The world (in depth)

Though I got my permit easily last week, I've managed to get it taken away.
It's my fault, I knew the consequences before I even started.
I might get it back if I take a drug test and the results are negative.

I can't say I regret doing anything, because I'm quite satisfied with the way I've been living.

"Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect and don't live to be. But, before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean."
-Bob Marley

I wasn't much of a risk taker at first. Probably because I attended Catholic grade school. Now I realize just how much I was missing.

Thank you to all my friends who have shared crazy, peaceful, messed up, fun, or just plain hysterical moments with me. You guys know who you are ;)

And special thanks to my best friend (here in mac of course)
Who taught me about the world...
Who helped to repay the trees we may have injured...
Who let me teach him the story of the Memorial Fountain...
Who I owe my sanity to...
Who I told my life story to in a matter of a few hours.
Who shared with me a fabulous experience that was better than I ever hoped it to be.
Who shares food, thoughts, dreams, and interests with me on a daily basis.
We know the sheer amazingness of orange juice, Cheese-its, cough drops, and glow sticks, of tree bark and flowers, of eye colors and trampolines and stars and back massages, of the world in and of itself.

To see it as it really is, we have to get rid of our hate, our hesitation, our "I'm not good enough" complex... we have to live in peace with everything and everyone!
I don't understand why people can't get that.

When we were sightreading a piece at the George Fox Band Festival last week, Mr. Elliot said that if we took anything away from that day, it was one word.

LISTEN.

This can be applied to every day!

We have senses for a reason.
So we can percieve what is going on around us.

Some people percieve the world like this:
Sight.
Hearing.
Touch.
Taste.
Smell.

What we need to do is take more time to "stop and smell the roses."

We need to
SEE instead of look.
LISTEN instead of hear.
FEEL instead of touch.
TAKE IN scents instead of smelling them.
ANALYZE FLAVORS instead of just tasting them.

There's so much we're missing out on!
Look at the little things in life.
Flowers, trees, and other plants, for instance.

They're pretty to look at. Lots of colors.
each flower is different. each is unique. look at the veins on the petals, the structure of the leaves and stems.
Some of them smell good.
millions of years' worth of adapting the pheremones to attract just the right creatures. the pheremones even affect us in different ways.
We eat some of them.
they've evolved over such a long time, they know how to taste so animals (us included) will eat them and take the seeds elsewhere, furthering the lineage.
They make noise.
the wind through tree leaves, a sound we all take for granted.
They all have a different texture.
trees are just begging to be touched. the differences simply between birch and cedar, pine and aspen, are so remarkable.

On that same subject, plants are the healthiest edible substances we can eat.
They contain massive amounts of nutrients, vital minerals and vitamins that we need to survive.
Our bodies have adapted to eat this kind of food and to digest it in the most efficient way.

Then come the corporations.
They make substances like peanut butter more appetizing in texture by using hydrogenated oils.
For them, it's less expensive.
It also produces that creamy texture that we all know and love in Jif peanut butter.
mmm... coronary heart disease, all nice and packaged for convenience.
Liver dysfunction, infertility, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and of course obesity.
All caused by trans fats.

Natural, organic peanut butter, unlike commercial-made, has a key difference.
With no hydrogenated oils, if natural peanut butter is left sitting out, it will seperate into the oil and the paste.

Peanut butter with hydrogenated vegetable oil doesn't do that.

Regular nuts and seeds contain Omega-3 and Omega-6.

Good stuff.

I have to cut this post short, I may write more later.

~Mimi