Have you noticed that
Some people’s lives
seem blessed while others
Seem overdosed with pain?
Everyone has it
You know…
Grief, pain.
But some find a cure
And it dissipates,
while others struggle on.
So many positive things in life
I AM thankful – MANY days.
But some days when the sky caves in
I simply must be a bit thankful
that only HALF of it came down
where I now stand.
For those looking for a good diet there are many out there and many of us are fighting those few pounds (or lots, in my own case!) to get back to a healthy comfortable weight. There is one weight loss program that no one needs to consider, though. In my last few years the basic stress in my life has doubled, or tripled and though until the past year there was no noticeable change in my life even though I seemed to eat more as the stress level grew. But about 9 months ago for what ever reason the reverse in size and weight began happening at a rapid pace. Add to the melting process, the fear of, “Why in the world am I losing so much?” drove the stress level up.
After consulting my doctor and having some tests done we both agreed that the loss was due to the ever present tension in my life. As I worked to eliminate that elephant in my life one thing did not change – the weight loss. It kept coming off. But off course as you work on one tension, more surface so though I felt some of the stressers going others were charging forward. As I faded down 2 full sizes and then three I began to run out of clothes to wear from my closet. Like many who change weights I had my size layers in that small space I call my closet, and all of a sudden I had almost nothing to wear. In fact until I level off, I am living in one pair of jeans and only a few shirts!
So what the in the next months and years are for me is a mystery, but instead of facing it with fear, I am beginning to face it with a sense of wonder. I mean who else can lose almost 40 pounds in 6 to 9 months (Sometimes up to five pounds a month!) at the age of 62! I am stepping into a new life at a new weight – whatever it ends up being. I am changing my diet and amounts that I use to eat to work at keeping the weight off and taking it all one step at a time! It’s a strange walk for me, but I am doing it!
Life is never easy….but if you look carefully you can always find it full of beauty that can get you through any major, or minor catastrophe!
America has become obsessed with the food from around the world and have take it to the crazy degree that fresh is king – which is great for those monied few who no matter the season can afford. I’m not mocking the craze because we all need good cooking, and veggies to our diets. Food is the center of every home, and of course we often eat boxed lunches at work. But it usually isn’t very fresh. So how can you do both? Well one way that is quite common along ALL U.S. coastlines – it’s the fabulous food trucks. If you don’t believe it check out the show Eat Street on the Cooking Network! But the small towns in the Midwest have somehow lost out on this often chef driven food that is above and beyond in taste.
So why have we missed out on this food phenomenon? One of the reasons has to be the MANY food laws that are different in both towns, cities, counties, and townships. Though there are reasons of health food laws are necessary I certainly wish they State could get together on the laws to facilitate the food trucks that populate our nations big cities! If you think I am a foodie, you’re right. Good food from all over is a great way of sharing our cultures.
The great thing about food trucks is it expands ANY local food scene and keeps all the area restaurants on their toes. So why are they seen as a passing fancy? They have certainly been around for ages as much as fast food has been and have fed people around the world. if you think of food in the Asian world you see food being sold out of little family restaurants or off carts and bicycle driven trucks. People KNOW the good ones and always frequent the very best ones.
But one of our biggest communities in West Michigan has a strong history of the food vehicle lunch. The Hispanic food found here comes from so many cultures within these communities, and I would love to see great food trucks in our business districts as well as downtown in the cities along Michigan’s West Coast. Is this a cultural need in our area? Probably not. I it something that might expand our lives as well as our tourist base? Oh, YES!
Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite poets, but definitely not for the usual reasons. In many of the poems she penned she bristles and chafes at the societal confines for women and not always so gently! Between the lines and often brazenly spoken there are many feelings tucked away or hidden and just barely peeking through as a kitten might be in a afghan. But read through a poem more than once and you can get a sense of the unquiet and almost painful reality pointed out, but ever so carefully hidden. Other times she’s almost the modern-day feminist who is yelling at the world, too.
She can certainly be painful in her views of life and society around her and though well said, her un-rhyming and often un-rhythmic line and meter bites as much as her simple rather harsh descriptions of death and life can be disconcerting. Over the years the poems and Emily herself, can be smoothed over and not allowed to shine through as she is. Even in death her true light has been often softly covered so that the harshness is not easily seen.
One of the poems that has captured my heart and mind from the first time I read it with an elementary school teacher who tried so hard to make it rhyme and “sound good,was I’m Nobody Who Are You. While the words seem inclusive, the idea of a conspiratorial we (the poet and another person, perhaps a friend) who share a sort of togetherness in being that nobody. I rather think that the painfully feelings shared through the words, her words, are more centered on her aloneness in her time and world because though lightly said, the painful depths are very present, and the feelings expressed seems more the, “me, myself, and I,” rather than a, unknown we than a shared confidence. I can vouch for the way it grabbed my sixth grade heart, and still does at times even today.
In this day of isolated technologies where face to face can be frightening and kindness shown among teens as well as many adults in our culture is in short supply, this poem can still painfully resonate. (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15392)
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag,
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards,
One blow from caving in? Katy Perry, Firework
Have you heard the song? Do you know the feelings? I do, and have much of my life. The sad thing, is many of our young people are today too because they can’t make the grade and after being beat up emotionally they feel suicide is the only way because of bullying and belittling. It’s deeply painful and real and it shreads a kid’s self worth to the point that there only seems one way out.
“So, I hear you saying so what can I do?” ”I don’t know any kids that are feeling that way!” Well, there is something you CAN do! When you see those young people behind the counter in the restaurants and stores you frequent smile, make an honest compliment – be the bright spot in their day!
How about volunteering at your local library or school for an hour a month to read books, or go to your local school and be a tutor for a kid who needs help reading – reach out and be there.
Maybe just give one kid what you never got as a kid! Light the fire of confidence by being you – be kind, be caring and be your own firework!!
This gallery contains 5 photos.
Milkweed pods are some of my favorite wildflowers here in Michigan. These have been beautiful as they settled into my wildflower garden this year and they have been such a beautiful fall plant as well. These lovely pods were just one of the many! Oh how I love the fall months!
This year the garden was lovely in my yard. And as the fall descended with the freezing temps and brown leaves came this one last surprise. On what seemed to be a dead vine one last flower of the season. Funny thing is, this is a spring blooming clematis!
This is definitely my little miracle for the fall this year!
Today I saw an angel wing dip slowly toward our earth. Its color shone against the sky like lightening it held my eye. And as it rose It took up one to rise a moment and reach the sky for one solitary moment. Breathtaking.
Touching the Heavens
Touching the Heavens
If you love Sherlock Holmes check out the new interpretation in the television program Elementary on CBS. I loved Johnny Lee Miller from an early show Eli Stone and he has really captured the angst as well as the pain just below the surface of this complicated character that we know as Holmes. He does a fabulous job with those complicated quirky characters, and he has made Holmes totally his own. Lucy Liu as Joan Watson is a grand foil who also is sharp in her deep understanding of who this man, Sherlock, really is and they are fabulous to watch as the stories play out. Add to this a fabulous actor, Aidan Quinn, with a long history of fabulous acting, and you have a fabulous ensemble cast that I can see sticking around for a LONG time!
Do take time to check out this winner!!
Written
on November 16, 2012