From the Other Side

For those of you who know me only remedially and those who know me well, you undoubtedly know that as a preteen and a teen I led a rather assorted life. I won't go into detail, but ultimately it left me far from home questioning the things I had been taught, the beliefs that I held, the people that I know, and completely re-cultivated who I am as a person.

Many people go through heartache at different times in their lives and usually it comes in the most unexpected ways, which contributes to the pain associated with those events. My case is no different and there are a few things that I have learned along the way that may or may not help you.

1) In order for things to improve in your life you need to hash out all the "evils" first
This is a difficult process to go through and one that I learned from many professionals in the business of helping people. Generally people refer to it as "rock bottom" and other euphemisms, however I am not a believer that you need to consistently be hitting rock bottom. Life is a process of erasing and hashing out the evils in your own life so that you can move past them and improve. As we introduce more and new evils in our life to learn from we hash them out and learn to become a better person. I've mentioned it before with simple posts on my FaceBook, but success is not gained easily. It is a road pock marked with failure, mistakes, embarrassment and the defining line between those that do and those that do not succeed is very thin. It's as simple as learning a lesson from your mistakes so you can avoid them in the future.

2) People remember how others react when they are in peril
I don't remember every little detail of the things that have happened in my lifetime. I am twenty-seven years old as I write this. Nobody could remember all of that. What does stick out distinctly to me are the memories of who was present during a very tragic time in my life and who seemed to simply fall off or lose concern. As humans we are designed for interaction and companionship whether it be a married couple, brothers, or close friends. When those people closest to you back out in your time of need you question your own morality, your self, and in my personal life I had at one point even prayed that God simply kill me. If you know someone who is suffering or in great distress you will never know the volumes it can speak to feel the warmth of someone reaching out to you. Without that touch our souls are left on their own to suffer.

3) Respect is something everyone deserves regardless of opinions or beliefs
I met a lot of people along my journey to becoming a better person, and I'm not finished yet, but I have learned that cultures and people develop for the same causes no matter the beliefs. People hold their families and their relationships dear and have a morality that they keep. This is true among all cultures. I have had close friends from gangs, Native Americans, wealthy families, poor families, drug dealers, Africans, people with mental/emotional and personality disorders, Wiccans, Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Homosexuals, and violent criminals. They are all different in their own right and while the collective conscious of America agrees that some of these groups crimes are wrong, it doesn't change the fact that everyone wants respect and all cultures serve the same purpose. As a Christian I certainly do not believe that all cultures lead down the same path, but that isn't necessary for respect. People are intelligent. If they choose a culture or lifestyle you can respect them while disagreeing.

4) Prayer is a powerful action (Regardless of whom you pray to)
As a Christian, I already feel eyes burning into me for saying that, but it's true. More studies show that people who pray (regardless of whom to) have a more positive outlook on life and are successful than those that do not. I personally have had interactions in my life that I attribute to Jesus Christ and to God. Specifically at one point in my life I needed to pass a polygraph test, however getting back to #2, I simply had done so many things that were evil at a certain point that I simply didn't remember them all. I was given several chances to pass this lie detector test and ultimately I failed the first and the second was "inconclusive." What that meant is that I had another try and if I didn't pass clearly then I would simply be locked away. Essentially it was a last chance. The thing for me is that I quite honestly couldn't tell you why I didn't pass the first time around. All of my answers to the questions remained exactly between the first and second test, but as I walked to the third polygraph I simply prayed that if Jesus had a plan for me that I would pass. In general polygraphs they will ask you a set of control questions to gauge your reply to any question that they know to be true (ie. is your name Jonathan Rademacher, yes or no? Are you a male, yes or no? etc.) These all seemed to be incredibly simple. On the third test I was given I was no longer given general questions as to the entirety of my past, but scoped down to a very specific time frame where I was beyond confident in my answers. I was not told this would happen and others when I asked have denied that this happened including the professionals administering the testing but nonetheless I passed without any doubts. I attribute that to Jesus Christ giving a clear reply to my prayer.

5) Everything in life is a choice
One of the most common problems that people have is that they simply do not take responsibility over their own lives. People say things like, "you made me mad," and "I am a product of my environment." While there is a lot to be said about the power of environmental factors to sway your decision making, the thing to remember is that EVERYTHING in life is a choice. If you are unhappy with your life, it's because you are CHOOSING to be unhappy. You could just as well be content with your situation if you chose so. If you are angry, you are choosing to remain angry. If you are poor, you are choosing to be poor. Many people feel offended by statements like that but reality is that if you are poor you simply aren't taking the actions to not be poor any longer. If you want to be rich, choose to do the things that will make you rich, but realize that everything you choose comes at a cost, whether good or bad. Becoming rich will more than likely cost you your close friends and family or time with them at least.

6) Emotions are not something that we should trust in
Our culture is so conditioned to respond with what "feels" good and what "feels" right. The problem? Our emotions lie to us regularly. Imagine that I gave you a cookie. You probably feel great if you like cookies and are appreciative. Now imagine I gave you one cookie and your sibling two cookies and I say that I did so because "I like them better." You are deceived into frustration and anger and you rationalize it because you believe my actions to be unfair. That's not reality. Reality is that you feel hurt because my actions evoked a feeling of inferiority in you and as a creation of God we are not meant to feel that way, but your feelings lie to you. Anger is simply a secondary emotion that disguises a primary emotion. Primary emotions are things like fear, hurt, sadness, and other things that take our pride and adjust it to a lower level . Even those emotions are liars though because the reality is that if I give you a cookie, my interactions with someone else have nothing to do with OUR relationship unless I have made a covenant with you that OUR relationship means exclusivity (i.e. marriage, dating, etc.).

7) What people do and say regarding you will have as much power as you allow it
I have also posted on this topic on my FaceBook, however it's a loaded topic. To keep it simple, how you receive something defines what it is, not how it is given. If someone says to me, "Your'e a smart one," I can choose how I want to take that REGARDLESS of the intent of the giver. I can take it as a compliment to my intelligence and feel empowered. I can take it as a sarcastic euphemism and feel hurt because they made me feel inferior. I can take it as a joke and simply laugh it off so that it is inconsequential. I was once told a story by a guy that I always felt thought he was better than me, and yet the story sticks with me to this day:

Once upon a time there was a village. In this village there was a seer who could see the future and he served the purpose to help his village prosper. Every year each person in the village could ask one question of the man and he would answer them. They would ask questions like, "How will my crops fair this year?" If the seer told them they would be tall, they grew tall. If he said they would suffer they suffered. One man became jealous of the seer and wanted to defraud him. So he devised a plan. He walked up to the seer with a bird in his hands but held behind his back and asked a simple question, "Is the bird in my hand alive or dead?" If the seer said the bird was dead, he would let it fly away and prove the seer a fraud. If the seer said it was alive he would break the neck of the bird and show it to be dead, also proving the seer a fraud. The seer looked at the man and sat patiently for a moment. Then he replied, "If you choose for this bird to live, it will live. If you choose for it to die, it will die. THE POWER IS IN YOUR HAND."

Moral of the story? If you want people to have power over you, you will let them. If you do not, you will not. As someone once told me, "If someone says or does something to you and you choose to be angry, you give their words and actions a lot of power." I generally like to live by this principle because it took a while for me to understand, but ultimately if someone calls me a name and I brew about it, they will likely have forgotten by the time they reach home, meanwhile their words had the power to upset my whole day. Imagine this person KNOWS their words carry such power. I have given them an awful amount of power for any one person to have. Only Jesus Christ or God should have such power in my life.

There is more than I could ever speak about on a blog in my experiences to the other side of tragedy, and I would like to write them all down, and maybe one day I will write a book about it. As of right know, I leave you with the sentiments above and encourage you to hash out your evils, reach out to those in need, respect everyone equally, pray, choose wisely, and only submit power to those who earn/deserve it.

Thanks for reading and God Bless

The power is in your hand.

Bad AdverTEAsing

All my life I was under the impression that teas were supposed to taste earthy and rather disgusting. This is mostly due to a lack of exposure but also due to the general disinformation available in the market. America is inundated with people claiming their tea is the best for you. Whether it be a black iced tea or a green tea they tote all of the miracle powers of said tea and then add a bunch of sugar, honey, or other additives to make the grassy stuff bearable. 

Barriers in the way of uninformed people trying to start drinking tea:

1)People think that the best teas for you are Brisk, Lipton, Green, Earl Grey, etc. - False

2)People think that teas labeled as a Hot tea can only be served hot - False

3)People are conditioned to thinking that tea is not supposed to taste delicious - False

4)Tea is not something I can make for myself on the go -False

5)Tea is incredibly expensive - False and True (Although there are expensive brands they are worth it)

I recently have investigated more into the tea world and it has been a "Trial by Fire" type escapade. I began by purchasing an inexpensive box of pre-packaged Lipton Green Tea which was infused with Blueberry Acai...yuck. I steeped and served the tea the first time not following the instructions but simply "Winging it." Bad idea. 

LESSON 1: ALWAYS obey the instructions provided with tea - if you don't you will get a bitter/weak tea

I decided that I did not appreciate the grassiness of the green tea and sought to add a flavor to it without compromising the natural value of 0 calories and nutrients. I read and read and saw the most common suggestions being sugar, honey, agave nectar, raw honey, etc. I didn't want the calories or the carbs associated with those sweeteners and found that most experienced tea drinkers suggested vanilla extract or lemon juice. 

LESSON 2: Vanilla or Lemon juice should only be added to your CUP of tea, not a pitcher

Ultimately, the lemon and vanilla served little purpose past the grassiness but did give a better aftertaste to the tea. Seeking a less potent version of the tea I did some more research into tea and discovered several other teas that are less potent in flavor but also have MORE health benefits than a Green Tea. As it turns out, White Tea, Oolong Tea, and several others are just as nutritious as Green Tea or have more benefits and simply have less disgusting flavor. 

LESSON 3: Teas vary depending on the darkness of their final product and the amount of processing

I found when reading that several teas go through several different processes to get to the final product and most are named after what you will see in the cup or what they are made of - kind of obvious. What I didn't really know was that just because the tea becomes lighter does not mean that you are sacrificing on flavor. For instance, there are several White teas, which come out as a very light color, that have more flavor than a black tea, similar to a Lipton Iced tea. 

So I purchased a White/Green tea combo in tea bags by Stash (Brand name). I followed the instructions on the box to the letter and found that what they were claiming was very true. The tea was very much less grassy and I appreciated getting the nutrients of both a green and a white tea in one. I could still taste some earthiness, but the sweetness that they claimed came with white tea just wasn't there still. When we did some research (some of which my wife did at a local tea shop) we were informed that the main difference is in the quality of the teas that we were purchasing. 

LESSON 4: Loose leaf tea will ALWAYS yield stronger flavors than a pre-packaged tea bag

We purchased some loose leaf teas from our local Teavana. My wife purchased an Oolong tea in accordance with our diet and exercise program to help lose weight (Respectively we each have lost over 10 LBS in less than three weeks). One of the major benefits of Oolong is that it can help burn up to 150% of the fat you would ordinarily burn during a day with only two cups of the stuff. I chose a white tea because in my search for self improvement I am finding I appreciate mostly unprocessed and whole ingredients and White tea is the least processed. Coincidentally, Teavana has a blend called Snow Geisha which has cherries (one of my favorite flavors) so it seemed a natural choice. The concern that I had was that reviews said it can taste like medicine or that it can become very bitter. 

LESSON 5: Some tea drinkers can be very pretentious and others are not

Just like anyone else I took the reviews with a grain of salt. Ultimately the reviews that were saying it was bitter were minimal but several people who give a lot of reviews said it can get really medicinal tasting. In the end I chose the tea anyway because I like Luden's Cherry Cough Drops so even if that was the truth I didn't think I would mind. End Result? It tastes delicious. If you follow the instructions that the providers give you the tea comes out very tasty and not at all medicinal or bitter. I particularly do not like hot tea, so I brewed it hot and poured it over ice into a pitcher and as promised it came out cold and tasty. 

LESSON 6: Brewing a cold tea with 2x strength doesn't make less tea

I read the instructions for the cold tea at first and it seemed very nonsensical to brew a cold tea. My thought was that I could simply brew a hot tea and refrigerate it to get the cold delicious tea that I desired. I did this a few times and the tea tasted okay, but I didn't have much of the flavor that I wanted. With the Snow Geisha from Teavana, it's a rather expensive tea, so because I am a bit of a cheap-o I didn't want to waste one ounce of the stuff. The instructions said to brew the stuff twice as potent as you would for a hot tea. I was like, "WHAT?! So you're telling me that cold tea is twice as expensive as hot tea?" It doesn't really work that way because you are supposed to make the tea hot and pour it over ice. The ice is equivalent to the other half of your tea, so essentially you are making twice as much tea and cooling it quickly. 

LESSON 7: Cold tea should be cooled RAPIDLY

You could try and use cold water for a cold tea and you would get an okay result. The difference has to do with the speed in which the tea cools. The faster you cool your tea for cold tea, the stronger the flavor remains. 

After all is said and done, I am really enjoying the Snow Geisha White Tea from Teavana. It has a very subtle entry but has strong notes of cherry and florals on the exit/aftertaste, which is just what I wanted. I drink it cold because I'm not partial to hot beverages. It's a great way to get the benefits of White Tea, which can include better skin (antioxidants) and a lowered risk for cancer and heart disease. I wish tea hadn't been so poorly advertised to me as a child. This stuff is great!

Beautiful Simplicity

A short post to begin this thing:

My wife and I have recently chosen to dive into a more healthy style of living. The funny thing about it is that as I live a healthier lifestyle and see that certain things are better and worse for me, I have come to a point where I appreciate the finer things in life.

Some people may consider this spoiled, however I'm not speaking that I want to spend a lot of money on anything, I simply prefer to get back to the roots of what our country was founded on. We used to be a people that had pride in a hand crafted tool or would take passion in a master craft. Nowadays it seems that everyone is simply pushing to have the quickest substitution that comes close or is similar.

Here are some recent endeavors that I have been on:

1)Weight Loss
I have done a lot of research to discover that for the most part foods that are pre-packaged simply do not contain the necessary nutrients for your body and if they do most of them are simply fortified in a way that the nutrients pass directly through you. I have refined my diet to consist of primarily proteins with a specific agenda to keep them higher than the carbohydrate count (regardless of fast/slow). Additionally I am keeping the calorie count to around 1300 per day, which in some cases means adjusting my proportions and sometimes simply making wiser decisions (Maybe that brownie that is free on Sunday morning - true story - isn't worth the carbs and sugar).
            Simple Observations:
            1)The object of eating is NOT to get full. It is to subside hunger and provide energy
            2)You should enjoy what you eat - regardless of diet
            3)Low Fat is another word for high-carb or high-sugar (which both turn to fat anyway)
            4)The closer you get to natural and whole foods the more nutrients and benefits you find
            5)Exercising makes me feel more confident and feel an overall higher satisfaction with life
            6)Green Tea has a really grassy taste and there are better teas - replace with a White or Oolong Tea

      What I Do:
      1) Eat less than 1300 Calories/Day (Don't just assume a number will work - see a doctor)
      2) High Protein/Low Carb (This is a recipe for losing weight, not bulking up)
      3) Work out 4-6 times a week (Generally Cardio such as the Treadmill for 2 miles and a light weight training)
      4) Eat natural foods more (I.E. Chicken, Un-cooked Spinach, Tuna, Eggs, Bacon, Yogurt, etc.)
      5) Supplement with natural benefits (Drinking White/Green tea -Antioxidants/Free Radicals, Edamame-Omega 3, etc.)

2)Shaving
We were walking around the Mall of America with some friends when our friends decided to stop in to The Art of Shaving. I had seen the store before and the thought of an old-fashioned shave is enticing to most men that I know. That said, we went in there and I had used some samples of their product previously. Those samples caused me to do some research myself and found that there is a whole subculture to shaving and several people who do this themselves. Naturally it peaked my interest.
            Simple Observations:
            1)Starting to shave the old-fashioned way is not cheap
            2)The products used for a full shave are far superior to what is found at a normal retailer
            3)Shaving with better product produces a better shave
            4)Having a better shave and using the process for some reason makes a man feel manlier
            5)Many people over charge for high end product - DO YOUR SHOPPING
            6)The highest quality product is still made old school - by hand.

       What I do:
       1) I am starting to shave twice a week (I barely grow facial hair)
       2) I follow the four steps outlined by The Art of Shaving (Truefitt & Hill and Many other companies agree)
       3) I use a mug to lather my cream (Lather on the face isn't as warm and in your hand is messy)
       4) I shave once with the grain and once against, lathering between (Thrice is simply too much for my skin)

Of all the observations I am noticing that most of all I appreciate more the hand craftedness of many of the materials I am using. As I pursue a life that is closer to His calling, I also find myself seeking out more purity and naturalism in the objects that surround me. They give me a feeling that I am somehow more clean and that I am closer to the world as it was originally created to be. In a fallen world where everything seems to be pushing more and more to the quick substitute and to the easy fix it is very refreshing to know that the place my God made for me is still here and we can still enjoy his creations.