“If you cannot hear your heart song, maybe you need to pay more attention to your surroundings.” The Uphill Skater Pink Magazine,
February 2021
Okay, this column, as I recently recalled for about the fourth time, was originally about food and nutrition. It was about good healthy foods, about a good healthy weight, and about being in an appropriate exercise plan. I hope some day to return to that very important format, but right now, today, it seems that all of this also revolves around mental health as well. It somehow seems not so important if you have your hot fudge sundae with fat free yogurt or ice cream. Physical health and total well being is still important, I am not saying that it isn’t, but more and more it is part of a total package.
Recently I watched again with my grandson a movie called “Happy Feet.” I don’t know if you remember it or not but it was about a little penguin who has no heart song. We know, of course, that all penguins have a heart song, right? Anyway, this little guy opened his beak to sing like the other penguins, and sounded like a dying toad. But, boy could he dance! So the story goes on and he is ostracized because he can’t sing, but finally in the end he is accepted and embraced because he stuck with it and was true to himself. Corny plot, right? Okay, but I think not really. Times being what they are, I believe that each one of us needs to listen carefully, to hear our own, yes, our very own, music.
Every day is a good day to stop and think about who we are, what we think, what we hold dear and what is worth standing up for. Values, yes, I will even say Christian values even though it is not politically correct, are our currency of value. How we spend out that currency reflects what it is that we truly hold in our hearts. I value kindness. Good things we do for others enrich us. that makes it sound a bit selfish, but that is not really the case. Doing kind things makes kindness grow just like watering a plant. Leaves branch out and roots go down. Kindness rubs off on people too. Good will does the same thing.
I had a call from a friend the other day asking if she could drop off some donations for a thrift shop where I volunteer. She came by the next day with nearly an apartment full of stuff. She, aged 77, had recently remarried a guy who was 83. Boy did they have a bunch of stuff when they put it all together. She said to me, not how good it felt to get rid of things, but how good it made them both feel that these duplicate items would be used by people who needed them.
Which bring me to the next value-sharing. No, I do not necessarily mean getting rid of excess items, I mean sharing of yourself. Call someone who you have not chatted with for a while. Have a whole big conversation and do not mention politics once. Talk about a good book you read, talk about a favorite recipe, talk about a beautiful sunset, talk about God, talk about literally anything good. Share your “good.” Call your pastor or local social service agency and see if there is a family who needs groceries. Share some magazines you have already read with a neighbor. We are all pretty shut in so any sharing of your time and conversations would be welcome I would think. Aren’t we all a bit lonely? Some more than others, so here is an opportunity not to be sad, but to be a person who shares-in many, many, ways! Last but certainly not least, my personal heart song is hope. As a Sunday School teacher, I tell my children what a mess Israel was in when Christ arrived on the scene. They were occupied by a foreign power, Rome, they were in the midst of battles within the Jewish faith, famine and over-taxation were everywhere. Times were just awful. So times may seem bad now, but when we look back at history, I think we should see with hope in our hears that things will get better if we help to make it so. Did you know that only 62% of people eligible to vote actually voted in our presidential election? That means that those in power were put there by possibly as low as 33% of us!
If you share my belief that HOPE for the future should be with us all, then do something about it. We have talked about kindness, good will, sharing and hope. All of these things are there for each one of us. I happen to be a very committed Christian so I add faith to my list, but having the same kind of beliefs should not be important. What should be important is having the same values. We have come quite a ways away from just talking about food and in these times I think that is all right. I hope you do too. Love, Judith