Oh, what a joyous time it is to welcome the holidays once again.
My favorite cartoon special, Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown, is on the horizon, and I can’t help but wonder which cartoon or movie sparks fond holiday memories for you.
My favorite holiday song, This Christmas by Donny Hathaway, is cued up too. And for the first time this year, as nights grow longer and opportunities for fires to burn brightly ensue, something begins to soften.
Family time, filled with love, light, and laughter, can’t be far away.
What a blessing we all get to experience each year, a quiet reminder that moments of happiness still await us.
So much to be thankful for… don’t you agree?
On low heat, begin heating 1 cup of your favorite organic milk and ¼ to ½ cup of your favorite organic unsweetened creamer.
Add a dollop of Miyoko’s organic vegan butter and a pinch or two of pink salt.
After the butter dissolves, add organic dairy-free cocoa or cacao powder in the recommended amount on the package. (Dr. H note: I typically ignore the recommended amount and sprinkle until it feels right.)
As the milk, creamer, butter blend heats up, you’ll see the powder start to dissolve without whisking yet, that’s your cue to start whisking.
Add optional seasonings like cinnamon, chili powder, cloves, or even organic plant-based protein powder.
Heat to your desired temperature, then turn off the heat.
Add 1–3 scoops of raw organic honey and whisk it in. (Add honey last to preserve as much glucose oxidase as possible.)
Spice and sweeten to taste, remember it’s hot, let it cool a little.
Sip your way into hot honey chocolate heaven.
Owner and Founder of
Energetic Health Institute
Just as Memorial Day signals the unofficial start of summer, so does Christmas signal the unofficial start of the holiday Season.
It’s a season filled with so many people, so many parties, and so many choices.
And what bigger choice for the health conscious than this one…
To indulge, or not to indulge, that is the question!
Many years ago, following a wonderful Christmas, I found myself back in the classroom, teaching nutrition to about 50 or so amazing students.
Before class began, one of my favorite students walked up to the front of the classroom. I was standing there, organizing my thoughts by staring blankly into the dry erase board… still distracted by the bliss of my most recent memories.
So kindly, she interrupted my fixation on the blank white board.
“Dr. H, do you have a minute?”
“Of course!” I said, turning around, happily freed from the task of ineffectually creating an interesting lesson for the night.
“Dr. H, you would be SOOOO proud of me.”
“Oh really? Why so, Healer?”
“I went to my grandmother’s for Christmas and didn’t eat any of it because it wasn’t organic!”
Now, it’s natural for a student to seek the praise of their teacher.
It’s a good thing.
It’s something that reveals a precious bond has formed, one that can last a lifetime when properly nurtured.
Still, as a teacher… I felt a deep ache in the pit of my stomach. A great sadness overcame me, and I knew I had failed her in some way.
As I sat with that feeling, before I could collect my thoughts to respond, my student continued on, so innocently pleased with herself.
“My grandma had been cooking my favorite recipes from the old world for days and days.”
“The old world?” I interjected.
“Yeah!” she said. “My grandma flew in all the way from Italy to spend the holidays with us this year, and she insisted on making Christmas dinner for the entire family.”
My heart sank even further than I thought it could.
All I could picture was this little old, sweet, sweet grandma—stirring pot after pot of pastas and sauces with her weathered, arthritic hands. Standing all day, making family recipe after family recipe.
Her only wish: to see her family eating all the food she had infused with so much love.
“It smelled SOOOO good too, Dr. H,” my student continued. “As soon as I walked into the house, it was SOOO hard not to eat anything. You have no idea.”
I actually had no idea what I had said—or taught—that would make this student, or any other, decide not to eat at Christmas.
I’m very bad at hiding how I feel… my face simply isn’t able to conceal what’s in my heart. And finally, my student stopped talking long enough to notice my expression.
“What’s wrong, Dr. H?”
An awkward silence filled the space between us as I searched frantically for how to make this right—without injuring our bond or dampening her enthusiasm for learning.
Clearly, this was my fault.
“Come on outside with me, Healer…” I said, forcing a softened smile.
Outside, the brisk desert air hit us, and I did what I always do… I started asking questions.
“Is your grandma still in town?”
“Yeah…”
“How far away is she from school?”
“She’s at my parents’ house, about 30 minutes away.”
“Can you call her right now?”
“I can call my dad. He’s at home, I think.”
“Okay. Give him a call and see if you can talk with her.”
“But why? What do you want me to say?”
“Healer, imagine that you’ve lived most of your life,” I said gently. “Imagine that the only real joy you have at this point is being with your family.”
“Okay.”
“Now imagine that your family lives in another country, far away. And that you don’t know how many more times you’ll get to see them.”
“Okay…”
“Imagine that all you wanted to do was cook for them—and see them all eating everything you made. And that you did all of this after flying halfway around the world to do it.”
And then it hit her…
“Oh my God!”
“Yeah, Healer,” I said softly. “And let me guess… you’re her favorite too?”
Almost in tears, she got it.
“Dr. H, I gotta go! I gotta go apologize to my grandma!”
“Go, Healer,” I said. “Don’t worry about class tonight. I’ll mark you as present.”
The next week, my student told me about all the wonderful non-organic food she ate that night with her grandma—and all the organic food her grandma began making for her, and with her, throughout the week. She shared how happy her grandma was just to spend that time together.
A family is something built around food.
Healers, remember this… there is a time to indulge, just as there is a greater time to embrace your staples and be disciplined with your preferred dietary choices.
The Holidays—with family, and with so much love in the foods we eat—are the time to indulge.
If you’re worried, okay… bring your digestive enzymes with you. Have your bentonite clay and psyllium ready for when the indulgence is over in the next day or two.
Remember that love can transform food into medicine, when you believe that it can.
How?
Because all sweetness comes from love.
Of course, I will encourage you during this time to minimize your indulgent days exclusively to Christmas and the days in December that you celebrate your Holiday.
I may even encourage you to add a few extra here and there during this wonderful time of year—knowing that you have your enzymes, and cleansing can start in January if you really want to… as I so often do.
And for certain, I will encourage you to enjoy your holidays with honey more than refined sugar as often as you can.
But even more than this, I will encourage you, dear healer, to eat the foods that have been made with love—and to do so without guilt. Because the real poison isn’t the infrequent indulgences we choose to explore…
The real poison is the guilt we inflict upon ourselves when we mistakenly think of perfection as never doing anything wrong—when, in fact, perfection doesn’t limit itself. Perfection includes making mistakes, as well as making indulgent choices from time to time. Especially when those choices are made with love, from someone who loves you.
Dr. Henry L. Ealy is the founder of the Energetic Health Institute. A Healer in the truest sense of the word, and one that goes by many names. Professionally, he is known as Dr. Henele, an honor bestowed upon him by a Kahuna Lapa’au on the island of Kaua’i in 2001. To his wonderful students, he is lovingly referred to as Dr. H. And on Jan 5, 2022, through a crystal clear vision, he was anointed in the Eternity of God as Walis which translates to ‘Friend of God’. No matter which name you prefer, who he is remains the same…a devoted being of light, walking the straight way, and doing God’s work with his heart always in the right place.
