Live Your Dash: Make Every Moment Matter
by Linda Ellis
Have you ever walked through a cemetery or read an obituary and pondered that small, seemingly insignificant dash between the day someone was born and the date he or she departed? This often overlooked little line ultimately represents every breath and step we take in life.
Until an epiphany awakens us to the brevity of this dash with which we have been blessed, true appreciation of our life cannot begin.
So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged. When, as newborns, we take that first independent, deliberate breath, we sign an invisible contract with life that we will do everything we can to preserve, cherish and live it. By seizing and inhabiting our moments and living our dash, instead of simply existing, we are abiding by that first unspoken oath.
Because success should not be measured in what you will buy, or own, but in the pride you feel in the person you’re with … when you are all alone.
When we spend our time focused on problems, we subconsciously disregard all that is not a problem. In mulling over yesterday and worrying about tomorrow, we fail to recognize the presence of today. When we postpone living until everything is running smoothly, we forfeit the minutes of our now.
Instead of focusing on the next achievement or acquisition, we need to practice focusing on all the blessings around us—our loved ones and the sheer pleasure found in simply being. The poet in me writes: So live in your now; be conscious, sincere. Let your mind allow you to be in your here!
For it matters not, how much we own, the cars… the house… the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health
Gene Stone (Editor), Dr. T. Colin Campbell (Foreword), Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. (Foreword)
What has happened to us? Despite the most advanced medical technology in the world, we are sicker than ever by nearly every measure.
Two out of every three of us are overweight. Cases of diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger population. About half of us are taking at least one prescription drug. Major medical operations have become routine, helping to drive health care costs to astronomical levels. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death, even though billions are spent each year to “battle” these very conditions. Millions suffer from a host of other degenerative diseases.
Could it be there’s a single solution to all of these problems? A solution so comprehensive but so straightforward, that it’s mind-boggling that more of us haven’t taken it seriously?
FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.
Dr. Campbell, a nutritional scientist at Cornell University, was concerned in the late 1960′s with producing “high quality” animal protein to bring to the poor and malnourished areas of the third world. While in the Philippines, he made a life-changing discovery: the country’s wealthier children, who were consuming relatively high amounts of animal-based foods, were much more likely to get liver cancer. Dr. Esselstyn, a top surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, found that many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.
These discoveries inspired Campbell and Esselstyn, who didn’t know each other yet, to conduct several groundbreaking studies. One of them took place in China and is still among the most comprehensive health-related investigations ever undertaken. Their research led them to a startling conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented – and in many cases reversed – by adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet. Despite the profound implications of their findings, their work has remained relatively unknown to the public.