Author: takeawalk44

Play With Your Food!

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There are so many amazing things that you can do with

fresh red cabbage 

For a fun weekend project – making dye: purple, pink or an intense blue!

Boil 1/2-1 head of chopped cabbage covered in water

Add 1 Tbs of salt for each 1/2 of a cabbage

Strain out cabbage (save that for dinner!) and keep liquid in pan

For Blue – add a 1 Tbs of baking soda or an ammonia

For Pink – add 2 Tbs of white vinegar

For purple – leave as is

Now soak the desired material and have FUN!

*this will wash out eventually, so try with non clothing items or just dye a shirt for temporary fun.

Experiment fabric gift bags for the holidays!

Let it dry in the sun completely.

A Day For Love

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It’s a new day.  Let’s celebrate with one gratitude that first comes to mind:   No matter what large subjects may seem looming and overwhelming to us today, think of something that is going to help today be a celebration, instead of a burden.

Begin the day with a deep inhale and equally thorough exhale.  Now another.

It’s a new day.  24 hours to be a kind neighbor, supportive friend, spontaneous partner, superb parent, blessing to a stranger.  24 hours to make mistakes and then try again with a smile because YOU are here to try again!

Let us rise, smile and be our best for a life and world that needs our LOVE and attention.

 

 

 

 

To Beast, Or Not To Beast…

We humans love extremes.  So many pieces of our day are brought into the realm of EXTREME.  The hours that we work, the sleep that we get or do not get, our workouts, diets, opinions and even hydration!  These beasts seem to be living and gasping for air all around us.  Passionate inspiration and strong goals are wonderful fountains to draw energy from and with that, when is too much, too much?  How do we know when balance is needed again, or else?  Is the extreme, the ‘beasting it’, the exhaustion worth it?  I suppose there’s one question that can answer this:

How’s it going for you?  Is your body happy and can it calm and quiet?  Is your mind happily fed and also able to find peace regularly?  Are you able to look in the mirror and love your body just as it is?  Are you confident enough in your work to be able to say ‘No’ when you need to?

How is ‘beasting it’ going for you?  Are you strong from the fountain of energy or are you cracking under it’s pressure?

Your body knows.  Your mind knows.  Your heart knows.

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Photo by Cindy Weaver   Santa Fe, NM

Slow Down, Sit and Enjoy

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One of my family’s favorites for a weekend breakfast!  You can choose any topping you’d like, even honey or powered sugar.  We like a maple syrup fruit sauce.  Here is the basic recipe for you to try with some friends or kiddos nearby.

Oven Pancake

INGREDIENTS
– 3 eggs
– 3/4 cup milk (whatever kind you have on hand, I use 2%)
– 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
– 1 Tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 400. Place cast iron skillet or shallow baking dish in oven (9-10″).

2) In blender, or by hand, blend eggs, milk, flour, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth (about 5 minutes).

3) Open oven and place butter in pan until sizzling. Pour in batter. Bake about 20 minutes until puffy and golden.

4)  Top with your favorite item: cinnamon sugar, honey, berries, etc

ENJOY!

Oops.

“Oops.”  This was said to me recently when I shared a personal belief pattern that turned out to be a long term, ‘bad habit’.  What a novel way of speaking to myself!  I stated a long standing habit that was not trusting of Life and certainly not loving to myself and humanity, and this lovely women with intense blue eyes and a empathetic, joyful smile twinkled her eyes and said “Oops.” and gave a little off-centered shrug.  As Maya Angelou says, “When you know better, you do better.”  I could bash my head in and verbally beat myself up for months and years on bad internal habits, or belief systems that ruled a phase of life….and I can also just say “Oops” and see what is true for me NOW.  Sit with that, because like any human being, I am worth sitting with for a while.  I am worth making a slight adjustment with a smile.

It can be hard.  It can also be fun and easy, especially if you are willing to smile and say “Oops.”  Practice by saying this to someone you love who is beating themselves up for a phase in life…Practice so that you can begin saying it internally and possibly quite regularly as you become that wonderful friend to yourself.

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Soften and Smile

“The breath is the link between the inner and outer experience.”  This link is what we tap into when we focus on the breath.   An ever present and efficient way to bring yourself into the present moment since the mind is a time traveler and the body is always in the here and now.

We have shared before, “breathing in, I calm my body.  Breathing out, I smile.”

Here is another way to deepen this feeling throughout your entire body, therefore experiencing the LINK between the inner and outer experience thoroughly.

Take 10-20 breathes to feel this new sensation:

On your breath IN feel your lower ribs and belly letting go and filling up a balloon within your gut.  This diaphragmatic breathing encourages your belly and below to relax and allow for this air to enter and your organs to shift.  Your diaphragm pushes down causing movement and  ease down to the base of your pelvic floor.  From pelvic floor to ribs you are calm and soft.

On your breath OUT feel your navel and lower abdomen pulling up and in as your pelvic floor pulls in as well.  “Breathing out, I smile.”  This smile, this turning up the corners of the mouth, happens in your body.  A constant toning of the pelvic floor for men and women is available to us with each breath when we become intimately aware of our natural, healthy rhythm and body movement.

Each inhale is a softening.  Each exhale is a smiling, compression squeezing air up and out, toning our deep and lower core as well as our very important pelvic floor.

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Photo by Dawn Dabling.   Albuquerque, NM

Nature’s Peak

Fall is here.  There is a celebration happening all around us.  Nature is bursting with a glow and a pride for it’s abundance, it’s harvest, it’s life!  We are witnessing a season of illumination and joy before a quiet and peaceful rest.  Listen.  Take note.  Sing along and cheer!

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Photograph by Cindy Weaver  – Colorado Springs, CO

Chop. Slice. Peel.

The moments that make up a day easily run by in a blur.  Each moment has any number of experiences to react to or observe.  We have a myriad of choices within a day except for the things that keep us physically alive; like breathing and eating.  The awareness of breath and it’s own life within our lives is a beautiful and peaceful way to bring reality back into the blur.  Eating, preparing and cooking is another way to draw connection to nature, gratitude for nourishment and choice toward health.

No matter what kind of day you live, eating almost sneaks it’s way in and so here are some thoughts for the time taken to fuel our bodies:

  • Buy 1 ingredient foods and chop.  Slice.  De-seed.  Peel.
  • Let your breath find the rhythm of your preparation.
  • Let this be enough for 5 minutes.

Taking time, thought and pride in what you are preparing, cooking and eating is a way to have present minded time within any type of day.  Gratitude begins to live and thrive within these minutes and the nourishment that your body and mind absorb will be 10 fold.

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Wanderlust

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright loved to tell the story about a walk he took when he was nine years old, across a snow covered field with his no-nonsense uncle. When they reached the far end of the field, his uncle turned and pointed out his own tracks across the field, straight and true as an arrow’s flight. Then he showed young Frank his tracks, meandering all over the field.

“Notice how you wander from the fence to the cattle to the woods, and back again,” said his uncle, “and see how my tracks aim directly at my goal. There’s an important lesson in that.”

Years later, the world famous architect related how that experience had greatly contributed to his philosophy about life. “I determined right then and there,” he said, “to not miss out on most things in life, as my uncle had.”

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