Sometimes I'm flushed with the opulence of my life. In this country, in this city, in this household, in this family, in this healthy body within this gorgeous world I am alive. My goodness. When I take a moment to really let the richness of existence sink beneath the outer layer of my periphery I am overcome with gratitude, reverence. And almost immediately I am met with the urge to give back, to reach out, to share some of this sweet sweet sweetness. I'm not alone in this. We all know what it's like when our hearts are flooded and, if but for a moment, we truly understand what it means to have our cups runneth over-it makes a person want to give back, serve.
Serve. What a word. How bout that. I want to serve you. I want to love you. I want to lay myself before you and make an incarnation of love out of my very life. Wow. At any moment we can ask ourselves, "How can I give at this moment?" Maybe I can listen deeply to what this person is saying to me right now, let go of this tinkering urge to get my turn to speak. Maybe I can give them my attention. Or maybe I can focus in and really feel the water on my skin as I wash my hands, I can appreciate this sensation, the miracle of my ability to feel. I can pick up this trash. I can RECYCLE this bottle even though it would be so much easier to just throw it in this trash bin. I can smile more at these strange and beautiful creatures that share this planet and even more strange and beautiful existence with me. It helps them feel at ease in a world that is often so hard to find our way through, yes I can serve them with my smile. I can, at any and every moment find a way to be of service. It's a state of mind. An intention. A widening of our narrow vision of the world as a thing to bring us pleasure and meet all of our demands.
There's a something in our souls that drives us to be of service. It's a deep intuitive aching that asks us to put ourselves aside, lift our chins from our chests and point our gaze outward. And it's in the doing that we're freed, finally, of our heavy baggage of me my and mine. In the reaching out do we find the reaching back, the holding of.
I keep thinking of Mothers Day. I went to visit my mom at her church on Sunday morning. She helps out in the "disabilities ministry". She serves there. I walked into a room full of people with all different types of limitations, physical and mental. And yet there was so much joy. There was laughter. There was singing. There was dancing and innocent expression unselfconscious. And my mother was there, with a few others, guiding the class gently along. The acceptance and pure joy was palpable. Instantly, as I aided where I could, my so called problems and insecurities were lifted and vanished. I thought, "this is service? this is selflessness? well if it is sign me up. Because I've never felt so grateful, I've never felt so in awe. No where in all my self satisfying aims have I ever found such freedom."
Reminds me of some brilliance from our William Shakespeare, "the more I give to thee the more I have". He was actually talking about love, but I suppose there really is no difference.
Want to do something to save the environment? Eat a plant based diet.
Cattle grazing(cattle that will soon be slaughtered for consumption) is the number one factor in destruction of the rain forest, which supplies us with 40% of the planets oxygen.
One steak is responsible for 17 times more water pollution than a bowl of noodles.
Dairy cows produce millions of tons of waste filed with antibiotics and growth hormones that seep into the earth and water supply.
Want to end world hunger? Eat a plant based diet.
50% of corn grown in the US is eaten by animals and only 8% is grown for human use. 1.2 billion people do not have enough to eat every day and yet we devote most of our land and energy to feeding livestock.
It takes a whole lot to get that patty of meat in between those hamburger buns. Tons of land, power and water so that an already obese society can have a little more Mc'y D's. Imagine if we used that land, power, water and intention into planting rice and potatoes-we might just be able to feed a worlds worth of starving people.
Want to help your fellow man? Eat a plant based diet.
Watch "Fast Food Nation" and learn about the GREAT exploitation of the workers in the fast food industry. And when you're done head on down to your local farmers market and support your fellow man with buying a bag full of organic carrots and broccoli.
Ever stop to think of the violence that is needed to be cultivated in a person who works in a slaughterhouse? I have read accounts of unbearably cruel things that I wont even share here. Why encourage that descent in your fellow man? Violence in the world is a problem that can only be solved in you. Every bite you take is vote for what you want to see in the world.
Want to serve your fellow creatures? Eat a plant based diet.
Humanity. There is a great softness, a compassion and kindness that is capable of tremendous love in the human being. Open your eyes and it will open your heart. We are stewards.
It's not humane. It's not like it used to be. It's not. Ever been to a slaughter house? Ever seen a room full of over crowded chickens with their beaks cut off so they don't peck each other to death because they are so stressed out? Ever seen a dumpster full of living baby boy chicks left to die because there really isn't much profit in anything but egg bearing hens? Ever seen the look in the eyes of a cow as it gets forced into a strange building that it doesn't understand save for the smell of blood, the cries of the other cows and the palpable fear and anxiety? This is meat.
Let there be love. Every time you opt for the veggie burger at a bbq you are saving lives. Go you!
Want to show yourself a little love? Eat a plant based diet.
It's really amazing how you feel, how you look, what you learn and how you grow. Love yourself and your amazing miracle of a body. Serve yourself. Serve your children maybe yet to be born, your future and your dreams with the fuel that will carry you through and not bog you down.
So many ways to serve!
A few weeks ago it was the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale week, a way to raise money for local charities. I baked some treats for the LA one, which ended up raising over a thousand dollars to donate not to mention lots of awareness. Here's the recipe!
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sawflower oil
1 1/2 cup diced apples, unpeeled (if organic)
1/3 cup apple juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin tin.
Combine dry ingredients and mix.
Combine wet ingredients and mix.
Combine wet and dry and...MIX.
Spoon into muffin tin, top with some pecans and bake for about 40 minutes.
So sweet and sugar free!
Here's a way to indulge in delicious eatery goodness and be serving a wonderful conscious and loving business. Check out
www.hugosrestaurant.com
SO AMAZING! It's in Studio City and I think there is one in Hollywood too. This place is incredible! Whether you re a vegan or not it's got the greatest goods. Organic, macrobiotic, vegan, vegetarian and all around delicious for everyones taste buds. All the soups and dressings are vegan. ;) I went there with my hubby and his sister not too long ago. Yummers!
My dinner of roasted veggies and rice with mushroom herb gravy
Jims dinner of black bean chili and rice with spinach lemonade!
Jims dinner after I ate it all
Got a pup who poops? One of my favorite ways to serve the Earth that is oh so easy are these great biodegradable doggy poo bags. It takes thousands of years for a plastic bag to biodegrade and if you're like me with a couple of poopy pooches thats a lotta poopy plastic landfill yuck going on. These are great! I buy mine at Full of Life in Burbank.
She likes them
I think I might have posted this already. But it's worth a second round...
You could become a great horseman
And help to free yourself and this world
Though only if you and prayer become sweet
Lovers.
It is a naive man who thinks we are not
Engaged in a fierce battle,
For I see and hear brave foot soldiers
All around me going mad,
Falling on the ground in excruciating pain.
You could become a victorious horseman
And carry your heart through this world
Like a life-giving sun
Though only if you and God become sweet
Lovers!
