First, on Nutella...discovered today that there is a World Nutella Day!
http://www.nutelladay.com/
The calendar has been marked so that this will not be overlooked next year. I have started making hot chocolate with Nutella - one heaping tablespoon stirred into 8 ounces of milk over direct heat...yum. For snacks I have switched from graham crackers to Wasa bread as the foundation for my Nutella, since Wasa bread is less fattening than graham crackers! Nutella is a good thing - always makes me happy. And it is gluten free, for those who wonder.
On death...I've been listening to John Denver lately while I run - his songs set a nice easy pace and the words and melodies are comforting. I wonder as I listen to "Poems, Prayers and Promises," if he had any feeling that he might not live to old age:
I've been lately thinking
About my life's time
All the things I've done
And how it's been
And I can't help believing
In my own mind
I know I'm gonna hate to see it end...
About my life's time
All the things I've done
And how it's been
And I can't help believing
In my own mind
I know I'm gonna hate to see it end...
...And I have to say it now
It's been a good life all in all
It's really fine
To have a chance to hang around...
It's been a good life all in all
It's really fine
To have a chance to hang around...
...The days they pass so quickly now
Nights are seldom long
And time around me whispers when it's cold
The changes somehow frighten me
Still I have to smile
It turns me on to think of growing old
For though my life's been good to me
There's still so much to do
So many things my mind has never known...
Nights are seldom long
And time around me whispers when it's cold
The changes somehow frighten me
Still I have to smile
It turns me on to think of growing old
For though my life's been good to me
There's still so much to do
So many things my mind has never known...
I think that he would have been very sad to see the direction our country has taken and especially to see the anti-environmental policies that have dominated the past 8 years - he sings of West Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains in "Country Roads."
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains,
blowing like a breeze...
...Country roads, take me home
To the place, I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains,
blowing like a breeze...
...Country roads, take me home
To the place, I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads
According to Robert F Kennedy Jr last weekend, West Virginia's mountains are being mined to the point where they are becoming non-existent and look more like parking lots from the air - and the Shenandoah River has become a dumping ground for all types of waste. All practices protected by the Bush administration.
But more on death....the other night Sam was snugging in for the night when he asked me what I think it is like to die in your sleep. Hmmmm....I think it is something we all hope for (a longggg time from now!), but I never thought about what it is like. I suppose it isn't like anything. You go to sleep and you don't wake up. I said to him that it isn't like you'll wake up the next morning and think "Damn, I died in my sleep and I had so much to get done!"
You just stop.
And nothing matters to you anymore.
And now on life....well, that's what is happening. I seem much more aware than ever before of the passing of time. Each day I mark mentally as one more gone - I want to live in a way that doesn't just push the days aside trying to get to whatever is next.
This is it.
This is all I get.
If I am to spend my days where I am then I want them to count for something. We just don't know if "someday" is going to be there.
Cheers-
But more on death....the other night Sam was snugging in for the night when he asked me what I think it is like to die in your sleep. Hmmmm....I think it is something we all hope for (a longggg time from now!), but I never thought about what it is like. I suppose it isn't like anything. You go to sleep and you don't wake up. I said to him that it isn't like you'll wake up the next morning and think "Damn, I died in my sleep and I had so much to get done!"
You just stop.
And nothing matters to you anymore.
And now on life....well, that's what is happening. I seem much more aware than ever before of the passing of time. Each day I mark mentally as one more gone - I want to live in a way that doesn't just push the days aside trying to get to whatever is next.
This is it.
This is all I get.
If I am to spend my days where I am then I want them to count for something. We just don't know if "someday" is going to be there.
Cheers-
Nutella is good on apples, toast, mixed with peanut butter in a sandwich with bananas, and straight out of the jar. I'm sure John Denver would have loved it as well. Thanks for the hot chocolate tip. I'm going to try that.
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