Every morning I drag myself out of bed.
I force myself to put on my running shoes.
I take a puff on my inhaler.
Then I get on the treadmill and start a slow jog.
Gradually, I increase the speed…
and I keep increasing it until I think my lungs might explode.
And the whole time I am running, I see my little boy’s face.
I have 8 kids. I love them all.
But this particular son has Autism.
People with Autism do not have shortened life spans.
He will probably outlive his parents.
But I want to live as long as I can for him. And for my other children too, because they are the ones that will care for their brother after my husband and I are gone.
But I do not want to merely stay alive. I want to be strong. I want to be able to pull him on my lap and comfort him, even as he gets bigger and stronger. I want to be able to keep up with him, play with him, chase him, or restrain him when I have to.
And so just as I keep pushing myself physically, running, lifting weights, and seeing his face….
Whenever I look at the ingredients on the back of a bag of chips or other foodlike substance, I see his face. I put the bag back on the shelf and I say to myself,
“It just isn’t worth it.”
Eat Food. These days this is easier said than done, especially when seventeen thousand new products show up in the supermarket each year, all vying for your food dollar. But most of these items don’t deserve to be called food-I call them edible foodlike substances. They’re highly processed conncoctions designed by food scientists, consisting mostly of ingredients derived from corn and soy that no normal person keeps in the pantry, and they contain chemical additives with which the human body has not been long acquainted. Today, much of the challenge of eating well comes down to choosing real food and avoiding these industrial novelties.-Food Rules: An Eater’s Guide, Michael Pollan
2 Comments
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Jessica
I need to stop reading this blog.
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Wahhhh! Stop it.
I love you.
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