Author: kindredswell.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJCyZtRPXhk

The first time we tried to transition to predominantly plant-based eating, I failed.  I failed hard.  Why?  I loved burgers.  Like my husband and kids went away for a week and I literally ate them every night.  No joke.  So when I tell you I haven’t had a juicy burger in almost two years and that I don’t really want one, believe me, that’s a big deal.

Let me present to you the new love of my life:

https://nutritionfacts.org/recipe/black-bean-burger/

I suggest a chipotle veganaise, pickles, sprouts, tomatoes, and a bit of onion on top.

The patties are fantastic with your lunch the next day or as a 3 o’clock snack instead of a cookie.

Enjoy.

With faces like those and song like that, there is hope.  So much hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7RSi9V7FZM

We consider this stew the gateway drug to plant-based eating.

I’ve not met anyone, no matter how much they love steak, who hasn’t also loved this.

So save a 1000 gallons of water tonight and try this:

https://www.cbc.ca/food/recipes/oh-she-glows-soul-soothing-african-peanut-stew

If you like it, keep it up.

And if you want super star status this week, do two things and just buy the damn cookbook.

https://ohsheglows.com/the-book/

[photo cred: https://www.cbc.ca/food/recipes/oh-she-glows-soul-soothing-african-peanut-stew]

For your next bubble bath, walk in the woods or 30k run …

I offer:

https://www.tarabrach.com/pt-1-impermanence-awakening-insecurity/

http://www.richroll.com/podcast/guru-singh-393/

May you grow and love.

xo J

I’ve muttered the following statement before, only to myself and perhaps once or twice to my husband: “If I didn’t end up here, I also could have been a pretty good heroin addict.”

This might seem shocking or unsettling to those of you who know me, but I don’t mean it to be at all.  Really.  To reassure you, I am great.  I love life, like seriously love life.  My day can be made great with the sight of a hummingbird, the blossom of a hibiscus, a hearty bowl of food or the finding of a new song.  I am fairly vanilla and beyond fortunate to have the career, the family, the health, and the opportunities that I have.  But, this is precisely the point.  I could have just as easily not wandered down this path.  I can see how easily some others have ended up on a different one.  I am fundamentally no different then them.  And, to be certain, my statement is not meant to diminish, belittle or over simplify their journey.

Nonetheless, I could have been a good heroin addict.   Why?  Because life is delicate and precarious.

I am driven.  I feel deeply.  I am my harshest critic and my only competition.  Am I where I am because of these characteristics or, in spite of them?  Have I been fortunate to reach and push and not settle just enough?  Was that luck?  Was it fate?  Most certainly the mile markers along this route have guided me towards the light and not the dark.  Thank goodness I was involved in sports as a teen and didn’t keep smoking those cigarettes that I often tried at parties and knew I liked a little too much.  Thank goodness I took a chance on a very random job after being rejected from medical school twice and found myself caring a little too much about the food that was entering my body.  Thank goodness for the few in my life who have brought me back to the me that I love when I’ve been just about to stray.  Thank goodness I have a family that surrounds me and somehow infused me with the ability to recognize when I’m on a precipice and how to gently traverse away to a better vista.  And, what a glory it is that I am in a space that allows me to be aware of all this and share it with you.

I see many, many faces in a day.  I know that behind them the waters run deep. That is the utter beauty of it.  Man, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  However, I do wonder if the eyes peering back at me, often in times of despair, understand that our waters are similar?  I hope that they do.  Maybe that helps them follow a better marker.  Maybe it helps me to.

Namaste

(loosely translated, may the light in you see and recognize the light in others)

xo J

PS – if you want to linger in such thoughts longer:

https://tim.blog/2018/02/20/gabor-mate/

Ok, so here’s the thing.

As alluded to in my last post, we can’t master everything, at least not right away.  So let’s take a step back and be easy on ourselves.  What if we did just one new thing a week that brought us closer to what we and this planet need?  What we if we practiced this thing over a week and see how it sat, see if we liked it, see how it made us feel?  And then decided whether to chuck it or adopt it as part of the new “us” and move forward.

So the menu project is on pause which is likely only to be noticed by yours truly.  It’s ok, I can handle it.

But let’s start with baby steps, and do just one thing this week that might be better.

This week I offer Tara Brach.

I use her meditations on the Insight Timer app, and follow her podcast for other meditations and the talks she does.  I always leave feeling lighter.

If you have an hour to walk, to sit in the bath, to do a puzzle, to garden this week, then put in some ear buds and listen to this:

https://www.tarabrach.com/part-1-awakening-anger/

See how it feels.  If you like it, keep it up.

xo J