I love this poem, I thought about it today after reading a tweet by @DrJonathan
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
I learned the poem Leisure by Newport poet W.H.Davies, in elementary school. My biggest challenge then, was the dread of being the one who would be singled out to recite the poem in front of the class.
They were just words to be memorized, then pretty meaningless to a 10 year old.
So long ago- but guess what?Today as I remember the words, the childhood fear is gone and I can reflect on the wisdom and meaning. So breathe , take your time , savor the moment
Image Credit: Kathy James , I took this photo while walking in Kirby Lonsdale, I think it works well with the poem 😉
People who have suffered a stroke and who regularly take vitamins are less likely to develop depression, according to a study led by The University of Western Australia. [continue reading…]
Researchers say commonly used psychiatric drugs could be effective in slowing the progression of certain types of dementia.
Dr John Kwok and colleagues from Neuroscience Research Australia have discovered a mutant gene that causes abnormal proteins to build up in the brains of people with frontotemporal dementia, a disease that affects people in their 50s and 60s.
Common psychiatric drugs, such as haloperidol, used to treat schizophrenia, are known to act on this gene.
“Our hope is that these drugs will slow the progression of the disease,” says Dr Kwok. [continue reading…]
Lack of exercise is a major public health problem in the United Kingdom, contributing to the incidence of chronic illness. Adults are recommended to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity daily and children at least an hour. However, surveys have shown a trend towards declining fitness, on the basis of which it has been predicted that more than half the population will be clinically obese by 2050.
Health experts have proposed urgent action to remedy this situation, and the government now aims to get far more of the inactive population walking or gardening regularly or, preferably, taking up more vigorous physical activity, such as sports, aerobics, or cycling (especially as a means of travel). Although most people are aware of the benefits—a lessened risk of coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and some cancers—routine physical activity features in few people’s everyday lives. Only a small proportion of adults are motivated to undertake it throughout the year, and the school curriculum allocates insufficient time for it, he adds.
Research shows that people feel happier, more energetic and have lower sickness rates in the longer and brighter days of summer, whereas their mood tends to decline during the shorter and duller days of winter. Two studies published by the Policy Studies Institute also point to a wide range of advantages of the clock change proposal.
It is surprising therefore that there has been a consistent oversight of the role that increasing the number of ‘accessible’ daylight hours in this way could play in the promotion of physical health and well-being, he says. Taking account of the typical daily patterns of adults and children, the clock change “would considerably increase opportunities for outdoor leisure activities – about 300 additional hours of daylight for adults each year and 200 more for children.”
According to Hillman, there is strong public support for the clock change – “about 4 to 1 in England and Wales and fairly evenly divided in Scotland.”
Adopting the clock change proposal “is an effective, practical and remarkably easily managed way of achieving a better alignment of our waking hours with the available daylight during the year,” he argues. “It must be rare to find a means of vastly improving the health and well-being of nearly everyone in the population – and at no cost. Here we have it. All it requires is a majority of MPs walking through the ‘Ayes’ lobby in the House of Commons,” he concludes
So tell us do you think we should get rid of daylight saving time?Would you be encouraged to spend more time outdoors if we did?
Source:BMJ 2010; 341:c5964 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c5964 (Published 27 October 2010)
Cite this as: BMJ 2010; 341:c5964
