Changing Through Time

Beloved:

     So the gist of my annual check up yesterday was, “Well Annette, when our women bodies turn fifty   . . . . . .”  Every variation on this theme was discouraging but none more than, “our favorite carbs are the enemy; pasta, potatoes, bread.” The enemy of weight management that is, how it takes more exercise and less food to achieve the same results. I intended to ask about my failing memory but, of course,  I forgot. Sigh . . . Sigh! Sigh! Sigh!  Why can’t knitting be exercise and bagels a superfood?  I’d be the Michael Phelps of 50 year old women!  

     My doctor isn’t one to coddle and yet she’s wonderfully able to tell the truth with enthusiasm for all the good things about turning fifty.  Friends confirm her words, calling it their favorite decade so far.  According to them my need for social approval will drop dramatically.  My sense of purpose will clarify. Nearly grown children will take flight and need me less and differently. Time for my interests and my marriage will grow.

     I sense these changes already and wonder about spiritual ones too. After thirty years of effort will trust come more naturally than worry?  Will faith be more like falling than climbing? Will attachment to things lose their charm?  Will today be my favorite day of all?  I can’t say for sure but it’s something to think about when I pedal the bike or gnaw my kale.  

     I pray the day brings finds you active in faith, warm in love. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette


My 2 Favorite Kale Recipes:

1.  Kroger sells a salad in their deli called "Superfood Salad" with kale, edamame, cashews, etc.  Very yummy.  

2.  Soup with Kale 

Ingredients:
* Any pot of yummy tomato based vegetable soup or stew with or without meat.  
* 4 leaves of kale with the veins removed.  

Make the soup. 
Stack the greens and roll them up like into a tube.  Slice the tube very thin so you have narrow ribbons of kale.  

When soup is nearly finished, stir in the kale.  


Truth is, I mostly hate kale.  I find it bitter and chemically tasting.  Removing the veins helps.  I have to hide it in other stuff.