Saturday was a gorgeous day here. Oh, a tad coolish, perhaps, but otherwise sunny. 

I sat on our front porch and watched the people in my Mayberry-esque neighborhood and thumbed through my old Mary Jane's Farm magazines while Lennon the Cat knelt beside me, eyeing the neighbors as well.

It all should have felt perfect, but it didn't. No, instead, I felt depleted, tired and well, yicky in a ho-hum-general-sort-of way. You know, Plain Ol' Blech, and for the third (fourth?) day in a row. I chalked it up to just more unfair pre-menopause nonsense or this limbo state I seem to be living inside regarding our upcoming (we hope) move or the state of our world or our annoying too-cool-for-sitting-outside weather or--

And not until Sunday morning did I finally obey that tiny voice inside me, the one which for days had been begging, "Pull out your copy of Eat Right For Your (Blood) Type," a nifty book Naomi found a couple years ago. It contains, all between two covers, the research I did online for years whenever I'd feel this poor old body crumbling to pieces with yet a new and different ailment. 

I could have saved a bunch of hours by discovering this book first. Oh well.

My favorite part of Eat Right For Your Type? The three food lists it gives specifically for your blood type (mine is O), foods under these headings: Highly Beneficial, Neutral and Avoid. I'm skipping lots of information, but trust me, over the past couple years I've felt marvelous as long as I eat foods from the Highly Beneficial and Neutral lists.

And well, good grief! Duh. Duh. Duh.

For days, (weeks?), I'd been eating almost exclusively from the Foods To Avoid list. Wheat, dairy, caffeine, peanuts. Big surprise why I'd been feeling like Naomi's old Raggedy Ann doll looks. 

What was I thinking?

So yesterday morning, after rereading the book's lists for Type O, I heated up some onions (Highly Beneficial) in a tad bit of canola oil (Neutral) and ate some walnuts (Highly Beneficial). Then later I had some soy yogurt (Neutral) and Ezekiel Bread (Highly Beneficial) and-- well, you get the picture. I ate like a person with some common sense.

Within hours after eating the right foods--and avoiding the wrong ones--I began to feel more like my good old, chirpy, Miss Pollyanna self. Seriously. I'm not lying (would I lie to you?).

Now, I'm not saying that this book is the solution to the world's ills. Uh, no. 

I'm just stating that sometimes Life is more simple than we make it and blaming others or our past or the weather or the devil, himself, well, often those just waste time and what could have been good days. Usually, the answer isn't to complicate matters more--but to simplify them, instead--

--and usually the answer is to listen to the One with all the answers. And then go from there. Listening to Him every moment along the rest of the journey, I'm finding, is wisdom.


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