SWEET SURRENDER

Back From the Farm

At last I am finding the energy to post again!  It always surprises me how it can take so long to get back into rhythm of things after disrupting it for a week with travel.   But alas, housework and laundry have gotten caught up, menus have been thought out and groceries have been purchased, visits with family and friends are manifesting and all feels well. 

My trip to the Farm was wonderful on so many levels.  I really enjoyed my workshops, learned so much, and have a newly awakened desire to complete my Birthing From Within training.  BFW has given me new tools in how I approach life.  I am learning to listen with my deep belly ear.  I have been given new language to describe my experience of life.  I am seeing how I can approach life as a heroine's journey embracing it a step at a time instead of worrying about any outcome.  I am learning how to speak to my inner child, victim, and judge with love.  I am approaching art with the joy and innocence of a child and learning how to open myself to receive creative life force.  I am learning to find my voice and "sing my own verse" in this life of mine.  This time in my life, this piece of the awakening of my soul is so rewarding and at the same time freaking scary.  In order to move forward, I have to release old agreements and shed layers of protection that have been in place for many years.  Sometimes I am very good at trying to resist these changes, but at the same time, I know the only way I can exist with peace in my heart is to keep moving on even if it means only baby steps. I cannot give up even when I am asked to go to very uncomfortable places.  What a gift I have been given in this work.  The very best thing is that as I awaken these places within myself, I am able to present the tools to parents to awaken these things within themselves.  Not only is Birthing From Within preparing the heart for the journey of labor and parenting, it is giving new mothers and fathers life tools that can be passed to the children.

So, not only did I get to connect with beautiful, inspired women, I also got to connect with many Earth conscious individuals either working or apprenticing at the Farm.  I made some lovely connections and had many interesting conversations and I am just so inspired to see change occurring at so many levels.  A planetary shift is happening- so many paths to awakening.  I have been watching so many amazing documentaries lately- Inconvenient Truth, the 11th hour, Go Further.  I feel an amazing shift has been happening with in our family of discovering all that we can do to walk lightly on the earth.  It has been soo long since I have been surrounded by people who were experimenting with sustainability in many aspects of life, who were so happy with life that they gave smiles freely.  It recharged my batteries in a big way.

  One of my favorite moments was when I was walking from the Eco-Village (where I slept and prepared my food) to the conference center (where my workshop was held).  As I was walking, I saw a young fawn grazing on a patch of grass.  I felt that once it sensed my presence, it would bolt, just like the deer in the parks of my home town.  Much to my surprise, it stayed munching.  An amazing peace came over me as I realized that the deer was not afraid of me.  At that moment, I really felt the connection of all beings living in harmony.  And as if this heart melting encounter wasn't enough, at the very same time,  the most magical sun was setting off in the distance.  Love, love, yummy love. 

I only have two pictures from my visit.  In this one, I am (on the left) with two beautiful sisters I connected with who not only work at the Farm, but also took the BFW training. 

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You can't tell from the picture, but the sister in the middle has beautiful dread locks.  I am seriously considering dreading my hair after it grows out longer.  It is something that I have always wanted to try, but have been too chicken to do (I tried for about a month once).   When I got home, I found this inspiring blog post and this website.  I read that once you have committed to dreads, you have committed to stares from strangers as well.  So, I guess I will try my hand at the hairy legs and hairy pits for awhile and see what happens.  But anyhow, I sidetrack myself.  I am hoping to put a post up soon about making kombucha and the dreadie sista gave me some good tips that I will share as well.  I  have also promised Yarrow a post about making yarrow oil and yarrow sticks and I will also be paying it forward , so by sure to stop back by!     

On the road again

I'm getting really excited!  As I mentioned in my last post, we will be going out of town come Monday.  I am going to a workshop at the Farm.  I am really looking forward to seeing Pam England's talk on Birth as a Heroine's Journey.  I have heard it is phenomenal. I think the talk may shed some light on certain aspects of my home study as well (for those of you who do not know, I am training as a Birthing From Within Mentor).   I am also going to assist during the level one training.  I am excited for the opportunity and for the refresher since I took my level one three years ago now.  I am sure I will pick up on some different things now that I have been mentoring classes and just because I am a different person than I was three years ago.  I am also looking forward to the doula training portion of it all.  I am a certified doula through a different organization, but I feel my doulaing skills have improved tremendously with my BFW background, so I would like to hear what they are teaching.  They didn't offer this when I took my level one training.  I also signed up for a question and answer session with the farm midwives which I think will be quite enjoyable. 

Although, I have the option of purchasing vegetarian meals while I stay, I think I will be making most of my own food.  They have a champion juicer in the kitchen that I will be using, so I can continue to juice every morning-yee haw!  I am also taking my blender for some smoothies for lunches.  So, this week I am making several dehydrated goods to take.  It is more dehydrated food than I would typically eat in one week, but it will travel well and since I am already taking a lot of produce just for the juice and smoothies, I will have to see what my storing options are.  There is a health food store with some produce, so I may be able to buy the fixins for salad as well.  I am planning on taking some wakame (a sea vegetable) with a dressing to make I am Nourished- a delicious salad out of the I am Grateful recipe book.

   This is a really fun book that my friend is letting borrow (Thanks Aimee!).

I am really enjoying the recipes.  One thing that we really like out of the book is called I Am Whole macro bowl.  It is a transitional dish that is made with quinoa served on a bed of shredded kale with grated carrot, sprouts, raw kimchee, and teriyaki almonds.  I am planning on eating this a couple of times while I am there, so this week I whipped up a batch of kimchee and of the teriyaki almonds.  You can also make this dish using a raw rice which finely chopped daikon mixed with pine nuts and garlic and warmed up in the dehydrator.  I made it once for some nori rolls and it was DELICIOUS.  I can't wait to try it again.  If you used that, then the dish would become raw, but since I have quinoa and I am still practicing Aparigraha in the kitchen, I am grateful to use the quinoa.  It is one of the fastest digesting grains there is which is a bonus. 

The almonds are super yummy and consist of soaked almonds that are coated in a paste of date puree, tamari, garlic, and ginger and then dehydrated.  Here are the almonds with the paste waiting to be mixed.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksAnd here they are mixed  and spread on the dehydrator tray. 
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksHere is the kimchee I made.  It is a mixture of napa cabbage, daikon radish, carrot, ginger, garlic, red chili pepper flakes, and real salt.  You mix everything in a bowl and pound on it -  I used my pestle until the juices release (about ten minutes) and then you put it all in a mason jar and make sure the juices rise above the veggie mixture.  You then cover it and let it sit on the counter for 3 days to ferment.  You can then store it in the refrigerator. 
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksI also made some Nori sheets that have a spicy nut pate dehydrated onto them and some grawnola and buckwheaties, but I have no pictures to share.  So, hopefully the family will be set!  I may try to post one more time before I leave, but if not, enjoy your week everyone!  And to end is a clip off of you tube giving more explanation about Cafe gratitude - home of the recipe book shown above. 

It's been pretty juicy around here

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksFor the past five days, my meals have been mostly juice.  In addition to the juice, I have been consuming one green smoothie each day.  It all started on a whim last weekend when I was reading an ebook by Storm and Jinjee about drinking fresh orange juice as a cleanse.  There is a farmer at my farmer's market who picks up fresh, basically organic citrus from Florida through the winter and brings it back here to sell.   It tastes out of this world and is sold for a very good price.  So, I thought, "hey, why not?"   I have been cleaning up my diet a lot and felt like it might be nice to give my body a rest for deeper cleaning.   I went into it thinking I may do it for only three days, but by day three it was feeling much easier, so I continued.   I soon came to realize that although the orange juice was very delicious, it was just too sweet to drink alone, so I made many other kinds of juices along the way too-some with orange juice in them.  I also made the plain orange juice. All and all, the oranges definitely helped to make it more budget friendly.  It's felt really good to take a little rest from solids.  It's been awhile because of my status as nursing mommy.  It also felt really good to drink a green smoothie each evening too.  Whenever I juice, I think to myself that I need to learn how to incorporate more of it into my diet.  I have been juicing every morning for the past couple of months, but I think with this current experience, I am setting a goal to myself to juice one day each week.   I think it will be a nice way to put into perspective each week how I am doing with my never ending quest to reach optimal health- both physically and spiritually.   I also have a couple more goals.  One is to have a few green smoothies a week and the other is to try to only have 3-4 cooked meals a week.  Before this juicing we have been having 5-6 cooked meals a week (though they definitely fit into the category of transitional meals that include a portion of raw too).  So, I'll see how it goes, but it seems very doable to me especially with the warmer seasons on their way. 

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksHere are the oranges from the market.  So delicious and it goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover. I love the clarity that juicing brings into my life.  We have been having a very good week.  The boys and I are going out of town on Monday ( I hope to share more of that with you in another post), so I will be reintroducing solids tomorrow (Saturday).  Anyhow, with all the preparation that going out of town entails, the week has been quite smooth.  I seem to be getting everything done that I need to be doing without stressing out, plus fitting extra special moments with the boys and friends in.  I also have been enjoying yoga this week.  It is easier to get into a meditative head space on just liquids (but I also think I experienced that on all raw as well).  So that makes the connection between spine, breath, and motion all the more yummy.  I have also been starting my day with several rounds of the sun salutation (versions A, B, &C) or also known as Surya Namaskar.  Here is version C.  Rowan watches quite contentedly and Silas (son of mine who I thought may never read who now can't get his nose out of a book!) usually begins his morning plopped on the futon reading so he couldn't care less.  I guess that is another realization from the week that my yoga practice can be all day long.  It's all about living your yoga.  I am glad I found out it is a possibility to incorporate morning yoga into my day again.  I should not feel limited because I have a two year old.  He really didn't get in the way and when he did, I embraced it.  His two year old cuteness is such a joy! 
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo BooksSo, I must share two super tasty recipes.  I checked out a book from the library with different juice recipes and the one that I think is a real keeper is shown above.  3 oranges3 carrotsknob of ginger roothalf of a fresh pineappleMy favorite green smoothie of the recent past is 1/2 bunch of parsley 2 pears1 cup of waterI got that recipe from Kelly at Raw in Montana.Love and Light.  Sara