WHAT’S IN A WORD?
Trials. Survival. Trials. Survival.
Is it my imagination, or is every year like that? Seems as if 2018 was R-O-U-G-H, but looking back and contemplating its path, one must see that it’s the power of love that really tells the story – not the grief or the hardships.
The power of love is sustaining and powering us through the best and worst of times.
Whether you were holding a loved one’s hand as they crossed over to eternity, or your hand was being held through yet another round of chemo, the love sustained us all. The love of strangers and neighbors saw us through fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes.
So many are yearning for an easier, brighter, less challenging 2019; but, good or bad, I encourage us all to be the “love glue” that keeps things together.
Be that hand that reaches out to others and accept the hand that is extended to you.
Recharge your soul batteries at every turn, and reflect your values and faith by being its hands and feet.
What matters is the love. Those who have lost some or all of their possessions know that, while we mourn the loss of physical memories and treasures, we are acutely aware that that’s not what counts.
Our earthly situations radically change and we turn around to hug those left standing with us.
In one of last year’s January posts in foodtalk4you, I shared with you about finding my “Word of the Year.” Instead of a resolution that would surely drop by the wayside, I sought a word, a thought, an intention that reflected my soul’s urging for 2018.
Did you have a 2018 Word of the Year? As you look back, did it reflect your path?
Mine did. EMBRACE was 2018’s for me. I strove to embrace my circumstances with grace, my inner self with acceptance in the midst of conflicting emotions, others as they ministered to me, my life as it was, and my faith.
This year, my intention is to REACH. It’s time for me to reach out for growth, for reconnecting with friends, for physical movement, and to reach out for new goals and opportunities, and to see them through to success.
An intention that could color and shape your year’s activities seems much more fruitful than making resolutions that fade. It was amazing how often I thought about my Word of the Year as 2018 evolved and how it gently guided me through life.
You, too, may find that a Word of the Year may assist you to cope, plan, perceive your experiences with greater clarity, and may serve you on a more solid course.
Aside from just setting an intention for 2019, also consider how you are going to flesh out that intention. Maybe you seek to be more calm. How are you going to do that? How is your calm self going to react and participate in your hectic life? How are you going to walk into the room calm? How are you going to create calm around you?
As an exercise, write down your word or intention of the year and brainstorm every possible application you can imagine. How will this intention for 2019 color how you look at yourself, how you look at the world, and how your actions might be different.
Always include applying your intention to yourself. If your intention for 2019 is patience, aside from the obvious desire to display patience to others, consider how you are going to be patient with yourself. How are you going to do this for yourself as well as others?
Food for thought.
Take a few moments to consider your intention or word for the year for 2019.
You might even want to make a simple little sticky note with your word on it. Put it on the inside of the medicine cabinet or on the refrigerator as a gentle reminder. This could even become a family project. Or you can just tuck your word quietly in your heart.
Happy New Year to all. May 2019 be calmer, brighter, kinder – even if we are the only ones who are calm, bright, and kind.
Make every interaction a positive one.
Recipes for some colorful, nutritious dishes will be coming your way in the coming weeks!
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In health-
Deidre
tempting. A great gift idea, too. Haven’t taken that swab plunge yet, but sometimes a very Nordic, “Yah,” periodically comes out of my mouth that I wonder, “where did that come from?”
what I mean: some ‘random’ thing that leads to something else that leads to something else? The dominoes keep tipping over in a beautiful opening of blessings?
One evening, we dined with an Amish family who served traditional Amish fare supplied by a local restaurant and who opened up for an honest and frank question and answer period. As a personal thank you gift, I gave her a signed copy of my book, Toolkit for Wellness, as a gesture of sharing, in kind, a bit of myself.
when her husband had died in 2010, but that she waited two years to read it. She said that reading the book, When God Winks at You, changed her life.
accident that you just picked up When God Winks. In fact, you may have suspected all along that there is more to coincidence than meets the eye. These seemingly random events are actually sign posts that can help you successfully navigate your career, relationships, and interests. By recognizing the God winks our Creator sometimes places in our paths, we can understand—and embrace—the journey God has laid out for us.
Speaking of book-giving at Christmas – where did that tradition come from? I have always loved giving and getting books for Christmas. Yah?
items readily available to give as gifts at Christmas. Hence, a strong tradition of book ownership, reading, and Christmas gift preferences.
While change is one of the few constants in this world, it’s the one we tend to like the least. The older we get, the tighter we cling to the old ways and resist anything new.
I have to say that the simple wisdom found in this quick read of Out of the Maze has helped me in my own transitions of late. It’s a great book to pull off the shelf at the start of each New Year as we all move forward with our lives and pause to reflect on our progress or to consider if we are ‘stuck’ in a maze.
targeted to be ‘food’ for your mind, body, and spirit.
Thanksgiving? Leftovers may be my favorite part of the holiday, so it seems appropriate to have savored my Cranberry Secret Sauce over some peanut butter on gluten free toast for breakfast today.
Check last week’s post to keep that tasty and versatile jewel of redness around for the whole holiday season.
bacterial hand soap.
Finally, Bath and Body Works and other purveyors of “soap-ness,” have returned to offering most of their wares in the non-antibacterial form. Excellent!
squirt-top container, I discovered regular liquid is too thick to go through the apparatus. What to do? I tried diluting the liquid – one-part soap to 2-3 parts water – guess what? Foaming soap! Think of all the water I had been buying all those years.
No matter what soap we use, the trick is in proper handwashing technique. Rub, rub, rub those dirty paws thoroughly. Get to all surfaces of the hands, between fingers, and scrape your nails along the palm of the opposite hand to drive the soap bubbles underneath them. The rubbing process with soapy hands should last for 15-20 seconds or two hums of the Happy Birthday song.
truly proper handwashing, coupled with not touching your face, will break that hand-to-mouth/eye/nose circle of germ circulation.
Today’s next tidbit is something I’ve successfully employed in my recovery from being in a hypervigilant state for the past two years – even longer, as I endeavored to be “on-the-ready” for my husband’s changing needs.
mean our nervous systems magically switch to a normal maintenance mode. Some of my symptoms were manifesting as an irregular heartbeat at bedtime.
Maybe you, too, are trying to come off of a hypervigilant state. Whether it’s a different living circumstance, a change in jobs, or a change in relationships, converting to a calmer state of mind is not easy. Others may wonder why you may be having a rough time since the “problem” has been eliminated.
While I am still very much a work in progress, I would like to share a bit of success that may help you, too. Curing hypervigilance and anxiety requires a multi-faceted approach, often with professional counselors, but this may be a starting point for you.
This is how that went for me – here comes that nightly tension; I’m feeling those strong erratic beats of my heart which causes more anxiety – and instead of the usual tailspin, I applied alternate thinking.
quiet breathing.
Remember to be “off screen” before bed each night; the blue light of electronic screens is detrimental to the production of sleep-inducing hormones. Read something relaxing and helpful from a good old-fashioned printed book. It can be part of your winding-down routine for a good night’s sleep.
working is a big job. While post-hurricane mold spores swirl in the air along with the usual mix of wintertime viruses, many of us are walking a thin line between health and vocal collapse.
I’ve cheated the all-night simmering of chicken bones with large boxes of organic, free range, chicken bone broth.
2 chicken thighs
It’s that good.
“bad ones”
1 cinnamon stick
sweetness later on during cooking)
Place a sieve over a bowl. Pour raspberries and their juices into sieve. Using a spoon or rubber spatula, press the berries through the sieve until only seeds remain.
Dice up the peeled pear. I usually make a small dice by slicing through the thick part of each pear quarter, make lengthwise slices of both layers, then cut horizontally to make small pieces. Add pear to the cooking berries.
When you deem the sauce is finished cooking by noting the consistency and the popped state of the berries, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit. Remove the cinnamon stick.
some of the happiest times of the year: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, and New Year’s Day – to name a few. Maybe a birthday or an anniversary will be added to the mix. Some of us, however, may be caught up in the poignancy of All Saints’ Day Memorials – remembering those who have passed away in the last 
year – or in Veterans’ Day tributes to those who have given their all for us in battles of war.
may have resulted in the physical and emotional rugs being jerked out from under us, many of us are just trying to suck in all of our emotions.
But is that the right approach?
produce about 10 ounces of tears a day and 30 gallons a year. Toddlers probably exceed that.
such as dust, wind, or onions.
Tears release toxins from the body – The tears we release when crying actually wash away the chemicals that raise the stress hormone (cortisol) inside of us. Other chemicals found in our emotional tears include the “feel good” hormones, called endorphins, that help to decrease pain.
have been shown to help kill anthrax.
Tears relieve stress – Stress activates our Sympathetic Nervous System or our fight-or-flight response. Tears counter that by activating our calming system called the Parasympathetic System. Again, our tears cause the stress hormones and toxins to wash away, thereby reducing tension. As one article pointed out, tears are certainly a healthier option to punching a brick wall and cause no physical injury, no headaches, and do not contribute to higher blood pressures.
moments and can put an emphasis on the emotional component of a verbal exchange.
If you aren’t going to be home for Christmas; if your family does not look like a Norman Rockwell painting; if you are going to spend the first holidays without a special someone; chances are, a good cry may come your way.
others in similar circumstances (or worse) and be a light in the darkness for them. Call others on a whim. Surprise an acquaintance with a small gift or flower, or physically be there for someone in need.
box of Kleenex. You may need to see the doctor. Be alert for signs of depression in yourself or others which will also include some, or all, of the following indicators:
Depression will not be fixed by a good cry. Depression is not fixed by “pulling up your own boot straps.” If you see yourself in the list above, please make contacting a physician a priority. You do not have to feel like that. There is help!
The whole back-to-school atmosphere of late August makes me think of fresh yellow No. 2 pencils and a brand-new box of Crayola’s.
After taking 28 days of vacation out of town to reconnect and refresh – my physical and emotional fatigue, grief, and jet lag have taken a toll. Spending 15 minutes with my new watercolor brush pens takes me away from those blue electronic screens, and completely relaxes my mind and body in preparation for a restful night.
those crayons, pens, pencils, or brushes to help disconnect and calm yourself for sleep.
As regular readers already know, it’s been two or three years since I’ve had any kind of time off. It was pure bliss to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen for forty years in Sacramento, California. Then I flew to the Big Island of Hawaii where I basked in paradise at my daughter’s home. I hope you have had some type of time away from your normal schedule. It’s so healing to just walk away from it all – even for just a few days.
stopped there for me except for playing Uno with the grandkids.
to reset myself. Other than the obvious changes that come with grief and widowhood, my body is clamoring for some attention. Too many good habits have gone by the wayside as caregiver stress mounted for over two years.
Like the classroom instruction starting up all around us, we would do well to remember how learning happens. Teachers guide young minds to learn one concept at a time. When that concept is mastered through practice and application, the next concept is introduced. Children put all of those concepts together to create a bigger whole. Learn the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. Put those letters together to form words and then sentences. Eventually, books are read.
my public 
Everything that has been shared about journaling for goals is true. The effect is immediate. The desire to improve is fleshed out in action through this simple accountability tool. Grab a piece of paper and write down your daily progress for a personal goal.
periodically with an update as to your progress or share some difficulties. We’re in this together to help and cheer each other on to success!
and recipes with my readers escaped me. Earlier this year, I pushed through the pressing personal concerns surrounding me to nurture the creative process, but I have sort of let you down of late. Apologies.
windows. Why, even doing dishes is fun while glancing up to appreciate my own little Eden.
When there’s a song in your heart, you sing – right?
Have you noticed the paleo writers all seem to have a side hustle about “Keto” related? After writing how-to books, recipe books, and countless blogs, my favorite paleo gurus are now on the Ketogenic bandwagon. Their new book releases all sport Keto-friendly labels. Their latest products are “Keto-centric” as well- meaning, they are totally focused on low-carb, high-fat foods.
Friend: Sodium is another weight adder. I recently had a cheat day where lunch was a cheeseburger with chili cheese fries followed by Chinese for dinner. I woke up the next day 7 pounds heavier! Couldn’t believe it. Went back on the good diet and lost all that water weight in three days
world turn while watching the clouds above float by.
forests of Northern California was a holy experience. Quietly stepping into the ancient tabernacle of giant redwoods was life-changing! I return to that experience often to relive the awe and wonder of it. Presently, extended slow walks to the mailbox and some time spent on the back porch swing have to satisfy that deep need for now.
boat on the river or time sitting on one of our beautiful beaches satisfies many. Time to unplug from the rat race and reconnect to the REAL WORLD of nature.
The best indicator of longevity turned out to be the number of daily face-to-face connections we had. Smiling at people. Striking up brief conversations with strangers. Laughing about the human condition with someone while in line at the bank. Lamenting about the price of tomatoes with a fellow shopper. Little connections. With humans. Face-to-face.
Yours truly won one of the main door prizes! I had never heard of a Dash Caddie before, so the young inventor and his wife had to show and demonstrate it to me.
Caddie, which is a portable box that can mount into almost any golf cart or suction-cupped onto the dash of an RV or boat with ease.
signing up either here, on our site, or as the result of talking with me at a recent book signing, you will never miss a new post full of ideas on how to improve your health one bite, one breath, or one movement at a time.
We are always growing and changing. A good “stretch” in our comfort zones never fails to strengthen our souls.
than death – is public speaking?
One author used breathing techniques to help himself. He blew through his lips after each page he read, as if he were saying, “Whew, that’s over!” It was beautiful watching him grow and stretch! After a while, he looked up more at the crowd as he described the passion behind his story.
body. We expect our bodies to always be on duty for us, doing what we expect of them, expecting perfection.