Serenity

Serenity
The Breachway

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Food For Thought


Food For Thought

I have not eaten any fast food from the big chains in.......10 to 15 years. My kids were never given Happy Meals as dinner, nor were they "drive through" kids. I eat healthy, yet struggle everyday with weight related health issues. The obesity problem is more systemic than a fast food ban. It's a lifestyle thing that is impossible to change. We, in suburbia where the obesity rates are high, have to drive to buy groceries, to clothe ourselves, to do banking, mail parcels, go to the doctor. How crammed is the parking lot at the gym; the park? If we could bring back the neighborhood green grocer, the pharmacy, the savings and loan.....if the movie theater was the prominent focus point of our downtown, we might walk more. If were had the space to grow a baseline crop of non GMO staples, fertilized by free range chickens, pollinated by honeybees not affected by those lush, green, over-fertilized and manicured pesticide patches we so love in suburbia. If our jobs did not require us to commute long miles and hours every day, if our schools were all within walking distance......We love our cars, we love our suburban homes, we need that commute to chase that lifestyle. We can't ever change this. We have taken up too much space on our planet to accommodate all of the wonderful people who live here. So I guess what we need to do is ban cars. Ban malls. Ban planned parks and recreation. Ban sprawling suburban homes, ban school complexes and ban long commutes. Hmmm...looks like we need a "do over."

Monday, May 16, 2016

To Ellie, Upon Graduation from The University of Rhode Island -May 22, 2016


In one week, we will be in Rhode Island, celebrating Ellie's graduation. I can't believe how fast time has flown. Was it 4 years ago, that we dropped her off? I visited her this past week and had a truly wonderful time. I had a little trouble with my eyesight when I left.....not that I'd admit to being a little teary-eyed when I tooted the horn past the fence hole!
I worried weekly, I became an expert at that, about my little girl; the bobble-headed bunch of blonde curls, little girl. I was convinced she would get on the wrong train home, and end up in Scranton, or Des Moines or, gak……El Paso….I agonized that she would wither away, alone in a dorm room, with gerbils as friends.  Really, if anyone can worry, it is me who takes the trophy.  How would she manage the dining hall; she was too shy to venture out…I had to learn to worry in silence.
But then, just recently as a matter of fact, I spent some days with the object of my angst and realized there was never, ever a moment, a nano-second I had cause for concern!  I remembered the girl with the easy swagger, who at 4 years old, strapped on roller-skates, picked up a basketball and took off like a demon, dribbling and skating down the street.  And a year later, took the training wheels off her brother’s bike, and rode a distance, not thinking we were watching, to prove she was big enough to get a dog. She took on social challenges all throughout her early school years, with her chin up and her shoulders squared; this girl proved she feared nothing.  I spent 4 years worrying about nothing.
Here it is, on the brink of graduation, and I finally stopped worrying, I learned from the best, there is nothing of which to be concerned. Without a doubt, I am confident that Ellie will face her future with the same quiet determination, the same resolve and character strength that she has shown everyone, especially her worry-wort of a mother, her whole life.
With a lump in my throat, pride in my heart and not one speck of worry, I congratulate my daughter, Ellie on her graduation from the University of Rhode Island and can’t wait to watch her spread her wings and soar. 




Monday, February 29, 2016

"we the people...."

I will be voting tomorrow. As a woman , and the mom of a daughter, this is a vote to really think carefully about. I want to make  sure the person I vote for, will respect my gender, guard the milestones we have all worked so long for. The person I will vote for, will  potentially, dictate how rewarding my children's, children's lives will be. Will there be choices or consequences in health care?  Will there be affordable choices with major life decisions. College vs home ownership; retirement funds vs medical bills.  The candidate I choose, will he or she be sure of their own compass to be able to reach across the aisle, to ask for collaboration to steady this great country and chart a true and unfettered course?  I take the right to vote very seriously. I do my research and I try to ignore rhetoric, all of it, from both parties.   I hope all who do choose to vote in tomorrow's primary, vote with no reserve, firm in their conviction and remember that we are,
"A government of the people, by the people and for the people."