Visualize sleekness (and peace)

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Now that winter is over, words like shorts, tank top, and swimsuit spring to mind. Yikes!

Pasty white legs and, you know, extra . . . softness that I was squeezing into winter clothes.

Another spring word: diet. Oh, and: treadmill (or as Susan says: dreadmill).

But wait, I just read one of the best ideas I've heard about getting fit, and it isn't the Zone or Atkins, Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, macrobiotics or calorie counting. In fact it isn't dieting at all.

It's from the stuff about the law of attraction (such as in the book and film The Secret): What you focus on you attract more of to yourself. Rather than focusing on debt, for instance, focus on abundance. Or if like me, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza (etc., etc.) are driving you nuts, instead of focusing on what you hate about war, focus instead on peace. It really is a shift in perspective. And according to the law, you will begin attracting abundance and peace, or whatever it is you focus on. (I so appreciated Loring's post of the peace rally he participated in in Colorado Springs on the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war for how it focused on peace, and the words of MLK Jr: "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that; hate only multiplies hate.") This is going to effect how, or if, I will continue to rant at huffing.

So, back to getting fit, "the first thing to know is that if you focus on losing weight, you will attract back having to lose more weight, so get 'having to lose weight' out of your mind. It's the very reason why diets don't work. Because you are focused on losing weight, you must attract back continually having to lose weight." Here's a whole excerpt on fitness from The Secret. Basically, stop blaming food for how you look. Then decide what is the weight you want to be, and visualize yourself at that weight. Start feeling good about your body, and you'll respect it.

That's what that pretty lady taped to our treadmill is representing: the fit me. I'm never going to be 22 again, or look like her, but I must say this has worked so far. When I suddenly crave a PayDay candy bar mid-afternoon between appointments, if I visualize her, the craving fades. I think: she wouldn't eat that right now, so neither will I. (Well she eats one sometimes.) Now I try to go to work prepared with string cheese and an apple for snacks. And on the treadmill, I straighten and lift my spine. Doesn't she have great posture? So do I, darn it!

Now, what to do about pasty white legs?

4th of July letter

". . . and the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there . . ."

How true.

How sad.

To honor our nations' 232nd birthday Friday, I have written a letter to my state senator. Come read it at huffing.

Thursday we leave for the lake with my extended family for the holiday weekend. Have fun, be safe, and above all, figure out what you can do to make this country work.

the cold rush

There I was on top of the world in 1975, age 18-almost-19, hiking a path from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, Switzerland, with pigs. I had never heard of global warming, although the melt at the Arctic had been happening since the 1950s. The Alps don't even look like this any more. (Well, neither do I, but that's another topic.)

Pardon me for huffing here instead of at my huffing blog, but while some of Nature is beautiful and warm and loving, humanity included, some of it isn't, and I don't want to ignore that here.

Have you heard that at least five countries are vying for territorial rights at the Arctic? The United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark (I vote for Denmark, since they're trying to convert to 50% renewable-energy-dependent in the next couple of decades) are arguing about who "owns" the land, tundra, seaways. Ultimately the political import is about the shipping routes and oil under the sea that is becoming more accessible due to ice melt, and who will have rights to harvest and control what could be as much as 25% of the world's remaining fossil fuels, according to this article in Vanity Fair by Alex Shoumatoff. In fact, the Russians sent two Mirs down below to gather geologic samples, and while there they planted a titanium flag (anything less than titanium or something that strong would be compressed under the pressure). And it's not just those five countries. China, Japan, India and others are in place to be part of the highly political regional footholds. Russia is claiming it has sovereignty over some, if not most, of it - nice thought, considering they turned off the gas faucet once to Ukraine.

Okay, so the Arctic ice has been melting at a rate of 10% every decade since the 1950s, which is why it is suddenly a topic of oil drilling: it's accessible because of the melt. And what caused the melt? Well, um, yeah, global warming, caused by burning fossil fuels. What a poetically devastating cycle we humans generate.

It seems that life is replete with the difficult tension of a) wanting things to get better, wishing everyone would wake up and b) knowing in my heart of hearts it probably won't happen in most cases, until absolute desperation and necessity demand it.

Do I believe our powerful countries will turn to alternative eco-friendly sustainable fuel sources rather than turn to what's left of the earth's oil? As long as there is oil, it's not running out, right? And Americans with gas prices above $4/gallon, and Brits with twice that price, are clamoring for their governments to do something about it. So should they drill that precious oil, buy a few more decades of oil dependency? Make their penny-pinched citizens happier?

As "we" embark on this new frontier of exploration, expedition and exploitation, I am sitting here with a stupid, gullible look of disbelief on my face, disappointed that nothing has changed, artificial borders on Mother Earth continue to be drawn, and we suck out her life as if we are entitled, with no respect or acknowledgement for how we were born from Her, will dissolve into her, making us one with her and each other.

I guess we can hope that some Russian scientists are right, that global warming is almost over, that it's getting colder up there again, and that thickening ice will prevent oil drilling.

Or, if that fails, maybe we can fly above the earth like the shamanic Siberian flying reindeer.

Here's another article at The Guardian.

See what I'm huffing about . . .

I haven't posted at my huffing blog in a while. But I just couldn't stand it when I read something today, so I huffed.

Might we use the analogy of a donkey lapping sherbet (from the Rumi poem in the last post)? I know, I know, wrong mascot, but still!

Oh, and I just made the connection with my "Today's word" on the sidebar: STOP.

super super fat

See what I'm huffing about today.

New Huff

If you're so inclined, come see what I'm huffing about.

digitalis

It's November in Michigan. These photos were taken this week.

When I was a little girl, we often had our first snow by Halloween, and our first real snow storm by Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is next week, the 22nd. Today it's 60°F (15°C). But it could still snow next week.

Last year Don planted an English garden, with a few digitalis plants. We also call them "foxgloves" in the U.S. They kind of look like gloves, don't you think?

Medicines from digitalis are called "Digitalin," used for cardiac help to control the heart rate for patients in artrial fibrillation.

But if you eat it, it is toxic and will cause vomiting and diarrhea. Believe it or not, some people do eat it to keep their weight down.

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See what I'm huffing about today.

just so you know

I'm starting a new blog. Yes, me.

SYNCHRONIZING is my primary blog. Flying is my photoblog.

The new one is titled "HUFFING."

huffing
v. huffed, huff·ing, huffs 1. To puff; blow. 2. To make noisy threats; bluster. 3. To react indignantly; take offense.

It's a place for me to huff and puff once in a while. Yes, that Bono post got me wishing I had a regular room for that kind of discussion. I hope you'll visit and huff with me.

See what I'm huffing about today . . .