Human health has been an issue for as long as I can remember. We see more and more people losing an uphill battle to weight gain and fast food chains are profiting from it. It seems like every channel has a new weight loss reality show starting that promises to change our lives. My question is why do we wait and let it get so bad?
In this week’s video blog, we show you how an Oklahoma woman is teaching kids to cook and eat healthy. The recipes are simple and quite tasty. Just a glimpse of a fun and proactive way to help battle the obesity beast before it gets out of control.
As we wound our way deeper into the canyons near Cañon City, Colorado, I asked my husband what had been his favorite part of vacation so far. “Because you’re going to totally forget how much you loved it once you’ve white water rafted,” I explained. I had a hunch the fireworks we had appreciated so much would become a distant memory once we had experienced a few Class V rapids.
We arrived and, donned with helmets and life jackets, received a brief training about how to anchor our feet into the inflated raft to help us follow the Most Important Rule: Stay in the boat. As flatlanders better versed in back pasture mud holes than raging rivers, we grew concerned about the actual statistical probability of ending upwearing the raft as a hat, which our guide so humorously cautioned as a possibility. Nonetheless, we waded into the Arkansas River, jumped aboard, and began our journey.
As we approached our first rapid, a Class IV, the excitement and apprehension was palpable by everyone except the guide, whose five years of leading trips had probably worn some of the emotion from the experience. Listening to the commands (Forward one! Forward two!), we easily traversed the roiling mass of water, our giddiness intact—if not increased—by the challenge. Once past the breaking current, we breathed easily, and rounds of high-fives were had by all.
Friends, our contributor group is a special collective of talented, loving, thinking folks. In our short time together, I’ve become very endeared to them. It might be because when people write, you see their souls. And, reading their souls each night has made me feel close to them – even though I don’t spend much time with them. In a few weeks (or perhaps longer), one of our contributors will be revealing a project he’s been working on; it’s a contest of sorts, and is a cool thing. He’s given me permission to preview a few of the images attached to this project. They are simply photos, with life statements for parents regarding their daughters. I hope you enjoy the preview glimpse, and I look forward to when he’s ready for the “big reveal.” – Red Dirt Kelly, on behalf of [michael]
I was introduced to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” books when I was eight years old. Soon after, I began doodling on wide-ruled paper when day-dreams would overtake me. In them, I was Laura and I was playing in the log cabin attic bedroom with my sister Mary. We would cuddle our tiny corncob dolls while playing house, sitting on pumpkins for chairs. Overhead, strands of dried onions would hang on every beam. The detail of my drawings was only limited by the time I had for that particular sitting. Since I was a farm girl and much of our lives revolved around storing food, preparing food, and growing food, I had found my literary heroine.
Thirty-nine years later, I still romanticize the annual rhythm of doing what I can with my own hands and my own earth to provide food for my family. And one of these annual rituals includes harvesting onions twice a year, drying them, and braiding them into usable portions to either keep in the garage until those on my hook in the kitchen are gone, or give away to friends. The process is easy, but I was taught. So in case you are just now at the point where you’d like to learn as well, here is a post to guide you. Let’s begin, shall we? Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: The Sweet Simplicity of Braiding Onions→
As people we fail; as friends we fail; as a spouse we fail. Failure is in us and all around us.
Phil Mickelson, golf
Misery loves company – – – Or so I’ve heard. I do know that I feel better about my shortcomings when I see others who struggle. Just the other day I watched my favorite professional golfer, Phil Mickelson, miss a two-footer. TWO FEET!!! Come on, man!!! Oh well, I understand. I miss plenty of the same kinds of putts.
I’m re-reading one of my favorite books, The Killer Angels, a Pultizer Prize winning historical novel by Michael Shaara. The book tells the story of four days of the Battle of Gettysburg. The first time I read the book it made me cry. I was sad for all parties involved.
I’m a huge fan of General R.E. Lee. Huge! (Lincoln too)
General Robert E. Lee
But as I read the story yet again, I find myself saying, “Please listen to Longstreet, and please don’t march those young men into the Union center.” But Mr. Lee is very stubborn and the carnage is nauseating. Following the frontal assault on the third day of Gettysburg Lee surveys his beaten army and say, “All this has been my fault.” The venerable Lee had failed*.
Do we know anyone else who has failed? How did Jesus’ students do at test time? In Matthew 26:2 Jesus said, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man is to be delivered up for crucifixion.”
He went on teaching them of things to come and we pick up this familiar story in the Garden.
Judas' symbol of failure
1. First we recount Judas’ betrayal. He rats Jesus out. We see this picture of a Benedict Arnold; he double-crosses Jesus; he is a snitch, a squealer, a two-faced friend. The term Judas’ Kiss is forever a despicable image.
Consider all the ways we are unfaithful to Jesus in the same manner. When we allow our plan to supplant the purpose of Jesus Christ, we betray the Lord.
2. Jesus asks his disciples “keep watch” with Him in the Garden. They fall asleep. We see this picture of sloth, laziness and/or indifference. They must have really been tired, huh? Continue reading Simple Sabbath — Because We Fail→
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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.