We all need a friend. We need a friend who will stay a while longer. A friend who will listen and let us pour out what is bothering us. A friend who will let us tell him/her about our dreams and fears. A Friend who will not judge or fix us.
Month: April 2022
🌞 Today’s Inspiration ~ Starting the Day Right
“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.” ~ Tecumseh
🍎 Today’s Health Tip ~ How to Eat to Reduce Your Risk for Cancer
No one food can reduce your risk for cancer, but there is an overall diet that can. Learn what it means to eat a plant-based diet and see all the ways it can help your body. If you’ve given any thought to cancer prevention, you have probably thought about your diet. Almost every week a new trend is hitting the health food headlines. It can make it almost impossible to settle on what to eat and not eat. But there is one diet that is consistently proven, over more than two decades to reduce your risk for cancer. It is a plant-based diet.Eating plant-based does not mean you can’t eat meat. It means your meals are mostly plants: vegetables, grains, and fruits. Beans, seeds and nuts are also included. Fill two-thirds of your plate with these plant-based foods. The remaining one-third should be a lean protein like chicken or fish, or a plant protein like tofu or beans.
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Want to Write a Thriller?
The best thrillers stab the heart, throughout. They do it by getting readers to experience the emotions of the scenes. How can you do that? First, by experiencing them yourself. Sense memory is a technique used by many serious actors. Here’s how it works: You concentrate on recalling an emotional moment in your life, and recreate each of the senses in your memory (sight, smell, touch, sound, etc.) until you begin to feel the emotion again. And you will. The actor transfers that to her role; the writer, to the page.
Today’s Smile 😃
Joe: “I called my doctor’s office for an appointment and the receptionist said, “How about 10 tomorrow?”
Pete: “Did that work?”
Joe: “No, I didn’t need that many appointments.”
🍎 Today’s Health Tip ~ What’s Dark, Green and Good for You?
Dark green leafy vegetables
“Foods high in antioxidants, such as dark green leafy vegetables and berries, assist in removing free radicals from the body,” Liggett Neov says. This can lower your risk for many different diseases associated with aging, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. In addition, “leafy green vegetables, such as spinach and kale, are also high in vitamin K, which helps blood clot and protects bones from osteoporosis.”
Lori Chong, a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified diabetes educator with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center says “these nutritional powerhouses provide carotenoids,” which are a type of antioxidant that are particularly protective against oxidative damage in the eyes.
Leafy greens are also rich in:
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- Folate, which can help protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer and cognitive impairment.
- Magnesium, which is involved in a wide array of metabolic processes throughout the body and helps prevent Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and sarcopenia.
- Potassium, which can reduce high blood pressure.
- Vitamin K, which is “critical for getting calcium out of our arteries and into our bones, so it’s helpful for preventing cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis,” Chong says.
🌾 Today’s Poem ~ I Knew a Woman
I Knew a Woman
Theodore Roethke
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I’d have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.)How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin:
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing did we make.)Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved.)Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I’m martyr to a motion not my own;
What’s freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways.)
🤗 A Better Life ~ Making Life Better
I like it when a friend overlooks my missteps. I like it when a friend tells me something I regretted ding is over and to forget about it. I hope I offer the same gifts to everyone in my life. Life is always better with a healthy dash of forgiveness and forgetfulness.
🌞 Today’s Inspiration ~ Get Up and Get Going
“Long ago I learned nothing gets done by just wishing it. You have to do it.” ~ Louis L’Amour
✒️ Writers’ Wisdom ~ Are You Stuck? Here’s A Trick
Another method is the old Raymond Chandler advice: When things slow down, bring in a man with a gun. It doesn’t have to be an actual man with an actual gun, of course. It can be anything that bursts into a scene and shakes things up. Here’s the key: Get your imagination to give you the surprise without justification.
Make a quick list of at least 10 things that just pop into your mind. For example:
- A woman runs in screaming.
- The lights go out.
- A car crashes through the wall.
- Heart attack.
- SWAT team outside.
- Marching band outside.
- TV announcer mentions character’s name.
- A baby cries (what baby?).
- Blood drips down the wall.
- Justin Bieber comes in with a gun.
Some things on your list will seem silly. That’s OK. Don’t judge. Look back and find the most original item, and only then find a reason for it.
