Food or Poison: The Choice is Ours.

We have made the decision to eat better. The food industry is all wrong. When you walk down the aisle of a grocery store you see row after row of pretty plastic packages, printed boxes, bottles and bags and these eventually end up in our environment at worst and a landfill at best. But REAL Food comes out of the ground or from a tree. Animals can be food also but in moderation.

I've always known that something was wrong with the food industry but have enjoyed the bliss of ingnorance. Now that we are older we are experiencing health concerns. Getting motivated to radically change your diet when you've lived a life of just eating whatever, is not easy. I've told myself things like.."I'm going to die eventually anyway, I might as well enjoy eating on my way out." Or..."Heck..everything causes cancer these days. You can't even breath without putting your life on the line."

Well...I've changed my mind. Recently, Russ and I watched a couple of documentaries that moved us in a whole new direction with respect to food.

The First one was "The Beautiful Truth". This documentary follows the journey of Garrett Kroschel, an animal-loving teenager raised in Alaska who, after reading a book by Dr. Max Gerson, is inspired to investigate its premise that diet can cure cancer and other diseases. Garrett travels across the country, visiting with physicians, scientists and cancer survivors to discuss Gerson Therapy -- and Gerson's claim that the medical industry has suppressed natural cancer cures for years.

The Second ,"Food Inc". Drawing on Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, director Robert Kenner's Oscar-nominated documentary explores the food industry's detrimental effects on our health and environment. Kenner spotlights the men and women who are working to reform an industry rife with monopolies, questionable interpretations of laws and subsidies, political ties and rising rates of E. coli outbreaks.

After watching these, we were motivated. Eating food involves choices. We are either eating food or eating poison.  But even if you don't care about your health there are still values that are supported by the food choices we make when we check out at the grocery store.  We can support our community, local farmers, the general health and welfare of our communities OR we can support greedy corporations who seek to monopolize the food industry with their genetically altered seed, chemically altered high fructose corn syrup, their deplorable treatment of animals and the diseasing of a nation.

Depoe Bay 2009 Family Vacation

Happy Birthday Parker!

This photo is a couple of years old but I love this photo. Parker was soo happy on this day. He and Chris had a good time with their father, Cody. It's a little late but wanted to acknowledge his birthday.

Happy Birthday Christopher

Chris recently had a birthday. Unfortunately we haven't seen him or big brother Parker in a while. We think about them everyday and offer prayers for their well-being.

I have used this picture before and is it about two years old but ...what can ya do?

The Beauty of Utah

I was raised in California. Beaches and lots of green, rolling hills and lakes and pines and redwood trees. I've also lived in Alaska (Kodiak), Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and briefly in Arizona, Missouri, and Maryland. I spent nearly three years in Germany (Kaiserslautern & Baumholder) while in the Army. I enjoyed the sagebrush scattered deserts of Nevada. The desert is wonderful and mysterious at night. But I love even more the red rocks of Utah. Utah has some of the most amazing scenery I've ever seen. Bryce Canyon, Utah is the most incredible and alien landscape in the country. What is even more wonderful than the incredible sand stone formations (hoodoos) is the provision of visitors to explore the very nooks and crannies of this canyon. Foot trails wind throughout the base of the canyon.

50th Anniversary Family Portrait

Christina has a big family and every two years or so there's a big family reunion. One year instead of the family reunion we had a family get together to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Christina's parents Cliff & Peggy Perkins. Here is a group photo of the family get together. I seem to recall it was taken in some Idaho park.

Aside from wondering wether or not you will be going to heaven, do you ever wonder what you will look like in heaven? I wonder if we will look like we do when we die or will we revert back to a time in life when we were at our best?
I don't know but when I found an old photo of my mother I imagined she was an angel in heaven. This photo was taken by my father. I'm not sure of the exact timing but I expect sometime after they were married (1957, 1958) and had their whole lives together ahead of them. They had plans for family and career and full of love and hope.
Gradually over time though, the beauty of youth becomes crushed under the process of aging. But through that process we acquire wisdom. My mother now is a bit mishapen and has gray hair. Her knees don't work too well and she gets tired more easily but she has wisdom, a precious gem; beautiful, painfully acquired wisdom. I love you mom.
The picture is a painting from a photo; acrylic and colored pencil on Somerset Velvet paper, cut out, scanned into a Photoshop Document with a gradient in the background. This painting is not available for sell but I will be happy to make prints available to family members upon request.

If you'd like to see more of my art work (The folk art of Christina Colwell), go to http://www.christinacolwell.blogspot.com