Steele (the Day)

Only a song today: How You Live

// June 30th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

One of my all-time favorites

Tea today: Tazo China Green Tips

Be Careful

// June 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Found this on PostSecret today – my Sunday message to all of you, whether I know

Friday’s Feast # 195

// June 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Appetizer
What is the weather like today where you live?

Humid, hot, cloudy

Soup
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how career-minded are you?

Career-minded? a low 4. Job-minded? 1 (today). Bad question for a Friday!

Salad
What type of window coverings do you have in your home? Blinds, curtains, shutters, etc.?

Blinds on the inside, Mother Nature’s special protective coating on the outside that I can barely see through. Nothing on my kitchen/breakfast nook windows – the water side of my “water-front property!”
Main Course
Name something that instantly cheers you up.

Phone calls from my kids, anything with 11:11 or 1:11 or 1.11 – you get the picture. I get more of the latter than the former

Dessert
How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning?

4-5 I’ve been told, usually don’t hear the first 3.

Tea tonight: Young Hyson

Hitting the "James"

// June 27th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Haven’t been to the gym lately – so long that I should call it “James.” (props to the voice on TV I heard say that the other night…) It’s been too nice outside to spend the time among the sweat, odor, and germs that hover over the hummm in there, so I’ve been choosing instead to bike or walk through moldy cornstalks and left-over tornado and flood garbage on the bike trail. Great options, huh?

Playlist by God. Really.

// June 23rd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

Long bike ride through the Greenbelt today, just ask my “sit bones.” iPod in tow. For you purists, I KNOW you’re not supposed to ride with ears plugged. Get over it. I was careful. One bad crash in a lifetime is enough. I needed thoughts other that the ones my own brain was generating so I could change my outlook on the day. On the way up, I listened to Pastor John’s sermon from last week (6/15). Just like a spring vegetable soup with a sprig of fresh rosemary, it’s always better the second time. He was talking to me. It was wrapping up; I was listening to the last 2 songs when I arrived at the Labyrinth in Cedar Falls. I love stopping there and prayerfully walking through the purposeful path of brick and rock, listening to the music. The pea gravel gets in my bike sandals, hurts like crazy, but I just try to look at it as the Lord’s Pedicure. I love that path. There is no mystery, just like life, we know where it starts and where it will end and it is awesome. Powerful. Uplifting. In between is the winding path with twists and turns and going back and feeling like you’re starting over, feeling like you’ve got the same rocks in your sandals. Yea, like life.

On the way home, my music was on “Shuffle.” There was no random shuffle about it – it was God’s playlist. Everything played in perfect order for my mood, from “A Mother’s Prayer” to “Anyway” to “Million Pieces” to “Stand” to “Thank You” to “God Will Make a Way” to “Grace Changes Everything”….and when my mind started wandering a bit and I had this out-of-the blue crazy thought about maybe some day moving somewhere else, what song came on at precisely that time? None other than Bert and Ernie’s “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon.” I’m no doubt the only AARP member who has Bert and Ernie on their iPod.

“…I would miss all the places and people I love
so although I might like it for one afternoon
I don’t want to live on the moon.”
Then about living in the sea?
…”I might stay for a day there if I had my wish
But there’s not much to do when your friends are all fish
And an oyster and clam aren’t real family
So I don’t want to live in the sea.”

That was no shuffle, that was a Divine Playlist. I’m never surprised by these happenings anymore. To the contrary, I expect them. The only song that would have surprised me was “God Blessed the Broken Bra that Led Me Straight to Kohl’s.” Now that would have blown me away.

For the record, I looked at my speedometer at least 4 times going 11.1 mph (nasty headwind). I glanced down when I had gone 11.1 miles, and I was at the most deadly corner on my ride, waiting to cross Viking Road, when my ride time read 1:11:11. Now try and tell me that I didn’t have Company, other than my better half. Wow, what a ride. God was shifting my gears today.

We came home, showered, and attended a celebration for a neighbor who has now completed 3 1/2 years of IV and oral chemotherapy for leukemia, including 40 spinal taps. Oh, and he graduated this year. Diploma didn’t mean nearly as much as that last lab report.
Tea tonight: Republic of Tea Pink Grapefruit Green Tea “Sip for the Cure” – just for you, Sam

At last…the Bike Ride

// June 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Wasn’t sure I’d have the energy or gumption get my bike out of the basement this summer. With the trails covered with flood waters, then the debris left when they receded, it was with a bit of trepidation that I ventured out on the trail to downtown Waterloo today. My better half accompanied me (this time he wore the biking gloves right side out), and other than the occasional brisk head wind, the more frequent gust from the north that nearly threw me in the brush, and the random burst of flood stench, it really was a delightful ride. That’s because there was a lot of “Bunny Park” smell – that enchanting odor from my childhood that one can only find in a deeply wooded paradise that takes me back to Green Lake camping days, Keds, and the simpler life. Bunny Park = God’s Country. Ahhh. My childhood friend Dan would understand. But what a shock to ride across the still-raging Cedar River, seeing the collapsed railroad bridge with my own eyes, and the trash-littered landscape all the way into downtown.

Friday’s Feast #194

// June 21st, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Newcomer to Friday’s Feast

I fear I’m a paradox – in my heart and soul I’m an eternal optimist, but on the outside I can sometimes bleed pessimism. I’m working on that. Ask me again in a couple of months.
Soup
What is your favorite color of ink to write with?
Black (bean).
Salad
How often do you get a manicure or pedicure? Do you do them yourself or go to a salon and pay for them?
I’ve only had two in my lifetime. I find the money better spent elsewhere, now that I know how they do it – dental tools, sandpaper, and emu oil work fine for me. And you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Main Course
Have you ever won anything online? If so, what was it?
YES! A set of Rachael Ray Furi knives. They were awesome, but I gave them to my son who enjoys chopping and dicing as much as I do. Remember, Luke – sharpen and hone. Knuckles out. And never put in the dishwasher!
Dessert
In which room in your house do you keep your home computer?
Heaven forbid, is my lap considered a room? Yikes, I hope not. Wherever my lap is, there shall be my computer.

First Day of Summer

// June 21st, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Iowa. Floods. Need Shoes?

// June 20th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Enough said.Tea tonight: Traditional Medicinals Organic Green with Ginger

Missing Tim

// June 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I really liked Tim Russert. Aside from the fact I become easily enamored by people on TV who actually know what they’re talking about, and who actually know who they are talking to, he was a genuine “down home” boy who never forgot where he came from. He exuded humility. You could see that in his interviews, in his shows, and in the respect he showed to everyone. He helped me understand politics the way Mr. Hamilton never could (besides, at that time, spit wads and passing notes had priority). I felt like I knew him – and surely he knew me. After all, he was in my family room talking several times a week. And I loved the way he unapologetically spoke of his faith and loved his family. I am as fascinated with his death as I was his life.

So when I heard he died of a heart attack, I was particularly taken aback. Was I surprised? Absolutely not. Was I saddened? Oh yes. I’ve been in the health/prevention/cardiac business for over 34 years, and my husband (who is Tim’s age) will tell you I predicted Mr. Russert’s demise a month or so ago. And I only saw him on TV – never met the guy in person. It was the weight, fluid retention, hard-driving style that told me he was working his way to heaven on the fast track. I’ve seen it a thousand times.

So a word to all of you twenty-somethings out there – here’s the skinny, and I don’t use that word loosely. Take heart, Luke Russert. Carry your dad’s legacy and listen up. Heart disease doesn’t start in adulthood – it starts in childhood with poor choices (our “All-American” choices) including food, drink (aka alcohol), and activity. There’s a little bit of bad luck involved, but as many scientists will tell you, “Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger.” Some of us just picked the wrong mom and dad when it comes to heart disease. But when your mom said eat your vegetables, dine from the sea, stay out of the cookie jar, and go ride your bike, it wasn’t for punishment. It was because Mom Always Knows Best (well, some do) and she loves you. Fatty streaks, the precursor to coronary artery disease, have been found in children as young as ten. The damage to the arteries occurs over time, and by the time you have a piece of plaque that is blocking 30-40% of an artery, you are a heart attack waiting to happen, and it’s quite possible you may be only 30-something. Those 30-40% blockages are the causes of heart attacks, not the 100% blockages. And always keep that waist size under 40 (women – 35). And women are just as vulnerable as men – often moreso.

My heavy heart is with the Russert family. Apparently God needed a really smart politico in heaven before this election. And maybe this is a message to us all. Take care of yourself before something preventable has it’s way with you, slams you, cripples you, kills you, has your family asking why?? Because once it strikes, it never goes away. Unless you’re superhuman like the Dean Ornish type (kudos to them).

There is nothing more sad that a 30-40 year old bypass patient (or dead person) with small children left to survive on their own. Out of work, disabled from heart disease, fear of walking to the mailbox lest another event is precipitated, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Good blood pressure, good cholesterol, and proper weight in your early years do not make you immune from the disease process. It is happening as I speak. And for the sake of your body, that holy temple the Good Lord blessed you with, keep the trash out of it, keep it moving, and pray like it’s your last day on earth.

Heart disease was not Tim’s bailiwick. Journalism is not mine. Surely we can all help each other.
Tea tonight: Heavenly Tea Organic Bamboo Green (how appropriate!)