From Prose to Poetry: a Change of Pace and Perspective
May 23, 2021
Hello and Welcome to New Readers and Old Friends. As a way of introductions, my name is Jonathan Isbill aka Jonathan ZaZa, owner and educator at ZigZagNutrition.
I am a Holistic Health Coach and RD 👨🍳🌱 published author, advocate for nutrition, health, happiness, spirituality, freedom and purpose.
I’m on a mission to make a difference in all areas of health & wellness 💪 💯
Learning, Writing, Educating Everyday 🍎 🙌 Publishing Newsletters Every Weekend
This newsletter typically blends punchy and prodding prose about the best healthful tips and tricks health optimization, both simple and nuanced, for beginners and the advanced. I love the ancient truths and historical roots of medicine itself as well as modern adaptations for long-practiced beliefs and the latest sciences on anything from breath work to intermittent fasting, grounding with forest bathing, finding purpose and meaning with valuable relationships and honestly, so much more from anything under the sun - including some of the valuable things to appreciate about the sun! ☀️
If you didn’t already know, periodically I like to take a pause in this periodical in order to give you the time, space, and balance to utilize your time in the best frame of mind to keep you living life at your prime as I believe was inherent to our design.
Today’s Script
Words here will be a little less formal than what you may expect. And if you’ve yet to catch a glimpse of where I’m going with this text, then I hope you’ll see it soon as we continue with what’s next.
I’m not here to boost your brain cells or recommend supplements that race off the shelves. I’m here to give you rest and restoration, praying you live blessed with infinite elation with joyous memories with your close and distant family relations, and maybe even laugh out loud a little once in a while with jubilant exaltation.
Sometimes I wish we could all just meet in person, especially when I have the chance to share some verses. You see, I believe we’re all nearly the same at the end of the day. We’re all lost at sea, just trying to ride the waves.
Maybe you are like me – who’s felt a little lost in the past. Like a fisherman lost at sea without a line left to cast. Left alone on his path, sent out from home on his homemade raft.
We may not know where we’re going and we may not get there fast, but I think for most of us it would be good to remember to breathe a little deeper and remember the successes of our pasts. Why worry for tomorrow when today still has its fair share of things to tend to and emotions to mend through. Are we too busy or too bored to not live life with what resembles a smile for what beauty we have around us? Personally, it seems I’ve awoken from a slumber where now my soul feels awakened like it hasn’t for a couple past summers. So much encumbered by spirit with the layers of lumber I carried on my shoulders that I feared it would weigh me down for life.
But you know, it’s laughable I tell you; I began to see new light thanks to the time spent sharing stories and telling jokes with old friends and old folks, it’s like my soul lost sight in the forms of delight that stem from gathering with others through the last couple years of this perplexing plunder and plight.
The pirate brigades came and stole this treasure from my ship I guess you could say. It’s been far too long since we held hands when we gathered to pray. Oh, the subtle goosebumps that arose upon our necks when we clasped each other’s fingers and we finally locked hands pulled tight like old friends with years since the last time that they met.
We’re similar you and I – we’re both blinded by the light and afraid of the dark, and neither of us really want to take the chance to live life by swimming with the sharks. We all want the same thing as we endlessly paddle along for the same idealistic dreams we want to believe of a tropical paradise, island shirts, and relaxing scenes.
But here we are lost at sea…
We see the sun; we see the water.
And for me with my fickle faith and fearful amygdala begin to think and wonder, perplexed and ponder – you know what, why do we even begin to bother thinking we can doggy paddle our way to our most beautiful destinations. I mean is the time at sea in all of its storms and struggle really worth it, or should I just pitch a tent in a cave nearby and exercise stoicism like Zeno of Citium as compared to the adventurous spirit of the Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon.
Will our time be spent in splendid serendipity, or will our precious seconds be squandered?
Though many of us seem to run on the hamster wheels of life, it seems we never get anywhere closer to the isle oasis we believe serves as reward to our strife.
And others of us still, want a quick fix: “just give me solutions in the form of a pill,” but these simply won’t serve us any form of solution – I mean heck, just look to pollution for the ill-effects and insane repercussions of short-term thinking which dismissed with remarks “the solution of pollution is dilution.”
“Excuse me sir, but rather than repeat your nonsense like a parrot, can you tell me just how much pollution we’ll inherit before we realize we’re not invincible and mother earth won’t be able to bare it?
It’s so scary to think that decisions each day happen in the blink of an eye yet have such profoundly destructive consequences on each and every one of our lives…
Will we listen and look, put down our devices and pick up a good book?
Will we ever begin to truly see the etchings on the leaves that are drafted from the tree, or will we dismiss cause-and-effect and simply continue to drift lost at sea?
I’m hoping for the former instead of the latter, because you – me and we, well – I hope we’re here to climb this ladder. Tattered and broken souls stolen and scattered across the seas it seems such like fragile disasters of crystalline glass crashed against a porcelain sea, thousands of sharp fragments scattered but nothing for us to see.
I believe in beauty, and I believe in the journey. I believe health is part of that journey and it is not the destination we may have been raised to think.
Health does not equal a number on a scale or a particular size of clothing according to your figure and physique. Health is not defined by acne on your face or the type of poop you leave in the toilet. No, health is so much more.
Health is communal, physical, emotional, spiritual, expressive, prosperous and contagious, loving and peaceful, adventurous and hopeful, joyful and delightful, full of fun, flavor, and friends and family. Health is so much more than what we give it credit for. We try to box it into something nice and tangible we think we can easily slip into our pocket and take with us on this journey of life, but it’s not. It’s just not. Health is life and life is health. And both I believe benefit from love, laughter, and making memories together.
With all that’s been said so far, I’ll leave you with a breath of fresh air to breathe in your open opportunities to believe in the great beautiful and unexpected joys of this next week. Hold your head high, smile at a stranger and take hold of every cherished moment you have to experience life lived with another masterfully crafted human creature placed along our path – remember, living life together is always better than being left alone on our raft lost at sea.
Thank You for reading.
Stay Blessed. Stay Beautiful.
Every new season brings new delight and new challenges. This is the ebb and flow of life and our values will continue to be our guiding compass leading our steps forward.
We Zig and We Zag, as we learn to adapt! 🤝
Sometimes we need to double down on our values.
Sometimes we need to change things up and engage the novelty center of the brain to spark neurons left along for far too long. “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Perhaps you enjoyed painting or singing, walking barefoot or putting puzzles together with your family as a kid. Maybe instead you liked beating the pulp out of your drum set in the garage or writing a few lines of poetry.
Whatever your inner gifts, whatever your deepest rooted random quirks and unique forms of expression, take this week’s newsletter as your reminder to reflect and reimagine the realms of your passions and personality and perhaps what areas of your heart you need to feed a bit more to stay well, to stay healthy, and feel most alive in your life from a holistic - mental, emotional, spiritual sense of health.
Enjoy yourselves. Peace <3