I SO wish I could make the world right.
We have a friend who is having so much trouble getting a job that he is close to being homeless.
The beheading of Nicholas Berg has shocked me to the core.
Our unstable economy refuses to settle and grow, and it’s impact is horribly widespread.
A number of diseases, like tuberculosis, have returned with vigor, and are resisting our attempts to eradicate them.
And the list goes on and on.
What can I do as one person to make the world better? Keeping myself off the lists of the needy isn’t enough. Beyond making contributions, and saying my prayers……..what can I do?

My doctor assures me that exercise is good for me. In fact, she was specific about kinds…..resistance, cardio, weight lifting. I was quick to assure her that I DO exercise. Three days a week I go to a morning class, and it’s led by this wonderful, goofy, loveable incarnation of SATAN!
Lynda has spent her life in the pursuit of things physical. Specifically, she has learned almost every Asian exercise method, and what she doesn’t know, her husband does.
We were skeptical at first when she came to lead our class. We didn’t quite know what to expect. She kept a smile pasted on her face for the first year as we adjusted, and then we began to tease her, and she started teasing back.
She’s slipped a lot of yoga into our cardio session, in the stretching and balance exercises. I’ve learned to pose like a tree, or something like that, and surprisingly, having to rise up to my toes is making my feet MUCH healthier!
We use lightweight poles for arm exercises, and 2 to 7 pound weights. We have two types of resistance bands: a small ring, and what looks like an elastic jump rope. We stretch almost every part of our bodies during warm up and cool down, and Lynda is likely to add two pound balls, basket balls, bean bags or anything else she can find into the mix to get us to use our muscles in a variety of ways.
She must feel that she’s been successful in her efforts, because lately she’s been slipping new moves into the routines. I’ve found a number of muscles I didn’t know I had, and a few I wanted to forget about.
And through it all, she just smiles this inscrutable smile. I think that when she is wound up and can’t sleep at night, she plans which muscle mass to attack the next day!

I’ve been focused on getting the herbies settled, and getting the gardens in shape this spring, and realized that I had forgotten to do the Spring organization INSIDE the house.
It used to be, in times before air conditioning, and when houses were huge and had staff to manage them, that curtains and rugs were changed for the hot months, and the furniture might be covered with lighter weight slip covers. They used lighter colors and lighter fabrics in an effort to cool the house down. I don’t go that far, but we do change to a different set of table linens, and the curtains and throw rugs are washed.
I’d like to point out that I’m done with most of that, but what I haven’t gotten to is the change of wardrobe. I store off season clothes in huge plastic bins in the basement. Last night, DH schlepped the bins upstairs for me, so one of my chores in the next couple of days is the changing of the guard…..er wardrobe.
I take my mother to an exercise class three mornings a week. I had on long jersey pants and a long sleeved T-shirt yesterday, and I thought I was going to melt! Of course, tomorrow, the high for the day is supposed to be 63, so I’ll have to leave a few warm things in the closet.
And….I’m testing the air conditioning today! So, maybe I need to keep a sweater, too.