy your presence at each one!

Be well,

Kat
katacarroll@gmail.com or 1.360.790.2011
www.adytumsantuary.com
https://www.facebook.com/AdytumRetreat?ref=hl
www.medicalvisioncenter.blogspot.com
www.thenhf.com       to join e-list or join with me in my work at NHF for the World
https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Health-Federation/121416927890343?ref=tn_tnmn
www.tnsradio.ning.com   to listen to the radio program I help with on Wednedsays noon PST or archived pods/Scott Tips
www.medicalvisioncenter.com  if you are in Morton, WA and need an appointment: 1.360.496.5140 or if in Lacey, WA please call 1.360.456.2020 where Dr. Carroll and I are in office Wed. and Fri. at that location.

Falling Inexplicably and Unexpectedly in Love with China, the Microcosm….by Kat Carroll, NTP, Associate Editor HFN

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     If Paris in December of 2012 was the most romantic and hauntingly beautiful City I’ve ever experienced in my life, then Beijing is the most captivating, complex, and intriguing when I had the good fortune to visit for ten days in March 2013. Unexpectedly I find my heart quite utterly captured and I will anticipate returning to another province in China next year to indulge my senses in the juxtaposition of art and rawness while attending to the business of the Codex Alimentarius (Latin for Food Code) World, protecting health freedom with the NHF team.
     Beijing, China is the terrain of opposites and contrasts are everywhere and often simultaneously. The most lovely, elegant woman in a blue velvet evening dress with a sensuous side-slit emerges from a taxi with an equally handsomely attired date and proceeds to spit (in the most fulfilled sense of the word)  on the sidewalk, narrowly missing me, in the most incongruous display of what Westerners would term the worst of manners. Welcome to Beijing where I learned to dodge men and women heartily embracing this “way of being” here in this atmosphere of sophistication, oppressive smog and cigarette smoke-filled air inside and out. Next this Oriental Beauty covers her nose with the stark protective whiteness of a surgical mask and glides down the street leaving me jarred internally. This is Beijing 2013 with one of the most envious subway systems in the World.
     The noise in the City is continuous. The imaginative display of vehicles is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Most of the smaller “conveyances” are equipped with a basket or cart and they all zip around amazingly without incident with man or machine and within millimeters of both. Bikes are everywhere and none are remotely new. It is incredible how much recycled cardboard one can fit on a bike and remain upright! Restaurants become oases of calm to balance the intensity outside. Walking to a restaurant I witnessed the spitting beauty queen, a man urinating quite impressively actually behind a tiny taxi sign (no prostate problems here evidently), and a woman losing her noodles literally on the sidewalk as I dodged to avoid the backsplash.

     Life in Beijing has a rawness I haven’t been exposed to since Greenfield Junior High in Bakersfield, California but also an intensely heightened beauty that I could get used to living with. Even with the lovely calligraphy everywhere the Chinese manage to merge rawness and great art every moment. Simplicity in a floral arrangement is refined to high art and poetry in motion in a young woman’s flawless hands as she swirls warm water over tea leaves is as immensely splendid as watching a meteor shower. These contrasts excite my senses and quell the restlessness within me that comes from monotony of a predictable life; the daily “expected”. Despite being a nature girl, I can get used to this…the visual stimulation, the energy, refuges of peace and art to nurture my soul…
     But what if the current Beijing, China is a microcosm of all humanity? Full of lofty beginnings, intelligence and creativity, forging their way into the World scene with inventions and spectacular color on symmetrical architecture enlivening a gray, chill climate. But then entropy sets in…things trending toward disorder and chaos. And now our eyes are red from the smog, even bordering on infection, classy women spit openly in the street- surely something in them must recoil at this but hey, there’s so much smog that the mind overrules propriety to spare the lungs, 14,000 pigs bloated bodies fill the rivers moving downstream and polluting the water while the government assures the Chinese and tourists like us that all is well. We can only fool ourselves so long. There comes the clarion call to retrace our steps to our roots. Return to what we were doing when we were the most successful… China is instant messaging this to the World. Do you see it?
     We have nobility within, grace resides beside innate power. We just have to clear to the pure flowing channel past putrid, rotting pigs to get back to where we were on the ascendant. Each of us has areas that need reclaiming. I defy even one to show me they are at their pinnacle consistently unless perhaps you’re a hermit or a monk. Life and the law of entropy rush in. Our schedules often get too busy to see to important details like  introspection, prayer, sleep, supplements, and 10 live organic fruits and vegetables a day. Our spiritual life? Nurtured or withering on the vine? Walking meditation or plugged in to the World vs. the Universe? Interior pollution is akin to 14,000 rotting pigs versus the clear, untainted water of life flowing through us.
     China is vast, rugged, refined, exquisitely beautiful, shockingly raw, and threadbare all at once. Tonight I breathe the pure air of the great Pacific Northwest. I look out of spaciousness ($33,000 per square meter to buy land outside of the Forbidden City in Old Beijing…) to survey the Lake Mayfield which happens to have a cloud resting on the serenity of its surface and upside down pointed Fir at its borders. Has the sky turned inside out and what is up, is down?
     Life is full of these reflections and China reflected to me our greatness and our tendency to dissipation and degradation. We must choose and we must fight to keep making positive progression because it doesn’t come naturally. Making a life precariously straddling the Great Wall will find you in a crumbled heap at the bottom with a cracked head. The vision must never be sacrificed to the hard climb. It IS hard and it IS worth it – the ascension.
     We must stand against the World for our nobility, our purity, our pride. It took immense vision to construct the Great Wall, the Forbidden City but not only that but protecting the vision and creation that resided in the act while building something that lasts. What are we building that we are prepared to defend – our spirit, our health, our family, our wealth, our path of service? What has been built that we enjoy that we are prepared to defend? The Forbidden City allowed nothing that would compromise its integrity: no soil to tunnel through, and it was surrounded by a great moat and walls in a defensive posture. There is a time to know our magnificence and a time to protect it with everything in our power. That time is now. 
     You may be tired of my weaving my non-profit work in the World into the peacefulness of writing in the Adytum Sanctuary side of my life but I have to say it…After attending the last Codex meeting in Beijing, I believe we need to get very serious about protecting our health. Without health, my friends, we have limited options. I won’t say that we have nothing because I have watched people who have lost their spark and their vitality return to their spiritual roots and become very powerful in prayer for themselves, others, and the World, maybe for the first time in their lives.
     But to remain VITAL with open options to exercise our talents and power we must realize that the powers that rule World trade and supposedly our health: Codex Alimentarius, of which I attend- they are NOT for health despite their false mission statement. National Health Federation was the ONLY Voice for YOU- the shopper buying for themselves and family at the grocery store or market, at the last meeting.

There was no one in the whole World who spoke for the consumer except NHF  and I mean it. I heard lies in the 7 days of meetings on Food Additives. Lies from the sweetener industry. Lies from the artificial coloring people. Lies from the US and Australia. Lies designed to defend World trade, their companies, their nations.

China is set forth in the World right now as a failing example in the things that really matter in life (like breathing…) and they did it to themselves.

     Do you wish for yourself to create a World in which you used to be the head and now you are the tail, despite money pouring in? When you cannot take a single pure breath- and I mean it literally even in the mountains I visited- is that wealth to you? Money in the bank while your lungs fail you…HEALTH IS WEALTH and you know it is true.

 Monsanto, Agenda 21, Doctors killing more people annually than perhaps they actually heal… Do you wish to create a World where babies are poisoned by greed- Melamine is the name of that greed and dogs were carted to their graves over that atrocity as well.

 Do you wish to poison and pollute the soil with “compost” made of old car batteries and human feces and then enjoy that watermelon plucked from the vine that was desecrated in that soil and now becomes part of YOU? China has adopted for this choice and all inside a political system that is not for the people.

     The Chinese were the great Minds that brought forth great inventions like the printing press, the compass, and more. They thought so big centuries ago that their ideas traversed miles of mountain ranges becoming walls and they created a City that made my heart exult because it felt so holy and so splendid. They cultivated beauty, intelligence, and a profound spiritual depth despite your denomination. China wove its way unexpectedly into my heart with a respect and admiration that the current decay cannot obliterate.

     China is an invitation to us all to return to our roots: to the heritage of grace, magnificence, and expansive vision we all possess. We are destined to reside in beauty, in love, in strength, in compassion, in progress, in dominion over forces that would hinder those goals. China is a World irritant at present like the freshwater oysters infiltrated with a foreign body which produce the pearls.

     China’s wise pearl reminds us we can relieve ourselves of the irritants and embrace beauty, our destiny, our future and that of the World. Make our investments now and make them strong, make them last- each one using our gifts and talents to restore this World to rightness. In the health freedom World I see a lot of people getting angry and upset. That is not passion. Passion creates a new terrain. It builds a Great Wall and a fortified City like the Forbidden City. Anger can easily turn inward on us. It must be directed into a constructive energetic use that will create the World we are proud to leave behind as our legacy.

     When I left China, I prayed over the City as I looked out from my hotel room. I prayed over all those that would remain to breathe that air, dodge spit in the street, wonder about the integrity of their food and water, and the milk they feed their children. China has inherent greatness and power. So do we. We must train our hands to war once again because this insidious degradation that seeps into whatever continent we are on to destroy our magnificence is easily crushed when we wake to our beauty and our power and the amazing force of our collective will and create the life we imagine.

Ike Kinswa State Park, The Tilton River Flowing into Lake Mayfield

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February in the Pacific Northwest often holds a few balmy days to tide us over until late Spring and this was one of those days. Okay, I admit,’balmy’ was actually 41 degrees but with the sunshine out and no wind it was truly amazing (this being said from a California girl, so believe it!)

Love It….


Ike Kinswa State Park is about 5 minutes from Adytum Sanctuary. For those of you who’ve been in the third floor library looking out over Lake Mayfield, the Cowlitz and the Tilton Rivers, Ike Kinswa is the peninsula of land dividing the emerald rivers and jutting into Lake Mayfield’s deep blue waters. To see adjacent bodies of water colored so differently is lovely- the rivers are emerald- the Cowlitz being more milky as it comes off the glaciers of Mt. Rainier, the Tilton just pure emerald like a stone…All fresh, pure, and stunningly beautiful.

Donn, Gabe, and Dash in Tune With the Land

The sun is setting now, moving a little farther on the elliptical to the right  hugging the top of the mountains as it slides toward summer. Hiking the Ike Kinswa River Trail in the summer is spectacular because of the lush canopy of Big Leaf Maple, Fir, and Alder. The woods are shady, cool, and smell of earth churned by the occasional horses on the path. It is a great, easy mountain biking trail too but in the heart of winter…well, wear some waterproof shoes.

You can see from the pictures that the damp trail gave way to a literal stream and huge washouts. You will be hiking inside of a canyon basically where sword and maidenhair ferns run up the sides of a steep ravine while all the while rivulets of water are coursing down in rainbow droplets to create this deluge below. The water-music surrounds you, whether it’s the waterfalls across the river along the way or these little channels of water lit up like rainbows and sounding like the tinkling of bells.

Magic…Mystery…Transformational Beauty


 As I’ve told so many guests at Adytum, you’d literally expect to see a Pterodactyl gliding over the river hunting for fish…it’s mystical, magical, and prehistoric with the abundance of ferns and fantastical with the overwhelming amounts of moss and lichens and hobbit-sized holes in the trees. It is a place to let your imagination return to simpler days, to the heart of a child…Tolkien and C.S. Lewis surely must have had woods like these to create in. 

These Ancients Surely Get Up and Walk Around at Night…Fantastical…


“I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least — and it is commonly more than that — sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields absoutely free from all wordly engagements. You may safely say a penny for your thoughts, or a thousand pounds. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shop-keepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them — as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon — I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago”. Henry David Thoreau


We’ve been on both aspects of the Tilton- kayaking below or hiking and biking on the trail above. Today we watched 4 brave souls risk capsizing in hypothermia producing waters. Having been launched out of my kayak one warm summer day and nearly drowning because the water was so cold it took my breath away literally, I wouldn’t consider this risk of winter kayaking. They had helmets and life jackets on but still…

Brave Souls…The Water is Beyond Freezing


We passed only one couple on our hour’s walk, a fly fisherman and his wife and two dogs unleashed as ours were. We are in the land of World-class fishing. Here is quote I have on the links page of our website from a guide in the area:

Fly Fisherman and Family



World Class Steelhead fishing in the Cowlitz River
(unique in that it has four distinct runs and holds
Steelhead 365 days a year with the states highest
numbers).
* World Class Sea Run Cutthroat fishing – one of the
few fisheries that allow fishermen to keep Sea Run
Cutthroat Trout which
average two pound + (Late August – October)
* World class Tiger Muskie Fly Fishing in Mayfield Lake,
a fish of a thousand casts. Tiger Muskie’s up to 50 inches.
* High Lakes, Trout fishing – summer and fall.

Almost makes the vegetarian in me go buy a fishing pole…At least we can assume they are clean and cold-water trout have an Omega-3 fatty acid profile worth considering for health.

We can’t wait to return on bike and kayak next time. In summer there is a small fee and dogs must be leashed. The bathrooms are closed during winter, but the children’s area has a playground and a wading area cordoned off in the Lake so summer is a great time to picnic with family at Ike Kinswa. There are about 150 camp sites across the road on the camping side and a few cabins to rent. It can get a little noisy on the water with boats and jet skis in the summer. We don’t notice it from Adytum and very much appreciated the solitude of nature today, alone except for the kayak sighting and our fly fisherman and his wife. This extravagant privacy would be hard to find anywhere else, especially when combined with World-class fishing.

Dash’s Big Adventure 


As we got ready to load the dogs in the back of the truck, wet, dirty, and played out, a flock of Canada geese started toward us from across the Lake sure we had lunch to share. All along the trail we had heard the laughter in the skies from baby eagles learning to fly. That is exactly how they sound when they’re young. They joy in their youth and in their gathering strength and power. A lesson for us all…unexpectedly. Forever young inside and persistently growing in maturity and wisdom, power and might. 

The sky is painted in rose now and Gizmo washes himself in the window overlooking the Lake, at peace…serene. It was a good day.

Adytum Sanctuary is a Transformational Experience and Evolving Still…by Kat Carroll, NTP

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Welcome to Adytum Sanctuary!

Adytum Sanctuary lives in the hearts of most guests who have experienced the transformational experience in this sacred space. You’ve shared some incredibly touching heartfelt feelings with us over the last two years about what it meant to have magical time at the retreat overlooking Lake Mayfield, The Cowlitz and the Tilton Rivers, the blueberry and bulb farms… Your gracious, loving words have nurtured us when we were tired, and kept us making improvements when you suggested them so we were sure to spoil you rotten! Here are some incredible examples at Yelp where we enjoy an amazing ALL 5-star status: http://www.yelp.com/biz/adytum-sanctuary-mossyrockor Trip Advisor with 21 5-star reviews and rated the #1 B&B in Mossyrock: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g58621-d1861391-Reviews-Adytum-Mossyrock_Washington.html   Thank you to every one of you who took time to share!
The Blueberry Fields are Russet Now; Lake Mayfield so Blue…
When life began changing like a kaleidoscope last year we realized that in order to continue opening Adytum to each of you, we would need to find a new Way…creating something that wasn’t perhaps the usual business model but one that would work for each of us. What drove us to this decision?
First, travel came up with the National Health Federation, my volunteer position for the oldest health freedom federation in the World: some trips in the states to Health Freedom Expos, Health Congresses, etc. or trips overseas to attend Codex Alimentarius requiring lengthy absences, and more writing and  associate editing responsibilities emerging as well with NHF’s quarterly magazine.
Kat with Country Delegates on Break at Codex Alimentarius in Bad Soden, Germany 2012
As you all can guess, writing is an intense fulfilling passion for me and I have contributed to every issue of the Health Freedom News magazine ever since I was brought on board. (This is writing I know each of you would benefit by reading- mine and also the great contributions from others like our President and Senior Editor, Scott Tips, Jeffrey Smith, David Wolfe, Donna Gates, Dr. Alan Gaby and many more passionate writers and activists. Please visit www.thenhf.comand when you join, you will get HFN every quarter.)
Then our Optometry Clinic Manager of 17 years moved and after a new staff person left her new position because it wasn’t quite the fit she wanted, I had no choice but to step full time back into a position I’ve held off and on over the past 18 years at our two clinics.
Our Optometry Clinic in Morton, WA 
Next Adytum’s cleaner moved away, and George, who helped on Adytum lands was hired full time on my son’s construction team at Gritton Building Co (www.grittonbuildingco.com) when the weather changed and will remain there….so Donn and I have absorbed all that extra work and at 6000 sq. ft. and 16 acres, believe me, it could be a full time job in and of itself! 
Ever the Lover of Nature, my father Wayne Edwards Passed Away  Shortly After This Last Trip to Mt. Rainier
Then to top it off, my father passed away in the midst of closing the family home of 22 years this January leaving us in grief and also supporting my 85 year old mother more and more in her many sudden transitions.
So needless to say, even my new routine of getting up at 3:30 a.m. to begin working from bed on my writing and administrating 11 Facebook pages for all our businesses plus the National Health Federation’s domestic and international pages(https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Health-Federation/121416927890343)
wasn’t keeping me ahead of the curve and I was getting very tired. Something had to give… Donn and I have worked side by side in the kitchen from 8 a.m. until noon for two years now (sometimes me alone when he went on to the office), making healthy gourmet breakfasts for you and now, that amount of time is simply being transformed into other areas, like helping our patients- once again, together or keeping Adytum clean, beautiful, and ready for drop in guests.
There were points where we considered just closing Adytum to our guests. All of the ‘what if’s’ surfaced: “What if you’re in Beijing and we get a reservation? What if we are working at the Olympia office and someone calls to reserve that night? What if, what if, what if…” We need clones! Finally, after so many heartfelt comments kept coming in from precious friends who have been forever transformed by Adytum’s grace and healing peace, it was clear…we had to find a new Way…and it had to work for every single one of us.
Lovely Lake Mayfield from the Deck, Westerly View
The Star of the North- 1250 Sq. Ft of Romance and Luxury
The Star of the North and The Orion Suites are already set up to be independent from the main house. So the logical conclusion was to keep offering those two suites independently from the main house like a vacation rental. If we were out of town, guests come on in and make themselves at home in their private suite and we’d meet up later that evening.
So the solution was born: take Adytum from her current full-use, full service role and transform that into a vacation rental model so that guests can still enjoy time in the exquisite beauty and peace that is Adytum Sanctuary.
In every reorganization there are trade-offs. I include a comment below from an Adytum guest so you can see…all is not lost! We’re still going to be there- at least one of us and usually both of us. Who knows, we may find things change and we can reinstitute Sunday Champagne brunches…We enjoyed them as much as you did, particularly on the patio overlooking the Lake under the orange umbrellas on a sunny, summer morning. But for now, rest assured that in our experience at least 50% of our guests actually were using Adytum Sanctuary in this proposed model voluntarily. They never came into the main house but were content to enjoy one another in the privacy of their suite or on their private courtyard or deck. Many were up at the crack of dawn fishing or hiking and were providing their own breakfast. There are many of our guests that fell in love with our healthy cooking, and we want you to know that we are hoping to have Gritton Building Co. install a kitchenette in The Star of the North so that it’s more amenable to making a great breakfast. 
You’re Welcome to Enjoy Sunset from One of the Many Decks!
And the salt water hot tub and BBQs are still available for guests’ use and now, even our kayaks because our insurance company agreed we could share them. Hopefully we will also have bikes to share this year because it’s so fun to bike through the tulip fields when they’re blooming and explore the tiny town of Mossyrock- all the nooks and crannies found on the back roads; a slice of Americana. We still have 16 acres to roam through with Dash, Gabe, and orange tabby Gizmo…
We Enjoy This Twice Daily Most Every Day With Dash, Gabe, and Tabby Gizmo and so have YOU!
Once again, we will listen to you and together we will keep bringing Adytum Sanctuary to the place where everyone’s needs are met as best as we can. I can’t tell you how much of Adytum was created by the ideas and suggestions of our friends, our guests. So take heart! If I have time perhaps you’ll find a basket of gluten free muffins…the healthy apricot-date, made with honey ones, at your door in the morning but meantime just know that these changes will allow you access to literally one of the very best views in all of Lewis Country and some have said, anywhere in the World. The magic continues! And each of you embodies the magic, the mystery, the love, and peace you feel when you drive through the gates of the Castle Adytum and we are so grateful for each of you.
Comments pulled over from my Kat Carroll FB page, from a treasured guest after reading the first part of our website rewrite:
Yes! This all so true! I think about my experience at Adytum all the time and reading this brings it right back I will however miss your amazing breakfast and the opportunity to talk with you Kat, that’s half the appeal to Adytum, you bring it to life Kat Carroll
16 minutes ago via mobile · Unlike · 1

Kat Carroll Ah you’re sweet! OF COURSE I WILL BE THERE to talk to and share with (for the most part (: ) but alas…my work as Associate Editor of Health Freedom News and managing 11 social media pages, my full time work at Medical Vision Center and Martin Way Vision Center plus traveling to Beijing to attend Codex regarding contaminants in our food and other far flung lands (just back from Germany having attended the Codex meeting on Nutrition) necessitates having to make some hard decisions. Gee, do we close Adytum (just lost our househelp – again….and our yard help…again…) or try to find a way to make this work for everyone? Each of us has Adytum in our hearts and Adytum Sanctuary belongs as much to you as it does to me. Adytum is for everyone. So in this way, we can keep opening this sacred space. Who knows, maybe things will change (like hiring staff that will allow me less participation at both optometry clinics for starters…that will allow Donn and I to resume at least Sunday Champagne brunches…we enjoy cooking for you all when we’re able to, you know! Anyway, let’s see what happens. Some good news: we got our commercial insurance company to agree that we can share our kayaks- if you haven’t experienced kayaking into the mouth of the Tilton, into whitewater with 2′ long rainbow trout swimming around the boat- 100’s of them and I’m not exaggerating- then…it’s time! Watch for specials on this FB page- especially for returning guests who need no orientation. Thank you again and I promise, I’ll cook for you again sometime (maybe we’ll ALL get in the kitchen to play, who knows??

We’ll Figure it Out  and Make it Work for All of Us!

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Views From the Tower Room at Adytum Sanctuary
January 2013 ~ Morning to Night at Adytum Sanctuary
There comes a certain morning when the soft Northern light hits just right and I know my plans are put on hold as I head out with my camera. When light calls like this and the Lake turns deep blue and the blueberry fields russet branches burn in their glory all the way up Birley Mountain, everything is put on the shelf at Adytum. From the growing eastern light to the sky bouquets of night…all gives way to the spectacular star light… millions of pulsing stars in the Milky Way right over the salt water hot tub where lovers linger.
Adytum is a place of beauty, a place of love, creativity, and a place to truly reconnect with all that really matters in life.
All our guests say the same thing, “The pictures on your blog and website just don’t do it justice…” but we try to bring a little more rugged, natural beauty to your World though this lens, through the blog.One day, I’ll take some lessons but for now, enjoy a clear day in January with us: (double-click on the pictures to enlarge)

https://adytumsanctuary.com/2722/