I'll be back in the spring/summer of 2008

Hello friends,
Sorry to have been away so long--just living, loving and grateful for moments of presence. So much abundance living in community and with all of the wonderful things going on at work and at home, but it is a challenge to find much time to be online. I'm officially going to take a break from blogging for now, but I hope to be back in the spring/summer (when the amazing produce and abundant wild greens outside will be too much to keep me from sharing many pics and stories of raw adventures!). :)

Here's one last recipe for the holidays--shared by sangha members Angie and Robert (it's wonderful!):

Olive - Hiziki Tapenade
1 oz. Hiziki (sea vegetable)
1/2 cup olives, pited and chopped
(Angie recommends Kalamata, Alphonso,cerignola or any
combination - Giant and Wegman's have good olive bars)
1/2 cup capers
2 TBS olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ume plum vinegar - more or less to taste
(Angie recommends Eden brand)

Soak hiziki overnight in water. Boil hiziki until tender
and strain away water. Combine all ingredients in food processor
and blend until smooth. Serve with tortilla chips or crackers.


Here's to remembering that we are all One, on the path to remembering who we are as loving beings of light!
Love,
Marykaye

Peace to you and to all beings

Peace to you today, wherever you are this moment. I've been taking a moment to rest and meditate today, and wanted to share this. It's so sweet and joyful when we humans act from this place...



Namaste. :)

Inspired raw posts

Hello everyone,

Spending so much time these days with my dear son and husband, having lovely adventures in the woods and with friends in sangha and community, but not so much time online!  (The beautiful days keep calling me outside and I feel so much love for nature and all of it's creatures--even the occasional fly (River says, "Don't smack it, Mommy, it's alive!"). ).  From the mouths of babes...  I wanted to take a moment to say hi and send a blessing and a hug.

Some free flowing happiness this week:

Appreciating simpler raw treats: all the lovely fresh pears around now and looking forward to heading to the CSA this weekend for fresh local transitional organic apples; love their dinosaur kale in my green apple and almond smoothies...

The addiction to clutter continues to dissolve as we clear out old things we don't use to allow them to become new comforts for other dear beings flowing on their journey through this joyful and bittersweet life...

Feeling the love and inspiration flow from posts by Raw Model, We Like it Raw, Raw Food Right Now!, and as always, the resonant words and images over at RawketScience as well as the words of Eckhart Tolle, reminding us what is real and true--to trust what resonates in the heart until the mind agrees and sings the same song.

Blessings to you, beautiful beings on your loving path.

Love,

Marykaye

Living in peace

Wow--feeling an intense urge to continue to clear out and let go of lots of clutter and things we don't use.  (In keeping with the environmental blog action day happening all over the world of blog, we sent tons of things to GoodWill, and hope that they all find another happy home!). Interestingly, I felt much more of a natural desire to eat light, raw foods all day, too.

To be honest, it was easy to get a little carried away with wanting to get there already, and forget gentleness and flowing with it and my sweet husband, so I felt drawn to practice these three things today, and made them like a mantra:
Patience
Enthusiasm
Mindfulness

A friend also passed on this lovely email on Peaceful communication today, from Jinjee at TheGardenDiet.com:

10 things we can do to contribute to internal, interpersonal, and organizational peace
1 Spend some time each day quietly reflecting on how we would like to relate to ourselves and others.

2 Remember that all human beings have the same needs.

3 Check our intention to see if we are as interested in others getting their needs met as our own.

4 When asking someone to do something, check first to see if we are making a request or a demand.

5 Instead of saying what we DON'T want someone to do, say what we DO want the person to do.

6 Instead of saying what we want someone to BE, say what action we'd like the person to take that we hope will help the person be that way.

7 Before agreeing or disagreeing with anyone's opinions, try to tune in to what the person is feeling and needing.

8 Instead of saying “No,” say what need of ours prevents us from saying “Yes.”

9 If we are feeling upset, think about what need of ours is not being met, and what we could do to meet it, instead of thinking about what's wrong with others or ourselves.

10 Instead of praising someone who did something we like, express our gratitude by telling the person what need of ours that action met.

The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) would like there to be a critical mass of people using Nonviolent Communication language so all people will get their needs met and resolve their conflicts peacefully.

For more info on nonviolent communication see www.cnvc.org

(I feel so happy to experience the sweetness of human beings acting in such loving ways and with these intentions! Blessings and peace to you, for all that you contribute to the world! Love, Marykaye)

Still here...

I'm still here and flowing into the cooler fall weather.  Not sure why, but I've been feeling some aversion to the idea of raw entrees, although "greens, greens, greens" are my mantra and my intention.  

Some random thoughts from the last couple of weeks:
I found a neat article on greens and why to stay raw that I found interesting and helpful. Daniel had an inspiring weekend "Smoothie Extravaganza", and I posted a great recipe he created for a low-sugar green smoothie on Gone Raw here. Some lovely posts by Keiko Cacao Ti on Love and Gratitude have lifted me up.

It's been so busy around here lately, with the Little Buffalo Festival, events like the drum circle and clearing out the house, open to living in community again...

Here are some pics of the festival, with friends Lara and Josh leading the children's parade... Lara did an amazing Fire Dance at the end (I'll post a movie of it as soon as I get it onto the computer) while Daniel and many other wonderful musicians shared their musical gifts in a lovely synergy. The park has a great stage in a valley embraced by rolling green hills and trees all around, with a peaceful lake just above the valley, waiting to be discovered at the top of the hill in the second picture. (It was a fun adventure to trek with River to the top of the landing and beyond up into the woods, only to wind down a quiet path through the forest and back down behind the stage.). The event had many other great workshops on alternative energy, creative expression and yoga, and the best part of all was that it was free and organized by local artists and musicians.
 
 

 

Hope you all are well and holding images in your mind of your highest Self and greatest happiness for you, your family and community...

Blessings,
Marykaye

Cultivating right mind

A sweet poem from our meditation tonight...

While buttoning my jacket
I hope that all beings
Will keep their hearts warm
And not lose themselves.
~Master Doc The
from The Sun My Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh



Such a gift to be present and conscious of our Oneness. :)

Going with the flow

Had a nice day by the river--been intensely busy at work this week, so today was my day off. I've been connecting alot with friends who are also experiencing an unusual degree of busyness recently; it's interesting how we are all connected, so we can trust we will always look up and see a reflection of what we have going on inside, and with those we love. A dear friend and teacher often speaks of her practice of surrendering to whatever is happening in each moment. If it is a challenging moment, either sending love to whatever is arising, recognizing it as an aspect of herself, a projection, or praying for healing of the emotion and then sending that healing and a desire for happiness to all beings. I think that is lovely, and have been remembering to do that as well, with more success the past few days. Also remembering to picture us all happy and well and hold those images in my mind to invite them. I've been so grateful for peaceful moments with family throughout the week too.

I felt a real desire to clean and reorganize our living space today--feels so peaceful now... I had a great day, but after dinner am feeling a little less integrated. I've been losing so much weight eating raw (but feeling so good otherwise), that I've decided it does feel right (for today, one day at a time) to eat raw all day and then have a healthy, lightly cooked vegan meal in the evenings with my family (trying to only offer quinoa, sprouted grains and veggies). I love the advice to trust our bodies and flow with eating raw as it feels most natural; I could see that this might work best for me or be temporary and lead naturally to 100% again as I flow and grow as a spiritual being in human form. (The truth is, I feel so great when I eat raw all week and then always feel a little funky by the third day eating cooked. However, it feels like it takes some pressure off to not have to work so hard to maintain weight and think about it so much, and to have some healthy things for my son and in-laws to share to eat.).

I think so much of how we feel is what we believe about it, that all of our experiences are so sacred, especially if we are mindful as it all arises. It's been so nice hearing from you guys on the blog, and I've been enjoying your posts so much! Happiness and blessings to you on your journey, each day...

Love,
Marykaye :)

Here are some raw pics from the week: