Goodbye SweetHeart Goodbye!!!

Goodbye Sweetheart, Good-bye :)

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

 a time to be born, and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot, . . .

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance. . .

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,4)



How many celebrations have you attended?  Think, relish in these precious memories - weddings, birthdays, graduation parties, baby showers, celebrations for the any old odd reason - its a Tuesday, lost the last tooth, holiday gatherings).  Do you have an idea?  Are you laughing at the memories, the jokes that are retold still today about that occasion?  Now with those pictures in mind - how many sweets are present?  Be honest - no quick glances.  A lot right?  Pretty much every one of those memories has a cake battering (pun totally intended:) itself into those precious pictures.  Why? Because we want to make those memories sweet and special enough for those most delicious, outlandish, beautiful desserts.  Were these events about the cake?(I see some of you nodding - no these events were not about the cake!)  Would we have been disappointed as the host or the guest without that sweet treat?  Now you can nod. . .

We do like to celebrate with a sweet concoction to tie the event together.  We like the honoree to see we want to please all five senses - especially visual and taste.  We want this event to be filed under spectacular and fun and "sweet".  No one is grabbing the bitter melon to leave that nasty aftertaste of bitterness.  We want the event to end on a pleasing sweet note of aroma. 

I ponder this symbol of sweet gifts that we want to treat the occasion with a pile of sugar and to mark  that this day is worth the indulgence.  As I bid adieu to my co-workers of six years I picked up a few coffee cakes and orange juice and chocolate milk.  Even the healthy additions of fruit and milk are loaded with sweetness.  But why not? It was my last day and I wanted to thank them for being so "sweet" over the years.  This was a breakfast treat to say thanks.  They returned their gratitude with cupcakes.  Delicious, moist, mini  cakes topped with sugary mounds of frosting with even the selection of chocolate or vanilla.  Then just in case there wasn't enough sweetness a topping of swirly chocolate.  Remember first paragraph we want to especially delight the visual and taste senses.  I was touched my the gesture and of course showed my appreciation by diving in and even bringing a 1/2 dozen home.  (Don't worry these 1/2 dozen were shared with friends and when I say friends not just the me, myself, and I kind of friend :) 

Desserts are our go-to.  They say thanks and this moment is special.  They are easy to be made from scratch and even more simple to pick up from the store.  And say congratulations or farewell!  But another way to look at these sweet treats besides ahh sweet gesture wanting to treat me.  "Here is a pound to add to your frame as a reminder of us here."  And usually we respond through years of training - thanks for the extra pound I am going to carry this pound on my chest next to my heart :)  It is always nice to be remembered but maybe our indulgences for those special occasions have became a little too ordinary - and the occasional indulgence has become more of a daily excuse for excess.

I love the scripture that I opened with.  Ahh Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 you phrase life so eloquently - "there is a time to weep and a time to laugh".  Note how the scripture says that there is A time.  It doesn't say everytime or all the time we should laugh or weep.  Or in this blog eat every sugary treat offered.  Because you will be to many birthdays, many weddings, and many other "special" occasions.  It is okay to say no to the sweet treat offered.  It is okay to just cherish the memory without submerging yourself into the sugar induced coma.  I say all this to myself.  Because I like any excuse for indulgence.  It's "Janie's" birthday - happy birthday Janie pass the cake.  What its three o'clock Tuesday afternoon - where's the doughnut?  Happy Tuesday everyone!  You get the point? 

I loved that my co-workers took time and effort to say good-bye.  But the cupcake was gone within a minute.  The card that I had to read after work (My eyes might have started to water upon opening the card) will be cherished for a long while and the memories with my co-workers even longer. 

As the song goes:

Goodnight, sweetheart
Well,it's time to go
Goodnight, sweetheart
Well, it's time to go
I hate to leave you, but I really must say
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight

May your HealthFULL Journey include many special occasions worth celebrating and may you truly celebrate to your heart's content. Because there is a time indulge but also a time to abstain. 'Til we meet again. . .

 

Junk food Junkie

My name is Suzy and I am a Junk-food Junkie. And I don't know why. I get these cravings and lose complete focus on everything else. I just am just fixated on getting potato chips and something sweet. (Little Debbies can you hear me calling?) And Ice Cream that is its own level of cravings. We were doing really well keeping out the junk food. Because I will totally confess, I cannot stop at one chip. I cannot stop at even one serving...or half a bag. So it really is just best to keep it away. Same with little Debbies, but that craving traces back to elementary school. You could buy a huge treat for a quarter from a gas station that was conveniently on the way home. And Ice cream, who doesn't love ice cream. I enjoy trying the kooky combinations. I sadly have to study the freezer when we go grocery shopping to make sure they haven't added new flavors. I know this is all a little too much information. But with this blog I am going for full disclosure and holding nothing back. How else can I expect to change my life (and improve it) than to air out the dirty laundry? But the truest form of junk food that frankly has defined my life.....Pop...or for those from other regions, soda. I can't imagine a time in my life that I didn't consume pop by the boat load. I have gone caffeine free, I have gone sugar free, and I have even gone caffeine sugar free. But I have not gone without. Recently I mentioned that water was becoming the drink of choice and LIMITING soda. However, a couple of rough days and late nights, Hello Diet Dr. Pepper. And yes I have heard the research, how diet soda is all chemicals, how it increases cravings, how it isn't even quenching true thirst, but it has been my friend and compadre many years. In our heyday I easily have drunk six to seven cans of soda whether it be sugar filled (roughly eight hundred calories) or diet kind (I do not want to know the chemical count). But for experimentation I had decided to give up soda for the Lenten season. It has been two and half weeks and I have to say there are days that I have the thought of a refreshing cola in the back of my head. A few days run down without my thirst being an issue and water has been the delicious filler. Eighteen days without a soda of any sort is definitely a record for me. At first my cravings for sugar were through the roof and now I am going through a salty (Sodium count can get high with soda)phase. I can't really explain it but I think I feel better without the soda. Once the cravings pass maybe I can be more descriptive and understand what truly feels different. This journey is definitely eye-opening and by Fully Understanding Life by Living I truly am appreciating new perspectives within new scenarios. I encourage you to switch things up. Because nothing changes your life more than allowing yourself the chance to view and experience things with a new perspective. Continue to enjoy your own HealthFULL Journey. 'Til we meet again. . .