Try this little quiz. Guaranteed to surprise you about which foods have the most calories. I only got 50% correct. Let me know how you did.
Blogroll
Book Reviews
Books
Food
Inspiration
Politics
Religion and Philosophy
Stories
Travel
Category Archives: Health
I just returned from across the street. It is a bitter sweet moment. My friend Raymond is headed for the local Care Center. Ray has Alzheimer’s. Mary has cared from him wonderfully for the past two years, during which he has gradually become more and more debilitated. I wrote more in detail about this in a post on a personal blog called Candleman. For now, suffice it to say, she is at once, broken hearted and relieved. His care has become a huge burden. She had Home Health come in each morning to help get him up and bathed. Still she called me most days and sometimes twice to help her get him off the floor after he’d slid out of his chair, or for some other problem. I loved doing it. She loved caring for him too. Inevitably though, it became more than she could do.
I am 57 this year. Not all that old, but I live in an older neighborhood full of wonderful folks from the generation previous to mine. I see this kind of thing a lot. Down the street lived a couple I visited frequently. She had diabetes which resulted in the amputation of both of her feet. He was strong and able and determined to keep her home and care for her. Whether it was the stress or not, who knows, but suddenly he became very ill and could no longer care for her. They found a space in a rest home for her after an arduous search, but it was 90 miles from here and became an added hardship.
One more story; there are dozens. A younger friend I visit is bed-fast with MS. His dear wife has cared for him for years. Recently though, he has developed a bed sore that won’t heal. It has been determined that the sore has to be surgically removed. Recovery will require him to spend some time in a Care Center as well. Fortunately he will be able to be near home during his recovery.
These things happen and have me a bit concerned. I’ve done a little research into this and found an excellent web site focused on caring for friends and family in these difficult circumstances. I have discovered discovered a resource for finding care homes. Bettercaring has information on methods and equipment and resources for assistance in the care of your loved one. There is advice on money issues. They will help you find services and facilities near you. My favorite part is their forum, where you can communicate with other care givers. You’ll discover you’re not alone, learn ways to give better care, and learn to care for yourself along the way.
Clearly there are burdens and challenges associated with care giving. But there is joy, love, companionship, satisfaction and peace in it too. I have not been a primary care giver, but watching so many who are or have been, my sympathy and concern is often greater for them. Bettercaring has masterfully addressed care of the care giver as well.
I just read great article in the Christian Science Monitor that really opened my eyes. Imagine the enormous good we would do the planet if we all observed the Sabbath! Give the earth a rest every seven days. It would be good for us and enormously good for the environment.
Personally, I don’t know how I’d survive if I didn’t observe a weekly day of rest. It is not a hard concept, but greed and public demand have taken that away from many of us. Recently, my sweet sister-in-law, upon hearing that the local Walmart was 200 people short of a full staff, suggested that they close the store on Sunday. It was a brilliant idea! The existing staff is stressed enormously to keep up a busy store. A day off would reduce the time demand significantly, allow the staff to catch their breath and all without reducing the sales volume significantly at all. People would just shop on the six remaining days.
I have a friend who moved from Brigham City, Utah to Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. I asked him what the biggest shock he experienced as a result of the move to a much larger city. His reply shocked and shamed me. “In Evanston, all of the stores are closed on Sunday!”
Many of our youth are kept away from church, family and much needed rest, on the Sabbath because the only entry level jobs around, require working on Sunday. How much harm do we do them by this one solvable problem.
We could improve life on so many fronts if we’d just keep this simple commandment. Of course, the solution begins with each of us individually. If we don’t shop, travel, and dine out on Sunday, the establishments that cater to us won’t be able to justify staying open. It’s easy to think that my personal effort in that regard won’t make a difference. Each vote does count. And, we can do more, we can encourage others to join us.
This new environmental approach, gives me hope that we can gain some political clout in the quest for change, as well. The environment is a big deal these days. Simply keeping this one principle would do more for the environment than all the other efforts combined! It would be healthy, inexpensive, realistic and would bring imediate results! Let’s start pushing for it!
Big business will resist, of course! Just like the wealthy plantation owners and shipping giants in Britain, in the 18th Century, resisted the abolishment of the slave trade. But like the abolition of slavery, keeping the Sabbath Holy, is the right thing to do and it can prevail, if we insist upon it.
Not long ago I had a conversation with a close friend. During our talk my friend complained that he wasn’t happy. He went on to explain that he had been certain that when he’d earned his first million, he would be happy. When happiness, didn’t come he set his sights on ten million. (We’re talking dollars here.) When $10 million left him feeling empty and unsatisfied, he continued on, seeking happiness through the pursuit of yet more money.
By comparison, I have little money, yet I feel happy most of the time. I’ve spent a good deal of time of late considering this situation and pondering the essence of joy. I thought I might spend the next year or so contemplating, reading, searching and sharing my discoveries about the nature of Joy!
My quest is to understand what it takes to experience joy at it’s fundamental level. I’m speaking of the kind of joy that under-girds and over-arches all else that transpires in our lives. I’ve seen people in abject poverty in the Philippines, who radiated contentment and joy beyond my personal comprehension. I’ve witnessed a very old man, living joyfully beside his invalid wife, despite unbelievable hardship, burden and lonely sorrow. I have seen children in abusive homes, radiate joy, completely unreflective of the difficult lives they are compelled to live. I want to know, what it is, that makes such joy, even in the face of hardship, so radiantly possible.
I don’t have all the answers. I’m not writing here as any kind of authority on the subject. As I blog about joy, I hope others will join in the conversation so all who participate in this project may learn and move toward that fundamental joy that seems impervious to the difficulties and sorrows that are so prevalent in our world.
I saw an advertisement for one of these and felt a bit of resentment when they claimed the car was 100% polution free. This is most certainly a false claim in that there is polution involved in the car’s production and also in producing the energy required to compress the air. Even so, it will clearly produce less polution combustion engines and represents some very imaginative thinking.
My Kudos go the the inventers and, as usual, not to the marketers, who like politicians, seem entirely unfettered by truth.
My brother has long begged me to watch this movie. It was filmed in 1921. The movie follows Nanook and his family as they live their lives in one of the harshest places on earth. To me, the most remarkable thing is their obvious heartfelt joy!
This is just a bit of the movie. I found it in its entirety, at our local library. It is interesting, compelling, startling and at a fundamental level, inspiring.
Here’s some wonderful food for reflection!
Here’s a great list of Cholesterol reducing foods. Thing is, I like this stuff!
-
Whole grains and oats
-
Blueberries
-
Pistachios
-
Almonds
-
Walnuts
-
Avocados
-
Olives
-
Olive Oil
-
Flaxseed Oil
-
100% Cranberry-Grape Juice
-
Fish, Fish Oil
-
Black Soybeans
-
Pomegranate Juice
-
Yogurt with live active cultures
I have suffered from chronic Adultitis, off and on, for years now. I began to suspect the magnitude of the problem when I started reading Robert Fulghum. In one of his books he mentions visiting a Kindergarten class and asking how many could, sing, draw, dance, etc. To every question, the answer was a resounding, “I can!”, from each child. Then he asked the same question of a group of college freshmen. Most didn’t feel they could do any of those things. They clearly had already been smitten with Adultitis. I began right then on the road to recovery. It isn’t as hard as you might expect! But, I realized today that I had allowed this insideous malady to creep back up on me of late.
So, now, just in time for New Years resolutions, comes a recovery program! Actually, that is a gross oxymoron, for making New Years resolutions is indicative of Adultitis in its more advanced stages.
Without making any resolutions, plans or charts, I’m going to start right now to laugh more, play more, love more, read Fulghum more, and let my hair down more. Who knows I might even try stage rushing!
Scientists have long wondered why flu has a season, which is always during the winter months. A historical study of the 1919 flu epidemic showed that, at a military camp in New Mexico, when the flu arrived, the laboratory guinea pigs died. Finding that guinea pigs get and transmit the flu was huge! This opened the way for experimentation which led to the answer to the seasonal question.
Flu is transmitted in the air. When the air is cold and dry the virus is far more stable and able to move from host to host. Warm moist air it hard for the virus for several reasons.
The conclusion surprised me. I thought I’d be better off out of doors, but not so. You are more like to get the flu to and from work or school than you are when you arrive there. Read more here.
Click on the picture to read more about the virus itself. The move Alien has nothing over these insidious little units.
This is, without doubt, one of my all time favorite books. At once, heartwarming, amusing, thought provoking, surprising and cozy.
I expect to read it again and again.
Learn more at Rachel Naomi Remen’s website.
