FOOD

We all love it, want it and pretty much NEED food to live. Although, I would say that in North America, a mass percentage of people eat food because they want it right then and there. And there are a million places to get it pretty much 24 hours a day...MacDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Wendy's, Boston Pizza, Tim Hortons, Quizno's...those are only names that popped right into my head the first few seconds I thought of good ol' Fast Food. You could wake up at 3 am (in the city...here the latest thing open is the Co-op and it closes at 10) with a hankering for a hamburger, walk out your front door, step into the car, drive 5 minutes and ask a lit up menu to make you a burger with a Pepsi and fries please. It's THAT simple. And it's just there because years back we felt that we needed to have every convenience that a human possibly could have and now that meant food, it had to be available to eat within minutes of the "craving" coming on. Don't even get me started on "conveniences"...I could rant on that for hours. With that being said, I do think that we all should be able to eat if we are feeling hungry and we are fortunate to have food in our fridge or cash in our pockets to go out and get something. I just wish that every person in the whole world could eat because they too were hungry. Food is the one thing in life that no one person should ever have to go without. But they do. I might not have a ton of extra money that I can give out to various charities and such...but I have been known to buy food for someone I see on the street...donate to the food bank...bring a meal to one of the dudes I used to walk by each and every day that lived on West Broadway. (I don't even know where they would find shelter in the nights to sleep, but they would always be somewhere between Oak and Ash on Broadway. I would sit down with them on the sidewalk sometimes...it's funny how different people look at you when they think you are one of the "bums"...it's hurtful.) Anyways...people should eat. And wouldn't it be nice if the food we ate was actually good for us? Like, not a burger from MacDonald's or even a sub from Subway, (don't be fooled by the vegetables they add to their high calorie sauces and insanely sodium saturated meats...) just because they have been "approved" by the FDA or whatever, does NOT mean that it is good for you or even actually meant for human consumption. I went quite a few years without eating MacDonald's, one day while Clint and I were in the city we were olfactoried over to the golden arches by their greasy and salty all too familiar scent of french fries. I was like..."let's go all out and get cheeseburgers and fries!!" I think I must have been feeling ill or something to actually have a moment of relapse into the world of cholesterol enhancing and heart attack inducing FAST FOOD. So gross. We were walking through the grocery store after and feeling quite nauseated and headachey. There were times that I actually thought someone rufied my iced tea or something because I was almost outer body. It was weird. What the heck are they putting in the food??? Some kind of chemical drug to lure you back for more...get you addicted to the "stuff". Ah!

Well, I was thinking that something I could do on my part to kind of combat hunger in my own personal way and in my own world, is to respect food. Respect it in the way that I do not need to overindulge in it. Eat when necessary and let your body do what it is intended to do without overloading it. I can actually We, being Clint and I, can actually lay and watch the stupid boob tube for a few hours to "relax" and go through a bowl of popcorn, maybe some ice cream and maybe even have started the whole binge off with crackers and cheese. That is so freakin' sick! Why would we torture our poor bodies like that...the whole thing...the laying there doing nothing, rotting our minds and shoveling junk into our mouths to fill our bellies that are just trying to digest the actual real meals we had that day. Food is not to be wasted. I am not a waster at all. I pride myself in leftovers and all that...but to snack obsessively is wasting food. So...I guess I am totally a big waster. What a bummer. But, I can change it. And that is what I am starting to do now. No more eating after 8pm...so no more late dinners. AND, no more, ever, EVER again to eat at any fast food restaurant. Even if I say it is only a treat because we are in the city and we never eat crap food. That sentence alone should be the greatest indication that we should not eat the fast food...it's crap...duh! I just can't...it makes me feel sick anyways...even if it is sinfully delicious for some incredibly astonishing reason.  No more. I need to respect food, so that should mean eating food that is healthy and that my body will thrive on. That means growing as much of my own food as possible too. And that I have been doing for the past few years. It is awesome. And what a feeling to eat a full meal that was entirely from your own backyard. I would love to see more and more of that going on. I believe it is catching on...for sure out here on hippy island...but I know some city folk getting in on the farming too. It's fun and amazing to watch your plants grow and turn into scrumptious veggies and fruits and grains that you can cook up and serve yourself AND your friends who will appreciate it so very much. 

I wish I had started a garden in the backyard on Fraser St. in Vancouver. It had great sun...and a plot would still be there now for people to be like..."hey, there is a garden plot here in the yard...let's grow some FOOD!!"

Sunflowers reaching for the sun! Grow sweet ones grow! ;o)