Indian Erotica, Fermenting, Christmas, Guava, and Vegan French Toast
Fermentation station: I
made raw sauerkraut the day after Christmas, using the new fermentation kit my
husband gave me. It’s a resourceful device that lets me use the mason jars that
I prefer to use for fermenting.
One of our hippeastrum
reached its peak on Christmas day. Perfect timing.
New obsession: raw guava.
I had a big bowl on Christmas eve, and guava in my morning smoothies.
Christmas breakfast:
absolutely yummy vegan vanilla cardamom and almond challah bread French toast,
baked slowly in the oven. It rose like a soufflé and was tender and light. A
little agave drizzled over the top.
Mono meal Christmas
dinner: oven-roasted Brussels sprouts with a touch of olive oil and Himalayan
salt. We both hogged big bowls of it.
Indian erotica: there’s no
explaining my moods in literature. On Christmas eve, I immersed myself in these
poems.
We
enjoyed a wonderfully quiet, uneventful Christmas. This wasn’t by accident: my
husband and I planned it this way. We visited our mothers around Christmas day,
but spent December 25 alone together, reading, watching football, snuggling
with the pups, and eating too much. We kept gift giving simple. We slept a lot.
Today is December 27, and we both feel completely relaxed, rested, happy, and
grateful.
This
morning’s smoothie is standard banana, but with two raw guava added. Raw guava
is my new obsession. There’s a big bowl in the kitchen, and its sweet, tropical
fragrance fills the air. It’s so heady you can almost taste guava just by
inhaling it. Guava seeds are very hard, though. All you can really do is
swallow them. There’s no chewing them. I remove the seeds before adding guava
to smoothies.
As if
he can read my mind, one of my husband’s gifts was a fermenting kit. I was
planning on making sauerkraut this weekend using my old-school method, but this
kit has ramped up our fermentation game. There are two big mason jars of
sauerkraut fermenting on the kitchen counter this morning.
Some
bad news: my yellow ‘Good Hope’ clivia, which was in the garage for its winter
dormancy, froze and withered. Interestingly, the orange clivia right next to it
did not. So, I moved the orange into a dark, cool cellar room, where freezing
temps won’t be an issue. I chopped the yellow to about one inch tall, watered
it deeply, and placed it under the grow lights. It may make a comeback, but I
doubt it. I took the loss pretty hard. I’ll be shopping for another yellow
clivia.
I’d be
interested in hearing from anyone about their spirulina experience. I’ve been
using Terrasoul spirulina for a long time, but on a friend’s recommendation have
ordered one pound of Nutrex Hawaiian spirulina Pacifica, which should arrive
today. I’m looking for the purest ocean-chill and most
iron-and-phytonutrient-rich spirulina that’s available and affordable. Let me
know where you source your spirulina from.
I’m
listening to the Gyoto monks this morning. These are the 35-year-old recordings
taken in Tibet by scholar Houston Smith. Now and then, I crave an empty room
and these recordings at full volume. Have you ever seen Tibetan monks in
deepest meditation? I have. It’s magic. Literally. Sometime I’ll write here
about the experience.
And
another documentary I want to recommend: it’s a 2011 film called ‘Hannah’. It’s
the story of the life of Hannah Nydahl, a Copenhagen-born Christian who turned
to Tibetan Buddhism in early adulthood while on her honeymoon in Nepal with her
husband Ole.
There, they met and became the first Western students of a very holy man, Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche, H.H. the 16th Karmapa.
She and Ole spent the remainder of
their lives bringing the Dharma to Europe and America and perfecting
meditation. Ole continues the work today. Hannah inspired thousands of seekers
to join her in living the Dharma. Her life was extraordinary. Her death from cancer was an
inspiration.
In a
few days, it will be the new year. I’m looking forward to it. There are no
resolutions, only a list of things I hope to accomplish, people I will bless,
animals I will love and protect, a mother I hope to make proud, a practice I
will continue to develop, and a wonderful husband I hope to make happy.
Live
in peace.
