Even the Torturous Moments become Embraceable

I wrote the first part of this post on Friday:
Today's Beautiful Food:
Breakfast:
Couldn't resist; warm pieces of my Raw Pecan Sundried Tomato Pies

Rockin' smoothie 32 oz. with fresh young Thai coconut with frozen banana, cacao, shijalit, Rok Caldwell's Green Powder and Vanilla Mint Maca

Exercise:
Deep yoga with Donna & Bruce of Elements Yoga in Darien

Bruce and Donna own Elements, an Anusara-based stuio, and Bruce is the master soundsmith. Today the music included a cut from Cat Stevens, Tea for the Tillerman, Jackson Browne, live version of The Pretender (circa 1978), James Taylor live, ending with Imagine. When I focus on the music, I go deeper in my poses and even the torturous moments become embraceable

Lunch:
3-4 pieces of Raw Pecan Sundried Tomato Pie

I could not get enough of this!!!
it was originally inspired by Zakhah's book, The Joy of Living Live; A Raw Food Journey. I had modified the recipe years ago when I was teaching classes.

Now I changed it again, taking it from loaf pans into Pyrex pie dishes, and dehydrating it overnight. The taste is beyond the beyond. Here's the recipe:

Pecan Loaf with Sundried Tomato Sauce
A hearty main course for Winter meals; great for the holidays, too!

4 cups pecans, soaked overnight or for a few hours
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ large red onion, finely chopped
3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked till plump and moist, drained and chopped
3 tablespoons cumin powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups Sundried Tomato Sauce (see below)

Grind pecans in a food processor until fine. In a bowl, mix the pecans with the veges, spices and 1 cup of the Sundried Tomato Sauce. Shape into loaf and spread remaining sauce on top. Decorate with fresh parsley, celery leaves, sliced olives or pecan halves.

Serves 8 raw foodists!

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Sundried Tomato Sauce

2 cups sundried tomatoes, soaked; reserve water to use later
4 Roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoons red onion, chopped
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 dash sage powder

Blend ingredients with 1 cup of water from soaked tomatoes. Let sauce sit for 30 minutes to allow water to drain from it. You can sit sauce over colander. (water may be saved and used for flavoring other recipes, like a stock for soup).

Makes 3 cups

Adapted from the Joy of Living Live; A Raw Food Journey, By Zakhah


1/2 ruby red grapefruit


Dinner:

Oooo, la la! Let me not forget anything we ate at my friends', Glen Colello and Lisa Storch's four course raw gourmet dinner called, 'A Taste of Asia.' This was held at their raw cafe, Catch a Healthy Habit, in Fairfield, CT, and was cheffed by Frank Giglio, inspired by the two months he recently spent in Bali immersed in its culinary arts.

We started with what I will call an 'Amuse Bouche' (amusement for the mouth - a little pre-app tasting served in fine restaurants) of mini vege sushi rolls with a delicious, creamy dressing

Appetizer: Fantastic! kelp noodles in lettuce pouches with a thai "peanut" almond butter sauce - just delicious!!

Entrees: The first was a nut meat creation wrapped in a rice paper pouch that was so yummy in itself, tied with a piece of grass. It was floating in a foamy creme broth made from Chaga and Shitake and reishi mushrooms (all healing mushrooms), some from Frankie's home area of Maine.

The second was an array of shredded vegetables in delicate piles, with mushrooms and sea veges piled up in the center - just gorgeous - on top of sweet parsnip rice

Dessert: This was to-die-for:

We have renamed it Molten Lava (thank you, John), as opposed to Molten Lava Cake, it was just the darkest cacao (my guess directly from the bean) oozing it's chocolate lava, topped by raw ice cream with mandarin infusion and little chips of a caramel-like wafer scattered. This rivaled and topped any version in the best 5-star restaurant!

I may not be getting all of the ingredients correct, because it's been a couple of days since I started this post, but you get the general picture; MAGNIFICENCE!

Oh, and all accompanied by fresh spring water and green tea

Since this is my first post of the New Year, I want to speak about an understanding I came to during the month of December. "Even the Torturous Moments Become Embraceable" is the title of this post. Let me go right to the question we all ask ourselves from time to time; "Why am I Here?" It was many years ago that I understood that we each have a purpose here; mine is to to offer people, through counseling, a new way of being with themselves; to heal their bodies, minds and spirits joyfully. I am clear that is why I was born during this time. But I recently understood the other reason why we exist at all. This reason is directly opposite to how we are taught to deal with the "downs" of the "ups and downs" of life. I believe that we are here to profoundly Be with every moment of our lives; all aspects and all events, in order to witness our own personal evolution and heal our most wounded places. If you believe in lives before this one, that would inclide our karmic wounds from those times as well. We have a profound opportunity to transform the torturous into the embraceable. The mantra "out there" is that life is unfair. Cries of, "Why me?", or, "It's so unfair? Why did this have to happen?" abound. We have lost the point entirely, and our communities of government and religion and healthcare miss the true teachings. Even though you may hear a friend or family member say that something bad that happened to them was really a gift, in general, we expect that life will throw us blows and that those moments cannot compete with the good times. I think we miss the opportunity in being fully present to our own transformations, when we view one moment as less than another. Consider this: Maybe we are here for ALL of it, and it's the ALL that allows for our highest evolution.

I know this may read as very controversial, as some really crappy things happen in our worlds, including death and destitution, but you already know we are not high enough to understand some of those "Why's." Consider that the point may be all of it; maybe it's all related equally to our existence and evolution on this earth.

December was a month for me of healing some of my deepest and oldest emotional wounds of identity and sense of self as intimately related to others. I went down into the mud and rose up again. It hurt so much I felt it in my body. Would I do it again? Definitely, as the enlightenment that has come from the depths of pain has me clear about why I am here, and I shine brightly from having healed an element of my past in my evolution as a human. It's that simple.

Just some food for thought for the day. I would love to hear from you with your own take on it...

With Love & Respect,

Hope & The Holistic Empire