Happy THANKSgiving!!

Here's my yummy plateful of Gratitude with a personal placard made by my niece!

Chile Rellenos!

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!! I am so deeply in gratitude to have spent the day with my family in Tucson creating a beautiful meal together, doing Kung Fu Panda with my nephew and cuddling with my niece and sister. My mama and I are a dynamic duo in the kitchen and we were so glad my dad didn't have to be at work! I am also in deep gratitude for my family gathering together in Montana (the men gathered to work on the geodesic dome greenhouse while the women created a meal in joy)! The desert was blessed with rain today and nothing smells quite like it...I savor deep breaths!

I am Festive! I am Generous! I am Creamy! I am Creative! I am Ravishing! That was the name of our meal today! My family was open minded and joyous to celebrate Thanksgiving Cafe Gratitude-style...

I am Festive=Raw Chiles Rellenos stuffed with Cashew cream cheese!

I am Generous=Guacamole!

I am Ravishing=Cashew Sour Cream!

I am Creamy=Hemp Seed Ranch dressing for the salad!

I am Creative=Raw Pumpkin Pie (topped with cashew whipping cream!

Yum! It all turned out so delicious, complete with extra cooked goodies like mashed potatoes and gravy, corn and mac-n-cheese for the kiddos. And iced Passionfruit green tea!

It was so nice just to gather as a whole to share company and laughter all day (and no post-turkey coma). I hope your day was filled with happiness and connection with those you love, in whatever form you chose to celebrate!!

Esalen Institute

Aaaah...here are some gorgeous pictures of the magical Esalen Institute. This was our favorite hot spring tub to soak in, which was usually so much less inhabited than the others, except for this remarkable couple we got to know. They were there to celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary and are such a beautiful inspiration of sharing Love and Light with the world. She does intuitive Angel card readings and her wise words were a blessing on our path. We actually hope to connect with them again on our journey :)



This was our magical view every morning and afternoon as we savored the delicious food they prepared. We have been blessed with very warm weather to nap in the sun, topped with moon bathing in the evening. We feel amazing gifts from the moon and wonder if there are specific benefits for actual moon bathing-got any info?
Here is the glorious garden covered in kale, chard, sunflowers and everything good to fuel the appetites of the soulful warriors at Esalen.

Grace

Grace...we have been shown this word over and over again on this journey. While we were working out, we have been conscious of bringing our cores in and up (uplifting our cores). Sometimes we make up secret code words to remind ourselves of something. On my wedding day, as the excitement grew, when my girlfriend said "popcorn" I would remember to take a deep breath. For uplifting our core, the 1st thing that came out of my mouth was "marshmallow". We thought we could choose a better one and "Grace" quickly came forth.
At Esalen, as we crossed a bridge over the river, a word was written in stone. It was "HEAL". The next day, it had changed and become "GRACE" and Grace it remained the rest of the days we were there. During our Touching the Core workshop, I had a realization during meditation that explained one of the reasons destiny had brought me to the course. A few weeks prior, I had the honor of spending time with some sacred stones that had been carved with sacred geometry. I slowly moved from stone to stone, tracing the symbol with my fingers and each was a very different experience. When I came to the stone which was Grace, I felt energy pouring from my core into the Universe. I was receiving energy back in via my hands. I realized that while energy felt very high in and around my body, that I had to consciously bring energy down into my legs. When I shared this with my friend, she often has the same experience and both of us felt like this began after our knee surgeries years ago. I spontaneously started making figure 8's with my hips (the infinity symbol) and energy then flowed very naturally into my lower body and I felt very complete. I feel blessed to tune into what my body needs to vibrate at a high level and to be given these messages from the Universe. I pray to be more and more aware of the messages and sychronicites gifted along my journey and bow in Gratitude to you each and all for showing me the meaning of Grace.

Here are a few departing pics and Shonna and I in San Fran and a raw breakfast of onion bagel with nori lox and cashew cream cheese with the all appropriate question...

Ooh la la! What do we have here?! Shonna and I were in complete joyous Bliss as we were able to visit Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco. This is the sampler plate with a collard wrap and Thai dipping sauce, olive tapenade, almond hummus, seaweed salad and dehydrated crackers. Yum! My friends we were visiting were kind and interested enough to join us for lunch and it was pretty much a hit! More later...

Wow! I could stop with that one word as I feel blissful stillness and I am also happy to digest experience through words. We are here at the Esalen Institute for the advanced massage workshop "Touching the Core". Our teacher ended our day by saying "Digestion is the key to Health. Not just the digestion of food, but the digestion of life's experiences." I couldn't agree more.
Here's an example of our day today...
Woke up at 7 am. We are in the sleeping bag space which turns into a meeting room during the day, so we roll up our sleeping pads, zip up our suitcase, stuff them in the closet outside and stroll down to Yoga class. We enjoy breakfast outside with sunshine on our faces as the ocean crashes on the cliffs below...the oranges are divine! I pull an Osho Tarot card, which is Awareness. It speaks of the dissolving of illusion, so I can see reality as it truly is. It speaks of the no-mind rather than living in my mind full of thoughts. Class is 3 hours long beginning with gentle movement followed by hands-on massage techniques. Lunch has an amazing salad bar and the we stroll down to the bath house to soak in the hot springs and nap in the sun on a massage table. Another class begins with restorative yoga for the psoas muscle and pelvic region followed by more hands-on exploration of the deep abdominal muscles. I am expecting an interesting bowel movement in the morning! Back to the baths where conversations include Reiki, healing journey with artwork as a medium of expression and deep Gratitude for the remarkable beauty that surrounds us!
I would love to share more, but I am beat and it is 11 pm already. We plan on rising and shining again at 6:30 am. There is no cell phone reception which is a blessing. Know that I send you my LOOVE and GRATITUDE....xoxo!

Raw Tiramisu!!OMG!!

Raw Road Trip!!

Hello gorgeous lovelies of the Universe!! I am amidst a Raw Food Road Trip! Actually, my mission is to visit my Denton family in Tucson and attend a massage training at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, with Raw Food accents along the way. My cuz Shonna and I drove 10 hours to Portland, Oregon and gratefully jumped into a personal training session with our other cuz...medicine ball squats, crunches, interval training and a little running tour of the hood. It felt so good to move after being in the car (a.k.a. the Black Panther!)
Then, onto our 1st raw food restaurant experience in America for our whole group of 4! The Blossoming Lotus is a beautiful, extremely reasonably priced restaurant that shares a building with a yoga studio and massage therapy offices. We all shared a Kombucha while waiting for our table, devoured Live Nachos for an appetizer and actually all ordered the Live Taco Salad for dinner because it looked so delish! It had dehydrated tortilla chips, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and cashew sour cream topped with savory nut taco meat! Super good and very filling. We didn't save room for dessert!
On the road, we drink lots of tea and always refill our thermos with hot water when we refuel the car. For snacks we have apples dipped in ground flax with cinnamon, carrots, sprouts wrapped in nori and romaine filled with avocado, gomasio and sprouts.
It is so wonderful to see the ocean again and got to dip our feet in at Trinidad State Beach...yummm...sand in between our toesand deep breaths of ocean air!
I will post photos when I can and send deepest Love!!!

Aaaah! Here is a pic of the gorgeous golden larch trees on our property whom I adore so greatly always (and especially in the Fall). Larch trees are the only deciduous pine tree (which means they are the only ones that change color and lose their needles). It is a glorious sight! Last week, I nestled in our hammock on the deck while gusts of wind sent golden larch needles sleeting sideways, ringing our chimes to boot! I love Fall!!

These are some amazing, delicious, darling little plums my friend shared with me from a local harvest. They look a lot like the color and size of Rainier cherries and taste like a delectable plum! Yum! I planted a purple plum tree about 3 years ago. It has been growing slowly (I think I should have planted it in a sunnier spot), but it keeps chugging along and we ate 5 yummy plums from it this year. It is such magic to harvest right at home!