The Evil Eye/Longevity

Tuesday morning...late start. These days I'm not setting an alarm clock cuz I read something about our circadian clock and the bad effects of too little sleep. I know I wrote about squeezing more into the day, robbing some time in the wee hours to get stuff done, but it seems my advice, while well-meaning, was counter to the prevailing knowledge about sleep. Want to lose weight? Make sure you get enough sleep. Want to improve your immune system? Get enough sleep. Need to stave off depression? Definitely get enough (but not too much) sleep. And more. Seems modern times are wreaking havoc with out internal systems.

One thing I noticed with awe when I was president of the Frisbie-Frisbee Family Association of America, and I manually typed the entire genealogy of the family into a database - back in the earliest days of our country, the newly settled Frisbies either perished in babyhood or lived into their '80's and '90's (they also had, on average 10-12 children). Seriously!! Weren't you, too, under the impression that life span back in those colonist times was limited? And maybe it's just that the Frisbies were a long-lived family - great genes or something. My guess, though, is that it was more a lifestyle thing. They arrived from Europe to find a pristine world with pure air, clear water, fertile earth and their survival depended on hard physical labor. They slept when the sun went down and awoke when it reappeared. Not so simple, though, to replicate in modern times. Who knows what's in our water? The soil we grow our food in is tired, the air we breathe rife with contaminants, our jobs don't require physical labor and we no longer are tied to the sun for light. But....thinking we don't have to throw in the towel. Organic food, purified water, exercise, maybe choosing to live where the air is cleaner, and not burning the candle at both ends could be the ticket to replicating what now seems like a healthier way of living (harder but healthier).

Got a big list today - sometimes it makes me tired just looking at all I strive to accomplish in a day. Some days only a handful of things get crossed out. "Write the blog" is always the first item so you can see what trouble I'm in today! It's 10:30 and I'm just settling in!

One thing to share that amazed me. My two favorite Christmas presents were bought by friends who barely know each other. Uncanny that they both, unwittingly, bought me a present so related. The first present, from Carol, was a mystery as I unwrapped it. Wrapped around a heavy block of a box was a cryptic photograph - a tree with shimmery, glassy things hanging from it, but taken too far away for the hanging objects to be identified. "What the heck are those?" I wondered as my eyes rested on the photo. Finally shrugged and peeled off that first layer, only to find another photograph underneath - this one, a close up of one of the hanging ornaments with a note of explanation:

Dear Sarah - In 2013 maybe we need to resort to old wives' tales to keep us safe! As my friend's grandmother used to say, "Who would know better than old wives?" So, here is a paperweight amulet that counters the effects of "the evil eye" - may it bless your home.  xoxo Carol

The paperweight is beautiful as you can see in the picture. Then, a week later, lunch with employee and dear friend Dorothy.  Over salads we opened our gifts to each other. She got me a pashmina that I have been wearing every day as my go-to winter scarf. Didn't make the connection to Carol's present right away but a few days later, when the scarf was puddled on my coffee table next to the paperweight did my eyes widen with amazement. One of those woo-woo moments - chills, right? Two unrelated friends who love me dearly maybe subconsciously worried about me and putting in place objects to protect me from the evil eye.

And do I believe in the evil eye? Probably not on rational days but how much fun would it be to always live in the rational? Coincidences like this are fun and fodder for imagination. Tomorrow I have my writing group and if the prompts can take me there, maybe I'll write about the evil eye! And maybe, just maybe it's not a coincidence. Maybe at some deep level my friends sense a new vulnerability in me - a vulnerability that has opened new doors but that also carries risk. I feel their protection.

Challenge today - I dunno - think about that whole longevity thing and how you can strip away some harmful layers of modernity to reclaim your health - live more like the founding generations did? What would your day look like without an overuse of technology - with more hours in bed, clean food, time spent in physical pursuits (ha ha! maybe you can combine the "more time in bed" with the "physical pursuits!").  Tonight tantra for me which is something I always look forward to. Not sure the Founding Fathers would approve, but hey.

Peace,
Sarah