“Look to what you have around you and be grateful, instead of searching for more. All you take with you when you leave this world is love, friendship, and good deeds.”
Day: November 13, 2022
Today’s Health Tip ~ What Is the Healthiest Way to Brew Coffee?
Which Brewing Method is the Healthiest Choice?
Drinking coffee is linked to many health benefits, such as less weight gain, lower average daily blood pressure, and a reduced risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But which brewing method will help you get the most from your cup? A study published online April 22, 2020, by the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that filtering coffee (for example, with a paper filter) — not just boiling ground coffee beans and drinking the water — was better for health, particularly for older people. Researchers analyzed the survey responses of more than 500,000 healthy coffee drinkers (ages 20 to 79) who were followed for about 20 years. People younger than 60 who drank one to four cups of coffee, particularly filtered coffee, had lower rates of artery disease and death. The lower rate of death with filtered coffee drinkers persisted in people ages 60 or older, but was lost in people who drank five or more cups per day. The study is observational and doesn’t prove that filtered coffee is healthier than unfiltered coffee, but it makes sense. Unfiltered coffee contains diterpenes, compounds that can raise cholesterol, and researchers say a cup of unfiltered coffee contains 30 times more diterpenes than a cup of filtered coffee. So use that coffee filter, save the French press or Turkish unfiltered coffee for rare occasions, and consider limiting your coffee intake to less than five cups per day, on average.
Today’s Power Thought ~ It’s Your Life
The ancient Chinese philosopher, Laozi, said, “Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” The truth he spoke centuries ago holds true today. It’s important to listen to other people to learn and evaluate what they say; yet, when we let their thought and opinions determine our actions we become their puppet and they pull our strings. Walk to the beat of your drummer. It’s your life, dare to live it fully.
A Better Life ~ Discovering a New World
The moment one can stand naked before the mirror and look at his/her reflection and say, “I love you just the way the way you are,” one gains a new sense of freedom. It is as if one opened the door, left their cell, and walked into a beautiful world.
What If . . .
What if you dared to ask, ‘why not?” You’d quickly change the conversation. Some will take offense that you dared challenge the status quo. Others will stop and think and begin to look for solutions. When I was young our Sunday meal was always macaroni and meatballs with chunks of pepperoni cooked in the sauce. It smelled wonderful as it cooked all morning on the stove top. I still recall the taste. No one thought of asking why not have something different That is, no one thought of asking why not have something else until my dad needed a triple by-pass and the doctor told him to change his diet. Why not is a good question to periodically ask. It forces us to challenge our fixed way of thinking.
Today’s Smile
Joe: “I think I was hired because I’m a great motivator.”
Pete: “How so, Joe?”
Joe: “When I’m around everyone has to work twice as hard.”
Today’s Poem ~ Miracles
Miracles.
Walt Whitman
WHY! who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring;
Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best—mechanics, boatmen,
farmers,
Or among the savans—or to the soiree—or to the opera,
Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,
Or behold children at their sports,
Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old woman,
Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial,
Or my own eyes and figure in the glass;
These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring—yet each distinct, and in its place.
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love—or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds—or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down—or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring;
Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best—mechanics, boatmen,
farmers,
Or among the savans—or to the soiree—or to the opera,
Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,
Or behold children at their sports,
Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect old woman,
Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial,
Or my own eyes and figure in the glass;
These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring—yet each distinct, and in its place.
To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same;
Every spear of grass—the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women, and all that
concerns
them,
All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.
To me the sea is a continual miracle;
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships, with men
in
them,
What stranger miracles are there?
Something to Think About
A cold front raced through south Texas yesterday plunging the temperatures nearly 30 degrees. The morning chill let my neighbors and me know winter is not going to skip us this year. It will be a short winter compared to northern areas (that’s good). It is a good reminder that things change. There’s not much we can do about many of life’s changes except to adapt, adjust, and learn to roll with it. When we fight things we can’t change, we waste our emotions and energy that could be better spent working on things we can change.
