Welcome to the Wheel of Change

I've been reading an awesome book called Next is Now. The book isn’t about change, but “about The change” that we “live through every day.” Since finishing the first third of the book, I've realized how resistant I am to change, even when I don’t mean to be.

By that I mean, I resist change without even thinking about it. Ignoring change, even when I know I should embrace it, has become a habit.

Which leads me to another book that I just finished: The Power of Habit. It’s another book I highly recommend and one that I think goes well with Next is Now because it discusses why people form habits and how to change them. Between these two books, I’ve slowly beginning to realize why I’m not as change-resilient as I could be.

Change scares me.

Habits are familiar, safe, and don’t require me to think too much about them. Change is new, unfamiliar, and requires a lot of mental power. To embrace change is to be consciously aware that I am doing something out of the norm.

It’s exhausting.

But change isn’t some big event that we one day wake up to. It’s a constant condition of life. Sure, there’s some predictability and familiarity with certain changes. Every year without fail Apple releases a new iPhone with shiny new upgrades and thousands of people are perfectly happy to pay for it.

It’s the change we know that we need to make, but don’t want to that’s really difficult. Like starting a diet to become healthier or investing in a new computer before the current one dies in a blaze of glory. It’s easy to fall into the trap that doing things the old way, that when it fails it fails spectacularly. I’m talking blue-screen-of-death-your-life’s-work-has-just-been-erased spectacularly.

Thankfully we backed everything up on a floppy disk, right?

Ha ha nope. No modern computer uses a floppy disk. Some don’t even have USB slots anymore. Everything is in the “cloud”.

The whole evolution of how we save our computer files drastically changed in less than 20 years. I remember having to use floppy disks freshmen year of high school.

But sometimes change isn’t as simple as to where I store my backup files. It can be really hard and life altering.

Around this time last year, my anxiety had hit an all time high. I was struggling with even the simplest social interactions. I constantly felt like my life was out of my control. Part of me was convinced that I could handle it on my own. I just needed time to sort out my thoughts, connect with friends and family, not screw everything up...oh crap I just did!

The other, more depressed part of me, knew I couldn’t keep living the way I was. I was just going through the motions of life and not really living it.

I prefer not to go into the details of everything that was going on, but I do feel that being honest about them is more liberating than trying to pretend everything is okay. Because I wasn’t okay.

Looking back on everything, I feel really pathetic. I don’t know what exactly I was scared of. It took a lot of support (especially from one of my aunts), but I was finally able to embrace the changes necessary to take care of my mental health.

That’s a drastic example and I hope I learned from the experience not to wait so long to see someone about a health issue. Change is constant and it is everywhere. It’s a fact that I’m always reminded of.

Coincidentally I’ve been seeing the word “change” around a lot lately. It’s been in my horoscope (or as I pronounce it horror-scope) reading almost daily. Embracing change is part of my company’s message with the release of the new book. I’ve also run into it in some of my favorite TV shows and the books I'm reading. The word has been popping up so much, that I'm trying not to take it as a sign.

And more often than not, change is good.

For those of you who don’t know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. For my last post in May, I wanted to include a little bit about how hard it was for me to admit that I needed to take care of my mental health. Since making the choice to take better care of myself, things have been a lot better. There are still some bad days, but I'm having a lot more good ones. Getting help and taking care of yourself shouldn't be shameful or seen as weak. Don't be afraid to talk to your doctor about finding a specialist to help you.

If you are feeling suicidal, don't hesitate to call, 1-800-273-8255, to speak to someone.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to Food World Building Part 6: The Sacred and Forbidden

I’ve already established that food is very important to humans, not just me. So it would make sense that we as a species would incorporate food into other aspects our lives that we deem important, like religious and spirituality.

Don't worry, there's no blood in this Witch's Brew

There was a time in my life where I would judge the church I was at by how good their donuts were. Don’t think too hard about it, I was a very young child. But I deemed a church to be “good”if they had a decent donut selection. In my young mind, having a donut after church was my reward for behaving for an hour.

It also made up for the fact that I couldn’t participate in, what I thought of as, “snack time” during church. “Snack time” was actually communion, but at that age I didn’t understand what significance of the practice meant. All I understood was that there was bread and wine/grape juice and I wasn’t allowed to have any.

At least until I was older and was taught that the bread represented the body of Jesus while the wine/grape juice represented His blood. Though in some teachings, the bread and wine don’t just represent the body and blood, they are transformed into the body and blood. Either way, from an outsiders perspective, the whole thing kind of makes communion sound like a cannibalistic ritual.

Weird right?

But incorporating food into religious practices isn’t limited to Christianity. Some religions have sacred animals that they are forbidden to eat, while others require special preparations for the food consumed.

Food also appears in a lot of religious teachings. One of the first stories I grew up with was Adam and Eve disobeying God by eating a fruit from the tree of knowledge. By eating the fruit (which was likely a quince - not an apple), Adam and Eve gained knowledge of sin.

Another story comes from Greek mythology, Hades and Persephone. Hades kidnaps Persephone and takes her to the underworld where he offers her the seeds of a pomegranate to eat. By eating the food of the underworld, Persephone becomes tethered to the realm of the dead and must reside there half of the year.

Not cool Hades.

Speaking of the Greek gods, they had a special food that was meant to keep them immortal or at least longevity. Ambrosia (not the fruit salad) was a fruit or meal that the Greek pantheon enjoyed up on Mt Olympus. I’m curious as to what their version tasted like.

Oh, but the Norse gods also had their special food to keep them immortal. Guarded by the goddess Idun, would dispense the immortality apples (though sources vary on the actual fruit or nut) to the gods and goddesses of Asgard. Though little is known about her or the fruit she guards, she does feature prominently in one tale simply entitled: The Kidnapping of Idun.

Could the apples at my local farmer's market be descendants of Idun's apples

We might not always pay close attention to what we eat, but it can be interesting to learn about the significance of different foods. If you slice an apple in half, you might notice that the seeds create a pentagram shape (a sacred symbol for witches and Wiccans). Salt is considered to have the ability to purify objects and spaces, which might be why it’s bad luck to spill it (or that might be because it was expensive in Medieval Times - you never know).

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Food World Building Part 5: The Food Desert and Oasis

A few days ago, I got a text from my younger sister. She just moved to Mississippi and was shocked to discover that there weren't any organic supermarkets or farmer's markets in her general location. The nearest Whole Foods was an hour away drive and the closest Trader Joe's, even farther.

I honestly started laughing.

We grew up in an area where there was an abundance of places to buy fresh, organic, and/or healthy food. We also had a large farmer's market where we could go to buy food from local farmers and an International food store for when we needed things that aren't traditionally found in American stores (like enoki mushrooms). The only problem was, that we had to have a car to get anywhere. We didn't even have a convenience store within walking distance of our house, let alone a bus stop.

The need for a car doesn't outweigh the fact that my family could easily buy the food we wanted and needed.

Approximately 23.5 million American families live in areas known as food deserts. Food deserts are defined as "an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food", but that does't mean that people in urban areas are the only ones affected. 2.3 million families who live in rural areas are also living in food deserts.

This is a serious problem for Americans. When we talk about hunger in America, we usually focus on making sure people have the funds to at least buy food. We rarely talk about the lack of places to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Being able to go to a grocery store can be a down right luxury for some people.

Having this discussion could also help with the obesity epidemic so many Americans are also facing. Easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables is key for living a healthy life style. People in food deserts are more likely to have access to a McDonald's or other unhealthy fast food options, causing weight gain. Having healthy options can lead to healthier eating habits and eventual weight loss.

Food is very important to me. It connects me to my family and culture. It allows me to experiment and be an artist. I'm able to enjoy many different types of food without worrying about allergies.

It's an opportunity that I often take for granted.

And why I wanted to draw attention to food deserts.

This isn't a problem I can solve on my own. I'm not even a part of the communities that are most affected. I can't speak for them.

But I can raise awareness and do my own research. I can shop at stores that work with local communities, donate to urban gardening projects, and contact my representatives in government.

I can also write about it.

A lot of fiction often reflects the problems found in society. They can be dressed up as metaphors or allegories (like Lupin being a werewolf in Harry Potter being an allegory for people living with HIV or other serious chronic illnesses). They can be shown as a dystopian future or alternative history (like the Hunger Games).

My sister's problem with finding the nearest Whole Foods might seem comical to me, but I can see where it might upset someone else. It really is a first world problem in that my sister is willing to drive an hour for an expensive high end grocery story whereas someone without the same privileged would be content to shop at the local Walmart.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Food World Building Part 4: Food in Fiction

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Feast of Fiction. It's a YouTube channel entirely dedicated to recreating food found in popular books, movies, TV shows, games, and graphic novels. The two leads, Jimmy and Ashley, have created an awesome show that entertains and teaches viewers about food. A lot of times the food they are making doesn't have a known recipe to follow, so they have to create the recipe.

It takes a lot of creativity and guts to come up with recipes that might sound good on paper, but aren't practical to make. For example, it might be a little hard to make acid pops from Harry Potter as they are known for burning holes in people's tongues. I'm also not too keen on the idea of cockroach clusters.

But it's the inclusion of these odd treats along with descriptions of butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, and sugar quills that add to the Harry Potter universe.

Yes, I've actually tried making pumpkin juice. It turned out alright.

I love it when authors weave in small details about food. They make the world feel more alive and believable.

I've always been curious as to what is in lembas bread that keeps away hunger from Lord of the Rings. I'd love to try Tiana's gumbo and beignets from The Princess and the Frog. And which deity do I have to bribe to bring the creations of Food Wars into existence?

Now, food doesn't have to prominently feature in the narrative. There seems to be an entire section of Amazon and Barnes and Nobel dedicated to food themed mysteries (complete with recipes in the back). Like Water for Chocolate has chapters that start out listing ingredients and describing how to make a dish, then slowly transitions into the plot. Food is used to show wealth and prosperity in Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol, especially once the second spirit shows up. And it's occasionally used as an innuendo in steamy romance novels (Like Water for Chocolate can be used euphemism for sexual tension or passion).

The thing about food in fiction is that it's not always just about the food. Descriptions of decadent meals show off wealth and power, especially when poverty is also heavily described (The Hunger Games series is an excellent example of this). Character's who don't often think about when they'll eat next are more likely to be in a stable environment versus a character who is constantly worrying about where they're next meal is coming from. Does a culture hold a certain animal or plant as sacred? If so they might not be including it in their diet or it could be the most central part of a meal.

How do character's react when they're hungry? Are they irritable or can they manage it no problem? Is that character used to hunger? Do they overeat the first chance they're with in grabbing distance of a good meal? These can be important tiny details that help to define a situation in the narrative.

For example, in the seventh Harry Potter book Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on the run with little food and almost no money. They're hungry and each reacts slightly different to the situation. Harry was used to going hungry after being neglected by his Aunt and Uncle for years. He wasn't happy about being hungry, but otherwise wasn't that affected by it. Ron, however, was used to never going hungry and was irritated and angry the second he missed a meal. Despite growing up poor, his family always had enough to go around and he was always well fed at Hogwarts. Hermione was the middle of the two extremes. She wasn't used to going hungry like Harry was and could be irritated by the lack of a good meal, but she wasn't quite to Ron's level of anger.

The situation was made worse by the fact that they had a cursed object with them, adding to they're already short tempers.

So if you're a writer, I'd recommend incorporating some descriptions of food into your work. Don't over do it though. Describing a meal down to the tiny detail of "the cinnamon garnish carefully floating on the frothy cappuccino milk" is going to make me put down the book and head to the nearest coffee shop.

Also I don't recommend the use of food to describe characters, especially skin color for non-white characters. Describing people this way can be seen as objectifying or down right creepy. If you'd like a blog post on how to describe a person's skin tone without using food, check out this blog post. It's a few years old, but I think it's still a good guide for modern writes who'd like to include a diverse cast (which writers should be doing anyway).

What does a basket of apples, peppers, tomatoes, and peaches say about a character?

So, the moral of this food related post is: include descriptions of food, but don't over do it and don't use food to describe a character's looks.

Until next week!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.