“Enjoy Your Day, Regardless of the Weather”
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So said the meteorologist, when I called to check the weather yesterday before getting ready to go out for work. I thought, “it is easy to enjoy your day, ‘regardless of the weather’ living in a nice house with enough money for heating and cooling, working inside, and getting food flown in from wherever, if the garden isn’t doing well.”
I am awed and fascinated by the weather, although living this almost entirely protected and secure (from the elements, less so from other people) urban life, it is an almost vicarious relationship.
One of the reasons I love gardening is that it links what the weather — a rainy and cool spring like we are having; a drought, like we had for the past four years; violent thunderstorms; a snowy winter — with what food grows well, how my wildlife supporting little garden in the front thrives, helping to tie me back to the earth.
Living with Illness and “Spiritual” Journeys
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This Sunday, William Penn House is hosting a potluck and discussion on life changing illnesses and spirituality. Whatever your relationship with “spirit” or religion (such loaded terms in our history) and whatever your individual practice, I think (especially knowing the dedicated, loving persons who are speaking) this talk will be illuminating.
Daylight v. Day Lights
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A year or two before Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was released, I went to a panel discussion and film (alas, I cannot remember the title of the film) about global climate change. One of the speakers was a Nepalese attorney who was working on a case in the World Court that sought to address the impact of various corporate practices on the Himalayan snow cap.
One of the things this man said continues to resonate with me: “Why is it,” he asked, “that Americans are always turning on lights in the day time? Do you ever think about how much energy we could save and dangerous, climate-changing emissions we could stop, if we just relied on day light during the day instead of adding unnecessary electric lights?”
“A Balanced Diet, in Moderation, Is the Best” (Yoga of Eating Part IV)
Filed Under Art and Culture, Food for the Body, Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | 2 Comments
Geeta Iyengar, in Yoga, A Gem for Women, sums up the proper diet according to Ayurveda as follows:
“A balanced diet, in moderation, is the best. Ayurveda says that the stomach should be filled with two parts of solid food and one part of water, and that one part of the stomach should be kept free for the movement of air. Food which is not congenial to the system should be avoided. Too oily, dry, spicy, and sour foodstuff are not good for the system. A diet which is balanced, light, varied, and well cooked is ideal for health.”
In other words, to be healthy, we should eat fresh, varied, well-prepared, tasty food. We should eat with sufficient awareness to know enough the effects of what we eat on our energy level, sleep, digestion, and ability to move and think that we know what is good for our system in small, large, or any quantities (and eat mindfully in accordance with that knowledge). We should not eat to the point of fullness and beyond (this is a common suggestion in the West for losing weight, i.e., stop eating when you are full or right before — think getting away from the unrealistic American portion size). Any other dietary practices should serve to find this place of moderation and enjoyment, the two real keys to health and happiness with and in eating. Diets that take us away from balance will be hard to follow, unhealthy, and cause all sorts of other shifts in our mind-body. What is best for you depends on your own knowledge of yourself and your environment.
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