14 February 2008
Most of us have many happy memories of a sugar shocked day with large red candy hearts making our pulses race in more ways than one. This Valentine's Day I have eaten only wonderful juicy and green things. It hasn't always been so.....I remember one particularly infamous Valentine's. I had always been very health conscious as an adult, working out and eating well. I had just gotten married and my husband was a real foodie. He would eat just about any thing if it was rich and fatty. For this Valentine's Day, I told him that I would make him anything he wanted. Well..he wanted hot wings and huge servings of enchilados and a cheesecake. Undaunted, I prepared all of the food. He ate all of the mexican food (I helped him with the wings). Then we started eating the cheesecake. Later in the day he brought out a 5 pound bag of peanut M & M's! He was on his own there. As he was eating the M & M's, I gave him a one pound box of chocolates that I had purchased for him. It was one of those shiny red heart shaped boxes. He went into the other room and came back with FIVE one pound boxes of candy also in lovely red hearts. (One for me and one for each of our four daughters.) We actually sat and ate most of the two pounds of candy! That night, when two of the daughters hadn't shown up, he decided that we should eat their candy too! Oh, the agony of it all. I was used to my barley grass and my brown rice and salads. At the end of the day, I prayed for death I was so miserable. He, however, didn't feel all that bad. He had gotten used to being overweight, feeling stuffed and being lethargic. His idea of exercise was to turn on the TV manually if he couldn't find the remote. I didn't care; I loved him anyway. As the months went on, I continued to work out everyday, drink lots of fresh vegetable juices, and eat well. He continued to love his Whoppers. One day, out of the blue, he looked at me and said, "I want what you have." So began our healthy journey together and it has lasted ten years so far. Neither of us are perfect, so ups and downs have occurred, but at the end of the day my last thoughts are still always of him. The point of this story is that we can't control or change anyone. Let's face it; we can barely control ourselves. If I had nagged him about dieting and exercising, he probably would have refused and we would have had ten years of misery. Instead, I showed him the possibilities just by doing it myself. By accepting him for who he was then, he is now my biggest fan and my best friend. He also shares health information to anyone who will listen (my apologies to all of his co-workers:-) and is a strong advocate for raw food. The following poem by Pablo Neruda is dedicated to him on this day of love.
I Don't Love you as if you were a Rose
I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don't know any other way
to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
For more information on Pablo Neruda, or to read more of his poems, go here.
