Friday, March 12, 2010

Deceptive Appearances

Bread is my enemy!!

I have to rant and rage how unfair it is that delicious food is often riddled with one million calories.

I have to rant and rage how unfair it is to work so hard to get rid of 50 calories by exercising and how easy it is to consume 50 calories in one bite.

Cruelest of all is how calories seem to lurk and hide in waiting for the unsuspecting diner.

Did you know that 1 burrito sized flour tortilla is 120 calories? A premium slice of nutty bread is 110 calories.

Thought that having a tortilla would mean consuming fewer calories so had two wraps of my own making.

Calamity! Disaster!! Tortillas have more calories than bread.

Torillas are my new enemy!!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Relinquishing Responsibility

As parents, we try hard to shelter our children from hurt, disappointment, and rejection. Yet, somehow they need the skills to handle these negative incidents in their lives. What is the balance between our counsel and life's lessons?

Some kids do not welcome sage advice or suggestions from their parents or elders. They need to experience the hard knocks before they can understand what was being relayed. We cringe and feel the pain that they will experience and yet these kids are determined to be on a crash course of their own determination.

Some kids will listen to advice but too often, when they begin to ask for help, it may be too late and some of the negative consequences are inevitable.

Then there are some kids who are afraid to stray from the path of the known. They are cautious to the extreme, fearful of the unknown, and small minded. Of all the kids, these are the most dangerous because they are unwilling to experiment and experience life.

The best thing we as parents can do is to give our children the courage to jump in with both feet and the skills to swim to shore or safety. There is a point in which we have to acknowledge kids' decisions and let them take the consequences of their actions. If the consequences are positive, we celebrate with them. If the consequences are negative, we sympathize and look for ways to help. We cannot and should not do everything for our kids...we only handicap them when we try to do this.
Let the kids live life on their own terms.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Overpreparing in a Disaster

This weekend, there was a tsunami alert for the Hawaiian Islands. Although we were sequestered at the Kilauea Military Camp on the slopes of Mauna Loa, we were kept updated by folks with iPhones about the panic going on.

This morning's paper showed a family buying emergency supplies but 3 20-pound bags of rice, isn't that gluttony? There is some logic to the Mormon practice to keeping extra supplies at home. Then there is no need for greedy emergency buying when the prices are highest.

We are so lucky to live the way we live. We have our own water supply. We process our own biodiesel so that we don't have to rush to buy gas from stations with long lines of anxious drivers. We raise our own beef. We have food in our freezers. We have generators. There is wisdom in low tech living.