Health from the Beginning

  Hi Friends!  I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy.  I know there has been a focus in our world lately concerning health and illness, and a lot of people are reevaluating how they are doing life.  I was doing some reading yesterday, and I started looking at the first chapter of the Bible. If you are familiar with the book of Genesis, you know the first chapter is the one that talks about God's creation of the world.  As I was reading this, some words began to stick out to me, and I realized  there was a prescription for health written right into the world from the very beginning.  Given that we are all looking for ways to be healthier these days, I thought I would share this list with you.    (Disclaimer:  I am not a doctor, nor do I have a medical degree, so please consult your physician if you have questions/concerns.  These are just my personal thoughts on general healthful practices.)
  Now that I've got the legal jargon out of the way, here are the healthy things I've been contemplating.  In the beginning, God created light. And this was one of the first things I noticed when rereading the creation account.  Now, I don't know about you, but a good dose of sunlight and vitamin D does me a world of good, and I think there's a reason it was one of the first things God made.  Sunlight can lift our spirits and our moods and help us to create vital nutrients by absorbing it through our skin. 
  The second crucial element that stuck out to me in creation was water.  Not only are our bodies made up of a lot of water, but water is good for everything from cleaning ourselves to restoring our body's natural state internally, to the therapeutic sound of ocean waves or bubbling rivers which can set our minds at ease.  It's no surprise then, that this was one of the first things mentioned in the creation of the world. 
   Next on the list of healthful creations were plants.  Plants were created for nutrition, and I believe most of us know that eating your fruits and vegetables is crucial to your overall health.  Popeye wasn't kidding; spinach really will make you strong. 
  The next slightly unorthodox thing I noticed in creation was signs and seasons.  Now, at first this may seem like a strange thing to include in a list of healthful items, but order is so important to us functioning at optimal health.  Have you ever heard that your inner state reflects your outer state?  Most likely, if the world around you is in chaos, your internal state may be chaos as well. God created order right from the beginning, and I think this points to its importance to our health.  God also created seasons right along side signs, and when I think of seasons, I am drawn to the idea of holidays, special occasions, and yearly traditions.   Celebration is a great way to keep our spirits high.  After all, "a cheerful heart is good medicine."   (Psalm 17:22)
  One of the final items was not something God created, but something He did.  He rested.  Now, if you are a busy individual out there, I don't have to explain to you the value of rest, but usually, just knowing its value doesn't mean we are getting enough of it.  Taking time to deliberately rest can be restorative to our health and well-being. 
  If you are feeling under the weather or a bit discouraged right now, or maybe you just want to take some positive steps to get healthier, I encourage you to give some or all of these a try.  Get some sunlight on a daily basis, drink water and enjoy water, create some order in your life, get your surroundings straightened up, celebrate something today, make a plan to enjoy a new season of life, eat your veggies and fruits, and lastly, get some rest.  I'm thinking of all of you, and I can't wait to see your succeed!  Stay healthy!

~K. W.

Making Ourselves Busy

  Hello friends!  It has been a really long time... like, five months to be exact.  And believe me, it's not that I haven't been thinking about anything for the last five months or that I haven't had anything to say, but you know... life has a way of pulling you, this way and that, and sometimes the things we want to do get flung by the wayside.  If you're anything like me, you may have a tendency to put your creative pursuits on the back burner sometimes in the name of all the other "important" things that need done. 
  And while I am the queen of preaching that we all need to put our dreams and goals first, even I get tripped up by the rat race sometimes and lose sight of what is really important.  Sometimes though, it's not even so much that we're actually busy.  It's that we make ourselves busy to avoid what we know we should be doing.  Maybe we're afraid or discouraged; maybe we think no one cares to read or hear or see what we make or write or do.  Sometimes being busy or tired is just a coverup to get us out of doing the really hard stuff. 
  The problem is, once we start to think this way, we get stuck.  We stall out on the hill, and anyone who's ever driven a standard knows, when you stall out on a hill, you don't just sit there.  You start to roll backward.  And to make matters worse, in order to get started again, you are probably going to lose a little more ground before you gain traction. 
  We're living in very unique circumstances right now, and maybe you have had to put some things on hold; vacations, financial moves, events, etc.  But maybe, just maybe, this can be a time when you look around and realize you've been making yourself really busy, and you don't have an excuse anymore.  Maybe it's time to his the gas and start moving on your projects, your dreams, and your goals.  Maybe, at a time when the rest of the world has come to a screeching halt, you can find your vision and head out onto the open road.  I'm not saying it will be easy, (getting started on a hill is challenging), but I do think it's time for us to drop the act and stop pretending that anything except ourselves is holding us back from accomplishing and doing what we care about.
   Put a stop to the busy today.  Real or imagined, the constant pursuit of doing everything except what really matters has no place in our lives. Get out there and get after your goals today.  No more excuses.  I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K. L. White-Hartman