Let's give a shout out to both Michelle Obama and the season of spring, both of which are infusing life, this week, with a breath of fresh air. Mrs. Obama is on this week's cover of Newsweek magazine as one step in promoting her focus on childhood obesity. She has set a big goal - to end the U.S. epidemic of childhood obesity in one generation. Obama says, "It's now clear that between the pressures of today's economy and the breakneck pace of modern life, the well-being of our kids has too often gotten lost in the shuffle." She has founded Let's Move, a nationwide campaign to help kids reach a healthy adulthood weight. This is one huge, wonderful goal that asks for a gigantic do-over on many levels. Daunting? Perhaps. Impossible? No.

Spring, which officially begins tomorrow, March 20, is a magnificent season of rebirth, a do-over on a really large scale. It's as if mother nature is saying, "Hey guys, I hung back all winter, giving you time to rest and reflect. Now it's time to see what you got." She is sending up new shoots, getting the trees ready to leaf out, nudging farmers to begin seedlings and sending more light into the world. She is peeling back layers of nature and inviting us to do the same. She is asking us to open ourselves up to re-growth and re-birth, to be positive and nurturing, happy and forward moving.

Obama is asking us to help our kids refocus their priorities of eating and exercise, to help them live more consciously, to ask them to resist and desist, to show them how to live life more healthily. Our kids are little reflections of ourselves. They love and need us so much that they model their behaviors after us.

So here are some hard questions, "In what ways do we let our kids down by making the easy choices rather than the more challenging choices in life?" "What changes can we, as adults, make in our lives that will model healthy living, emotionally, financially and spiritually, for our kids?" They are looking up to us - and that leaves it up to us to lead the change.

Thanks Michelle for being a 'First Mom' willing to tackle a difficult issue.

Chris writes a blog and has a Web site. You can contact Chris at 734-669-7202 or by e-mail.