Category: Inspiration

There by God’s Grace…

Last week was a really busy week, and I still haven’t recovered. So much for the weekend 🙁

When I got home from work last night, I had the chance to watch a Dateline episode on NBC. The story was entitled America Now: Friends and Neighbors, and focused on the toll our continuing recession is taking on poor, rural America. The show spotlighted Southeast Ohio, where visits to the local food pantry are up 30% in the last two years.

The only food one mother, who lived in her van with three kids, had been providing her small children was french fries. One man had worked 11 different jobs in the past five years, loosing one after another to financial collapses. As he tried to provide for his two teenage sons, he made the comment that if he was dead, at least they could collect his social security money.

It’s pretty safe to say that everyone reading this post right now is probably two or three paychecks away from disaster. If we, like countless others, lost our jobs or our health (or both), we would very quickly find ourselves in a very, very bad situation.

After watching that show, I feel so blessed with what I have. Even with the recession, most of us are still able to get by, generally doing ok. Not great, but getting by.

The thing is, there’s a massive number of people in the fight of their lives right now. We need to support them, both financially and prayerfully, as best we can. Find a way. Give a little or a lot. But give something, and try to make a difference. Do it quietly, behind the scenes. You will be blessed for your kindness.

Body Ignatian Spirituality Inspiration Spirit type II diabetes Vegan Vegetarian

Balancing Act

Do you ever feel like this donkey? You’re plugging away, doing the best you can to keep your balance, and then…

It seems like life is just one big balancing act. Whether it’s trying to balance work and family, good eating and unhealthy eating, exercising too much and not exercising at all, watching your spending and putting everything on a credit card. Whatever the situation may be for you, I know the balancing act isn’t easy.

But when our bodies start talking to us, reminding us that we’re not taking care of ourselves, we have to pay attention. When we change our diets, we have to be sure we’re getting balanced nutrition.

This morning, I was reading an online article in the Los Angeles Times about a vegan couple. On the surface, you would think that they were paying attention to what they were eating, and that they were choosing the right blend of foods to keep themselves in peak shape. But they weren’t, as the article tells us (be sure to read it). Yes, a bag of potato chips might be considered vegetarian, but that doesn’t mean that’s all you have for lunch. Or that you’re taking care of yourself by just eating bean burritos from Taco Bell. Dumb.

So, keeping ourselves in proper balance, body, mind and spirit can make all the difference. You have to work on it, every day. If you messed up yesterday, get yourself back on track. Whatever you do, don’t give up! What needs to get balanced out in your life?

Blogging diabetes Inspiration type II diabetes

Good Things Are Happening

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 07/22/2010
No Comments on Good Things Are Happening

I feel like I’ve been on a crazy amusement park ride the past week, one with plenty of fun but lots of twists and turns. I’m ready for a little r and r, and hopefully things will settle down a bit. I have a lot of things to catch up on.

A couple of days ago, I met with some local healthcare folks, and they loved the idea of an outreach linking faith communities to diabetes education. I could sense the excitement in the air as the meeting broke up. We could all see the potential in this, and how it could greatly benefit our community.

Plenty of groundwork has to be laid first, but it was a very promising first step.

One of the things that I was most happy about this past week was a conversation I had with a college student. I’ve known him for several years now, and he’s matured into a terrific young man. Because diabetes runs in his family, he’s been trying to get himself on track to avoid the disease, but he also wants to help his family eat a little healthier.

So, earlier this week, he had the chance to share my zucchini-corn quesadilla recipe with his grandmother, and they whipped up a batch together. To me, these types of “sacred feasts” really excite me, because it validates to me that this blog is touching people in a positive way.

Over the next several weeks, I’m going to be making some important changes to my blog. As my knowledge base expands, I can see how my posts can be presented more clearly, more consistently, and more on target with my overall goal of helping people transform their lives.

Any input that you would like to give on this would be most appreciated and welcomed 🙂

Inspiration Mind

Why Me?

Sometimes things seem so unfair. How many times have we asked, “why me?” when faced with even the smallest things that come our way? The reality is, there’s plenty of people who have it far worse than us. We can either choose to be bitter and angry about our issues, or we can attempt to overcome them. Check out this video clip about Nick Vujicic, who has turned what would appear to be an insurmountable disability into a blessing for many.

After watching Nick, I realize that there isn’t a single issue in my own life that I can’t overcome. How about you?

diabetes Inspiration type II diabetes

Faith Fights Diabetes

While I was on retreat in June, I picked up a copy of a Christian newspaper. As I was perusing the articles, an advertisement caught my eye.It was for an organization called Faith Fights Diabetes. According to the ad, if faith communities got involved with helping people better understand diabetes, many more people would be able to either avoid getting the disease, or they would be better equipped to deal with it.

Of course, the ad piqued my curiosity, and when I got back from the retreat, I jumped on my computer and learned all I could about this organization. There were some good things, and one unfortunate thing. We’ll start with the good.

Almost universally, people trust their religious leaders. Studies have shown that, when religious leaders talk about health issues such as diabetes, members of their faith community pay attention. When they see that more nutritious food is served at their gatherings, they pay attention. Generally, when something becomes important to the faith community’s leaders, it becomes important to the community at large.

I could immediately see how using faith communities to help improve the physical health of its members could have many positive ramifications. The potential was great.

Now, for the unfortunate part. Faith Fights Diabetes is a program developed by the New York State Health Department. Yes, it’s just for New Yorkers 🙁

So, I began thinking. The concept seems so right, and I know the need is great. How can I bring this to my community?

Well, I’ll find out today. This afternoon, I’m meeting with some folks from my local hospital and an organization called Partnership for a Healthier Carroll County. From my initial conversations with them, it sounded like this would be something they’d be very interested in. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Gardening Inspiration

Thanks Mom

Today is my mother’s birthday. She wouldn’t be happy with me if I told you how old she was, so I better not. She’s an amazing woman, and has always been an inspiration to me.

When she retired, she transformed herself. She took college courses,expanded her garden, bought a new computer, took on the world-wide web, and began serving in her community. I could go on and on, but let’s just say she’s been active, and continues to do be. When I tell people about our camping trip to Sycamore Cove this past spring, and how my 80-something mom slept in a tent, they’re impressed.

My mom raised eight children by herself, and took each day as it came. She still tries to do that today. She has always found consolation and inspiration in her garden, and she’s passed that on to her children. Without doing it intentionally, I think she taught us how to “find God in all things” and to trust that God is “making all things new.” Happy Birthday Mom!

Now, if you’re reading this and have the blessing of still having your mom with you, give her a call today and tell her how much she means to you. It will brighten both your days. 🙂

Inspiration Mind Prayer

Forgiveness

A young friend of mine called me late last night. He grew up here in Westminster, but moved out-of-state a few years ago. We keep in touch and talk about once a month.

He wanted to talk because he had gotten himself into a very tough situation due to some poor choices he’d made.

Mainly, he was mad at himself. Not even twenty-one yet, he’ll be affected by the decision he made for the rest of his life.

I told him he needed to begin the process of forgiving himself. Not an easy thing to do when it comes to serious matters, but necessary.

I don’t know how it is for you, but I find it a whole lot easier to forgive someone else than to forgive myself. The issue with that is that you carry it around with you all the time. It affects every other relationship you have, and I don’t think it’s especially healthy.

I was thinking the other day how stupid I was to have sold all my investments (not that it amounted to a whole lot) in my mid-twenties and used the proceeds to pay for grad school. Had I kept that money where it was, my retirement planning would be going a whole lot better right now. But I did what I did, and it’s time to move on.

My young friend wants it all to go away so he can get back to just being an easy-going twenty-year old. Instead of trying to find something positive (there are many) in his situation, he’s totally focused on negative.

Forgiveness, especially of yourself, can be really difficult. But once you make the decision to do so, you can get back to genuine living. Is there really anything stopping us?

Blogging Inspiration Mind

You Have To Be Yourself

Have you heard about the newest craze sweeping the internet? It’s all related to a website called I Write Like. I think the site got over 100,000 hits the other day.

Here’s how it works. Simply past a few paragraphs of something you’ve written and best exemplify your writing style into a text box, and within seconds you’ll find out who you write like. Now, it’s not an exact science, since the inventor only uploaded works by fifty famous authors, three books each.

Margaret Atwood, a contemporary writer who was included on the list, decided to try it out herself and entered a few paragraphs. It turns out she writes more like Stephen King than Margaret Atwood. She sent out a message on Twitter asking, “who knew?”

I entered three of my blog postings, just for fun. The first one came back stating that my style most matches William Shakespeare. Wow! There must be some mistake…

The second and third entries matched me to contemporary authors I’ve never heard of. They will remain nameless until I can check some of their stuff out 🙂

When it’s all said and done, it really doesn’t matter whose writing style matches mine. I can’t be them, and they can’t be me. In everything we do, isn’t it best to just try to be yourself?

Inspiration Mind

Have A Plan

For the past few weeks, my staff and I have been planning for the upcoming school year, which for us begins at the end of September. It’s tedious work and we want to get it right, since our plans effect well over a thousand people. In the end, some hard work now will greatly improve our chances at having another wonderful year.

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, I think you’ve also picked up on this theme of planning. If you want to be successful, you must have a great plan. Not necessarily a perfect one, but rather one that reflects long-term goals and at the same time can be quickly adapted to meet current circumstances. What a challenge.

Do you think that’s why 49% of adults in the US could not cover even one month’s expenses if they were to miss a paycheck? Yes, getting our lives back in order after, what for most of us has been a disastrous couple of years, is going to be tough. As I’m trying to work on this myself, I see all kinds of sacrifices coming. But I have no doubt that good planning now will greatly improve my quality of life in the future.

As the sign above reminds us, we also have to plan for the unexpected. How about you? Are you working on a game-plan for your future? Just yesterday, Congress started floating the idea that they may raise the retirement age to 70. I guess we should have guessed that one was coming.

Well, to sum all this up, I’m hoping that you’re starting to develop plans for your future. This isn’t only about saving up money. It’s also not just about getting ourselves in shape physically. How about your spiritual future? When it’s all said and done, isn’t that the most important future we’ve got? If we’re trusting our stockbroker or trainer more than God, we’ve got a big problem.

For you procrastinators, stop worrying about it. Worrying isn’t going to resolve the situation. Instead, when you wake up tomorrow, remember it’s a new day. You can start fresh, and do the best you can.

Our futures will be very bright if we get our priorities straight, and we begin working on getting our lives back on track. If we can do that, then our transformations, body, mind and spirit, will be secure.

Inspiration Mind

Be Happy

The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine, and he told me that when he’s stressed out, he takes a couple of minutes and goes to his “happy place.” Although it sounds a bit corny, I think we could all use a visit to such a place from time to time.

When I am down in the dumps and need something to make me happy, I can think of three images right off the bat. One is dreaming about one of my favorite places to visit, and that’s Sedona, Arizona. It has one of the most remarkable landscapes I’ve ever seen, and when I make it there, I love to hike among the red rocks, get my feet wet in Oak Creek, and dine in one of the many great restaurants. I always come back from that daydream with a smile on my face:)

The second place I love to visit, sometimes only in my mind, is Tuscany. Like Sedona, this area of Italy is blessed with a beautiful landscape, terrific food, and wonderful people. Throw in great history and art, and I can dream about this spot just about every day.

The last image that brightens my day comes in a little package, at least for the time being. Awhile back, one of my co-workers gave birth to a joyous little boy named Brendan. I can’t recall ever being around a baby that is so consistently happy, and he brings a smile to all of our faces every time his mom brings him in to visit. Sometimes, he gets to stay for a few hours, and we love having him around. I’m sure he gets grumpy and screams like any six month old, but we never really get to see that side of him 🙂 He can come by and visit any time, and his sisters are always welcome too.

So, in about the span of two minutes, I’ve been reminded that I have a lot to be happy about. I’ve had the blessing to not only dream about these wonderful places, but I’ve gotten the chance to visit them many times over the years. I get to share in the happiness of having a little one around, one so joy-filled that, when we see him, he makes our day a bit more bright.

When you’re having a bad day, what do you think about to make you happy? I hope you can think of at least one person/thing that reminds you that, when it’s all said and done, we have it pretty good.