Ron Finely: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA

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“Food is the problem and food is the solution.”

I love Ted Talks. And I love the Ted Talk by Ron Finely. I have watched it several times and passed it along to others and his delivery gets me every time. Just the title alone piques one’s interest.

Ron speaks about living in a food desert in South Central LA and what he and others have done through gardening to change lives. Here is the crazy act he and LA Green Grounds did to almost get arrested: they planted gardens. In a city which owns 26 miles of vacant lots, they created gardens of fruits, vegetables and plants on strips of government land, land which is up to homeowners to maintain.  Not only have the gardens flourished, but the community has as well.

“Growing your own food is like printing your own money. “

Take less than 11 minutes out of your day to watch his thought provoking – and amusing story. It will make you think and it will make you smile. And maybe it will encourage you to go plant something too…

Celebrate Your Accomplishments Today

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I used to do boot camp. I used to do full-out sprints on the treadmill. I used to do 3-5 sessions at the gym each week for the sheer thrill of feeling great. Of sweating. Of knowing I just shaved 5 seconds off my really bad one mile time. I was aiming for my first 5km run and I was excited. Didn’t care how much I weighed, what a scale said, what my dress tag said. How did I feel? Great.

I flew off the treadmill a few minutes into my routine jog in spring 2011. Right into the wall. I didn’t know then that would be the last time my body would be able to go to the gym. Found out I had Hashimoto’s, then endometriosis then last year gluten ataxia. My heart wanted to run but my body kept saying not yet, not yet.

If you would have told me back then that an exercise ball would take me down in physiotherapy years later, I would have said you are crazy. Not me the girl who fried the gym’s only treadmill by doing sprints. The girl who could do lunges and crunches for days. The girl who went to track school because it was fun to run up all the stairs in a stadium. Not me.

LiisOnLife

It has taken me many months to be able to sit on a fitness ball. Just sit on it. Then bounce. Then bounce and try to catch a ball. And I bawled my eyes out today while trying to do so. System overload. And I am so ok with that. Proud to cry because it means I am pushing through to another level.

I have reinvented my gym. Set new expectations. It may not be a stadium of stairs, may not be an hour jog, may not be a killer boot camp class. But every physio session, even if it is simply mastering sitting on a fitness ball, is a giant leap (or bounce) forward.

Celebrate your accomplishments today. Don’t beat yourself up about what you were able to do yesterday. Today you started. Today you made a difference in your current situation. Today you did amazing things. Today you created change no matter how small. And tomorrow you can look back and smile. You’ve got this…today. #rockyourbody

There Are Gifts In Being Still

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Always stop to enjoy a moment, smell the roses, appreciate the beauty in something. My health journey has literally many days forced me to sit still, sit in the moment, appreciate the little details in a day that lead to a magical life.

When life puts you in the universal time-out chair through dis-ease or any other life interruption, will you sit and rage? Or will you calm yourself to observe the amazing things going on around you? On some days my ataxia has only allowed limited walking – maybe a couple hundred metres, maybe half an hour, maybe more – it really depends. Beautiful moments have opened up before me – moments that were always there but I overlooked in the hustle and bustle of daily life. The way sunshine hits a flower. The gorgeous colours of a bird’s feathers. Children running and giggling. The texture of a tree. Waves crashing and gleaming in the sunlight.

Stop. Breathe.

Appreciate the gifts that find you in any universal time-out in your life.

See and hear new things or old things in new ways.

There are gifts in being still.

Let them find you.