Healing Treasure

Heavy Petal

2009-06-12T12:41:00.008-04:00

Ok, i borrowed the title from the post from one of the websites i frequent, Heavy Petal. Find out about one of their covert greeny garden ideas here.

We finally got around to doing an unplugged kid project! The theme from a little bit ago was Petal...

i came across a brilliant use of the petal-ly persuasion at Resurrection Fern. I ADORE the beautiful treasures created and observed on this blog. It is deeply inspiring. So, for our petal project the lion cub and i deconstructed and reconstructed some flowers...it was perfect for a rainy overcast afternoon.

the materials have been gathered

now for some fuel!

yes, we made sure to use some recycled paper

A Fantastic Book on Natural Health

2009-05-27T17:05:00.003-04:00

I cannot recommend this book enough! It has helped tremendously when my little sprout has not been well. Aviva Jill Romm is a thoughtful, knowledgeable, experienced herbalist, midwife, and momma.

It makes for a good present, too!

Unplugging My Kid

2009-05-27T16:47:00.003-04:00

The lion cub leads a pretty unplugged life, as is...

When i came upon UnplugYourKid.com i thought what they do is fantastic. Here is the basic idea: Every week a theme is selected and you have full freedom to explore that idea creatively with your child. You take pictures of the process, progress, results, etc. and post them then link to the main website so others can see and enjoy. Here are some more details...

This week's theme is Dark. We are going to have a go next week with Petal.

There has been much jubilation since the iris and peonies started blooming so it should make for some really fun petal-ly projects.

Running with Rumi

2009-05-21T04:51:00.000-04:00

by Peter Szasz

(i started this entry on the 22nd of April. then the fun began and continued and continues...i took a lot of shelter in the insights and inspiration of this beloved poet. his writings have provided a lot of strength and assurance and catalysts of introspection this past month.)

My mind and heart are being run through by rumi...

here are some gems from today...

_____________

When I am with you,
we stay up all night.
When you're not here,
I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

- Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi
________

Love is the cure
Love is the cure,

for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain

until your eyes constantly exhale love

as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.

From Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky.

Manjari Chaturvedi, creator of Sufi Kathak

___________

Ode 1823

I don't get tired of you. Don't grow weary
of being compassionate toward me!

All this thirst equipment
must surely be tired of me,
the waterjar, the water carrier.

I have a thirsty fish in me
that can never find enough
of what it's thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean!
Break these half-measures,
these small containers.

All this fantasy
and grief.

Let my house be drowned in the wave
that rose last night in the courtyard
hidden in the center of my chest.

Joseph fell like the moon into my well.
The harvest I expected was washed away.
But no matter.

A fire has risen above my tombstone hat.
I don't want learning, or dignity,
or respectability.

I want this music and this dawn
and the warmth of your cheek against mine.

The grief-armies assemble,
but I'm not going with them.

This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.

A great silence comes over me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.

-From Coleman Bark's Like This
________________

For those who have a pretty penny to spare and want to wear their love for Rumi, you can check out what these people have to offer. I think i shall stick to memorization and internalizing.

I Spy Raw Fruit Cake!

2009-05-20T04:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, it wasn't me spying it...it was our dear family friend, Anand, visiting from DC. *Full disclosure* He wasn't really spying the fruit cake, this was part of the outdoor playing fun...but i thought it would be a cute and clever-ish intro to showing the raw goods...there you have it...honesty, the best policy! Albeit, not necessarily the smoothest policy...but he and his family did love these! They thought i should market them!

Yum! (modified recipe from The Complete Book of Raw Foods - will share later)

My Body's In-cyst-ing

2009-05-12T16:58:00.002-04:00

i have been off-line for a spell due to powers beyond me...

first the lion cub was under the weather (more on what helped with that later)...

and then my ovaries decided they wanted to have a party...the right one in-cyst-ed on inviting two friends...fun for the whole family!

just been resting and restoring energy. and eating some iron-filled green smoothies!

unblocking

2009-04-21T13:33:00.005-04:00

doing a lot of cleaning these days - both inside and out. a lot is being unearthed and excavated.

i suppose this is a rite of the season.

now i come back rearranged, and yet the same, to share again and again.

from here

Bowl-Lickin' Un-Cookin'! Seriously!

2009-04-08T13:18:00.002-04:00

I really love the blog Green and Crunchy. I find Sheri and her Kale-Popsicle toting crew with their raw recipes and adventures deeply inspiring. They are probably really fun neighbors.

A couple of days ago she put up a post on making Raw Vegan Parmesan "Cheese". We had all the ingredients in hand so...viola! a few food-processing moments later we were sprinkling the stuff on everything!

Not only is it delicious, but you get tons of B-vitamins, protein, and Omega fatty acids from the delightful combination of Nutritional Yeast and Walnuts. (i am not totally sure that Nutritional Yeast is Raw, btw. i have heard its not.)

here is the recipe according to her daughter, "Annaya's Parmesan Method: She placed 1 cup of raw walnuts in the food processor and ground them until they were in small chunks. Then she added 1 cup of nutritional yeast and ground it some more. Lastly she added a pinch of sea salt and ground to a nice powder. Done!"

And here is a little person i know eating it sprinkled on organic multi-colored heirloom popcorn.

If You Care About Organics, You Must Read This!

2009-04-06T17:26:00.005-04:00

I received this from a dear friend. Please share with others.

Please tell everyone who wants organic foods.....

US House and Senate are about (in a week and a half) to vote on bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (bill HR 875).

There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening.

Main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto - chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation (and Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related agri-giants). This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply".

This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales.

If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with unexpected diseases in humans.

There is a video on the subject here.
And another one here

The name on this outrageous food plan is: The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875).

THIS IS REAL, FOLKS! PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL CONCERNED ON YOUR MAILING LISTS & CALL YOUR SENATE REPRESENTETIVES TODAY!

Get on that phone and burn up the wires. Get anyone else you can to do the same thing. The House and Senate WILL pass this if they are not massively threatened with loss of their position.... They only fear your voice and your vote.

The best thing to do is go to www.house.gov/writerep all you have to do is put in your zip and it will give you your congressperson and how to get in touch with them. When you call their office someone will answer the phone, just tell them (politely) that you are calling to express your views on HR 875. Tell them your views, they'll take your name and address and pass your comments along to the congressperson.

The following link is a list of the U.S. senators and their contact info: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The Treasure of Reconnecting

2009-04-03T17:27:00.008-04:00

Its so good to see dear friends after a long absence, no?

Dare i say it is a Healing Treasure? One that soothes the soul?

Today we awoke nourished and inspired because of said reunions...and because these fellows and fellinis are gracing us with their optimistic visages.

from here

Provocateur

2009-04-02T12:20:00.004-04:00

Check out a come-hither daucus carota on my alterna-blog!

Trust me...you won't be able to resist!

Zamu in the News!!!

2009-04-01T00:10:00.002-04:00

For Zamu Tour info, check out my website...HealingTreasure.com

ZAMU^TM In The News

Special TV & Radio Appearances By 'Amazon John' and Olivia

In just a short couple of days, ZAMU^TM On Tour will kick off in New York! As part of the excitement, 'Amazon John' and Olivia Newton-John Easterling will appear on several TV and radio shows while touring the country. They will promote the importance of the Amazon Rainforest and the latest news from Amazon Herb Company.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009

7:45 am - 9:00 am
GOOD MORNING AMERICA (NATIONAL)

9:00 am - 9:10 am
WBDY-FM / Y105 Connecticut / NYC

9:30 am - 9:45 am
CBS 101.1 RADIO - IN STUDIO

Stay tuned for the announcement of additional appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Austin and West Palm Beach. More details coming soon!

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009

7:45 am - 8:00 am Live on air
CW 11 / WPIX Morning News (NYC Local)

8:30 am - 9:00 am
FOX & FRIENDS (NATIONAL)

9:00 am - 9:30 am
MORNING SHOW WITH MIKE & JULIET (NATIONAL)

10:30 am - 11:00 am
BETTER TV (FOX - 55 markets)

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
ABC NEWS NOW (NATIONAL & ABC.COM) - LIVE
GOOD MORNING AMERICA STUDIO

Installment 2 of my India Travel Journal

2009-03-31T18:33:00.007-04:00

You can read the first part here.
And if you want an Indian Travel that is a feast for the eyes, check
out my photographer friend Robert Stoetzel's 100 days in India blog.
Part II:

30 hour express
A short stint on the Purushottam "Express".

Making all the local stops.

3 tier a/c.

Good for reading, thinking
and looking at the country and people around you. The man across from was a real gentleman.
He sat with Guruji and discussed philosophy and various ancient prayers.

Before sleeping the second night we had a picnic of salad and chickpeas with puris.

He wouldn't let us wash our plates afterwards.

Bhubaneswar Jan 6-9th -

Mint Chocolate Chip

My little room with cool green walls, brown door and ceiling fan (reluctant to work). Wealthy in its simplicity. Austere but not uncomfortably so. Rooming with weavers who ride their webs, clinging tightly. At the mercy of the wind and their own creation when the shutters are open...patient, waiting, waiting, waiting when outside airs do not come in. The sounds of the neighborhood drift in, especially the slap of feet on concrete as dance practice convenes next door.

This beautiful picture is by Anne Whitman. It can be found here.

The Search for Sweet Grass and the Short Cows

In Vrindavan my home is a peninsula -

cows on three sides.
Orissa's cows are short
(2/3 the size of others)
with big tummies,
as though big cow parts were put in
little cow bodies.
They chew cud with distended bellies
even if underfed.
They seem a bit more adventurous

than the average bovine.

Out the back window i see a group grazing.

one leaves, walking towards me and longer grasses
her legs sink into marshiness,
she continues despite great difficulty.

Riding on the back of a scooter that evening
I see 3 other cows stuck and eating

as the light was leaving.

from here

Annie
From the front window i see and more often hear a raggedy version of Sandy. He - always tied up, never knowing grass - only a half moon of concrete - walking in circles, never touched or softly talked to, only teased by a 5 year old boy.

Old Friends

Next door at Guruji's
A treasury of poems,
not recognized as such by his daughter.
But for me,
a meeting with old friends
Blake, Keats, Wordsworth,
and good old Will.
Poignant and powerful
encountering them here.

Making Good on a Promise

2009-03-28T10:30:00.002-04:00

Round about Christmas time (ok, it was actually on Christmas, there was no round-abouting about it) i gave my mom a present. Actually, it was a picture of a present that i intended to give her.

When my brother saw that she was receiving a postcard with a picture of said intended present, he groaned a little, recalling the year i presented all of the family with booklets of "i owe you" coupons to be redeemed at my discretion. I assured him that this was different. What our dear momma held in her hands would indeed manifest itself in the very near future...and now that time has come!!!

So, what was the picture of, you ask?

A Composter, of course!

Our family has been composting in more free-form kind of way until now. We have had bins that do not rotate, piles of compostables along the wooded edge of our property, and have contributed to more official compost piles of others.

I have been researching different compost bins - both ready-made and DIY. But it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that i had my composty "Aha" moment...

it came by way of this...

Do you remember me talking about this little gem of a volume as part of my wish-list from Acres USA? You can refresh your memory here...

Wishes do come true (music swells in the background)!!!! A few weeks ago our dear friend Cecilia gifted me this volume while expressing her love and admiration for the denizens of the ground beneath our feet (and houses, gardens, parking lots, etc.)

In reading Stewart's book, my own admiration for the wormy-sort grew tremendously. They are an extraordinary sort - the real movers, shakers, and sculptors of the planet. Feats quite extraordinary for a critter that is deaf, dumb, and blind.

The Earth Moved was surprisingly engaging. It drew me in and left me wondering about soil and what lies beneath all day. Stewart's enthusiasm and knowledge are contagious. This is true especially when she speaks of the worms she has at home. The ones she has come to know and love. The ones in her......................

WORM COMPOSTER! (of course i added red for dramatic effect. Red Wigglers are more often than not the resident of choice in ye ole' worm composter.)

The worm-composting world is pretty darn enormous. I am digging through slowly. But we are getting a worm composter. Hope my mom likes it. And soon these hands will be mine...

Selections from My India Travel Diary, circa 2005

2009-03-23T13:05:00.014-04:00

Last night while speaking to a dear friend of mine about India, Odissi Dance, creativity, life, the universe, and everything, a small remembrance kept on tugging at my brain...

Hadn't there been some travel notes that i had shared with family and friends while dancing in India one time? Didn't i still have that email some where?

So today i looked and found what i had written. So, i am sharing it in installments here, 'cause why not?

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:31:38
If you travel through America, states tend to blend into one another, of course there are distinguishing features between them in the form of regionalisms and topography. But going state to state in India can be like traveling to different countries. Nearly every state has its own language with a unique script. Cuisine, style, favored deity, customs and even truck art are all quite distinct.

Two shots of Bhubaneswar's famous Lingaraj temple

For the next three weeks i am a resident of Bhubaneswar. This city, the capitol of Orissa (an eastern coastal state - partially affected by recent tsunamis but before i arrived and not in his area) is famous for its many temples dedicated to Shiva (in the Hindu trinity - the demigod in charge of destruction). Some ancient texts say that at one time there were 10 million deities of him worshipped here. Apparently, it is not uncommon to find remnants of old temples while digging here. Actually, Bhubaneswar is another name for Shiva.

Orissa is particularly famous for is arts: textiles, painting, and dance
are its specialties.

The latter is why i am here...to study Odissi dance intensely (much to the dismay of all my muscles, who have become sore to the touch). There are 7 more forms of Indian classical dance. All of them are based on an ancient text called the Natya Shastra. Originally, they were all exclusively performed in temples and the dances would elaborate on devotional themes.

Here are some pieces of my mind these days...

Noida - a town with all the letters needed to make me

Dec. 31 - Jan. 4
Here - near Delhi - for five days with Guruji (my dance teacher)

Can't buy me love:
in a big house with love
locked in a mirror
like moisture-sucking wall paper
makes you pull away quick
nauseous and eager for the sun's water
The Sweet Smell of Poison
Teeny, buzzing, whining, biting aggressors.
Better to tolerate them
and maybe tolerate malaria
or experience a "Good Knight" with the friendly perfumy household insecticide. Itching to choose the latter (the citronella oil from back home isn't holding up)
I wonder what my lungs think of the decision.

Bird watchers Delight
You cannot imagine the variety...
In Vrindavan (the "hometown" of Krishna, 90 km from Delhi, where i just was for three weeks):
The green feathered red-mouthed parrots travel around town at 4 pm chatting about the day.
One full moon night i got up, stepped outside and heard the peacocks meowing, as is their habit when nights resemble days.

A shock of blue on the clothes line and the king of fishers returns to his court. Of course, there still are crows and pigeons, there always are...
Noida has a bird previously unbeknownst to me. It sings only when a car is put in
reverse then its song resounds - like a parakeet on steroids. And there are auto
rickshaws that quack when their horns beep.

Nostalgic confusion:
In the 6th grade i was under the impression that my statue was just that, impressive. my illusion was sustained by the thought that if you could see some of the top of someone's head then you were taller than them. A class walk past a reflective window clarified my short status. Here the reverse has occurred. Assuming myself among the smallest, the dance studio mirror has revealed otherwise.

The Oldest and the Youngest:
Dancing
All the other students call me Didi (older sister)
asking me how long i have been studying
Smiling, i call them Didi.
Good Care
At the art center - where Guruji stays and classes are held is one humble uncle. He maintains the place. Pious, unassuming, and attentive. One cold evening he gave hot herbal tea and peanuts. Three times he walked me home not wanting me to go unaccompanied. On the way, speaking sometimes in English sometimes in Hindi he told me about his hometown, the site of one famous ancient university (he will travel the 1600 km there in February), remembered his one visit to Vrindavan and spoke of when he lost his mind for a time after being suddenly rejected from the airforce academy because of a defect with his ear.

Collaborating with Yo' Momma!

2009-03-19T16:10:00.007-04:00

Just found out about a very cool artist/naturalist who muses with Momma Nature to create his works. His name is Andy Goldsworthy. Check out this interview with him for Time Magazine.

Here is more of his words, "I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and "found" tools--a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn.

"Looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. The energy and space around a material are as important as the energy and space within. The weather--rain, sun, snow, hail, mist, calm--is that external space made visible. When I touch a rock, I am touching and working the space around it. It is not independent of its surroundings, and the way it sits tells how it came to be there.

"I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue.

"Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature.""The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things. Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below." from here

There is a documentary on him called, "Rivers and Tides". Part of it can be seen on YouTube.

And now just a small sampling of his work. All the sculpture and photography is by Andy Goldsworthy.

2, two, too, to

2009-03-18T17:14:00.004-04:00

Taken on the eve of 2 (yesterday). The "on the eve of" is borrowed from a sadder post on a dear friend of mine's blog. here is a happier eve.

Protein and Veggies

2009-03-18T16:03:00.004-04:00

Protein Art by David S. Goodsell,

Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology

at Scripps Research Institute

I was asked a question recently about which Veggies have the most protein...

I came across this article by Dr. Fuhrman. It is a selection from his book, Disease-Proof Your Child. Thought it was share-worthy.

When you eat to maximize micronutrients, your body function will
improve; chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, Type II diabetes, and
high cholesterol will likely disappear; and your youthful vigor will last
into old age. Heart disease and cancer, the major killers of modern
societies, would fade away and be exceedingly rare occurrences if the
population adopted a cancer-preventive diet style and lifestyle. And we
would hardly ever see any overweight children.
Maintaining a population of normal-weight individuals can be efficiently accomplished only by eating more high-nutrient foods, foods with higher nutrient-per-calorie ratio. The foods with the most nutrients per calorie are vegetables and beans.
Vegetables are also very rich in protein and calcium. Most vegetables have
more protein per calorie than meat and more calcium per calorie than milk.
Nobody can consume too little protein by eating less animal products and
substituting vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds.
The focus on the importance of protein in the diet is one of the major reasons we
have been led down the wrong path to dietary suicide. We were taught to equate
protein with good nutrition and have though animal products, not vegetables,
whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds, are our best source of protein. We bought
a false bill of goods, and the dairy-and-meat-heavy diet brought fourth a heart
attack and cancer epidemic.
If we hear something over and over since we were young children, we just accept it as true. For example, it is myth repeated over and over that plant proteins are "incomplete" and need to be "complemented" for adequate protein. In fact, all vegetables and grains contain all eight of the essential amino acids (as well as the 12 other nonessential ones).1 While some vegetables have higher or lower proportions
of certain amino acids than others, when eaten in amounts to satisfy one's
caloric needs, a sufficient amount of all essential amino acids are
provided. Because digestive secretions and sloughed-off mucosal cells are
constantly recycled and reabsorbed, the amino acid composition in the
bloodstream after meals is remarkably complete in spite of short-term
irregularities in their dietary supply.
It is interesting to note that peas, green vegetables, and beans have more protein per calorie than meat.
But what is not generally considered is that foods that are rich in plant protein are generally the foods that are richest in nutrients and phytochemicals. By eating more of these high-nutrient, low calorie foods we get plenty of protein, and our bodies get flooded with protective micronutrients simultaneously. Animal protein does not contain antioxidants and phtyochemicals, plant protein does. Plus, animal protein is married to saturated fat, the most dangerous type of fat.
Protein Content From
Selected Plant Foods
Food Grams of Protein
Almonds (3 oz) 10
Banana 1.2
Broccoli (2 cups) 10
Brown Rice (1 cup) 5
Chickpeas (1 cup) 15
Corn (1 cup) 4.2
Lentils (1 cup) 18
Peas--frozen (1 cup) 9
Spinach--frozen (1 cup) 7
Tofu (4 ounces) 11
Whole wheat bread (2 slices) 5
Even a professional body builder who wants to build one-half pound of extra muscle
per week only needs about an extra seven grams per day over a normal protein
intake. No Complicated formulas or protein supplements are needed to get
sufficient protein for growth, even in the serious athlete. Exercise
increases hunger, and as the athlete consumes more calories to meet the
demands of exercise, they will naturally get the extra protein they need.
Many world-class athletes thrive at world-class competitions on vegetarian
and vegan diets.
When you reduce or eliminate animal protein intake and increase vegetable protein intake, you lower cholesterol radically. Vegetables, beans, and nuts and seeds are all rich in protein, and they also have no saturated fat or cholesterol. But the clincher is that they are higher in nutrients than any other foods. We must structure our diets around the foods that supply the most micronutrients.
The cholesterol-lowering effects of vegetables and beans (high protein foods) are without question. When adult subjects are feed a vegetable-based diet, cholesterol levels drop radically, much more than with the most powerful cholesterol-lowering
drugs.2 These foods also contain an assortment of heart disease-fighting
nutrients independent of their ability to lower cholesterol, and they fight
cancer, too.
1. Young VR, Pellett PL. Plant proteins in relation to human protein and amino acid
nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr 1994;59 (suppl 5): 1203S-1212S.
2. Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Popovich, et al. Effects of a very-high-fiber vegetable fruit and nut diet on serum lipids and colonic function. Metabolism 2001:50(4);494-503.
*Got this from here*

Smoothie Report and An Easy and Yummy Raw Pie!

2009-03-18T15:10:00.008-04:00

Didn't get to make the Green and Gone smoothie mentioned in the St. Patty's day post yesterday (Instead, i got busy making a Sweet Green Pie for dinner with friends. For this recipe see my Alterna-blog!) We got to the smoothie today with some modifications.

Here is the original recipe:

1 quarter to 1 half fresh pineapple
3 leaves of Kale - I use deep green "dino" kale,
1 ripe banana deveined (can use frozen)
4 fresh mint leaves,
optional-to taste1 quarter to 1 half inch of fresh ginger root (can use dry),
to taste2 to 4 cups water
Preparation:This makes from 32 to 64 fl oz.Place all ingredients in blender.
Start out with only enough water to cover everything about half-way (allows it to blend to a creamy consistency)
After all creamy, add more water to get to the thickness you prefer

Here is what i used:

1/4 fresh pineapple

1 pretty ripe banana

2 big handfuls baby organic spinach

1/2 inch fresh ginger root

1 TBS Hemp seed protein

4 caps Aquazon (blue-green algae)

2 cups water

Blend and enjoy!

*Full Disclosure and Review*

1. it was delicious, fresh, revitalizing and had a bit of kick to it because of the ginger.

2. i just now realized that i forgot to add the mint!

3. it is better to use a traditional blender with this recipe instead of a hand-held blender with a low battery because a lot needs to be broken down to get the right consistency (trust me on this...we had more of a chunky than a smoothie!)

4. Looking forward to trying this with kale and other greens.

A Couple Green Drinks for St. Patty's

2009-03-17T16:04:00.006-04:00

I am a big fan of green. Especially, green by way of Chlorophyll (see my earlier blog post). So in that spirit, here are a couple of Verdant-hued beverages.

Here is a Green Shamrock Smoothie courtesy of Nicole of the blog, Nicole Raw and Awake

"You will need:

1 Apple

2 Frozen bananas

Handful of fresh cilantro

4 Leaves or more of Romaine lettuce

1 date1 tsp of vanilla

1-2 TB of Nutiva's Hemp protein powder (mine has fiber too)

A little water to help blend

Blend and Enjoy!"

And the 2nd Green Drink is a recipe i came across recently while browsing through GoneRaw. i am planning to make a modified version of it this evening. i am going to add some of this and a scoop of this. Will let you know how it turns out.

Here it is, the Green and Gone Smoothie (recipe courtesy of Christine):

"Ingredients:

1 quarter to 1 half fresh pineapple

3 leaves of Kale - I use deep green "dino" kale,

deveined1 ripe banana (can use frozen)

4 fresh mint leaves,

optional-to taste1 quarter to 1 half inch of fresh ginger root (can use dry),

to taste2 to 4 cups water

Preparation:
This makes from 32 to 64 fl oz.
Place all ingredients in blender.

Start out with only enough water to cover everything about half-way (allows it to blend to a creamy consistancy)

After all creamy, add more water to get to the thickness you prefer

YUMMY!NOW, DRINK UP!!!

Except for the color, which is an intense green if you use dino kale, you would never know it had greens in it !! Your body will love you for it !!"

Horti-Sculpture

2009-03-16T16:34:00.007-04:00

Just came across a course i would love to take...The Art Of Horticulture (at Cornell University).

Now i just have to get into Cornell.

Really, it looks like a fantastic course. and they get to do living horti-sculpture as a final project!

Simulation

Reality.

And check out their tasty reading list (they are just required to read 2):

Ackerman, Diane. 2001. Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden. NY: HarperCollins. (This lady keeps on showing up in my life! see Mad Book Dash!)

Druse, Ken. 2003. The Passion for Gardening: Inspiration for a Lifetime. NY: Clarkson
Potter/Publishers.

Kingsolver, Barbara. 2007. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. NY: HarperCollins.

Masumoto, David Mas. 1995. Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on my Family Farm. Harper San Francisco.

Mitchell, Henry. 1981, 1999. The Essential Earthman. NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Orlean, Susan. 1998. The Orchid Thief. NY: Ballantine.

Pollan, Michael. 2001. Botany of Desire. NY: Random House.

Stewart, Amy. 2007. Flower Confidential. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books.

Mad Book Dash

2009-03-13T11:25:00.002-04:00

Every year our local library has book sale. There are beautiful and unusual (plus plenty of usual and not-so-beautiful) volumes a-plenty. The sale lasts a week and as it gets closer to the end, the prices drop. By the last day you can get a box of books (as long as you can carry it) for 4 bucks! Shocking, i know...

We were out of town for most of the brouhaha. But at 3pm on Sunday, my mother reminded me that it was the last day. My little sprout and i headed on over ('cause we don't have enough books as it, and you never know when you are going to find a gem). By the time we arrived there was an anouncement that the booksale would end in 15 minutes.

Needless to say there was a MAD BOOK DASH made by yours truly. In that short time span i managed to wrangle in 28 books...yes, i am serious...28 books.

my offspring overwhelmed by the fruits of his momma's Mad Book Dash!!!

Here is the bounty of our library sweep (and my analysis after actually looking at the books at home):

1. Guide to New Medicines of the Mind - ed. by Jeffery Berlant and Ira Extin (this was a dud for me, i thought it was going to be cool alternative techniques for caring for the mind. instead, it is a very pharma-centered volume.)

2. The Tale of a Pond - by Henry b. Kane (awesome kids book with great descriptions, cool old black and white pics, and neat illustrations - a good catch!)

3. A Natural History of the Senses - Diane Ackerman (a guide to the senses - interesting and intriguing. i totally dig the optical nerve, don't you?)

4. Hand Analysis the Diagnostic Method - by Edo Sprong (Palmestry with thorough photos and illustrations. Good Find)

5. Black Hawk - by Black Hawk edited by Donald Jackson (Autobiography by Native American, my mom was really happy with this addition)

6. Iambic and Dactylic - by Floyd W. Jefferson (a dud that seems to be redeeming itself. i grabbed this one thinking it was penned by Thomas Jefferson, not Floyd. But the poetry seems read-worthy.)

7. The Buildings of Byzantum - by Helen and Richard Leacroft (Great kids book with terrific illustrations. Neat Architechtural food for the brain)

8. Essays on Prayer by A.W Jozer and others (the dimensions of the book and cover photo caught my eye. the essays? not so sure.)

9. Social Studies for the Young - Asia Book House (a dud, an already filled out notebook. i picked this up because there was an indian dancer on the cover. )

10. Gods, Demigods, and Demons - An encyclopedia of Greek Mythology - by Bernard Euslan (Couldn't pass this one up. Who doesn't want to know this stuff???)

11. A Bengali Book (i don't know what the title is, i don't know what it says in side, i don't know what i was thinking!!!)

12. The Sands of Kalahari - by William Mulvihill (The title got me, has anyone read this?)

13. An Intro to Native North America - by Mark Q. Sutton (Good Find!)

14. Lullabies - by F.E. Budd (Great stuff to read to my munchkin at night.)

15. Mother and Child - Edited by Sheila Pickles (Lovely pictures and many nice selections although some make me sad.)

16. The Moon is always Female - by Marge Piercy (Cool title, right? That's what got me. i hope the poems are good too.)

17. Ten-Minute Field Trips - by Helen Russell (Lots of good ideas and ways to get little ones engaged and thinking in the world around them.)

18. Childcraft Vol. 4 - Nature in danger (a photocopied volume, not sure what i think of it yet. could well be a dud.)

19. Women Rites and Sites, Aboriginal Women's cultural knowledge - ed. by Peggy Brock (Looks super interesting. Great Find!)

20. Don't Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees - by Thoma Hale (Doctor's stories about his time in nepal. i have been to nepal, so i got this book.)

21. Laughing at Gravity, Conversations with Isaac Newton - by Elizabeth Socolow (a collection of poems. it seems i was feeling very poetic sunday.)

22. Bible Picture ABC book - by Elsie E Egermeier (volume published in 1950s, quaint and kitchy pics, sweet stories, who could resist? Apparently, not me!)

23. The Way of All Flesh - by Samuel Butler (Had to have a counterbalance to the Natural History of the Senses...)

24. Lets Explore Beneath the Sea! - by William Knowlton (Lovely drawings and pics)

25. Women Who Run With Wolves - by Clarissa Estes (I had to get this. All about the wild woman archetype. Seemed like a totally tuff book.)

26. The Adventures of an Illustrator - by Joseph Pennell (Neat old volume with lots of drawings by various illustrators at the turn of the 20th century.)

27. Seeds of Change - by Herman Viola and Carolyn Margolis (Thought this would be about the history of seeds and agriculture. The cover photo - see below - seemed to indicate this with 3 men holding corn. At home i found out it is about the changes that occured with the meeting of cultures from Columbus on. Fantastic pictures. There was an exhibit in the Smithsonian with the same title that the book is based on.)

28. Both Sides, New Works from the Institute of American Indian Museum - by various authors (Good find. Should be an interesting read.)

So what do you think? Was it $4 well spent?

Coming Attractions...Tonight and Tomorrow

2009-03-11T14:35:00.007-04:00

This evening i am attending a special yoga class taught by Wah!! It should be fantastic...

Its happening at the Integral Yoga Institute of Princeton. Wah! is playing there tomorrow night...and my dear friend Kala Devi (aka, Andrea Brachfeld) is accompanying her on the flute.

check it out if you are in the tristate area and are eager for upliftment!

And then tomorrow night, my dear Nalini (seen here and here) invited me to see the unbelievably talented, breath-takingly graceful (and hardworking) Odissi dancer, Sujata Mohapatra!!!! This will be the first time i see her perform live. Super excited!!! You can find clips of her on YouTube.

dispatches from not here...

2009-03-10T17:14:00.009-04:00

The shift back to the east coast has been relatively smooth. The sound of the ocean is missed though and my little one keeps on asking to go to the beach...who can blame him?

Akumal, the place of the turtles and this amazing art gallery!

Food for Thought about Travis the Chimp from the NY Times

2009-03-09T18:01:00.004-04:00

Upon coming back from vacation, i read this interesting Op-Ed piece...the original can be found here.

Something Wild
By CHARLES SIEBERT
Published: March 5, 2009

It's common to hear, in the wake of someone’s sudden lethal outburst, exclamations of shock along the lines of: “He seemed so pleasant and mild-mannered.” “She never bothered anyone.” But when those same sentiments are voiced in the aftermath of a chimpanzee attack like the one in Stamford, Conn., last month — in which a pet chimp named Travis mauled a woman, robbing her of her hands, eyesight and much of her face, and possibly causing brain damage — they raise serious questions about us, the primates with the so-called higher cognitive functions.

There is something about chimpanzees — their tantalizing closeness to us in both appearance and genetic detail — that has always driven human beings to behavioral extremes, actions that reflect a deep discomfort with our own animality, and invariably turn out bad for both us and them.

The first live chimpanzee to set foot on Europe’s shores arrived in The Hague in 1641, on board a Dutch merchant ship returning from Angola. The only known visual record of this unwitting pioneer’s existence is an engraving done that same year by the Dutch physician and anatomist Nicolaes Tulp. A leading figure of the Enlightenment with its emergent emphasis on objective observation and realistic representation, Tulp sat day after day in the private menagerie of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and proceeded to compose one of the more surreal depictions of a chimpanzee imaginable. The creature — seated atop a boulder with its mostly hairless torso and limbs, tapered elfin hands and feet, and sweetly smiling face — looks like a potbellied forest nymph dreamily sleeping off a good drunk. Not a chimpanzee so much as an ape-human hybrid.

The fact that Tulp, a man of science, refused to let his hand depict what his eyes were seeing goes to the heart of the threat that the chimpanzee’s near-humanness has long posed to our consciousness. By depicting a nymphlike creature, he reinforced an age-old anthropocentric conception of humanlike apes as mythic beings, fearsome man-beasts, living cautionary tales against our own often beastly and rapacious tendencies.

Tulp’s willful distortion may seem laughable now, something that we modern-day humans have advanced beyond, but we need look no further than Travis to dispel that conceit. His tragic end is a sadly familiar occurrence within today’s equally distorting framework of trying to coerce evolution in a direction it didn’t quite go for chimps, by making them be us: living on our turf and terms, dressing in our clothes, acting in our films and commercials, suffering in our research labs.
While researching a book about my days living in a retirement home for former chimp actors (chimps work as actors only until about the age of 6, after which they become too strong and willful; they then spend the rest of their lives, often 40 to 50 more years, behind bars), I happened to visit Mike and Connie Casey, the breeders who originally sold the baby Travis to Sandra Herold and who raise and rent out their own chimps for commercials and children’s birthday parties.

Connie Casey saw Travis’s mother, Suzy, shot dead back in 2001 when this chimp, too, escaped and got into a tussle with a dog. In 2005, four former chimp actors undid the lock of a retirement home known as the Carson Center for Chimps (as in Johnny Carson) on the grounds of a roadside animal attraction called Zoo Nebraska. As patrons ran for cover, three chimps were killed. One, named Ripley, managed to return to the Carson Center and close himself back in.
Six months before that incident, two former chimp actors who had grown up and trained with Ripley escaped their enclosure at a retirement sanctuary in Southern California and badly mauled a visitor much in the same way that Travis did Ms. Herold’s friend.

Chimps are, like us, given to occasional violent outbursts, but they have exponentially greater strength. Chimps also have, like us, minds enough to lose and memories that can hasten the process. Wild chimps “recruited” by poachers for entertainment watch as their mothers are gunned down — the only way a chimp mother would ever relinquish a child. Chimps born in captivity are spared that experience, but they suffer the same premature separation from their mothers, isolation from their normal social groups and often mistreatment from trainers and keepers, all traumatic events that have been shown to cause deep psychological scarring and, as in human beings, can lead an animal to overreact to the slightest stimuli: the look in someone’s eye, the color of someone’s hair or, as with Ms. Herold’s friend that day, hair done up in an unaccustomed style. These are, in short, deeply conflicted beings, evolutionary anomalies that only we could have created: chimps with names and yet no recollection of trees.

The most tragic example of this is Lucy, who lived in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Raised from infancy to age 10 as a human child by the psychologist Maurice Temerlin and his wife, Jane, Lucy made her own meals, mixed her own cocktails, flipped through magazines, slept on soft mattresses, raised a pet cat, learned sign language — and had no contact whatsoever with other chimpanzees. By the time she reached sexual maturity, however, she became more and more difficult to handle, and the Temerlins decided they had to let Lucy go.

They chose to send her to a place that was the complete opposite of what she knew, a refuge that reintroduces captive chimps into the wild. Lucy, it will perhaps come as little surprise, struggled mightily. She refused to socialize with the other chimps, to climb trees, forage for food, make nests. She took to waiting beneath trees for the others’ crumbs to fall.

Eventually, Lucy adopted an orphan baby chimp and mothered him until he died three years later of a stomach parasite. She herself barely survived a bout of hookworm, then began to show enough positive signs of socializing with the others that they were all left for a time to their own devices. A year later, however, Lucy’s skeleton was found near the shores of the island refuge, without, some reports said, her hands or feet. The cause of her death isn’t known, but speculation is that Lucy, always the first to greet human visitors, one day unwittingly approached a group of poachers, who readily seized upon their overeager prey.

Lucy, Travis and all the others died for the same reason that Tulp couldn’t draw the actual being seated before him: our ongoing inability to see animals outside our own fraught frame of reference. The chimp that Tulp, in fear of science, preserved as a mythic human, Temerlin tried to make a human, in science’s name. Lost in the shuffle of either agenda were the animals themselves, creatures we still can’t regard and respect for what they are and just leave alone.

Charles Siebert, a contributing writer for The Times Magazine, is the author of the forthcoming “The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward a New Understanding of Animals.”

Positive Practices in Paradise

2009-03-09T17:21:00.004-04:00

So blogging was fasted from while on holiday (see previous post). But what was done to create a balance? What new practices were put in place?

The main ones had to do with flexibility.

I went to yoga nearly every day. There were many days when i went twice a day.

My little one and i stretched and played together.

And simultaneously, i worked on being very mindful of the people we were sharing space with (i.e., my folks and close family friends). Their choices and preferences were honored more.

Overall, it was a great period of growth and renewal.

The Blogging Fast?

2009-03-09T17:16:00.003-04:00

So was i fasting from my dear blog these past weeks? Is that why there was not a peep to be heard?

Yes, but only by default!

I was out of the country, under the impression that my internet access/connection would be reliable, quick, and strong. When i realized this hope was just an illusion, a fast ensued.

But i really really missed sharing with you.

So now a bevy of entries ensues.

Cries from the Congo

2009-02-16T19:08:00.002-05:00

Two Saturdays ago there were a couple of very heavy articles in the NY Times about the latest series of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

While Josh Ruxin blogs about some hope developing in the east of the country, there is new trouble in the west. This "Silent War" has raged for the past decade and over 5 million people are its victims.

Honestly, i feel like crying (in anger, sadness, confusion, and disbelief) while i type this. The problems are on such a grand scale that is overwhelming. The brutality and suffering are shocking. They are the stuff of horrible haunting nightmares. How can this and this and this be happening?

Shortly after reading the initial articles, i wrote a friend (actually, i texted them...because they pretty much refuse to answer the phone ever, preferring the convenience, brevity, and on-your-own-terms of texting. this is a topic i would like to post on at another time.) to share my anguish about the situation. After expressing a desire to send the Congolese people peace, my friend replied that they would prefer to send love, but in reality how could either be sent. In other words, what difference can we really make?

Dammit, there has to be something that can be done!

Here is one project that is doing something amazing: They are called Working Villages International.

Here is another place: Women For Women International.

How about: Raise Hope for Congo?

And there is also the Genocide Intervention Network

I am just starting my deeper investigation into how positive change can be affected. If you have any ideas, know of any organizations that are really helping, or want to brainstorm please share.

I have an incredible friend from Rwanda. We used to live across the street from one another in the east village of NYC. We have cooked and shared many a meal and powerful conversation. He is a serious practitioner of yoga and meditation. Many many times he told me that he thought one of the most powerful and transformative gifts that could be given to people in Africa (in conflict areas and across the continent) is yoga. I was overjoyed to find some people doing just that! My deep appreciation goes out to the Africa Yoga Project.

Here are some links with more info on the conflict in the Congo:

The Media's Neglect of the Congo
A Profile of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Q & A about the conflict

An Article about Video Console components contributing to Congo Civil War

Some great suggestions about what you can do

The Fasting Feast

2009-02-10T18:21:00.006-05:00

I took some extended time with fasting from interrupting. It was a practice that really challenged me observe myself and my communications more closely. Towards the end of the first week my mother let me know in no uncertain terms that she thought i needed to listen more and interrupt her less. That was when i decided to continue my fast for another week. (i intend to still be mindful about interruptions, btw.)

And as for last times positive growing exercise... the sprouts are still in their seed form.

All that being said, here is what isn't happening this week...

PAPER TOWELS

Cloth is so much better. And actually, we do use cloth much of the time. But occasionally, weakness overcomes me and the convenience of the paper towel wins out. (This is usually when i am about to be pawed by a toddler who has been excavating an avocado.) But not this week! (and hopefully, not beyond this week!) Here is some info on the polluting effects of bleached paper products, how much energy and resources are saved by using recycled goods, and how much more are saved by using cloth.

So what about the feast? What positive practice is to be embraced?

We are having ANOTHER GO AT SPROUTING!!!

Why the heck not, right?

An Gorgeous Ornament for NYC

2009-02-10T16:48:00.007-05:00

Beautiful Odissi danseuse, Nalini, in June 2001. TheTwin Towers are happy watching her.

A Confession

2009-02-09T18:25:00.004-05:00

When i made the cinnamon rolls for my friends, i forgot to add the cinnamon...

Sad, but true. So the recipe is delicious without cinnamon too. Its just more of a Date, Almond, Flax roll.

Info about the Cinna-Man is up on the alterna-blog.

Delicious Raw Cinnamon Rolls!

2009-02-04T17:02:00.010-05:00

On Sunday, a sweet friend came to visit in the afternoon. Wanting to make a treat in her honor, i remembered a recipe that sounded delectable from GoneRaw.com.

Cinnamon has a lot of fantastic qualities. You can read more about them at my other blog.

Here is the cooking formula from Shannonmarie (and the photos from me - some are okay, others subpar and not so delicious looking, just figured that if i was going to bother, may as well see the photos all the way through!):

"Servings: Serves 4-8

Ingredients:
1¼ cup almond meal
1¼ cup ground flaxseed
1 dash cayenne pepper
1½ tablespoon cinnamon
1 pinch sea salt
1 cup soft pitted dates
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
.125 cup olive oil
.125 cup agave nectar
¼ cup raisins, plus a little extra
¼ cup chopped nuts

Preparation:
Combine the almond meal, ground flaxseed, dash of cayenne pepper, 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon and pinch sea salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a food processor or blender, process dates, water and vanilla into a paste. Remove half of the date paste and add it to the dry ingredients, along with the olive oil and agave. Mix these ingredients with your hands until it forms a dough. You may need to add a little water and/or agave if it is too dry, but be careful not to add too much.

Spread the dough out on a piece of parchment paper, and flatten/shape it into a 1/4-inch thick square.

Add 1/4 cup raisins and 1 Tbsp. of cinnamon to the rest of the date paste left in your food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Then, spread a thin layer of the paste onto the dough square, making sure to cover the whole surface, and top with a sprinkle of extra raisins and the chopped walnuts.

Using the parchment paper to help hold everything together, carefully/tightly roll the square into a log. Chill in the refrigerator, and then slice into about 1-inch thick rounds. I usually make about 8 cinnamon rolls out of this recipe.

These cinnamon rolls can be eaten right out of the refrigerator or warmed on a dehydrator. I top mine with a generous icing of raw almond butter mixed with agave, vanilla and sea salt (or if I have more time, I make a cashew and coconut whipped cream icing, as seen in the photo). Yum-O!"

okay, i admit it...this is not my photography...or my cinnabuns...

these are Shannonmarie's

These were mine. Just as tasty but not as pretty.
They were gone shortly after this photo was taken.

Tomorrow evening these will manifest again for the dessert portion of a dinner with friends.

Hearing Eco Agriculture's Voice

2009-02-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

Upon reaching home after a great yoga class Thursday (much gratitude to my old friend Jonathon for inspiring my attendance), i found an envelope on the bed. It was my Acres USA free sample magazine and catalog! That a request for more info had been made a month and a half ago had slipped into the recesses of my busy mind.

How exciting! I have always wanted to know the ins and outs of organic seed production and how to make organic hay! Actually, that is true...i am not always aware of the desire, but it is there.

So far, i have only skimmed the magazine. The catalog was more magnetic straight away (there are several books on biomagnetism, btw). While putting the little lion to bed titles and descriptions of green and esoteric books were poured over. (Full Disclosure: Books and their consumption are a weakness of mine. There are shelves and shelves and shelves of them in our abode. Many have been great friends.)

Here are a few titles that i would love to check out (or if anyone is trying to figure out what the heck to get me for any of my 364 un-birthdays...):

Roots Demystified by Robert Kourik (illustrated root systems and wit! cant' beat that!)

Growing Green by Jenny Hall and Iain Tolhurst (talks about animal by-product-free organic farming)

The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart (all about the extraordinary wrigglers that are earthworms)

How to Grow Fresh Air by Dr. B.C. Wolverton (highlights 50 plants for their abilities to provide maximum oxygen, to purify toxins, and how green your thumb has to be to grow them)

Carrots Love Tomatoes (and the 2nd edition, Roses Love Garlic) by Louise Riotte (A gossip book for the plant world. All about who likes who, who doesn't like who, and how you can harness plants social preferences to maximize your garden's yield.)

Growing 101 Herbs that Heal by Tammi Hurtung (advice on how to cultivate, care for, and harvest 101 useful and healing herbs)

The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephan Harrod Buhner (how to become more in tune with the healing aspects of plants. Inspired by indigenous and ancient people and cultures.)

Genetic Roulette by Jeffery Smith (Investigates and shatters the claim that genetically modified foods are safe.)

Dung Beetles by Charles Walters (The compelling tale of this strange bug.)

Secrets of the Soil by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird (Highly recommended to me by a friend. Discusses creative techniques being used to practice non-toxic agriculture.)

So there it is, a small portion of my ambitious wish reading list.

A Banana...A Banana...My Splinter for a Banana

2009-01-30T15:44:00.014-05:00

No, it is not the winter of our discontent.

Granted, it is winter.

And we do love the Bard...

But, we are rather contented (at least for the moment), especially because of a useful home remedy just come across (courtesy of Herbalist, Andrea Candee).

She writes, "Simply cut a piece of the ripened peel, tape it on, pulp side to the splinter, leaving it in place overnight. In the morning, the enzymes in the ripe banana will have pulled the splinter to the surface. Deeply embedded splinters may require another night or two of fresh peel."

Sounds like a remedy with appeal!

(Banana Shark courtesy of the silly people here)

Lil' Sprout

2009-01-28T16:39:00.012-05:00

Here is how we are growing these next few days:

There will be a whole lot of sprouting going on (at least that's what i hope).

I am a great lover of the sprouted persuasion. Alfalfa, clover, broccoli, sunflower, fenugreek, radish, lentil, you name 'um, i dig 'um (admittedly, i pass on onion sprouts).

There has been great luck at our house in consuming them and much less luck at...well...sprouting them.

That is all going to change in the next few days.

The Sprout People have been consulted, as well as some new friends. We have got our equipment, and most importantly, our sprouts of tomorrow...let me introduce you to them.

(Clockwise from top, Panda, Chickpea, Aduki, Alfalfa, and Lentil. It is unlikely that Panda will be sprouted.)

And here is what the pay-off of all the new growing will look like:

Health Benefits of Sprouts
by Steve Meyerowitz
Sprouts have long been famous as "health food" but recent research shows that in addition to being a superb source of nutrients, they also have important curative ability. Sprouts like alfalfa, radish, broccoli, clover and soybean contain concentrated amounts of phytochemicals (plant compounds) that can protect us against disease.
Studies on canavanine, an amino acid analog in alfalfa, has demonstrated
benefit for pancreatic, colon and leukemia cancers. Plant estrogens are also
abundant in sprouts. They increase bone formation and density and prevent bone
breakdown or osteoporosis. They are also helpful in controlling hot flashes,
menopause, PMS and fibrocystic breasts tumors.
Alfalfa sprouts are one of our finest food sources of another compound, saponins. Saponins lower the bad cholesterol and fat but not the good HDL fats. Animal studies prove their benefit in arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Saponins also stimulate the immune system by increasing the activity of natural killer cells such as T-lymphocytes and interferon. The saponin content of alfalfa sprouts multiplies
450% over that of the unsprouted seed.
Sprouts also contain an abundance of highly active antioxidants that prevent DNA destruction and protect us from the ongoing effects of aging. It wouldn't be inconceivable to find a fountain of youth here, after all, sprouts represent the miracle of birth.

Practicing this week

2009-01-26T17:13:00.012-05:00

Here is what i am abstaining from:

Interrupting people.

My sweet and incredibly talented associate (and when i say associate, i mean beloved friend and stunt double), Sabjimata, and i were speaking about the subject recently.

We both agreed that it seems to be a intrinsic component of female communication. (and now for some sweeping generalities) We ladies intuit, we flow with our conversation-ees, we overlap our speech and thoughts with others due, in part, to our collaborative natures (and/or if you have a lot of what Ayurveda calls Vata you sometimes just need the mellow Kapha to spit it out, already!)

That being said, it is still a good time for me to take a little break from the breaking in. I must admit that there have been a few conversations lately where yours truly jumped in, anticipating what "had to be what they were going to say" with sub-par results. Here is a dramatic re-enactment of one such time:

patient/caring/wow/dancerfriend: Yeah, well it seems that all people are interested in these days is Bollywood. Not as many people want to study the classical dance forms. And then they call and want my sister to do some of those film dances and she does it and
she looks....

me,the Great Intuitive: Really Silly!
patient/caring/wow/dancerfriend: Really Amazing, because she has the classical background.

Yuck. I guess my spidey sense was down that day. Makes me feel like simultaneously cracking up and up-chucking. Thank goodness he is so tolerant and that he didn't seem to hear me.

So, so long interrupting...let my ears be filled with the complete sentences of others (at least for the week)!

The Fast Feast

2009-01-23T17:13:00.002-05:00

So, here is an update on how the week's practices have been going...

to recap, i decided to take a break from sarcasm and make some time for myself everyday.

if ever there was a week to depart from digs, flippancy, facetiousness, cynacism, and wisecracks, it was this one. optimism has been in the air. and we have been breathing deeply.

so, the fasting bit has been going well.

The concentrated time to myself has been more of a challenge.

Although, last night i attended an incredible yoga class (the little man was asleep early and my folks were encouraging).

my conclusion? with the "om" comes the "shanti shanti shanti" (peace, peace, peace).

Bosom Friends When I Was Pregnant

2009-01-21T17:43:00.009-05:00

First and foremost there was my mom. She was an incredible birthing partner and tremendous support the whole of the 9 months. But these guys helped out too...

Good old H2O. Super critical to ordinary health, what to speak of when you are growing a babe!

It is part of my daily practice to drink at least 3 liters of clean, purified water a day. When i was pregnant we upped the ante to 5. It was tough some days (and didn't always happen during a very nauseous first trimester). Of course it meant more trips to the lavatory laboratory, but you tend to spend a lot of time in there anyway when you are with child, and the benefits far outweigh any slight inconvenience.

The amazing qualities of clean water and its ability to assist in health and well-being became illuminated to me through reading the work of Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. This Iranian doctor "discovered" some of water's curative powers while in prison. Here is a New York Times article from 1983 talking about his experience. The good doctor's work and water suggestions have been hailed by many. Long story short, more water = healthier babe and healthier you.

I became aquainted with these next two tried, tested, and true friends through another amazing friend - Keli Lalita Reddy of Karuna Shakti Yoga studio.

While visiting the Reddy clan while i was newly pregnant, Keli shared a piece of advice from her midwife...take floradix and liquid chlorophyll 2x daily while growing your little one for fantastic results. She said it had really helped her. After looking at the 3 incredible kiddies that the reddy's have it just made sense to head over to the health food store and pick up some of the stuff.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) notes that iron-deficiency during pregnancy occurs in half of all women. This seems to increase the chance of pre-term labor and low birth weight (the reddy kids have certainly not suffered from this. they were 10lbs, 11lbs, and 13 lbs, respectively!)

One of the great things about Floradix Herbs + Iron (which can be gotten in a yeast free form too) is that it is easily assimilated and food based. it doesn't seem to cause the constipation that are pretty common with iron supplements. it continues to be a part of my daily routine as a nursing momma.

And last, but not least there is the humble Chlorophyll (here represented by dear Wheatgrass).

Oh, rich and wondrous, Chlorophyll

of you i can never get my fill

with your dark and verdant hue,

i dream of spring when drinking you...

okay, that was not penned by the Bard, but that doesn't make Chlorophyll less spectacular...

Not convinced? Don't love the taste of green? Lets see if the HealthyGreenMoms with all their wisdom can change your mind. or better yet:

Health Benefits of Chlorophyll

• It has been seen to help in the growth and repair of tissues.

• Chlorophyll helps in neutralizing the pollution that we breathe in and intake everyday - a good supplement for smokers

• It efficiently delivers magnesium and helps the blood in carrying the much needed oxygen to all cells and tissues.

• It is also found to be useful in assimilating and chelating calcium and other heavy minerals.

• It had been seen to have a good potential in stimulating red blood cells to improve oxygen supply.

• Along with other vitamins such as A, C and E, chlorophyll has been seen to help neutralize free radicals that do damage to healthy cells.

• Chlorophyll is also an effective deodorizer to reduce bad breath, urine, fecal waste, and body odor.

• It may reduce the ability of carcinogens to bind with the DNA in different major organs in the body.

• Chlorophyll may be useful in treating calcium oxalate stone ailments • It possesses some anti-atherogenic activity as well.

• It can be used to treat infected wounds naturally.

• These are only a few of the multitude benefits that chlorophyll can do to the body.

• It has antimutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties so that it may be helpful in protecting your body against toxins

Awakened

2009-01-19T19:28:00.000-05:00

The Om Ball (as in dancing, not bouncing)

2009-01-18T15:15:00.006-05:00

It always inspires me to know of people being the change they want to see in the world. It is something that i keenly aspire for in all aspects of my life.

Some of my dear friends are doing it in a big way tomorrow. They are hosting an event called Chant for Change to help create auspiciousness, peace, and blessings for the upcoming inauguration and administration.
An incredible crew of musicians, yogis, meditators, and agents of positive change are assembling for this wonderful happening.

For those who aren't able to make it out to D.C. (and actually it is sold out) they are sharing via live webcast! The broadcast starts at 6:30 pm.

I also heard that there is another similarly-themed event, The Om Ball, that still has tickets available. Deepak Chopra will be amongst the amazing people there.

This week's feast...

2009-01-16T20:08:00.001-05:00

And so you won't think i am just flagellating myself for the sake of personal betterment and this humble blog...i give you...

My weekly indulgence! (although perhaps, you are thinking it is my strange fascination with and repeated use of that wonderful devise the "..."- does anyone know what this is called?) Actually, the intention is to have a weekly practice that i add to enrich my life and the lives of those around me.

So, starting tomorrow i will be allowing myself to have a 1/2 hour of peaceful, reflective, nourishing alone time everyday. it will be time away from the little one, time away from screen, business, and phone. it will be my mind spa. or if i just want to work on learning harmonica, that is fine too.

How will this better my life and the lives of those in the 'hood? i can only imagine...and tell you as i find out.

This week's fast...

2009-01-16T19:44:00.000-05:00

Each week i plan to abstain from some habit or activity that i regularly partake in.

And then the effects are to be observed and chronicled...

So i will be celebrating the week (starting tomorrow - Saturday) without...sarcasm.

Actually, my stomach flip-flopped a wee bit while writing that last sentence (i'm from the east coast, for crying out loud, we are born and breed on the stuff). But a week's departure from the lowest form of wit should do the 'ole girl some good.

Sarcasm by Susan Riba

Really, its just a distancer, isn't it?

Lungs of the Planet

2008-12-30T17:40:00.000-05:00

Breathe