A Little Gardening~

Investigating health by the roots has pulled me into the soil where, as I've unearthed simplicity, I've become filthy with bits of information and contaminated by a need to fit it all together.  So, when I read a very simple quote this past Monday it was absorbed, and there it has grown into something I wish to share with you now.  Because I cannot find the quote now and at risk of plagiarizing another, what I have learned goes something like this:  This is not a short term fix, it is a lifelong change!

This.  What is 'This'?  Is 'This' a diet?  An exercise plan?  A career change?  A new habit to drink more water?  What is 'This'?  We all make New Year's Resolutions, pacts with our best friends, deals with the Devil and concessions for our loved ones, but most of those are temporary; we adopt extreme or uncomfortable behaviors for a short period of time until the commitment expires or until we decide the conditions are unrealistic, and we then revert to old habits.  'This' cannot be that.

What about diet then?  The West has a very cooperative relationship between diet and health; if you adopt one of countless restrictive diets (fat free, sugar free, high protein, low carb, etc.) you will be healthy, sort of like believing that if you have shoes and a tie on, you are dressed, even if the shirt, pants, undergarments and belt are absent.  Because health is mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and cellular, 'this' cannot be that, either.

So it is exercise?  I find that exercise is seasonal.  When it's warm I run, when it's cold I ski, when it's rainy I read, when it's hot I swim.  I also find seasons where I don't exercise at all!  And my career, too, alters and evolves with the ever changing tide in our home.  The Navy schedule, the children growing, the needs of my family balanced with the needs of my self.  I even find it ironic that I am jumping into pursuit of a career where I help others figure out what 'this' is when I am still milling over the definition of 'this' myself.  Because the definition of 'this' is ambiguous and cantankerous at once, I suggest we find the definition another way: Dear reader, you are not something that requires a short term fix!  You, dear reader, deserve a long, healthy life.  What can you change in order to make that happen!

I believe that health has a foundation; food.  Everything made within your body is made from the food you eat.  But health is not something that occurs by eating three bean salad and barley.  'Health' is 'This'. Health happens not with short term fixes but does happen when life long changes occur!  Dig in to a real, delicious meal, wash it in with water, and always give your vitamins their vitamins.  After some seed planting, cultivation and turning of the soil, remember to wash your hands.

Anna~