Wellness

The word wellness is a vast net that can catch even the smallest of quarks (in other words, the topics of discussion are varied and diverse like snowflakes or grains of sand); for me the list below constitutes a fraction of the fundamental enhancements gained from the study of the concept of wellness:

• Wellness is a commodity, a currency that some sell - be mindful of what you purchase.
• Biases of thought and actions are prevalent among humanity – by questioning biases, in all their forms, critical thinking will deepen.
• Each person’s understanding of wellness, health, and what it means to live well are subject to their biases, perceptions, and lived experiences. Embrace these differences; as the sun sets, we are in step together in the journey.
• Language is a powerful architecture of culture.
• Lastly: we live in an unpredictable world – open the door each day with the hope for predictability and be able to adapt to nature’s own impulses and whims.

As a future horizon thinker, it is with some certainty that I say, in 100 years, when the world is peopled a new, they will look back at this centuries beginning and grimace. Some may laugh at our ill attempts to create solutions to our current problems. Some may wince in disgust that our generation ever thought such-and-such was a good idea.

A personal strongly held belief, a bias of mine, is that continued industrial progress and over consumption of commodities, which damage and drain our natural world, will continue toward the “law of diminishing returns” and “our bigger-and-better society is now like a hypochondriac, so obsessed with its own economic health as to have lost the capacity to remain healthy” (Leopold vii-ix).

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Works cited

Leopold, A. (1948). The Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford University Press.

Behind You

Photo taken 2003 in Northern Arizona! And yes they were, nice people!

You know where you are because you know where you are not. Your destination is yet to be written. Each day, each step a riddle unfurling like a fiddlehead warmed by springs' gaze. As you go forward traveling to places that ignite dreams, it's worth remembering, we are your fellowship. Steadfast. Constant. Faithful.

You know where you are because you know where you have been and who's behind you.

It's worth remembering, there are "nice Indians behind you!"

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Revolutions

Revolutions and resolve circle overhead like a Raven on the hunt for their next tasty morsal. I circumnavigate a path only in its newness through my eyes. Many shadow the same passageway. We orbit. We pass time. We celebrate the day of our birth. We make resolutions crowded with hope, hungry for change.

The world says I have been 56 years old for 361 days. In other words, today I am 56 years, 11 months, and 28 days old, and I am in my 57th year since I first took breath. Shortly I will start my 58th year. Not that I want to rush but accurate reckonings have been circling overhead.

As I approach the start of a new revolution and celebrate the end of my 57th year with 57 candles. I am resolved to no longer cry over spoiled milk.

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Word Flu

When a word spreads through a society like a contagion, infecting our ears, our thoughts and conversations with their drumming numbing elixir of poisonous intoxication.

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Remain Calm

Sometimes I feel like we're in the middle of a lake in a miniature rowboat, rowing across a vast expanse in a fierce thunderstorm. The wind howls, the water churns, tossing us every which way. Then someone in the boat stands up, flails their arms, and screams we're all going to die. 

And I keep having to yell over the snarling waves, you have one job right now and that's to sit down, hold on, remain calm.

Remain calm! You've got this!

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What is Wellness

The darkness is passing. The light from the sun returns slow and steady, reaching farther over the tree tops each day. Wellness at latitude 61.2 North is an obscure concept wrapped in shadows in the winter and overpowering light in the summer. Light and dark rule our sense of wellbeing with unyielding extremes. Forty-five years living in Alaska from the northern most village of Utqiagvik to our state’s largest city of Anchorage, it is with confidence I say wellness is found in the daily amount of vitamin D and C intake, with a moderate dose of B12 for good measure.

Wellness at this latitude suggests being mindful of how the bodies production of serotonin and melatonin affect us physically and psychologically. The extremes of balance between light and dark will change how you conduct your daily life, awareness is a step forward in maintaining healthy stability.

Wellness is found by embracing the seasons of lightness and darkness with an acceptance where no amount of bargaining, wishing or coercion can change this state of existence as long as I choose to live here. The psychology of positive thinking; the mind/body connection says “we’ve got to believe” that in the moments of darkness there will again be light, a trick of the mind some might say. By accepting this reality, the negative manifestation of external stress becomes manageable. Along with a winter trip outside to Hawai’i. Toes in a warm sandy beach, the ocean waves in rhythm drowning others distractions. Sunlight in your eyes and vitamin D through your skin – this could be the good life – that’s it I’m moving. Ha – I’ve strayed off topic. What are we talking about? Oh, yes, wellness.

Wellness is used as a buzzword without a clear definition of an axiom. Is wellness a commodity which society is currently selling? How much will it cost the individual, in their dollar tools, their time, or their self-esteem?

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Truth of Consequence

Truth of Consequence (yes of not or)

Jumping jumbled opinions surrounded by the "look here... no wait... look here," moving from one disjointed thought to another are diversion tactics not unlike the trickery sleight of hand of a master magician. When we blindly listen to loosely connected ideas we can more easily be swept away in the torrent of misinformation.

In order to make sense of what is truth and what is merely a plausible falsehood, our due diligence requires that the information and details that we are presented with be broken down into individual segments. Individual ideals or dogmas that can be further explored and researched in order to uncover truths that we are willing to accept.

Critical thinking is the foundation with which we are able to explore "what is truth?" without letting another person’s paradigm of a belief system interfere with the process.

Oh, and it is a known fact that you can't possibly be lied to if you are also listening to classical music.

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Vanquishing Formidable Foes

English, in its written form, has been my nemesis since second grade. On the other hand, oral rhetoric has in no way been problematic for me, just ask my grandpa, I can talk the cows ears off and drive them to the yonder field with numerous words as sharp as a dog’s snarl.

The written concept of the English language can dish it out and I will volley my best return. I aim to vanquish this formidable foe. Even the naysaying poetry workshop instructor can take their best jab at shooting down my satellite. I intend to remain in orbit.

Oh, and I almost forgot, although I actually try quite hard to do just that, forget. Forget my seventh grade English class filled with the mortifying comments by Mr. Shea. The public shaming of my spelling skills set me on a long path of self-doubt as a writer.

Time to pay homage to what was misplaced through the years. It is time to seek the long-desired degree. Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing and English, I see you!

I will vanquish this formidable foe!

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Icefog

 

Through the dense layer of icefog we see neither tree nor beast. It is only when we toil to climb the hills that the stars come into view.

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