vows to self and life

This 30 Day Vegan experience has been a good one for me.  How I have marveled at the plant realm's ability to nourish me, many days exclusively.  I have not kept a vegan diet 100% of the time, and I have not felt compelled to.

What I have done is discover that, at 40 and at this stage in my life, I am much opener to dietary changes than I was ten or fifteen years ago.  I am now more curious:  how does dairy affect my health?  What does my body feel like while eating wheat?  Meat? 

Sugar...that's a different topic, maybe one I'll explore later on this year.  Who knows?

For now, I joyfully keep a vow to remain plant-centered in my eating.  I crave beef and fish, and enjoy eating those meats.  I listen to my body and what it asks for.  What an amazing experience!

What I've been surprised by is that avocados, raw cashews, maple syrup, kale, sweet potatoes, coconut milk and oil, dark or semi-sweet chocolate, bananas, artichokes, blueberries, almonds, and many other things are more than luxurious enough to get me through the day. 

I give thanks for the grass-fed hamburger I've been privileged to enjoy, the free-range eggs that are on their way to me, and the plants that are the center of my sustenance.

In the midst of all the toddler-care, homeschooling and family responsibilities, I took the opportunity to make and share a delicious vegan soup on Saturday.  As Heather shared with the other retreatants on Saturday, soup-making and, of course, all cooking, can be a spiritual discipline.

Not only that, our very lives depend on our cooking and food preparation.  I sense this in a deeper way now than I used to.  The necessity of chopping so many fruits and vegetables has attuned me to that.

I was asked Saturday evening if I was sad to return from the conference I attended last week.  "Was it hard to come home [to reality]?"

I guess the vow I am and have been making is one (many) to use ritual, daily habits, how I eat, to try and keep life "all of a piece."

I have to chuckle, though, as I read that last sentence, because I'm a newbie, a baby, an ever-needing-to-begin-again beginner with regard to habits.

Yet I am conscious.  I am conscious that I want both the ecstasy and the laundry, to borrow the title of the Jack Kornfield book I have been wanting to read.

Livin' with polarities.  That's life.  That's me.  Here I am. 

Thanks be to God.  Blessed be.

30 Day Vegan, Week 2

I have eaten several animal foods this week:  some salmon with real egg mayonnaise for breakfast on Thursday, a taste of sausage and sauerkraut on Tuesday evening, and a host of things today, including coffee cake and poached eggs.

I have decided to continue eating mostly vegan through the Lenten season.  I feel this is a life-affirming decision because I want to have more time to let my body discover what this way of eating is like; because I have interrupted the pattern in a major way today, I look forward to more weeks of sustained plant-based food. 

But I will continue eating whatever on Sundays.  That's just how it goes.  Also, I'm traveling this week.  I have no idea what that's going to look like, but I plan to go with the flow and enjoy my food, whatever it is.

I am noticing:

mood and emotions:  I have felt a little sad to be "off" my plan today.  I could have gone vegan at lunch.  The menu was groundnut stew with a lot of accompaniments.  The stew, though, looked so good, and the beef was grown by the farmers who served it to me at their table....I did start the day with a delicious green smoothie, using Heather's recipe, including kale.

On Saturday I attended a gathering where ice cream cake was served.  It was no problem for me to decline a piece.  That amazes me.  I felt great saying no.  I was enjoying myself and had zero emotional need to eat the cake, as well as zero physical desire.  Coming from me, that's pretty curious.

chewing and digestion:  haven't had as many raw vegetables this week as the previous week, and I miss that.  I am noticing that I'm enjoying straight-up plain vegetables (sans dressing or tahini or whatever) more than I thought I would, on the occasions when I eat things plain.  Strange as it seems to me, I need to eat more fiber this week ;).

cravings:  I seem to crave what Heather suggests.  Last week she mentioned salmon, and I couldn't get it out of my mind.  I baked some for Joel and decided I had to eat just a little.  It was sooooooo good.

This way of eating does not exclude chocolate.  That is the only thing I crave regularly.  I have been eating chocolate chips every day and basically feeling good about that.  Perhaps I will try going without sometime this week.

biggest challenge:  This one is no surprise.  It's getting my food ready while also cooking for the family.  We are all eating some of the same things:  quinoa this week, some of the vegetables and fruits, but I'm also making food just for them--not complicated stuff, but things that still take time to make.

greatest accomplishment:  I would say that one was going to a brunch and turning down the ice cream cake.  That is just so unlike me.  And I felt so good doing it.  Very curious indeed.  I am enjoying my current weight, too.  Without so much as trying I suppose I've lost a couple pounds.  That's a pleasure, because my favorite vintage skirt fits just right, and it's been too tight around the waist since I bought it a year ago.

next week I plan to:  get through the week.  My toddler and I are going on a trip to Indiana to attend an exciting conference.  I'm planning on letting go and enjoying the ride.

the vegan scene

I, dairy farmer's daughter and hog farmer's niece, still can't believe I am even experimenting with veganism. 

That said, I will share that I am noticing...

a great deal of energy coming from the food I eat
that I have many, many options for what to eat
joy in cooking that I haven't felt before, even though I enjoy cooking
a sense of amazement that I can feel well-nourished eating only plant foods.

I have enjoyed green smoothies, roasted vegetables with tahini sauce, almond milk smoothies, mushroom bierrocks, hummus, and so much more.

I'll be pondering this experience for a while to come.

figuring out some things

It's been great to blog again.  I've gotten to know some fabulous new (to me) bloggers and gained necessary inspiration for my daily life.

And now it's time for me to take a bit of a break.  I've got many irons in the fire right now:  taxes, upkeep on our home business records, a new dishwasher on the way (truly, glory hallelujah; I thought I could get into washing by hand, but I haven't been able to swing it), a potential new 1/4 time job for me at our church, the usual round of homeschooling things, preparations for a spring equinox celebration, a conference on Mary in Anabaptist Dress, which will provide me with the opportunity to read a lovely Gerard Manley Hopkins poem (bliss) and...an exciting 30-day at-home retreat for me (with Heather from Beauty that Moves).

Blessings!

brother and sister

She is almost two and, spiritually and psychologically, it has taken me this long to believe and understand that they really are sister and brother.  They're both "mine," and they belong to each other.  And they really like being together.  Both sick this morning, they're sleeping side-by-side.

the squared circle that got me to a new place

from Coloring Mandalas by Susanne F. Fincher

"During stage 7, Squaring the Circle, the resolution of inner conflicts creates a stronger, more complex personality.  You may find yourself motivated by a sense of mission that engages your whole self in the accomplishment of worthy goals.  This mandala, like a crusader's shield, boldly announces, 'I am here.'"

That was me at age 36.  I remember settling myself down on a soccer field sideline, getting cozy in the warm, electric green grass.  I guess it was autumn, 2005, so I was just 35, about to turn 36.  I took out colored pencils, opened the book, and this image arrested my eyes.  I did not stop, as I recall.  I read the description, thought, "Oh yeah.  That's me," and set to work.  The four squares helped unify my soul.  The fragments of my spiritual self needed a common purpose to work for--me!

I discovered that I was not just chaplain, not just get-the-job-done-er.  I was struggling to integrate motherhood into my being and feeling like I did not have time to be a mother--that it was a part of myself that had to get shoved all the way to the margins to make room for the part that had to earn the money to keep the family afloat.

I still have much to learn from that experience.  Who we are is always changing, of course, thanks to new insights gained along the way.

Describing myself to myself as mother, wife, chaplain, woman, though, was a helpful exercise.  Though weak boundaries were causing me to see myself primarily as someone available to others but not herself, I experienced an amazing awakening through the simple act of coloring an image.

Isn't that something?  Thank you my sister Libby.  Thank you Joan Kellogg, C.G. Jung, Susanne F. Fincher, art therapists everywhere.

I am still thankful for that day, for that piece of paper, for images that bring fragments into wholeness.

baby shoes

Let me be clear that I adore baby shoes, especially leather baby shoes.  Especially soft-soled leather baby shoes.  Oh, I just like them so much.  And I love the little feet that fill them.