A Miracle
Hope you're well and that you got through Thanksgiving intact. To me, cooking this dinner felt much like my typical batch cooks, minus all the starch and sugar. Aside from what I cooked, most of my time in the kitchen was like my usual slow dance, a moving meditation, a time when time stands still. When I'm done, I emerge back to reality like waking up from a "where am I" daytime nap. Cooking used to give me a kink in my neck. Now, it's my peaceful space to go in and put the rest of my life on the back burner.
If you’ve ever pulled a radish out of the earth, you’ll know this human act is a profoundly spiritual experience. Digging your hands into the soil and pulling out a juicy, crunchy, peppery, red bulb the earth created to provide vitamins and minerals that nourish our bodies is nothing short of phenomenal. It’s why when you cook and eat whole foods, you feel better in body and spirit by design.
Cooking is my way of connecting - a personal ritual to feel both fascinated and grateful for it all. Sometimes while I cook, I like to devour information about plants and life from podcasts. Mostly, though, my mind likes to marinate in mind-blowing facts like the fact that humans share our DNA with plants. It’s true! We share 60% with a banana, 50% with mushrooms, 50% with trees, 45% with cabbage, 40% with apples, and 25% with daffodils. We are all connected. To me a red radish is not just a radish. It's a fricking miracle!
I also like to ponder the life and science that transpired before us. From the mushroom world below us to life as a hunter and gatherer. We actually did more gathering than hunting, so I like to think of us as foragers and hunters.
As foragers and hunters, we woke with the sun and rested at dusk. We spent most of the day outside and half the day foraging which meant bending, squatting, lifting, reaching, pushing, pulling, twisting (yoga) and walking over rough terrain for hours (exercise was invented because we stopped doing this).
We mostly foraged for plants to eat and knew what was good for us and what was bad. We collected medicinal plants for our apothecary. We hunted small animals mostly. Larger animals were rare, and we shared them with our tribe. Personal porterhouses were not a thing. We spent the other half of the day preparing our food, securing our space, telling stories, resting and playing.
Earth provided our perfect habitat. The combination of physical activity, mostly plant foods, fresh air, sunlight, natural medicine, rest and community plus adoration for the planet and fascination about our existence created the perfect environment for us humans to thrive. And many did, well into theirs 80s.
When I cook, I dream of life like this. I know if we could get back to this, even part of this, we'd rid the people and the planet of much dis-ease. Going against our natural biology creates illness in both us and our planet. Disease in us and extreme weather are how we and the planet express our disconnection. Aligning with nature works. It's why you can't hack the body or the planet. It's why nature always wins.
Helping people get back to a natural way of living in everyday, modern life is my passion, and it's why I do what I do. It's also why when you get healthy with me, you're also helping others and our planet get healthy too. On behalf of The Bread & Buddha Kitchen community, I allocate funds earned through our work together each year to organizations dedicated to healing people and our planet. To date, we have supported Glencoe Community Garden, Urban Growers Collective, Sweet Freedom Farm, Indigenous Climate Action, The Ocean Cleanup North Pacific Foundation and One Tree Planted. I'm super proud of this. Hope you are too!
There's still time this year to cook and connect to Savor a Life of Wellness (SLOW) - and help others when you do too! Actually three ways. All on Zoom and all recorded:
3-Day SLOW Reset - 12/12-12/15 - A Transformative Gift to Self
SLOW Motion Yoga - Wednesdays, 12/1- 21, 9-10am, Balance Your Vibration, STARTS THIS WEDNESDAY!
Healthy Thai Batch Cook - 12/5, 3-5pm, Ingredients needed! Sign up ASAP!
Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season!
With heartfelt intention...
