Bonjour la gagne!

Its been a while but I am resurfacing on the other side of my hubby's radiation treatments. Toute finis!

Brian where did your signature quote come from? Is it your own? Everytime I see it I respond very personally to it, I guess its the art teacher in me. With your permission I would love to add it to my email and twitter accounts. ' The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant'.

I ordered from BioXtra from a sympathetic fellow, I ordered a box of twelve oral gel and the price went from 10.99 to 5.00$/bottle and a box of twelve oral gel spay and the price went down to 3.00$/bottle. They threw in a free moistening mouth wash and gentel toothpast which by the way has fluoride!

The ingredients are listed (as well as their purpose) in the frequently asked section. They list four enzymes and three are the exact same as the old Biotene formula. (Glucose oxidase, lysozyme, lactoferrin) (also immunoglobulin-protein antibodies and colostrum-antibacteria)

I aslo ordered one of each product from perioscience but am worried about the fact that the ingredients are based around antioxidents. I do not know if my worry is founded, only that there was a resent PubMed study linking antioxidents supplements to blocking the immune system's response to cancer. I might just use that product myself. http://www.m.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20140129/could-antioxidants-speed-up-cancer-progression

Let me know what you think, oh and I will post my husband's thoughts on BioXtra once we get them.

One of my many mentors in my private sector life said it to me, and like you, it stuck to me.

I like it because in all things we essentially live a life of service if we are to find true meaning in our short time here. Service is a broad description, and reaches far away from what we think of here on these boards, or at the foundation. It doesn't matter if you are a sales manager at a big pharma company ( I was at the time I think); even then you have to guide your team, define the lay of the land, not as you wish to see it, but as it really is. Define your opportunities and obstacles, big and small, almost insurmountable like Goliath, or flicked away with an effortless gesture like a gnat on your sleeve; and you need to define the journey itself, from where you are to where they need to go. You have to teach and support them and facilitate their successes, not your own - as that is a by-product of theirs and will come in due time.

At the end of the process you have to acknowledge that nothing we accomplish in life is done just through our own efforts. We are standing on the shoulders of those that came before us, that figured things out that we added to, that broke the ground so our efforts could be more productive. To those people, and to the people on your team, if you receive any accolades at all, you need to remember to thank them for helping you, and making your journey even possible. I alone was OCF for so many years, until I was slowly able to surround myself with caring people and help them realize their own successes, in coming back from a disease, or guiding them in their helping others on the journey themselves.

There are so many examples in this life, but I am always turned off my the "self made man" concept. He doesn't exist. No one excels in a vacuum of pure individualism or thought. But those are not my words in the quote, they just resonate with me, and been proven true, in what I have learned from building companies to building a non-profit. I did little of it alone, and I never take credit for any of it without acknowledgement of my own facilitators and supporters, without whom OCF would not even exist. Not the least of them is my wife who let me sell the beach house in Laguna, that we could never afford to buy again, to gather together the seed money to start things that would become OCF many years ago. Her going back to work for the last 14 years has made it possible for me to work without compensation at OCF and follow my passion. That is (on this valentines day) the epitome of true love.

So please feel free to use it, it is not mine, and I hope it resonates with others who will buy into the message.

Brian, you, your wife, and all the OCF team who dedicate themselves here are jewels in the hearts of so many. A source of strenght and brilliance, an insperation to all to become part of something greater than themselves. My husband was instrumental to my own realization. In his deepest hour of need, when all I could do was hold him he turned to me and said, 'I want to give'. I felt a sense of relief as I knew he had somehow found meaning through his suffering and I replied, 'I will support you in all of you aspire'. He ignited something profound in me both through his own realization and the pains and joys that we shared.

A big thank you to the OCF and all the sholders it stands on!

So well said, Brian - and Sophie, your words brought back to me that same difficult time in my son's recovery - that very low point in his suffering, when all I could do was reach over and hold him in my arms, hoping he could feel some of the strength and love that I had received from everyone at OCF, and know that we could survive whatever the future brought to us. Thank you to all at OCF who made that possible!

Its so true Anne-Marie, the support each person gets when they land in this forum is astounding and beautiful. There is true camaraderie, hope and desires shared here which makes a world of difference when you are terrified and going through the thick of it all.
Sophie :O))

Brian Your message has already started to resonate with others. I sent your post to my daughter who teaches leadership classes for Knoxville Police Dept and this is what she replied (colon here)
quote mark
Thanks for sending me this. I have read it several times and continue to understand it better and find new meaning each time. Last week while in the class in Nashville we were told that leadership is the abandonment of self interest. I think this says it much better and his (Brian's) explanation says it much better. Since he does say that it can be borrowed, I think I will use it as a personal mantra and for when I teach others about leadership. end quote

PS diacritical marks left out and message shortened because the Gremlin Glitch got me with blank message.

I'm continually astounded with all we learn here not only about Biotene and oral cancer, but many things that go way beyond and have the power to continually inform and encourage and improve others' lives.

I have lived a charmed existence mostly, one in which others saw something in me they thought worthy of nourishing and mentoring, something which I did not see or feel myself. Some of them were really extraordinary, visionary leaders, without any qualifiers put on that definition. You can always sense when you are in the company of one. Those real leaders can help us overcome our own shortcomings, our complacency, our individual selfishness, our weakness and deepest fears (especially of failure); and lead us to accomplish better things than we could do were we not in their presence. They inspire us to excel, to try harder by their unspoken life example, their charisma and confidence. Their company and attitude is infectious, and contagious. You want to excel in their presence. Leadership is a quality that is difficult to put a finite definition on, but when you are around it you most certainly recognize it, perhaps in a very subliminal way. It has nothing to do with social status, authority, or rank, something anyone who has been in the military can tell you.

More stripes on a uniform or stars on a shoulder do not make leaders. But there are those in the field that you intrinsically are drawn to and wiling to follow into the gates of hell. You know who they are when you are around them. They are not necessarily higher rank than you, but men follow their lead without hesitation when things get hot. Universally I have found them humble, eager to applaud your successes, which often it seems in retrospect, you would not have been achieved without their facilitation or guidance.

Leadership is an interesting topic, and few agree on what it actually is. To some it is just a person that can get others to accomplish a task. If you have read this far you know I am not a believer in that school of thought. I am not even sure that it can be taught, though books abound on the subject of leadership. I am however sure, that certain principles of leadership can be applied by those of use without the natural charisma that inspires others, and to that end I still aspire to learn more about being one. OCF, if it is ever to be truly extraordinary, needs volunteers, people vested in the cause, people motivated to help others behind them on this path, and so much more. Without leadership those people will not participate, and without them, OCF will not be the vehicle of change that I always have hoped it would be.

Ok, well. All of these posts by Brian and others have been inspiring and encouraging and I've enjoyed reading them. With utmost respect, if folks don't mind, I'd like to diverge back to the original thrust of the thread for just a bit.

To wit:

I have been using The Natural Dentist All in One Fluoride toothpaste 5 oz. for maybe 3 weeks now. Ordered it online from (I think) drugstore.com. And I hope it's good in the long term because I ordered 5 of the suckers.

It foams up a bit more than Biotene but has a fresh cinammon-y taste, not my personal favorite but I'm getting used to it. Feels pretty good and I'd give it the thumbs up so far. In a month I'm going in for a teeth cleaning, and it happens that the hygenist I go to is in fact a dentist herself so I'll definitely be asking her opinion.

That's it for today.

I hope to have some samples this week of the new product. I think initially there will only be a few tubes, for OCF's initial impression, but the idea was that we would get about 50 if that went well to have others try. Obviously those in this thread will be the target for those extra sample tubes. Will keep you advised.