Human Duality

We have this miraculous organism, a vessel from which we move and act from.  An aspect of this organism is purely autonomic and mechanical; another aspect of us has the possibility of conscious creativity.  How do we reconcile these aspects?  Give each aspect its due?  Find a relationship, understanding and acceptance between these two vital aspects of our human experience?

The Autonomic/Automatic/Mechanical
This is the part which we most often abhor; we don't like the way it looks, resent its sometime mis-workings, and ignore/disregard its incredible capacity.  The eyes dilate and moisten according to circumstantial conditions or the light present.  The heart and all the related nerve and electric impulses, pumps away circulating life's blood and oxygen through our system.  The lungs working in concert with the heart expanding and contracting, filtering oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide just the amount required for optimal function.  Our many yards of gut move (again in gorgeous relationship with nerve impulses) through our torso, breaking down food in regular, specific steps, absorbing and distilling what's needed at each step and allowing the waste to move on and out.  Our sensitive, under the radar thermostats know when to subtly sweat to cool us down and do so beautifully.  Our hearing capacities modulate incoming sound through its interesting internal shape and form, allowing for further interpretation to the rest of us through facile and lightning fast neurotransmission.  

Our body's fascia, ligaments and musculature along with the nervous system responds most often accurately and with incredible swiftness to the subtlest of stimulations.  These are just some of the miracles of everyday functioning in our bodies, going on almost entirely without any thought or intention on our parts.  Purely mechanical. Purely automatic.  We almost always have no say in its workings, and even with directed thought, impact it marginally.  This autonomic functioning happens every second, every minute and hour of every day we live.  If it wasn't healthy, there would be no life, no being in this human form.  There would be no possibility of the other aspect of ourselves, the creative consciousness, to be.  This other part of us could not exist without this mechanical part working well.  Both aspects have to be related to know a full life, to pursue a purpose.


The conscious, spiritual, creative part:  the Part with the possibility of Choice.
This is the part we also can (and do) largely ignore.  Something in us aches when it's not in play, feels alone, even abandoned when not regularly engaged.  It's opaque, almost hidden or its invisible nature is easy to miss, not pay attention to, relinquish for long periods of time when we (or ego) are on autopilot. For those of us who invest considerable time and effort in revealing and nourishing this often mysterious aspect through contemplative practices, we tend to put this amazing part on a pedestal, believing it is the end all.  Whereas, the sometimes sublime experience of this in self and in community is compelling and can create a vertical experience in what usually is a linear life, unless one lives in a hermitage on top of a high mountain, trying to live from that place is not realistic and actually not desirable for the daily human experience.  It is the actualization through movement between these two parts that make life interesting and provide the large framework from which a meaningful life is possible.

One part has delineated form.  The other is without form or measure.  Both are essential to an existence.   Depending on your indoctrinations, we spend a lifetime struggling with that which is weakest in us or succumbing to that which is well settled in us.  We do this repeatedly for decades, often way past the stage of it being static.  We spend a lifetime knowing and building up further our strengths, be it the creative life or the logical, way of reason.  Rarely do we stand between what we know and what we don't know, without prejudice or reaction, and have that experience.  Our incredible human duality.

Back to the questions:  How do we reconcile these aspects?  Give each aspect its due?  Find a relationship, understanding and acceptance between these two vital aspects of our human experience?

It would be so easy to be Cartesian and rely on old adages like, "if you don't have your health, you don't have anything."  Health is reliant on each aspect being functional and well.  A troubled spirit impacts the body and mind.  A troubled body and mind impacts the spirit.  We are designed to be in concert in our Whole. Finding one's own deep appreciation, even a love for both the automatic and the conscious creative may be required.  With appreciation and respect comes an interest and curiosity and perhaps eventually a tenacious unwillingness not to be in regard of the other.  Our life long, well fueled natural propensities may release their grip on us, the enamor not as strong as in earlier decades.  Vulnerability fears flatten, don't have the depth or width they used to have, leaving an opening for other more lively questions or findings.

The Lunch Rut: A Renewed Curiosity Outside the Box

One of the reasons we get into ruts is that we stop feeling curiosity and become unacquainted with our life force.  It's an odd occurrence if you think about it.  Why wouldn't we want to feel everyday the excitement and higher vibration that is available in our life?  We become slaves to a routine, a schedule, the patterns that "work" for us, including our daily food intake, exercise, even bathing rituals.

One of the prominent ruts we find ourselves in is the breakfast and lunch rut.  For many, what they eat for breakfast is absolutely routine and unchanged for years.  I know some adults who now cannot abide oatmeal, as they had it everyday of their childhoods.  For many, the car is practically on autopilot to their nearest Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks on the way to work.  There is comfort in having these patterns; they've become rituals, a preparation our inner life almost depends on to bear the boredom or sameness that they are meeting everyday.  For better or worse, these are habits we cling to, often at the expense of the subliminal life force that begs for something different, found in the curiosity of what is now, how I am on this new day and what I might need.  We habitually turn to the familiar as we are far from the caring for the immediate self and we desperately want  something easy, fast and (usually) mindless so we don't have to take the trouble to drop into ourselves.

So breakfasts become a hot grain, granola with fruit, yogurt is a common addition. Every so often for variety of flavor and nutrition, it's a good idea to switch up your oatmeal.  This activity opens the palette and curiosity.  Would cinnamon or cardamon or turmeric go well with millet or amaranth?  what's the best fruit with it?  The trial and error is an interesting process, and it's nice to get to know a new anything.  Most of our breakfasts are sweet, rarely savory.  How different is it for the body to start the day savory as opposed to sweet.  In my experience, sweet wants more sweet, calls for it during the day.  Savory is more a blank canvas and doesn't set me up for "like" during the day like sweet does.

With breakfasts, rarely do you see vegetables. SAD (Standard American Diet) breakfast is usually high in complex/simple carbs and proteins.  Open your hearts and mind.  Vegetables can be a soothing addition, as I found on a trip to China.  Vegetables (baby bok choy and spinach specifically) are at every meal there.  And it was the only food I ate that was reliably good from meal to meal.  By week three, dreading the 100th Chinese meal (not ever my favorite cuisine) of the trip, I always thought, well, at least there will be the simple, delicious, bok choy and spinach.  Since that trip, I regularly include vegetables in my breakfasts. In fact, I sometimes exclusively eat them for breakfast.  They're clean and sustaining; a good way to start the day.  I found a gorgeous head of baby kale at the farmer's market, sauteed it up with some garlic, tahini (protein) and a shot or two of tamari.  So good.  For those wanting more protein, dry roasting some nuts of choice topping it off that way, or some sauteed mushrooms (high in protein) with favored fresh herbs.  Adding some heat via a hot sauce with yogurt on the side is another version.

For those devoted to their oatmeal, other  hot cereal or granola every morning, try adding some innocuous cooked squash (acorn, butternut, delicata), throw in a few frozen cranberries, use maple syrup (lower glycemic value) instead of sugar or honey, add roasted/unroasted seeds or nuts.  These additions not only give you more vegetables and whole foods in the day, they up the nutritional anty of the meal; always a good thing.  these veg don't collide; they are sweet and gentle and not loud.  They know how to elevate the hero of the meal.

Lunch ruts.  I remember (not so fondly) the years and years and YEARS of the routine sandwich.  Followed by the years and years and YEARS of boxed salads.  Ugh.  So tired.  Organic lettuce in a big see- through box has become popular because its so convenient.  But that's all it is.  There is no flavor to be found there and it's totally uninspiring.  So disappointing.  If you are enthusiastic about salads, you'll burn out fairly fast unless you change it up.  Slaws are flavorful, variations relate to all seasons, can be a complete meal and can be pretty to gorgeous in appearance.  They even improve in flavor on day 2 and even day 3. And with roasted cashews spilled over the top, well that's an invitation to nirvana. Using good, honest real lettuce makes a real salad.  Using a blend of three types of leaves makes it more interesting; include texture and color in your choice (ie: raddichio, endive, tender chard). Scissor in some fresh herbs like basil, tarragon, mint; it brightens the flavor.  Don't even think about dressing it with a bought bottle.  No matter it's organic. Simple apple cider or balsamic vinegar after drizzling evoo (extra virgin olive oil), add (pink) salt and pepper.  Clean, bright and delicious. A simple half of a perfectly ripe avocado, salt and pepper, with a squeeze of lemon is the height of luxury and satisfaction.  Chop up a bit of tomato sprinkle it over the avocado with some fresh parsley, cilantro or basil and you have a love variation encapsulated.

Soups are a winter staple, but can wear out their welcome after the 2nd or 3rd month of overuse.  Believe it or not, counterintuitively, going streamlined simple is a way to address thick, hearty winter soup burnout.  Miso is easy and full of nutrition; scoop a tablespoon from the miso box and pour boiling water over it, mixing well.  Top with scallions, tofu if you must and some scissored fresh herbs like chive to makes a complete impression.  Likewise, roasted beef bones made into a deep, rich broth with some rice noodles and scallions is another thin soup that packs a hearty wallop, enriching kidney chi to boot.  Variations would be to add some thin sliced jalapeño pepper, a squeeze of lime, whole tai basil, cilantro, bean sprouts and parsley gives a filling impression to our yearning selves.

Proteins proteins proteins.  We're obsessed with getting our proteins.  Nutritionally, proteins are needed in small amounts.  A portion of animal protein should only be the size of a deck of cards.  Nuts and legumes or whole grain (ie: rice)  make a complete protein.  Again, not a huge amount gives you what is required.  7-10 nuts with a quarter cup of cooked rice does it.  In these terms, proteins become a condiment-size to a meal not the big kahuna.  Proteins ARE in vegetables and herbs as well. Check the nutrition content in herbs I listed in my last post, Herbs: Nutrient packed flavor.  It was surprising to me how much protein is found there and in many greens.

The old standby lunch foods wedged between two pieces of bread (egg, tuna, chicken salad) have other possibilities than what we once knew.  We're used to a dense tuna, chicken, egg salad.  Dense in texture and flavor, combined with usually sub-prime mayonnaise.  In this state, we're used to eating 3 or more eggs at a sitting, or almost a full can of tuna.  Give some breath to these old standbys.  Combine any of these proteins with several vegetables.  Radish, dakon, scallion, 1-2 herbs, chopped spinach, celery, onion, different colored peppers, shredded carrot, capers, pickles.  The choices are almost limitless.  Your final effort should yield 1/3 protein to 2/3 veg.  Keep it all together lightly; a little yogurt/mayo combo (flavored with chive, curry, mustard, hot sauce, etc).  Or try a little evoo (extravirgin olive oil), balsamic, salt and pepper.  It doesn't have to be dense.  It begs not to be dense.  Take one or two gorgeous, generous pieces of whole lettuce (or delicate chard, young kale leaf), put a few tablespoons of the protein mix on it and roll it, tucking in ends like an egg roll or burrito to make a fat cigar shape.  It keeps it all together, is a delightful size and easy to handle, plus the addition of the lettuce gives you more vegetable/fiber.  Pack a few of them for lunch.  They keep and travel well.  You can add toasted seeds or nuts, a little grated cheese to the filling.  If you need more complex flavor, make a dipping sauce that is related to the "moistener" of the contents (i.e.: curried yogurt, evoo/vinegar).  Once one's attitude is altered to protein possibilities and portions and the larger role vegetables should play in our daily diet, we start to think differently, be more creative, think outside the (lunch) box.

If you are able, keeping a few often-used products in a work desk drawer is handy.  A small olive oil bottle to refill as needed, a small favorite vinegar, a whole lemon, an avocado for the week, some dry roasted nuts (an additional salted variety) and/or seeds, some pink salt, a piece of whole fruit or two, some dried fruit.  These can stave off raiding the snack machine indefinitely.  When you open the lemon, throw the used part into a glass of water to get a subtly spunky drink and some alkaline while you're at it.

Having a melt down?  Winter blues setting in? A sorrow anniversary has come around again?  Comfort and joy is required.  We don't have to turn to mac and cheese, sugar cookies and icecream to assuage the low spirits.  We've grown up and we have other options (some of these can be used for lunch as well!).

The simple ("gift of the gods") sweet potato, baked to carmelized perfection hits the spot.  Just bake it 400 degrees for a real long time, 1-1.5 hours, and eat (melts in your mouth goodness).  You don't even have to add butter, but if you have to, you have to.  Adding cinnamon at the end is a treat as well (good antioxidant, too).  While we're on veg, the good ole winter standby of roasted root vegetables is good hot or cold.  Potato, onion, carrots, parsnips, yams, beets, rhutabaga turnips.  Cut one of each up in pleasing shapes and sizes, toss all with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary,  and thyme.  Bake in one layer on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 1h+; flip them midway.  They are really yummy if they're browned nicely; this means giving them lots of room on the pan, lots of heat space in-between components (might need two cookie sheets). If you make this a lot, try varying the vegetable (ie: pearl onions whole instead of sliced onions, parsnips instead of carrots, etc.).  Because roasted veg is always good, it's the perfect time to try unfamiliar vegetables like rutabagas, turnips, brussel sprouts, even cauliflower;  it's almost impossible to mess up roasted vegetables. Variation experiment with hot sauce, herb variations.  "Himmel und Erde” which means “Heaven and Earth, is a great German comfort food.  Equal parts potato, turnip, apple, peeled (if you have to), boiled together, mash w/ evoo or butter, salt and pepper, splash of (butter)milk or dollop of yogurt, maybe a little cinnamon. Yes, it's where heaven and earth meet, that is for sure.

Moving onto the complex carb hankering... ah, pasta; it in the past has assuaged all forms of boredom, depression, frustration and anger.  Weather unrelenting?  A bowl of pasta is a very good defense.  But, we know how habit forming this is (breaks down into sugars quickly, begging for more before long).  So, a good alternative is baked spagetti squash, turned out of shell, evoo'd, salt and pepper, topped with  homemade tomato sauce (opague some onions and garlic in evoo, throw in some cut up tomatoes or whole cherry tomatos, himalayan pink salt, red pepper flakes. scissor some fresh herbs--basil, parsley).  Sautee some wonderful. fresh mushrooms with sherry, top the squash with this dynamic duo. Bliss it out with shaved parmagiano.  Go to heaven.  

Then there is always the satisfying bowl of rice.  Leave the white rice behind for now and choose brown rice, dirty rice, black rice, Lundberg's red rice, etc.  Grate a couple of teaspoons of fresh romano over it, drizzle with olive oil, pink salt and pepper, fresh chopped herbs of your choice (cilantro, parsley, thyme) and some toasted nuts/seeds. It is the best comfort food there is especially if you're in a mood... lots of vitamin B in there to help with the lows.

Sour moods call for sweetness to offset.  It's easy to feel guilty here, we know we're supposed to ward off sugar.  But, a little "forbidden fruit" goes a long way, and with practice, one gets used to natural sweetness, additional sugar eventually feels like overkill.  Apples cooked in a variety of ways can be very satisfying.  Apple crisp is a delight;  use a lot of seeds, nuts, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, oats and a healthy dollop of butter in the "crisp" part; sweeten if you have to with maple syrup. This is very comforting.  To make it extra decadent, eat warm with a dollop of whipping cream or coconut creme.  Beats out in spades cheap cookies and commercial sweets.  Baked apples have a similar composition, but they come in their beautiful, compact packages (and travel well!).  They can even be had for breakfast on the run with no guilt attached.  Often a cup of hot Rooibus tea with a little honey nips the sweet hankering in the bud.  But if you're at the end of the winter and have pretty much "tea'd" yourself out, a cup of hot cocoa with a dollop of coconut creme makes the inner child very happy.  Make it fresh with high grade cocoa, try using almond or coconut milk, grate a bit of fresh ginger, sweeten with honey or maple syrup and make it very rich and dark.  Add a pinch of cinnamon and/or chili pepper to give it some heat, bringing out the flavor exponentially.  The floating cream (coconut or heavy cream) is such a nice thing to sip through.  It puts the tea-blahs in their place.

As you may tell, my food philosophy doesn't include deprivation, or rigidity; nor should yours.  There is no absolutely bad anything that nature created for our sustenance  Bringing a black and white thinking to the table of nourishing ALL of me, just clamps down on exploration and pleasure.  What we eat should be fully pleasurable, fun and nourishing to body, mind and spirit.  

These are just a few suggestions to help switch up what might have become entrenched eating habits.  Making an attitude adjustment about what constitutes lunch, comfort foods and the "main course" (proteins) and how we can include more vegetables (happily!) through our eating adventures, will help us maintain our immune systems and overall wellness.  Curiosity is key.  Experimenting with this readjusted attitude, having some fun, trying unlikely choices opens us up.  This makes us more available to what we really want to eat and how we want to be.  Surprises are around every mealtime corner.

Plating: Procurement to Plate, the Joy of Partaking III

Why do we bother to imagine and intend how a plate presents?  It's the food that matters, right?  It's the  components  we bothered to prepare that get our saliva started, bile juices turning, that promote the digestive process.  What does it matter what it looks like as long as my body and a meal are in gear?

We humans discount the impact of subtle (and gross) impressions on our being.  Impressions are a food unto themselves.  They satiate a deeper hunger, a hunger that isn't always at the forefront of ourselves.  I saw this when I was a nurse in a hospital.  Patient's fragile states and reduced appetites were often impacted not by the food so much as the presentation.  I saw patients lose their appetite if the meal was huge (imposing, overwhelming).  Countering this, I saw patients gain an appetite when color, care and balanced portions were presented.  It's an energy thing, I think.  A patient's energy is so sensitized due to their illness; they pick up on, register (possibly assume?) the energy of the plater, the server, the preparer of the meal.  When it is mechanical, uncaring it's unappetizing.  Institutional food is not unappetizing solely because it's mass produced, but also because it's mass delivered in an often coarse way.  The automatic and unmindful way we partake of meals or food as a general population has become commonplace.  And so it is reflected in our institutions.  When we become more sensitized to the sacred event in a meal and all the parts thereof,  the event becomes something else.  We become something else other than food shoveling automatons.  A meal is (could be / should be) a sacred event; a nurturing of our being through deep nourishing impressions and thoughtful, balanced nutrients.

When imagining a meal, the long view of how it will be served and how it will end up on a plate is necessary.  Whereas three components on a plate are traditional, a fourth (or more) component makes it a party, a feast.  Keeping intact the original shape and size of at least one component supports the other components which have undergone chopping and/or shrinking (a transformation).  Alternately, if all the components are roughly the same size and whole, it is less interesting and appealing than when one or two have been altered in size and/or texture.

It might be helpful to look at the components of a meal as playing a role.  There is the "hero" on the plate and the supporting players.  The supporting players enhance, even elevate the hero.  They are sometimes the sublime foil for the hero or each other.  They do this through complimenting color, texture, size and shape and of course flavor.  An example of this would be the sweet/sour/pungent accompaniment to meat, such as a chutney or a sauce/gravy.  This is a complex foil.  Complex in color and flavor.  Often the simplicity of a steamed vegetable unadulterated, brings relief to one's gastronomy when the other offerings have more complexity.  

As far as plating goes, harmony and balance are achieved in a meal when proportions are considered in relation to the whole, when colors are complimentary, when texture and shape are varied.  This might seem like a lot to consider and possibly fussy.  Fuss happens when tension moves in.  In a relaxed state, the right everything is available.  There is no hyper considering, worrying, over-concern.  Hence, no fussiness.  Considering the relationship of the meal's components as full and dimensional as well as being sometimes complex, is not the same thing as being overdone or fussy.  Overdone can be loading a pancake with so much fruit, that it does not allow the complex carbohydrate to have a voice of its own.  Or drowning the hero (protein) in a sauce that overbears upon the prime attraction.  Too much.  Not enough thought, restraint, or care-- or perhaps a capitulation to impulsive desire.  The food's end result will always show us the truth of the matter.

There are always surprises in cooking.  The colors you thought you were going to get don't happen or aren't pleasing.  Something shrinks in cooking you didn't expect.  The relationship of the components isn't finding balance on the plate.  Wonderful quandaries!  It allows us to reconsider what is required.  It asks us to sensitize ourselves to what is and to move from there in an open inquiry.  Quite often, the simplest of things like a leaf of parsley, a sliver of orange rind pulls everything together.  What to use?  How to decide?  Relationship should be what dictates the creative impulse.  If parsley was used in one of the components-- to have parsley at its simplest, expressed on another component would speak volumes.  It would be sublimely related. We aren't bringing something entirely foreign, but something, somehow related.  It's an interesting study to soften and open to what is and what the plate asks for.

photo credit:  Lalu Danzker

Service is an interesting consideration.  Do we plate before reaching the table, attempting to  control the received impression?  Or does the meal call for a family-style delivery?  Platters and bowls of the meal's components on the table to individually serve from?  This latter prospect invites a sense of abundance and also a different type of interaction among the meal's participants (things have to be passed to others, conversation ensues).  Every meal calls for its own type of service.

This post and most of the posts I write on food (hopefully) invite you into a sensitization, a receptive mode:  this state is the human gift.  All people have this as a propensity, it is part of our human inheritance.  Receptivity to impressions of food is just one facet of the prism of our existence.  It's a good place to practice the process of opening, sensitizing and receiving impressions and will carry over to all relationships (inner and outer) as its value is recognized.

The Care of Aging Parents: Making the Last Laps Rich (Part I)

This post is Part I of a 2 part series.  It precludes the practical detail of the action of mindful caring for our elders.

We are all born.  We all die.  And almost all of us have elders to consider as we ourselves age.  Without exception, that complex relationship, has its ups and downs (as well as karmic complications) through the relationship's continuum, and inevitably impacts our intentions to our aging loved ones.

At a certain point in a person's life, decision-making is necessarily abdicated due to advanced age or infirmity.  The decisions regarding the circumstances as to how their life will run its course is left to others:  adult children/family or institutions.  As adult children of aging parents, how do we consider what our relationship will be to our loved one's last laps?

For some, its a "no-brainer"; their parents have put into motion through long care term insurance purchase, or moving into an elder community that sees to the layered needs of the aging, or specifically voiced to their family how they would like to live the last years or decades of their life.  For these adult children, it's about follow through, respectfully adhering to their parent's wishes.  Even this ideal scenario is complex.  Possibly the adult children are not in a position physically, geographically or financially to honor these wishes.  Perhaps the aging community chosen is not so ideal, needs to be monitored on a regular basis.  Whatever the arrangement planned, the adult child's committed engagement is required, therefore, altering many aspects of their own independence.  Becoming clear to one's boundaries, capacity and level of commitment is essential.  Setting an intention that corresponds to the relationship you seek to create or maintain with the elder in your life is also required.

Many people claim there is a natural unfolding of this process, everyone involved takes their place.  Why make an intention if this is so?  Making an intention clarifies what you wish for in this relationship, shores-up the commitment with more of oneself.  The expected journey is long; challenges to the healing of a relationship, guaranteed.  An intention keeps us close to ourselves, and what we hope for, especially when the going gets rough and we question the endeavor.

Making an intention opens the field.  The field being one's perception, one's sixth sense.  It's possibly a growing up of the soul, an internal awareness of oneself and other.  It's a path of deepening oneself and one's possibility.  All the facts of the circumstance take a minor role and the relationship rises to the surface of prominent importance.  This is healing.  A possible healing of karma for those engaged and definitely a healing of what has been hard in the relationship.

With an intention, this is practically guaranteed.  How can I say this?  Because with an intention and a commitment to this journey comes a letting go of all that ultimately does not matter.  Whereas the details and circumstances are important, they are very secondary to what is shared. The cream rises to the top, a softening of oneself allows for perception to descend into parts of our self we didn't know we had.  This changes everything.  It also allows there to be this type of change in another.  If we only hold on to the details, the specifics, schedules and external needs-- and only allow that to run this lap, we miss the opportunity the  initial vow or intention created for us.

An intention might start with questions:  What percentage of my time do I want (not necessarily can) to spend with my parent?  With my parent's life affairs? What are aspects of our relationship that are  asking to be healed, would I like transformed? What are the grudges, resentments and hard parts we share?  How can I forgive?  How can I ask for forgiveness?  How much hands-on caretaking do I want to do (again, not necessarily can do)?  What is the necessary sacrifice on my part to do what I think I want to do?  Can I do this?  Can I get help with it?  All these questions are treated as an open inquiry.  Nothing is answered in a hard/fast, black/white way (at this point).  It's a beginning in fleshing out the feeling aspect of the proposed journey.  The decision-problem solving aspect of myself shouldn't jump in at this point, there will be plenty of time for that part to act.  In intention setting, its about allowing breath to enter the feeling center to create some room.

In this place of relationship a trust in something else besides the external occurs.  An adult child's anxiety and worry over the external details, the finances, the medical complications is background material.  It is almost always there, but for the most part doesn't take over our lives because the relationship's intention has helped us make it primary.  The connection, the vibration shared, the meeting and the healing is at the center.

Making the last laps rich, even under challenging and difficult circumstances is possible when this intention is in place.  Intention runs my actions.  I lose it, I return to it, I lose it again, but it is at the heart of what I want for my loved one and myself and steers me in the critical moments.  Our time, our financial resources, our individual direction; taking this on complicates our lives a little (or a lot) more.  Much like people making the lifelong decision to raise children.

In this journey we make, while there are hurdles, there is also a satisfying ride, a relaxing into the sublime elements of being connected to oneself and another more fully, an allowance of a natural unfolding.  Witnessing the external decline of another, whether mental or physical, isn't what you were afraid it would be.  The other's hallucinations, disorientation, good/bad pain days are experienced in a different way as this more subtle relationship is taken on.  The distinct impression of seeing our loved one with one foot in one world and the other foot in another more opaque world is touching and awe-inspiring. We see more of each other, a broader spectrum beyond personality and that is gratitude personified.  It is in this healing relationship one feels one's fortune; and it is reflected back from our loved one, having been shared.

I bring up intention in this first part, because it must precede the nuts/bolts and problem solving of the circumstantial details.  Otherwise, the external drives our actions, not the intention.

Trojan Wurst IV: Sustainable Protein

Like a lot of rational people, I've been on a sustained pause around definitive diets.  Diet methods and a lot of rigidity around whole foods in general always gets my "fake out" antenna up.  I've generally taken a judicious tact toward eating.  As vegetarianism, veganism and unrefined plant food (UPF) trends have been on the rise over the last couple of decades, I've been paying attention, reading the literature and increasing my vegetable intake accordingly.  I haven't given up meat, although I don't eat a lot of it.  I've been a little embarrassed to admit that killing animals for food is not in my mind, a horrific thing.  I've seen it (in my mind's eye) as part of a whole cycle.   But lately, I've had the occasion to see some films on sustainability and I am beginning to realize that what has been in my "mind's eye" has been an old-world European or 1950's image (an "old McDonald's farm" scenario, ei ei ohhh) on how farm animals are raised, treated and killed for consumption.  The worn denim overall'd grandpa chewing on a straw strand isn't out milking the three cows in the barn and wringing a few chicken necks for supper afterall.

There have been several concerns for me as of late around animal flesh.  A few years ago I happened to be visiting FDR's family vacation home in New Brunswick (charming and unostentagious by the way, worth a visit) and wandered down to the little beach on the bay where some fish farms were underway; salmon as a matter of fact, a fish I admire and esteem almost more than any other.  There was a whole description at the beach side as to how salmon farming is conducted, which by the time I finished reading, vowed never to eat farmed-raised fish again.  The methodology is so scientifically calculated it is kind of horrific.  Part of the wonder of salmon (reflected in their flesh) is their vital essential need as a species to do the incredible acrobatics that they need to do in order to spawn and survive.  They are remarkable beings.  These farms are science laboratories that in no way take in account the species essence, and that this essential aspect of the salmon, is contained in the flesh we eat.  It is not considered.  We are eating from an industrialized fishing industry.  The lack of consciousness around the food processing in this environment at a basic level (from cultivating fish eggs to harvesting fully grown fish) that produce our food sources is alarming.

The second cue which happened over the last year, has been practically subliminal for me.  I've had a sense the fish I have been eating is different than fish I was eating 5 or 7 years ago.  There's something not right about it, which I can't put my finger on and which would be easy to dismiss.  The flesh is different. The taste is not ---- alive?(missing the essence of the animal?) Not like it used to be. I've seen, tasted and known this about beef and chicken for over two decades.  One could parallel it to the difference between an organic egg you buy and the one your friend gives you from their chicken coop.  The difference isn't freshness so much (although I'm sure that's a factor), it's something else.  And I'm beginning to believe it's the way these animals who give their life for our benefit are treated prior to being killed.  We are living in a world of high technology, where exponential masses of animals are "processed" at enormous rates with shear brutality and in shockingly short periods of time. (A chicken is ready for slaughter now in 27 days as opposed to the 47 days it was ready decades ago, and weighing often twice as much in present day as in the past making them unable to stand up over their short life span.) There is a subtle but very serious lack of regard (completely discounted as being important at all) in this process, and which must effect what gets to our plate and into our bodies.

I think I've been able to assuage my alarm over the years around the animal flesh issue because I go primarily organic, free-range, "humanely treated", etc.  I've calmed myself thinking what I was buying and consuming was better.  But organic farms supplying Whole Foods and other supermarket chains conduct their food business practically the same way as the other producers.  Albeit, their chickens are given 3 feet of space a piece instead of being crammed into cages.  But they still discard the male chicks or grind them up for organic pet food since they won't be laying eggs.  "Organic" farms are also generally mass producers of food (3K-30,000 chickens harvested every month).  Organic beef suppliers also castrate the bulls, destroy cows who get utter infections instead of give them rest and antibiotics.  It evidently doesn't pay to appreciate what these animals provide to the masses.  No straw-chewing grandpa there.

King mushroom, grown in Maine, tons of protein!

This mindless approach to food production is of course due in large part to overpopulation.  The market must meet the demand.  According to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, raising animals for food on these huge scales is grossly inefficient and hugely polluting of the environment.  Raising livestock for consumption is a larger polluter than the transportation (cars, trucks) industry. How is this?  To raise cattle for consumption, an enormous amount of energy has to be expended to plant and grow the grain, irrigate it, harvest it, ship it and store it.  (For one pound of beef, it takes 6-10 pounds of grain; one cow drinks 50 gallons of water every day.) To keep cattle, bring them to slaughter, process, ship and store the butchered meat requires a further outlay of energy.  Consider cattle naturally put out large amounts of methane gas (which is 23 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide--whala, global warming) and animal based protein releases much higher amounts of carbon dioxide than plant based protein.  Well, the benefits (and past pleasures) of animal protein begin to be outweighed by the little talked about sustainability downside.  The United Nations concern on climate change has irrefutably made the statement:  "Eat less Meat." It leaves a huge carbon footprint.  If the SAD (Standard American Diet) was replaced with a plant based diet by most people for a year, it would equal the energy saved if everyone drove a hybrid vehicle.  (The SAD diet by the way is 40% animal protein, 50% processed foods (anything in boxes, bottles or prepared), 3.5% unrefined plant food (greens!) and 3.5% starch (potatoes/grains).

Animal consumption is big business.  And big business tends to attract lobbyists and lean toward corruption practices.  Science and public policy around dairy for one, have people chairing committees on the Food and Nutrition Board (sets dietary guidelines) who are also consultants for the dairy industry (it is now recommended we drink 3 eight ounce glasses of milk daily up from two from a few years ago; any correlation?).  This is obviously a conflict of interest which seems to be under the law radar.

More fabulous Maine mushrooms!

As in healthcare, we are approaching the need for a paradigm shift in the way agriculture is grown in this country (but of course, there is a solid relationship between the two).  Obviously, we are not going back to becoming a non-industrialized agriculture society.  Too many people have to be fed.  But the trend to grow part of one's daily intake and use local small farmers for much of the rest is growing, a  more environmentally sustainable possibility for some of us.  It is almost convenient to buy local eggs now and raw milk from smaller farms.  CSAs have expanded to include humanely raised animals which families or individuals can buy a portion of the slaughter (still have to freeze the bulk of that portion, which is more energy use). Personally, I don't think the inhumane, mechanical processing of animal protein is good for my health and soul (or anyone elses?) or the environment.  We need to look at our consumer and eating habits with this in mind, bring more consciousness to the way we purchase, grow and sustain ourselves.  Saying NO to the technology-based food production in this country will in time shift the paradigm (and everything else) on how we feed ourselves and respect the action of self sustenance and planet sustainability.  If we don't do this, but continue to consume food in America the way we do, according to experts, by 2030 we will need 2-5 other planets to feed all of us.  This is 2013, 16 years to go.  Earth is all we've got (at the moment).

resources gleaned from:

Food, Inc - TakePart

Vegeducated - New release on Netflix - Vegan Lifestyle - The Chat .

Forks Over Knives | Official Website

 

 

Active Listening

This blog pretty much centers around  the concept that health and healing can't be separated from relationship; relationship being the container that holds all healing and therapeutic collaboration.  This idea of relationship depends on a deeper listening, also called Active Listening or Therapeutic Listening.  There are several versions of what this is.  There is an actual teaching structure to learn:  ActiveListening.  There is another version that includes an awareness of body language.  In addition, my own  sense of this includes individual and collective energy awareness.

The problem with spelling-out and structuring something as natural as listening, is the danger that the structure and learning of it becomes mechanical.  It doesn't take into account the unknown moments and energy cues, the subtle energy exchanges that can't be qualified nor quantified.  Mechanical is the antithesis of what Listening is. Most of these teaching models do emphasize cultivating "awareness", awareness being mentioned as an almost aside in the methods. But awareness seems to be the crux of listening (and hence, the center of most understanding); awareness is dimensional and requires a commitment to engage more of oneself.  Most of these methods include sounding back word for word what another person has said.  This is helpful for the other person (they hear their own words back and know they've been received) and it's helpful for the "hearing" person as well.  That particular "parroting" tactic if primarily used in an attempt to listen, can be (in my experience) trying especially if it is done automatically and mechanically.  Nevertheless, it is not a bad first step in relating.

Like most things, one can be instructed to learn listening skills.  Also, as in most things, a foundation in skills involving knowledge is partial until an understanding ensues.  An understanding transpires with a lot of practice.  A practice which not only includes the foundational skills, but a building of attention, awareness, humility and patience.  And also importantly, a curiosity.  Curiosity is an imperative part of the process because, once curiosity is absent to another's manifestation (or your own in the engagement), humility goes out the window and judgement moves in.  At this point, the delicate, multi-dimensional act of listening becomes something else closer to reaction.

Active listening isn't something we do with our hearing organ (ears) alone.  It includes all of me.  It actually means to have an active attention, something none of the skill-building methods mention.  Probably because an active attention is challenging to cultivate and involves parts of oneself that are new to that activity.  How do we become practiced in awareness?  How do we build a layered and more acute attention?

All practice starts with oneself.  The Active Listening literature calls for allowing for silences and empty space in exchanges.  So it is with oneself.  Many people cultivate this through meditation, taking time to sit quietly, which activates other more subtle parts of oneself that become witness to what goes on when one is sitting still, sensitizing, breathing more fully.  These more subtle parts don't get a chance to be "practiced" unless these quiet moments are allowed.  They don't come forth readily without that room being made ready, the presence of a more expansive and spacious territory that often is accompanied by acceptance and empathy.  Meditation and a relationship to our own nature is not a cultural more in this country (although may be becoming so).  If it was culturally more "usual", perhaps these practices would be built into our lives and our neighbor's lives.  But they are not, so instigating it in oneself can be a struggle without a community's support.

Another aspect of a deeper listening which is not mentioned in Active Listening literature is the fact that listening is a dual action.  It's an attention on oneself as well as on another.  Practicing being with oneself while taking in tone, words and general energy of another is tricky.  It's a bit like riding a wave.  You're with yourself one moment, than in the next moment, find you have dipped down into the wave's tunnel (lapsed attention), in danger of  becoming attached to something the person you are listening to has said or indicated energy-wise or in body language.  It's a dance of energetically moving back and forth, finding the alignment between oneself and another.  And to further complicate things, there are always the inevitable distractions.  Other noises and movement present as well as the reactions that occur in oneself and the other.  It's usual to be taken by all or any of these things.  Our bodies are lightning rods to energy sources, extremely sensitive to the smallest manifestation.  Listening becomes complex.  Attention is tenuous.  This practice is dependent on the renewing of the curiosity place in oneself, the place that is interested and intrigued by the small and opaque, by the contrasts and paradoxes without getting caught up or attached to them.

Because listening is complicated and layered, to try listening experiments with inanimate objects or animals before intentionally taking on other human beings can be helpful.  Sitting quietly with objects or pets and watching/listening to the play of energy, thoughts, associations going on within oneself and the thing's response, simplifies the listening experience.  Feeling into the life and nature of the thing that is more simple than human beings, gives us a chance to experience this deeper listening in ourselves, to ourselves and to another.  Exploring a sensitized energy exchange in this circumstance is helpful in building a stronger awareness, attention and listening capacity in oneself.

To practice "listening" with and to inanimate objects might seem an eccentric thing to attempt.  But everything has materiality and all materiality has energy and therefore its own truth.  Doing this sort of exercise with say, a door knob, is revealing.  The door knob has an energy of its own and has been influenced by people energies (touch).  From a sensitized place, its materiality speaks (subtle) volumes, its energy is noteworthy.  Giving an object a quiet attention creates an interesting relationship to it; the nuanced "listening" factor revealed.

Therapeutic Listening - A Total Approach
Power to Change – 10 Tips to Effective & Active Listening Skills
Active Listening - Steps and Instructions
The Center for Nonviolent Communication | Center for Nonviolent .

 

Food Fascism and the Convenient Microwave

"You want me to use WHAT to make your dinner?"

My dad would have been a stellar microwave salesman.  In the early 1970's he enthusiastically hoisted an enormous metal box (one of the first non-commercial microwaves) into our home's kitchen, relieving the counter of three-quarter's of its space. He believed it would revolutionize food preparation (the "best thing since sliced bread" as he would say) for my mother, the burned-out family cook.  I was the only one in the large household not to partake of this new-fangled appliance; I had an instinctive and suspicious repulsion to it.  Of course, I was a tender-teenager, wont to explore my own ideas, but also the only thing I knew about it was that it exponentially decreased cooking time and you couldn't put metal in the thing while operating or it would explode (this science evidence realized 30 years later when somebody put tinfoil in my hospital unit's break room microwave and we were subsequently inundated with full-gear firemen wielding hefty axes).  For the first 5 years in my twenties, reliably there would be a new model microwave under the Christmas tree waiting for me.  Too big to re-gift, I would ask dad to return it (he declined and found it another "home").  By my twenty fifth year, Christmas began to be a dreaded event knowing I would have to meet his tenacity? obtuseness? obnoxiousness? head on (probably all three, dear ole dad) around his insistent admonitions I should "enter the future".  Dad had his ideas and I had mine.

The Amana microrange microwave, circa 1967
Good times!...........

Since the 1980's, American kitchens in new homes have been routinely outfitted with microwave inlets to fill (most often hazardly placed at one's head/brain level). In university dorms, they often are the only working appliance in the group kitchen and restaurants everywhere have used them to cut out a time consuming step or two in filling the stomachs of the masses they feed.  In researching this essay, it was evident to me the prejudice I have toward microwaves in relation to food preparation. I admit to leaning toward information to support my bias (the inherent difficulty in research).  I often found reputable sources, like a Harvard publication making statements like (in relation to what to microwave your food in): "Only those containers labeled 'microwave safe' have been tested and found safe for that purpose. A container that’s not labeled safe for microwave use isn’t necessarily unsafe; the FDA simply hasn’t determined whether it is or not." This cued me to the fact I'm not the only one with a bias and that microwaves are a big (probably political) business.  My un-unique food fascism will likely be front and center here, but I will counter it (as I can) with the other side's bias, which is commonplace source.

How do microwave "radar ranges" or ovens work?
Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation—waves of electrical and magnetic energy moving together through space. EM radiation ranges from very high energy (gamma rays and x-rays) on one end of the spectrum to very low energy (radio waves) on the other end of the spectrum.  Microwaves cause dielectric heating. They bounce around the inside of your oven and are absorbed by the food you put in it. Since water molecules are bipolar, having a positive end and negative end, they rotate rapidly in the alternating electric field. The water molecules in the food vibrate violently at extremely high frequencies—millions of times per second—creating molecular friction, which heats up the food.  If the food or object placed in the microwave had no water it would not be able to have this resonance heating type effect and would remain cool. Or, as investigative journalist William Thomas calls it, "electrically whiplashed."

In this heating process, structures of the water molecules are torn apart and forcefully deformed. This is different than conventional heating of food, whereby heat is transferred convectionally from the outside, inward. Microwave cooking begins within the molecules where water is present.Contrary to popular belief, microwaved foods don't cook "from the inside out." When thicker foods are cooked, microwaves heat the outer layers, and the inner layers are cooked mostly by the conduction of heat from the hot outer layers, inward.  Heating food in this way causes the present water molecules to resonate at very high frequencies and eventually turn to steam which heats your food.  Since not all areas contain the same amount of water, the heating is uneven.  Additionally, microwaving creates new compounds that are not found in humans or in nature, called radiolytic compounds. We don't yet know what these compounds are doing to your body (even after over 40 years of frequent mass use?).

In addition to the violent frictional heat effects, called thermic effects, there are also athermic effects, which are poorly understood because they are not as easily measured. It is these athermic effects that are suspected to be responsible for much of the deformation and degradation of cells and molecules. As an example, microwaves are used in the field of gene altering technology to weaken cell membranes. Scientists use microwaves to actually break cells apart. Impaired cells then become easy prey for viruses, fungi and other microorganisms. Rapidly heating your food in this manner, changes your food's chemical structure (hence, nutritive properties).  Without a doubt, microwaving distorts and deforms the molecules of whatever food or other substance you subject to it.

Well, they look perky....

In my mind, this information alone is enough for me to forgo the convenience of using a microwave oven. For you die-hard users, there is the other controversial issue of the use of containers holding food while microwaving. Some sources claim carcinogenic toxins can migrate out of your plastic and paper containers/covers, and into your food.  Counter sources claim the FDA does extensive testing on containers and food in relation to microwave heating, measuring the chemicals that leach into the food. Chemicals such as polyethylene terpthalate (PET), benzene, toluene, and xylene, and they also admit microwaving fatty foods (meat) in plastic containers leads to the release of dioxins (known carcinogens) and other toxins into your food. But (they say) this is minimal if you use the right container and cover. (food fascist raises her righteous head:  but REALLY, why would you want to do this?) And if you should glean comfort by the idea there are "right" containers to microwave in, sources say, "One of the worst contaminants is BPA, or bisphenol A, an estrogen-like compound used widely in plastic products. In fact, dishes made specifically for the microwave often contain BPA, but many other plastic products contain it as well."

Some studies:
-- A study found that broccoli "zapped" in the microwave with a little water lost up to 97 percent of its beneficial antioxidants. By comparison, steamed broccoli lost 11 percent or fewer of its antioxidants. There were also reductions in phenolic compounds and glucosinolates, but mineral levels remained intact.

--A 1999 Scandinavian study of the cooking of asparagus spears found that microwaving caused a reduction in vitamin C.

--In a study of garlic, as little as 60 seconds of microwave heating was enough to inactivate its allinase, garlic's principle active ingredient against cancer.

--A Japanese study by Watanabe showed that just 6 minutes of microwave heating turned 30-40 percent of the B12 in milk into an inert (dead) form. This study has been cited by Dr. Andrew Weil as evidence supporting his concerns about the effects of microwaving. Dr. Weil wrote:   "There may be dangers associated with microwaving food... there is a question as to whether microwaving alters protein chemistry in ways that might be harmful." (devil's advocate:  why would you heat milk for 6 minutes when 2 minutes does the job?)

So, these are the "facts".  Should I even get into the aesthetic of the rubbery chicken breast or tasteless vegetable (or weird tasting mug of water), the direct result of this approach to food preparation?  It hardly seems necessary when the science of the activity of microwaving indicates food/water molecules have been torn asunder, instead of respectfully attended (of course the food is horrific).  As a culture, we might want to look a little closer at how we have gotten ourselves into this mechanical, automatic, morbidly convenient relationship to food.  FOOD!, one of the major life-giving and pleasure providing aspects of life on this planet.

1. [Megamind activates a hologram, while Minion puts on an apron and wig] ... 
   Megamind: But it can be easily reheated, in the microwave of evil! 
   Metro Man: Well, I think 

   Megamind's Father: [last words to his son] You are destined for... 

   [the ship closes and takes off] 

   
   

   Megamind: [voice-over] I hadn't quite heard that last part, but it sounded important. Destined for... What? 

   --  Megamind (the film, 2010)

most of the information for this post was gleaned from:
--January/February 1990 issue of Nutrition Action Newsletter
--http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/
--http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update0706a.shtml
--November 2003 issue of The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
--Rust S and Kissinger M. (November 15, 2008) "BPA leaches from 'safe' products" Journal Sentinel Online
--Vallejo F, Tomas-Barberan F A, and Garcia-Viguera C. "Phenolic compound contents in edible parts of broccoli inflorescences after domestic cooking"
--Kidmose U and Kaack K. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica B 1999:49(2):110-117
--Song K and Milner J A. "The influence of heating on the anticancer properties of garlic," Journal of Nutrition 2001;131(3S):1054S-57S
--Watanabe F, Takenaka S, Abe K, Tamura Y, and Nakano Y. J. Agric. Food Chem. Feb 26 1998;46(4):1433-1436