If you have not gotten your flu shot yet, it’s time. There are a long list of excuses that I have heard from patients over the years, but those who forgo the shot and get the flu are ALWAYS sorry. I am such a believer in the wisdom of taking the flu shot that one year, when my kids were little and did not want it, I told them they had to get it in order to have dinner! I knew that the momentary pain would possibly save them from worse pain down the road.

So here are the stats. In the United States, about 36,000 people still die from influenza yearly. Worldwide that number goes up a lot, as influenza kills from 250,000 to 500,000 people each year. Many more are hospitalized with serious illness but survive.

And it is not just for yourself that you should get immunized. You do not want to be the one to give it to someone else. This is especially true if you are around elderly or immune deficient people. In addition, if enough of us get immunized, there may end up being a kind of “herd immunity” developed in the community.

The injectable flu vaccine contains nothing live and therefore it is impossible to get the flu from the vaccine. (it is not recommended to get the nasal vaccine which is a live vaccine) It is safe to get the injectable vaccine even if you are pregnant. There just isn’t much downside. And since it is impossible to predict the severity of a flu season, why not take precaution? If there were other killers that you knew would kill over 700 people in your state this year, you would do what you could to avoid them.

I think America fears the wrong things.  Today’s news is full of rhetoric about Russian influence and assaults against democracy.  Through words and free speech, no less!  It is not Russian influence through Facebook ads and posts that will destroy us.  If we fall, it will be because our citizens no longer are able to think for themselves.  It will be because we are too easily swayed.  It will be because truth and character have eroded to the point that we can no longer discern truth from error or right from wrong.  It will be because the foundation upon which we once stood is shaken and soft.

Perhaps that is true.  We overlook all sorts of terrible character flaws in our leaders.     It is very naive to believe that how someone conducts themselves in private does not affect how or where they will lead us.  How can we honestly believe that someone who lies to their own family would honestly serve the public?  And why do we believe them when they promise what we know they cannot and will not deliver?

America needs to go back to its roots.  Our leaders need to be held to a higher standard!  Our journalists need to pursue truth over profit!  We need to examine our own lives and aim to live nobly.  We need to vote based on character.  We need to vote also with our feet and our wallets.  We need to try to understand each other.  We need to care for each other even when we don’t understand.

We need to  strengthen the foundation of American and then we will not need to be afraid.  We will not be so easily undermined.  No country with a solid foundation and belief in love, hope, and truth need fear influence from any false rhetoric….from Russia or anywhere else!

I think every person alive has a battle.  Some are so much worse than others, but everyone has one. (or more)  The question then becomes, “How is the battle best fought and won?”  Years ago, I read that in many cases, fighting a battle is not so much about fighting the darkness, as it is about turning on the light.”  That was a great help to me.  But turning on the light is not that easy.  How does one turn on the light?

I remember that old phrase, garbage in, garbage out.  You can apply that all sorts of ways, but it can apply to the mind and heart. And since that is where our battles are mostly fought, it matters what our focus is on.   This world is so broken and there is so much wrong, but there are still vestiges of good.  It is important to look for them and focus on them.  And it can become fun…kind of like a treasure hunt.  Even the worst of people was created in the image of God and was not meant to be what they have become…and if you look hard enough, you will find a little treasure amidst the filth.  We need to apply that technique of looking for the good.  And  when we do, it will help our own battle.

It helps, when I am really struggling, to focus on who God says He is.  Not on what I think He is.  I make him small and a small God cannot help me.  But He is not small.  When I focus on who He really is, there is hope and light.  His Word says that He is love.  He is light.  He is truth.  He is the one who has given EVERY good gift.  Good food.  Good music.  Great art.  Beautiful sunrises.  Colorful birds and bugs.  My children.  A good night’s sleep.  The ability to hop on one foot (which I am losing)  Whatever is good, I need to thank Him for it.  And that act of thankfulness, in itself, seems to help.  And by being thankful, we add to the good in the world.

Matthew 6:22 says “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”  So I am going to keep trying to adjust my focus and put more of my attention on what is uplifting.  The beautiful things of this world…the mountains….a trout filled river….sunset at the beach…..they are meant to point us to God.  The and vastness of the universe and the infinite complexity of the smallest cell….they point us to a creator.  How in the world we have come to believe so many lies and ignore what is right before our faces is quite amazing.  But in focusing on truth there is healing and health and victory for whatever battle we face.

When kids are very young, the world is so new and exciting.  Kids  are so curious.  They want to explore and see and understand everything.  And when they first start school, it is so much fun.  Learning is what they want to do.   They practically shout “Teach me!”

So what happens?  By the time we are adults, we seem to have internalized so many “No” and “Don’t do that” statements that we no longer even wonder about things.  We become afraid.  We lose the innocent, wide-eyed wonder with which we are born.  We become accustomed to day to day monotony…same foods, same routine, same old, same old.  Some of this is perhaps necessary, but what happens to  the imagination and creativity that God gives us when he forms us?  Why are we so inquisitive and excited about life as kids, and so boring and even cynical as adults??

As I ponder this, I think that maybe it is the adults in the world that do this to the kids.   As the ones “in charge” we do make a lot of rules.  Some are necessary because of safety, of course.  But many are just for our convenience.  Many are because of our fears, accumulated along the way.  We all have baggage and we pass it on to the next generation…and the next…and the next.

There, of course, are always a few adults who think “outside the box.”  Often they are ridiculed.  But some change the world! Surely, there should be more of these people.  But they are not usually rule followers.

Don’t get me wrong….I am not against all rules.  There are just so many of them!  When I think of the beginning of human society ….all the way back to the original creation….. Adam and Eve were initially saddled with only one rule.  We were told to explore and rule over the entire planet and we were given only one rule.

Then when Christ came, He again took us back to simplicity with just 2 rules.  Love God first and then your neighbor.  It is because we don’t want to follow those 2 rules, that we need to make so many others.  And with many rules, our lives become filled with so many “NO” and “Don’t do that” barriers….and we become adults.  I think we should study the children around us.  Then we should try to rediscover the child in us.  We can learn from kids and we need to try to avoid turning them into us.

May we all become as little children, at least in our ability to wonder and enjoy and trust.  Children shout “Life”.  They love adventure!  I don’t think I like adults so much!!

The eclipse is today!  A total eclipse of the sun.  I am excited…..how could I not be?  There has been so much written about this lately.  I have read in newspapers about how it is like a spiritual experience!  Ha!  The heavens declare the glory of God.  Just because man has observed enough to be able to explain what and when will happen, he thinks he understands it.  How arrogant is man.  I like what a good friend of mine said yesterday.  She told me that she and her husband would “sit on the top of our Somerset (their boat) and watch the Lord do his thing.  How fun is that?”  I agree.  How fun is that?

I’ve always hated running.  I was always short of breath and ready to quit from the start.  A few months ago, however, I decided to try it again…..and I discovered that if I kept going when I felt like quitting, I ended up liking it!  Amazing.

Usually, I run on a golf course and it is beautiful.  So this morning I went for a run.  It may sound silly but, as I ran,  I pretended that I was on a slow (very slow) moving train.  I wanted to take in the scenery.

There was a lone rabbit in a large grassy area, barely visible and sitting very still except for its twitching nose.   A single bird sat all on alone on a wire.  Still lake water sparkled.  A few yellow leaves were falling from trees….fall is coming.   There were men at work, tending to the greens.  There were hills.  There were valleys.  Beauty everywhere but only really appreciated by someone going slow enough to notice.  The simple but gorgeous stuff of life on this planet.

As I ran, I thought about life and that it should be more like a slow moving train.  I am tired of rushing.  I am tired of missing the small enjoyments of life because my focus is on some more distant goal.  It is impossible to focus completely on something far off and something close at the same time.  I remember the old adage of “stop and smell the roses.”  There is nothing wrong with setting goals and focusing on them periodically to make sure you’re walking in the right direction.  But there is also nothing wrong with looking around you, as you travel through life, and noticing what is right before your eyes.   In fact, if you don’t do this, you may arrive at your goal empty handed only to find out that the original goal was not as great as you thought.

So I am trying to slow down.  Instead of waiting for adventure in the future, I am looking for it along the way.  I love a slow moving train.  And just so I don’t miss anything, I want a window seat!

My last blog was about my craving for adventure.  I do crave it!  I’ve actually been praying for awhile that God would give me new adventures!  I like structure and predictability to a point, but I hate ruts!

I was reading 1 Kings 17.  It is about Elijah during a drought and God told him to hide by a brook and ravens would feed him.  So here he is being fed miraculously by ravens and the brook dries up!  What is that?  God is sending food by bird express but lets a water source dry up?  What was He thinking?  It turns out it was God’s timing for Elijah to move on.  But I love the way God is unpredictable and yet always faithful.   No putting God in a box!

So back to my new adventure. I call it an answer to prayer, but my husband calls it “being a slum landlord.”  (It is true our small downtown is not beautiful…yet)  Anyway,  I don’t have a “for rent” sign up yet but people have been calling out of the blue to inquire about renting.   It’s exciting!  New and different!  Not necessarily miraculous…or is it?  I don’t know.  God works in the miraculous and in the ordinary.

Either way, it’s fun….I’m eagerly waiting for what is next!

I haven’t written in a long while.  Life gets so busy!  But my thoughts tumble over themselves and I find a desire to put them on paper.  They seem to sort themselves out that way.

This is such a fascinating world!  As I approach my 60th birthday, I dream of doing new things and exploring new places and ideas.  Why did I not want this more when  I was younger?  It’s not that the world has gotten any bigger!  It’s always been large and enchanting, ever since man was instructed to fill the earth and subdue it.  So what has changed with me?  Perhaps technology has wetted my appetite for new experiences?  Though it has increased cost and complexity, it has also made new vistas more available.  Or perhaps it is seeing things through the eyes of my kids, whose world sometimes seems to have limitless options?   My generation did not have so many choices!   Whatever it is, my curiosity is piqued.   No putting that cat back in the bag, so to speak

I have practiced medicine in a small town for 30 years and  still love it.  For that same 30 years I have wanted our little downtown area to be different.   I think all small towns should have a bustling, ecclectic, thriving main street.  Ours does not.  Then one day, recently, I called a number on an empty store front and ended up buying the building.  Ahhhh….something new!  I do not know what is next but I am excited about the possibilities.   It is fun to dream.  I am sick of staying in the box!  Time to bust out.  Maybe in future blogs, I will tell you more.  Can’t now because I don’t know myself!

So….I am beginning to spread my wings and explore. I will never be able to see and do everything! There is just not enough time.  (or energy). But curiosity and imagination are wonderful gifts from God.  And I think…..if this fallen world is so wonderful and full, what must Heaven be like?  There may be new colors, new sounds, sights never imagined on earth.  And I will have all eternity to explore!

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday.  With all of the recent national debate about health care, it seems appropriate to focus on the health of the littlest among us…the pre-born.  Psalm 139 says that God sees their unformed substance as they are being fearfully and wonderfully made!  Science allows us now to follow this development via ultrasound.  As every mother is aware, it is now possible to see the child they love but have not yet held.

Yet that unborn child has an enemy.  A state protected enemy.  Even though a physician can now operate on an unborn child to correct something that will harm them, that same physician can also take away the life of that child and our government says that it is okay.  How can this be??  Why do we allow this?  We are all guilty because of our silence.

Whether a pre-born is wanted or not wanted, it matters not!  Their worth is equal to ours.  They may not be able to accomplish anything visible yet, but that matters not.  If I suddenly became incapacitated and could no longer accomplish anything, would I then have no value?  Of course not!  I am valuable to my Creator, apart from what I can accomplish.  I cannot give anything to my God but He values me now.  He valued me before I was born. He will value me after I die.

I begin by admitting how much I love salt.  At one point in my life, I was even salting pizza.  But the things you can get away with when you are young, you find out you CANNOT really get away with after all!

In this country, we definitely try to get away with eating lots of salt.  An average daily salt intake in the United States is 3400 mg.  There is a lot of debate as to how harmful excessive salt really is.  There is a possibility that the sodium/potassium ratio of your diet may be more important than your sodium intake.  Overall, however, there is a general consensus that Americans eat too much salt (or sodium, the main ingredient in table salt)  And there is also general consensus that there is a relationship between salt intake and high blood pressure.

Once you develop high blood pressure, limiting sodium intake is important.  But even before that, it makes sense that limiting sodium helps limit the amount of fluid in your body, and therefore the amount of work your heart has to do to pump that fluid and the amount of work your kidneys have to do to filter that fluid.

So limiting sodium intake is part of eating healthy.  Doing that in America, however, can have its challenges.  You could move to another country….but according to The Washington Post, people consume too much salt in 181 out of 187 countries.  If you do decide to move in order to restrict your salt intake, it appears you should head to Kenya, Cameroon, or Gabon.  And hey, its warm too!  I may consider this further………….

So what to do?  Again, the answer seems to be to cut out processed food.  If it is in a can or jar or box, and is processed in any way, it likely has too much sodium.  Deli meats are especially bad.  Hot dogs (are they really a food?) should really be a rare treat.  Restaurant meals also have a lot of hidden sodium.