The situation in the United States of America is dire. The Supreme Court is selling out the country as if there is no tomorrow… and there may not be UNLESS you start acting now:
b) March and protest and show your support over the next few weeks and months. Look at the Woman’sMarch website for a march near you.
Protesters in Foley Square defending the right to abortion following the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Part of 2022 abortion protests in the United States. By Legoktm – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117660220
e) Vote in EVERY election you are allowed to vote in – all of them from the local, smaller elections to the midterms and presidential races. Most importantly, keep elections of school boards in mind since these have a huge impact on your children’s thinking and with that, on all our future.
There are of course those who say that it’s too late. They say that there are no possibilities to improve on the situation anymore. They show you pictures of violent behavior of domestic terrorist groups and tell you to better listen to them. Don’t trust these sources. They may have ulterior motives. They may benefit from the current situation and the misery it creates.
It never is to late to save your country! It ALWAYS depends on what you do next. It ALWAYS depends on your actions and we have to act now. So go and act!
Yes, it’s this time of year where the sun is out, everyone seems to meet at the riverside, beach or the local park and summer drinks are everywhere. I can’t wait! After two years of COVID restrictions and staying mostly indoors and away from people, I am really looking forward to a more “normal” summer. This year, I not only want a normal summer, I want a super summer and my first step is to start with Dry July.
You heard me right: I want to abstain from alcohol for a whole month. I wouldn’t describe myself an alcoholic but who would say that of themselves? Also, many people regularly drink more than I do. This should not be an excuse though. I think it would do me good to be sober for a few weeks and learn from the experience. It shouldn’t be hard, after all, 4 weeks pass quickly. Besides, I’m not the only one who is choosing July as the go to month considering that “Dry July” rhymes.
Have you ever heard of Dry July?
I actually hadn’t but I still wanted a month without alcohol. Given the “Dry July” rhyme, I thought I’ll search if others are doing it already and I was not disappointed. In Australia, the Dry July Foundation has been going since 2008 and raised over AUD 250.000 in the first year and already over AUD 580.000 this year. What an achievement!
July is not just any month either, no! July is a month with 31 days so it’s a lot longer than say February. It is also the main summer school holiday month in the Northern hemisphere. In some regions of Spain, the holidays in July are summarized as “Festivos de julio” and the locals party for a full 3 weeks straight!
Can I do it?
I think I can. I successfully completed two “Dry January” months already and never struggled. The best result of this month was that I slept better and lost weight (about half a pound) over that month. That in itself was worth it. Yes, I was younger then but surely, age and experience will work in my favor? If not that, then the fact that I’m calmer now with fewer opportunities to go out and party.
Quick side note: I am doing this month off for personal reasons. I guess, I am trying to prove to myself that I actually can do it. No more, no less. No hidden reasons, no intention of forcing my little experiment onto others. It’s just my month off.
Right now, I’m planning how to get around being tempted to drink and it seems easy enough. In summer time, I sometimes enjoyed a Gin&Tonic, so I simply leave out the gin. Simple. There are also numerous mocktails available, that I won’t have a hard time choosing. With nice dinners out, red wine was my typical go to drink. My plan is to swap it out for tea and infusions (hot or cold but most certainly without sugar and sweeteners). The flavors should give me the same sensation as wine without the buzz.
In summary, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to go for a whole month without alcohol.
How about you? Will you join me and thousands of others in Dry July?
On Friday, 24 June 2022, Roe v Wade was overruled. Roe v Wade is a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1973 focusing on granting privacy to discuss healthcare needs for women including abortions. This meant that women were able to have abortions. Now this abortion (privacy) law is overruled and left to states (for now).
Beyond that, nobody knows for sure. Looking into my hypothetical crystal ball, I would say that once contraception and gay rights are struck down, the next likely step – in my humble opinion – would be to stop women from traveling over state lines, interracial marriage and bring back segregation. Then, I guess, women and non-whites will loose their voting rights and who knows, Salem “witch” trials may be the norm again. Instead of witches, women with miscarriages will be the targets like in Texas, Mississippi (that was in 2006!), Oklahoma… and soon, near you.
This is not what we want!
This is not what I want!
Don’t despair, there are things we can do!
What to do now?
It does NOT have to be this way. You can and you MUST TAKE ACTION to build a better future. I am talking to everyone here irrespective of skin color: women, LGBTQ+ and MEN who care about the society they live in.
Here are my suggestions on how to safe our future:
2. Sign up to be a poll worker and volunteer on election days It is important to have as many impartial poll workers as possible. The more liberal minded folks oversee the elections, the more likely that the elections will be fair. Or do you really want to leave it up to the people who overturned Roe v Wade?
7. Take care of yourself and those around you! The situation will get better but it will take some time. In the meantime, you will need your strength to get through to the other end and see a better society.
Throughout my life, I’ve only eaten one meal a day and at most one meal and a snack. The main reason was simple: I don’t enjoy cooking and didn’t have the time to spend on food preparation. Besides, at times, I didn’t have a lot of money and my food budget was one of the first things to be cut which meant that there simply wasn’t more than one meal that day, usually cheap pasta or rice.
Over the years, as my life changed, I started to eat a more “normal” way and guess what: I gained weight… and a lot of it. With the weight gain came health issues, a drop in energy and other negative impacts on my life. Now what?
About 18 months ago, I was told that I had three tumors and that nothing could be done about them. The only way to deal with them – so I was told – is to sit, wait and watch. If they grew or not and if they grew, how fast. I was not impressed and spent the next few days (weeks?) wallowing in self pity before going on the offensive.
I started reading up on my situation and how to deal with it in the most natural way possible. After all, I want to help my body heal itself and not load up on more chemicals which caused the tumors in the fist place. Side note: as a result, I changed cleaning products, toothpaste, moth repellents… Let me know in the comments if you have positive experiences with cutting out unnecessary harmful chemicals.
Leftover stew
For the next few months, I tried all sorts of diets, supplements, relaxation techniques etc before I stumbled across a growing number of people (including medical doctors) who advocate for intermittent fasting. One of my favorite book titles is “The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone“. I suggested it to my partner who then promptly adopted intermittent fasting without me ever asking. Side note: I am not sponsored by any of these people, organizations and companies. I merely mention them because they may be of interest to you. Please always make up your own mind. For me, I replaced cows milk with goats milk and I can have Caffè lattes again.
Intermittent fasting, in a nutshell, is when you eat during a certain number of hours and don’t eat (aka fast) during the rest. One of the better known versions is the 8-16 where you eat during 8 hours and then fast for 16 hours. If that sounds hard, it isn’t really. After all, on 8-16, you can fit breakfast in at 10am, lunch at 1pm and then finish dinner by 6pm. That is when I realized that possibly I simply need to go back to my old lifestyle to get back to my old healthy self. After all, there are plenty of health benefits of intermittent fasting which are being investigated and discussed in the medical community right now.
So, I am back to eating once a day at lunchtime on most days and sometimes I will have breakfast. I’m not very tall so it’s easy for me to get all the energy and nutrients I need from that one meal. Most importantly, it saves a lot of time in the kitchen and additionally, it gives me more energy. You heard right. Despite having a slightly larger meal, I don’t feel the post-lunch slump. I also don’t feel hungry – not a single time, never. My body seems to be happy to have only one meal and then digest it for the rest of the day.
What’s more, I am sleeping a lot better and that means I wake up without an alarm clock again. For me, sleep is really important and I am so happy that I no longer toss and turn before falling asleep or wake up in the middle of the night. Also my (menopausal?) night sweats have disappeared at long last. I am so happy 🙂
I am confident that intermittent fasting is good for me and I am ready to take the next step. This Saturday, I will be fasting the whole day. How exciting!
Try intermittent fasting for yourself! Leave out breakfast or dinner and tell us in the comments how you got on.
Always, always, always look at what “they” do and not what “they” say.
First up, when I refer to “they”, then I’m thinking of people (e.g. Trump, Johnson, Putin) as well as companies. Any legal entity is able to be incongruent in their actions and words. For the rest of the article, I shall refer to “person” to cover all of these.
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’ve mentioned a few times that words are cheap and easy. Anyone can say any combinations of words and letters and sentences. The only conditions are the intentions and morals of the person. That is where the problems start.
Any person who is dishonest, immoral or simply not interested will tell you whatever they think you want to hear. You will be happy for a moment and they get their way. Then they break their promises, go behind your back or quietly ignore their previous statements. That is the point when it’s important to start observing their behavior and actions instead of their words.
A simple example is your spouse / partner who tells you that they love you and then break up with you the next day because they want to move in with their new partner.
There are many more examples where actions and words don’t match up and ultimately, if they don’t then trust erodes and relationships break down. Walking away from someone who continually breaks promises may be the only option. It is not a bad option either because it frees you for better connections, relationships and experiences going forward. I once had to walk away from what could have been a great job because my manager said one thing to my face and another behind my back. Turns out, walking away was one of the best things I have ever done and in hindsight, I should have walked away sooner.
Beware though: this notion of observing actions over words is also important when it comes to your actions and words. If you say that you will do something, then you better do it. After all, everyone will be paying attention to your actions over your words. That includes me also and let me tell you, over the years, I have become a lot more aware of what I promise. I’m also more cognizant of what I have to say No to. Do I want to catch up on sleep or do I want to have one more glass of wine with friends? Do I want to help you move house or do I want to go for a hike in the mountains? I can’t do it all and I need to choose and communicate my decision clearly.
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”
Carl Gustav Jung
Most importantly, observe the representatives and politicians you voted for! You voted for them based on what they said and possibly on previous actions. How do they act? What do they say? Does it match up? Do they represent you the way you deserve to be represented? If it doesn’t, I strongly recommend you look for better representation next time.
My suggestion to you is that you use next week to watch, observe and possibly even take note of what people say and then check what they do it. Does it match up?
Observe, compare, think. Then decide on how you want to deal with them.
