Friday Quote Day

We become
what we think about
all day long.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This may be my theme song this year; thinking good thoughts does not come naturally for me. That’s one of the reasons my photo blog is subtitled “Good Stuff.” The photos aren’t especially good, but I’m trying to find something good to remember – and think about – every day.

Thoughts about one’s surroundings, environment, 401K, family, body – oh, yes, we all think about our bodies – can take different turns, depending on circumstances. Our moods are sunnier when the sun shines; it’s difficult to imagine a lush garden out where that patch of mud is when the sky is grey and rain is falling.

I’ve been conditioned this past year to feel good about the future when the stock market is up, and depressed when it’s down. You can guess how moody my life has been, can’t you? I know I’m not the only one, but I live an isolated life, and spend lots of time thinking about me-me-me. My contact with the outside world is minimal, and filtered by talking heads most of the time. (Except Tuesday night, when I meet with 100 or so inmates, whose lack of contact with the outside world always, always provides me with an opportunity to be grateful.)

And then there is that whole body image. When I think of myself as big and clumsy and taking up too much space, I spiral downward in every area of my life. When I wake up feeling light and clean (as I have done this past week), time flies, missions get accomplished and life feels bright again.

In spite of the rain.

It has become abundantly clear to me that refined sugar and flour are POISON! You may indulge, if you like, but if I want to think good things all day long, I can’t inject myself with substances that are druglike in their effect on my mind and body. This has been a long, hard lesson. I so wanted to be normal about food. I’m simply not. Eating reasonable portions of healthful food is easy if I don’t set myself up to fail. One mini Milky Way is enough to sabotage myself.

Because one’s too many, and an eight-pack is never enough.

P.S. If you didn’t hear President Obama’s speech at the Lincoln Dinner in Springfield, IL, last night, click here. He was inspiring, there’s no other word for the man.