The Sorrow of Loss

 It's been a tough week in our family this week.  A week of final goodbyes to our precious pets and family members.  The joys of having pets is all the snuggles, walks, ball chasing, purrs, licks and happy to see-you's that abound.  The sorrows are having to say goodbye as they take the next part of their journey.
Monday we said goodbye to the best walking buddy I could ever have asked for, our dog Randolph.  He was just the gentlest of souls, at one and zen with the squirrels and the occasional neighborhood cat that would come into our backyard.  He loved to act like he was a total badass-barking at folks as they walked past and defending us against all sorts of imaginary monsters who might do us harm.  He never attacked anyone- except us- with the most exuberant of licks and love.
This morning, our senior cat, Missy, took her next step to the journey beyond.
A cuddle and purr baby, she was the tiniest of things, even full grown she
weighed less than 7 lbs.  Diagnosed with renal disease in Jan of 16, she
ate special food that was medicine for her and helped her stay alive for another

22 months.  What a blessing that was.
My kids are concerned about our remaining pet, Jeff, and how he will fare
as an only in our household.  He already knows somethings different and
feels a little sad.  I understand completely.  I feel it too.
So, for those of you who have your pets close by, give them a little extra love today.  And I have such gratitude for these two lives I had the privilege of sharing.  I can see them snuggled up together, soaking up the sunshine and loving on each other already.

Well Being Through Food

I'm all about wellbeing.  It's even in the name of my company.  I started thinking about all the different ways I incorporate wellbeing into my day and realized that the food I eat is part of my wellbeing.  So, today I'm going to share a recipe I made this week.

I made Acorn Squash.  And I made it in my Instant Pot.  So it was a total win.  A yummy dish made in my favorite kitchen appliance.  

Why Acorn Squash?  The nutritional value of acorn squash is great.  According to organicfacts.net, 
in terms of vitamins and minerals, acorn squash has significant levels of vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamin, pantothenic acid, and other B-family vitamins, and its range of minerals is truly impressive, including potassium, magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, phosphorous, and calcium. You can read more about acorn squash in their article here:  Acorn Squash


Here is a step by step guide to cook acorn squash.  This squash need to be cut from top to bottom.  Then there are seed and mush inside that needs to be removed. 

Once your squash are cleaned out, take a fork and poke holes in the meat of the squash.  You're going to add some butter and spices to the meat, so it will soak in with the perforations. 

I use real butter.  I added some cinnamon bark essential oil to some slightly melted butter to pour into the inside of the squash shells.  I then sprinkled nutmeg on the squash. 

Before I put the squash into the Instant Pot (IP) I added 1 cups water and the trivet that came with my IP.  Then I placed the two halves on the trivet. 

I set the IP to 4 minutes on manuel and let the IP do it's think.  It takes a few minutes for it to come up to pressure, and once it does that, then the 4 minutes start.  I allowed the IP to do a natural pressure release before I opened the lid. 

The squash came out perfectly!!  Soft, not mushy, nicely spiced and easy to eat.  

I love using food as a way to practice self care and to contribute to my wellbeing.  How do you practice using food to nourish your body and wellbeing?

Resilience After Tragedy

Today in the grocery store I ran into a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a while.  My friend is a widow, 80, and she shared her aches and pains and the state of her back and knees.

 As with a lot of the conversations folks around where I live are having, the talk turned to the recent Hurricane and all the flooding.  She shared how she had no idea so many people in our area were affected.  Then she shared with me that she has been busy lately helping the first responders who had been helping in the county.  She and 3 friends made 400 sandwiches one day to take to the first responders.  The first responders hadn't eaten in 2 days. I was so impressed!  This woman is 80, has constant pain in her back and knees!  She put aside her issues to help others. And she and her friends made more sandwiches just a couple of days later. She just wanted to help and show her appreciation.  I was so inspired.
I've read and heard story after story like this.  Extraordinary stories of people helping out after hurricanes. The Cajun Navy and others coming from Louisiana, bringing their boats and jacked up trucks to get through the stress, rescuing people.  Neighbors opening their homes to neighbors who were flooded out.  Hundreds of thousands of pairs of underwear delivered to the the main staging area for evacuees.  So many churches distributing supplies, food, water and clothing to those who lost everything.  During the recent shooting, everyday folks threw themselves over others to shield their bodies, taking bullets themselves.  Volunteers bringing therapy dogs to the hospitals to bring comfort and healing to the gunshot victims.  Normal, everyday people with no particular training or extra special talents, going above and beyond to help others out.
The news has been full of gloom and tragedy.  And then there are the stories of all people working on behalf of others behind the scenes.  The story that I keep coming back to is the resilience we as a collective have in time of distress and tragedies.  I still believe in our human spirit and our capacity to share love with each other.

Leaving It for Fall

My favorite time of the year is Fall.  I love the color weather, the changing leaves, outdoor activities. What I haven't always enjoyed is the falling leaves.  They wither and die, and then fall to the earth to just rot, or get racked up and bagged. It was all a little depressing to me.  

Until, that is, I realized that it's part of the necessary process.  Without the leaves falling, the trees are not able to sprout new leaves and grow. If the leaves were to stay attached to the tree, the tree would not flourish.  According to EarthSky, http://earthsky.org/earth/why-do-trees-shed-their-leaves , trees shedding their leaves is how trees keep themselves healthy and growing!  

People could take a lesson from trees.  I have been helping people shed trapped emotions and find emotional health in their lives as a Certified Emotion Code Practitioner.  When I compare the process leaves go through, shedding the leaf is equivalent to releasing trapped emotions. When we release emotions we've had trapped in our bodies, we help our body stay healthy.  Trapped emotions contribute to emotion distress and physical dis-ease.  These emotions can be from a major trauma or from a minor incident.  When we don't take the time to fully process the feeling we have, the emotion becomes trapped.  It causes our whole body to be out of whack.  Eastern philosophy holds that all disease originates in emotional distress.

I love helping people release and shed their trapped emotions.  For me, it's like watching the tree shed the leaves and make room for new growth.  If you want to know more about releasing the emotions that have you experiencing blockages and a lack of growth, I'd be more than happy to talk with you.  

What Is Your Reaction?

Like many of you, I woke up today to news of a horrific shooting in Las Vegas overnight at a country music festival.  Scores of people were killed and hundreds wounded.  Already, stories of bravery and courage are coming through and speculations as to the killer's motives.  Families are posting their connections on social media, reporting on family members safety and thanking us for our prayers.

I'm having a difficult time processing today.  It seems like every week there is another, bigger, more serious disaster and tragedy being reported by the news.  Natural disasters, shooters, bombings, threats of war, neglect of those suffering, genocide in foreign countries,  violence during elections, the list goes on and on.

Drawing on my knowledge of history, the story is not really new.  Or any less violent than it has always been.  It's just reported more quickly and continuously.  The 24 hour news cycle keeps the most current horror in front us, more for ratings than out of genuine compassion and caring for the victims and their families.  Looking back at history, kings and queens killed mere boys to eliminate any threat to the throne.  Despots raged on neighboring countries to gain real estate and control.  Warring tribes have slaughtered each other in the name of political justice.  The bad news has been around for centuries.  We are just privy to it instantly these days.

The question, for me, becomes how do I react?  I could stay glued to the t.v. and watch the endless panels of "experts" slicing and dicing each tidbit of information.  I could sink into a dark place of gloom and despair, mourning for the senselessness of it all.  Or, I could choose differently and intentionally reach out to the people I come in contact with every day and spread love and joy.  I'm not advocated sticking my head in the sand.  I am advocating consciously choosing how I interact every day.  For instance, coming out of a sandwich shop today, I saw a nurse having lunch with a friend.  I made a comment about the medical professionals in Las Vegas and what they were dealing with today and thanked her for her work every day.  It was a little bitty tiny thing, and I meant it.  Every day, if we collectively took the time to appreciate each other, offer words of encouragement and love, spoke kindness to each other, I believe we can shift how we view each other.  We can find that we are really neighbors to each other and that we all have something in common.  It actually takes less energy to speak love and kindness than it does to build up a load of steam and speak anger and hatred.

Would you try this tomorrow?  Would you intentionally speak words of kindness to someone you come across in your day?  And then would you please comment here and let me know how that was for you?

To you-being an ambassador of love, kindness and peace.  Tomorrow and always.

Falling In Love Again

There's an old Joni Mitchell song called Help Me I Think I'm Falling In Love With You.  A love song, Joni sings about falling in love with a new love and the inevitable hurt and pain that will accompany that for her. I'd like to change the title to reflect what I've experienced the past couple of weeks: Help Me I Think I'm Falling In Love With Me Again.
36 days ago, I began a 108 day journey of reading, meditating, writing a daily intention and journal entry.  The readings have followed a path of introspection, delving into the patterns and ways of being that keep me from reaching my highest potential.
Part of my journey has been working through forgiveness.  It is so easy for me to forgive others.  I've learned that there are those things that we take on about ourselves that create patterns of thought and behavior.  That knowledge has released compassion and sympathy for others.  It's when I turn to apply that same compassion and sympathy for myself, that's where it gets sticky.
One of my children has removed herself from our family.  I have not seen or talked to her in 5 years.  She is married and has 2 children, my grandchildren.  I don't even know them, nor do they even know we are alive.  It has been a source of immense pain and hurt for me.  As part of this 108 day journey, I have acknowledged that, been good with forgiveness for her.  It's when I had to accept my role in our estrangement, and forgive myself, that's where things got difficult for me.  Admitting to myself that I was a crappy parent at times, that my actions were less than perfect, that I have let her down was the beginning.  Looking at those horrible things, those dark times and actions, that was something I wanted to avoid.  Bringing to light the times I wasn't a good parent, when I was selfish, man, that was really really hard.   Then forgiving myself was the next step.  How could I do that?  How could I admit that I was deserving of the same compassion I was willing to extend to others?  It was hard to look at myself in that light.  It was so much easier to carry around the weight of all the things I did that had been pushed to the recesses of my consciousness.  Forgiving myself meant I had to look at and name every action,  every time I was selfish, every time I didn't measure up.  It meant admitting there was that darkness in me.  And then speaking forgiveness to myself, over and over again.
I got there.  This time.  I'm sure there's more I just haven't brought forth.
And here's the really cool part, I found I not only like myself, I fell in love with myself again. Like that 2 year old self who doesn't know any better than to just love themself.  That pure, untainted, joy-filled self love.  It's wonderful.  It's so nice to not walk around with the weight pulling me down every day.  It's a different kind of self care.
If you haven't taken the time to forgive yourself, I highly recommend it.  It will literally change your life.