Wherever you go, go with all your heart. - Confucius
Did you know that February is “heart” month? Yes, I know about Valentines Day, but the American Heart Association has made the whole month about our hearts. Well this makes me mighty happy, a whole month to explore my heart and if you’ve been following me you would know this makes me very happy for I am heart based, focused and driven. Gosh, even my blog has the word heart in it.
Read More
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. - Hippocrates
Hot off the presses, a blood pressure follow up, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries and lingonberries can lower your blood pressure. Yep, after 8 weeks of 2 cups a day (I know that seems like a lot to eat in a day) the people in the study experienced “significant” improvement in systolic and diastolic pressure, that’s our 120 over 80 numbers. 
Read More
Since my SCI I think about my body, my weight and my wellness, a lot. Before that time I didn’t give my much thought to my body. Well, there was that one time in high school when I was about 15 years old and the conversations with girls my age began to center around how much we did or didn’t weight. Ah, that deadly comparison monster rears its head and I so wanted to fit in. So some of the girls bragged about throwing up to lose weight. I tried to, but couldn’t make myself throw up which effectively ended my thinking about how much I weighted, until everything changed in 1975.
Read More
I eat the same meal several times a week. It’s a delightful and savory meal of brown rice, tofu and vegetables. I feel very satiated from this plain meal and tonight I wonder why? My gut feeling on this is “need.” Yep, pretty sure that’s it, a simple need, a need to feel energized and gorgeous. This “need” I have is in alignment with why I don’t drink alcohol, like, hardly ever; I just don’t feel energized or gorgeous the morning after. A younger me could recover in a timely fashion from tipping back a few, but not now. The day after even one drink it’s POW!, getting outa bed I dread and my eyelids are over stuffed bags.
Read More
What follows is my interview with Jon Arnow:
Fast forward to 2010 when Jon completed the165 mile Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) with the aid of Side Stix forearm crutches. He said his TRT adventure formed a sense of accomplishment that casts a wide and brilliant light shadowing all previous accomplishments. Really Jon?
Read More
"It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth." Thich Nhat Hanh
In Shamanic teachings it's said that we are all a part of the web of life, every being, all of nature, everything.
Read More
With the close of 2011 at hand I’m hoping my bladder health improves in 2012. I have gotten more bladder infections, endearingly know as UTI (gosh its own acronym) then maybe all of my 36 years I’ve been in the “the club.” I’m feeling some shame as I admit this to the world that reads my blog. All the words that define shame, the guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, disgrace feel like they fit me to a T right now.
Read More
Recently my hair instantly caught on fire while
reading this article. It's this sentence that really set me aflame, “A new set of Public Religion Research Institute surveys have found that a majority of Americans from across political and religious divides believe transgender people should be given the same legal protections against discrimination as other Americans.” I shouted “What???” ding dang where’s my fire extinguisher, my brain’s frying, ouch!
Read More
It’s the night of Halloween and I’m sitting in my sister Cassandra’s living room with her husband and her friend Jennie rehashing stories of Halloween’s past. All the while giving out candy to the hordes of kids ringing the doorbell shouting Trick or Treat! Halloween is a magical time at my sister’s house. Read More
In network marketing a story is told of how to identify potential customers. People are referred to as red, green or rotten apples. The red apples are people who say immediately, ”Sure I’ll try that.” Green apples need more information, asking, and “let me read this stuff and I’ll get back to you.”
Read More
A few moons back I wrote a blog titled "Sleeping Beauty." It chronicled my feelings about sleep, how there was a time when I didn’t get enough sleep and how I sleep now. I do love my sleep. As I age I have discovered that getting more sleep, when ever possible, is a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.
Read More
I am not what happened to me.
I am what I choose to become.
- Carl Jung
I don’t know everything and the line from a U2 song “the older I get the less I know” resonates deeper and deeper within me as I age. But one subject I know for sure is, that we humans are outrageously creative adapting critters when we are summoned to answer “the call.” Each of us answers “the call” uniquely when it comes to dealing and healing “life’s, quakes, shakes and crevasses while holding tightly to the hope ropes dangling over the abyss.
Read More
I’m a voyeur. I like to watch people, I notice things, I’m curious about how people and stuff work. So when Facebook (FB) came around, oh I was “soooo” in heaven, cuz I could stalk around, without anyone knowing I was there, directing my focus here and there catching up with the latest “what I’ve done” photos, words of wisdom and interests of my FB “friends” all without detection. I’m a shadow floating about the scene barely leaving an occasional “like” or a random comment here and there feeding my need to know.
Read More
During my competitive athletic I had countless opportunities to travel and explore the world. On one trip over the Atlantic to do summertime battle three of us choose to extend our stay by 3 months. We drove a small four-door Triumph with the 2 wheelchairs strapped to the roof through the countries of Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
Read More
Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Common courtesy, two words we all use together, “that’s just a common courtesy,” but what do they really mean? I opened my trusty dusty dictionary for answers. Courtesy; politeness, good manners, respect and common; occurring often, ordinary. I think courtesy is anything but ordinary and it can be extraordinary in someone’s life. Like when someone runs into my wheelchair and they say excuse me, that's extraordinary. Most people don't even acknowledge that they hit me, as if I'm not really there. Invisible-ness of disability, an idea for another blog.
Read More
