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ardysez

~ surrender to yourself

ardysez

Tag Archives: quality of life

fallow…

22 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by Ardys in Life

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

health, quality of life

fullsizeoutput_4f47

delicate detail in light and shadow

Anyone who grew up in the country knows the wisdom of letting a field lay fallow. But if you didn’t grow up in the country you might think a fallow field has nothing much happening. The plot just sits. Wasted real estate. Like a quiet person who may not say much, it doesn’t mean nothing is going on under the surface. A field in fallow still receives rain and sun, may even be planted with a crop that is never harvested, but gets plowed under to help replenish the soil with nutrients. It is a time of restoration.

Humans have our fallow periods. If we are wise enough to not flog our impatient selves over the seeming lack of accomplishment, we can reap enormous benefits from a period of allowing our inner selves to replenish. Our life force comes bubbling to the surface again, renewed. In my experience this can happen over a period of weeks, months or even years. Thoughts and feelings weave in and out of our consciousness as an idea or skill develops into something more fully formed and ready to express itself. But it cannot be hurried. And in my case, it would seem, it cannot be directed. It takes as long as a piece of string, and it goes where I have not been before.

The curious thing is the ingredients that contribute to the end result. It is often very mysterious. It seems to have nothing to do with the final outcome, but contributes to the process the way subtle ingredients contribute to a delicious stew. Have you noticed the difference in flavour of a slow cooked stew that has bubbled on the stove all day long, versus one cooked by faster means?

A slow renewal would describe much of my previous year. Toward the end, only a few weeks ago while we were traveling in the Southwest of the United States, I began to realise the time was not so much a fallow period as a gestation. What has been birthed is a stronger, more energetic self with fresh thoughts, inspiration and appreciation. It feels like the look of drought ridden land, a week or so after a good rain. And  the ‘entrapped nerve’ in my foot is nearly healed. It was taking the long, slower road, of exercise, stretching, rest and shockwave treatments that did the job. I opted to try this less invasive route, rather than the steroid injections. There were moments I doubted I would feel this good again, but I tried not to let this override my thoughts of recovery. An excellent and positive podiatrist and tenacity on my part have won the day. Through the months I finally gave myself over to the process and embraced quieter pursuits with a mind open to various possible outcomes.

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Mud lark frolics in opportune bird bath after the recent rain

You may think I had forgotten you. And writing. Some will have moved on and forgotten this little blog altogether. Understandable. From my end it is often counterproductive to try and confine these changes into some tidy little paragraphs of significance, when they are still busy forming themselves. Of course this process is ongoing, but once in a while it is intensive, as the last 10 months or so have been for me. It seemed better to wait for a time when things felt more fully formed to try and describe what had gone on.

There is no time like one’s birthday to reflect. So, last week on the first day of my 67th year (or is it the last day of my 66th year?) it was the light, the textures and the small everyday things that shone. I missed walking more than I had missed anything in a long time. Just walking. Taking the time to rehabilitate my mobility has not only taught me new things, it has reminded me to appreciate the Now, and the wee, small things.

As Mies van der Rohe said, God is in the detail. A light chaser knows this.

golden grasses wet with
golden grasses wet with
late autumn golden sunset
late autumn golden sunset
light and shadow
light and shadow
late autumn garden in the neighbourhood
late autumn garden in the neighbourhood
morning light during my walk
morning light during my walk

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is quality the casualty of a corporate world?

06 Friday May 2016

Posted by Ardys in Life

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

America, Australia, capitalism, choices, corporate paradigm, life, quality of life

As most of you know, I’m not an academic, and I’m certainly no expert on economics or government. However, with elections coming up in both Australia and the USA, I thought it might be a good time to say a few things.

Lately I’ve been noticing a trend, with an increasing number of articles referring to the compromise of quality due, largely, to capitalistic pursuits. A few days ago, yet another article arrived to my inbox about the adulteration of olive oil. Olive oil!! Is nothing sacred? The author made the comment that ‘capitalism is costing us quality’, inferring and relating to recent news articles about olive oil being tainted/cut with other products to increase profit margins. The blog originates in the USA, as did the research that revealed the tainting of olive oil. Recently when we were in the USA we made a number of similar observations ourselves, though not specifically about a single product, more about services. That is not to say that we don’t have problems in Australia, but it is sometimes easier to observe things when out of one’s own environment.

The American Corporate Medical model we experienced, while it was created to work well on paper, has huge chinks in a system that relies on human consistency while simultaneously does not acknowledge characteristics of the individual. A system that was ‘improved’ to offer freedom of choice to many, didn’t account for the fact that offering too many choices can actually diminish the individual’s experience. Our own Medicare system has its problems, and neither system is perfect, but I guess it’s the devil you know, so I was not unhappy to return to the Australian system.

Corporate style food production and consumption seems well out of control of the individual trying to eat healthily, certainly in Southern Ohio.

How did supermarket vegetables lose their palatability, with so many people right there watching? The Case of the Murdered Flavor was a contract killing, as it turns out, and long-distance travel lies at the heart of the plot. —Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Finding foods that have not travelled halfway across the country, or even the world, was rare. The quality of food served by many medium priced restaurants was barely adequate, and never mind the cheaper corporate franchise options which further diminish the eating experience. Finding vegetables, other than potatoes, on restaurant menus was, once again, a challenge. And sourcing something like organic, or local produce seems only available to a very, very small group of people who happen to have access or who grow their own. Many foods are sweetened to a degree that completely drowns the taste of the food itself, or is designed to make up for the fact that poor quality ingredients have little flavour. I could only conclude that most people do not even know any more what good quality food should look and taste like, let alone what it costs to produce. Sadly, this is partially replicated in Australia.

Walmart is well documented to target urban rural sites for its stores. They undercut the prices of local shops until the shops close, and then when Walmart closes it leaves the small towns with no local shopping or employment. Heavy subsidies of the corn industry have supported GM development that ever increases yield, not to mention the use of high fructose corn syrup to ridiculous levels. The end result in many rural areas is that the financial returns do not go to support the surrounding communities which continue to lose educational and medical resources, but to line the pockets of corporate owners and producers. (Rural communities: Legacy + Change by Cornelian Butler Flora, Jan L Flora, Stephen P Gasteyer)

IMG_7464If you are aged and can no longer live at home on your own, and don’t wish to live with family, or they cannot provide for you, there is the corporate style ‘assisted living’ option. Decades ago, our parents made it clear to us they had their own plans. The reality of that did not work and so they opted for the assisted living situation. During our recent stay we felt our Mum needed a higher level of care and we sought to use the ‘in house’ service to take her blood pressure and administer her medications on a daily basis. It was badly managed by aides with such low levels of skill that we cancelled the service less than two weeks after it started. And it wasn’t just the low skill, but in one case a very bad attitude that I could only say reflects badly on bovine-like behaviour. And what can you expect, when the minimum wage is half what it is in Australia and other countries?

Guess which airline served this option?

Guess which airline served this option?

Let me share with you a simple example. On our American Airlines return flight from Cincinnati to Dallas Fort Worth, we flew ‘first class’, which is the same as ‘business class’ in Australia. For this two and a half hour flight we were offered alcoholic beverages and a snack, free of charge. My husband ordered a gin and tonic and I requested water. Both drinks appeared in plastic cups, with no fruit garnish, making it difficult to tell which drink was which, save the bubbles. Potato crisps, sweetened popcorn and something else sweet were offered as a snack, no doubt to satisfy the well trained palate expecting HFCS or a high carbohydrate alternative. At the end of the flight the attendant walked the aisle with a large garbage bag, nodding (not speaking) to us to drop our trash into the bag ourselves. (We are not above picking up our own trash, but really, we had paid for first class service.) Hours later we were in business class seats on Qantas and we received drinks in real glasses, water garnished with lemon and nuts with pretzels as a snack, even serviettes. The attendant collected the trash by hand and returned it to the rubbish recycle receptacles in the galley. I could not have made up two more starkly contrasting examples of the same situation if I had tried, illustrating that not every corporate experience needs to be a low quality one.

A classier interpretation of water and soft drink

A classier interpretation of water and soft drink

These are not only things we have read and seen with our own eyes, but have been validated by various Americans we spoke with while there. In fact one of them encouraged me to write this article. The general population seems disillusioned and disappointed, evident in the anger and abhorrent behaviour in the current political race. Who can blame them?

Some of the benefits of capitalism are supposedly quality and choice. But if those have become the casualties, perhaps we are partly to blame for the choices we make. Perhaps we need to lower our expectations of having ‘stuff’ and having someone else look after us, and we need to educate ourselves and discover what is really important in life, so that we make better choices. There are other ways to ‘vote’ than at the ballot box. We can vote by shutting our wallets, we can vote by actions and we can vote with our feet, by walking away from unsatisfactory options. If we are not always trying to find the cheapest service or product, but look for value for money and understand what the real cost of living is, we will empower ourselves and our respective country.

When we aspire to a good quality of life, let’s not look to the corporate paradigms that show how cheaply things can be done, those that put growth and profit above all else. Let’s look to examples that preserve quality of life at every opportunity.

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