Unexpected Calamities

"When you are afflicted with troubles and unexpected calamities, thank God for their existance, too. Know full well that He will protect you and that He wants you to extract a lesson or two from them." -Swami Chidvilasananda

Saturday night I was alone on the couch, Ramon was in London picking up an award at a film festival. Thunder cracked and lightning lit the night sky, rain poured down. I sat huddled and cozy in blankets, watching the German version of American Idol. I hardly took notice of the raging weather outside, after all I was warm and safe in my home.
The next morning, the neighbors knocked on the door. "The cellar is flooded," they said. Oh well, I thought at first, no big deal. We filled bucket after bucket with water, dumping it outside, then took to sorting through masses of wet boxes with ruined things and lugging them upstairs. It was quite a process, but I wasn't sad because nothing of value had been ruined...or so I thought.
I came to the last box, the wettest one, way down at the bottom, and my heart sunk when I saw that Ramon's sketches and paintings from art school lay inside. I cried as I lay them out flat on our tile floor. I didn't know what to do. These were nothing one could just go out and replace. Finally I decided to call Ramon and tell him the news. "What paintings?" He asked. I sobbed and explained. "Oh, don't worry about those, all my favorites are safe and dry at the office." I let out a sigh of relief and wiped away my tears.
After emtying out the whole cellar and cleaning the floor, we surveyed the piles of wet belongings stacked outside our building. And amazingly, I felt refreshed. I thought about it all being trucked off to the dump, and actually felt....GOOD.
And so, from this calamity, I took the lesson of letting go, and looking for the good in a situation that may at first seem negative.
Also, most of Ramon's paintings still looked fine once they dried. Yay!
WHAT HAS BEEN A BLESSING IN DISGUISE FOR YOU?

Our New Addiction: Pitzas!

Ramon and I are in love with this healthy alternative to pizza. Put pita bread in your toaster and preheat oven to 400°. Open the toasted pita bread halves and spread with pizza sauce. Then pile on the goods! Our favorite toppings are:
-Chopped sundried tomatoes
-Fresh tomatoes, sliced and seeded
-marinated artichoke hearts (drained of oil and patted dry)
-low fat mozarella
-kalamata olives, pitted and halved
-roasted bell pepper
-raw zucchini sliced paper thin
-garlic salt
-onion powder
-cubed chicken or turkey breast
-lean turkey sausage
-finely sliced mushrooms
Then sprinkle with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, and stick in the oven til the cheese starts to bubble. It's so delicious, and if you put on the right kinds of toppings, it's a really filling, healthy meal.
Buon Appetito!

Gratitiude

"Remember all the love you have received in this universe, all the people who make your life shine. Remember Nature who has taught you many lessons and given you divine hints about yourself. Don't think about what you have not achieved. Remember the things that have come your way-some asked for, some not. God's grace is given freely. It is immeasurable. Let gratitude wash away all the tiredness, all the impurities, and all the karmas. Remember all the goodness that permeates your life."
-Swami Chidvilasananda

Sometimes it's a struggle to live in the moment. Have you ever had this, too? Sometimes all I can think about are my plans, what I want to happen, material things I want to aquire, places I want to see, things I want to experience. I get impatient with myself, and in the end with God. I worry that things won't go the way I plan or want. This is when it is important for me to read words of wisdom, or find wisdom in my own heart while sitting quietly in nature. I hope Gurumayi's words are in inspiration for you, they are for me. When I think about all the infinite ways that God's plan has proven to be so much greater than anything my own mind could muster, my faith and enthusiasm are restored.
Have a wonderful day!

"Recipes Just Have To Taste Good"

One of my favorite magazines is called 'Cook's Country.' There are two fabulous things about it: One, there are old, heirloom recipes included. And two, there is a whole team of cooks who try out dozens of different ways of cooking and baking things until they have found the perfect combination of ingredients, meaning we readers are guaranteed satisfaction. The founder and editor, Christopher Kimball, writes great introductions, and I want to share the newest one with you all because it spoke to me:

"An egg-rolling contest may seem old fashioned, even archaic, but in the country, the line between past and present is thankfully faint. Every summer, our family still attends the Washington County Fair, where I check over the blue-ribboned glass bottles of silage, the summer squash monsters, the cake and pie exibits, and all the rest: pole climbing, log hauling, rock throwing, baby crawling, and hog calling.
So when folks say that traditions have been lost to the past, well, they just don't know where to look.
It's easy to look at the past and think of it as quaint or somehow separated from the present. Sure, I grew up with neighbors who still baked cookies, biscuits, and bread in a wood cookstove and who remember to this day how to use a side hill plough and are apt to say that they prefer horses to tractors, since 'You always know that a horse is going to start up on a cold morning.'
But around the dinner table, there are no modernists. Green Bean Casserole is still the most requested recipe in America. New or old, recipes just have to taste good.
So for those who still love to cook-and I mean really love the cooking, not just the eating-it's nice to know that some things never change."

My Little Songbird

I've discovered that one of the little bird who eats the sunflower seeds from my feeder has made his home in our apple tree. Sometimes when I'm eating breakfast, I'll notice that he's perched on a branch, watching me with his cocked head, tweeting every once in a while. I always know what it means: "Excuse me, don't mean to bother you during breakfast, but would you mind putting out some fresh seeds?" (I always imagine him with an english accent, isn't that funny?) Ofcourse I always get up and head to the kitchen window, and he swoops down and waits, balancing on the rose bush while I faithfully spread seeds over the bottom of the feeder. I read something in a Barbara Webster book which I found so sweet:
"Still unexplained is the coin we found one morning in the bird feeder. Was it meant to be a tip? Has anyone else ever been tipped by birds? A battered, dirty quarter, it looked as though it had been passed around from beak to beak."
Anyone who feeds birds knows that feeling of connection and commeraderie one has when your little neighbors depend on you and give you meek glances of gratitude. Songbirds are such shy, benevolent beings. At the local cafe, dozens of finches prance about the courtyard, dining on crumbs. A friend of mine noted, as we tossed tiny tidbits, that when a finch took a crumb from you, it would make a squeak before fluttering away. "They always say thank you," my friend said.

Contentment

"It's the little things that count. Winning-the-Lottery type happiness is short-lived. Even a trip to Disney World or a new car won't do it for the long term. It's the little things in life: play with your cat, plant a garden, take your kids to the park, bake a pie, take time to BE a friend. Keep putting the little moments together and they'll turn into contentment."
-Susan Branch

Hi Gals!
Had a wonderful garden party with Ramon yesterday, we invited friends and family over and fired up the grill. One table was dedicated entirely to desserts! I hope I can put up a photo of that soon.
I just want you all to know...I wish you could have been there! I love you, you are all in my heart. In the spring sunshine, with the lilacs blooming and the birds singing....I think of you all and send you my love.

Sample Diet

Here's a day's worth of meals that I would recommend for a woman who wants to shed fat and gain lean muscle mass:
(If you do cardio or strength training at some point in the day, follow it with a sugar-free and low-carb Nutrition shake.)

Breakfast:
1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal cooked with water
1/4 cup blueberries
1 packet Splenda
Woman's Multivitamin
Omega 3 fish oil (2 or 3 capsuls)

Lunch:
chicken breast (grilled, baked or broiled)
2 cups fresh green salad with
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil and lemon juice
1 cup tea (green or herbal)

Midday Snack:
sugar free yogurt
1/2 apple or pear
10 walnuts or almonds

Dinner:
wild salmon (grilled, baked, or broiled)
1 cup steamed veggies
1 grapefruit
as much tea as you like

Evening Sleepy Snack:
Caffeine-free Chai with skim milk and Stevia to calm your nerves and pamper your tummy.

Note: If you plan on using this diet as a guide for the rest of the week, only eat the salmon once. On the other days, substitute with some other lean protein source (turkey or chicken breast, seafood, egg white omelette made with two egg whites, one whole egg and veggies, or tofu.)

ALSO: DRINK TONS AND TONS OF WATER. IF YOU FEEL HUNGRY, IT COULD BE THIRST. IT'S BEEN FOUND NOW THAT DRINKING WATER WITH YOUR MEAL HAS NO EFFECT ON YOUR BODY'S ABILITY TO DIGEST WELL, so DRINK UP!