Health Care Crisis in Progress

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At “Taste of DC” here come (not in any particular order):

1. Respiratory diseases from air pollution resulting from cooking methods, factory farmed meat, manufacture of packaging, and food transportation.

2. Antibiotic resistance from factory farmed meat.

3. Diabetes from refined sugar and carbohydrates.

4. Cancer from food additives, food cooking methods, manufacture of plastic food packaging, and air pollution.

5. Heart disease from fatty and high cholesterol foods.

5. Foot, ankle, knee, and back problems from ill-fitting high heels with a narrow toe box.

6. Tooth decay from refined sugars and carbohydrates and later gum disease and heart conditions from poor dental hygiene.

6. Waterborne diseases from air and water pollution secondary to food manufacturing and packaging and attendant waste and unnecessary medication, surgeries, and other medical treatments for illnesses resulting from food and clothing choices.

And don’t forget lost productivity for sick time. I do not think anyone needs to be rigidly any kind of diet all the time (not raw, not Ayurvedic, not vegetarian, not vegan, not local, not slow), but wouldn’t it be nicer to eat well most of the time (and if you have even the most modest of kitchens, healthy meals are in fact cheaper than packaged junk food–assuming one knows how to cook, which I know is a big assumption), wear comfortable clothing, and have more time, strength and money for creative and loving pursuits?

Harvesting and Replanting

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This weekend’s work in the garden continues on removing summer plants that are no longer productive to make way for cold weather planting (various greens and root vegetables).

The cherry tomatoes and a couple of the hot peppers are still flowering in addition to fruiting. Those I will leave in place as long as they are producing or until a frost, whichever comes first.

I ruthlessly pulled up all of the other pepper plants, gleaning the last of that cycle of the harvest (some years there are lots of peppers to pickle and roast and enjoy into winter, but not with this summer’s weeks of blasting, arid heat followed by the flooding storms).

With the limited space in my tiny garden, frittering away time or space from sentimentality, attachment, neglect, or lack of knowledge, has a significant impact on the possibility of flourishing. Sometimes I relish my ability to be ruthless in the garden–to tear things up that do not serve, let them go, and invite in new and more nourishing and productive things.

When thought about in relationship to the vastness of possibility, my life is not unlike a tiny and limited garden, the limits being space and time and the particular and peculiar collection of quirks, challenges, and talents that came in this incarnation. Oh to be as ruthless in discarding what does not serve in this life as I can be in the garden.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Ananda Tandava

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50th birthday week in California dancing, playing, exploring, thinking, relating, connecting, witnessing, creating.

Breakfast for Meditating

Filed Under Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice, Food for the Body, Gardening, Meditation, Photos | Leave a Comment

The figs are fresh-picked on the property: the apricot preserves are made from fruit picked on site. Yum.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

What Are You Going to Do With It?

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We all have one of these. The question is whether we can learn to use, repurpose, refine, release, and dissolve to best serve ourselves and our environment.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

John Friend and Cate Stillman on Disease & Rhythm

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I just received Cate Stillman‘s e-newsletter, which highlights an interview with John Friend on Disease and Rhythm.

Time to Pause

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To be able to be most fully present when being active, it is crucial to pause, to be quiet and still, to nap, to allow enough time for a good night’s sleep.

Resting and being quiet does not just mean practicing meditation, pranayama, and asana while otherwise speeding about and constantly multitasking. The practices are a wonderful way to bring more delight, acceptance, flexibility, awareness, and understanding to everything we do, and make more manageable an overstretched life style.

At some point in our practices, though, we realize that in order to get the most out of the practices and to be able to live what we get from the yoga, we need to be well-rested and consume with all of our senses and eat what best nourishes our body and mind.

Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

More About Eating Local

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Some great reminders and interesting new tidbits of information in this article/book review about globalization and Columbus. With a little help from our friends, some dedicated scholars, and a willingness to learn, we can have a better understanding of the complicated web of being.

It wasn’t so much the Columbian trade that did it as much as other international trade and travel, but our modern Western yoga practice has much of the same cross-culturing, ocean-criss-crossing intermingling as does our diet and agriculture.