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published on 01/11/2005
Hats off …..to the new year!
By
sigmtn.com staff writer
According to writer and teacher Parker J. Palmer, there are four phases to wholeness with the first being “Birthright Wholeness” when there is no separation between your inner life and outer life, as in an infant or young children. Hence the reason we all enjoy being around them for, “Whatever is inside an infant comes immediately to the outside, both figuratively and literally!” I had an opportunity to witness this firsthand recently when a friend brought her son into our store downtown. Having not seen the baby in several months, I was delighted to see this adorable seven-month-old riding on his mom’s hip. Although he gave me a great big smile, I got snubbed when I reached to hold him, as most seven-month-olds would do at this stage of their life. However when my son whom the baby is familiar with, walked into the room and smiled at the baby, he got a wiggle of legs and a great big smile, but still the baby did not want to leave mom’s arms. But when his daddy walked into the room, that baby started wiggling his legs and reaching. There was no doubt where he wanted to go at that moment as he practically leaped into his daddy’s arms.
It’s that time of year that we focus on the new and reflect back on the past year on changes we perceive might need to be made. We usually make a list of resolutions most of which we forget about or toss out the window when they become too difficult to follow through on. According to statistics, we hear that the majority of Americans, especially baby boomers are overweight, most as much as thirty pounds. Well why not? We grew up in the fifties eating great home-cooked what is now called “comfort food;” lived off soda pop, snack food, and fast food in the sixties; served TV dinners and frozen cooked food to our families in the seventies; discovered pasta dishes in the eighties; and ate out or did take-out in the nineties. Having come full-circle, I have discovered that fresh home-cooked food is what my husband and I enjoy the most, which makes eating out a delightful pleasure now and then. I would like to say that one of my New Year’s resolutions would be to loose those pesky twenty pounds that I keep gaining and loosing and gaining back, but on the other hand, I’d rather be childlike in my approach and let my inner life (which loves good food) and my outer life (which tends to be over-weight) come to some agreement. Then I can wiggle my legs and leap for joy, like an infant, and just enjoy the moment and the coming year! Happy New Year from all of us at the Signal Mountain Mirror!
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