Support your local Food Bank

December 1, and only 24 days until Xmas. Your Food Bank needs your help now. Many Food Bank's are struggling with the increased load they have been asked to take up. The economy may be doing well, but that does not mean workers are doing well. Many people are struggling with low-paying jobs or illness that makes work difficult. The choice that many of our neigbours have to make, do I pay my rent, get my medication or put food on the table for myself and my children. The Food Bank fills a need, not just for the unemployed, but for seniors, single mothers, and working-class families. Many Food Banks not only provide food but they also provide, toys, gifts and Xmas meals.

In the United Kingdom, the Trussell Trust, which operates most of the UK’sfood banks, estimated that last year provided over 130,000 parcels of emergency food to people over the festive period. For those who used a food bank last year, they received a three-day parcel that included these festive extras: 

• Box of mince pies 
• Dried fruit and nuts 
• Christmas crackers (the kind with toys/jokes) Christmas pudding 
• Chocolate treats for children, e.g. a selection box Tinned ham or salmon

The above was in addition to the standard parcel for three to four which is: 

1 large box of cereal/porridge 

4 tins of vegetables 

3 tins of meat (e.g. ham) or vegetarian alternatives (e.g. kidney beans, lentils and pulses) 

if vegetarian 4 tins of fish (tuna, salmon, sardines etc) 

4 tins of chopped tomatoes 

2 tins of fruit 

4 tins of soup 

4 tins of baked beans 

2 litres of UHT milk 1 litre of long life juice 

2 tins of rice pudding or custard 

1 packet of biscuits Tea or coffee 

1.5kg of pasta/noodles/rice
In my community SHARE Family Services runs the Food Bank and they tell us that Christmas time is a busy one for and a time when they work extra hard to support those in need in our community. They also provide Christmas Hampers and Toys for Children while running various fundraising initiatives such as food drives and their annual Christmas Wrap at Coquitlam Centre.

They remind us that it is also a great time for you to give back and get involved. You can volunteer at our Gift Wrap, host your own food drive or toy drive, raise money, donate food and or come out and volunteer at a Food Drive.

Last year SHARE Family Services provided Christmas Hampers to 1,800 Tri-Cities families. There were also 2,215 children and youth who received their Christmas toys through our Christmas program. The need has not gone down, it has gone up. 

All Food Banks need help at this time of year, so if you can find the time, give of yourself, in addition to giving some money. You will feel good and that is what this time of year is all about, giving not receiving.

Did you do it your way?

As you wandered through life, you may have met the disciplinarian who micromanages every step in their very careful dance with life. You may have also met the young or old person who pictures themselves as "troublemaker who only shows up and when they do they appear to be daydreaming. 

Now, whom do you think is most likely to be heard shouting from the top of their lungs as they cruise along a winding mountain road, top-down, shades up, singing "I Did It My Way?

My bet is on the "troublemaker" which were you in your youth, and which are you now?

The Fountain of Youth

If there ever was a generation who would put every resource known to man against the challenge of defeating ageing, it would be my generation.  Of course, the deeply rooted desire in humans to stop or turn back the ageing process is as old as time itself.  We have ample evidence of that in literature.  From The Fountain to Youth to Peter Pan, there have been many efforts to just stubbornly say “I won't grow up” as though stamping one's foot and refusing to participate can actually keep us from growing older.

We have always had a love affair with youth.  It is no doubt deeply rooted in our explosive teen and twenties years in which we became virtually the center of the universe as youth culture dominated the country if not the world in the sixties and seventies.  That kind of thing can convince us that as a generation we would never grow old.

But, of course, we have grown old.  But the interest in staying vibrant and active has resulted in the explosive growth of the exercise and diet industries.  Because if we can’t stop ageing from happening, we can at least not LOOK old or act like it either.

From a medical standpoint, of course, there has never been an anti-ageing medicine or pill.  Medical science has seen phenomenal changes and had breakthroughs in many areas of research and study.  We are fully prepared to fund any medical work being done that might result in the elimination of ageing or at least in slowing its relentless onset.  But medical science has not found any magic potion that could cause ageing to stop or to reverse its effects.

Even if ageing could be stopped at some level on the physical level, you have to wonder if that would be practical in light of ageing that affects the whole of what a person is.  We know that we don’t just age in body, we age in attitudes, in maturity and in our ambition and how we view our goals in life.  This has as much to do with the cycles of life from youth to parenthood to middle age and then to retirement as it does with physical changes in our bodies.

For many, the question might be, “If science could make it possible for you to never age or die, would you even want that?”   There is an intuitive knowledge in our hearts that we have a season to live on this earth and then its time to pass the torch to the next generation.  Everything works on that cycle.  You are defined by your place in life.  So, if you are in your forties, being a parent or a spouse is considered the appropriate place to be.  So too, at 70 or 80, we are expected to be wise grandma and/or granddad.  Our behaviour in society, what we value and what we look for from others is expected to be driven by our age in life which is a subset of the ageing process.

If ageing was somehow defeated entirely, that entire cycle of life would have to be completely re-evaluated.  If you knew you would live 200 years rather than 80 or 90 years, how would you plan your family, your career and your finances? 

Thankfully, perhaps, ageing remains a constant.  The good news is while we fight age with a passion, we are also capable of growing into our senior years with a lot to give back to society.  So just as we have been had a huge impact on society through every other decade, when we accept that we are going to be part of that ageing process, we will be a great generation of grandmas and grandpas as well.

On Not Being Stressed Out

The one thing that virtually all of us have in common is the stress of living in this modern age.  So much has changed for my generation since we first enjoyed those days of youth culture when hairstyle and rock music seemed like the most important things in the world.  But, like all generations before us and to come, we had to grow up and take on the responsibilities of raising a family, making a living and figuring out their place in this big complicated world.

Stress comes from a lot of sources.  Obviously, we get it from work.  We think of the workplace as a source of stress because it is a place where making a living is paramount and there are daily demands, deadlines and schedules to be met.  In addition, most of us have to deal with at least some difficult people during our workdays, which only compounds the stress.

But stresses don’t end when we walk out of our workplace.  Traffic itself can be a stress.  Then the joys of raising children and marriage can also bring some trials with them as well.  It is common to return home from a difficult day only to face serious problems at home.  In this situation, it seems that the stress and anxiety just keep mounting up. 

This is not the adult life most of us envisioned in our youth. We were idealistic and the world was our oyster.  But nobody told us that the reason the oyster is so beautiful is that it creates stress on the clam who copes with it by covering it with the smooth oyster material.  So, stress can build us up and make something beautiful.  But it can also tear us down and lead to serious medical and mental problems if we don’t develop some coping techniques to deal with it. 

Some good coping mechanisms that many baby boomers have found helpful to defray the stress in their lives include…

·       Get away from it.  To put the cares of the world in perspective, we have to get away from them for a while.  If nothing else, just soaking in a hot bathtub with a good magazine and some happy music can wash away the cares of the world and let them swirl down the drain with the bubbles.  But look for chances to relax and put those worries aside for a little bit.  It will help you calm your mind, rest your system and be ready to deal with those issues without so much anxiety, which doesn’t do anybody any good.

·       Partner with your family.  Your spouse and children don’t want to see you stressed out.  But sometimes they don’t know how much they add to the problems when they throw the problems of the day at you as soon as you walk through the door.  It’s good for them to see the world through your eyes.  But remember that they are stressed with school or issues of work and relationships too.  So, partner together to have a little time to just be family and love away that anxiety.  Everybody will be better for it.

·       Take time for health.  Its strange but our diet and rest are the things we need the most to cope with stress and yet those are the areas of life that are most damaged if we let stress wear us down.  So, go back to basics and make sure you get good meals, good rest and take care of yourself.  It will make you a better worker and stronger for your family as well.

Seeing stress as a serious enemy to your lifestyle above and beyond the causes of stress is a big step forward to not letting this enemy continue to damage your ability to be a good worker and family member.  But if you act to keep stress from dominating your life, you are doing something very good for yourself and making yourself more able to attack problems and solve them with the creativity and intelligence people know you for.