Category Archives: recommendations
How to think about death
Does that sound like a morbid topic to write about? Here’s me telling you it’s not. That’s not how to think about death.
I’m neither a poet nor that avid a fan of poetry. But I am definitely an ardent fan of the amazing treasure, Mary Oliver who passed on last year. She left with us and our descendents her riches to relish and cherish through all of time.
The way to think about death is to take a look at what she wrote about it. Whether I am introducing it or reintroducing it to you, it’s worth reading (again). Each word is a wonder, each phrase a discovery. Here is just one of the remarkable and insightful verses of her poem:
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
It’s worth reading and savoring. Over and over again.
I am reproducing the entire poem below from the Library of Congress site so I don’t have to go looking for it everyday. As strange a thing as it is to say about death, do enjoy. In fact, do more than that. Take it to heart.
When Death Comes
When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps the purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox; when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility, and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular, and each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending, as all music does, toward silence, and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth. When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
—Mary Oliver
© 1992 by Mary Oliver, from New & Selected Poems: Vol 1. Beacon Press, Boston.
There is a wonderful article published in The Atlantic this month, ‘Attention is the beginning of Devotion’ (stop and think about that for a minute) about Mary Oliver and her words of wisdom, so fabulously expressed. I hope you read that too and become a fan for life. Hers is wisdom ingrained with clarity and simplicity that is easy to grasp, easy to revere, easy to pursue.
The Swedes Have Got It Right
Almost eight years on, and even now, when I mention to people (because they ask) that I don’t eat rice, wheat, sugar, potatoes (white stuff or brown stuff – don’t be fooled, it’s all bad with white being just a bit worse), they look at me like I have grown two heads.
It’s not like this is a whim. I have read and researched material over the years and believe – without a doubt – that a diet loaded with carbohydrates is bad, bad, BAD for you. Not just for your body but for your brain. If I need to, I can cite results, research, studies and facts, ad nauseam.
In fact, I should be looking at all the carb loaders as if they had grown two heads. All you need to do is see the awful evidence:
Horrifying, Fast-Paced Increase in Obesity in the United States
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How I wish more of the world would learn from Sweden!
Sweden (and yes, I mean the government) today preaches a “LCHF” diet for good health. LCHF = Low Carb, High Fat. Here’s a great article on the topic:
Sweden Becomes First Western Nation to Reject Low-fat Diet Dogma in Favor of Low-carb High-fat Nutrition
And this was not a whim either.
Sweden took this huge step forward based on the results of a commission that looked at over 16,000 studies and confirmed science that has been around for many years (but largely ignored by the rest of the world).
Here’s a quote from Professor Fredrik Nyström, one of the committee members in Sweden :
“I’ve been working with this for so long. It feels great to have this scientific report, and that the skepticism towards low-carb diets among my colleagues has disappeared during the course of the work.
When all recent scientific studies are lined up the result is indisputable: our deep-seated fear of fat is completely unfounded. You don’t get fat from fatty foods, just as you don’t get atherosclerosis from calcium or turn green from green vegetables.”
After two years of studying the issue, the Swedish expert committee published their results and conclusion in September 2013. Lucky for the Swedes, this report from the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment is likely to be the basis for future dietary guidelines for obesity treatment within the Swedish health care system.
How about the rest of the world? Here are two choices for us –
1. The status quo – continue your normal high-carb, low-fat diet and face the consequences with your health
2. Question it and adopt a more scientific and proven method to protect your body and your brain
If you choose not to be stuck in a cave and opt for #2, I recommend that you start here, with the Swedes – read about the expert committee, their recommendation and the rationale behind it.
Once you are more or less convinced of the evidence, you might want to traverse over here: Low Carb, High Fat for Beginners. This is an excellent, excellent site!
There are other forums and resources out there but I chose to stick with the Swedes for now. They are brave and smart enough to turn all the usual suspects and wrong assumptions on their head, and lead the world towards a healthy revolution.
Finally, here’s a point made by the Diet Doctor (Swedish, of course):
It took millions of years for the human revolution to take place. But that last step below – the arrival of the modern obesity epidemic did not take millions of years. It happened barely in a blink of the eye, relatively speaking.
Get informed, click on the picture below to find out why. Surely, you are interested? Surely.
Alas, the arrival of modern obesity…much too quickly
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The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 