ERIC WENNINGER

Category: Health

Recycled Hope

February 24, 2025

Jellyfish made of recycled plastic water bottles at the Monkey Bar

At the very beginning of 2025, I wrote a newsletter about letting go to welcome in. The Spanish put this idea into action beautifully during Las Fallas de Valencia. Artists create beautiful monuments called fallas in the main plaza of the city that serve as a commentary on current social issues. Then, on the final day of the festival, they set the fallas ablaze in an event called La Cremà (see pictures here)—a symbolic cleansing and renewal of society. I like the idea of letting something go to create space for something new.

Las Fallas will be in full swing soon. The festival takes place each year from the 1st to 19th of March in Valencia, Spain. You can check out this year’s festival map and explore the festival website to learn more about what makes this such a special event (also refer to Rosetta Stone’s guide and this article from Move to Traveling). The following video gives a good idea of the esthetic and emotion involved with Las Fallas.

We tend to welcome in the new year with so much hope for the future. As winter wears on in the colder parts of the world—and as administrations change—that hope can quickly diminish. February, after all, is the worst month of the year. It would seem to make sense, then, that Las Fallas takes place in the spring—a season of rebirth and renewal. Maybe there are some things that we’d all like to see burn and go away right about now.

In Grenada, recycling plastics is difficult. But there’s a group here that’s working hard to change that—they’ve organized a plastics drop-off that happens once a month. We save any plastic recyclables we accumulate throughout the month and when the next drop-off date arrives, we load them up and make the trip. The Monkey Bar also helps alleviate the plastics issue—they repurpose plastic bottles in many of their art installations (see the jellyfish featured above).

Instead of burning away the bad to make space for the good, I wonder if we might just remember the good we’ve forgotten—recycle it and bring it back. Can we recycle our hope once we’ve lost it?

Last Sunday, Angie and I hiked out to Hog Island. Right now, it’s the dry season in Grenada and our trek felt strangely similar to what we’d experience on a very nice autumn’s day in Wisconsin. The leaves are changing colors, ever so slightly—light yellows and browns—and some are even falling off their trees. The temperature has calmed down a bit and the sun hits you at just the right angle so as to create the golden, breezy feel of fall.

Trees were all around us and I was thinking about hope. Sarah Vos, of the Dead Horses, has a song called “Swinger in the Trees” (see full lyrics), that is based, in part, on a Robert Frost poem called “Birches” (see reference). The song ends like this:

All these strangers
Passing by me
But we choose not to see,
Yeah we choose not to see (I wanna be)
Oh, we choose not to see

There is always hope,
There is always hope.
There is always hope (I wanna be)
A swinger in the trees

There is always hope, folks. Choose to see it. Recycle it and reuse it. And, watch Sarah Vos sing about it here:
Food of the Gods

September 26, 2024

Earlier this month we visited the House of Chocolate, a small museum in St. George’s that specializes in, you guessed it, chocolate. Grenada is a big producer of chocolate, and the folks at the museum offer a nice little demonstration of chocolate production on the island, from the cacao tree all the way to the wide array of chocolate delicacies available for purchase at the museum’s store.

So far we’ve seen and tasted Jouvay Chocolate (you can also visit their factory which I look forward to doing) and The Grenada Chocolate Company. Both offer a variety of dark chocolates (70% or higher raw chocolate content with the other 30% being additional ingredients like milk, sugar, etc.). My favorite “other” ingredients are nibs, or crushed pieces of cacao beans. I was also interested to learn that the higher the raw chocolate content, the less the chocolate melts in the hot Caribbean weather. And it tastes better!

If you’re not one to appreciate the complexity and depth of bitter flavors, not to worry. The museum highlights some other reasons why you should eat dark chocolate. Here are some of my favorites:

Sun protection – London researchers recently tested chocolate flavanols’ sun-protecting prowess. After 3 months eating chocolate with high levels of flavanols, their study subjects’ skin took twice as long to develop that reddening effect that indicates the beginning of a burn.

Contains anti-depressant agents – Eating a delicious piece of dark chocolate can reduce stress levels. It works by stimulating the production of endorphins that may give rise to a happy feeling. Dark chocolate also contains stimulants such as theobromine and caffeine.

Increases your IQ – Next time you’re under pressure on a work project, don’t feel so guilty about grabbing a dark chocolate bar from the vending machine. Not only will it help your body ward off the effects of stress but will boost your brain power when you really need it. A University of Nottingham researcher found that drinking cocoa rich in flavanols boosts blood flow to key parts of the brain for 2 to 3 hours which could improve performance and alertness in the short term.

Pucker power – Research has shown that allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces brain and heart rate activity that was similar to, and even stronger than, that produced with passionate kissing.

What other reasons for eating dark chocolate can you see?
The Benefactor

September 21, 2024

I am not one for astrology, but sometimes the movement of energy around us surprises me. In my life I value humility above all else. It’s a quality I strive for because of how positively it shapes your ability to learn, and the way you interact with the people and the world around you. Humility leads me to believe in a higher power. Whether you call this higher power “God” or “The Universe” or “Mother Nature,” there are times its movement can inspire a deep sense of awe in you. And I believe, as imperfect humans, we are meant to be in awe. There are things in this world that we do not know or understand, and being in awe is an appropriate response, even as we put forth great efforts to understand them.

Last night, Angie and I took a much needed break and went to the local brewery to play cribbage.

Our cribbage board as we approach the finish. I wonder who won?

Angie had brought The Intuition Oracle – 52 Cards & Guidebook to Help Access Your Inner Wisdom, and we each drew a card. As higher powers would have it, I drew “The Benefactor,” which came with the following affirmation written on the backside:

I enjoy life now as I take steps to realize my new tomorrow.

Having stepped out of my professional career this past summer so I could be a support to my wife as she starts medical school in Grenada, this seemed like an affirmation I needed to hear. I have struggled with finding my purpose in this beautiful, yet oftentimes challenging place. The word “benefactor” also immediately resonated with me, I think because I’m stepping into a more supportive role toward Angie, and in many ways, I’m a benefactor of her being a student here at SGU.

The Benefactor

For each card, there is a corresponding section in the guidebook that contains two parts: The Art of the Matter, which describes the image on the card, and The Heart of the Matter, which gets into its meaning for you. After considering my card and its affirmation, Angie had me look up “The Benefactor” in the guidebook and read what it said out loud.

The Art of the Matter

There is a lot going on in the card’s image, but the following parts are the ones that really spoke to me in my current state of transitioning to something new. The following is a summary of what I read.

The winged Egyptian figure in the center is an angelic messenger to tell you that:

you are on the right path and will have the opportunity to attain the goal you desire sooner, perhaps, than you thought you could.

The strange form of the angel is to remind you that opportunities also come in many forms. You need to:

allow your higher self to use its infinite creativity to bring you your goal in its own way and time.

The angel is carrying jewels in her basket. Just like jewels take time to form within the earth, so:

the goal you seek requires patience over time.

The scarab beetles in the border represent Khepera, the Egyptian Sun god:

who was so powerful that he rolled the ball of the Sun across the sky the way beetles rolled balls of dirt across the ground.

At the top of the card there is a bridge that is connecting the two moons, representing the passage of time within a month. They two symbols under the bridge are known as the Eye of Horus:

They are a strong reminder to do good deeds, for the quality of your reward will depend on the energy you put out now.

These images were powerful to me because they helped me to clearly visualize some of the negative emotions and mental blocks I’ve been feeling since coming to Grenada, and they also revealed a path for overcoming them. They helped confirm for me the need to put in daily effort to reach my goals, which are valid. These goals will come to fruition over time if I remain dedicated and patient—and I have time here to see them through, time I didn’t have in the past.

A very bright moon in Grenada—a constant reminder of the movement of time

The Heart of the Matter

This section sums up some ideas to reflect on moving forward. The following is a summary of what I read for my card:

Sometimes everything is going just as it should be, even if it doesn’t appear that way on the surface and some of the problems you may be experiencing are really there for your own good.
(…)
Your greatest challenge now is to maintain a positive attitude when things do not appear to be going the way you want them to. All you must do is follow your heart, taking small steps forward on your path, and do what you know is right. Allow your intuition to work unfettered by the false belief that it is realistic to doubt yourself and your right to live a life of quality and meaning as you define it.

Again, there’s struggling for a positive attitude and the patience to see a thing through. By the time I had finished reading, I was weeping. Just full on weeping at a brewery in front of a cribbage board and my wife, as if I had just lost the game, which I had. In the whole stack of 52 cards, I don’t think I could have picked a card that better spoke to my current emotional state than “The Benefactor” card. I realized that I had been holding onto so many built-up insecurities and doubts inside of me. It was a cathartic moment and I’m humbly grateful to the higher power that brought it to me.