Such is Life...

So I'm checking out at Rural King...you know, the K-Mart for farmers, and I've got one hundred and sixty pounds of ground corn cob for my guinea pigs to play in, a small bag - forty pounds - of potting soil, some last minute veggie plants all heading to school. So there I am, at the check out lane...so glad it went without a hitch, because my precious and wonderful son called from Detroit on his way back to Germany so he can be home for his son's birthday.

Now my precious and wonderful son builds Proton Therapy Units all over the world for cancer treatment. He's the top guy and flies everywhere --- in the next month he will probably be in St. Petersburg, Riyadh, Taiwan, San Diego, and probably many places in Europe. It's his job. When he tried to take his female lawyer to Saudi Arabia, they asked if he "owned" her...you get the picture.

So here is a young man with an important job talking to his mom who is now sitting in a very used parking lot in the light industrial section of Evansville, Indiana, in her seventeen year old jeep loaded down with ground corn cobs and potting soil. He's in a business suit with five hundred messages waiting to be answered on his phone, and I'm wearing short blue jean shorts and a $3.00 shirt from Walmart and using my "smart phone" which is usually smarter than I am.

How does this happen that a dichotomy of life styles has grown up between  mother and child to this extreme?

Hope.

I have come to believe that hope is the magic word...the magic wand in rearing children. I love what I do, where I am and my life. I wouldn't change anything about my life...it's sweet...but at the same time, my life is not my children's. It's mine. So while I've been living my own life, I have had great hopes that my children could do the exact same thing...live their own lives, doing what they want to do, and doing it well.

When my son was born, I hoped that he would do good things with this life, and I encouraged him to do great things at every point in life. I told him that he could reach for the sky and get there with enough effort and enough solid living.

When my daughters were born, I hoped that each of them would do good things with their lives, and I encouraged them in the same way I encouraged my son. "Anything is possible if you work hard enough."

I've gone round and round with several people over the years who believe that hope is a worthless passive waste of time. For me, hope is all the possibilities tied together...it belongs to a life lived cautiously, carefully, and prayerfully. It is open, healthy, broad, and encompasses all the human passions while it remains gentle and lovingly looks forward instead of back.  Hope is life's polish.

So as the sweat is dripping from my smart phone into my ear in the worn jeans, car, and parking lot, I talk freely about family, the cancer of a friend, his travel schedule, what Patrick wants for his birthday until they call him to board the plane. I'll talk to him again when there's time. Meanwhile he's living a good life and doing good things for others, and I'm living my life enjoying it to the hilt!

Been Ill

Normally, I am slightly suspect of people who are chronically ill. Those who simply always don't feel well; those who dwell entirely on the self as a virus abused individual; those who can't stop medicating; those who are ten years their own senior because they have been raked over the sick coals. You know the type.

As for me and my house - I'm never sick, and I think it has a lot to do with H2O, sleep, a fairly good diet and being active. Also, I think it has something to do with sleeping hot...at any rate, I'm rarely if ever sick...until last week. Somehow, I picked up a staph infection. I didn't even know what it was for a couple of days...then it invaded my person like a wildfire. Head, neck, ear, face, leg...I did the prescribed "MEC" gig, and they apparently put a band aid on a hemmorage.  By the time I got to my own doctor, she said, "Oh, my God...it could have killed you" and treated me with a super antibiotic which she said would probably rip me apart. Well, it didn't. I engineered a ways and means of taking the drug so that it didn't bother me.

The wound drained for seven days. I was unsightly and stayed home. Actually aside from the day I went to MEC, I felt fine during the ordeal. So this was my maiden voyage in illness. Yes, in 60 plus years, I've had a couple of colds and I had the flu once for four hours, and I've had a few bronchitis experiences when my son brought home an atypical virus...but generally, I feel good, and I want to keep it that way.

My compassion level has risen for those who fight the chronic attacks of sinusitis, allergies, IBS, arthritis, and other body disturbances and malfunctions. I can't fathom what it must be like to struggle with this daily. It was bad enough for ten days...

What I can't understand, however, is how someone can "live sick" and not do something proactively to change their situation for the sake of feeling good! People who could make their situation better by changing diet, losing a little weight, getting more exercise, drinking water instead of soda, and getting to bed on time. These are simple enough to do, and if the alternative is chronic illness...good grief.

I love being healthy...you might say I'm an advocate. Hope this speed bump doesn't indicate a future filled with obnoxious hurdles to be jumped every couple of months. That would truly be a nightmare. I like my freedom. I like being free of medications, free of body aches, pain, and that feeling that "I can't." Truly, I am very grateful for being free.

Now let's consider the kids...it's no different with children. Parents build children's bodies from the first moment of conception. What you give your child from conception to college is health through good habits and discipline. We've been talking about setting good examples at school, how that works, who should set examples, and how it's done. When parents offer great habits to their children, children benefit for the rest of their lives.

Here are the questions to ask about setting some basic health examples:

Is my child sleeping 10 hours at night?
What is my example for him or her? Am I up all night and then drag out of bed every morning?

Is my child drinking water during the day?
Am I drinking water in front of my child, or is my 1000 calorie latte or supersized soda providing my health example?

Is my child eating 1000 quality calories every day?
Am I weaseling out of my nutritional duty by stopping to pick up worthless calories for dinner too many times a week?

Is my child getting two hours of exercise every day?
Am I getting any exercise? What is my strength and vitality example for my child?

Is my child washing his hands EVERY time he comes indoors?
Am I?

It's a start.