Are your chickens coming home to roost?

May 9, 2012 · by · in Uncategorized

Usually, if your chickens are coming home to roost, its symbolic of things that you have done that are coming back to present themselves. In essence, your past is coming back to your present. It is a reckoning.

You had these little chickens, you fed them and watered them and they went off. Now, they come back- all that baggage- all your activities, all your choices are now coming back home to you.

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What goes around comes around. Karma. Reap what you sow. All of these things are often stated in a negative way, like you’ve done something bad and it’s coming back to you.

The message in these chickens is different. These chickens are a print named “Roy’s Chickens Dark”. They were a “find” in a consignment shop that caught the eye of a friend. She thought, hmm, my brother who lives back home on the farm would like this since he loves chickens. Later, after the purchase, she turned to the back of artwork and learned the name of the print. She was deeply gratified to know that she was taking Roy’s chickens back to the farm, since her grandfather was named Roy and in his last days the only thing he continued to do was go out and feed his flock of speckled chickens everyday. According to the artist, the “Domineckers” that are pictured in this watercolor, belonged to a farmer whose name was Roy. That is why she named the print after him. These are the same breed of chickens that my friend’s grandfather raised. How unusual, yet harmonious. There is truly a rhythm to life.

“I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” – Leo Rosten

Ever heard of free range chickens? Free to do and be what they choose? Pecking out an existence and remaining within the same area, for their natural life. Their eggs are highly prized or at least bring a higher price at the grocery store.

The radio announced that by 2030 – 50% of Americans will be obese. What? Yes, you heard that correctly. Not overweight, not a little stout, not thick in the midsection, not fluffy, not slightly chubby like the kids clothes- Obese. What is obese? Defined as:having excessive body fat by Merriam Webster. Identified by medical professionals as weight matched with height = a BMI ( body mass index) of 30 or greater.

Chickens coming home to roost? How many times have we had a moment- when we tossed caution to the wind and ate the whole thing? What whole thing? Does it really matter? If it was your weakness and you ate and ate and ate to discomfort and excess, you know what I mean. There is a false sense of security if no one is watching. You eat the whole pie, the whole box of Hagen Daez, the whole bag of chips, or more than you know anyone should and think…..well, maybe it won’t matter. The next day, you don’t feel much fatter or weigh much more, but a week later you look down and think- Oh my!
I wonder if we as the leaders of our generation and models for our children will see this incredible catastrophe of obesity in our lifetime. This could be the first generation to be unhealthier than their parents. Why? Carelessness, stressful lifestyles, speed eating and living, disdain for natural laws, and you can’t eat through your problems. Sometimes we are thinking we can escape what we all know is true, if we just don’t think about it.
“Because of the increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity, we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.”http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/Overweight-in-Children_UCM_304054_Article.jsp

May 8, 2012 — Obesity in America is a crisis that threatens national security — and urgent action is needed, says the Institute of Medicine. The IOM released their “Weight of the Nation” report. ( No, not the president’s “State of the Nation” report) to “arrest the obesity epidemic” sweeping the nation.

The IOM’s plan: Totally change the way Americans approach exercise and nutrition.

How? By asking every single American to become involved, says Daniel R. Glickman, chair of the IOM committee that issued the 478-page plan.

The IOM Obesity Plan

On the face of it, the IOM plan is simple. There are five main goals:

  1. Make physical activity an integral and routine part of life.
  2. Create food and beverage environments that ensure that healthy food and beverage options are the routine, easy choice.
  3. Transform messages about physical activity and nutrition.
  4. Expand the roles of health care providers, insurers, and employers.
  5. Make schools a national focal point.

As usual, the devil is in the details. For each of these broad goals there are distinct proposals. And as committee members made clear, it’s an integrated plan. It won’t work if policy makers act only on one part and not on others

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2012/Accelerating-Progress-in-Obesity-Prevention.aspx

Every generation makes a commitment to see its children lead better lives than they have and to leave the world a better place than they have inherited. “A friend told me once when you choose to give back, make it personal. Food is the way I make my living, so food should be the way I give back. I have seen firsthand how food plays an important role in our lives.” Rachel Ray author of Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise for a Better World

http://www.yum-o.org/news.php?id=33

In the 2007 study, the researchers Christakis and colleagues took this theory a step further and used the “infectious disease” model of obesity to predict future trends.
Obesity rates have a tendency to snowball, they found, because a person’s likelihood of becoming obese increases with each additional obese family member, friend, or acquaintance he or she has. “Over the past 40 years, there has been a steady increase in the rate of infection, and it is now the highest it has been,” Hill says. “What’s changing over time is how much each obese friend influences you.”
 
Unfortunately that influence doesn’t work the other way around. Only weight gain — not weight loss — is “contagious,” according to the study.Part of what may explain the obesity epidemic over the past 30 years has been a change in norms regarding body size,” Christakis said. “Such norms might spread through social interactions, and, if so, then as one person gains weight, other people do, too.”

http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/product.jsp?id=72790

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Entertainment/video?id=9136001

If you looked around, what kinds of chickens are roosting in your life or are you just resting on your laurels -defined as : to stop trying because one is satisfied with one’s past achievements.

If you are not satisfied that you have done everything to improve or positively impact your life and the lives of others- your chickens are still in the coop. Let them out and then see what comes home to roost. All of the farmers and agronomy experts will appreciate how independent yet dependable a chicken can be. You can count on them. They will leave the nest and safety of the farmer’s coop at sun up and return faithfully at sundown. The same natural law works with obesity- whatever you eat in private will not go unnoticed in public. The same is true of where you invest your life energy-it will not go out without returning, but like a boomerrang- it may return from another direction with equal force.

I hope you find something meaningful that you are passionate about – so when you are in a position to “give back”- it is very personal!! You are making a difference with every choice you make.