Forest Family Medicine

11/11/2024

Indigenous people, people who took water cannons, rubber bullets, and tear gas to the face, did not overwhelmingly vote for the "drill baby drill" candidate.

MSNBC published results of an exit poll conducted in urban communities - excluding Natives living on reservations, excluding Natives living in rural areas, excluding most tribes. The poll claims that 64% of Natives voted for Trump.

The exit poll is not the same as election results.

The exit poll data includes 20,000 people. 1% of 20,000 is 200. However, due to rounding, that could be somewhere between 8 and 249 people. Yes, that is still 8-249 people too many voting against their own safety and best interest.

2.9% of the US population is Native American. Yet we only comprise 1% (rounded) of voters? Voter suppression much? We were underrepresented at the polls. Our turnout was 1/3 of what it should have been.

Disenfranchisement is a problem.
Voter suppression is a problem.

In 2020, Arizona Native Americans were credited with flipping the state.

In 2024, bomb threats were made to Navajo polling locations in Arizona.

And the exit polls in Arizona, the state with the highest Native population, said there wasn't enough Natives in their exit polls to provide data.

These 8-249 people self-identified as Native American. We know how often non-Natives claim to be Native. Their great great grandma is usually a Cherokee princess, but they often ask us how they can prove their ancestry. Because they can't prove it. Even if it were true, they're unlikely to admit that their great great grandpa was a 🍇 ist.

These polls were taken in 10 states, and are not a representative sample of Natives throughout the country.

Before allowing this invalid poll data to cause division, look at the actual election data from the precincts. We've never supported him in any election, and it didn't occur this year.

I would have preferred "statistically insignificant" to this instigatory and divisive mess.

And this is just one problem with Indigenous erasure. We exist. We are still here. We are still doing the work to protect the people and environment.

Historically and moving forward, Indigenous liberation is intertwined with Black American descendants of slavery. We are the groups of people who were most harmed by colonization of the US.

03/05/2024

There is no way to make missing my love any less horrible. But all of you friends and family who have been supporting us have been amazing and kind and thoughtful, and we want you to know-it really helps. Love you all.

Share Memories and Support the Family.

02/02/2024

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8Wccyos/

2292 likes, 119 comments. “NEW: Connecticut will become the first state to cancel medical debt for eligible residents, Gov. Ned Lamont announced exclusively Friday on Morning America. The state plans to erase approximately $1 billion in medical debt this year, with at least 250,000 residents...

01/07/2024

🫶🫶🫶

01/02/2024

I do psychological evaluations, consults, and therapy with autistic people, because I'm autistic, myself. I thought it might be an idea to discuss further how the DSM criteria differs from the autistic experience. The DSM is problematic in that it's ableist, and vaguely describes autistic traits.

12/25/2023

:: Mistletoe :: 🎄❤️🌿😘 Have you ever wondered why there’s a tradition to kiss someone beneath a twig of Mistletoe?

One of the earlier stories of this plant relates to the ancient times of Celtic Druids, who valued Mistletoe for its ability to bloom in the winter. The Mistletoe shrub would still flourish with its green leaves while the other trees were bare; to them, this represented everlasting life.

The Druids would remove Mistletoe from Oaks, which were considered sacred trees, with a golden sickle in a ceremony on the 6th day after the new moon. Mistletoe was valued as a remedy that ensured fertility, which might be the origin of the romantic tradition of kissing beneath the Mistletoe that has formed over the years.

Another story of Mistletoe comes to us from Norse mythology. F***g, the Goddess of Love, had a son, Baldur. Because he was prophesied to die, F***g secured an oath from all of the animals and plants that they would not harm him. Unfortunately, she forgot to consult with Mistletoe.

Loki, the God of Mischief, used an arrow made from the Mistletoe to kill Baldur. In one variation of the story, Baldur was resurrected from the dead. In celebration, F***g made Mistletoe into a symbol of love and gave all those who passed beneath it a kiss.💋

Even now, kissing underneath the Mistletoe is a popular tradition in many European countries and North America, and carries the promise of marriage, happiness, and long life. In the Middle Ages, there was a custom where one would pluck a berry beneath the Mistletoe for each kiss taken and finish once all the berries were gone. ❤️🌿🎄🌿❤️

𝑨𝒓𝒕: “𝑫𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒅𝒔 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒆,” 𝒃𝒚 𝑬𝒅𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑯𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒚 1890

11/15/2023

👀

11/07/2023

Gentle with yourself as you practice shedding shame. It, too, could be a trauma response. 🫶

11/05/2023

This is so beautiful and true. I would love to hear your stories of the power of tenderness someday.

“Tenderness is the most modest form of love. It is the kind of love that does not appear in the scriptures or the gospels, no one swears by it, no one cites it… It appears wherever we t…

09/25/2023

This is so interesting!

A new study finds the key role of bone in regulating the fight or flight response. In response to alarm signals from the brain, nerves within bone release osteocalcin, which immediately lowers the parasympathetic "brake" and lets the fight or flight response take over!

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-09-bone-adrenaline-flight-response.html

This research is no surprise to anyone that studies or works with fascia, the connective tissue network of the body that is especially dense around the muscles. Fascia is known to play a huge role in the fight or flight nervous system and is also continuous with bone.

Although we think of bone as "solid," 20% of it is actually water, and electrical charges and movement of this water transmits mechanical messages through bone, just like it does through fascia. In fact some scientists call bone "mineralized fascia."

According to a recent review article, "bone is part of the fascial continuum...that constantly transmits and receives mechano-metabolic information." https://www.cureus.com/articles/16943-bone-tissue-is-an-integral-part-of-the-fascial-system

It is fascinating to see how scientists are unravelling the complex interplay between the nervous and musculoskeletal systems!

09/15/2023