Hope...

As many of you know, my dog Keeley has been missing for now for 15 weeks, and it has been one of the worst emotion ordeals I have been through in a very long time. It is a true test to the importance pets play on our lives, and a true example of how truly important they are to us. I am blessed to have a lot of amazing pets, but I think once in a lifetime you develop an amazing connection with an animal, and my connection just happens to be with her.

I have had to learn, or relearn, or maybe just apply a lot of values that I have not had to incorporate in one thought process before.  Patience, trust, protocol, and the hope that the person who has her will eventually do the moral right thing.

I guess if you have had this happen to you, you will get it, and if you have not, it is quite awful. Your mind races all day long and I find myself feeling the symptoms of a death and the loss of a friend all at the same time. Some people will say, it is just a pet, I say, her devotion and friendship and loyalty are things I wish and hope their best friends are able to offer them.

So I take it day by day hoping for a call from anyone that can do a micro chip test, but in the back of mind the reality and prospect of her return becomes dimmer and dimmer by the day. What does stay alive and bright is that she, wherever she is at this time, is being taken care of and loved and feed well..

Smelling the roses..........

We seem to be in a hurry doing everything except enjoying life these days. Although I get the quest for furthering and achieving our goals, providing for our families, and allowing and affording ourselves things that make our life more enjoyable. The thing is, as we progress through all of these steps during our lives, we do forget to take the time and smell the roses, and for some of us, we forget to even look to see that they are there.

How many times have we had a shock to our routine, like a bad blood work up, or bad news from a Doctor’s visit? How often have you been privy to downsizing, or unforeseen problems that have blindsided you, and until it did, you may have felt you had the perfect existence? Although these things in themselves are part of life, and we must realize that no matter what your demographics, sex, race, religion or financial status, we are all going to deal with one or more of these, and many others during our lives. For this purpose alone,  enjoying each and every day becomes even more important to each of us, at every age.

So why does it take a death of a friend, a loved one, a spouse, child or even someone you knew casually to make us think how fragile life is? Why does it take a family member or friend dying in the hospital, at a “way too young” age, for us thing of our own mortality, and how we should be thinking of living healthier, and making those changes that we keep saying we are going to do?

I remember a story of 4 brothers and sisters whose father was dying of lung Cancer. We were all up in the room visiting their dying father and after an hour or so, some fresh air was necessary. As we came down the elevator all of them were distraught, and sad, and could not believe he had lived a life that was so unhealthy. As we went outside the comments about being healthier and life is too short were being thrown around. The minute we went outside and sat down, all four of them lit up their cigarettes. All I could see was the irony of their statements, and at the same time, their weakness. The power that these vices of all sizes and shapes have over us, and how we may be unsuccessful against them, until we are ready for a change.

This past week a dear friend of mine passed away, and because of my busy schedule, although we are very good friends, I did not learn of the passing until the service was over. I myself realized the importance of slowing down, and was reminded of the fact that there are no guarantees, and life is precious. So as I write this, I am reminded that it is the lessons like this one that makes me hopefull that I will learn something, and remind myself of the importance of enjoying all I am lucky enough to have, and not just the quest for the thingsI think I may need.

It will click eventually...

I am pretty sure that fear is one of the strongest motivators for aiming at a healthier life style. It is either the fear from a bad blood workup, a death of a friend or family member, an article that scares you, or last but not least, sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. What still to this day amazes me is how we aim to achieve the highest quality of everything in our life, but aim low, or not at all at the pursuit for a healthy life.

This is something that crosses all demographics, sexes, races, ages and even work type or experience, so I am thinking it is most likely a human nature thing. Why we end up leaving this planet way too early with a lot of couldsa shoulda wouldas, is beyond my comprehension. But maybe this is just the way it will always be. There are of course others that always put their health first and primary and always will, but I am afraid they are few, and their numbers are not growing at any kind of an alarming rate.

So then it is an individual thing. We will get motivated, when we are ready, and only then, and the trigger or motivator will be one of necessity or personal health frustration or just disgust.

appreciation...

Have you ever wondered why some of the people in your circle are amazingly healthy and they do all the wrong things, eat the wrong foods and never take care of themselves? It does happen that sometimes genetics Do play a role in the pathwork of our lives, and sometimes they can even be strong enough to overshadow our really bad habits. Although the body may be able to handle the unhealthy way you live at this time, but  there is no guarantee that these "genetic" supporters can last, or help you forever. Every thing has it's expiration, and sooner or later you may see those same people lucky enough to have these "built in" helpers begin to have their health start going south.

The bottom line that we should all try to commit to memory is to embrace our health and appreciate our genes andour natural defense systems. Try not to abuse them or take them for granted just because you have them. We should never require them to be our salvation, but instead appreciate our genetic good health as a condiment to the healthy meal of our life.

Change...........

Have you ever wondered what it is that clicks when we finally decide that today is the day? Is it a subconscious "know all" that way down deep we need a change, or is it a frustration with our daily bad health, or maybe just a disgust with having to deal with bad health symptoms that take away from our quality of life? I think it may be different for everyone, and the trigger or realization is whatever it takes to kick us in the rear end and motivate change.

Like the difficult process of  quitting smoking. There are literally hundreds of proven and unproven, successful and unsuccessful ways to quit smoking. Is any technique better that any other? I say No. In my mind, burying a potato in the back yard during a full moon, if you in your mind are serious to the core about quitting, may be just enough to spark a change.

Change is something that will always occur throughout of life, with or without our approval. Change happens around us every day, in every aspect of our lives. The changes that we personally control, are hopefully the ones that can and will change our health as well as our outlook, emotional balance and quality of life.

I wish there was a way  to stimualte all of us to gravitate to the healthier side of living, but for each of us, the destination, and the journey we pursue at our own pace, is part of the change.

Being Unrealistic, most likely.

It sometimes amazes me that main stream media, as strong as it is, has the nerve to put it's advertisers ahead of information they should be striving to bring to the public.
I understand that companies that are visible in the media include everything from car dealerships to phone companies, all of that is fine with me, my problem is when advertisers only advertise products for symptomatic relief of health problems. As strong and powerful as advertising is today, why can't the companies also promote basic things as well as products to the listeners that use radio and televison as their health guru? Why is it so hard to remind people about basic things that they already know, but as basic as they are, most of us do not make them part of the daily schedule.

For example, reminding people to drink their 8 glasses of water every day, eat their green vegetables and add fruit to their diet, and then they can end with while you are doing this and creating a healthy diet, use an antacid for occasional discomfort. Why can't they promote increasing  fiber in the diet, and how by adding it to every meal how it will give you great health beneifts, and then say for occasional constipation add a laxative. Would it be hard to talk about the cause, the over looked problems just a bit in the ads, and then have their advertisements?

Am I being unrealistic? Yes.. But I always hope that morals, good will and responsibility may someday over shadow the almightly dollar, and may I say Greed!