a seed was sown

Looking back through my silver lining pandemic posts from last spring I ponder the take-aways that will seep permanently into our culture.  Some will stick, others may not.  But as a friend said with much insight, “A seed was sown, a spark was lit.”  The possibilities glimpsed will remain in our subconscious, perhaps dormant for a while longer, but not forgotten.  

I might surmise that the more philosophical silver linings, like the need  for patience (silver lining #14), the merits of simplifying your life (silver lining #10), or the benefits of going deep (silver lining #12), will be gone in a jiffy as people rush to get back to “normal.”  At the end of last year, however, we did elect a president who is more in tune with our environmental (silver lining #2) and social challenges.  A deeper awareness of the baked-in racism seems to have taken hold, prompted by more shootings, also of Asian-Americans recently, and a growing awareness that we were previously oblivious to racisms and the plight of minorities.  The advertising, film and entertainment industry all now show such a greater rainbow of people, and I think that shift will stick. 

I still don’t think we achieved an environmental healing crisis (silver lining #9), but the push for cleaner energy sources like electric cars, solar and wind power, is now unstoppable and hurtling forward with remarkable speed.

On the other hand, the pandemic has not become the Great Equalizer.  The rich became richer, and industrialized nations hogged vaccines.  Did we get the message that the true heroes are those who keep our life glued together (silver lining #7) and not some internet influencer? That a better social safety net, higher minimum wage, more comprehensive health insurance, and education benefit us all?  What have the superrich got to lose?  A few millions or billions?  How much do you really need to live a comfortable life?  What about the shift from I to We (silver lining #13)?  Philanthropy is not the answer, a more equitable distribution of resources is.

Have people gained greater trust in their bodies and its innate healing abilities instead of relying exclusively on the miracle vaccine (silver lining #11)?  We know from a year of Covid research that the Coronavirus thrives in an acidic body environment (too much sugar, starch, meat), hence a healthy diet (silver lining #4), with alkalizing greens and lots of fruits and vegetables in general is the way to go, not only to prevent you from catching Covid-19 but all civilization diseases, from diabetes and heart disease, to inflammation and cancer, to obesity.

We have experienced the limits of online study, work, entertainment and socializing, as novel and practical as it all seemed in the early days.  And while it prevented life from coming to a standstill, we have discovered the troubling shortcomings, from students who are behind in their school curriculum, and depressed from lack of interaction with their peers, to the emotional impact of literally losing touch with people (silver lining #6).

What we have learned is that as a civilization we can move mountains if we combine forces in a mutual goal and vision (silver lining #1).  That is powerful.

ode to the mother

For several thousand years we have lived in yang cultures, more warrior than nurturer, more taking than giving, which shows in how we have treated Mother Earth. She has been used and abused and is tired.  We have taken from her more than we have given back.   

Becoming a mother is the ultimate act of creation, making a new human being out of love and thin air, at least sort of.  A mother gives of her body and soul to create, grow, birth, nurture and nourish a new human being in an act of procreative self-sacrifice that requires putting other before self.  In an instinctual effort to protect a young and fragile life, mothering brings forth ultimate, even fierce, unconditional love. As mothers we pour into these little beings everything we have – milk from our own body, food, love, advice, protection, healing energy, soothing lullabies, and words of encouragement.

It’s time for us, whether man or woman, mother or not, to remember that we have all experienced being mothered and nurtured, what that feels like, and how healing that is.  Dear fellow women and mothers, we must now show the way of the nurturing yin to rebalance our lopsided relationship with the earth, our ultimate Mother who gives us everything that brings forth our existence.  I see you becoming stronger, rising to the occasion, and bringing your creative nurturing spirit to heal our Mother Earth.  

Happy Mother’s Day!

new beginnings

The same way I used to redefine myself when I moved from one country to another as a teenager and later a young woman,  spring cleaning used to be an annual house cleaning ritual to start afresh and signal a new beginning.  

Well, our bodies can use it too.  After a winter of heavy comfort foods, it is good to give the body a chance to reset.  At home, we have come to adopt my cookbook author and nutritionist friend Marika Blossfeldt’s spring and fall cleanses around the time of the equinoxes.  The well cooked root vegetable purées proposed for the spring cleanse ground the body, breakfasts consist of green smoothies, the lacto-fermented vegetables, so simple to make at home, bring beneficial probiotic bacteria to the gut to promote good digestion and boost the immune system, the lemon water before all meals rids the body of toxins, and the vegan and grain free core cleanse period allows the body to shift energy from digesting to healing, and “purging toxins and metabolic waste.”

After the cleanse your palate will be more awake, you’ll be more sensitive to sugar and salt, and your taste will be brighter.  Your head feels clearer after having eliminated all alcohol and caffeine for a few weeks, you may have shed a pound or two or three, and you will newly look forward to the lighter and fresher spring foods that are starting to appear at the markets.

A spring cleanse signals a new beginning to body and mind, something we can all use after a living through a pandemic year and a lonely winter, many of us cooped up working from home without much social interaction. Let’s start afresh with new hope and new health.

giving back, and then some

A system is considered sustainable when outputs are offset with at least as many inputs.  As a culture, we are entitled and used to taking.  In the long-term, however, that doesn’t work, not with people, who burn out, nor with nature, which deteriorates. 

Every year for the past three years we have planted hundreds of native conifers, deciduous trees, and shrubs we’ve obtained from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to restore the havoc the construction of our house caused.  We feel compelled to replenish and heal this little spot on earth that we are now stewards of. Trees and shrubs were removed where the driveway was cut in and the foundation was poured.  Wildlife habitat was disrupted and destroyed.  Now, however, free lay stone walls we built all around the property over the past years have created new habitats for lizards and snakes.  The new shrubs we planted everywhere are creating new places for birds to hide, and their roots ameliorate the poor clay soil as they expand underground to a wide web, while the flowers we add to the garden each year attract bees and other insects.  Each year we see more wildlife as we give back, make the soil better, add and diversify the plantings.

Healing means balancing by adding back what has been removed or is missing.  Elsewhere I wrote that you ask in German “Was fehlt Dir?” or “What do you lack?” when someone is sick or out of balance.  We knew what we took from the land and what was missing, and we are putting it back and then some.  Try this exercise with anything or anyone that’s out of balance.  Just ask “What’s missing?”  Then you can give back, and then some.

crystalizing thought

An idea is one thing, to carry that idea out is another.  All physical things begin with a thought, but that thought must be solidified through purpose and intent so that the energy of the idea can crystalize and eventually manifest in the physical.

Sometimes the clothes that need ironing sit around in a pile for days, until I finally pull the ironing board out in the morning and unfold it in a prominent spot to signal intent that the task must get done before the end of the day.  Intent is the energy impulse that moves manifestation along.  Procrastination is an idea without intent behind it.   Something needs to appear in the physical to move the creation process from thought form to solidification.  A previous post talked about the power of list writing for things you need to do or purchase.  A list is such a manifestation vehicle because you put down on paper what you wish to manifest. 

Architectural plans are the transition stage between idea and actual building.  A book proposal is the transition between the thought of writing a book and finally holding the actual book in hand.  Your grocery shopping list is the transition between the need to fill your fridge and going to the supermarket.  

If you have had a desire that hasn’t come to fruition yet think about what kind of next step you can take on the way from consciousness to solidification to make that wish come true.

easing in and out of the day

Recommendations about shutting screens and phones off an hour before going to bed and leaving the devices out of the bedroom have become louder in recent years.  We live in stressful times, Covid or not, and are on overload in general because our days and calendars are filled to the brim. The need to produce can be overwhelming and sleep is repair time.  Tossing and turning before finally going to sleep, missing the deep sleep phases, or waking up a few times during the night, all interrupt and hinder the body’s self-healing ability.

I don’t know about you, but the pandemic has not been a particularly productive period for me, more like living under a pillow and incubating.  I’ve had a hard time fitting meditation, walks or exercise into the beginnings or ends of my weekday work schedule.  Instead, I have perfected the art of easing in and out of the day to avoid going from high to low, frenzy to sleep in an hour.

On a normal weeknight cooking is my end-of-day bridge, sometimes sipping a glass of wine while I chop, assemble, set the table, and prepare something simple but from scratch.  After dinner, I take it another notch down, having tea and a piece of chocolate with my husband. I would feel rushed and interrupted in my slowdown if I had to leave for yoga or the gym now.  And even once I snuggle into bed, I don’t shut the light right away but read a bit until my mind is ready to say goodnight.

The reverse process in the morning takes me from making and having breakfast in my pajamas, to the next transition zone, sipping my tea, maybe even having a second cup, and scanning the news to reconnect with the outer world.  Then I get dressed and ready for work, and it’s action until evening.  

Of course, you have to find your own best way to dial down the day’s energy in order to have a good restorative night’s sleep.  If you sleep deeply and wake up refreshed, you have found it.

moon and tides did it

Technology alone was unable to dislodge her. “The crews working to dig out the ship were largely dependent on forces beyond their control: the moon and the tides,” the New York Times wrote about the all-out effort to free the Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships that was stuck sideways in the sandy banks of the Suez Canal for almost a week,  holding up hundreds of other cargo ships with billions of dollars worth of goods and livestock from pursuing their journeys through the canal to their destinations to keep global markets humming.

The message is a crucial one, one we seem to need to hear over and over and over again.  Whether we’re talking about climate change, growing food, protecting ourselves from viruses, or lifestyle improvements in general, technology applied in a vacuum has often far reaching negative side effects which we seem unable to predict.  Only in cooperation and harmony with nature can science and technology achieve true heights, as the crews freeing the Ever Given realized.  

We must finally integrate science, technology and nature into a holistic, sacred and mutually inclusive whole to evolve into a better incarnation of ourselves and assure the survival of our species.

have-tos and want-tos

After reading the paper this morning I announced that I was going to water all the houseplants.  My husband asked,” Do you have to?”  To which I replied, ”Did you have to plant the daffodils?”  This morning he had rushed out, before the rain began, to plant a row of beautiful, bright and perky mini daffodils by the entrance stairs, daffodils he had bought on a whim last night with the intent to bring some happy springtime color to the still barren garden.

There are the things we have to do, at least kind of (with a tiny bit of wiggle room), like making dinner or doing the laundry.  Then there are the sort of things that we can or want or choose to do.  Those are the things that add to life in a different way than the practical laundry or dinner making tasks (although it’s nice to have fresh laundry and a home cooked meal, but you probably know what I mean).

We need a healthy balance of have-tos and want-tos.  The have-tos are the repetitive routine chores that keep life humming and comfortable and have a sense of urgency to them (lest we choose to end up with dirty bathrooms or empty refrigerators); the want-tos are the things that add meaning and beauty to life and we do them when whimsy strikes, when we feel like doing them, when the mind needs a rest from routine.  Doesn’t matter if I color Easter eggs with my daughter today, tomorrow or the day after. Too many have-tos and a lack of want-tos and life becomes dull.  

Perhaps the ultimate art is to enjoy the have-tos as much as the want-tos, the Zen of have-tos, when washing the dishes or vacuuming mindfully are as meaningful as planting flowers or coloring Easter eggs. 

on nourishing yourself

Nourishing yourself is not only a food thing, but rather the much more holistic effort to fill your life with meaning.  Author Karen Armstrong said that “we are meaning-seeking creatures.”  Along those lines, the late Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote, loosely translated, „What defines our existence is not what we experience, but how we feel about what we experience.”

Our life is literally meaningless if we don’t pour meaning into it.  Meaning nourishes us, meaninglessness destroys us.  The worst punishment is solitary confinement and total lockdown is not far behind.  Just think back to your last year in lockdown, how meaning was sucked out of life because activities and social interaction came to a standstill. 

The question then is how to create meaning.  Where does meaning come from?  Meaning is something we literally create in our minds, meaning is not inherently out there.  Meaning is tied to the kinds of stories we create, tell and believe in.  When the story changes the meaning changes.  No story, no meaning. What brings you joy and makes you feel “full” has meaning to you. Do some detective work and think about all the things that make you feel good.  Those are the things that have meaning for you.

Easter or Passover for example are days that only become meaningful and special through the stories we imbue them with, and the rituals, decorations, and traditions we create around them.  For those who celebrate other holidays, Easter or Passover are just regular days.

We usually create meaning through doing, like traveling, doing sports, shopping, being with people.  But the deeper meaning comes from within and the thoughts and beliefs you have about yourself and your place in the universe.  The secret is to build the connections all around you - to the web of life, your community, yourself, the sacredness of nature, and all your relationships.  Then you find meaning in the small things and many places, the beautiful sky, your kid’s smile, your dog’s wagging tail, anything. 

taking charge

Our cultural approach to health and healing tends to be mostly reactionary.  That means that we wait until something happens, and then we act to counter the symptom.  It’s a simplistic way to look at healing.  Actually, that is not healing but treating.

So many people seem to be frozen in fear until they’ve had their Covid vaccine.  Sure, the conversation around this virus is complex, and everybody has a different and personal risk level (and it’s good to be aware of yours).  On the other hand, we give up control over our health when we keep believing that we are powerless without a vaccine, powerless without outside intervention, powerless on our own.  It also gives others control over you.

The proactive way to health is not symptom treatment oriented but strives to maintain a healthy body and mind through ongoing preventative maintenance measures, call it self-care.  It involves movement, sorting through your thoughts, beliefs and emotions, a good diet, boosting your immune system, feeling purposeful, being socially interactive, maintaining loving relationships, and being intimately connected to yourself, your body and mind.  Hence, health and healing are complex processes that are always in flux and involve our mental disposition (thoughts and beliefs), individual body chemistry and constitution, and how we interact with our body and mind (food, movement, awareness). Thus, a one-treatment-fits-all approach doesn’t work too well, besides letting you off the hook instead of being invested in your body and mind. 

The key is to participate in your health and healing, to be involved and invested in your mental and physical topography,  to take charge.   So much of it is in your own hands. It may be tedious, it may be time consuming, you may need to deal with emotional fallout. But the alternative is potentially more painful.