New Beginnings

It's Monday.
It feels like completely new start. I am not going into work today.. I am working for myself right now. & I'm getting ready for my motley pheonix program to start.. My Mom & I decided to start July1 (she's my accountability partner, although I am not sure how much I need one - I am generally pretty focused and good at working on my own, hard working, initiative, all that) But, I am getting ready for in 2 days..

I wrote out a list and already have everything done on it.. but I realized how much it feels like a new beginning right now.
~ Last night I lost everything on my IPod & also on ITunes - all gone!! I found few songs on my daughters computer and I downloaded a bunch more - especially gym music. I love world music and various eclectic stuff to listen to most the time, but at the gym I love hip-hop and contemporary up-beat stuff, really fun - so I got that all set up and a new playlist created.

~ I just set up banking with a new bank and just set up online banking this morning (hows that for a fresh start)

~ I have 2008 taxes still to do (tomorrow) but it will feel like a fresh start after that also.

~ My computer is completely messed.. and I have been struggling with getting files out of obscure places on it for the past couple weeks and it is going in to get fixed in an hour or soon.
My other laptop is where I had my Itunes and it went completely dead last night - Completely - No life at all!!! and it's old & I am not resuscitating it. Hows that for a new beginning!? Forget it - I'm moving on..

: ) LOving the new beginning and starting fresh!

btw, I went to the gym & had the best workout ever!!! 20 min cardio, weights, 50 more min cardio.. I was obviously enjoying my new gym music!! : ) Yay -Here's to moving forward!

Our Journeys - Creating and Flowing

Hey.. that's not a picture of my trip to NB. nope, cause I have something else on my mind.
I am in the middle of tearing the house apart, cleaning like crazy, inside & outside .. rearranging furniture in the office. I gave James a HUGE wall map 8x13' for his birthday + and we are making way for it.. and yard work, I have a huge blister on my finger!!
I am still in transition mode.. but just getting ready to start a new cycle ..about to start new projects, and start up some that got set aside.

I am just starting a success program and have been looking at goals.. thinking about what I want from life. ..and I think this is a really good exercise.

But I am thinking about the difference between manifesting our desires - consciously visualizing and creating.. and letting go -following the path of our highest potential as nature intends.
There is a big difference between the 2.
In one we are separate, we believe ourselves to be the best judge of our lives and of what we need to make us happy. In the other we surrender, we recognize ourselves as part of a greater whole, and realize that we don't always know what is best for us.

I am realizing that I don't really know whats best for me. We can want a million dollars and an abundance of material things.. but I think its more important to follow our highest destiny.. and maybe that doesn't include all these things.. maybe the $ wont make us happy.. maybe there is different path which we are not seeing which leads us to our highest destiny.
So, I am going into this with that realization.. (although I ultimately believe we are all meant to be and have abundance!)

I am going to still read every day my (very extensive) list of goals.. and watch my animated vision board.. Fun. The internet is an amazing thing.. it really assists us to shop from the catalogue of the World!!
&I really do believe that we can have anything we want.. if we open ourselves to it, clear any belief patterns which may be keeping us from it.. but I ultimately think that helping others, being happy is worth more than all the money and adventures in the world.
and that there is an ultimate path already laid out for our highest being.. and we need to be intune and ask for clear directions..
so that we can have the best, most fun, happy and adventurous journey ever!

Enjoying the ride! Peace!

Civlilization by Marco Brambilla

Almost back from vacation..
until tomorrow, here is a video mural created by Marco Brambilla for the new Standard hotel in New York City. Civilization depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell.

Lung Lichen

Hi! ..just here briefly & wanted to drop in, say hi. I'm just steeping some lung lichen that I took off a tree today out in the wilderness.. and no one was going to let me make a tea out of it until I looked it up - but sure enough here it is, exactly like the one in my cup of hot water right now.
Wonder what it's going to taste like..
I saw so many green things growing that I wanted to try.. I am going to learn more about foraging one day soon. ..but one green thing at a time.
ok, back to my tea.. I have been out walking, climbing and going non-stop all day, so tea, and bed!
I will be back one day soon to post stories and pictures. 'Night

Green Smoothies and Road Trips

We are just heading out on another road trip.. since we've been back from the wedding we have been going on small day trips. Moncton, my hometown is great in that if you go 20 minutes in one direction you end up at the beach, the ocean coast.. and 20 minutes in the other direction will land you right in the middle of Albert county - very country! It's a very diverse and fun place.
Today we are going to Hopewell Rocks and to Fundy Park, lots of walking trails in there, maybe along one.. or to St Mary's, Cape Enrage.. and check out where my summer home was on the way & Randy's Inn.

Mom just packed us a picnic with a watermelon and green smoothies.. she makes the best, most intense and diverse green smoothies around!! Made with lots of greens from her garden! ..

..some Mint leaves and Cacao on top..

..and Maca
She reads the best books. I love coming here & going through her book shelves!!

ok, they are ushering me out.. Road trip!!

On Vacation in N.B.

I am on vacation in sunny New Brunswick! It's been great so far.. amazing sunny day for a road trip - it's a 15-16 hour drive aprox. We left Tues afternoon, and took our time, driving along the water.. we stopped into Port Hope (pic below) for lunch.. and then drove through & around Montreal and had dinner at a nice patio bistro-restaurant, salads for the 2 of us who are raw.. then to straight-thru driving until morning.. we pulled in around 10am. Mom skipped her Tai-Chi practise.. I was traveloguing her of our where abouts from my blackberry.
Ate a lot of bananas and strawberries on the trip - and tea, I made almond milk just before we left.. oh, and granola that I made for the trip.

Mom & I exchanged things we had gotten for each other - she needed chocolate, & I got LOts from ChocSol for her, himalayan salt, organic Cayenne - she does well staying raw here, not everything is as easy to find as it is for me in Toronto.. she orders these huge orders from Living Tree regularly! She had bought 2 beautiful blue glass bottles for me to make solar water in!! Yay.
I brought her my purple glass bottle. I will get another soon. & she got me diatomaceous earth, which I have been wanting to try.

Also pictured.. wild rose petals which I had picked from the rose bushes around her house and had been holding and smelling - incredible!!! maps - my HRM dvd's - going to watch them again soon - solar healing is one of the most powerful & wonderful things ever!! LOve that!

Mom had pizza crust ready straight from the dehydrator and made Pizza sauce, Cashew cheese, and Pine Nut Parmesan.. Last Night we had Pizza and a big beautiful salad and it was amazing!!!

Today we spent the day at the beach - we are all a bit red, oops. But it was so beautiful and sunny out!! absolutely excellent!!! .. and came home to dinner made by Mom again.. a Huge Salad, dip and crackers, cut up veggies and she had made cooked blueberry pies earlier for my son, Nick, his favorite.. but then she went and made a Berry Crumble for us which was served warm from the dehydrator. I can't even tell you how delicious it was - Incredible. She hand picked wild organic blueberries and black raspberries ..it also had strawberries.. Mmmm!!

Tomorrow we are leaving for the wedding. It's somewhere between Lunenburg and Liverpool, an hour from Halifax, NS, on the south shore, we have cottages rented for 2 nights. They are getting married on the beach. I am expecting a very untraditional, maybe unusual wedding, if I know my brother and his wife to be (who I went to high school & art school (NSCAD) with many years ago)
Afterwards we are taking the long way back.. we are going to go on the ferry to Prince Edward Island and then back over the bridge.. another road trip! Yay!!
See you in a few days!! xo

Rawlicious Patio

The Rawlicious patio is now open! It's got a beautiful comfy ambiance, great music and great food!!
and now I will be going there and be able to enjoy it from the other side. I had decided over a month ago to take a leave.. lots of personal projects to work on, and gave my notice.. it was a slow transition out.. and I may show up again to help out, you never know.
But it was kind of sad, kind of freeing, working my last day on Friday. Transitions are strange things - I am getting very good at the transition phases of my life!

I love the patio.. and love Cassandras paintings! They are found hanging all over Rawlicious. Here are a few pics I took of the garage mural in progress.

Cass can often be found in the kitchen or paintbrush in hand out in the patio.

Enjoy the beautiful, warm, creative, fun energy at Rawlicious! & of course, great food!!!

Beauty, Healing, Bliss, Fantasy, Energy, Shamans and Overriding Overwhelmedness

I am finding Joy and Beauty everywhere lately.. things that used to bother me, rarely do now.
I am loving that. I do however, have an intensity of feelings.. and do experience some feelings of overwhelm-edness .. I am not sure if this is just from overworking, or from all of the transitions in my life right now (I think I am becoming a butterfly! ) , or if I am just tapping into the collective consciousness.

I am happy almost all the time, with moments of wow, I am feeling really overwhelmed; I have so much to do that I can't do anything. A few things I have found that help with this:

1. just stopping and meditating 10 minutes, removing myself from the outside world
2. writing a list of things I need to do & prioritizing, numbering them
3. getting myself into another environment: a trip to ChocoSol, Sprouts, even the grocery store.. yesterday it happened and I went to Rawlicious and got right out of it. The gym would be great also.

I have really enjoyed Jinjees last few e-mails:

On Healing the Planet:
"How arrogant to think that we can heal the planet, when it is the planet which can heal us, if we would only let it! If we would have the humility to believe that.

The planet will be here long after we are gone. But if we work with nature through this green revolution including a green diet, we can heal ourselves! And yes, the planet will be a little happier too! What's good for us is good for the planet; we are made of the same stuff."

on Fruit Fasting:
"If all you eat is fruit for a couple of days, you don't even want anything else! Suddenly nothing else will do! It is all you want! You have to have the good stuff! Not that I'm recommending eating only fruit as a permanent diet, but it is an absolutely awesome experience to eat just fruit for a few days. Try it sometime this summer! It is an inexpensive ticket to another and blissful reality!"

I have been remembering the wildest and most wonderful, wacky dreams.. fantasy all mixed up with reality lately. Really, really crazy and yet profound. I love it!!

My Mom sends me the most inspiring e-mails .. because she lives and breathes love, joy and happiness every moment, she is a most amazing ( and humble) woman!

"I am certainly gaining a lot from practicing Qigong ... it is amazing
how much better I do my Tai Chi forms now. The energy channels are
really opening  ... giving me lots more flexibility and a deep joy
that seems almost constant. It is very awesome."

Mom also sent me a link for The Shaman Shack, which I am quite intrigued with.

and I love this quote on his page of pictures of friends:
"Since starting Shamanshack 3 years ago, I have been blessed to come into the most fascinating group of people Ive ever known. These friends include true shamans, lightworkers of all types, my apprentices and shining examples of the new seed race of the spiritual human. These lightworkers are re-creating a pristine world. They're already at work rejuvenating our Mother through promotion of Permaculture food forestry and bio dynamic organic sustainable farming. We're showing the way of the light by bringing a new spiritual symbiotic consciousness. Eating Raw food, affirming loving thoughts of peace and interconnectedness of all beings. Pure high-frequency organic raw living foods and High vibrational Tonic herbs are premier among the great driving forces of our mind-body purification. As an old way of burning, division and consumption crumbles, we must be the light, the guides. Come on and be with us in the light of the NEW CONSCIOUSNESS."

Create for yourself the most beautiful, awe-inspiring, happy day yet! xo

May Poem in June

In the Month of May

In the month of May when all leaves open,
I see when I walk how well all things
lean on each other, how the bees work,
the fish make their living the first day.
Monarchs fly high; then I understand
I love you with what in me is unfinished.

I love you with what in me is still
changing, what has no head or arms
or legs, what has not found its body.
And why shouldn't the miraculous,
caught on this earth, visit
the old man alone in his hut?

And why shouldn't Gabriel, who loves honey,
be fed with our own radishes and walnuts?
And lovers, tough ones, how many there are
whose holy bodies are not yet born.
Along the roads, I see so many places
I would like us to spend the night.

- Robert Bly

Dragon Wings and Fairy Dust

I am creating magic today!!!
..even though my whole computer got seemingly wiped out (hours later the files got rediscovered hidden far, far away.. many thanks for a special computer wizard friend!)

Careful plans, long hard thoughts.. looking in and looking out.. gathering information.. & inspiration.. sowing love and blessings .. reaping the same.. and always having lots of Fun!

(I created dragon wings.. and a water dragon too!)

Some things are best left unsaid. Timings important.. and now off to bed.

Sweet and Sparkly Fairy dust Dreams!! xo

The Best Errands Ever! : ChocoSol, Kensington Market and Toronto Sprouts

My afternoon of errands.. I stopped by one of my favorite places - ChocoSol - to pick up lots of cacao for me & to bring home (NB) to my Mom!! Lots of flavours and freshly made nibs. Mmm!!! the bestest highest vibe chocolate ever!!! I love their chocolate.. and I love that they make raw flavours also!! : )
This room that Michael is in has just been built this year ..and Now there is a plan, a vision for...- see drawing below..
..for the rooftop gathering and meditation space, herb garden and above bike energy technology to power a sound system below.. amazing visions and growth going on here..
& it was amazing to see Rosie back!! : ) She was in Halifax for awhile.. where I am going soon! Looking so forward to that!


The ChocoSol kitchen, lots of action!

Next up, Kensington Market.. supplies for raw experimenting creations..

Every time I come here it just keeps getting better!

Toronto Sprouts! I love the green drink on the desk.. a sign of a truly high-vibe place.. wheatgrass powered!

Rachel! : )

It's emptying out.. getting barer & barer all the time.. what will happen to Toronto Sprouts?

Production is still going on..

I love this scene! Wish I could provide scent and oxygen enhanced pictures for you!!

& now I am home.. have special crackers in the dehydrator (dragon wings!), downloading new music to my ipod and about to create my animated vision board. I have been dreaming and envisioning beautiful things and images to put on it. Fun! xo, Love & peace!!

My Strawberry Lacuma Cookies

One of the really fun things about eating raw foods is creating with raw foods!! While there are lots of raw food prep books out there.. the realm of raw foods is still mainly wild uncharted territory.. so many new inventions and ways of preparing foods are still yet to be explored.

& I love turning up the music, opening the windows, letting the sunshine in and creating..
Last week I made these incredible Strawberry Lacuma Cookies.. they were amazing. I was apprehensive about how they would turn out.. they had an almost smoky mesquitey flavour to them ..and turned out to be almost addictive!

But.. I didn't write down what I put in them.. and I tried to recreate them yesterday, sort of..I got carried away putting different things together in the bowl.. even some of Chocosol's chili chocolate! and they are very, very good ..
but not the same.. I think I put black sesame seeds in last time.. hmm, I wonder if I actually put mesquite in? maybe just a tablespoon..

I will just have to try again once this batch is done. I just ate 3.. it won't take long!!

note - added later, in response to Caleb's comment for ingredients.

Hey Caleb,
have been thinking of your request for ingredients and I couldn't remember them all, except for my crazy idea of putting chili chocolate in there! : )

I actually just found the piece of paper that had the ingredients on it. I have a thing with experimentation and also of spinning around my kitchen and putting everything I can find into a bowl and seeing what happens.
: )
Usually I am in the habit of writing it down somewhere (ideally in the notebook I have in the kitchen), but often just on a piece of paper.


Here is the recipe of what I made, the 2nd batch. & I think I remember putting black sesame seeds in the 1st batch, which is probably what gave it the smoky flavour (I recognize it now, just made black sesame bread yesterday! Here you go, Enjoy! :

1 1/2 c Walnuts
3/4 c Raisins
process until chunky

2 c Strawberries - processed until chopped up well

3 Bananas - mashed
1 c Almond Pulp (from making almond milk)
1/4 c 5 Chili Chocolate - chopped ( 5 chili chocolate is a ChocoSol product, you can substitute other chocolate pieces)
1/4 c Lacuma powder
3/4 c Sesame seeds
1 c Pecan meal
2 T Vanilla
1/2 t Cinnamon
dash of salt - if I know me. : )

Have fun experimenting with this!