Everyone needs a vacation and you have a little vacation from Lumigrate while we were down for a while. I actually didn't have a vacation, I was busier than ever. I got to spend some quality time with my family "back home", which is precious to me since we are at a critical time with my aging father and with a new baby granddaughter via my sister's husband's daughter. I got to see my friends the previous month which was the only time for 2009, and had hoped to go back this week to see my best friend competing this week at the National Western Stock Show in Denver but needed to be back here "home" in Grand Junction, Colorado, as there were things going on here which were of interest to me for Lumigrate. In order to bring new information to you, I need to keep attending things which I find helpful. And there are many MANY conversations with people in the community here where I live and on the Internet (much of it through wonderFULL facebook) that I have to find the people and information that will fit with Lumigrate's model: Progressive, Valid, Streamlined, and FUN.
So I'll be writing more here soon about the neat group that came together with the leadership of two local men related to chronic fatigue (and related disorders such as fibromyalgia) which is following the Gupta Programme from London. Last night I attended another wonderful seminar by Dr. Christopher Lepisto (ND, seen here on Lumigrate.com videos) and Audrey Barrett, MSAOM, LAc (acupuncture and chinese medicine), "Food as Medicine -- Beyond Organics". This was at our local Natural Grocers, which in 2009 and years before was knows as Vitamin Cottage, and you'll see that Lumigrate launched with a link from our website to theirs because we're all such fans of them we simply wanted people to be directed to a resource we trust and use for products.
In 2009 we gained a really wonderful following of people who contribute by writing in the forum areas. The quality of what has been written there far exceeded my expectations for the website of a year ago when it was being discussed and built. Think of a website as having a baby -- it took about 9 month to be 'born' and then you have an idea how you want it to grow and 'be', but it's influenced by all the world around it! And it shouldn't surpise anyone that Lumigrate is 'organic'... which in this case isn't talking about food, but about changing. That's what the Forum areas are for! YOU have such a part in what takes shape in Lumigrate.com.
We created a Yenta in the Spirituality area which has been REALLY popular. You have NO idea how cool it is to get up and 'go to work' and look on the computer monitors to see what is going on the website and see all the neat things that people have contributed since I last looked, and when it's Yenta, I save it for 'later' when I feel I am deserving of a moment of balance for leisure and humor and 'insight'. We have another spiritual advisor/wise woman who is preparing information right now about what shifts to be preparing for and how what goes on inside of us extends to the outside world and vice versa. And Yenta's biggest fan, Tammy, who is injured right now, is putting the 'polish' on her area of expertise related to hand and foot and skin/nail care. There are hopefully others who are working on their contributions that I've not mentioned or checked in on lately. Please know everyone is welcome in the Forum areas and the concepts and 'sandbox code of conduct' hasn't really had to be posted or inforced, which has been a WONDERFUL thing. The quality of the people and information, as I have said, has been one of the most humbling and deeply satisfying accomplishments of my life. All I did was have an idea and cash in my poker chips to pay for all the legal and technical work to create Lumigrate, and with your help, it will become self-sustaining in a variety of ways that are coming to us all the time.
People have contributed amazing recipes and we didn't care what kind! Put what you enjoy there and we'll start our conversation there! I've really enjoyed seeing that aspect of the website develop. I like to think about the people who have chronic illness coming to Lumigrate to get information or leave theirs, and then enjoying reading the recipes section, because when you think about what brings people together in a house and at parites is the food area.
So it is with GRATE pleasure to announce that Deirdre Rawling, ND, PhD offered (after we hinted and held open the door), to be Lumigrate's primary nutrition consultant. She will, like anyone can, contribute her own writings and links to her sites (she has written Foods for Fibromyalgia among other things). My own eye doctor, a specialist in visual systems that don't work right from a brain basis, took an hour or two in the last day to kick off a new Forum about children's academic success (there is another forum sitting there for children and integrative medicine for others to write about related topics that come up, such as foods, lunches, play, spirituality, etc.). I Skyped today (with some fumbling and a rough start to the day on my end) with Cinda Crawford who is a year ahead of us with development and who is focused on impacting health through a technique she has developed which falls in the mind/body/spirit realm of integrative medicine so thus is a 'fit' with Lumigrate!
Locally, in her spare time, Liz Kennedy, who has a master's in nursing education, is working on ideas and information to help promote Lumigrate and integrative medicine locally and beyond. I have two local IT and marketing experts who believe in the concept of Lumigrate and who have been contributing their expertise when needed. And it was an incredible honor to be asked to be one of the first segments to be produced in the Chronic Pain Educational Documentary Series based upon my participation at the kickoff event in Berkeley in July of 2009. I have been helping to find bigger and better spaces for the popular seminars that are going on locally and hope that more of this information then can become available to you here or elsewhere in the future so that more quality progessive information gets to the people who want it.
Every person or organization has resources, which are 'time, energy, money', and they end up being interconnected. This was Lumigrate's first holiday and New Years since the website was up -- a year ago right now the videos were being edited and the web developer was building the website that you are now reading on and I am using to write this blog post. 2009 was an extremely expensive year in money with development costs. Our energy was good going into the year but waffled a bit when the concept of creating a non-advertiser website with people and businesses opting to purchase quality one-hour integrative medicine videos didn't take hold: people expect things to be free on the internet unless it is music and dating sites, at least in 2009.
The author of the new book 'Googled' has stated that nobody has been able to forsee what will and will not be accepted by Internet users for fees and it's continuing to evolve in 2010. That made me feel better: my consultant had said in 2008 that people were paying more for a movie download than going to rent a DVD that year so by 2009 my business model should work. I wanted to give people the opportunity to have a non-advertiser website of health information because then they KNOW the information isn't twisted to fit the needs of the sponsoring company. But systems take time to change, and while in the year or years to come I'm guessing people are going to say 'she was ahead of her time and on the frontier of a good thing', right now, the reality is, Lumigrate is fortunate to have ethical businesses which fit in the paradigm of 'integrative medicine' wanting to get on board with sponsoring us. And the reason is, they like the kind of people who come to our website and think we're a good source of business referral for them. And we couldn't have done that without each one of YOU.
And we need each one of YOU more than ever to continue to interact with the website -- read, write, and please tell others. That can be done in a variety of ways which we'll help people know about in future blog and forum area posts. So please leave your comments below if you want. Participate with us on facebook, follow us on Twitter.... and help keep the momentum we have going building!
Thank you ~~ Mardy
Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [1] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!
Links:
[1] http://twitter.com/lumigrate