Choose to be like someone you admire. I admired my father, for loving us unconditionally, especially when we didn't deserve it, when we needed it most. I wanted to be like him ~ tough but never kicking anyone when they were down ~ living life without much fuss but with a sense of humor; but he also quietly helped people along the way, and I secretly admired that the most. I could spend the rest of my life trying to be like he was for one day. He was honest, brave, faithful, strong, very funny, tough yet kind-hearted, and absolutely brilliant ~ and modest about it all. For years, he silently worked his magic behind the scenes. People loved to be around him. He was a man of character. "Character is what you do when no one is looking." It's not bought, it's not for sale. It's grown.

Making mistakes in your life is human. But growing into the person you admire is divine. Instead of living with mistakes and faults, letting blame and festered emotions uselessly divide-and-conquer everyone from the inside out, use all your strength to pull yourself through, letting go so you can grow past them into the person you want to be. Try it just once, and you'll see that you aren't the victim anymore. Things will be so clear that you can see every leaf on a tree and wonder how you never saw them before.

I will always admire my mother, too. She took care of my father every day she knew him, and she sang to him in the hospital and held his hands. She looked out for his happiness and safety like a growling mother bear, always. That's how much she loved him and fought for him against the toughest odds. She took care of his health, his happiness and his heart. "Y'mama takes good care of me," he told me so himself once with his sincerest expression, grey-blue eyes fixed wide with no-doubt, although I already knew it all. And she never thought twice about stepping up to take care of those sick, at her job and in her family, starting with her mother and father and eventually trickling all the way down to each of us in the house.

That takes a real edge of strength and courage, to help with the healing process of people and especially if not healing them, then to usher them to a place of true peace and happiness. Sitting with her in the hospital with my dad that last time, I know now I wouldn't give anything for being there. It felt like someone flung a door wide open, when time and mere existence whipped past me, zipping through me all at once, like a pressurized plane cabin at 40, 000 feet high; and it was enough just to hold on, trying to hug together what would be the flying shrapnel of my living world crushing, imploding, and tearing apart right in front of me ~ but at that exact moment, a whole new beautiful something settled down just long enough for me to recognize it as it jumped through the open door before us all. I saw that one thing clearly with my own eyes that I'd always wondered yet believed ~ things that you can't see do exist. Good things, graceful things. Strength, love, and courage together. And here in front of me, I had two of the strongest people that I've ever known existing in strength, love, and courage, right in front of my very eyes.

I knew: If I could be like them both, combined, it would be a true honor. And it would take the rest of my life trying. So, it will. Knowing that nothing in this world will ever hurt me as much or heal me with time as the passing over of someone I truly love and respect is a mind-boggling truism of life. No one is perfect, but you should die trying to be close to happiness in the face of anything, and for everyone. So I try, every moment now ~ one quiet step, misstep, and another strong step at a time.

Who Needs More Iron?

You do if you're anemic, or if you don't want to be. Sure, I take prescription iron 3 times a day, but according to my last blood count, I still need a boost in red blood cell production. So lately, I've been craving quinoa.

Whatever the body wants, the body gets, right? Except it really has been begging for Chex Mix, too, and Popeye's fried chicken with onion rings, but it ain't getting that.

Back to quinoa. Besides my own internal cravings and a bunch of nutritionists, who knew quinoa was rich in iron? Who even knows what quinoa (keen-wah) is? After a quick internet research, I'm still not sure ~ is it a grain, a seed, or is it the fruit of an herb?

It doesn't matter to me. It's just plain good. And yes, good for you. Plus it has plenty iron and amino acids (protein) and fiber, so it's tripley-good for you and your inner being, especially if you've gotten tired of the old-standbys of comforting mashed potatoes or buttered brown rice (which also contains a boost of iron over the plain white variety).

Quinoa is easy to cook and versatile, too. Spice it up savory or sweeten it lightly. I have never tried this recipe at 101cookbooks, but it sounds extremely good. Plus it has a photo.

Just for reference, one cup of dry quinoa can make about 4 to 6 servings and contains 87% the recommended daily allowance of iron.

> Start with one cup rinsed quinoa (toast it lightly - in the boiling pot coated with a tablespoon of olive oil - about 5 minutes until it smells nutty),

> add 1-1/2 cups water with a few grinds of sea salt,

> bring to a boil, then simmer (covered) for about 10-15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

You'll know it's fully-cooked when you see the germ-spirals separate from the expanded grains. It's like your very own surprise-party in a pan.

Turn off the heat, fluff it up with a fork like you do with rice, and let it sit for covered about 5 minutes to ensure all the liquid is absorbed. And that's all it is to cooking it. Now, just season it up with fresh ingredients.

Try a bowlful with chopped tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, and frozen peas (warmed up the peas in the same skillet as the toasted nuts after they were toasted), and add a swirl more of olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper.

Leftovers are easy. Portion them off into single-serving containers, and get creative later. For example, throw in some freshly chopped cilantro, chopped tomato, fresh corn kernels, and (of course) frozen peas. Then add a good swirl of olive oil and salt'n'pepper with two squeezes of lime across the top. Throw a few black beans in there if you wanted, but you already have a good serving of fiber and protein going for you with the quinoa alone.

Quinoa is tasty served hot or cold, savory or sweet, just waiting for you to toss in some fresh ingredients. Try it. I see some quinoa in my very near future with avocados and lime...make up a recipe and send it in to me.

For all the nutritional data on quinoa and everything else, check out nutritiondata.com.

High Apple Pie in the Sky Hopes

I get the best emails from a friend of mine. Lately, I've been really working from both ends of the spectrum on getting life back to as-normal-as-I-get after this treatment for aplastic anemia (coming up on the 100 day mark, this coming Tuesday). Every day, he sends me and list of people an email featuring Ralph Marston. Very positive and insightful. This Ralph Marston is better than caffeine every morning. Well, ok, almost -- I still need the coffee, half-caff. I try. So anyway, I thought I'd keep posting the emails while I get back into the groove soon. Not the rut, just the groove. I like this one in particular. It's my favorite subject matter, about The Little Guy Getting Ahead with big value from small opportunities:

"Sometimes the opportunities that seem the smallest are the best. For they're the opportunities that have the most room for growth. The biggest, most obvious opportunities attract a great deal of attention. That can make them fiercely competitive because of all the people who seek tomake the most of them. Small opportunities can go largely unnoticed.

"Yet for someone who makes the effort to see it, a small opportunity can be an ideal platform on which to build great value. Small opportunities are numerous and widely available. You could spend yourwhole life waiting for a big opportunity, while many small opportunities comealong every day.

"Small opportunities usually offer more latitude, flexibility and room forcreativity. With small opportunities you can make the most of your own unique passion and purpose. Open your eyes to the abundance of seemingly small opportunities that arrivein your world on a daily basis. For even with small opportunities you can create big value."

-- Ralph Marston

Go, Ralphie! Thanks for the positive goods!

Haven't had proper time to write.

But I do have time to share. Got this in the email today from a friend.

"A Positive Way"

How do you keep yourself positive when the people around you are so negative? How can you maintain a positive approach when the situations and events around you are so troublesome? A sincerely positive attitude is not a reaction to the way things are. Rather, it is an expression of the way you choose for things to be.

Being positive is not an unrealistic or naive view of a negative world. It provides you with a solid foundation for making real improvements in the world and creating meaningful value.

Being positively focused enables you to see, and to make the most of, opportunities that would otherwise be invisible. Being positive gives you the energy to move forward no matter what the obstacles may be.

When you focus on the positive aspects of a situation, there will be plenty of people who disagree with you. But that is their problem, not yours.

Look beyond those who argue for defeat, and find the path to victory. Whatever the current situation may be, you can always choose a positive way forward.

-- Ralph Marston

And when all else fails,

...a little superficial shopping never hurts. Check out these Mary Jane boots. And, I really want the "Rain Rain, Go Away" blue sky umbrella. Hey, not everything has to be so serious to be so positive. Just don't get too crazy with the credit card.

You learn by continuing on.

Think about your life and how it starts.

You start with a clean slate as a tiny, wailing-crying baby human. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. From there, for at least the next 18 years, you learn. Someone teaches you to eat, to brush your hair, to wash your face, to be kind to others, to eat your vegetables, to write a term paper, to solve an algebra problem, to fly a kite. You are trained to go to school, from age 5 to age 18, at the very least. Then, you go on to what you think you will do for the rest of your life ~ you get to choose what and where you learn at a college or university, where you can easily spend at least 4 years, maybe 10 if you feel like it. Then, you are in the world, on your own. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. Unless you apply the teachings you have learned, it's all just useless trivia. With all the years of textbooks and tests, we all know that the most important things you've learned, you learned them when you were just a child, just before you went to school. "Some people never grow up, they just grow older," my mom told me once, explaining the juvenile pettiness of someone I'd encountered along the way in life. Whether you realize it or not, we all choose everyday, of whether to learn and to grow or to not, with just the smallest actions we do, or don't do. "Character is what you do when no one is looking," I read once. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. You have to listen to your intuition, between what you know is right or wrong, and choose the right answer. You don't have to, but that's the way it was set up. Someone taught you the difference between the two along the way. If they didn't, then it's never too late to learn. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. And sometimes, that's all you need to know to continue on. Life is that easy and that hard at the same time. Sometimes that is all you need to know. The rest is just photos and yearbooks and useless worry. The best solution isn't always the easiest, but right is right for a reason. It works.

Healing Nutrition

Oh, you can't tell me that nutrition isn't a part of overall healing and maintaining health and well-being. In my quest to find superfoods which may help boost immunity or promote healthy cell growth or keep donated blood and platelets happier, I found a great site, Nutrition Data ~ a huge amount of information on any food you may be researching. Anyone besides me like steamed okra? Just me then? Ok, I admit it ~ I love okra. Enjoy!