To The Health of Us All

I got a wake up call of sorts the other day when an I received a phone call regarding an acquaintance who was in the hospital. Only a few hours before the call, I had seen this person standing in a hallway at church. He looked fine and since I was heading out another direction, didn't take the time to go and talk to him.

Apparently, shortly after I had left, someone else did talk to him and found him to be confused and muddled in his speech and thinking. They called for medical help and the next thing we knew, he was being transported over to a specialty hospital in Seattle for treatment.

He had been living on his own in our old house ... the one we just moved from. It's pretty quiet up there ... no one to bother you and as it happened, due to diet, he probably was experiencing mini-stokes while up there with no one but the dog to keep him company.

The fact that he was able to actually drive himself to church that day ... safely, and sit in the meetings is a miracle. If he had stayed up on the mountain on his own ... who knows what we would have found when someone got around to checking up on him. As it is, his speech center has been affected as well as his ability to think straight.

There is not telling if this is permanent, but the doctors think it is. He will no longer be able to live on his own ... and he is only 54.

So I have been thinking about the unpredictability of life as a whole. We really have no idea how long we are scheduled to live here ... but there are certain things that we can do that will contribute to creating a viable time frame by the way we treat ourselves.

The quality of life we enjoy is usually determined by the power of our ability to choose what we want and can have. What I mean by that ... is if we love corn on the cob ... which I do intensely, the quality of life would be greatly diminished if I no longer had teeth that would allow me to remove those kernels from the cob and enjoy the taste as I crunch them up. My duty to myself then would be to ensure my teeth are in good repair that will last me my lifetime.

As I've gotten older, I am grateful for the experiences of my youth ... but realize certain things are probably not going to happen anymore ... like hiking great distances. A few years ago when I was on my feet all the time in the kitchens, my feet took quite a beating and there was great concern on my part as whether I would be able to be walking at all.

It became quite a decision for me to go into a big store ... like Costco because I knew that I might be back in the corner getting something and the pain would be so great that I might not make it back. I hated that feeling! So I retired from active kitchen duty until my feet healed ... amazing thing about the human body.

Even though I still am concerned about great distances, I no longer fret over the simple visit to a store or fear having to traipse all over the facility in search of some item I'm having a hard time finding.

The point I'm trying to get at, is there are always considerations that we need to take into account when it comes to our ability to choose and the freedoms we enjoy because we allow our decisions to center around keeping those freedoms.

I intend to faithfully brush my teeth because I enjoy the benefits of what they can do. I also intend to continue tasting and eating my favorite foods ... so I need to make sure that I am using up the energy they create so I don't become so overweight that I can no longer eat them.





We never know when we will be called home in this life ... but I think that as long as we do have a choice, we should enjoy the time we have and keep our options open as long as possible. Simple maintenance can mean the difference between living well and just coping.

Warmest Regards!

Chef Tom Heintz