Processed lives

Good morning Maggie!

It snowed all night.  When I woke up, the world was white, there are icicles along the front of the house, there are birds at the feeder.  The first thought I had was, "My house decorated itself for Christmas!"

Your students results were interesting.  I started thinking that maybe the hardest part is identifying the addictions or addictive behaviors we have...Then dealing with them without going to war with ourselves.  There has been so much violence in our lives, that hating ourselves, our habits, parts of ourselves - it's just too much to bear.

The snowstorm wasn't supposed to start until this morning.  But it started yesterday afternoon.  Actually we got hit from a lake effect, and today we have the larger front coming from the southwest.  We had planned to run out to the country market and stock up for the weekend.  The roads were so bad, though, we nixed that idea.  That mean we had to get groceries from the convenience store here in the village.  The choices really made me think about our life in general in the US.

The foods are soft, spongy bread - which I often refer to as intestinal glue - pasta and commercial sauces, ingredients to make nachos, eggs, cheese, canned veggie soups - possibly the only source of vegetables in the stores - except for shredded white lettuce on sandwiches.

Last night for dinner we had canned vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  It sounded wonderful - like childhood comfort food.  But it tasted all wrong.  The processed vegetables didn't taste real.  Why didn't we know that when we were young?  It makes me think about our over-processed, virtual lives.  All of the nutrients are processed out and we are left struggling to find something real...

Gotta go and get on with my weekend.  I will think warm, warm thoughts of you walking through the snow.  I hope you have something profound to share once you thaw out.

Stay warm,

I love you,

Clare