Pressure

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    Barefooted, there is a satisfying feeling that always happens from stepping on freshly cut and verdant-green grass, especially in autumn time. The grass tickles and refreshes much like the feeling you get at a foot massage spa. Well-trimmed grass in your yard or elsewhere doesn't just happen, though.  Someone skillful with a push or powered mower gets up and goes out of her way to take up the artful, yet arduous task.  Once completed, there is that instant and inward gratification. Unfortunately, not to one's neighbor whose grass, likewise requires cutting and trimming.  Keeping up with the neighborhood yard upkeep could bring an irritating pressure, but fulfilling reward and feeling!

Moving

Blog 54 …

You may have heard that geographical movement includes being not only physically at the site, but also getting inwardly there’.  Familiarizing yourself with new surroundings, landmarks, and places that help get you around and about is a must, or you end up painfully lingering back to the comforts and nostalgia of your previous location. Getting settled requires an enabling of sort!  You must know where the nearest services are for emergencies – hospital, doctor/dentist offices, fire department, water/electric providers, and the like.  You must somehow also again build a network of people and resources, and while it isn’t necessary to create new friendships, surrounding yourself with reliable and wholesome acquaintances would surely help sustain or balance your emotional quotient.  Uprooting yourself from what you know could either bring depression or elation.  Choosing thoughts and actions that feed the latter would, and by all means, keep away the blues!

Smoothie!

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Summer heat creates a natural craving for all cold drinks and foods. What’s your favorite cold treat? Mine is the smoothie.  It is easy to prepare and a quick fix to my craving.  Simply take out the blender, gather lingering fruits from the fridge, and ice cubes.  Give the blender a boost in cracking the ice easily by using orange or lime juice, and then pour in diced fruit.  Next, get the blender to work wonders!  You may want half a cup of milk or plain yogurt added to the mixture for an extra zing to the palate.  Otherwise, the mixture of ice, juice and fruit is the perfect smoothie treat for a warm tummy!

Kale!

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Kale is a fantastic veggie find.  Not only is it a great source of iron and

calcium, but also vitamin C, and when prepared/mixed with nuts, you get a dose of protein.  I have not really given it attention as many times I passed by it at any of the markets until I heard, then looked up what I could do with it.  What a great surprise to know I could make chips with it!  Triple yummy in the palate, filler in the tummy and radically healthy! 

Get Going

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     Bored, stressed and tired of commonplace existence?  Try Uprooting yourself and relocating to one of many undiscovered places nearby.  It may just be the panacea for your unsettled feelings.  You could drive leisurely and explore an undiscovered, scenic place.  You might want to take a day trip to a park, a museum, a lake, a river.  If you want to really be more adventurous, you may head out to nearby beaches or to the mountains!  If you like, tap a combination location of water and mountain. 

My recent discovery place for just the perfect get away from mundane existence was about an hour and a half drive out of my sleepy Greensboro City to the rich, open, and luxurious Badin Lake.  Perfectly situated around the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina, Badin Lake boasts of rustic, contemporary lake houses, varied flora and fauna, and its beautiful bluish-green water.  The mountain slopes that surround the lake soothe and calm, and positively overwhelm eyes craving for gardens of magenta rhododendron, salt marshes and pine forests.  Surprise appearances of blue heron, geese and native birds add to the visitors’ desired calm and solitude.   

For what are you waiting?  Get up, go, and find your heart and mind’s sanctuary!

Black Slime

Blog 50 …

    You are on your ‘happy-healthy jogging trail’ on a fresh morning one day.  The breeze wraps around your body and sweetly cools you.  Suddenly, a slimy, 5 or so foot-long black snake whips the solemn wind and bars your path.  The earth’s belly-footed creature throws you off path, and inside, you shout out a quiet scream.  It startles you and gets you frozen where you stand.  Fortunately, your brain still actively whirls; it searches for an action plan.  What must you do, or what could you do?  The secretive, though harmless black snake, after all, simply is going about its merry, natural outdoorsy way.  You decide to calm down, stay put, stand, and watch what it wants to do. The long, deep, black with white belly creature seemingly wants a way out on the other side of the road, down in the prairie grasses.  It moves quickly and darts away soon as you stomp your walking cane.  Consider yourself lucky that it decides to belly-run!  Others in its family are not so ‘sissy’ you know, and could or would attack if you get close.  A deadly, slimy predator may even jump at you, coil its body on you, squeeze you tightly and suffocate you before swallowing you whole!  Thank your lucky stars your encounter this day is just with that unassuming black with white-belly slime!  Now, take a deep breath, and resume your happy-healthy jog, but keep watching out where your feet take you!

Trigger Finger

Blog 49 …

You wake up one day with a sore right hand, but moan internally about one finger in extreme pain.  “What’s happening?” you ask silently.  You attempt to stretch out all fingers, but one locks!  You literally take your other hand, and pull out the locked finger.  It snaps out, thankfully.  The scare takes you to your family doctor.  After a quick questioning, and diagnosis, she wraps up, “You have an inflamed finger; it is known as ‘trigger finger’!”  You drive back home, and worry your little head more.  After all, your physician does not offer treatment.  You know you’ll be stuck with this malady, unless you yourself do the research so you could pressure the ‘witchdoctor’ you just consulted to do something to rid or of it or be able to live with it.  Out from your wallet goes your $50. consultation fee for nothing!  Ugh! 

So, what is ‘trigger finger’?  In trigger finger, also known as stenosing tenosynovitis, one of your fingers or your thumb gets stuck in a bent position and then straightens with a snap — like a trigger being pulled and released.  If trigger finger is severe, your finger may become locked in a bent position, permanently!  Often painful, trigger finger is caused by a narrowing of the sheath that surrounds the tendon in the affected finger.  

 

You best get help or your hand would likely go downhill and become useless!