Healthy Inspiration
Inspiration often comes in the most unexpected ways.
About a year ago, mine came in the form of what appeared to be a fairly typical guy on a night out in Los Angeles. We happened to be sitting next to each other, we introduced ourselves, we talked about our interests – the usual things. Two hours later, we were still full of conversation.
We met up to go out with some friends the next week. He and I again quickly disappeared into a world of philosophical discussion.
And then he took me off guard by saying that he had read my blog.
At first, I didn’t even know what he meant. My blog? Which blog? How did you find my blog?
Over three years ago, I wrote a blog about human rights abuses on a Del Monte banana plantation in Costa Rica. It has been a couple years since I visited the topic or the site. Turns out he had looked me up on Facebook and found the link there.
He was “inspired by it.” He even took the time to visit the Del Monte website to read more about the company and their business practices. It was a wonderful compliment to know that he took such interest in this human rights cause through reading my blog.
Then he asked me: ”Right now, today, in this moment, what are you passionate about?”The point here is not to chronicle my social life. Instead it is a reminder of how day-to-day interactions can serve to spark creativity and growth.
There are many things in life that motivate me. Activities I enjoy, topics I grapple with, feelings that overtake me. But how could I synthesize them into one thing? What about them really resonates in my core?
Simple.
Health.
I am enthralled by it. From my community outreach work at an HIV clinic, to my background in health communication, from my daily practice of turning fresh ingredients into meals that pique the senses and the nourish the body, to my continuous reading of articles on balanced diet and holistic health, from my own self-quest for better nutrition and spiritual growth, to my core belief in health as an intrinsic human right.
And that’s when I knew. Every face-to-face conversation I have centers on the topic of health. And if a new friend could take enough interest in my passions to find me on Facebook, read my three-year-old blog, visit the Del Monte website, and then tell me all about it, then I should write again. Even if for no other reason than to organize my thoughts on the page, and to share the foods I love to make with anyone interested in trying them. But I am hoping that this Web site will become a forum more valuable than my own self-development and enjoyment.
That’s what humanity is all about. Finding common ground, something to rally together behind. Here, the topic is health, and how the foods we eat are so important to our physical well-being and happiness found in the kitchen and around the dinner table. I will post plenty of recipes for inspiration! Sometimes my posts will also be about the broader topics of social and spiritual manifestations of health that impact us as individuals and as a global society.
As this journey develops, hopefully you will find as much interest and enjoyment in reading my posts as I have already begun to find in writing them.