“Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.” ~ Rumi, The Essential Rumi
New York got dumped with quite a bit of snow this year. Two weeks ago, we had seventeen inches of snow. This past week we only got a few inches, but it was a few inches on top of the snow that never melted from last time.
Texas got battered this past week with a severe winter storm, and many are left without power or water. They are in a state of emergency with fifteen million ordered to boil water after a power failure.
So, I do not feel right complaining about the weather situation here in New York.
This was taken on 31 January – the first snowfall of the year.
Of course, it does not look this pretty anymore. It is now about 4 inches of brown and yucky slush. I trekked in it this morning as I made my way to the Sunday farmer’s market they have in my neighborhood.
One of the many changes I made during this pandemic is my diet. I have been eating primarily food that I cook at home, and not intentionally, I stopped consuming dairy products. It was difficult to get fresh milk at the start of the pandemic, so I resorted to buying cartons of oat milk. Additionally, it was rare for me to eat restaurant food so during the course of the year, my stomach became accustomed to digesting more natural foods.
On the way back home from the farmer’s market, I ran into a few neighborhood friends, and we decided to have brunch at a local restaurant. New York is at twenty-five percent capacity at restaurants now, so we were fortunate to be able to dine indoors.
Within thirty minutes of eating restaurant food and drinking coffee with regular milk, my stomach started making noises and I felt that uncomfortable wrench of indigestion, and I immediately knew it was because my body was no longer accustomed to regular milk and restaurant food.
Because my body reacted so violently, I took it as a signal that I should not try to restore my pre-pandemic dietary choices, and to proceed with the new and healthier way of eating that I adopted this past year.
It it not lost on me that it took a pandemic to get me to start eating healthily.
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