It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, here in Kansas City. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
Country Club Plaza
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Category Archives: Health and Lifestyle
Sheila’s Passion For Health
Last Christmas after Meg and I told friends about our new blog at a holiday party, Sheila promised to become our first “follower”. We didn’t know anything about followers, but we figured it out, her blog on healthy living became the first blog I followed. I have read her blog faithfully ever since.
Sheila is truly passionate about healthy living, not just for herself, but for those around her. She talks about obesity as an epidemic and wants to help others live healthier lives as she documents “my journey to better health”. Her blog describes her commitment exercise, eat well, savor life. Consistent with her theme, she recently changed the name of her blog to “Livliga Live Vibrant Blog”. Livliga, translated from Swedish, means to live vibrantly, in an energetic, dynamic or lively fashion.
Sheila has now created a line of Livliga dinnerware products designed to help us “right size” our food portions. Believe me that when she talks about her commitment to healthy living, portion control, and her dinnerware, her enthusiasm fills the room. She describes her dinnerware as providing “a great reminder of what the right amount of food really looks like”.
Until recently the Executive Director of the Denver Affiliate of the American Heart Association, she takes health seriously. She is an evangelist, of sorts, in her advocacy for eating healthy foods with appropriate portions for weight control. In addition, and this is where her passion for health has taken an unusual twist, she believes, and causes us to believe, that how food looks on a dinner plate is critical to our sense of satisfaction. Food that is appealing and visually “fills a plate” gives us the ability to decrease the amount of food we need to feel full.
Important as her message is about portion control, Sheila wants us to be happy as we diet. Her blog regularly features great recipes for foods that are appealing to our senses of taste, smell and sight. If we are eating less, she wants to be sure we are eating well.
Trust me when I tell you that after reading Sheila’s recipes for mustard sage grilled chicken, grilled salmon and flank steak, I really wanted to try them. Her photos of prepared from her recipes look wonderful. A right sized portion of her chicken, according to her post, is only 286 calories. With a tasty Mediterranean lentil salad, the dinner counts is still only 492 calories. Healthy, tasty and diet friendly, what more can we ask.
If Sheila has anything to say about it, we will live healthier, feel better and enhance the overall quality of our lives. Her mantra may well be described as “Eat thin, live vibrantly, Livliga!
More Wall Art from Kansas City’s East Side
Meg and I agree we have a lot to celebrate. Today I want to celebrate and share more of Kansas City’s graffiti. My weekly adventures often provide we opportunities to find new murals throughout our urban community. These paintings were found just barely Southeast of downtown. The artist or artists plying their trade on this freshly painted wall obviously love color. There were at least half a dozen individual paintings extending from one building well into the alley just East of Grand within a 7 minute walk to our center city.
“Feminines” is almost certainly the artist’s signature on this wonderful rendition of a mythical bird.
While renditions of death are very unusual on wall art, this skull seems to smile from the wall.
The shocking pink on this final mural adds to the festive nature of this block in Kansas City.
Live in a city? Hope you enjoy the wall art where ever your route takes you. It is, in the best sense, the people’s art.
Happy Thanksgiving!
It has been a wonderful year and here at Shifting the Balance we have a lot to be thankful for. I’ve had an exciting year working on the campaign. Our kiddos (the dogs) are all in good health. Mum and Terry are happy and healthy. Two of my cousins welcomed healthy baby girls. All of my friends are enjoying their lives…..the list goes on.
A Thanksgiving [1] memory to share: Keeping with Mum’s recent photo of Greece, I thought I’d share my Thanksgiving memory from 2004. I was studying abroad in Leicester, England, and I didn’t really have anyone to spend Thanksgiving with. So who came to my rescue? Freida, of course. Freida and George are two of our friends from Kansas City growing up. They were both from Greece, moved to the States when they were first married, and then decided to retire back to a beautiful little village about a year or two before I was studying abroad. Well, Freida invited me to stay with them for Thanksgiving, and it was the most wonderful trip. Seeing Freida and George was such a delight, and even more heartwarming was the fact that Freida sought out the makings of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. For me! In Greece! [2] We had turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans. She even found pecans. It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and for that experience, I will always be grateful.
Wherever you’re spending your Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to be thankful for those around you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Meg and Ann
[1] Photograph thanks to “blogs.citypages.com”
[2] Terry’s painting by Mike Savage, reminds us of times in Greece, overlooking the Mediterranean
Want To Make A Difference? Join A Board
For months our national focus has been on the elections. Now, whether your candidates won or lost, the elections are over. The campaign focused on issues important to all of us: job development, improved education, better and more efficient health care, services to those in need. While we may still be deeply divided politically, these issues unite us as we search for brighter tomorrows.
In the next weeks and months, Congress and the President will conduct serious negotiations on issues such as the budget crisis and the “fiscal cliff”. Most of us will have no role in those negotiations. But we can all help.
As individual citizens, we can participate in significant ways in improving our corporations, educational system, delivery of health care, and searching for local solutions to national problems. So, do you want to make a difference? Consider joining a board!
Colleges and universities, charities, corporations, banks, even neighborhood associations are generally governed by boards of directors. There are a wealth of organizations with a need for educated, committed board leadership. My personal board involvement has focused on education and the legal/judicial system. Whatever your particular passion: providing food for the poor, adult literacy, you name it, there is an organization just waiting for your help. Are you focused on business, entrepreneurship, job creation? Join a board. Is your interest related to health, the needs of the poor or the needs of neighborhoods and communities? Join a board. Businesses, civic and charitable organizations everywhere aalways on the lookout for highly skilled and motivated individuals who will “answer the call” by offering their talents and wisdom for board service.
But board leadership is not just about a willing heart. It requires wisdom, passion, and an understanding of the responsibilities and rewards of board service. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to participate on a board to learn about board service: what it entails and what particular challenges confront members of any board. My husband just gave me a great book, Answering the CALL: Understanding the Duties, Risks, and Rewards of Corporate Governance. It is one of many great books that can guide an individual in whether to serve on a board, as well as how to provide meaningful support with minimum risk. Co-authored by attorneys Lynn Shapiro Snyder and Robert D. Reif, it is a helpful guide to any board member.
Answering the CALL begins Chapter 2 with a basic description of the role of corporate boards: “to promote the best interests of the corporation”, “to provide general direction for the management of the corporation’s business, to be involved in major corporate decisions, and to bear the ultimate responsibility for the company’s business and affairs.” It distinguishes service on non-profit boards which requires directors “to remain faithful to the charitable mission and purposes of that organization.”
Because the authors are attorneys, it is not surprising that they focus on specific federal statutes that codify the responsibilities of corporate directors/board members: for example, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and various provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. The authors describe board members’ fiduciary responsibility to follow the law, describes what constitutes due diligence, and explains how to protect corporate funds, avoid improper conflicts of interest, and protect against violations of corporate loyalty. While these obligations vary based on the nature of the organization, the overriding principles apply generally to both profit and non-profit boards of directors.
The book was published by Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation in 2003 and is now in it’s third edition. While it is designed in part to encourage and support expanding board diversity, particularly for women, [2] the responsibilities of board service are “equal opportunity”.
But seriously. If you are willing to commit your time and talents to board service, find an organization that you believe is consistent with your expertise and go to work. Be sure that as you begin your service, and through the years you continue to serve, you take to heart the wisdom set forth in Answering the CALL. You will be doing your community and all of us a great service.
Get started. Join a board. There is much to do!
[1]Sarbanes-Oxley was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002, as an effort to prevent scandal and restore investor confidence in publicly traded companies. Amy Borrus, Learning to Love Sarbanes-Oxley, Business Week 126 (November 21, 2005), describes Sarbanes-Oxley as “the equivalent of a root canal”.
[2] Don’t short change the discussion of the benefits of service, particularly for women as well as their analysis of the importance of diversifying boards.
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The opinions in this blog are our own. They do not represent the opinions of our families, our friends or our employers.
Want To Contribute? Don’t Know How?
Hurricane Sandy left destruction in its path from the Caribbean to Canada. Hardest hit within the United States are areas along the Coast in New Jersey and New York: Lower Manhattan, N.Y., Staten Island, N.Y, Atlantic City, N.J. Bay Head, N.J., Jersey Shore, N.J., Hoboken, N.J., the list goes on.
You want to help but you don’t know how. I was in the same situation. The easiest solution for me was to enter “Hurricane Sandy, Relief”. The first charities I found were the American Red Cross, AmeriCares and the Salvation Army. Finding fewer charities than I expected I next easily determined that organizations such as Save the Children, the Jewish Federations of North America and OxFam (at least in Haiti) have already identified themselves as organizations also committed to providing assistance to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. There are others I have not been able to research. Many will also be excellent choices, including a number of charities within the states and cities impacted.
The easiest way to contribute is to go to any of the above web sites or find your favorite charity, that has agreed to fund relief to hurricane victims in the U.S. or the Caribbean. Most of these organizations make it easy to contribute without writing a checking or addressing and stamping an envelope. Just follow their directions, indicate the amount you wish to contribute and answer the simple questions in the contribution request (including providing your credit card information). It is easy, it provides charities virtually instant access to your contribution so that storm victims have access to resources they urgently need.
It is easy, fast, effective. It is life saving!
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The opinions on our blog are not the opinions of our families, friends or employers.
Visit Bob’s House: For A Wicked Halloween
The word is out. K.C. Channel 5 News found him. The news station coverage of Bob’s house begins with the wicked clown face I presented on our blog on Oct. 1.
I love Halloween. Actually, I love all holidays. Give me a reason to celebrate and I am happy to join the fun. But my passion for the holidays is nothing compared to Bob’s. While he loves decorating for Christmas, as do many of our friends, he is unique in the wealth of decorations that fill his house before Halloween.
Bob’s house is intentionally creepy. It is filled with vampires, witches, spiders and other symbols of the holiday.
Skeletons in holiday attire, party outfits and wedding gowns are found in abundance. The skeletons are fake–
The coffins are real. Well, sort of. He paid to have multiple coffins built, in the line of coffins from the early West. Like everything else, they are decorated with colorful displays of ribbons, holiday lights and flowers. They are overrun with spiders and more (fake) skeletons.
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The decorations are the highlight of a visit to his house at Halloween but he does not stop there. I have it on good authority (Bob) that he is preparing his special homemade goodies for the trick or treaters.
Are you ready for Halloween?
Losing Lila
Our worst fears have been realized, yesterday morning, October 18, 2012, Lila (Lila Gail Morse) lost her battle with cancer. On November 7 she would have been two years old. She was the joy of her parents, her grandparents and her friends–who considered themselves to be her family. We considered her to be our family.
Lila was so young, so in love with life, and so full of the future. She was smart as a whip and charmed everyone around her. We are assured that she passed away peacefully in the arms of her parents, surrounded by her family.
Her death, which occurred so close in time to the beginning of her life, is reason enough to rage against God. But my feelings are not those of her parents. Miriam and Michael have chosen to affirm life. Throughout her short life, her parents, as much as it is humanly possibly, chose joy over grief, living each precious day with their child as a gift to be savored. They filed their child’s life with joy and expected that those who surrounded her also fill Lila’s world with happiness. Her mother sent an email to close friends (and they are many), shortly after Lila’s death, that began: Baruch Dayan Emet.
Like many of Lila’s gentile friends, I did not understand the significance of these words. Another friend googled the term and based on her research pointed us to jttp://www/jewishvaluesonline.org/621, which tells us that “Baruch Dayan Emet” is a Jewish blessing to be recited on hearing any form of bad news, particularly a death. The Mishna [1] advises that a person is required to praise God for both the good and the bad and to love God with all our heart, whether circumstances are good or bad. It also includes an affirmation that God is just even in the face of such tragedies.
Our grief is overwhelming. It is nothing in comparison to the grief of her parents and family. Her family’s affirmation of faith and strength in the face of such great loss is a reflection of the values of this wonderful family in this great tragedy.
I do not begin to understand life’s great joys and certainly life’s great tragedies. But I am reminded of the importance of holding our friends and family close to our hearts as we support Lila’s family in this time of great loss. Lila, we will miss you.
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[1]The Mishna is oral Jewish law set down by Rabbi Judah the Prince, a 2nd century CE rabbi.
Annandmeg Take a Hiatus
Meg has been on a “sabbatical” from our blog for just over one month. I only see her smiling face on a fleeting basis. Here is my last “Facetime” contact with Meg a couple of days ago. Despite her busy schedule she is still smiling. “Smile Meg”:
Meg will be back in just over a month. Now it is time for me to take a brief “hiatus”. By definition, I think, a hiatus is shorter than a sabbatical. Consistent with that concept, Terry and I will only be gone briefly. We have been in a mad scramble to get all our projects in order to have this wonderful opportunity to take a break.
Our bags are packed and we are ready to go:
Casey will spend a week as a farm dog, living in the country with his friends, Dick and Patti. He was very sad to see us leave. We are sorry we can’t take him with us:
Terry and I will be traveling. When we get home I hope we wonderful photographs to show, and great adventures to talk about. Until we return, I hope your lives, and ours, are filled with adventure. I categorized this post under “Family History” because, for all of us, these are times we will remember for the rest of our lives. I will be back in a week. Meg will be back by November 15.
And so, dear friends, be well. Peace!
Sheila Kemper Dietrich Park: Where Urban Renewal is Child’s Play
Within walking distance of Crown Center, Children’s Mercy Hospital, the Juvenile Court building, Ronald McDonald House and a host of children’s and family services, Sheila Kemper Dietrich Park is an oasis in a sea of turmoil. Few people choose to spend their time at the nearby children’s hospital or any of the children’s agencies. But the Park is another matter all together.
Located at 26th and Gillham Road, the park is a happy place. The sight of children and their parents sharing the everyday experience of a swing is a reminder that wounds and illness can heal, troubled children can find joy and estranged families can be reunited.
As therapeutic as a park can be, this park was in need of a sprucing up. And it got it. For the last month or more there was a construction fence around the park. I was concerned at first that it might be demolished. But I didn’t need to worry. Construction crews rejuvenated the park so that it is even better than before. Urban renewal at it’s best!!
Imagine the fantasy land of a park where a child can experience the thrill and sense of adventure associated with climbing on an old ship (well, not really so old, and certainly not seaworthy) or fending off an artificial sea serpent. They can maneuver a rope (well sort of) to climb up to the ship. They can play to their heart’s content while imagining themselves as great adventurers.
Children can wander around cartoon figures that, for young children, are every bit as exciting as the statues at Disneyland, and they are free to all who enter the park.
The park includes children’s slides, swings, jungle gym type climbing equipment. There are tennis courts on the adjacent property. Sheila Dietrich Kemper Park is a place where the environment encourages happy thoughts and a spirit of adventure.
For a few minutes at least, the park can remind children and families with loved one’s who are sick or troubled that there can be happy days and happier tomorrows. And for the neighborhood itself, it is simply a wonderful block where families can experience the simple joys of time together. For all, the park builds the spirits and inspires us all.
Shifting the Balance 