Are You Healthy? Really?

Do you ever wonder about your health? I think about it a lot. I am a 45 year old male and I have a chronic disease but I believe that if I eat healthy, try to exercise and keep a positive attitude that I will live a relatively good life. For example I try not to use the city water supply but I am limited on how I can control that because I live in an apartment and filters on my faucets are too expensive for me. So I am at risk to the pollutants. I try to eat fresh but then I'm not totally convinced the "organic" food I am buying is truly what they say it is. So I am at risk to their chemicals and altered food. I take vitamins but I am told I should be taking whole food supplements instead. So I check them out and of course they are five times the price of regular man-made vitamins. Well I'm screwed there! Then, if that's not enough, I read that our grain supply is loaded with mold!!!!! That is in almost everything we eat! What is one supposed to do to stay even sort of healthy? The only thing I feel one can do is to own a piece of property and grow everything you need to exist. Is that feasible? In my opinion, yes, but only if there were more hours in a day or you lived with several other people that shared in the same goal. What do you think? Angelo

The Gift of Living

Yesterday I spent my day off from slavedom enjoying the peace and tranquility with 2 friends at their little slice of heaven on earth. They live in an old farmhouse out on 4 beautifully maintained acres with the white picket fence, two dogs, some chickens, a pool and best of all, the dreamy aroma of they're many "Mimosa" trees in bloom!!
What could be more relaxing than laying in the pool soaking up the sun and smelling that delicious fragrance. If you have never smelled the blossoms you are surely missing a treat that fills the nostrils with elusive pleasure and makes the mind believe they are in heaven!! This tree also goes by other names: silk tree, silky acacia, and pink siris. It's latin name is Albizia Julibrissin. It's natural habitat occurs from Iran to Japan. It was introduced in the U.S. in 1745 and has since survived in the south-east areas. My earliest recollection of this tree comes from my Italian grandmother who did not give up when she planted it on her windy, northern Ohio farm. She waited for a few years for it to flower because it kept getting killed back by the winters but she finally got to witness the tree in bloom and the love affair began! Once I saw the tree and smelled it, my love affair had also been ignited. So you can imagine my complete surprise and delight upon discovering that my friends have not only one Mimosa but many of these delicious trees. Like I said, heaven!

So, I spent the day and part of the evening with my friends cooking, conversing, reading, walking, eating, and best of all, getting to know them a little better. A VERY good day indeed. This is what I speak of when I mention "quality of life"!

ANGELO

A Heartfelt "Thank You"

Yesterday, while publishing my post, I made the error of leaving something out that is very important!!

A simple and heartfelt "thank you" to the best of friends and my brother. He is the one and only person that keeps me headed on the path towards my goal of a lifetime. If it were not for him, I would not be trying to reach it in the first place. He has given me the idea, the courage, the knowledge, and the resolve to take on such an epic move in my life. The world is definitely a BETTER place with him in it! If you would like to find out why I think that....go to HIS blog located at www.cruciblecrucified.blogspot.com. I am certain you will come to appreciate why I feel as I do about him.

Angelo

Fulfilling A Dream Is Not Easy

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend about moving to a foreign country. We were talking about a place to live and in which city, a job to support myself, average wage, visas, a passport, dual citizenship and selling ALL my belongings. ALL MY BELONGINGS! When making the decision to start life in another country, I seemed to either forget or not realize that I would have to travel VERY light to save money.

Most things are easy to part with for me. It's just stuff!.....but the very personal items are a whole other matter. My music, certain pieces of art(definitely not expensive),certain papers, memories, pictures, and some small objects. These "things" are mostly sentimental so it will take A LOT OF THOUGHT for me to decide what I must leave behind. It makes me sad to think of this but I know I must do it in order to fulfill my dream of living abroad. The dream eases the pain. The adventure and the thought of "going home" to a world I know I belong to brings me joy and therefore overshadows the pain of choosing what to take with me on my glorious journey.

Angelo de Gioia

Il Sole = Healthy?

I have just come in from laying out in the sun. Is this a healthy practice?

I have always been told that the sun is the best source for vitamin D. Just how much is a good thing? I love to go out for about an hour or two a day. I just lay there, relax, and think about good things, projects I want to achieve and people I know. It's such a good feeling to soak up the rays and feel all that warmth plus the "glow" of healthiness that comes with it.

Medical personnel will tell you the sun causes skin cancer if over-exposed. Maybe so, but it seems to me I have read that skin cancer is on the rise only because one puts the poison known as sun block on their skin; which is a whole other issue I don't want to address right at the moment.

I have always said "moderation is the KEY" and I believe it for anything we do in life!

I hope it's sunny tomorrow!!!!!

ANGELO

Somebody's Watching Me

I don't know about you but I feel like there is always someone watching me when I either use a credit card, my cell phone, give out a zip code at the Target, and anywhere else we might use our personal data for "security" purposes. I feel as if the government knows EVERYTHING about me, yeah, right down to when I go to the toilet because I told the person I was speaking with online "brb, I have to go pee".

THAT is scary to me!! Why do we let ourselves get caught up in the number system? A lot of us just are too tired to think about it but we ARE being scrutinized on a daily basis. We go to the store to purchase a bracket for a shelf, we stand in line WAITING and just so we speed up the process, blurt out our zip code or phone number to the cashier when she, like a robot, asks for it. Next time you are in line tell them "I would rather not", if they give you some flimsy excuse like "we need it for security reasons" or "it speeds up your return" tell them no anyway. I know I feel better that one less person is doing the "nosy rosy" routine on me!

Angelo

The Mighty Hercules

Who remembers this cartoon from the 1960's? I had long forgotten this statuesque hero of my childhood, then only 5 years old. How I loved waking up in the morning to watch this mythological man save the day with his sidekick Newton. I would watch him, mesmerized, fighting the evil villains. I even memorized the title song by singer Johnny Nash as a tribute to my affection for Hercules. Little did I know.........I was falling in love for the first time in my life. Why don't you take a look and see if your heart doesn't skip a beat!Funny how a memory can hold on so vividly even if it has to wait forty years to come back to life! :-)

Angelo