Health Patio

Health Patio: habitat for folks who need to sit down for a few.

Health Patio is a virtual stop-off location, a pull-over on the information super highway, or, for some, one of those graded gravel emergency run-away truck ramps.

We hope to provide a verdant view of a lifestyle in balance with one’s self and with the environment.

While you’re here, you’ll find inspiring real stories of real people, contemplative explorations, video clips, music, art, current events, and discussions on ways of knowing about the world. Not too much rocket science. Our editors and their guests have educational and experiential backgrounds in the soft and hard sciences, with a focus on human health and wellness, as well as environmental issues. The whole idea is that it is based on a more intensified, engaged way of living as human being, not as an abstract pursuit. We touch on the spiritual, too.

The posts you’ll find on Health Patio are short, and our goal is to try to frame four to seven minutes of time whereby any visitor will be healthier in some way, if only for those minutes out of the day. Over the course of a month, this is about 2 healthy hours, and over a year’s time? That’s about one healthy day!

Yes, you’ll find information here, but we are not a classroom. There’s health and wellness stuff, too, but obviously Health Patio is no clinic. It’s funny and friendly; it’s a group process, not a project. Maybe it’s sacred space. Or a transitional technology. But never a soap box.

Health Patio. Claim your chair.

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About our editors

Editor-in-chief
Judy Wallace
Editor introduction

I don’t bother with recreational shopping, fancy jewelry, or name brand anything. My idea of a status symbol would be a paid off mortgage, even if the house wasn’t the best house on the block. I love homemaking, and creating a soft, comfortable place for my family to live and be. I have a fine education including an Early Childhood Education, Human Development, and Business Administration; however, I am cooking this year for my children’s school. I am so proud of their learning that I was willing to do anything I could stay involved and most importantly help them stay true to our family values that are so precious to me.

My passion is about asserting myself as a feminist and libertarian and believer in social justice, and constructing my personal faith basis within the framework of Jewish Orthodoxy. If you think that fundamentalism and orthodoxy is anywhere close to being the same thing, we probably need to have a long talk.

My privilege has been to work with many fine colleagues within the industries of education, graphic design, internet start-up, sales, social welfare, hospitality, corporate, and health/nutrition. I am a long-time hospice volunteer, as well.

I’m known as a good listener, and an “empath.” I have a number of personal do-good and charity projects, and I try to raise my consciousness of ways of knowing for women especially as it relates to spirituality and contemplative meditation on a daily basis. I’m fun, and kind, and happy and resilient. I don’t need a lot of attention so listen closely the first time I tell you what to do. Oops… that’s my Libra side showing! hahaha.

I wouldn’t want to marry someone like myself so I am delighted to be partnered with my husband, Brian. We live in Louisville, Kentucky with our five children.

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Eco Rock
Health Patio’s Environmental Advisor
Raquel Belury, B.A.

Environmental issues have been important to me as long as I can remember. As a little girl I went to nature and zoo camps every summer. I went hiking in various national parks with my family, and took part in Girl Scouts, Sea Scouts, and Venture Scouts. When I went to college, I knew without a doubt I wanted to major in Environmental Studies, and that’s exactly what I did.

Now, as I prepare for my wedding and my adult life, I don’t find my passion for the environment any less diminished, but certainly my perspective on how to create positive impact has matured. I would love to help other’s enjoy helping the environment, to help them disentangle themselves from schemas and stereotypes of terms like ‘environmentalist.’ I hope that my input, musings, and questions here will help you all explore your inner green goodness.

Thanks,

Raquel

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Rose Garden
Health Patio’s Contributing Colloquist

I’m somewhat of a redneck, although you couldn’t pay me to have tires for flower pots. Life is what it is, and I take it all in stride. I have practically no free time outside of school and the girls, but when I do, it’s my idea of cool to be outdoors. As stereotypical as this is going to sound, I love going for drives. The beach. Photography, nature, the mountains. Snowshoes or swimming pools! And I love going to the city just as much.

I’m not quite liberal, but I’m not conservative either. I just love our big world.