The Man in the Mirror.

Yesterday was the culmination of a great weekend.  Wine tasting was fun Friday night.   The live music was fun on Saturday night.  Totally enjoyed the sound.  Loved the female’s voice.  Sweet 903, with drummer, (and kickboxer) Todd.  Thanks for the invite, Carol.

Yesterday it was time to go out, to go in.  I spent a lot of time outside, despite the rather constant rain.  After having breakfast with Mitch’s dad and family, we went to a little country store/strawberry farm, called The Girls in Delray.  It is a partner store  to a much larger fresh market The Boys, just down the street, which we went to after.  What a thrill to find gorgeous rescued birds, humongous tortoises and even a couple of donkeys, (one in particular who loved posing for my cell phone camera) living amongst the fields of fruit trees, lush landscaping and fresh vegetable and strawberry patches.  It was a wonderful treat that I will enjoy again soon.  At The Boys, I shopped for fresh veggies and fruit galore to enjoy this entire Earth Week. Rita, if you make the big move, you will be a regular at both these places and you will LOVE them.

When we got home we managed to have a rain free half-hour or so to walk Blaze and let him “go in by going out,” as well.  I always bring a couple of bags to clean up from him, but yesterday I cleaned up garbage from the street, instead.  I don’t know what people are thinking when they are throwing trash out of their car windows, but it’s clear from what I pick up, that fast food consumers are the biggest litterers of all.  From DQ to Wendys, Chick-fillet to McDonalds, I found all the evidence in well less than a 1 mile walk.   I am not gonna moan about it.  I will just continue to do my part to help take care of Mother Earth, but at least cleaning my immediate neighborhood.  Anyway, it’s good exercise 🙂

Dinner was huge trays of grilled veggies and an extra large salad with all the fresh produce I bought at the market.  Some marinated, broiled tofu for me and some stone crabs for Mitch completed the meal.  The pineapple and strawberries were not only beautiful in color, insanely yummy in aroma, but sweet as sugar and perfectly DELISH!

I loved some of the comments and emails about what you will be doing to honor Mother Earth.  More walking and biking instead of using fuel are great contributions and again, great ways to sneak in more exercise.  Using less paper products is really smart and one I have to work on myself.  (I tend to use too many paper towels!  I am aware and working extra hard, this week, on changing that behavior).  I will be bringing extra bags out on my dog walks and continuing to pick up trash as I make a point of walking in different directions.  I also delayed coloring my hair as I can’t imagine that ANY hair color products are that great for ourselves or our water systems.  Not willing to give it up entirely, but certainly I can cut back a bit on the frequency.  I will pay better attention to turning off lights and tvs.  I admit to being a bit sloppy about this.  This Thursday night dinner will be served on real dishes and everyone will help with the cleanup.  The entire meal will be plant-based and wholesome.  No faux products.  But that’s a topic for Thursday.

Even when a garden snake made his way into my patio yesterday, I felt a calm about his presence.  I did try to help guide him back outside, which he certainly did at his first chance.  He didn’t want to hang out in my patio any more than I wanted him there.

There is a great part of me that would like to blog more about the plant-based diet and this is SOLEY because I believe that it’s impact on our health is enormous.  When it comes to pushing good health, I have NO problem.  When it comes to pushing a particular “choice” on someone, that’s not really my style.  All I can say is please do your homework when it comes to what you eat.  Don’t believe everything you were told in grade school and don’t believe everything your physician suggests.  Read everything you can and more importantly listen to the little voice inside you.  One thing I have found is that when I eat something like a wrap stuffed with hummus and salad and olives and all of my favorite things from the garden, my little voice sings.  Even if I eat a couple more calories than I “should,” the voice is still singing. By going out, I learned that singing little voice is what I call PEACE.  I hope that little voice sings for you, too.

Peace and fitness.  It’s what I live for.  I wish you both on this Monday morning.  Take care of you, the “man” in the mirror- and please take care of Mother Earth, too.