I was contemplating this morning the bowl -- i.e., huge bowl -- of veggie chips I had consumed before bedtime. I had already entered them in my diary and I so I knew that they would put me way over my calorie goal. I had time before eating them to decide not to eat them because they were going to put me over my goal. But, no, I'd already decided I was going to have the chips and so I was going to have the chips. You know what I mean, when a treat is in your sights then your wiser self says, No, no, we should avoid this, but your greedy self overrides all common sense and long-term goals?

Also last night I skulked around the 2009 Forum a bit and I noted that a lot of folks are saying things like, "I'm off my CK road and I can't seem to get back on." My contemplation this morning hooked me up with the friends who are also not choosing wisely and doing what they really want to do. I wondered, What is making so many of us do this at this time? We are from all across the country and even from around the world. What is going on here? Could it be springtime?

Spring! That's it, I think. Think of nature all around us awaking and sucking up the juices and nutrients of mother earth. Perhaps this is why so many new year's resolutions go awry. In the winter we are battened down with our root veges and preserved foods. In the springtime, the sunshine calls us out and we revel in daffodils and cherry trees and other blooming creatures. There is feasting on the sweet of life everywhere we look. Is it not logical that we also begin browsing, looking for the delightful, growth-inducing calories we've been without all winter?

But the juicy, nutritious fruits of the earth are not here for our plates yet. It is after all spring, not summer. Perhaps I should go pull those dandelions in my lawn for my salad rather than my yard waste bin! What else is mother earth giving us in the springtime to satisfy our taste for the new and juicy and greenness of burgeoning life?