So out on my run this morning I had some different thoughts, which seemed to make sense at the time. Now that I have the time to try and write them down, I'm hoping they still continue to make sense.

Thinking back to the beginning of the world, Adam and Eve. (Yes it's gonna be one of those ramblings) They get kicked out of the garden for disobedience, just that pure and simple. They disobeyed God. Given everything, they chose to not listen to the instruction given. They get everything, want for nothing, and yet after a simple planting of an idea, they suddenly seem to want more, actually they want for the one thing they are instructed they should not have. Hm mm, I think too much of this sounds too familiar! Obedience is something I think we, I, will struggle with for too long a time. This got me to thinking about a few other things though...

Food, yes, the food we eat.

Genesis 1:29-30 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground- everything that has the breath of life in it- I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

Everything we need was given to us. God has provided for us what we need, and in our greed we cry out for more. (In the beginning it was the promise of knowledge that led to the choice of disobedience) Then later, in our greed, we have hoarded our food and resources, not sharing with our neighbours (other countries). Not even sharing medicines which are in abundance for some and for others it is scarce.

When Adam and Eve get kicked from the garden they then had to provide for themselves, God of course had made sure that they were given all the things they needed to provide for themselves, they just had to work for it now. This carries us to the present where we have done everything in the western world to make our lives easier. This also includes our food and how we choose to eat these days.

We have created for ourselves the busy lifestyles to provide for our families. What are we providing for our families? This is something that has recently been on my mind. Aside from the basics of food (what we now are calling food), clothing, and shelter, there are so many other things we have stuffed into the need category that are really wants. First I think I will return to the food. We are feeding ourselves and our families stuffs that our great grandparents would never recognize. So many things are processed that many kids don't know what some vegetables look like. I am in such a hurry to get to the next place, to do the next thing, that I am feeding my family in the car (there have been too many pizza picnics in the car this year), eating has become so much less than what it was. There is no cooking and eating as a family anymore (for the majority of our western society). There are lessons not being passed down from one generation to another because we are relying on technology to fill the gaps. Who needs to cook with MC Donald's around the corner? Or there is always the local pizzas place, (there are two specifically that we, as a family, frequent). As kids these were novelties, now they are the norm.

My eyes were really opened this year on our summer vacation, as I had the chance to sit and talk with my sister we discovered that our mother didn't know how to eat much better either. She thought that she was eating healthy, diet everything, low fat everything and she would really watch her portions; yet she remained overweight. Here we were a few years after our mom's death and we are in a discussion about our eating habits, and what we learned from our mom. In retrospect we see how her baking was allot from scratch, with a whole lot of white flour and white processed sugar, and many of our dinners came from the boxed or canned meals or time saver meal making things. I find this interesting because I'm wondering where my homemaking skills are. I'm a terrible homemaker! Although I am learning, very slowly, as to what needs to be changed in our family lifestyle for our household to work; in a healthy way. My sister also discovered that she also needed to make some changes over the past few years as well. Her changes also came in the form of foods and healthy fresh choices. This takes time though! To purchase a fresh vegetable you then need to go home, chop, and cook it. This is a lost art for many, and I am one of them. With all the running around though it is hard to find the time to MAKE our food, to sit and have a meal with each other, to even get to the store to get the food in the first place. Asparagus was cooked in my home for the very first time this year, as well as beets.

One of the books that I found hard to read this year was Michael Poland's' "In Defence Of Food". This was an amazing book which has started my journey into a new though pattern when it comes to the food I am eating and feeding to my family. The way I see labels on our food now is read completely differently, and I am more likely to read the ingredients than just the so-called nutrition label. Nutrition on the whole is now viewed differently after this book. I have also found "The Eat Clean Diet" by Tosca Reno to be helpful, and "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (by Jamie Oliver) also to help me down this road of actual food and not just 'imitation foods'.

Now just to take a small break and connect this up with some earlier thoughts, I want to be aware of where my info comes from, and if it is correct, then it should check along side the beliefs set out in the Bible. Truth is truth.

Proverbs 20:17 "Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouthful of gravel"

I have started to view the genetically modified foods as fraudulent, definitely sweet, not sure about the gravel in my mouth (hard, dry, salty, unsatisfying) but I would say that it does not do well in my stomach. As I think back to all the foods that were once considered 'imitation' foods I wonder how we have accepted them into our everyday lives. Then I think about what I'm going to feed my family tonight as we have sports to be at and I will need to return to work, and there is a window of 20 minutes where we will sit and eat, and I answer this question as I pick up the phone and call to order the pizza for dinner. The process of changing one's lifestyle is a journey which will take more time than I would like and efforts that have yet to be discovered, the process of changing one's FAMILY lifestyle will be an adventure of unknown challenges. Although that is what it is going to take to keep my kids growing healthy, both physically and spiritually.

After all these books, I have come to the conclusion that they seem to hold up well in their information to lead me towards a Truth. I am going to try to use a personal standard of the Bible as a guide to make decisions by when I look into how the best possible way it is that I can change my families lifestyle to. Baby steps to start on the new road, hoping to not get sidetracked along the way.

It has become very interesting how our education has been directed towards the process of consuming, more than it has towards caring. Our foods are marketed as healthy and whole, quick and easy, when really they are not as healthy or whole. They have been pieced together for us with a little nutrition added, a vitamin here a mineral there. I find it an awakening to be able to view what I have been taught, (still relating to foods here) as wrong information. It is freeing to find out there are so many other options for how we can raise our families, how we will feed them. The social norm does not have to be our norm, and there are others out there. We don't have to consume as machines droning on in our activities of everyday, we can enjoy the journey, stopping to take the time to make things as simple (actually not so simple for some of us) as cooking dinner together an event, not just a process of consuming.

So here's to life and living to the fullest of our days.