I’m going to try to keep my mind flexed during the winter months, as well. No doubt there are many in town who are familiar with Pamela Hochstetter of Inner Art in Bridgewater from the creative art courses she has taught at C.H. Booth Library in the past. Pam has mailed me some suggestions for ways to warm up to winter, and I think they are worth passing on. Take a little more time to sleep. (Like I need to be told!) Get outdoors. Develop a simple meditation practice. Eat especially well. Play for the sake of playing. Give thanks. Exercise. Have tea with a friend. Visit a place of beauty. Let go of something old. Choose carefully: adopt only things that will make your heart sing. I’m going to add one more suggestion: Find out more about Pam’s workshops at Pamela@inner-art.com.

Just a reminder that Prudential Connecticut Realty is conducting a food drive the entire month of January to benefit the local emergency food pantry at St John’s, the FAITH Food Pantry. Nonperishable foods and toiletries can be dropped off at the 33 Church Hill Road office anytime between 9 am and 5 pm, seven days of the week. It is easy to remember those less fortunate during the holiday season, but the need for help exists year around. Let’s make sure the cupboard is not bare when someone most needs it.

Connecticut state representative Democrat Rosa DeLauro has introduced legislation to require labels on products from cloned animals sold to the public, in response to the recent FDA approval of food produced from cloned animals and their offspring. The FDA has determined milk, hamburgers, pork chops, and other foods created from cloned animals to be safe, although the Agricultural Department has asked farmers to withhold the cloned animals themselves from the food supply. Presently, that food will not be required to be labeled as coming from a cloned source. While it is likely to be a number of years before the cloned animals have enough descendants to be used in the food supply, why not let Ms DeLauro know how you feel about her legislative action? Contact her at 59 Elm Street New Haven CT 06510 or at 2262 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC 20515. Can you imagine if there were multiples of me writing columns?

Although he was born on January 15, this year we celebrate the birth of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, on Monday, January 21. Dr King, born 79 years ago, was an advocate of nonviolence to bring about social change in America. It was through demonstrations by this social change leader and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was finally passed, outlawing segregation in US schools and public places.

It was also in 1963 that Dr King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. I can’t help but believe that Dr King would be pleased today that with the viable entry of Barack Obama into the political race for President a small piece of his dream is being realized that “my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” That a woman, as well, would run for President in what could have been his lifetime, was probably not even in Dr King’s wildest dreams.

I have a dream, too, although nowhere near so lofty. I dream that you will take the time next week to… Read me again.