Dr. Lisa's Bountiful Life

Boston Run

In 2008, my seven-year-old daughter, sister and I took the T to Copley Square in Boston, and watched the Marathon runners cross the finish line on Patriots Day.

My sister, then a doctoral student in nutrition at Tufts, was well versed in the ways of the big city.

A longtime resident of Maine, I had some trepidation about facing the crowds, the noise and the sheer vastness of the urban setting.

This was quickly diminished by the experience of watching people gratefully--often euphorically--reach the end of a 26.2 mile journey that had (for most) been many months in the making.

My sister greeted several acquaintances among the finishers. She had herself run the Boston Marathon previously, and knew the route well.

It was a beautiful April day. Flowers were blooming. There was an air of holiday and celebration.

My daughter and I enjoyed the comraderie and the crowd energy generated by runners and spectators alike.

Fast forward to Patriots Day 2013.

Another crowd gathers to watch the Marathon runners enter Copley Square. It is a beautiful April day. There is an air of holiday and celebration.

An eight-year-old boy, his mother and sister, stand among the spectators, waiting for his father to cross the finish line.

A bomb explodes. Then another. 

The boy and two others are killed immediately. His mother and sister are critically injured.

Countless others are maimed and wounded.

Word of the tragedy immediately spreads through social and mainstream media. We hear of yet another irrational,  evil act perpetrated upon those whose only crime was attempting to live their lives.

Very little separates us from those who were impacted by this crime.

For most, it is an issue of timing.

I am a runner, my sister is a runner and many of our siblings are runners. We have run Boston, and other marathons across the country.

I am a mother with children who have often watched me cross the finish line at races.

I am sad and angry that a pastime I love has been tainted by senseless violence.

I am sad and angry that an eight-year-old child lost his life.

Today I laced my sneakers up and ran for those who no longer could.

And prayed that Boston would somehow find the strength to persevere, and heal, in the face of its lost innocence.

Remembrance

2013

Connecting Kids with Food

Last year I visited a school where children had one choice when it came to food: eat or don't eat.

There was one meal, shared by faculty, staff and students alike.

The children of Safe Passage, many of who did not have access to nutritious meals in their Guatemala City homes, were happy to have what was placed in front of them.

Our American culture has some of the same problems.

The children of our country experience their own version of scarcity.

This scarcity takes the form of disconnection.

Our kids, plied with sugary, processed 'faux food' from their earliest years, often have difficulty discriminating between what is real, and what is merely a food creation.

They have difficulty tasting the rich complexity of simply prepared vegetables and whole grains.

They have difficulty knowing when their bodies have had enough.

We adults often have difficulty with the very same things.

We need to reconnect with our food, and help our kids do the same.

As pediatrician Dr. Kevin Strong suggests, we need to "Dunk the Junk" and replace sugary, processed faux food with real food.

We need to embrace the ideas put forth by Maine's Let's Go program: 

5 – servings fruits and veggies daily
2 – hours or less of recreational screen time
1 – hour or more of physical activity
0 – sugary drinks, more water and low-fat milk.

We need to teach our kids tasteful discrimination, even as we are limiting their choices to foods that are better for their growing bodies.

The children of Safe Passage in Guatemala City have one choice: eat or don't eat.

Our children truly have one choice as well: eat well and live longer, or eat poorly and don't.

Let's help our kids re-connect with their food. 

Where there is scarcity, let abundance take root.

 

Safe Passage

Guatemala City, 2011

Listen to Dr. Lisa's conversation with Dr. Kevin Strong of Dunk the Junk  and Dr. Michael Dedekian of Let's Go, this Sunday on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast.

Schedule an office consult with Dr. Lisa at 207 774 2196.

 

Art, Wellness & the Road Less Travelled

Do you regret taking the 'road less travelled?'

I asked this question of an attorney/photographer during a recent conversation about his art, and the trials and tribulations entailed in his decision to commit his energy to two seemingly separate life endeavors.

He turned the question back on me.

He asked whether I had regrets about pursuing a path of medicine that diverged from the mainstream; whether I regret the decision to write and create a radio show.

I have no regrets.

Nor does he.

Following an untravelled path can be lonely. It can cause raised eyebrows, and a certain exasperation from those who do not understand its necessity.

It is, however, not always a choice.

Like having blond hair, or musical ability, we are born with a certain set of characteristics and talents.

Our ultimate navigation of the world is then shaped by our upbringing.

We may have the intellectual aptitude for professional pursuits, such as medicine and law, and simultaneously find ourselves drawn to artistic pursuits, such as photography and writing.

Our decision to move in one direction or the other is typically influenced by our parents, our friends and community.

But our underlying artistic predilection rarely recedes.

It merely remains dormant, until we can no longer ignore its insistent presence.

And we follow it down the path.

For some of us, like my photographer friend Jack Montgomery, the journey begins later in life.

For others, the journey began at birth.

But it rarely matters when we began: only that we have.

It matters more that once we have embarked, we do not regret our choice.

 

Listen to Dr. Lisa's conversation with photographer Jack Montgomery, and Art Collector Maine artist Abbie Williams, this Sunday on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast.

Schedule an office consult with Dr. Lisa at 207 774 2196.

Rebirth & Return

On our birthdays, it is considered auspicious if we return to the place where we were born.

Three years ago, I visited the Vermont hospital in which I took my first breath. It was to become the hospital where I donned a white coat and was "born into" the medical profession. It was also to become the place where my son drew his own first breath.

Two years ago, I braved the January snow to forge a path around Walden Pond. 

Following in Thoreau's formidable footsteps, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

It was at Walden that I was metaphorically "born again" into a new life. I had, only weeks prior, made the painful (if inevitable) decision to end a two decade relationship with the father of my children.

It was at Walden that I began deliberately living my own life, rather than allowing my life to live me.

Last year, I travelled to New York City, to see the bigger world that deliberate living had revealed.

This year--last week--I returned to the place of my childhood. I celebrated my birthday in the Sunshine State, where four of my nine siblings were born. 

When we left Florida in 1977, our family moved to Maine.

My parents, at that time, made a deliberate choice to return to their home state. They wanted their children to be surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

I have remained in Maine because I want the same for my children--two of whom were born here. 

Simultaneously, I want each of my children to find rebirth in many places.

I want them to know the heat of a Florida sun, and the grandeur of a New York City skyline.

I want them to have the opportunity to wander, and to meet people of all different persuasions.

On our birthdays, it is considered auspicious if we return to the place where we were born.

Should we choose to live deliberately, we may find ourselves re-born a thousand times.

 

South Beach Birthday

January 2012

Are you living deliberately? Learn more on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast. Sundays at 7am & noon, or available for free download.