It’s exactly one year since I had a massive heart attack and double cardiac arrest (and no, I’m not originally from Gallifrey), which was triggered by food poisoning from some badly-stored sushi. Everything in my life (other than finances…oh well) has gotten better since then; even my outlook on life, but especially my health, since I finally got the message and have been exercising and taking far better care of myself.

But nobody will ever be able to convince me that there’s nothing inherently special about  the anniversaries of certain dates. Whether it’s the universe reminding you, or your subconscious playing tricks on you, things really happen.

For instance, yesterday morning my wife pulled some ground beef out of the refrigerator and mixed it with rice for a quick lunch before going to work. Last night, she came home and informed me that she had been barfing half the day at work due to food poisoning from the ground beef, which we then realized had been sitting there for at least two or three weeks. She hadn’t remembered what day it was on the Cosmic Calendar, but I quickly realized that she had probably saved my life by eating it herself.

And then I couldn’t fall asleep last night, in spite of being mentally tired and hitting the vape as usual as few times. I sniffed the contents of my trusty MFLB and it still seemed fresh. But it clearly wasn’t working, so I dumped it into my little AVB container and filled it with some random stuff I found in a container.

Three o’clock in the morning and you really want to get to sleep as soon as possible, so I hit it four or five times to make sure it would work. But, you know, medical patients like me should be a bit more careful than that with their medicine, even if it is late and they’re tired. Because I almost instantly started feeling way too high, a bit nauseous, cold and clammy, and generally the kind of feelings that lead up to a heart attack.

Then I flashed on the idea that this was Karma’s way of telling me that I had only been given another year, exactly, to live, and if I hadn’t finished what I had in mind, too bad because this was all there was and I blew it.

That’s the kind of thinking that can kill you, or at least kill me, because I have a bit too much of a mind-body connection at times like this. But long years of experience saved me again: I went into our bedroom and informed my wife I was freaking out, and she was able to help calm me down and reassure me that my skin was actually not overly cold, warm, clammy, or anything. I ran the stopwatch app on my phone, which showed I was having precisely a 3-to-1 time distortion. My pulse was normal…but my mind was warped by ingesting too much sativa too fast, just like I warn all the saplings about.

And, as usual, after about 15 minutes, the worst of it had passed. I was still way too high and agitated to attempt sleep, so I watched a movie and then konked out until my alarm rang, but I did have some wacky dreams, THC or no THC!

So if you’ve read to the end of this little story today, thank you. You’ve hopefully learned a few things. And as part of my celebration for being alive, today I’m announcing the publication of my first book on medical marijuana. AdvENTures With Cannabis Edibles is based on the kind of stories I’ve written about here on Beyond Chronic and includes many handy recipes as well. And, just today, I’m making it available free for the Kindle, which means you can not only read it on your Kindle, but also on your iPad, iPhone, Android phone, Mac, PC, or any other device that has a Kindle app available to it.

Enjoy the book, and enjoy life as if any day could be your last…because you never know.