Mineral Broth

For a grounding and nutrient-dense delight, you could make this. You can freeze it in any freezer-friendly container or in an ice-cube tray to have some cubes available for sauteing veggies and the like. You can also keep in the fridge for 3 - 5 days and just use as needed. This recipe is flexible and you can add whatever you like. I’m not crazy about cruciferous veggies (brocolli, kale, cabbage, turnip, kohlrabi, etc.) in the broth, the flavour is just not my bag. I would add cruciferous veg to an actual soup instead. Sip on this alone or use as a base for soups or grain cooking. I have listed below what I put in mine, but you can add or subtract anything based on what you feel like putting in and what you have readily available.

Mineral Broth

Before…

Roughly chop the following:

1 Onion

1 Garlic

2 leeks, all parts!

4 carrots

4 parsnips

4 celery stalks

4 small beets

1 daikon radish

1 celery root

2 sweet potato

1 potato

1 apple

Add optional nutrient boosters:

2 tbsp Chaga Tea cut

1 tbsp sea vegetable flakes

1 strip kombu

2 tbsp yacon root

2 tbsp goji berries

1 bunch parsley

Add enough filtered water to cover your goods and bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for minimum 2 hours. Strain and place in containers.

Mineral Broth

After

Thursday at 4

It was my first time scheduling a death.  I’d never called around to get death quotes, trying to find the best deal on the killing of a beloved family member.  The time, however had come and it was up to me to make the arrangements.  “How about Thursday at 4?” “Yes, that should work,” I replied through tears.  Thursday at 4.  Our place. 

Mushu is my step-cat.  She and her adopted cat brother Mau came with my husband thirteen years ago.  Mushu liked to hang out in our backyard hunting mice and voles.  She would often deliver them, usually headless at our back door. (I know, I know - gross - but she’s a cat, so…)  She liked to lay in the sun and keep guard in the garden.  She had that classic cat side-eye thing down. She kept Mau warm at night (he’s super skinny and crazy, she was not,) and while he would often pick fights with her, she usually won.  Then we would see them cuddled together on the couch, her giving him a bath.  Theirs was a complicated relationship. 

A few months ago, my husband noticed she was losing weight and not eating very much.  A few weeks after that, she started to get some swelling on her face.  We thought maybe it was a tooth infection so after a visit with a veterinarian, then another visit with another veterinarian and a shot of antibiotics, nothing changed and she ate and drank even less.  It was becoming clear that the swelling was a tumour and we would have to take steps.  We held out, selfishly probably.  She still purred when we pet her, her personality seemingly unchanged.  It’s hard to pull the plug on a life that still seems very much alive.  But over the next couple weeks, things really started to look like a struggle for her and eventually she stopped eating altogether.  Euthanasia – “an easy death” was the solution to a problem that many a pet owner has faced. 

Thursday at 4 came.  My husband came home from work early, my daughter sat outside petting Mushu, her sobs very audible, which of course set me off too.  My son, waiting for the vet to arrive, popped off a quick round of Fortnite - his happy place, I guess.  I made a pot of chamomile tea and put on some appropriate music – instrumental, sad.  We all came inside and sat in a circle around Mushu, petting her in all her favourite places while our vet, the picture of compassion as I imagine any vet in this circumstance has to be, explained to us what would happen.  Mushu seemed ready for it all. She never tried to get away, she seemed peaceful.  Even Mau, who had been with Mushu for all of her 15 years sat and stayed with us through it all.

I know I’m talking about an animal here and about a very subjective experience that will have a different meaning to everyone reading this, but this occasion was moving not only because of my personal connection to the situation, but because of the space it afforded my family in dealing with the complicated subject of death.  We’ve had death in our family before, but never with a being so close to all of us, never with a member of our household.  While we knew in our hearts that this was the right thing to do, it was important for our kids to know why we were doing it.  Sometimes the most compassionate thing to do is the hardest thing imaginable.  I was proud of the kids for being there (they had the option to leave and refused,) I was proud of the incredible empathy and kindness they showed and the fact that they didn’t run from death.  They sat there, crying, feeling, being with it all.  They did the hard thing. 

Death is tricky.  This was a “little” death for us, it was a pet who was suffering and to be honest, my relationship with the cats has been a difficult one, to say the least. But the whole situation opened up a bigger part of my heart than I thought it might. It surprised me. Our “feel no pain” culture has been trying very hard to avoid or delay it at all costs and the trickle-down effect is that some of us can’t even face it when it comes. The truth is though, death is hard, it’s not something we should ever get good at. I’m not making a case for death to become “easy” for all of us – compassion, empathy and our attachments will never make it so.  But can we move through death with grace and acceptance, even when it feels like the bottom just dropped out of our lives?  Can we approach death with love instead of fear?  What would our world look like if we truly understood that the finality of death is not all there is; that the purpose of another’s life is measured just as much by the journey it took to get there? 

Last night before bed, I habitually went to the back door to check that we didn’t leave Mushu out.  These habits will fade eventually, I suppose.  I only hope the memories and lessons of her life and of her death, will not. 

Baba Ghanouj-ish (AKA Eggplant dip) Recipe

Fancy eggplant dip AKA Baba Ghanouj, carrots, glitter tattoo from my kid’s school family night, remnants of dip on my fingertip. My kind of day.

Baba ghanouj! (Or is it ghanoush? Ganoosh? A dip made of eggplants and stuff anyway.) Alberta eggplants were up at the market and I couldn't resist.  Best veggie dip/spread/saucy number. 

Eggplants are not for everyone - they are a nightshade and they can be trouble for some. But like all foods, there’s a bright side too - eggplants are good for clearing stagnant blood in the body, helpful for hemorrhoids, support balance in the liver and uterus and are rich in bioflavonoids. (Talk with your medical practitioner, but Asian medicine encourages minimal consumption in pregnancy.)

Slice largish eggplant in half (or quarters if it's really big,) brush with a bit of olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt (I used my girl, Luka Symon’s herb salt she made for me, cos she's a pal.)  Roast for 30 minutes or so at 400°F until soft.  Meanwhile mix the following till smooth: 

2 tbsp lemon juice 

1-2 cloves garlic 

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup tahini (I was out so used sunflower seed butter instead, worked fine)

1/4 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp dried or handful fresh chopped parsley

1/4 tsp sea salt

Optional dash of hot sauce (I used Luka’s fermented hot sauce she made me cos, did I mention what a pal she is?)

When eggplant is soft and cooler, spoon out of skin into a fine mesh strainer and press excess liquid out for a minute. Transfer eggplant pulp into oil mixture and mash or hand blend to desired consistency.  Enjoy as a spread/dip of any kind.  I topped mine with smoked paprika and dried parsley from last year's Blue Mountain Biodynamic Farm crop. 

(Dry your herbs if you can't use them fresh! You'll thank yourself later #nutritionadviceudidntaskedfor)

Enjoy, my friends!

A Month on Money

Money. money, money

Must be funny, in a rich man’s world

- Abba

This lovely and very revealing month’s study began when I got a book out of the library called Worry-Free Money by Shannon Lee Simmons. It was a delightfully easy read and gave me (and my husband,) plenty of things to think about and a couple fresh new spreadsheets.

Money is one of those things that I really never like to think a whole lot about. I have enough for my needs, not enough for my wants and the whole financial system is fraught with complexity and confusion and sometimes, high emotions. And so, much like my approach to politics in my 20’s, I just kind of ignored it. My husband, on the other hand, feeling the intense pressure of being the only one with a steady pay cheque and with an eye on retiring (or at least downsizing his job to something less stressful,) really was taking this money thing seriously and I figured, it’d be good for my #becomingaresponsibleadult mission to see what I could learn.

Worry-Free Money was a great little foray into the common sense rules of managing one’s finances and really worked to help me reclaim my money mojo. Simply the act of investing (get it?) some time looking at my spending created a different mindset for me. Simmons is very gentle and practical in her approach and makes understanding what the actual fuck is going on in the world of money pretty straightforward. Turns out the old adage “a penny saved is a penny earned,” still rings true. (Except for the penny part, because we don’t mess with those anymore.) Here’s my big takeaways:

• Figure out what you actually spend over an average 3 month period - I was surprised by how much those trips to the cafe with the kids actually cost in the long run!

• Actually save throughout the year for expenses like Birthday and Christmas gifts, car and house repairs, summer holidays, etc.

• Actually save. (But also have a payment plan in place for debt.)

• Accruing wealth really does just come down to (a) spending less and/or (b) earning more.

• Spending on items provides you with an “emotional return on investment.” If that isn’t high, reconsider buying it. (Don’t let your FOMO and YOLO make you BROKE-O.)

• STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS. This goes in all things, but especially when it comes to money. You are not others and quite frankly, most of the time, you have no idea what their story is. They may be swimming in debt, they may have a crazy inheritance from their grandmother. You don’t know and it’s none of your business so just stick to your business, which ought to be rollin’ in that chedda, yo.

• Money talks don’t have to be personal. It doesn’t need to always end with (me in) tears.

• Also relax. Have you been taken care of financially thus far in life? If so, chances are that will continue. If not, take a breath and educate yourself. Knowing what is possible will move you in a positive direction and allow you the space to grab your money by the billfold (or whatever that saying is,) and move towards financial freedom. Believe it is possible.

A Month on Creativity

Quit the bitching on your blog and stop pretending art is hard, just limit yourself to three chords and do not practice daily…

- Amanda Palmer, Ukulele Anthem

So “A Month on Creativity” is a definite misnomer. I’ve been working on creativity (like all of us, whether we think so or not,) for my entire life. My childhood was spent deep in the trenches of my imagination, sometimes to the exclusion of anything happening in “real life,” man, the world I could create was incredible. My teen years were spent constantly writing stories and songs and observations in my journals and in University, I decided I wanted to make films so I spent four years studying theatre and film (and weirdly, German,) followed by a year internship at a local theatre company and a summer floating around Western Canada stage managing my best friends’ Fringe show.

Then, like all journeys, mine took a bit of a different course, (a seemingly unrelated course, but in hindsight, turns out it wasn’t so unrelated after all.) I traveled around Europe for a year and moved away from theatre and the business of art, but never away from creating. I learned how to play guitar, wrote poetry and songs and kept that journal going for my whole trip and it continues to this day (albeit, at a very amateur level.) Then I got pretty heavy into spirituality, married a spiritual dude and made a couple kids. As any parent knows, little kids pretty much suck up the entirety of one’s earthly existence, at least for awhile and my experience was no different. Creativity took on a different form during those early parenting years. More of a “how can I get 8 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period?” kind of thing. All the while the writing was there, even if it was for only 5 minutes a day.

With kids come kids’ stories. Of course, like most of us, we read stories to the kids before bed and when it was time for lights out and they still wanted a story, we just made them up. That’s where Bob came in. Exhausted of thinking of a story myself, I asked the kids to give me a topic and they said “an apple” and the story just went from there. When I saw my friend, Sachiko’s art, right away I asked if she would illustrate a kids’ book and to my great delight, she said “Yes!” (Well, she asked to read the story first to make sure it wasn’t shit, then she said “Yes!”) That was a couple of years ago and this month was focused on working on that book and doing all the things one has to do to get a book published. Which, turns out, is a lot of things. Still working on it.

I’m writing a kids’ book! Bob, The Apple - A sneak peak of the illustrations in process, beautifully created by the great talent, Sachiko Niebler.

So that’s that. If I were to offer any wise words gleaned through a month of focus on creativity, it would be this: just do it. Don’t think about it, don’t agonize over it, just do 5 or 60 or 360 minutes of something everyday and if you miss a day, do it the next day or the next, just do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a specific project or just making some random thing - a poem, a drawing, a cardboard cutout, a dance party, a journal entry, whatever it is, just make something. It doesn’t need to be good, it doesn’t even need to be seen by anyone other than you. The very act of putting effort towards some new endeavor exercises the creative muscle and gets you to the place where your imagination is not “merely a fantasy-generator,” but rather an “organ of perception” where you can find the sacred in the mundane and transform your everyday experience into something a hell of a lot more interesting.

If you’re sufficiently tuned into the gestalt of creation and pay close enough attention to its unfolding details, you can read the current mood of the universe in an arrangement of red onions in the grocery store bin or the fluttering of sunlight and shadow on the mimosa tree or the scatter of soap suds in your sink after you’ve finished washing the dishes.

Can you do it? Discern the signature of creation at this or any other perfect moment? Peer into the secret heart of the collective unconscious? Guess what the Goddess is thinking?

Hint: It will help if you keep working on transforming your imagination from a mere fantasy-generator into an organ of perception.

- Rob Brezsny

Some Resources I relied on this month for igniting creativity:

Books:

Art Matters, by Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Chris Riddell

Let the Elephants Run: Unlock Your Creativity and Change Everything, by David Usher

The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron

I also get regular emails from this little sweet little site:

www.brainpickings.org - Maria Popova features poets and the great creative geniuses of our time; this site is chock-full of thought-provoking inspiration.

There are so many more sources of inspiration out there, you’ll find the call to the universe to bring more creativity into your life will not go unheard. Make the call and you’ll see magic happen.

A Month on Environment

When I chose this month as a topic I wanted to work on, I was thinking of Japanese maven of joyful cleaning, Marie Kondo’s whimsical and maybe a bit OCD book (all respect to actual OCD’ers,) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  For those who haven’t heard of this book, it’s a lovely little foray into the life and mind of someone who is a highly effective space organizer and who may or may not have actual Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  (For the record, despite my Virgo classification, I am NOT a highly effective space organizer when it comes to my space.  I’m great with other people’s stuff, but not mine.)  As the month’s exploration went on, I realized it was not just my external environment I was working on; it was also my internal environment.  Like a cleanse for both the mind and the closet to help me simplify my life.  I am so adept at filling my day with so many things, so many thoughts, but what of that actually moves me toward the places I want to end up?  Let’s discuss, shall we?

I think we all know that our lives flow a bit easier when our house is in order; at least mine does anyway.  It’s like a clean flow of creativity and positive energy when my house is clutter-free.  That said, I live with three other people who may or may not clean up after themselves, a behavior likely influenced by my own on-again, off-again relationship with cleaning efficacy. This month reinforced the idea that with cleaning must come patience – understanding that we sometimes get it all done in slow order and that it’s a job that keeps undoing itself - the effort is constant.  All the work of the past few months comes into play here – be aware of places where change is necessary, but be kind and patient with myself and my family and accept the state of things as they are so that I don’t go crazy “shoulding” all over myself when my reality doesn’t match my expectations.  This requires a lot of effort for me and in many ways, this month’s exploration has been one of the biggest challenges in the practice of “A Year At My Best.” 

One thing I realized in talking with all my fellow adults about this very topic – The Clean House – is that my story is not unique.  This is a topic as ubiquitous as the weather, you can talk to just about anyone about it and you will find common ground in the field of frustration and dissatisfaction.  Even my mother-in-law, who is the very personification of super-accomplished Housewife, gets frustrated with the unending hell of keeping a house.  I think this basic fact accounts for the wild success of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  We’re all looking for answers, for a prescription, for some kind of guidance into the world of having our house in order.  Has her book helped me personally?  Absolutely.  Kondo lays out, in quirkily-translated splendor, the steps one could take to help keep the stuff you need to keep (“it sparks joy,”) and deftly remove the stuff you don’t (“it doesn’t spark joy.”)  Her approach is lovely because it breaks things down into cleaning through sections, rather than rooms.  The approach is a new way of looking at things for those of us who have no rhyme or reason to how we organize. Generally, I don’t know where to start, so I simply don’t start.  This book gave me a place to start and that was very helpful.  But it also gave me deep insight into the process of managing expectations.  They say no one has ever laid on their deathbed and said “I wished I kept a tidier house.”  Perspective is key.

In a recent meditation class I attended, the facilitator talks about the concept of ownership.  When we look at material possessions and by extension, thoughts and emotions, we can ask ourselves: are we really the owner of this?  Similar to Kondo’s ‘Sparking Joy’ concept - looking at something and really deeply considering if you are the one who should own this - is a helpful way of stripping away the excess.  I have come to realize, how much stuff we have in our house.  (The privilege that allows me to write that sentence is not lost on me, by the way.)  How much of this could go to someone else who needs it more than I?  The same for the excess thoughts that clutter my mind – how much of this do I need to hold onto?  Am I the owner of these thoughts or has the muddle of everyone else’s voices drowned out my own?  Where can we look at our material mess as a physical manifestation of our own internal mess?  Is that even the case for you?  Sometimes, I think it might be for me.

I once read some advice from a writer that said each line in a story must either develop character or move the story forward.  Certainly this sentence has permeated everything I looked at this month.  In decluttering my home, I help declutter my mind and I’m motivated by these simple questions – does it spark joy?  And further to that – does it develop my character?  Does it move the story forward? 

Until next time, dear reader – let’s clean up!

My cleaning solution recipe added to a spray bottle has been cleaning household surfaces in my house for years. It goes without saying that part of being a Holistic Nutrition girl means keeping my environment as non-toxic as possible. There are things in my home (carpet, shitty windows, etc.) that are what they are until they can be changed, but using health-friendly cleaners and replacing old non-health promoting products with healthier choices is a simple improvement I can make in my environment.

A Month on Self-Care

"You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness."
 - Eckhart Tolle

I was just listening to a podcast where the guest talked about being better than you were yesterday and that the goal is to set the bar lower than you think.  This was so vital for me to hear.  I, like most of us, am always expecting WAY too much from myself.  The notion of walking the line between stretching your limits and not pushing yourself too far into overwhelm is a constant balancing act for everyone I know.  I talked about this in my first month on Awareness – working with discernment, especially when it comes to honestly observing our own behavior and its outcomes, can be a tricky little thing to do.

I’ve been compelled, as of late, to spend less energy considering other’s impressions of me.  Some people call it “giving zero fucks,” which I think is a bit of a misnomer.  Caring what others think of us is a pretty natural inclination for social beings, but basing my decisions about what I wear, who I hang out with, opinions of my own self-image, and what I do with my time and creativity strictly on what other people think of me is illogical.  It’s akin to the concept of not taking things personally because there’s no way we can control other people’s perceptions.  We see this played out so beautifully in nature.  We all know that a tree does what a tree does regardless of what anyone thinks about it.  The circle of birth into death and back again is so keenly embodied in our ecology that it’s difficult to deeply observe the ebb and flow of a river or a plant through the seasons and not eventually absorb the lessons therein.  We try, as humans, to master nature, to supersede the order of things and perhaps we even succeed up to a point, but the constant struggle to supplant our own state (we are, after all, natural beings,) is a denial of who we really are, creating a struggle that probably isn’t worth the stress it causes.

I often find myself in comparison mode with others and it’s these moments when I have the opportunity to remind myself to just concentrate on my own shit and work there.  A lot of people are doing cool stuff and thank goodness, they bring their own unique magic to the world.  “Everything’s been done, but not by you,” said someone wiser than me whose name I cannot remember.  One beautiful lesson that has come my way a few times in the past month has been that I am enough just as I am right now.  That the pursuit of self-improvement is a faulty one if my end goal is not based in altruism.  Too often we long to be “better” so that we can gain approval of others or be recognized for our incredible genius.   Of course we try to grow and get to a place of consistent contentment, but our intention must be bigger than just to increase the status of our own meat sack we’re walking around in. 

This month I worked with a couple of concepts around self-care.  At first thought I always thought of self-care as a very passive endeavor – getting a massage, taking a much-needed nap, laying in the grass, watching clouds and practicing my apophenia (dudes, that’s a word I had to look up because I knew there must be a word for looking for shapes in clouds and there is, it’s apophenia.)  It soon became clear that self-care is so much more than that and looking at the active version of it was an important iteration of examining self-care.  Self-care began to evolve into self-compassion, when for example, I didn’t write my blog posts on time; self-care also meant writing the damn post because I had made a commitment to myself to write it and keeping my word to myself was an active and potent form of self-care.  The multi-dimensionality of self-care revealed, here I am writing the post and it actually does feel like I’m taking care of myself, after all.

When I think of self-care, I remember the analogy of the ambulance my meditation teacher told so many years ago.  The ambulance is on the road solely to be of service to other people and as such, is the most impeccably maintained vehicle on the road.  We are here in service to others, I believe that is our true sole/soul purpose, but we can’t take care of others if we can’t take care of ourselves. You are enough right now, what if you started each moment with that premise? Find the balance, keep flowing and take care of yourself.

A Month on Movement

A Month on Movement

So basically, I could write two words and this post would be done:

Katy Bowman.

But I’ll go on because I KNOW you want me to tell you more. 

Two years ago, I fell in love with the mind and work of Ms. Bowman because, no joke, she is a mad genius.  I’ve been quoting her work and recommending it to everyone I know because everyone I know has a body and everyone I know wants to move it.  I found that even the healthiest movers I know still suffered from niggling pains or discomfort or were looking for a sustainable approach so that they could continue to move well into their older years.  Katy’s approach drew me in from the get-go.  To refer to movement as a kind of nutrition made my heart sing.  Exploring movement as nutrition means understanding that just as the body requires varying amounts and types of nutrients from food, it requires the same nutritional input from physical movement.  Katy looks at movement as the whole and “exercise” as only part of that whole.  Her solution-focused approach seeks to explore how we build our lifestyles and environment to either promote movement or outsource it and she eloquently explores the results of both of those paradigms, without being too judge-y, judge-y.     

A simple example of this is food acquisition.  How do we get our food?  Generally, I go to the store or Farmer’s Market and purchase my food.  Some people have a garden and grow and harvest their own food and others are legit farmers who grow and harvest all their own food, plant and animal.  Think for a moment about all the various movements involved in these different methods of food acquisition and if you’re in my camp (non-gardener/farmer,) consider how we may be outsourcing our movement to others as opposed to doing that work ourselves.  There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these scenarios, but what Katy suggests is that our body needs movement, so if we are outsourcing it, that’s cool, but our bodies still require movement, so where do we get that missing input from?

Enter Exercise.  In a culture that consistently outsources our movement to other people and/or machines, the body’s need for physical movement still exists and we all know by now what science is saying about sedentarism - “sitting is the new smoking,” we’re told.  Never mind our societal delusion that says that we need to be thin, lean and a certain waist/bust/hip/thigh size to be considered beautiful.  I’m talking about the innate evolutionary requirement that our DNA actually engage in moderate to vigourous movement on a regular basis.  Our lymphatic system is set up much like our cardiovascular system in that it sends fluid (in its case, lymphatic fluid,) to pump throughout our system, spreading our immune defenders, draining toxins and a whole host of other jobs along the way.  The difference is the cardiovascular system has a heart that pumps the blood, our lymph system needs US to make it pump by moving our muscles!!! Trampolines and their little offspring, rebounders, faster paced walking and running are common activities that help move our lymphatic fluid.  Moving is literally a required nutrient for our bodies and ignoring that fact could be one of the main factors in the chronic illness that is becoming so prevalent.  Never in human history have we collectively moved so little. 

So I’ll say this - and this is another reason that I love Katy Bowman, she operates by examining the problem and spending more time presenting a solution – look at your home, your work, your lifestyle.  Where can you create more movement space for yourself?  If you have kids and you want them to move more, where can you be a role model for movement?  Very rarely do I sit still on the bench at the playground with my kids.  I have so little “free time” in my schedule, I can’t reasonably match my ancestors level of physical activity right now.  But I can easily incorporate little pieces, one at a time, into my day.  Yes, I look like a bit of a freak to the uninitiated at the school playground, but fuck ‘em.  I want to be running around with my great grandkids someday, so I’d rather move it now than lose it later. 

Here's my sometimes strange, but always helpful activities for the month:

• Walk over drive whenever I can.  Errands to run?  Can I do it in my community on foot, rather than drive?  Bonus points for bringing the kids and we get to chat and catch up on our day and I have help carrying the groceries.  Also double bonus because carrying the stuff is like a little weight lifting session.  (Katy calls this “stacking your life.”  I want to hang out with my kids and need to exercise and get food so how can I do it all?)

• If you’re a gardener – same thing – do you want to involve your kids?  Do you just want them to be outside and making their own adventure?  How can you facilitate that by just being an example?

• When the kids are playing at the park, what can I do with that equipment that can help me increase my movement?  Climb?  Hang on the monkey bars and work towards a pull up?  Chase the kids around playing tag?

• Ever heard of bi-lateral crawling?  I’ve been doing that anytime I move around my house with nothing in my hands.  Ya, I’m a total weirdo, but no one’s here to see me, except my family and they already accept my weirdness so why not get a mini workout while I travel to the bathroom?

• Dance parties!  These may be a super under-utilized family movement opportunity.  We each pick a couple songs and sweat till we bleed.  Well, till we sweat.  Honestly, bleeding is a bit much. (#c+cmusicfactory)

Check out the resources page on this site for more Physical Nutrition resources.  Shout out to all the movers out there inspiring me!  You move me in more ways than one.  This month I continued with my online yoga with Brea Johnson of Heart and Bones Yoga (@heartandbonesyoga on Instagram) and I love to watch what Stefano Tripney (@captainstefano on Instragram) is up to.  I can’t yet do anything he can do, except walk, but I love imagining the possibilities.  Also Abby Corriveau (@femininebadass on Instagram) is pretty, well, badass.  Here in Calgary, my girl Jenelle Kitto (@vidasana_living on Instagram) has some smooth moves in the yoga department as well!  And of course, check out Katy Bowman at nutritiousmovement.com (@nutritiousmovement on Instagram) and her podcast, Move Your DNA and any one of her books.

Most of these folks have amazing free resources through their sites and YouTube that can get you started on incorporating more movement into your life.  I also did a whole lotta walking outside – solo and with kids.  Basically just move, don’t stress yourself out with how much or what kind, just schedule in movement each day and see where it takes you!

A Month with Community

“Without a community, you cannot go very far” – Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s been a bit of a trip thinking about community – it took a long time for me to wonder what it looked like as a month study.  What does it mean to do your best in relation to community?  I wanted to look at how I foster relationships, how I rely on my relationships with others in my everyday life?  We’re all social creatures, myself especially so – an extrovert, by nature, (but discovering my need to be alone from time to time.)  Moving a lot as a kid has made my relationships even more precious to me and I make every effort to stay in touch with my people and to consider them in decisions, like “Hey, what could we do today?  Let’s invite whosit!” (Whosit is an endearing term that means ‘all the people who I know.’)  I had a friend once tell me that the thing I’m good at is connecting people with ideas and with other people.  Author Elizabeth Gilbert refers to “the pollinators,” people whose purpose it is to explore the world and carry their learnings along with them, allowing cross-pollination to naturally occur, passing information and physical objects from one community to another.  The notion of people as pollinators resonated with me. I loved the film, The Bee Movie and how the concept that Seinfeld, et.al. wanted to show was that bees, the most recognizable O.G. pollinators, had pre-determined jobs and did those jobs unquestionably.  The worker bee did not say “Hey! I wanna be the Queen Bee!” and then fight to become the Queen Bee.  The worker bee was content to be the worker bee and carried on as such.  That is, until Barry B. Benson comes along, but I digress.  Watch the movie.  My point is, recognizing your role in your community doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be the most famous or richest or most popular or what you expected at all, but we all have a role to play and we are all necessary and vital parts of our community.

I try to stay in touch with my community as much as possible.  Sometimes, I only have enough time and energy to take care of my immediate family, but I always try to interact with my wider community as much as I can.  I’m a big fan of picking up the phone and calling my friends.  I realized recently that is one of the things that makes kids in their 20’s consider me “old.” (I realize that calling humans in their 20’s ‘kids,’ also ages me.  I also like buying CD’s and playing them in my car, so…)  Despite all its flaws, social media helps connect to our tribe as well.  I have a pretty amazing group of friends, both close and long distance friends who I only catch up with on Facebook and Instagram.  Generally, my group of friends (and my algorithm) are optimistic and intelligent and putting out content that contributes positively to my life.  Developing discernment around how I let those posts affect my life can be tricky, but ultimately it’s a matter of use what I need and let go of the rest.  This blog is a way too - if I can share some tiny seed of inspiration for one person, that’s enough (as cliché as that sounds.)  The blog is definitely a way for me to stay accountable to my personal work and practically speaking, get my ideas out there. 

Community means many things to many people – it’s our neighbourhood, our friends and family, our home.  I rely on my community to keep me centered and to constantly press the buttons that keep me in my spiritual centre.  I’ll give you an example – my daughter throwing a tantrum.  Here’s a situation that is super unpleasant and the first feelings that rise are anger and frustration, both mine and hers.  It’s hard to do anything but yell or walk away in a situation like that.  But then I remember I used to throw these same temper tantrums when I was a kid, my mom and dad walked away, thinking that ignoring me would be the best solution “Don’t encourage that kind of behavior.”  When I sat and watched my daughter in her fit of rage, stepped back from attaching a personal emotion to it and thought about what was triggering her behavior, I was able to ask: What does she need right now?  What is she really asking for?  I realized it was the same things that little me was asking when I was behaving that way.  I wanted to be heard, to be seen, to be held and given the space to feel the way I was feeling, however irrational it was. (Note – kids are rarely rational, don’t try to reason with a child-mind in a blinding rage, same goes for adults in a blinding rage.)  As soon as I was able to just gently take her hand and hold her in my arms, she calmed down.  It’s interactions and realizations like this with my family, friends and beyond that provide the instances I need to develop as a person.  It’s situations of great personal challenge that allow me to support my community in return. 

Once we come out of the experience of anger, frustration and all manner of shitty feelings, we are better able to empathize with the struggles of our community, we know where they are because we’ve been there ourselves.  This is the boon of suffering.  Our community is here to support us as we support our community.  We see “the helpers,” as Mr. Fred Rogers’ referred to them everywhere, often and especially in times of need.  The quote at the beginning of this post kind of says it all to me – in conversation with Martin Luther King during the Vietnam War, Buddhist monk and Mindfulness teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh knew that unity amongst peace activists was the only way to make their call for peace heard around the world.  Whether we want to be successful as individuals or as a group, there is no such thing as being “self-made,” no one thrives in isolation.  So, dear reader, a deep thank you for being part of my community, I couldn’t be me without you.

Martin Luther King and Thich Nhat Hanh, 1966

A Month On Nature

My dad's take on nature (W. Bewick, 2014, Acrylic on canvas) My camera does not do it justice.

Nature is truly all around us.  My husband and I have some pretty intense discussions around what nature actually is.  I have the idea that it is only that which is wild, the undeveloped (by humans) land that surround us, he thinks nature is everywhere.  Lately, I have been able to see what he means.  Are we not ourselves, nature?  In that case, a paved parking lot made of crushed mountain rocks can be a natural space, especially when you notice the weeds pushing through the cracks.  Being an urban-dweller, I spend plenty of time in the concrete jungle longing for the forest.  This year, having the privilege of spending time in the forest, I noticed how afraid I was being out there alone and was longing for the “safety” of the city!!!  What I realized was that it was just the security of the known versus the unpredictability of the unknown.  As the year went by and I went for more and more solo walks in a great big forest, it became less frightening.  (For the record though, cougars still scare the crap out of me.)

I’ve always been intrigued by the lessons of nature.  The biggest one for me being the lessons of death and rebirth and the ability of nature to abide completely in the very centre of presence, with no judgement, no shame, just unabashedly itself.  Being in nature helps sync my mind with this energy and calm everything, just like hanging out with someone who is really grounded chills me out.  They say like energy attracts like energy and I would go further to say any energy draws out the same energy.  Reading The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv has been incredible to fuel my desire to not only immerse myself in natural experiences, but to bring my kids along for the ride.  Expanding my definition of what constitutes true nature has also been a worthwhile exploration.  Does nature only exist outdoors?  If I’m indoors, how can I bring nature inside with me or is it already there?  How do I abide in nature while living in the doldrums of urbanity?

In the rare moments of inactivity, I am able to realize the nature state that exists within me all the time.  In the more common stretches of action that permeate my day, the constant doing that we all know so well, it’s easy to forget that centre that connects us all with everything that surrounds us.  It’s those times when it’s particularly important to refill the reservoir by dipping into the forest bath, so to speak.  Then I can return to the truth that we are connected to the asphalt in the parking lot, we are connected to the pine trees in the forest and we are most certainly connected to life everywhere.  It’s that joining that can bring nature to you wherever we are.  But for now, I’m headed outside, how about you?