Croyez-vous au Père Noël?

Le Père Noël est arrivé à Montréal samedi. Une super-belle journée pour un défilé, le pauvre a dû être un peu chaud dans son grand manteau rouge. On discutait de ça à l'heure du dîner, c'est une discussion qui recommence chaque année avec les enfants de mon conjoint et leurs amis : crois-tu au Père Noël?

Moi j'y crois. Les jeunes, hah, eux sont complètement cyniques et rient quand je leur dis que j'y crois. Mais il faut se demander : comment sait-on si le Père Noël existe ou n'existe pas? Peut-on le prouver oui ou non? Les jeunes répliquent que ce sont les parents qui donnent les cadeaux. Bonne réponse, mais ça ne prouve pas que le Père Noël n'existe pas, ça veut tout simplement dire qu'il n'a pas laissé de cadeaux chez eux.

Mais cette discussion est plus grande que ça. C'est une discussion sur la foi. Ah, la foi, ça revient souvent dans mes blogues! Croire au Père Noël c'est croire en quelque chose qui, logiquement, ne devrait pas être vrai. C'est croire en quelque chose de merveilleux, mais pas très pratique. C'est de retourner en enfant, quand nous faisons confiance dans le grand mystère, quand nous savons que même si nous avions été un peu tanants durant l'année, il y aura des cadeaux mystérieux en desssous de l'arbre. Quand on était ados, mon père faisait un gros "Ho Ho Ho" pour nous réveiller le matin de Noël. On savait bien que c'était lui, mais.....ça donnait quand même un petit frisson : et si c'était vraiment le Père Noël qui prenait un café avec mon père après avoir fini son boulot?

Ça fait du bien de croire dans le Père Noël. Ça enlève un peu de responsabilité de nos dos. Et ça permet d'envelopper une fête bien trop commercialisée d'une couche de mystère, de magie. Ça fait étinceler la neige (qui n'a pas encore tombée ici à Montréal!), ça fait briller les chandelles un peu plus fort, ça donne aux chorales et chanteurs de cantiques et chants de Noël un peu plus d'oumph.

Et, finalement, ça nous permet de croire. D'utiliser un outil -- la foi -- qui nous permet de mieux vivre. Ça enlève le besoin de tout rationaliser. Alors, durant le temps des fêtes, ayont un peu de foi, laissons-nous croire au Père Noël. Au pire, ça pourrait dire un cadeau de plus en dessous de l'arbre!

Keeping healthy

I don't generally use my blog to promote particular products or services that I use. I figure most people don't want to read yet another promotion for something they don't need right now. But in the midst of all the H1N1 panic, I thought I'd put in a good word for keeping healthy.

You can believe what you wish about getting vaccinated against the H1N1 virus. Some believe so fervently that they jump ahead of the lines, being vaccinated before people who are more vulnerable. Others refuse absolutely to get vaccinated. And there are even those who believe that this whole H1N1 thing is a conspiracy by the drug companies to sell more vaccine. Whatever, actually it doesn't really matter what is behind all this talk and activity, just one more sign that people would prefer that someone tells them what to do rather than do their own homework.

What is important, however, is staying in touch with your body and providing it the best possible environment to be able to keep up with your mind and spirit. Again, lots of differing opinions on what that means. Yes, you should do your own homework. You should be in communication with your body, listening to its needs and when it tells you of excesses. You should do the research to decide for yourself what is right for you. But there are some basic facts (yes, I said facts because time and again studies have proven that they are true) that should be able to guide you in the right direction:

1. Get enough sleep: that means between 7 and 9 hours in bed, not doing anything else but sleeping; and if you are not sleeping when you should be, find a solution, whether it be meditation, more exercise during the day, a relaxation regime before going to bed, writing out your worries so that they don't bug you during the night, and perhaps, once you've exhausted all other options, pharmaceutical help (have you tried Melatonin?).
2. Eat and drink well: lots of fresh food, ie fruit and vegetables; keep the fats and sugars to a minimum and try to stay away from processed (prepared or restaurant) food; listen to your body, eat when you are hungry and don't when you are not; oh, and drink lots of water.
3. Exercise: ok, I know what those of you who know me are saying (sorry, I haven't really done any exercise in several years); but my body is saying loud and clear "give me something to do, help me be strong"; focus on exercise that stretches, strengthens and helps you do what you want (for example, more arm strength would help my gardening).
4. Keep your mind and spirit healthy: there are so many links between the physical and psychological/emotional/spiritual sides of us; keeping one healthy helps keep the other healthy; again, this might take a bit of research on your part, but if you listen to yourself, you already know some things that help you keep mind/spirit healthy; I have a few: gardening, reading, watching documentaries.
5. Nutritional supplements: ok, here comes the commercial; actually again I recommend you do the research; but so many articles and studies come out on a regular basis stating that we don't have high enough levels of so many nutrients that are vital to keeping healthy; our food sources (even when they are fresh) are depleted of the vitamins and minerals that they once abounded with; just last week another study came out saying that Vitamin D is critical to avoiding and treating breast cancer; but do me a favour: PLEASE do not think that taking the supplements that you buy at the grocery store will do the job; these contain no more than 10% of what your body needs to be healthy and they don't always contain what the bottle says they do; do the research, try high quality supplements, like the ones I use (see www.usana.com), give it a month or two, then compare the before and after.

So that's my advice for the day. Decide what you wish about H1N1, but remember that the winter season is also about the common (but extremely annoying) cold, flus, bronchitis, asthma attacks, and the effects of reduced sun hours. Take care of yourself!

(Gotta go now, it's sunny and time for my dose of natural vitamin D to supplement the one I take from a bottle!)