Ah, food. Glorious, redeeming, comforting, nourishing, fattening food.

I am perfectly split between loving and eating very healthy things (like green smoothies, with spinach, blueberries, bananas) and very, very bad things for my body (like fried chicken sandwiches). 

I go through phases. Lately, I’ve been trying to adhere to Kimberly Snyder’s Beauty Detox Solution….without much success. 🙂 While there are several recipes that I will continue to make (Beauty Guacamole), there are just some foods/combinations that were downright gross.  One was for oat groats (oatmeal in its basic, unaltered form ) that you soak overnight then mash with avocado and stevia the next morning. Ew. I actually bought three bottles of stevia–one regular, one chocolate raspberry, and one vanilla creme. I cannot get used to the taste–and actually prefer things without it! What a waste of good money 🙂 Oh well–you live and learn. The other was her probiotic salad, using raw cabbage that you slice and put in a mason jar with miso paste and ginger until it ferments. Oh, my gosh. It smelled so disgusting…like a bodily emission…there was simply no way I was about to eat it.   Kimberly Snyder’s premises are good (eat fruit on an empty stomach, combine veggies and protein or veggies and starch, but NEVER protein and starch, and eat more alkaline-producing foods like lemon juice and celery), and I will continue to try to implement them, but I do not think I could follow her regime.  

Prior to that, I was all about Dr. Oz’s YOU on a Diet book. I actually lost weight on that, by making sure I was eating every few hours (snack: a piece of fruit and 6 almonds twice a day) and therefore never ravenous. I also loved his roasted veggie ideas: roast a ton of veggies (or sautee),and then add them to everything you eat throughout the week. Loved the think whole wheat crust pizza loaded with veggies and sprinkled with cheese. His rule of never eating after (was it 8pm?) a certain time in the evening also really helped me, as that is when I finally have time to sit down and eat, and tended to overdo it.

My plan for this summer is LOTS of blueberries, LOTS of almond milk, LOTS of spinach and arugula, lots of almonds, pecans, and walnuts. Lots of regular eating, planned snacks, and planned dinners.

I am hoping that more time will = better eating choices.

Wish me luck 🙂

In the Midst of Boyland/Drawing Smiles on GI Joes

So, I never thought I’d be the only girl in a sea of male-ness, but that is exactly where I find myself. I always assumed (oh, yeah, we know what that word is made up of: ass, u, and me) that I would have all girls. Why? Maybe because I played with dolls when I was young, dolls that were–coincidentally?–all girls. Maybe because I am a bit of a girly girl–love all shades of pink, love shopping, love tea sets and tutus.

Nope. Boys. All of them. Beautiful, amazing, one-of-a-kind, perfect boys. I would not trade a single one in. 

But I worry so much. Some may say, “Man, I’d worry more if I had girls! So much (bad) can happen to them in our society.” 

I argue that worse can happen to our young men in our society (and, for that case, in most societies around the world).

What’s worse, it’s “unseen,” unchallenged, and accepted. 
Men so often are trained (or is it nature, not nurture?) to turn off their feelings. To NOT communicate. To compete against, rather than work with. To tune in to messages of conquering, of violence—however subtle, however unspoken. 
We need only look at the toys available for boys. Any action figure for boys will, inevitably have scowling, mean-looking faces. Don’t believe me? Go look for yourself. 

I find myself breaking apart Lego guns, drawing smiles in the corners of my sons’ GI Joes’ mouths, and encouraging them to be kind, to be gentle, to be….dare I say it? Emotion-full. Not emotional, but emotion-full. To embrace something beyond popular culture’s typical portrayals of boys and men. To move beyond Dave Barry’s image of “guys” (please, God, please let me try to teach them that it is NOT OK to cheat on their wives on business trips and then write it off as “just being a guy”). 

Please, give me the strength to teach them strength without conquering, without force, without violence. 

Help me to learn to encourage them to be men of honor, true gentlemen, to lead forth, perhaps, a new age of men, to usher in, perhaps, a new age, one less inclined to war. One more inclined to talking things out. 

Hey–I can dream. 

And keep drawing smiles on GI Joe. He doesn’t mind. In fact, I think he is secretly, quietly, truly relieved.

Race, Ethnicity, and the Cosmic Me

I had so much fun finding these images–from left to right–of a Scottish woman, a Dutch woman, a German woman, and an English woman.  I remember, distinctly, being at Bowling Green State University in the late 80s/early 90s.  I was having so much fun going to lecture and parties celebrating diversity–meaning, mostly, African American culture, Hispanic American culture, Native American culture, and Global Cultures (Study Abroad students!). Oh, what a richness there was to be delved into…I reveled in the majesty of the human form and culture in its various manifestations.  All this exploration cemented my belief (thanks, wonderful parents and grandparents) that every culture had its own beauty and majesty, its own contributions that were amazing and worthy of awe…especially in terms of music and food (y’all know how I love food :).

So, there I was–immersed in all this wonderfulness, thinking…what am *I*? At first, I thought about how I was just a “white girl from the suburbs.” Truthfully, I felt ripped off.

Then I thought more and more, and realized that I had Scottish, Dutch, German, and English ancestries to call my own. This was furthered by my mom’s recent interest in Celtic music.  When I listed to this music, my blood stood up and took notice.  I could FEEL it in my bones, much as I had felt the African congo drum at musical demonstrations around campus.

Over the years, I have met my husband, who has furthered my foray into all things Scottish.  A recent DNA test (via ancestry.com) revealed that his ancsetry is 93% from the British Isles.  Wow! We have attended the Ohio Scottish Games several years in a row, taking pride in marching with his family’s clan, the Buchanan Clan, in the Parade of Tartans. At our wedding, I was presented with a sash of his family’s tartan 🙂

My Scottish family comes from Dumfries, a lowland country; we were not highlanders, and so only had a regional tartan. A piece of this  hangs on my wall in my bedroom, to remind me of someone who looked like me–an ancestral shadow of long ago–my family blood line.

I have yet to really investigate my German and Dutch and English heritage in the same way (perhaps because it is not as accessible?), but I plan to.

And, also, I TRULY identify with so many other cultures, lending credence to my belief that all of life truly did originate in Africa (you may disagree, but it is the current scientific theory).  When Zora Neale Hurston, in our excerpt “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” stands up straight and FEELS her pride in being African, and marvels at how someone could stay so still during such moving jazz music, I, TOO, feel that.

My “cosmic Zora emerges”—my “cosmic Cassie.” I belong to no race or time.

I belong to all.

Zora Neale Hurston Photographer: Carl Van Vechten. Silver geletin print, 1938 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

THEME of the week is…Childhood Memories/Home and Family/Identity

Hello, fellow writers, fellow thinkers, fellow scholars! I am very glad to have this space to write. The luxury to write is one I do not take lightly. I hope that we can use these spaces to get to know each other and explore our thoughts and the thoughts of others.

This week’s theme is so timely. I just returned from an amazing trip to Colorado to be with my family–my mom and dad, my brother and sister-in-law, and their kids. I had not seem them for a year 😦

It seems to me that that is too long a time to go without seeing your family. Why are families so often split up in this day and age? I mean….voluntarily?? Is it that we think we will be able to travel to see them at any time, no problems, no worries?

Traveling is sooo expensive…and so hard, with kids, especially.

I know I take my identity right from the basic models my parents provided–good, hard working, looking on the bright side…I am someone who values education, who is aware of physical health, who strives for emotional and mental uplifting, of myself and others. My parents provided this for me…

How do I maintain that for my children without the nearness of my family? Perhaps, perhaps someday we will all live in close proximity again.

I have more questions than answers, that is for sure…

I am glad I have this blog to explore these big issues that lay before us.

Happy Launching, everyone!