Lots of Fruity Flavors

You may have already heard the amazing story of Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He went incognito down into a New York subway and played some of the world’s most intricate pieces of music on a 3.5 million dollar violin for 45 minutes straight.  Whereas the night before he had played the same music to a sellout crowd at $100 a seat, this crowd barely noticed he was there because they were so busy hurrying to catch their trains. A few children tried to stop but were pulled away by their parents.  Some adults threw change in to his case or stopped for just a minute to listen, but for the most part, he was overlooked.  What does that say about the human condition?  That we find it challenging to catch trains?  I don’t think so.

Sometimes we are so focused on the immediate that we forget to look for glimpses of the eternal all around us.  Everything of beauty reflects the perfect ideal of beauty, something that a built-in longing in our soul is always looking for, and needs to find in order to be truly alive.  Beauty comes in many forms…music, conversation, smiles, sunlight reflecting off of things, the sky, architecture, kindness, color, symmetry, loyalty…to name a few.

Like beauty, wisdom is also all around us, but it takes a looker to find it.  Some things are so easily overlooked, not because they are not beautiful or wise, but because we are trying to keep it all together, to catch trains.  I’ve spent the past three weeks contemplating the good that healthy fats, and especially omega-3 fatty acids, can do for our health.  It may seem like such a small thing, and it certainly won’t make or break us today if we aren’t getting what we need, but if you add a string of tomorrows onto today then there is a force to be reckoned with.

If omega-3 oil really does help your brain cells communicate better, and if it really can lower your blood cholesterol numbers and help prevent heart disease (1), then aren’t we a bit like those busy train catchers if we don’t stop and pay attention? 

Please take a minute to read the page you will find at the link below, and then take a look at the Omega-3 Club who posed for their annual photograph this week.  Start to let them infiltrate your diet on a daily basis in some way or another.  I prefer the fish oil pill because I can just add it to the other supplements I take, but after consulting with your doctor about how much to take,  just do it.  It even comes in lots of fruity flavors for goodness sakes!

Pictured from left to right: walnuts, flax oil, coffee grinder, whole flax seeds, lemon flavored fish oil, fish oil capsules, salmon

Molly

PS- (Part of this was taken from a blog post I wrote at http://otlane.blogspot.com/  called “Mountain Tops in Subways”.  I would love to have you join me there and make a comment or two about the discussion!)

                    *Ways to get more omegas in your diet:

1.  Put the fruit flavored fish oil in a morning fruit shake or glass of orange juice.

2.  Regularly replace some of the flour in a baked recipe with some fresh ground flax meal. 1/4 c. is usually safe, but you can try more. It just depends on what you are making.

3.  Make salmon a monthly or weekly treat and each more fish. Remember that beans are a great budget balance for the price of fish..

4.  Make our Oatmeal Nut Cookies which have 3 c. walnuts, and add walnuts to other baked goods like cookies, muffins and pancakes as you do flax meal.

5.  Make our Green Power Soup this week- kale has some of the plant form of omega-3 too in addition to everything else!

6.  Make our Caesar Salad dressing using either anchovies or sardines, both omega-3 suppliers.

(1) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/993.html