This week in my town

Why in the world did you move to Flint?

What is there to like about Flint?

We still get strange looks and comments and questions like these.

I’ve written about some of my answers to those questions here and there.  I mention things like culture and diversity and history and the arts.  This city is full of those things.  

Maybe I should just tell you about last week.  

It was quite a week.  Lots happening in Carriage Town Historical Neighborhood as well as downtown Flint. Lots of culture and diversity and history and the arts - but also a bit of celebrity.

Let’s start with Sunday...

We had invited a few new friends over for a cookout, but not quite as many as the previous week for another cookout to welcome International students.  That night 53 people showed up - people from a bunch of other countries and quite a few Americans.  

But this night was much more relaxed.  We had invited just a few and we had a lovely time together.

And yes, some celebs came to town this week - including  Michael Moore, Chris Hayes of MSNBC’s "All In" show, Miss Michigan, and the CEO of General Motors. 

Michael Moore had come back home and appeared at the Whiting with Dr. Mona for a screening of his new movie on Monday night.  On Tuesday Chris Hayes interviewed Michael Moore, Dan Kildee, Miss Michigan, Emily Sioma, and several of the "water warriors" during two different shows. 

The live show with Moore happened right here in Carriage Town at Factory Two.  The place was hopping with big white trucks, men in black suits, helicopters overhead, people standing in long security lines and over-flowing parking lots. 

On Wednesday those parking lots held an abundance of Corvettes and Cadillacs as well a long row of shiny Chevy trucks parked along Water Street for the gala event for General Motors big-wigs. 

This was also the week for the usual Friday Art Walk and the annual Hispanic Festival at the Farmers’ Market. 

What a lovely evening to stroll downtown browsing art work on display and listening to sidewalk musicians playing! 

At the market the leisurely stroll became a quest to find one’s way through the festival crowd.

Amazing food options

Mariachi music in a big tent

Beautiful people everywhere.

There has been yet another bit of excitement in Carriage Town.  For months we have been looking forward to new pedestrian bridges at the confluence where Swartz Creek joins the Flint River.  These bridges will “fill the gap” between the Flint River Trail to the north of the city and the Genesee Valley Trail to the west affecting far more than just our neighborhood.  Hikers and cyclists from all across the county will benefit from this new connection.

We’ve been watching the progress at the site and were excited when the first span of bridge arrived and was waiting on shore.  Could this be the week for the other bridge to arrive?  Sure enough; on Thursday it was spotted being transported across Corunna Road. By mid-Friday the final section was put into position and Saturday morning kayakers were paddling under the new bridge!  Learn more about Kayak Flint here and here.  

'Twas a busy and exciting week in the neighborhood.

Now we wait for the completion of the trail and the bridge approaches so we can ride across it.

AND we wait for SOMEbody to set up an ice cream shop somewhere in the neighborhood!

Adventure awaits

Today’s the day, but we know not the hour and so we sit and wait.

We need to be ready to step out the door at a moment's notice. 
And so we are.  
Ready. 
Waiting.

Certainly there are more things that we could be doing.  Lots more things.

But we don’t want to start something that we can’t leave in the middle.

And so we pick projects that will take only five minutes or things that we CAN leave unfinished.

So I guess we are not really sitting and waiting.  

We sit and wait until we think of one more thing we could do in a short time.

We do that one thing and probably another.

In the meantime, we find still another.

And then we sit and wait again - and get so excited that we can hardly stand it.

But then we figure out one more detail that we could care for.

One more project.

One more loose end that we can tie up.

And another…

And then we wait again.

Adventure awaits and so we wait.

Hunger

Hunger is often considered a negative thing.

It indicates a lack. 

A lack of something vitally important. 

Maybe even a severe lack.

Hunger is so often associated with poverty and injustice.

Because in many cases hunger really is a terrible thing, we correctly desire to eradicate it.

While writing the piece about waiting for hunger, I did a search for pictures for the word “hunger” and was inundated by powerful images of the face of world hunger. Looking at those sad and horrific scenes moves me to compassion and a desire to wipe out hunger and poverty. It is a dreadful thing, so we are right to want to remove it from the world.

…

But... an interesting thing can happen. 

Because real, desperate hunger is such a negative thing, I guess it kind of makes sense that we would try to avoid hunger in our own lives. As Americans, we have done a pretty good job of it. We don’t like to be hungry. It feels like deprivation. We do whatever we can to make sure that we don’t go hungry.

Consequently we rarely if ever even experience real hunger. Or if we do begin to feel hunger pangs, we rush to eat something so we won’t feel hungry.

But what if hunger is not always a bad thing? 

What if I didn’t think of it as unpleasant? 

I have much to learn about hunger and satiety and appetite. I’ve only taken baby steps so far. But I have learned to notice the sensation of hunger and to realize that it is not necessarily a bad thing.

Instead, in my case, it can actually be a reminder of my blessings. I DO have access to food. Enough food to quiet the rumblings of my stomach, and also enough food to keep me alive and healthy. That is not something that I want to take for granted. 

…

It has been awhile since I let myself experience the discomfort of feeling hungry. But I remember and have decided it's time. For a few days now, I have remembered to wait for hunger. I am actually glad to be back here. I am reminding myself of the positive aspects of the sensation.

In fact, sometimes I just want to celebrate that growling - because it means that my body finally has a chance to burn up some of those hundreds of calories that I’ve crammed into it over the past couple days. What a novel idea!

I guess it can be a gift that I choose to give myself. A much better gift to my body than overloading it with so much more than it needs and can handle.

And besides... 

Food tastes so much better

when I am actually hungry!!!

Wait for it

When it comes to weight management, one of the sanest concepts I’ve ever learned is to pay attention to my body. The most important cue to watch for is whether I’m hungry or not. Duh. 

If I’m hungry, then I can eat. 

If I’m not hungry, it’s not time for me to eat. 

The second concept is a natural partner to the first: 

Eat only until satisfied. 

Not until full or stuffed. 

Just until satisfied.

I came to realize that this is how “normal” people eat - "normal" meaning naturally thin people. It doesn’t matter how yummy something looks, if they’re not hungry, they don’t eat. And they know to stop eating when they are no longer hungry.

But this common sense approach and this sensitivity has been buried in many of us - for a huge variety of reasons.  I had dozens of personal reasons for eating - maybe I was feeling stressed, bored, lonely, anxious or nervous or maybe I just didn't want to miss out on anything… I had to train myself to hear that soft voice that could inform me whether I was really hungry or not. It was tricky, but I eventually learned to recognize the truth. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to slip back into the mode of NOT listening for that voice. How quickly I can revert to eating for any or all of those other reasons.

I have been listening to the wrong reasons for awhile now so it’s time to find ways to tune in again to whether I am really hungry. Maybe I can remind myself of some of my own stories of how it works.

I remember this one time when I met a friend for lunch. We were both in a group studying this concept* and were trying to encourage each other in our food choices. I remember thinking and commenting that this was more food than I needed and that I would only need about half of it - AND that it would be a good idea to get a take-out box sooner than later. I also remember a bit of our conversation after having eaten nearly half of our food. 

“It might be time for me to stop eating.”

“I don’t need any more than this, although I’d love to eat the rest of it.”

“I don’t know; I’m not full yet.”

“But wait a minute; I’m not hungry anymore, am I?”

...

So there's my reminder for today. For this week:

Wait for hunger.

Eat only until no longer hungry.

…

* The book we were studying is Weigh Down by Gwen Shamblin.