When is good good enough? When it comes to nourishing our bodies, it makes sense to eat high-quality food—the best. Nutritionists agree that skimping on breakfast is a bad thing. When we rush out the door without breakfast, by mid-morning, we’re hungry, cranky, light-headed or worse. Developing a reliable breakfast routine is one of the basic building blocks of a healthy day. Continue reading
There is properly no history, only biography.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I joke about unearthing my ancestors; really, it’s their stories I’m after. Sifting through the scant evidence of existence left behind by my grandparents, great, great and even greater, has become a passion, if not a full-blown obsession. Dusting off the simplest details of their lives has ignited the flames of my imagination like nothing ever has—ever. With all my heart, I want to know them and to bring them to life. Continue reading
The garden is generous with metaphors for living. Bone tired, stooped beyond straightening, encrusted in dirt and decorated with prickly seeds, I’ve harvested more truths in the garden than I could ever have known were ripe for the picking.
Each truth, in its time, and stunningly clear. When I was depressed, my garden urged me to wonder about what next spring would bring, gently coaxing me on, convincing me the seasons ahead would bring good things. When I was bored, it filled me with wonder. When I thought I had nothing to give, I saw all the plants that needed dividing and, therefore, sharing. The spirits of the garden are generous, indeed. Continue reading
Some stories begin most appropriately at the end, and this is one. Before sharing any of my Peru adventures, I must first share the end of my story. I returned home four days earlier than planned, having made my way some 4,200 miles with a broken ankle.
Peru is a rugged place. Continue reading
Tomorrow, I’ll head off to Peru for a two-week adventure. It’s impossible to express in words my gratitude for this opportunity. My heart is full of joy and expectation.
I know I will return with stories to share, and I know that I will be surprised and amazed in more ways than I can now imagine. Continue reading
This post relates to the third week’s discussion (a little late) in Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability, a six-week discussion course made possible by the Northwest Earth Institute. This week, we read articles by Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Francis Lam, Tom Philpott, Mary Vance, Alan Greene and one from The Organic Center.
Each week, we begin with an “opener,” offered by one person who shares a thought, a memory, an object—anything relating to our work in this course. It gets us thinking and talking. Beth, as an opener for Week 3, brought a bag full of packaged foods from her home cupboards, most of which were labeled “organic.” What we passed around surprised us all. One by one, we read the labels, revealing marketing claims, additives, chemicals and trans fats lurking in the fine print. Continue reading
I traveled south this weekend to Manchester, New Hampshire for a three-day healing retreat, an experience that was to lead me into intimate lessons with a small group of women, all healing from chronic illness of one sort or another. The conversations, exercises and reflections were hard, hard work for me and others who probably also face each day with very limited energy. Amazingly, not one of us gave up in any way. We stayed with the work into the evening, each day, knowing and trusting that it was moving us to a new place of understanding our disease. More importantly, our healing. Continue reading
This food stuff we’re so interested in is complicated. The facts reveal themselves layer by layer, often connecting back to layers revealed days, months or years ago. Suffice it to say, we should never take at face value messages from the mass media proclaiming the healthy virtues of any food. Dig deeper, for the nuggets of truth.
Yesterday, I read that the Mars Corporation endowed a “chocolate chair” in 1997 at the University of California at Davis: the Mars Chair in Developmental Nutrition. Continue reading
Chronic illness teaches powerful lessons. It nudges us to look far beyond our comfort zones in consideration of new ideas, medicines and healing approaches.
In my own process recovering from Lyme disease, I’ve come to understand that true healing happens on much more than just the physical level. To make true and real progress with ongoing illness, it’s critical to address all the dimensions of health. Lately, I have focused on five dimensions of health: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and social. Continue reading
Salad greens on pennies a day? In the middle of winter, in your kitchen? Organic, even? Yes, it’s possible. It’s even easy. So easy, in fact, that I’m challenged to understand why everyone’s not doing it.
Growing sprouts in the kitchen, year-round, is one of the simplest and least expensive ways to incorporate fresh, organic greens into your diet. From seeds to sprouts in a matter of four or five days, you’ll soon be chomping on the best quality sprouts you’ve ever tasted. Continue reading
