Notes From My Knapsack 1-29-06
Jeff Gill

"People For Parks" Serve You . . . Breakfast!

Resolutions are not my cup of tea, or java, or anything else. As noted previously, most so-called "New Year’s" statements of intent to change, grow, or shrink in some form don’t seem to work.
Anytime is a good time to decide to improve your life, but choosing the day you start writing a new number for the date after the comma is not so much random as forced. People who think "hey, it’s 2006, so I’ll stop smoking this year" are often going with peer pressure more than coming to a firm internal conviction. Everyone is talking "new you," so they think "I should join in."
What the January period can offer is a great set of motivations to do stuff you’ve intended for a long time anyhow. Even if it isn’t cold, it isn’t warm enough to do casual outdoor stuff; you can’t really get much done on the yard or the house (except take down the Christmas lights, because you gotta), but there’s a bit of a break before the big surge of events and activities with the springtime.
Take a walk, then. Put on a coat, but don’t bundle up. If you move, you generate warmth, but if you sweat, you’ll get cold for sure. Cover your head and your hands, make sure you have sturdy shoes that walk well, and leave the house.
You get more of what sunlight there is (hahahahahahahahah), you see farther with the leaves gone and get views normally hidden the rest of the year, and the fresh air does sharpen your perspective and lift your heart a bit.
After you’ve done the block around you and few adjoining, it might be time to go further afield. This is where the rich resources of Licking County really come into their own. Your own community likely has walking paths or hiking trails on public property to start close by. Dawes Arboretum, Black Hand Gorge with Ohio DNR, even Hebron Fish Hatchery all have some walks and paths that stretch both your legs and your mind.
The there’s the Licking Park District. We have in this county, thanks to the vision of the county commissioners and the work of the park commissioners they’ve appointed, three major facilities along with the rail trails from Johnstown to Newark and from East Newark on east, with spurs hither and yon like up to OSU-Newark campus and down towards Heath. Many of these tie into city and village paths, as well.
Along with the park offices and central facility on Rt. 37 at Infirmary Mound Park, the William C. Kraner Nature Center out Linville Road just onto Fairview north of US 40, and Lobdell Reserve north of Alexandria, there are walking and horse trails on each of these properties.
"People for Parks" is working to secure the future of open space and outdoor recreation in Licking County on behalf of the Licking Park District. They invite you to come have breakfast at the James Bradley Center of Infirmary Mound Park this Saturday, Jan. 28, from 7:00 to 9:00 am, with donations accepted. You can just come to eat, meet other nature lovers, and learn a bit about work to secure dedicated funding for Licking County Parks in the future.
Then you can go walk off the eggs and pancakes and sausage by walking back around the horse arena, down past the osage orange trees, and up through the pines. You can eat just about anything you want if you only do the work to justify the calories; the farmer’s breakfast isn’t a health hazard if you pitch straw bales into the barn loft all day after eating it!
Seriously, look at your plate: you should see some china under the food, and you should see some color. That’s the best diet advice you’ll get anywhere in 2006. If your food is all white, tan, brown, and grey, you aren’t getting what you need. Color means health, with bright reds and greens leading the pack . . . no, I don’t mean jello, but that’s fine too in moderation.
Keep your plate lightly loaded, don’t refill it, keep the color in your diet, and drink plenty of stuff that doesn’t have corn syrup in it (you don’t drink corn syrup? Check the label, my friend), and get out and move.
Dr. Phil charges a sawbuck for that much advice in a book, and you just got it in a free paper with a breakfast invitation. Life is good, isn’t it?

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; pass word of breakfasts and health tips to disciple@voyager.net.