This past week we saw the passing of two entertainment superstars. One suddenly, the other after a long courageous fight.

Michael Jackson's demise took his fans by surprise, but shouldn't have. He had been taking all kinds of drugs for years. The fact that they were prescribed didn't matter. It was even published that he had become addicted to pain killers years ago. With all that he had done to his body to change and manipulate it, it should not come as a surprise that it finally just quit on him.



Farrah, on the other hand, fought a hard and gallant fight against a particularly nasty form of cancer. It came out that she had had surgery for a tumor when she was only a babe. Cancer is so sneaky; it may have just hidden in her body all those years just waiting for a chance to reappear. Even with all the money she had to get the best in medical care, she finally succumbed.

How many of us looked upon these two with a longing to be in their place; to have the looks, the wealth, the fame. Now they too are gone.


Learn to be happy with who you are. Don't waste your life being envious of others because they have what you perceive to be the be all and end all. An old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for."

Healthful living is not just about eating right and exercising. It is also about finding an inner peace and happiness that allows your body to operate at peak efficiency.


May God bless Michael and Farrah and may the perpetual light shine upon them.

My mother never finished elementary school. It wasn't unusual in those days (the first decade of the 1900's). Many children had to help out at home. She made up for the lack of a formal education by being a voracious reader (when she had the time). She even read "The Confessions of Saint Augustine". Mom was one smart cookie (that's a dumb expression, isn't it?), although I didn't appreciate it at the time (who ever gives credit to their parents?).
On the subject of healthful living one of her pieces of advice was, "Your dinner plate should be like an artist's palate, very colorful." That's what I'd like to pass along to you today. Oh, I know that most of you were told to eat your veggies, but in today's climate of fast food restaurants and frozen prepared foods, or meals in boxes, it is way too easy to skip over them. It is a problem for those of us who live alone with little incentive to spend time on food preparation
When cooking vegetables try to not let them get soft and mushy (unless they are meant to be that way). I hated most of the greens as a kid because they were cooked too well (much of what we got was canned), but loved many of them raw (how about fresh stringbeans?). Now I cook them as little as possible, and still eat many raw. Try adding fresh zucchini and summer squash to a salad. Same thing goes for thinly sliced carrots. Speaking of carrots (I tried to avoid even saying the word as a kid), try adding a dash of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves, with a little splash of maple syrup just before you serve them. It's like eating candy. No kid can resist.