One of the hardest things for me currently as a father to a 4 1/2 year old daughter is the seeming endless (at this stage) dietary struggle between 'good' nutritional choices and an endless and constant stream of processed sugar and flour. As my child is just about to enter the public educational domain, I realize that our dietary struggle with her is going to take on a whole new dimension. It may go well, who knows. Let's just say that I have my concerns and fears as she enters the world of Cheetos and Honey Buns. I guess all parents go through this, but that doesn't make it any more fun or ease my concern any less. I realize that this is an issue that has plagued all parents over time in varying degrees. I can see how some might've totally given up in light of the challenges of the process. In an age where diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are on the rise in such a fashion that many of our youngsters are plagued with these very 'adult' diseases, it is my hope that the revamping of the dietary plan and snack machine offerings in the public schools does not lag in any real way. As a parent of a young child, you start to realize at this age that it is not just the child that you have to contend with in matters of well being and health, but also the social conception at large. That conception is in massive need of an overhaul and could not come about a day too soon. As parents, ultimately we have to step back a little, if only to preserve our sanity and equilibrium. We will continue to make healthy choices at home and hopefully this will radiate outward to family and friends, having a beneficial effect on our communities. In the long run we shall chip away at this. It is by generations of this kind of determination that standards of nutrition will prevail. Hopefully one day we will all look back as a society and see food-caused diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure in the rear view mirror as we adopt a truly healthy dietary for our own homes and families. These issues hit human beings hard because we place so much pleasure--and hence, personal issues--in food and in the process of eating. Should I dare say it? ......It was never meant to be this way. We have ladeled so much responsibility on a process that was solely meant to give nutrition to the physical body that it (eating) cannot be expected to deliver. As long as we pack personal issues and food in the same activity it seems that we will have trouble adjusting to dietary change, and therefore of making real and lasting food choice/changes in the name of health or longevity or God or whatever--take your pick! Nothing about what I have just said is 'hot off the press' or freshly pioneered in any way, but it is true and real and will remain as such, no matter whether or not we seriously consider it today or in 5, 10, or 20 years. It has come to the fore for me because I have a young daughter to look after and care for, and I know that I am not alone in this. Perhaps all of us, looking out for our family and ourselves in a dedicated way, caring about the types of food and the quality of nutrition that we are feeding our bodies, and really loving one another through these efforts, will actually inspire fundamental changes in the outward systems that we touch? I certainly hope so for my child's sake.
I really like this App from Apple. I use it on my iOS device, but it's also available for Mac. They are of me, then Shayla (our daughter), then Shayla and I together.
One of the greatest things about being over 40, for me, is the freedom that comes from dropping the previously unconscious notion of trying to constantly please everyone. Sure, I like to be liked and all that stuff, but for me, the reality has come home to rest inside myself, that indeed, it is not all that important, ultimately, what others may think about you. Quite frankly, it is not actually your business at all, but rather their's. It took the birth of my baby girl 4 years ago for this truth to settle down deep in my bones. The 'settling' in of this Truth has been a process of realization that has occurred over a protracted period of time. I had felt that way intellectually for quite sometime. In fact, I didn't even know that I didn't know the Truth of this.
For me, this is a kind of freedom that releases some of the core components of who I am, and I am quietly celebrating this discovery. This is priceless. It's not everyday that major freedoms to the Heart of you wake you up inside yourself, cleaning your eyes, wiping away the grit of years and of conditioning, and releasing the pressures of conformity that you imposed upon yourself for decades because that's what you were taught and that's what everyone else seemed to be doing also (like as if that's Ever a good reason).
You hear a lot of complaints about aging in the world. Our whole society is geared to be afraid of it,...to try to delay it,...to deny it,...to try and undo it,...and on and on. Simply, it's part of life: Your life, my life, everyone's life, in reference to the 'mortal coil' of the shell we wear, is ensconced by and intertwined.....with time. Okay, so fine.
For me, time has seemed to bring a kind of freedom. Not time itself, actually, but time brought the grist mill that lays the foundation for the natural potential flowering of internal freedom, real freedom: freedom within the Self.
I like being where I am. I love where I am at along time's scale. I accept it. You couldn't pay me to go back to the teenage years, and besides, freedom is here:
Real Freedom.
I can Taste it.
For me, this is a kind of freedom that releases some of the core components of who I am, and I am quietly celebrating this discovery. This is priceless. It's not everyday that major freedoms to the Heart of you wake you up inside yourself, cleaning your eyes, wiping away the grit of years and of conditioning, and releasing the pressures of conformity that you imposed upon yourself for decades because that's what you were taught and that's what everyone else seemed to be doing also (like as if that's Ever a good reason).
You hear a lot of complaints about aging in the world. Our whole society is geared to be afraid of it,...to try to delay it,...to deny it,...to try and undo it,...and on and on. Simply, it's part of life: Your life, my life, everyone's life, in reference to the 'mortal coil' of the shell we wear, is ensconced by and intertwined.....with time. Okay, so fine.
For me, time has seemed to bring a kind of freedom. Not time itself, actually, but time brought the grist mill that lays the foundation for the natural potential flowering of internal freedom, real freedom: freedom within the Self.
I like being where I am. I love where I am at along time's scale. I accept it. You couldn't pay me to go back to the teenage years, and besides, freedom is here:
Real Freedom.
I can Taste it.
I had my first ever dental fright today. I had a few as a kid, but that was in my younger years and quite expected. As an adult, that had never happened to me before today. I went in to the dentist today for another installment of work that is all part of a comprehensive dental plan. In short, we were to take care of two cavities, one each on their respective molars in the back of my mouth. The student dentist numbs me up with that good ol' topical on the end of one of those long handled swabs that you could check the oil level in your truck if you wanted to. A couple minutes later he reaches in and plans to finish the desensitizing process with a healthy dose of lidocaine shot right in to the nerve bundle in the back right crook of my jaw. He waits a few minutes and then goes in a foraging and a digging with none other than than that monster sized drill bit that shakes your whole head and makes 'fingernails on the chalk board' seem like child's play as goose bumps take over my skin like the latest epidermal malady. All's fine until he drills deep enough to hit what felt like aluminum foil. Do you know the sensation? If you've had cavities as a kid and at some point unknowingly bit down on aluminum foil well enough that it made substantial contact with a filling, then you know what I'm talking about. It's literally like you've been shocked!
I jumped, as anybody with a nervous system would!
"You felt that?!", he says with a healthy dose of surprise. "Oh, yeah and then some.", I say all wild eyed like an animal caught unawares by high beams in the middle of the road, who had no idea that he had drifted out into the middle of a thoroughfare in the first place.
"Okay.... Well, let's fix you up then...", he replies.
"--Yes, Let's!", I interject, slightly cutting him off. Now..., my heart was already racing a little bit to begin with because although I'm not afraid of dentists and their work as a general rule. Truth be told, I do not look forward with anticipation and excitement, counting down the days until my next visit. Well, you can imagine the sensation I was experiencing now. Although it was really quite mild at this point there was now a little seed of fear that wanted to grow into a baby seedling in the back of mind. "Uh, oh", I thought. When was the last time this happened? I searched my memory...and I found only a vague recollection of one time in the very remote past when I had to have more than one dose of the local anesthetic, lidocaine, that is most commonly used in dental procedures. "Okay, I thought. It should only take one more of these and then that should do it." That wasn't the way it played out.... It took 5 more shots of lidocaine all around that side of my mouth and even right up next to the roots of those two molars and yet, there was still a sensitive spot right in the center of each cavity that he was drilling out. Well, there you go. It certainly kept me alert and awake and he took it easy with more scraping and less drilling at high speeds with a coarse bit. He finished it up in a hurry as best as he could, and yet, still had to give me a couple little doses to top it off near the end as he was finishing up as I was starting to feel even more. The good news is that I got those two taken care of. Yay. Done. Well, that about wraps up my drama for the day. Hey, I think that experience might even count a little towards my exercise quota for the week. Cool!
I jumped, as anybody with a nervous system would!
"You felt that?!", he says with a healthy dose of surprise. "Oh, yeah and then some.", I say all wild eyed like an animal caught unawares by high beams in the middle of the road, who had no idea that he had drifted out into the middle of a thoroughfare in the first place.
"Okay.... Well, let's fix you up then...", he replies.
"--Yes, Let's!", I interject, slightly cutting him off. Now..., my heart was already racing a little bit to begin with because although I'm not afraid of dentists and their work as a general rule. Truth be told, I do not look forward with anticipation and excitement, counting down the days until my next visit. Well, you can imagine the sensation I was experiencing now. Although it was really quite mild at this point there was now a little seed of fear that wanted to grow into a baby seedling in the back of mind. "Uh, oh", I thought. When was the last time this happened? I searched my memory...and I found only a vague recollection of one time in the very remote past when I had to have more than one dose of the local anesthetic, lidocaine, that is most commonly used in dental procedures. "Okay, I thought. It should only take one more of these and then that should do it." That wasn't the way it played out.... It took 5 more shots of lidocaine all around that side of my mouth and even right up next to the roots of those two molars and yet, there was still a sensitive spot right in the center of each cavity that he was drilling out. Well, there you go. It certainly kept me alert and awake and he took it easy with more scraping and less drilling at high speeds with a coarse bit. He finished it up in a hurry as best as he could, and yet, still had to give me a couple little doses to top it off near the end as he was finishing up as I was starting to feel even more. The good news is that I got those two taken care of. Yay. Done. Well, that about wraps up my drama for the day. Hey, I think that experience might even count a little towards my exercise quota for the week. Cool!
