Something Albert Einstein once wrote to his friend Otto Juliusburger inspired me. “People like you and me, though mortal, of course, like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is that we never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.” It’s a wonderous thing to be present in your life and take in the mystery, always learning, always reaching. When anything quits growing, it dies. I want to keep growing, learning, improving my serve every day I’m blessed to live.
Charles Du Bos said it rather eloquently: “The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” To throw a little humor to the dilemma, I like this quote attributed to Mark Twain: “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”
I still struggle to keep our weekly menus balanced and ensure variety. I’ve mastered a couple dishes and find comfort in repeating them a bit too often. My daughter recently came to help after my surgery and her cooking reminded me of how diverse a WFPB diet can be. Everything she prepared was both healthy and loaded with flavor and textures to tantalize the palette. And I have a long way to go before I master using food and herbs as medicine, but I’m making progress and every success empowers me to try more. (I’ve added our current breakfast bowl to the Recipe section of my blog if you’d like to see how we are using food as medicine.)
Like cooking WFPB, we are also new to gardening, but God has been kind and the crops we are already harvesting encourage us. Yes, our produce won’t be saving us any money this year, but our garden is part of our new lifestyle, so it’s an investment in our future. And the flavors of just picked produce are amazing!
My grandson wrote a poem for his class poetry book that I posed in his part of our vegetable garden (zucchini patch, his favorite). It’s simply titled ‘One’ and to me its innocent message is a sweet reminder of how important every ‘one’ can be. One day at a time plants produce their crops, we make choices one by one, habits develop and our world changes. And our healthier diet is fueling every other area of our life into a more abundant life. You may feel that one day isn’t important, one meal doesn’t matter, or that one walk isn’t beneficial, but it all matters.
Changes seldom arrive smoothly or quickly. More often I’ve seen them appear in a succession of spurts and jerks. Then suddenly, I realize that our new eating habits have become just that, habit. Our big bowl of oats, berries and greens is my favorite meal of the day and the subtle flavors of fresh greens from the garden are a taste treat. Yes, at times the smell of a hot cinnamon roll is intoxicating, and the thought of a guacamole cheese crisp makes my mouth water. But most of the time, the only food that fills my thoughts or makes me salivate is the tasty foods that make up our WFPB diet. The old adage is true, healthy thoughts inspire healthy actions, healthy actions build healthy habits, and those habits can transform your lifestyle one day at a time. It’s NEVER too late to start anew.
“Teach us to number out days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.” (Psalm 90:12 TLB)
“Our bodies are our gardens, our wills are our gardeners.” (William Shakespeare – Othello)
“The power to create quality of life is within us – in our ability to develop and use our own inner compass so that we can act with integrity in the moment of choice – whether that moment is spent planning the week, handling a crisis, responding to our conscience, building a relationship, working with an irate client, or taking a walk.” (Stephen Covey – First Things First)
Yours for a Joyful Journey,
Joyice