3 R’s for A Healthy Life!

It takes a village to raise a child.
-African proverb-
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Revive, Regeneration, and Recreation
This past weekend, the Dekalb County Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs (RPCA), held a Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony to celebrate the completed two-day construction of an outdoor Safe Fun Place play station for the beautiful children in the Gresham Park community.
This event was part of an on-going renovation and revitalization of this historic community of Gresham Park, where there was so much excitement and purposeful anticipation by the children, as they painfully wait for the moment to enjoy this great recreational addition to their park.
One of the greatest gifts that our Creator grants to our human experience is the ability to procreate and to nurture created life in a manner that expresses wholeness and humanity. Our children are just one means that there is a Creator, thus each created human life has worth and meaning. One of the most important responsibility that all of us are responsible for is fostering Health in our lives and the lives of our children. In a word, what is Health?
Healthy For Life
Health has traditionally been examined in terms of the absence of disease, vitality (being able to function with vigor), or in terms of longevity (living to be at least 75 years of age). Yet, in all fairness, this gift of created life has a much broader meaning to health than this basic meaning. A healthy life is a variation of revival, regeneration and recreation.

In their book, Healthy for Life, authors Williams and Knight say health consists of an individuals ability to attain well-being in five areas:

1. Physical Health  The ability to carry out daily tasks, develop cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength and agility, and maintain proper nutrition and body fat.

2. Mental or Psychological Health  The process of using your mind to create a greater understanding and appreciation of yourself, others and your environment, involving the ability to learn and to think rationally.

3. Emotional Health  Our feelings and thoughts. An awareness and acceptance of our own feelings and the feelings of others. Concepts include self-esteem, love, and empathy.

4. Social Health  Our ability to interact with other individuals and social environments. The ability to develop and maintain intimacy with specific others and respect and tolerate those with different opinions and beliefs.

5. Spiritual Health  Trust, integrity, and ethics. The process of creating and discovering meaning and purpose in life.

Living Our Loud

This weekend activity was a powerful demonstration of Love for the community of Gresham Park and it’s greatest investment, the children and their families. The outdoor play station is just one of the act of kindness on the part of many, who honesty believe and have committed to “Living Out Loud” the proverb, “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child.”

On behalf of DeKalb County, the many sponsors and financial supporters to this project, the volunteers who labored through rain, mud and the warm rays of the Raising of the Sun, to make this one of the most wonderful events that I have participated in this year.

Very special thanks and much needed support from LaPass Production: https://twitter.com/LaPassProd

LaPass Production permitted me to be one of three contracted photographers on assignment for this project.

Grace and Peace

Alonzo Thornton