A plethora of experiences have been occurring over the past few weeks. Snow is falling softly now, and I hear we are to receive nearly ten inches. Everything is calm. We have a new member of the family, her name is Yama, and she is a little rat with a soft gray-brown face. She's sitting here in my robe talking to me as I type this blog. I received a pair of pinhole glasses for the holiday and they are simply amazing, we got them from the raw food world website - they work best for people who wear to used to wear glasses.

I've been facing a lot of internal challenges over the past few weeks, and I can tell you it is simply a shower of blessings to be experiencing this. Love is flowing and sometimes the wall of fog is in front of my eyes, but I'm learning, and it's beautiful.

For most of three days, from the 20th to the 22nd, I did a juice fast. It was extremely beneficial and cleansing, not just physically but especially spiritually and emotionally.

For anyone who loves peppermint, I wanted to share a sweet recipe that we made.

The ingredients for these truffles are almonds, coconut oil, cacao powder, coconut nectar, dates, beet juice, cacao butter, coconut butter, and a little peppermint oil.

To make these truffles, we fist made a simple chocolate sauce out of coconut oil, cacao powder, and coconut nectar. Then we crushed crushed up the almonds and mixed them with the chocolate. Then we formed them into little balls and placed them on non-stick dehydrator sheets in the freezer. 

Next, we took a bunch of dates, de-pitted them, and blended them in the food processor until they become a date paste. Then we took the chocolate balls out of the freezer and put a little coating of date paste around each one, keeping the ball shape. 

Next, we created a delicious peppermint glaze out of cacao butter, coconut butter (which is coconut shavings ground in the processor until they release their oils), beet juice, coconut nectar, and a some beet juice mixed with raw cane sugar. And of course, a few drops of peppermint. Don't use too much and don't use too little. Then we took them back out of the freezer and dipped them all in the glaze, and then put them back to freeze. 

And it's that simple. Maybe it's a little complex, but you can really do whatever you want when creating raw cuisine. Have fun. And have a beautiful 2013, year of a new beginning.

Emotional journeying.

The emotional journey of the past few days for me could be compared to an extremely hilly, winding road. Today I've wanted to cry the entire day, to just release all of this that's been building up. A few tears came, but sometimes they don't. Sometimes, no matter how much you want to weep unabashedly, it just won't happen. All you can do is breathe. And I've been confronting my patterns, stalking them you could say, one by one, little by little, day by day. I have been remembering to come back to the center, to the present, but I, we (as in the whole world) need to remember that you can do "not-doing". when you are not doing, you are being. that is all.
I feel so emotional today. I have been reading the Mastery of Love - The Art of Relationship by Don Miguel Ruiz. All my blessings to you, Don Miguel. Thank you so much for your simple and pragmatic words. You have truly touched my life and helped me to remember unlike anything else. I highly, highly recommend this book to everyone. There is not one person alive who could not benefit from reading his books. Every day I make a new agreement with myself to love myself and respect my body. Sometimes it's very hard, because the Parasite (what Don Miguel calls the part of us that tries to make us fail), it is very tricky and clever. So its very hard work, and it is a process. But every moment is beautiful.
Thank you for being, and I love you.
A.