lifestyle

Life on Fast Forward

Whoa! Just like that, another season has rushed by. Where did it go? Who put our world on fast forward?

Everywhere you turn, someone is marveling at how quickly the time goes by. You wake up and barely get going, when it’s lunchtime and the afternoon is here. Blink and the day is over. There is even a magazine called Fast Forward.

What is this new warp speed getting us? No doubt, we are accomplishing more . . . producing more . . . adding more to our pocketbook. But if we’re not . . . does it make any sense for time to move this fast? We don’t seem to have the ability to slow it down, so I guess we’ll just go with it.

Just be sure that your fast day includes kind words . . . gestures of love . . . hugs and smiles. Even if you have to give them as you dash past in your virtual running shoes. And when you go to measure how you made the world a better place today, don’t put the tape around your middle . . . or your pocketbook.

Put it around your heart. If it’s full and you’ve had laughter and joy today, if you have shared with someone and made them feel good, you’re doing just fine in your fast forward world.

[Show #323]

Counting Calories

So we have to lose some pounds; about 20 or so. Which way to turn to get serious about this?

We already cut out ice cream, cake, bread, butter and cheese grits. We have cut down portions. No, really. Have not seen a slice of pizza in a month.

Then we find out that 2% milk has more calories than whole milk: that strawberries and blueberries have a bunch of carbs; that it’s a myth that there are no calories in cookies that are broken. We could quickly get back to ground zero in this quest for a healthy, slim future.

Eating out seems out of the question, what with super sizing and lattes and the smell of fresh rolls and butter. Eating in should work – until you’ve found out you made a mistake. Like – who knew that corn is a grain!

So we sit here munching on celery sticks, dreaming of fried chicken and banana splits and remembering the good ole days when you were only concerned with whether you could afford it, not how many carbs it had.

OK, so we obviously need an attitude adjustment . . . or maybe a program that delivers only legal food. . . or someplace where we’d get gold stars for every pound lost. . . or a personal trainer who will work us sweaty.

We will decide very shortly . . . and stick to it this time! Meanwhile, has anyone seen the Frosted Flakes?

[Show #304]

Sharing Something of Value

The Chinese have a saying – “When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.” You could apply that to many things – knowledge, money, gratitude, even smiles.

Imagine considering it an obligation to smile at someone else, every time someone smiles at you. The question is whether a smile is something of value. What do you think?

I remember hearing that a smile is an instant face lift. And indeed, a smiling face is so much more attractive than one with a frown drawn on it.

Watch attractive elderly women. They know the secret of the face-lifting smile. You will rarely see them without a smile on their lips. And you can’t help thinking how lovely they are.

What else do you receive of value that should be shared?

We Americans are generous with sharing our wealth; from donations to the Red Cross and Salvation Army, to funding of Wounded Warrior to individual help provided anonymously when we hear there is a need. To those who receive much, much is expected.

We seem to have learned the Chinese lesson well, although it never hurts to be reminded.

[Show #450]

Empty Bowl Supper

During a time when the economy is stagnant and unemployment high, charity is not at the forefront of many people’s priorities. But some organizations have fund raisers that work for them consistently.

One of them, in the Shenandoah Valley, is the Alliance for Shelter. For some 20 years, they have sponsored the annual Empty Bowl Supper, with the help and cooperation of lots of other groups.

Potters throughout the valley create hundreds of bowls. Your ticket to the event buys you a bowl of soup and a couple of cookies. It’s a reminder that this is a typical dinner for far too many folks. The catch is – you get to keep the hand-made bowl. Over the years, bowls have become real collectors’ items of intrinsic value to local residents.

High school students and scouts bake the cookies for the event. Ladies bake luscious home-made cakes that are bid on, in a live auction. Local restaurants provide dozens of gallons of soup of different kinds. Local craftsmen, stores and business people provide items for a silent auction. There is music and laughter and people don’t even mind the waits for a table.

The Alliance has created an event that is unique and appealing to city folks and country residents alike. And to think – it raises money besides.

Show #378

24th ANNUAL SOUP SUPPER AND SILENT AUCTION

Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM : Benefit dinner and silent auction at Central High School in Woodstock, VA

Bowls are created and donated by local craftspeople, and the bowl you choose is yours to keep!

Admission:
Adults $35.00 ($36 if purchased online)
Students (6 to 17) $20.00 ($21 is purchased online)

Tickets are available for the first time this year, online by visiting the website at www.allianceforshelter.org and clicking Empty Bowl Soup Supper.

Tickets can also be purchased at Woodstock Café in Woodstock, Sager Real Estate in Strasburg, Edinburg Mill in Edinburg, and Community Store in Basye, or reserve your tickets by calling Shenandoah Alliance for Shelter at 540-459-3212 or 540-459-8395. Tickets are limited to 300, so reserve your tickets early.

Tickets go on sale October 1, 2015.

American Hoarding

Is it a sign of our times that one of the television networks has a series based on hoarding – the compulsive retention of things that clutter the house even to the point of causing safety concerns?

It is amazing to see hoarding – in reality or on the TV screen. Piles of junk and what we would consider trash, flowing off table tops and bureaus and even sleeping places. Thank goodness most of us don’t get to the state where parting with old magazines causes an emotional melt-down.

But if we look around, chance are there are things we have not used for years . . . clothes that don’t fit . . . . gadgets we don’t use . . . things that no longer match our lifestyle.

What so many of us do is arrange more space to accommodate these cast-offs. Box them and put them in the attic. Build more shelves or bookcases. Rent a storage locker and pay monthly for the privilege of keeping our STUFF.

Maybe it’s time to look at things a different way. How about parting with this stuff? Ask your adult kids if they want any of it. When they turn you down, have a yard sale. Call a charity. Many will even come and pick it up.

Adopt a mindset of parting with what you don’t need, instead of keeping it or worse still, treasuring it. They say it’s freeing to give it up. Are you ready to try?

[Show #506]

Toy Library

Have you ever counted the toys your kids have? A well-known parenting guru suggests that the overabundance of toys possessed by kids today is not a blessing. He claims that an average American child has 150 toys. Think what that means in a family with 3 or 4 kids.

Overstimulation from the media, video games and noisy toys are creating chaos. The way out is to weed out your kids’ stuff.

Reduce the chaos and introduce calm. Give away outgrown toys: discard broken ones and pack a lot of the rest away.

There are coaches who get paid to come into a home and reduce the abundance. They remove as much as 75% of the children’s clothes and toys. You can do the same thing. That will reduce the clutter.

Then introduce the calm. Set up a schedule for watching TV or playing video games, rather than having both run 24/7 at will. Get rid of noisy, flashing toys. They actually do the playing for the child. Instead, provide toys that challenge the child’s imagination.

Create a veritable library of toys, to be checked out, played with In those periods of calm you created, and returned. Sounds like quite an improvement.

[Show #346]

« Previous Page