Rejoice And Be Glad

My mom truly lived her favorite Biblical Scripture passage:  "This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24).  While out of town on business recently, I threw open the curtains in my hotel room and was met with a sunrise that was bold, orange red and magnificent.  As the light bounced off of the myriad glass surfaces of the surrounding skyscrapers, I could hear Mom's soft, sweet voice reciting her favorite passage to me, as she so often did.  There is indeed a glorious promise for each day, a newness that offers bright opportunity, an ability to start fresh each morning, and the opportunity to see life with gratitude and openness.  I ask these questions for each of my new days: What will I do with this blessing?  What will I give?  What will I receive?  What decisions will I make that will honor the gift of being blessed with this new day?

Too Nice To Be Inside

Yesterday was just one of those days made for being outdoors. Though chilly (bordering on crisp), the sun warmed the day, beckoning me to the fresh air.  My friend Kitty and I took our sub sandwiches and apples out to Devil's Lake State Park for a picnic on the South Shore beach.  The sun bounced off of the west bluff, giving the russet oak leaves an orange cast and making the rock outcroppings appear more silver than gray.  A late afternoon walk through my neighborhood revealed others' similar passion for being outside.  With rakes in hand, they were beautifying their yards and preparing for the inevitable winter.

Food for Thought

My friend Ellen and I saw the documentary "Forks Over Knives" last evening and it shed a new light on the old adage that you are what you eat.  The movie focuses on the work of two medical doctors who have devoted their professional careers to research and clinical work with patients here and in China.  Their findings?  A whole-food, plant-based diet keeps us healthier longer.  According to the documentary, the Western diet is killing us.  It lays out the case that processed and animal-based foods cause most degenerative and chronic diseases.  Conversely, they claim that eating a plant-based diet prevents and can even reverse such diseases.  As one who eats a vegan diet 90% of the time, "Forks Over Knives" was preaching to this choir but it still gave me much food for thought.

Green Cleaning

Vinegar, especially white vinegar, is the most amazing substance, with more uses than I'll likely ever have the chance to try in my lifetime.  I use vinegar as a multi-purpose cleaning agent -- in the kitchen, in the bathroom, even on wood laminate floors.  I've discovered some outdoor uses for it, as well.  White vinegar is great for washing windows and, when sprayed on weeds, is just as effective as herbicides.  White vinegar is such a simple product, yet it is rather miraculous -- and so inexpensive.  I wonder how much money I save each year by replacing expensive, toxic cleaning agents with my inexpensive, green-cleaning methods.  I started the quest to use environmentally-friendly products in lieu of the more toxic alternatives back in the 1990s and I've not looked back.  I have an overflowing file of clippings and pamphlets about cleaning with such everyday products as white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice and salt.  I also make my own powder laundry detergent, which costs me pennies and drastically reduces containers and packaging.  There are so many simple things we can do to positively affect the health and well-being of our planet and ourselves.  I'm sold on green cleaning as one of those simple, yet effective things.

Bend and Flow

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of sitting under a sun umbrella on a hotel rooftop patio. The day was warm and breezy, and I was in the heart of a city where all around me were privileged views of the upper-scale part of town.  There was an abundance of architectural wonders, including a dazzling array of glistening, towering skyscrapers.  My eyes, however, kept going back to the gently blowing ornamental grasses on the patio.  The carefully groomed area allowed for just a hint of strategically placed greenery to suggest a garden -- big planters filled with small trees, bright flowers and those lovely ornamental grasses.  Perhaps those grasses are a metaphor for how I should live my life -- sometimes feeling confined but determined to bloom where I'm planted, bending and going with the flow.

Backyard Camping

Long before sta-cations were in vogue, I was a backyard camper.  Our house didn't have air conditioning, so our camping tent staked in the backyard kept us comfortable on steamy summer nights.  Such a treat it was when Dad, Mom and I would roll out our sleeping bags and make the evening a tented, family slumber party.  Before we got the tent, Dad would pull the station wagon close to the kitchen door and lower the car's tailgate and backseat.  The three of us would slither into our bedrolls in the back of the car and settle in for a night among the stars and summer night sounds.  We couldn't roll over, let alone move, because we were jammed shoulder to shoulder into the back of the station wagon. But we were so happy.  Such simple, joyful times are usually captured somewhere in the recesses of my memory.  Fortunately, these particular happy memories were flooded back to me recently while I was taking a refreshing, deep breath of the cool evening air at Devil's Lake.  The layers of decades were peeled away and once again I was a small child of endless summers, reveling in backyard camping with my fun-loving, nature-loving parents.

Now-Peace

Now-peace.  My friend Clyde used that term in a recent letter to my husband and me.  I love the term now-peace because it makes the concept of finding peace accessible and achievable now, not some elusive, hoped-for event for the future.  After all, now is truly the only time we know that we have (although my plans, worries and fears would trick me into thinking otherwise).  The ability to find peace and embrace it right now is worth the effort.  Now-peace will become my personal meditative inhale-exhale.  Now-peace: I'll repeat it to myself whenever harried, hurried, angry or upset.  Now-peace is with me right now.