Where to start?

I didn't expect starting a new blog would be so complicated. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. Introduce myself, my subject matter, give a little info and voila! A blog is born!

However, it's not proven to be that simple. Starting with the introduction. My name is Lisa Janine Cloud (well, legally it's still Blackerby, but that's temporary and another story altogether). Up until I moved to Houston about 12 years ago, I went by Janine except for the first day of school and at new doctors' offices and the like, where I was called Lisa because it is, of course, my first name.

A funny thing happened just before I left my county of birth and moved to the Big City. I had an injury that required long-term medical treatment--not serious, it just took a while to heal--and I didn't immediately tell the nurses that I preferred to be called Janine. That meant the prescriptions and associated paperwork all listed my name as Lisa so I started to become conditioned to going by Lisa.

Then I started job hunting in Houston, and for the first time in my life had to interview more than once to find a job. (I don't mean that to sound egotistical, but it's true. My first two jobs I got from the first interview, and the next two I literally walked in as a customer and was offered a job.) I didn't realize how repetitive it got to have to keep saying "I go by Janine" until I had to do it several times and the first time I went into an interview and didn't tell the person interviewing me to call me Janine, I got the job. So I became Lisa.

Then came the internet. Because I was used to writing my name as Lisa at work, when I got online and started posting at various places, I didn't even think about how to sign posts on websites, I automatically typed Lisa, if I used my real name at all. I did go through a bit of an identity crisis, because Lisa has a much different vibration than Janine, but I got over it and became used to being Lisa at work, Janine at home and with family, and either Angelhawk (AH for short)or Koolaid Kid (or KK for short) at the two main sites I frequented.

Then came Facebook. You see where I'm going with this? In order to be visible to old friends and classmates who knew me as Janine, I listed my name as Lisa Janine. Because I've got several eras of friends all together, I have some who call me Lisa and some who call me Janine. Others take the easy way out and either call me LJC or LJ, or revert to AH or KK. (Then there's my cousin PK who sometimes calls me JC.)

So there's my dilemma. When simply deciding how to introduce myself becomes so complicated, how on earth do I expect to present other information clearly and concisely?

But that's what I intend to do here. I've studied and worked with natural health and alternative healing for over 20 years, and while I am not a doctor, nor am I officially certified in anything, I have gathered a wealth of knowledge over the years that I will share here and that I hope will be helpful to others. In this world and time of instant information, it's often difficult to discern what's true and what's not, what's helpful and what's harmful, what's healthy and what's dangerous. I don't claim to be an expert, but I do seem to have a talent for explaining things in a way that I've been told is useful and informative. I certainly hope you'll find that to be true.

In future posts I'll be discussing everything from natural healing, supplements and herbal remedies to the latest news from the world of medicine, and whatever else I feel drawn to present for examination and discussion. I'm happy to answer what questions I can, and if I don't know something, I'll tell you I don't know it and will try to find the answer.

Be forewarned, though, that I have a quirky sense of humor and my posts may seem to be rather...snarky...at times. I truly believe that while love heals all, laughter is the best medicine.

So it's begun.