<Michael's Stories | Martha's Stories | Shalom's Stories

Marketing Director & Son of Co-Founders Shalom Volchok shares his stories

Volchok children planting in 1987 (Shalom at right)
Reflections as I find my way It was hard growing up with a totally alternative lifestyle. One selected by my parents, one I did not understand.... Read more.	Our Burning Desire for Health by, Shalom Volchok Two decades ago my parents listened to their own craving for harmony with life. Without knowing their path or what that even meant they started a search, followed their hearts, and trusted themselves. They made mistakes along the way. They raised a family and started a business. My mother homeschooled all four of us. She was the herbalist, the visionary, the one with a great spirit. She had a deep intuition and a burning desire. She never even knew for what she was searching or what was leading her. What was leading her family. My father saw her spirit, trusted her heart, and had a great and powerful will. Together he protected her from the world, he manifested our lives and dealt with the outside, something told him it was right. He trusted. He didn't know where any of it was leading. But he felt it was right. He knew it was right. Together they created their own lives. Created a spot to raise their children. Laughed at by the world. Judged by family. Still they trusted themselves. Martha could feel what was right. She raised her children away from it all. They wanted to produce children that were individuals. Children who could shape their own lives. Children who would trust themselves. Children who would question what felt wrong. Children who would trust what felt right. Does life ever go to plan? No, life is difficult. But it always goes on. Twenty-three years after the birth of their fourth child, me, Shalom. I now sit here, blessed with my Mother's spirit, empowered with my Father's will. The next generation. I now see. I now feel. I understand why they chose the life they did. It's actually really cool. I spent the last eight years cursing them. Oblivious to why. They gave me something. I'm not completely sure of what it is or what it means. But I know the path I am on and I feel that path is leading me to share our lives and vision with you. In the last six months I have started to get a mental grasp on what their intuition has been leading them to do. Somehow I seem to be able to put that into print. I don't know exactly how but on this website you will see the result of our lives. Right now my parents are tired, exausted, and drained. The last 4 years have shown hard times to the entire herbal industry. Between 1995 & 1997 we experienced three huge boom years. The entire herbal market was falsely inflated by an influx of companies looking to take advantage of this new boom called "herbs". During this time retail sales of herbs in the United States went up. However, it did not nearly match the increase of new products and companies. A correction was imminent and it came without warning in 1998. Our company went from grossing 4 million dollars in 1997 to grossing 1 million in 1998. The fact we survived that first year is amazing and a great testament to the determination of my parents and the loyalty of our retail customer base and employees. Countless companies filed bankruptcy in 1998. The entire natural product industry suffered a similar correction. A 75% decrease in sales created some hard years for everyone. However, in the last two years the companies that survived, which generally are the ones that have been around for while, have been starting to pick back up. It's been slow, but real. During the last four years my parents have put a lot of energy into Blessed Herbs. It almost stopped being something they enjoyed. It became a grind just to get by. Martha's health, always weak, suffered even more. She wasn't able to give her own body the attention it needed. She fought T-Cell Lymphoma in her blood and Sarcoidosis in her lungs: both severe and life threatening diseases. Yet, she still gave any extra energy she had to Blessed Herbs, she had to. They supported Blessed Herbs with their own personal savings. There were often many months that Blessed Herbs could not even pay them. Yet they always found a way to keep it going. A year and a half ago I graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design, in Georgia. I had majored in Graphic Design but really had no idea what I wanted or could do with my life. I lived at home for that first summer and worked at Blessed Herbs. It turns out I've found a home in Blessed Herbs and I'm still here. In the last year we have been searching for a way to turn Blessed Herbs around. All of our energy has been directed towards the Internal Cleansing Kit. Martha spent eight months formulating it. Eight months fighting her own cancer and fighting to keep Blessed Herbs alive. My Father has been buried under the stress of trying to maintain what Blessed Herbs already is. Without their total effort it would have surely died three years ago. Today, we are ready to start a new phase for Blessed Herbs. I bring new energy and new lifeforce. My parents desperately need a rest and it is on me to give that to them. This website is the begining of that new phase. It is my intention to openly share our lives and Blessed Herbs with everyone I can reach. I am starting to understand my parent's vision. I hope to convey that to anyone who reads these pages. When I was a child, Blessed Herbs was formed as a way to support us in a way that was beneficial to the world. I now feel called to share with the world what my parents and Blessed Herbs have shown me. What I call, Desire for Health. Just what is "Desire for Health"? Webster and I define that as, a longing, wish, or craving for pure inner harmony. Desire for Health is a litany of cliches about finding oneself and following personal dreams. Has anyone ever reached a state of "pure inner harmony"? Who knows! It doesn't matter!!. Really one can never "reach" anywhere. Because wherever one is, they simply are! It REALLY doesn't matter!! The fun part is getting there. I hope I never reach the end, but I'll still try my hardest to get there. In trying I feel wonderfully alive. Everyday, I find out something new about myself!!! I'm always changing, adapting, learning, growing, and experiencing. It's not always painless. But I look at painful experiences as a way to learn more about myself. If I find out the problem within myself that is causing the pain or fear, then I can move on to the next thing. And I always find something to move onto next. It just doesn't end. And I LOVE IT. I REALLY REALLY love it. Sometimes I just jump up and down because I can hardly stand how amazing I find being alive. When one learns to listen to what is right for them, they begin to feed their own Desire for Health. When one begins to feel this desire burning within them, they are alive. The more it burns the more alive they are. I just gotta use one little cliche, as my mom used to say, "let your light shine, shine, shine". Ok, mom it BE shining and it's getting brighter and brighter everyday. And my eyes just watered writing that, not becuase I'm sad, but because I'm so - and words just don't convey it - I'm bursting with life. Sometimes I cry just because I'm in total AWE of life. Not just my life, but life in GENERAL. Just that we can walk across a room. That we can even have a room. Ok, just EXISTING is so totally cool. And there have been times in my life when I pondered suicide. I was trapped under emotions, boxed inside myself, hiding behind self imposed walls, unable to even KNOW that I had a light. Now, wowzer (if I was dead I couldn't make up words!) anyway, WOWZER life is constantinopily, unfathonably, zingo, bingo, bongo: WOWZER. What can I say? That is how I describe my Desire for Health. In this website I want to have fun. I want Blessed Herbs to be fun. I want EVERYONE to have fun. I want it to be REAL. This IS me. This is my life. Share it, take it, reject it, use it; I'm just having a great time. I LOVE life and everyone out there. Because, I think people are bingo, bango, zingo, wowzer. Ok, I'll get practical. Desire for Health is really a way of looking at life. It's an operating model that is extraordinarily adaptable to the individual. It allows for all beliefs and all ways of thought. Whatever one's religion or background may be, whatever their current or future way of life. It will fit in this model. This model is a combination of two things. All of it's content comes from the vast wisdom and experience Martha has gained through a life of natural healing and following her intuition. The second is the actual structure of this model which is a product of my intuitive understanding of my mother's teachings presented in a way I feel expresses her and can be understood by all. All of this is encompassed by the simple phrase: Desire for Health. Thanks mom & dad!! The most important part is learning to feel and trust one's own body and inner voice. We feel the first step on this path to health is to free one's inner energy with the Internal Cleansing Kit. Once this energy is freed one will be much more in touch with their own inner voice and connection to all of life.