Just one thing for the planet – African Peanut Stew

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]

SWELL 8 – Essential Watching for the planet

OH MAN!!

What a glorious day I just had.  Stunning Fall morning run, brunch of deliciousness with Scott, and an afternoon recovering from yesterday’s last long marathon prep run, under a blanket on the couch, watching one of the most inspiring things I’ve seen in a long time.

WOW!

I’ve got me all sorts of ideas now ….

Please watch or watch again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-XQAN9L_MQ

And then click these here and ride the wave:

https://master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org/canada/en/act/volunteer/?_ga=2.219864025.1379742607.1537762234-1294119253.1524450666

https://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/act/volunteer/join-your-local-greenpeace-group/?_ga=2.173121507.1379742607.1537762234-1294119253.1524450666

Why oh why wasn’t I in my twenties in the seventies?!

xo J

Music – I am totally your man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTEKg1Ly0zY

“You took my sadness out of context
At the Mariners apartment complex
I ain’t no candle in the wind”

“They mistook my kindness for weakness
I fucked up, I know that, but Jesus
Can’t a girl just do the best she can?

Catch a wave and take in the sweetness
Think about it, the darkness, the deepness
All the things that make me who I am

And who I am is a big time believer
That people can change, but you don’t have to leave her
When everyone’s talking, you can make a stand”

“You lose your way, just take my hand
You’re lost at sea, then I’ll command your boat to me again
Don’t look too far, right where you are, that’s where I am
I’m your man
I’m your man”

In another dimension, I’m her.  Or she’s me.  Or whatever.  Thank god she exists.

What could have been.

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/

 

Just one thing for wellness, yours and the planet’s. The start.

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

Why this space? The KS Manifesto.

I’ve been contemplating why I’m here, i.e. sitting at this keyboard (the existential we can get into later, don’t worry).

Back in June, when we came back from Nicaragua, I wrote about the experience there and also the experience of coming back and feeling overwhelmed with all I wanted to do.  My ever wise husband noted that I was feeling that way as I just kept adding to the list of things I wanted to excel at: mother, wife, doctor, runner, business owner, entrepreneur, vacation rental manager, wellness advocate, activist, blogger … touche, I said, touche.  So I took some time to figure out if this might be the thing that gets dropped and, if it wasn’t, how I would continue without sacrificing any of the others.

As I said last month, I love it here, it brings joy.  So it won’t be dropped.  But there will now be rules.  Enter the kindredSwell manifesto!  Wooo!  How fun, I know!  Each time I sit here, these intentions must be met.  Otherwise, I should be mothering, wife-ing, doctoring, running, or directing my care elsewhere.

So let’s go.

kindredSwell Manifesto

  1. Writing here will never be a duty or a “should”.  I must walk away feeling joy.  I hope you do too.
  2. What is written here must be the most authentic version of me.  At least in that moment, as lord knows, I may (and I hope I do) evolve.  There must be no other motive than to share that.  With luck this will resonate with my kin and together we can do great things.
  3. The ultimate goal is to save the world.  No pressure.  But we can do it.
  4. A secondary goal is to leave footprints of myself for those who might need them.  Sadly I know that I won’t be here forever (well, in some ways 😉 ), so these pages will be where people come to be with me when I’m gone.  That may sound morose at first, but think if you had that for someone you’ve lost?  Hopefully it’s a beautiful gift that I have decades to work on.
  5. The things placed here will inspire, ideally will inspire action.
  6. This will be a place to soar, but also to fall if that’s what you need.
  7. This will be a community where energy and ideas are shared and used to make change where it is needed most.