This was the year it unraveled for my older boy.

St Nick left treats in our boots, just like he does every year. Dad got his usual bottle of beer (gluten-free), mom got an avocado, the younger found a grapefruit and the older a bag of chili lime cashews. Yum. St Nick knows us all very well.

Which the boys notice. “Hey, do you think he just takes these things out of our fruit bowl and cabinet and puts them in our boots?” We’ve heard this question before. When you eat differently from most, the special items the fairies and mythical saints drop off on their way around the world look suspiciously familiar.

“Maybe he lives here,” the almost 11 year old says.
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Published in New Connexion Journal.

Can you feel the pull? Just as the earth is winding down into darkness and cold, there’s an equal and seemingly opposite invitation to mingle and celebrate. It can feel burdensome at times, welcome at others. There’s a good reason for the festivities, as humans we need support when nature deprives us of light and warmth. We have to generate our own. Community is a beautiful means to help us through the dark times.

Having food sensitivities or health challenges that require a strict avoidance of certain foods can be difficult at this time. (more…)

I write this on Labor Day evening, a cap on a quite perfect summer. The pace was well thought out, a balance of activity and rest, work and play.

It’s difficult to strike that balance in this culture of ours. We are inundated with opportunities, work situations that pressure us, and ideas of accomplishments. To resist this is indeed like swimming up stream.

This pell mell pace of life we’ve become accustomed to living has led to chronic adrenal fatigue in our culture. Our nervous systems are not designed to be “on” at all hours of the day and night.

I lived in India some years ago, before family life. I was single and focusing on my spirit, and I went over to sit a meditation retreat in Bodhgaya, the town where the Buddha was enlightened.
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Recipe: Edible Face Scrub

Amazing magic today – we’ve had a swarm of bees in our backyard pear tree for a week. Thought it was a hive that we’d never noticed (clueless about bees here, except knowing they are vital to the health of the earth).

A visiting friend explained the swarming behavior this morning. She explained that when a suitable hive spot was found the swarm would take off with the queen all at once, and abandon the tree. What we thought was a hive, a mass about 10 inches across and 18 inches from top to bottom, was actually a cluster of bees. Holy moly! That’s a lot of bees.

Here's what they left behind!

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We’re in that awkward in-between place in the year. Where I am the bulbs have sprung, and in some cases, even started to bloom; trees and bushes are leafing and budding; the sun is rising earlier and setting later enough to really notice and rejoice in – and then comes another cold snap. I wonder – were the plants and my psyche confused and tricked? Or is this part of the natural transition from winter to spring? A little bit different every year, sometimes a smooth, steady, graceful treading gently uphill to warmth and new growth, and sometimes hiking over rockier terrain with many starts and stops. I can bemoan the process, judge it, deciding it’s sad for the daffodils to freeze right before they bloom, I’m tired of the gloom of overcast and chilly rain or snow, it’s been winter for months already! Or, I can touch into my own life force in these times and feel something that pulses deep and low, that informs me on another level.

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