We dedicate so much of our focus to celebration and honoring family, traditions, and spirituality to this specific time of year which can result in unrealistic expectations as well as extra stress depending on the approach taken.

Watching the blossoms on my Christmas Cactus come to life, stretching out it’s joyful red petals, has caused me to pause for a moment and ponder the steady care required all throughout the year that produces these blooms at the holidays. The plant has reserved it’s blossoming for the closing of the year and holds symbolism of the fresh starts promised by a new year.   It reminds me to nurture those things I want to see blossom all along as the days pass and that with time, the care will produce little blooms unfolding all over the place! This is true of friendships, familial connection, workplace interactions, personal expression, and more!

Please remember to nurture yourself and others throughout the year and to allow things to flourish in their own way and time!

Pomegranate is a beautiful winter fruit for home and parties.  Not only are they delicious, they are SO good for you!!   https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318385.php

This link tells about the antioxidants, killing of prostate cancer cells, anti viral, digestion, protection against Alzheimer’s, just to name a few.

An easy way to pick a good pomegranate in the store is to look for flattened sides vs a fully round fruit and typically to go with a rich red outer color.  You can often buy the seeds in a container but choice carefully as these containers tend to go badly quickly.  A Tupperware of seeds that you plucked yourself will stay happy in your fridge for about 4-5 days.

Once it’s home, wash, cut in half put the 1/2 in a medium mixing bowl of water and invert the fruit by pushing on the lighter meaty spaces in between the fruit.  Large pods of seeds will invert out and then you are just plucking them out.  The benefit to a bowl of water is that the bright red juice won’t spray onto you and the seeds sink while the white pieces float – so it is fairly easy to drain and just get the mouth watering seeds.  They are wonderful as a topping, in handfuls (more effective than coffee at waking me up in the afternoon!) and amazing good with a few dark chocolate chips!

So try this beautiful winter fruit out and stay healthy this season.

Healing my tennis elbow became a very wonderful discovery into the world of mindful living.

Here is what I did, and the results have been more than interesting. I have felt a newness about many tasks that are so ordinary. You know, the ones that you do everyday, so many times, and usually can’t even remember whether or not you did them. I simply started using my non-dominate hand. Does that sound silly to you? Well, let me tell you, it is anything but. I began by brushing my hair with my left hand. Totally different feeling on my scalp, different pressure. I noticed how my wrist twisted in a way I never noticed before. My hair is on the long side, and by brushing with my left hand, it felt awkward, more like a child learning this task.Interesting, it is now another “new” sensation. Washing dishes and putting them away has become a meditation of sorts. Allowing the non-dominant hand to call the shots becomes a mindful activity. I need to pay attention so I don’t break things!  Unlocking doors, lighting candles, stirring pots of soup. So many things.The list could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Tips by Nora (age 9), with afterthoughts from her mother:

1. Never judge someone by the way they look.   Beautiful gifts can come in unexpected packages.  Be open to beauty in it’s many forms.
2. Always be friendly.  Approach others with a smile.  We are all drawn to kindness.
3. Be polite.  Consideration for speech and actions can create a positive atmosphere.
4. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Yes and Yes and Yes and Yes. That’s the ticket!

Affirmation:  I am complete

It is so wonderful to be sent home with left overs after a holiday feast.  This year, I asked if they would give me the bones left over from the Turkey, basically, the skeleton.  When you have a large bone or or scraps from a bird leftover, you can make Bone Broth which is so incredibly healthy especially in this time of year.   You are truly getting everything Nature has to offer from the animal that you chose to eat.

Bone broth boosts your immune system and helps to sooth and heal a leaky gut through its bio-available amino acid structure and high gelatin content and enhances the absorption of nutrients from other foods as well easy to digest form which can happen with the overindulgence of sweets this time of year.  Bone Broth is a warm and nutritional hydration first thing in the morning to combat the day of business and germs.

Also, about 1 cup of Bone Broth has 9 – 11 grams of protein, so this can be a great way to get protein into your kids diet, through pasta or soup.

Recipe:  Put the left over carcass or bone in a large stock pot covered in water, add 2 tsp of vinegar and let is sit for an hour or so.

Then my preference is to add about:

1 Tbs Salt

1 Tbs Oregano

1 Tbs  Rosemary

1 Tbs Thyme

a few Bay leaves

2 chopped up carrots

1/2 an Onion, quartered

Simmer for 12 hours if it’s Poultry and 24 hours if its a larger Beef bone.

You can use a Crock Pot if you will not be home, I even let it simmer overnight.

Let it slightly cool, strain into tuperwares.  I put 1/2 in the Fridge and 1/2 in the freezer for drinking and cooking.

ENJOY!

The world around us is a reflection of our true belief system with no sugar coating or manipulative wording.  The world you and I walk through is ever-changing based on our expectations, our needs, our wants, and our fears.  Life holds a mirror so well.

Breathe

Smile

Show Kindness

Allow for Joy

Now look again….

“You are an unfinished work in progress. One of the good things about life’s challenges: you get to find out that you’re capable of being far more than you ever thought possible.” – Karen Salmonsohn

Openended discussions, the never ending cycle of dishes in the sink, the work you did today that will continue to require attention tomorrow: life is always unfinished and you, too, are always in process of becoming – until your physical body ceases to be.

We can also view ‘unfinished’ as always complete.  There is nothing but completion in each moment. As the moment flies off from us, it is complete and we are too.  If our world and us as part of it, are always in process then why not see this process itself as a form of completion?  Celebrating our unfinished states of being and recognizing this as complete in any given moment may help to spread peace in your heart and quiet into your mind.  I wish this for you! Be at peace, with a quiet mind, an unfinished beautiful work in progress, and yet absolutely complete in your exchange with each moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a favorite of mine.  He makes complicated, seemingly esoteric concepts, achievable!  So in his wisdom; “Stop whatever else you’re doing.  Now sit down somewhere comfortable.  Anywhere is fine.  Notice your breathing.”

It is here!  The Change.  The Fall.  The Shedding of what grew and thrived.

The Letting Go is here.

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh