You Say Tomato...

I can't resist the red deliciousness of ripe, juicy summer tomatoes. . .plus, they are sooooooo good for you, body and soul.

 

Tomatoes are considered a superfood because they contain a whole series of anticancer nutrients, such as lycopene, which is a powerful antioxidant that can help protect your body against degenerative diseases by neutralizing free radicals.

What a mouthful!  In plain English what I'm trying to say is that tomatoes build up your immune system, the body's front line system for fighting diseases.  In fact, doctors have found that a maintaining a diet high in the lycopene reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease and macular degeneration.

 

Staying healthy is especially important while grieving the loss of a loved one.  Grief is physical as well as emotional.  You may lose your appetite while grieving and tomatoes are an easy and fast way to pull something nutritious together for yourself.  They can be cooked or not; either way it's important to remember to eat.

 

Wow!  All of those healthy and healing benefits -- just from eating tomatoes -- and that's easy breezy this time of year when tomatoes are plentiful at farmer's market, grocery stores or if you're really lucky, maybe even in your backyard.

 

If you can't figure out what to do with your bounty of tomatoes, or you are looking for a new way to eat your fresh tomatoes, here's a recipe for Tomato Basil Bruschetta distributed by FRESHFARM Markets (www.freshfarmmarkets.org) from a food website called Annie's Eats (www.annie-eats.com).
 

Courtesy of Annie's Eats

 

TOMATO BASIL BRUSCHETTA

 

Ingredients:
3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tbsp. basil, minced
¼ tsp. kosher salt
Pepper, to taste
1½ tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. finely grated Parmesan
Toasted baguette slices, for serving

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl; mix well to blend. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Spoon the tomato mixture on top of toasted baguette slices and serve.

Source: Annie original

Summer Fun

 

 

 

 

When I was a child my mother used to let me and my siblings sit on the front steps of our house after the sun had set and it was nightime.  We had all had our baths and she would let us outside in our pajamas.  What risk takers we were!

 

We loved it because we got to stay up late since there wasn't school and there also was an incredible feeling of freedom and naughtiness.  We would play games and look up at the stars in the night sky and sometimes eat sliced bananas in a bowl with milk.

 

Spontaneous Summer.  Relaxing Summer.  Special Summer.  Healing Summer.

 

I think you get the idea by now that Summer is my favorite season.  This week, I have been noticing as we approach the end of August, that every day, in a small way, the sun is setting earlier.  A new school year has started, preseason football games are airing on national television and the beginning of September and Labor Day is almost upon us.

I don't want the seasons to change. I think of Summer as my BFF and don't want to say good-bye.  I want summer to go on and on and on. . .

 

What do you love about Summer?

 

 

New Orleans Deserves A Break

 

  

My son drywalling in New Orleans

  

The people who live in the magical city of New Orleans know about resilience.  In fact, Webster's dictionary should probably publish a picture of the city of New Orleans next to the word "resilience" to add depth to the word's definition.

 

Residents of New Orleans have proved over and over that they do have an incredible inner strength that gives them the "can-do" attitude to forge ahead and bounce back from natural disasters, the worst of which was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and now is Hurricane Isaac.

 

The rebuilding of New Orleans after Katrina is a cause that is close to my heart because my son traveled there twice and spent time clearing debris, painting houses, drywalling and even doing some tilework to help in that effort. He said reaching out to help and meet the people who owned the houses they worked on and walking through the communities that Katrina destroyed was heartbreaking but also rewarding and educational. 

 

I am hoping and praying for the safety of the city and its people because I never want to turn on the television again and see the devastation and desperation that aired when news stories showed New Orleans and its thousands of abandoned citizens after Katrina hit the city and caused millions of dollars in damage.

 

True to its spirit, New Orleans has taken more than its fair share from Mother Nature and has endured, as it will no matter what Isaac throws its way.  May the rebuilt and restrengthened levees hold back the deluge of rain because New Orleans definitely deserves a break!

 



My son (in sunglasses) and his friends

 

 

Zen Me



Zen Garden Number One

"I wait for time to heal the pain and

 

 raise me to my feet once again --

 

so that I can start a new path,

my own path,
 

the one that will make me whole again."

                                                      ~ Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II



Zen Garden Number Two

Hope and Healing

Courtesy of The Magic Onions

I love this picture!

Serene and peaceful, can't you feel the healing power of the flowers?  The first time I saw it, I mentally slipped into the photograph and felt the aura of  its calming vibe.  I could practically smell the beautiful flowers in the shape of a majestic sun surrounding the Nature Girl.  

 

Ommmmmmmm.  The healing is starting and it can happen for all of us but we need to be patient.  Healing takes time.  The most important thing about restoring your mental and emotional health after the loss of a loved one is to think positively: if you want to heal then it will happen for you.  Even if you don't have the energy right now to feel positive, try to keep a small positive thought in the back of your memory.  It will help to carry you through the pain.

 

Healing is defined as restoring to health or soundness, to repair or go through a process to cure your inner self.  In a sense, you are seeking to come to grips with the reality of what has happened to you.  The numbness you feel is your body's way of giving you time to catch up with your loss and the new changes in your life.

I found that the first step towards healing from the loss of a loved one is to allow yourself to feel your feelings. You may want to ignore the feelings because they are so painful but trust me, if you are patient with yourself, you can work through or process the waves of emotions coming at you.

 

Someone you cared about A LOT, someone you loved A LOT is no longer with you physically or emotionally.  It takes a long time to really deal with the shock of your loss but eventually time will help you get control of your emotions and give you the courage to continue to move forward with your life.  It has been almost nine years since my husband died and I still have setbacks.  Sometimes I will read something that reminds me of him or I see something that reminds me of him or of our life together.

I try to talk about it or I try to embrace the memory.  Ignoring or denying what has happened only makes it makes it more painful and more overwhelming.  Grief is a process and in expressing your grief you are allowing yourself to heal and to be hopeful.

It's not that you will never be happy again.  It's more that your life has changed and you won't be exactly the person that you were before your loved one died.  You must rebuild and find a way to move forward.

We each have different resources but here are some suggestions to help in your healing:

-- spend time in nature

-- listen to music

-- find a quiet place, breathe deeply and relax

-- reach out to a friend

-- join a group such as a church group or a community group

-- strengthen a family tie

-- or lie in the grass, feel the warmth of the sun and smell the flowers!

 

The Night of The Cicada

 

I am happy for the arrival of today, for yesterday was a day when I was trying to follow my own advice about staying positive, breaking down a problem and letting it go when you can't do anything more.

 

For me, I get stressed when I am thrown into a situation at work and expected to solve it quickly.  I can work under pressure but I don't really like it.  I prefer to see the problem ahead of time and work on it in increments.

 

But that isn't what life is always about.  Untangling the problem takes time and sometimes I just don't have the luxury of time to figure something out.

 

It's BOOM and then I'm on deadline and that's it.

 

I did what I could to fix the problem and then because it was Friday afternoon and since others who could helped me had already left for the weekend, I had to leave the problem where it was.  Getting on the elevator to leave work and even while I was driving home, I really made a concerted effort not to bring the stress home with me.

 

I took deep breaths, I went down a mental check list of what else I could have done to solve the problem before I left work and there wasn't anything more.  I didn't play music on the car radio because I really wanted to calm myself.

 

I wanted to stop at the grocery store and buy myself a huge container of Ben & Jerry's Chocoloate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream but I didn't.  Instead, I tried to remain zen about my stress and and not let it the better of me.  I really wanted to have a really ugly cry and I was ready to let myself do it when I realized I left my cell phone out in the car. 

 

I went out to get it and when I came back into the house I accidentally let a cicada fly in.  OMG, OMG.  If you have never seen or heard a cicada then please take my word for it that they make a really weird awful buzzing sound when they are flying.  They are rather large, similiar to locusts, and they are just tooooo gross.

 

Now the thing is in my dining room, flying around inside the light fixture and trying to find it's way out.  All I could do is stand there and watch the cicada flying around in a panic.  I  couldn't touch it and if it flew out of the fixture I was going to open the front door and try to get back outside but that never happened.  It just flew around in circles until it tired itself out and through the glass of the light fixture I could see that it was laying on its back.

 

OMG what is a girl to do?  At least my work stress was gone but I couldn't take the cicada anymore.  I called it a night and quickly fell asleep.

Fortunately or unfortunately, so did the cicada!

Street Sense

Martin Walker

While buying tomatoes today at the FRESHFarm market near the White House, I met a homeless man named Martin, who was selling newspapers and waiting to go to a drug and alcohol treatment program in West Virginia.

I had seen Martin on previous trips to the market but didn't say more than "Hi!" or smile at him.  Today, I bought a newspaper from him and we started talking.  Martin told me that as a vendor for Street Sense newspapers he is similiar to a self-employed subcontractor.  That means that when I buy a newspaper I am investing in him and Street Sense.

I told him I had seen other people around town, especially near the Metro stops, selling Street Sense, but I didn't really know much about it.  Martin said that people usually think that he and others selling the newspapers go to a central office somewhere in DC to pick up free newspapers and then the homeless people sell them to make money.  That's not the whole picture.

Martin purchases his own newspapers upfront for 35 cents/an issue to cover publishing costs and he sells the papers for a suggested donation of $1.  This means that when a newspaper is bought for $1, that 35 cents of it repays Martin for his initial purchase.  The remaining 65 cents is Martin's profit that he uses to support himself.  The average vendor can earn about $45 a day.

I was curious about Martin's story because I know life can present changes quickly and I wondered how he had gotten to this place.  I also know it takes an inner strength to live life on the streets and to stay clean and heal yourself of drugs and alcohol. 

Martin said he is 40 years old and has a 20-year-old son.  He said he has a mother, a brother and a sister who live in the area "but they have lives of their own."  He told me he once worked in a law firm many years ago as the company's debt collector.  He was hurt in a car accident and wanted to take more time off than the company allowed, so he was laid off.  Martin said that's when his life totally unraveled and the drinking and drugs "helped me forget reality."

 

He has lived in shelters for years, just finished a 30-day rehab program at another facility and is now enrolled in a another program at So Others Might Eat (SOME).  The SOME program involves Martin going to West Virginia for 90 days of drug and alcohol rehabilitation and extensive support treatments.  He was supposed to leave for West Virginia this week but he had to go to the dentist today to have a tooth removed.  Martin said he is grateful to be in the SOME rehab program (which paid for his dental work) because after he completes the rehab program, SOME will also help him find transitional housing and then eventually his own apartment.

 

I asked him what keeps him going when times get really tough.  "I have discouraging moments," Martin said, "but I really can't imagine quitting on life itself."  

 

Martin quietly added: "When people consistently see a person living on the streets, don't assume that it is easy to get it back together.  Once you have lost everything it is very difficult to get back to mainstream living."

 

I thanked Martin for his time and wished him good luck.  I told him when I come to the market next week that I hoped I wouldn't see him here.  He said next week he hoped to be in the mountains of West Virginia following his rehab program.

On the way back to my office I thought about how I had gone to buy fresh veggies but learned about another person's journey.  Martin is remarkably resilient, constantly trying to stay clean and never giving up on himself.  I hope his life continues on its present course.

Now when I see someone in a neon vest selling Street Sense newspapers on the streets of Washington, DC, I'll know how these people are working a program and that buying a newspaper can help change a life.