Only five minutes ago I was at the bird shop down the street. Being the proud owner of a Parrotlet (think miniature parrot), my wife and I frequent the store in purchasing its feed.
We strike up a conversation with the owner, and even though taking the pass card on being formally interviewed or photographed, she tells us of a recent issue that is becoming a life endeavor for her, that being, learning more about, and education those she knows, of the effects of GMO’s in our food chain. A fact that has been brought to her attention by her daughter who is deep into educating the medical foundations as to the harmful results of messing with mother nature.
What does this have with our new 365 friend, who we meet at stop two of today’s outing, Follow Your Heart Supermarket?
I’ll get to that… but first let me tell you a little about Follow Your Heart. It is not the usual supermarket. Everything on its shelves is vegetarian, naturally grown, fully organic and contains no GMO’s. I’ve been here once before, and almost decide to pass on entering its doors in an attempt to avoid being redundant. However, my wife insists jokingly, “I know this is your project, and you don’t like being told what to do, but I have a feeling that you need to go into follow your heart.”
I jest back, “What do you mean? ‘I don’t like being told what to do?’”
She smiles playfully at me and in the doors of the store she goes… off to examine the isles of healthy consumables and other organic products.
It’s very enlightening to know how many things can be produced in a way that is not only healthy for body and mind, but also low impact to the environment. I hope that one day, we will see stores like Follow Your Heart become the mainstream sources for groceries and products.
I’m still a little phased by her, “You don’t like being told what to do snipe,” But after receiving a silent face zerbert as she pokes her head out from behind isle two, I get the joke. She used it to get me to stop thinking so rationally about going into the store. Got to love spouse psychology, don’t we?
It never ceases to amaze me how the comments of one person, that being my new friend at the bird shop, can seamlessly blend into the words of their proceeding stranger, now turned my friend.
And today, GMO’s awareness is in the air. Not by being in Follow Your Heart, but via the words of today’s stranger number two, now turned friend, musician Chris.
His short and to the point council may bring light to his linked visualization of the now and the future, “Act today as if you are living in the future. Visualize yourself in the future as you see it. Then look back on yourself, and think about your actions.
Maybe, when you throw away that McDonalds wrapper, or even eat at McDonalds, you’ll think differently.”
In the theme of anti GMO (I don’t bring it up, Chris does), we talk of healthy foods, lifestyle and as organic as the product stocked on the shelves around us, we bridge into a broader subject… Humanity
Chris reverses his opening advice of act today as if you are living in the future; changing it to its sister “Hindsight is 20/20 theory.”
To make his point, Chris chooses a socially impactful period in American history, referring to the civil rights movements of the 60’s, “We would not even imagine segregated drinking fountains now, would we?”
With this suggestion of visualizing the future by looking back at the past, Chris gives us a mental tool in considering our life’s choices.
Sure, we’ve all most likely reflected on the hindsight is 20/20 theory. Perhaps we get it fully… perhaps not… yet one thing troubles me.
If the theory is so powerful, then why do we so often find ourselves repeating the same behaviors or reliving reoccurring situations.
Albert Einstein defined Insanity as: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
So with the 20/20 rule, married to Einstein and the humble words of Chris, shall we look back on ourselves, and think about our influence in what’s to come.
“We are all in this thing together!”