Nutritional Yoga

For the past 10 days, I have been doing a voluntary herbal detox. My detox of choice is the "Wild Rose Herbal D-tox". I had a few different reasons for doing it...

I usually eat what I want to eat, and just try to be healthy about it. This has worked well for me so far, but I have always wished that I would be more intentional about cooking for myself from scratch and had noticed a building trend towards convenience food in recent months. More granola bars for breakfast, going out for dinner, and that sort of thing. So when my friend Rebecca decided it was time to do "the cleanse", I decided to join her.

Basically, the cleanse entails cutting out all dairy, sugar, flours, tropical or dried fruits, reducing meat intake, and some other stuff. Mostly just eat lots of veggies and brown rice. Also you have to take herbs and tinctures twice a day. I felt like a total hypochondriac popping six pills before breakfast and dinner every day, but have gotten over it, and have improved my pill-swallowing technique in the process. I used to try to drop it into the back of my mouth to minimize yucky tastes, but realized the other day that if you let your tongue deal with the task of moving it to the back of your throat, then it takes care of orienting it properly to your esophagus and all that. Fascinating, the way our bodies work.

So anyways, I went on the cleanse without doing too much pre-planning, but it has been easier than I anticipated. Making cleanse-friendly meals takes a little bit more planning, but ended up being a really good exercise in eating better for me. I have been cooking lots of fish, eating things without dousing them in sauce, and have kicked the habit of eating something for dessert most nights (for now, we will see if that lasts).

I guess it has taught me that a lot of my food choices are out of habit or laziness, and not even because of strong cravings. I've hardly craved anything throughout. I think that knowing it wasn't an option made it a lot easier for me to say no. Especially since I knew there would be an end in sight.

Some favourites of the cleanse:

Basa filets cooked in lemon juice and butter with orange slices and chives
Apple and avocado salad with almonds and lemon-oil dressing
Chicken cooked with herbs de provence
Brown rice stir fried with beef and peppers and an egg. Tastes better than it sounds.
Bean salad (chickpeas, kidney beans, etc., combined with apples, corn, and whatever else)
Almond butter
Soy milk
Cherries (dessert substitute)

I think being able to eat meat has been a real key to my success. I have been eating tons of fish and quite a bit of chicken for dinners. I might have felt pretty hungry otherwise I think. Although they recommend not eating meat for more than 20% of your diet.

All in all, I would recommend the cleanse. I don't feel physically transformed, but I do feel more aware of what I am putting into my body. It's kind of like nutritional yoga. Awareness is hugely important in the process of making better choices, I think. Also, I just said "nutritional yoga". Eww.

Gardening is Lovely

Last spring, I planted a garden. Other than a small space at the side of my childhood backyard where I used to plant snap dragons and dusty millers around a flat rock that I had carefully placed in the centre, and a fairy garden that I once meticulously planted in a plastic tray, it was my first solo attempt at gardening.

This spring, while I was planning out my next garden, I realized that in one year I learned some practical lessons about planting a garden.

1) Plant tomatoes that will yield at different times of the season so that you don't end up with hundreds of them all at once. Sitting in a box. On your kitchen floor.

2) Start your squash early, or when the frost comes, your squash will only be the size of a walnut.

3) One person can not eat the fruits of two rows of green beans, and not everybody loves green beans as much as I do.

4) Growing onions is satisfying and easy.

5) Staggering your planting is a smart thing to do. Very smart.

I never thought of starting a garden as a tribute to my heritage of farming and loving the land. It wasn't that poetic in my head. It was more driven by the sense of well-being that I get when I take the time to slow down and help things grow. I grew up with gardening parents, and a granny with a glorious flower and vegetable garden and a cold room filled with canned goods. At my granny's funeral this spring, my sister reminded me of the way that she gardened. We both have images in our minds of our granny bent over at the waist at the age of eighty, weeding, harvesting, or just appreciating her garden.

The two summers I spent working on an organic vegetable farm were two of the most lovely summers I have experienced. Few experiences have made me feel more 'present' to my life than that. Being part of the sowing, weeding, watering, harvesting, packaging, and selling of the vegetables tuned me in to the process of market gardening which, in turn, tuned me in a little more to a process that was a way of life for my parents and grandparents.

Even if my garden isn't intentionally poetic, there is an underlying romantic gesture in the act of gardening. I found this poem via Elisabeth, who I met in Switzerland. Elisabeth was a girl who brought a suitcase full of books with her on her voyage to Europe because she needed them with her just that much. She showed me Louise Gluck's book of poems, "The Wild Iris", and let me borrow it. I love Louise Gluck's poetry, especially this poem.

The Garden (Louise Gluck)

I couldn’t do it again,
I can hardly bear to look at it—

in the garden, in light rain
the young couple planting
a row of peas, as though
no one has ever done this before,
the great difficulties have never as yet
been faced and solved—

They cannot see themselves,
in fresh dirt, starting up
without perspective,
the hills behind them pale green,
clouded with flowers—

She wants to stop;
he wants to get to the end,
to stay with the thing—

Look at her, touching his cheek
to make a truce, her fingers
cool with spring rain;
in thin grass, bursts of purple crocus—

even here, even at the beginning of love,
her hand leaving his face makes
an image of departure

and they think
they are free to overlook
this sadness.


So, my own garden may not be all that poetic, but there is something lovely about participating in the process. There you have it. My conclusion: gardening is lovely.

Here are some photos of my soon to be lovely garden in its early stages this spring:

To tide you over

To do:

1) watch the whole world with glittering eyes
2) blog more
3) eat more veggies

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

— Roald Dahl

Chinese Trains-lation

Life has been busy!

Last week, my sister and I spent the day with my cousin Aaron, who was here from Toronto for my Granny's funeral. Kaeli, Joel and I took him on the LRT with us to go vote for Natasha's Vue Box at the art gallery. We talked a lot about the train systems in Edmonton and Toronto (and San Francisco!) as we rode the friendly rails of Edmonton's Transit System.

When I got home, I had an email from my long lost friend Abby with a link to a video of a train in China. It is insane. When I was in grade 7 social studies, I remember learning about the special "pushers" on the trains who wear white gloves, but I never could quite imagine it. Until I saw this. Incredible.

On another only marginally-related note, the song "Chinese Translation" by M. Ward is pretty much awesome and you should listen to it. In fact, I really like the whole album. I put it on while I was hanging out at Joel's house last week while Kevin D. was giving him landscape architecture insights (very helpful and impressive insights, I might add). Since then I have been itching to buy it for myself.

In retrospect, this post didn't really address the fact that life has been busy, so I guess you will just have to take my word for it.

Love Much.

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"You two just keep celebratin' your friendship"

For most of the past week, I was in San Francisco with Joel.


On the way there, I read "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd on the plane, and on the way home I read "Grace (Eventually)" by Anne Lamott. It felt great to just sit and read for hours on end. Both books were lovely by the way. Perfect for travel reading. It takes a certain kind of book I think to be a good travel companion. There has to be a certain lightness about it that can keep you interested and distracted even while you have to pee and the old lady next to you is sleeping and won't let you out. Both of these books had that without being flaky. And yes, I did have to pee and the old lady next to me was sleeping.

Other than the flights there and back being literarily satisfying, the city itself was also pretty great. Cable cars, seafood, oceans, bridges, croissants, museums, and shopping make San Francisco a very fun city to hang out in. We had some great seafood at Fisherman's Wharf and wicked sushi, and they had a sourdough bread bakery that would blow your mind even if you didn't like sourdough. We bought cable car / bus / train passes to get around with and walked a ton every day, which was extremely satisfying. It felt so good to be outside in the sunshine walking around instead of sitting on my ass. We tired ourselves out so much walking around the first day that we accidentally fell asleep at 9 p.m. and slept through to the next day. I think we made up for it by packing our days full though.

For all you who are wondering: I did not visit the Full House house. Although apparently it actually is in San Francisco. We did watch the Full House opening credits on youtube.com though. And Uncle Jesse's music video "Forever", which was not as good as I remembered. Wait a minute, I just watched it again when I inserted the link, and I take that back. It's incredible.

It was really windy almost the whole time we were there, especially when we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. As a great American city, I would rate San Francisco as a winner.

Along with all of the cool stuff in the city, we visited some sweet stores and eating establishments including:

• Tartine
• The Curiosity Shoppe
• Anthropologie
• Chez Panisse

Sweet Moon Language In Her Eyes

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry."
- E.B. White

I spent today in an absolute frenzy of cleaning and organizing and project-ing. I have become a bit of a busy-body when I am at home these days. I haven't thought about it too much, but I think it's safe to say that my subconcious unanimously agrees that it is because I spend most of my day doing things that certainly do not bring me joy. So when I get home I go into a frenzy of doing things that I like to do: painting stuff, dreaming up projects, calling my sister, doing laundry and other HOME things, and reading.

I like my weekends and weeknights, and I love my friends at work, but hating my 9 to 5 tasks really blows, and is slowly chipping away at my sense of well-being. I think I need to find a better way to spend my weekdays.

Anyways, when I sat down at 2:45 to eat some soup and biscuits for lunch on this ridiculous day (it's April 19th and is snowing like crazy. Last weekend I was reading a book on the back porch with a t-shirt on) I picked up a book of poetry by Hafiz that my roommate had left open on the kitchen table. The poem it was open to was fantastic. Hafiz has a way of writing with a mystical touch and yet also making you feel like he is giving some directed, wise, brilliant advice and insight to you after you spent the afternoon together working in your garden and talking about life.

As I decided that this poem was worthy of being blogged about and shared I realized that Bri had probably already blogged it since she was blogging while she was at the kitchen table last night. So I checked her blog and there it was, but I figured she wouldn't mind.

With That Moon Language

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud,
otherwise someone would call the cops.

Still, though,
think about this,
this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in this world
is dying to hear?

- Hafiz

Having sweet moon language in your eyes would be such a lovely way to feel.