Time is a Teacher…as students, we are supposed to learn from Life, digest it, grow, and move forward. No matter what it is we do, be it pleasure or pain, each day we should learn from our experiences and improve.

Schools, jobs, religion, and just plain living…these are tools to help us grow….help us discover what is going right, and what is going wrong. We start to run into problems when we digest the wrong information, or simply let the right thoughts go in one ear and out the other. I have a friend who reads the Bible daily, and tells me that she believes totally in the Lord…unfortunately, if you saw the way she lives her life, you would never believe it. How many people do we know who have health problems…they know the cause, yet they refuse to correct the source of the problem? Some have financial problems…yet they refuse to slow down their spending, while the debt on their credit cards grows daily.

We all make mistakes…yet, aren’t we supposed to learn from them, so that we can correct them? Money, alcohol, drugs, and yes, food, can easily get out of hand…at some point we’re supposed to stop, examine, and ask ourselves, what the heck am I doing? The mistakes can go on and on, until we realize the big word that we are trying to avoid…. “Change”…. eventually comes. The quicker we deal with our problems, the easier it is to move on.

Time multiplies the Good, and also the Bad….plain and simple, whether we like it or not. The slate or notebook we have in front of us has to be periodically examined and updated. Denial is not, as they say, a river in Egypt! Spirituality is there to help us extract the weeds from our garden. Until somebody comes up with a way for us all to live here forever, we are only visitors to this planet, who must accept a way to digest and grow. Many times I’ve asked myself, if so many people are praying to God daily, why does the world still look the way it does? Something has to be wrong with this picture! Are the Words of the Heavens just being digested and abandoned, like a plate of spaghetti? Or one day will we truly look at the pages of our Holy Books and finally understand the paradise that God wants us all to make this planet? Talk may be cheap, and paper may not refuse ink, yet surely in our hearts we must know the Truth. With each sunrise brings a chance to make our lives better, and what can be done today should never be put off until tomorrow. The path lies ahead….all we have to do is put one foot in front of the other, and climb on the shoulders of giants.

Carpe Diem,

Jennifer Avalon

© 2008 Jennifer Avalon

Just about everything we do today falls under somebody’s definition of “addiction.” Shopping, gambling, spending, drugs, alcohol, and last, but not least, food. Yes indeed, we are truly creatures of habit!

Many baffle over the years of why some addictions, over time, just seem to creep up on us….out of the blue we go from something that seems totally controllable to somewhere else, where our lives start to spin out of control. Addiction is all around us….could it be that one of the lessons of life is to find balance, control, and awareness? We are all, whether we care to admit it or not, truly addicts in one way or another, but one of the nastiest, unforgiving, relentless addictions of all is the one thing we can’t live without….Food.

The alcoholic, drug addict, shopaholic, can cease with their addictions if they just abstain. People must eat to live, and somewhere along the line we must find discipline and control over the food we consume, while never having the luxury of giving it up.

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine, where we both thought it strange that society doesn’t really look at food as a drug….but as a pleasure and sometimes, a reward. As we get older, the food we choose to eat affects us more profoundly. Where in our youth we could have indulged the sweets and saltines to our heart’s content, by middle age we are warned of the continued affects they can have on our bodies. America today sits on the cusp of a diabetic explosion, making many feel that the diets they once could partake of are leaving them at a dead-end street. The second part of their lives, some are left having to re-learn new ways to eat. Unlike the alcoholic, most doctors will give a person a list of foods to avoid….but can a doctor tell a patient to give up food altogether? I don’t think so! Therein lies the comedy and tragedy of a food addiction…can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

I, too, am a self-confessed foodaholic. I love food…I enjoy all things about it…shopping for it, cooking it, eating it. There! I confess, like many, to enjoying every smell, taste, and sip. What seems to work for me to control my appetite is that I watch what I eat and once a week, I fast on liquids. I also walk about 25 minutes a day in the fresh air. The fasting, in some strange way, helps me re-set my taste buds each week. After a day of fasting I find I appreciate and control my intake of food better. Knowing I can’t live without food, I would rather that I control it, then it control me.

This essay is very meaningful to me….as I receive many emails from people telling me about their problems with diet and food. Obesity is turning into an epidemic…..surely it cannot be an accident. Perhaps the American love affair with food should be reduced to a lifetime friendship!

Bon Appetit!

Jennifer Avalon

© 2008 Jennifer Avalon

This week we look forward to the start of a new year, untouched, like a slate that is unmarked and clean, just waiting for us to paint our thoughts and impressions onto it. Many of us will start to compile a list of New Year resolutions….setting goals for 2008. For a lot of us, by the end of January many of those goals start to unravel, and we become discouraged, wondering why we should continue on the course that looked so bright at the beginning.

I think if we approach the New Year with a different perspective and keep a symbol or image in our minds it may be easier to stay focused and navigate the road ahead. I approach the New Year as a builder, a person who sees a piece of land, and the possibilities that can come forth. I look at the formulation of my goals, hopes, and dreams as a house….a beautiful shining building that by the end of the year I can be proud of. A builder needs tools, not just hammers and nails but Faith, encouragement, conviction and the belief that when you put your mind to it, anything is possible.

In January we start the foundation….we make sure it is strong and has the potential to hold what we place upon it. We make sure there are no cracks. Each proceeding month we add to our house….floor by floor we put in the plumbing, the electrical wiring, the heating system, etc. Sometimes we make mistakes, one room may not be wired right, so we go back, repair the damage and continue on. By the Spring, we see that our house is off the ground and rising. The contributions we have made to our house are beginning to show. People pass by and are amazed how “fast” the house is starting to come together….but little do they see the problems that we encountered to get to our level. So on we go, each day building brick by brick with the sky above us…..and with each brick a feeling of accomplishment comes over us and a better understanding of the mistakes we have made so that we try not to make them again. God looks down and sees a person trying to push forward with a house of meaning and purpose. A badly built house with a weak foundation won’t stand very long….but a good house can last forever. God understands how hard it is to built good houses.

By the Fall, our floors are completed, and we are about to add our roof. We want a roof that will not leak, that can take the elements. If we have done all our work and done it well, by the end of the year we will be standing in front of a house amazed that we were able to accomplish this once monumental task. We look at each brick and floor and see a story. We see the set-backs and the over comings. It is possible to build a good house, God willing, with the right tools, and determination…….All things are possible.

Good Luck with your house,

love, Jennifer Avalon

© 2008 Jennifer Avalon

This week I would like to break the fundamentals of Life all the way down to their basics. So sit back in your chair and with me, contemplate the “Why?” factor.

Have you ever wondered as Life throws us its curve balls, what the heck is this place all about? why am I here? what am I supposed to learn? and, what can I do about it? Join the crowd….you have just entered in to the first stage of the “Why?” factor. Your intelligence demands that you look at some of the solutions and answers to these questions.

I believe everything around us and all that exists is held together by Love. Each act that keeps the Universe in place, allows the streams to run, the air to blow, the mountains to rise, and mankind to flourish, is held together by a communication and an agreement to continue to exist. What is this communication? the continued practice of Giving and Receiving. For Life to exist, it must contain some component of Love. This is not an accident…the Creator mandates us to become creatures of Love. Life, at its common basics, is Love. With that, for everything to exist and continue, we need Love. Are we blessed by it? and hurt by it? for sure. But that’s part of the process…one of the building blocks of Life. We grow with Love….it is only when we are denied it do we start to run into problems. As the Beatles say, “All You Need Is Love,”…it may not have all the answers, but it’s a great place to start.

Giving….so why give? why care? how about just sitting at home, kicking back, and looking at the television all day? not give a hoot…about anyone or anything other than ourselves? Realistically, at what point would we begin to deteriorate? Can there be Love without giving? and can there be giving without Love? This is not about money…this is about raw emotion…the art of caring and giving beyond ourselves. Yes indeed, there is a responsibility to how one gives…yet overall at what point do the cobwebs start to surround us when all we care about is giving to ourselves?

Receiving….I for one can testify that there have been times in my life when I was at my wit’s end and out of the blue the doorbell would ring or the telephone would chime with a message reaching out saying, “I care.” Receiving comes many times when you least expect it. This time of year there are many in need, who are just waiting for that one act or call of kindness. Can we give without someone receiving, or can we receive without someone giving? They are two sides of the same coin. Receiving is the admission that someone took the time to Love.

Giving and Receiving, both necessities for Love to exist. One Mind, One Soul, synchronizing with another. The Gift of Love is the greatest gift of all….this time of year don’t be afraid to give, or receive.

For All Seasons,

Jennifer Avalon

© 2007 Jennifer Avalon