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Too Many Cucumbers? Make Cool, Green Cucumber Soup

Have too many cucumbers?  Perhaps some of them have grown to enormous, beyond salad-eating proportions?  It’s time for cucumber soup.

Per person proportions for a generous serving (multiply accordingly):

1 cup peeled, seeded, diced cucumber

1/2 ripe avocado

1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped fine (more or less depending on taste or omit for a non-spicy soup)

1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk, nut milk, organic milk, water, or chilled vegetable broth

small clove of crushed fresh garlic (optional)

salt to taste

Greek style yoghurt, chopped scallions or chives, and minced cilantro or parley for garnish

In blender or food processor, puree cucumber, avocado, liquid, jalapeno, and crushed garlic until pureed.  Chill for 1/2 to 1 hour.  Pour into bowls.  Put spoonful of yoghurt or sour cream or non-dairy sour cream in center of soup.  Sprinkle scallions and herbs.  I only added the jalapeno because in addition to a superabundance of cucumbers, I had a number of not particularly spicy jalapenos from the garden.

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    One Person’s Weeds

    Last year, some romaine lettuce must have bolted.  I have baby romaine lettuce coming up everywhere.  Having reverted to the wild, it is quite bitter.  It is also taking up a fair amount of space, so to be able to plant more appealing things (new herbs and greens) I will be pulling it up.  It has become, in essence, a weed.  Later in the year, I’ll also have a surfeit of volunteer epazote and purslane, which many would pull as weeds.  Those, I actively encourage, eating young the ones that come up over and over again through the bricks and confining in containers a few others to grow larger and to reseed.

    Even though it is too bitter to be palatable raw, the now “weed” romaine tastes fine cooked as a tender green.  So it does not get discarded.  I just won’t make myself eat it in its bitter form as the salad green that it is “supposed” to be.  Instead, since it is nourishing and tasty as a cooked green, it is a welcome early addition to the garden.

    Just I have challenges and tribulations from whatever is my overall plan for the garden, I have my share of aches, pains, challenges, and disappointments, in life and in my yoga practice.  The question is how to discriminate (viveka) among those that are poisonous, those that are bitter, and those that can be made nourishing and sweet, through the cooking of understanding, practice, and effort.

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    Thanksgiving Schedule and Greetings (Web Version of E-Letter)

    Dear Friends ,

    This weekend I will be celebrating our local Anusara community at the weekend workshops in College Park, Maryland with John Friend.  I look forward to seeing many of you there.  My good friend Jane, who in honor of Thanksgiving donated the sub fee to S.O.M.E (So Others Might Eat)., will be covering my gentle/therapeutics this Saturday at Willow Street.  It’s sure to be full of gentleness and nurture, so check it out if you’re in town and won’t be at the weekend workshops.

    On Thursday, I will be leading my ninth annual Thanksgiving Day yoga class for the benefit of Oxfam.  It will be at Willow Street’s Takoma Park studio from 10-11:30am.  The more the merrier, so bring yourselves, your family, and your friends.  For those of you who remember the days when you brought a check and I mailed them in, my matching donation of up to $200 still applies even with the convenience of being able to register and pay on line at Willow Street.  Registration in advance is appreciated as it helps us get ready for you, but drop-ins are most welcome, too.

    I’ll be teaching all of my regular classes next week and not only celebrating Thanksgiving, but also sharing the abundance of energy from the weekend with John Friend and all of our wonderful Anusara community.  Stop by on Tuesday night to set your intention for the holiday or complete it with gentle/therapeutics at noon on Saturday at Willow Street.  As always, friends and family are welcome to drop in.

    I hope to see many of you for some of this outrageously abundant yoga feast.  If you will be traveling, may it be safe and joyous.

    Peace and light,

    Elizabeth

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    How Do You React? (and Dharma)

    How do you react when you see signs of neglect, disinterest, disregard for the health and well-being of the earth and other beings?  Do you get stuck in a sense of helplessness or rage? Do you think we’re all screwed anyway and decide no effort to make things better is worth it?  Are you moved to political action?  Are you moved to take better care of self, family, and friends, even if you think you cannot make much of a greater impact beyond your intimate circle? Can you remain engaged and still find joy, whatever the apparent immediate results and how hard the battle seems to be?

    The Bhagavad Gita, says that to live a life of yoga, we must do the last of these.  The first teaching from the Bhagavad Gita on this point is that we must live in accordance with our  dharma (duty).  The second teaching, and more important for having peace of mind in a life of duty, is that of “actionless action.”  The true yoga is to live a life of action in accordance with dharma, but without attachment to the outcome (i.e., live in an orderly way, accepting the tendency of the universe to be chaotic). 

    Dharma in the Bhagavad Gita, of course, contemplated rigid roles in terms of livelihood and place in society.  In the paradigm of citizenship in a democracy that does not so narrowly circumscribe one’s livelihood or place in society, I wcould argue that it is all of our dharma to participate as a citizen, voting, speaking out for our beliefs, and otherwise using the freedom we have to live a life that best supports the twins of individual and common good, including not just human good, but the whole ecology in which we exist.  The actionless action part is to keep seeking (without despairing) to make things more in alignment even if the forces against healing, nurture, and alignment seem to conspire against positive results that we will see or actualize ourselves.

    Are you registered to vote?  Have you watered your trees?  Casey Trees reminds us that this week in DC is dry; trees need about 25 gallons of water or 1 1/2 inches.

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