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Eat Greens, Now.

IMG_1051Boom! Daylight savings arrives and like clockwork I’m out in the garden with a shovel, turning over our fall cover crop.  Even though we’ve had plenty of overwintering crops in the garden, the disconsolateness of frequent rain and ugly muck became a barrier for entering our backyard plot of late.

Today, in our designated sugar snap plot, I found squatters from last fall: handsome kohlrabi plants with not much of a root but flush with a plentitude of green blood nourishing leaves, pretty yin tonifying golden beets, large yang tonifying sweet parsnips and flowering dinosaur kale.  Before,  content letting them rest undisturbed, now I am ready to devour them – all, in the next week.  Craving large amounts of greens is my signal that spring has arrived.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is the season of the liver and gallbladder, which regulate a smooth flow of Qi.  However, after a winter of eating heavier meats and oil rich foods, these organs often get congested which can leave us feeling sluggish, irritable and depressed.  Eating slightly sour foods, high in chlorophyll like greens and sprouts, can cleanse the liver by releasing toxins and moving stagnant energy.  Increasing foods that are slightly bitter such as dark leafy greens, asparagus, radish leaves, dandelion and romaine lettuce can help with the heat and inflammation of springtime allergies.  Turnips and radishes can also help cleanse the blood by breaking up mucous.

I love how garden cycles synch with seasonal and energetic shifts:  I need to get peas in the ground and I need to detoxify my liver.  By removing and eating the plants in the pea plot, I am waking up my own body for spring by nourishing and cleansing my blood, releasing stored up life-force, which in turn gives me not only space to plant my peas, but the energy and vision to begin a whole new garden season.

There’s that earth-based biolgical motive, and then there’s the more superficial vain motive, which crops up every spring too. If I can lose a few pounds by  lightening up my diet and eating more greens then I can strut around in my skinny jeans, and that, naturally, feels real good too.

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Zumba!

Today’s daily cure was Zumba!

photoTomarra’s 50th birthday invitation read, Zumba, Bacon and Mimosas at the Rainier Beach Clubhouse.  She, a talented massage therapist, who moves the flesh, blood and lymph of her clients, would, of course, host an invigorating event. Recovering from a muscle spasm in my lower back, and having never tried Zumba, I was a little nervous about shaking my booty today, but I couldn’t pass up an invitation to celebrate this very intuitive and creative woman.

At the beginning of the party, Tomarra tearfully paid tribute to the clubhouse, and spoke to her long held wish and now good fortune to be able to rent space since the clubhouse, historically a nexus for community activities, had become largely unavailable for rentals since 2005.  Because the Rainier Beach Community Club recently procured a lease from its current owners, the VFW, the building is now fulfilling the mission of its original owners, The Rainier Beach Women’s Club, who specified the building was to be used for activities, which would enhance the community.

At 10:30AM, the music came on, and Zumba instructor, Paula Aio, started the dancing. Forward, back, side-to-side, hands and pelvis, up, down, our bodies squiggling in every direction.  Paula hooted like a mama bird, smiling and encouraging her fledgling awkward flock, to keep moving to the beat of the music.  And move, shout, and ululate we did, for a whole hour, occasionally stopping for a swig of water or to wipe off sweat.  It was more than a workout; it was a tribal turnout.  All of us, mostly women, mostly beginners, moved in time, together. Tomarra, sharing her love of Zumba with her community, gave the gift of her exuberant physical freedom, which inspired the rest of us to loosen up.  And that kind of repeated pelvic rotation and thrusts released my lower back from its muscular rut.  It was a blast.

By the end of the party, after all the delicious breakfast food, it felt like it wasn’t only Tomarra’s birthday we were celebrating; it was the clubhouse’s birthday too.  The vitality and joy in our recently refinished hall is an initiating spark for many more community celebrations to follow.  As someone who served last year, and will again this year, as a trustee on the executive board of the Rainier Beach Community Club, I had the privilege of watching committed members of our community do the hard work of reattaching its core mission to the building that gave birth to it.  Happy, Happy Birthday!

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Oil Pulling

When Delores, my utterly kind and professional dental hygienist, asks during my regular teeth cleaning appointments how often I’ve been flossing my teeth, I cannot lie.  It’s not that I’m incapable of lying, it’s that Delores is my across-the-street neighbor so she is privy to seeing debris stuck between my teeth on a regular basis.  She never shames me, but ever conscientious, she always, at every appointment, educates and reminds me to floss. To be totally honest, I’ve never been much of a flosser (except on the night before my teeth cleaning appointment) in spite of Delores’ very real concern about the inflammation under my 27th cusped and food trapping pockets between my back molars.

My teeth started getting the attention they deserved when my trusted friend and advisor on all things Ayurvedic, Maurine, gave me the scoop on oil pulling for oral care. I incorporated it into my morning routine after Delores gave me the thumbs up. She personally had tried it with sesame oil and liked it, and saw good results in her patients.

One of my favorite features of this method is that it is hands-free.  On an empty stomach in the morning, I dissolve one teaspoon of solid coconut oil in my mouth and then just swish it through my teeth for 10 -20 minutes while cleaning up the kitchen.  Grinding the coffee, swish, swish, swish; emptying the dishwasher, swish, swish, swish; sweeping the floor, swish, swish, swish.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to swish, which is kinda amazing since my mouth is bulging from the ever-increasing volume of saliva mixed with oil.  When that I’m done moment comes, I spit the pathogenic mixture into the trash, avoiding a solid mass of coconut oil from clogging up my pipes, then rinse and brush my teeth.  Smooth and glossy, my choppers feel very clean.

High quality sesame, sunflower and olive oil can be used for oil pulling, however I prefer organic coconut oil.  A known anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and inhibitor of Streptococcus bacteria, coconut oil is an inexpensive gentle warrior against gum disease and tooth decay. It acts as a cleanser and detoxifier and has the added benefit of whitening teeth.  Systemic health issues related to inflammation like sinusitis, allergies, infections, arthritis, skin problems and pain can improve from oil pulling.  Since our mouths house billions of bacteria, germs, parasites and toxins, I love the notion of pulling and expelling these potentially harmful buggers.

Desperately wanting my dental hygienist’s approval, I waited expectantly at my last dental cleaning appointment for Delores’ appraisal of my teeth and gums.  At last, after taking a very close look, she gave me kudos: a total lack of plaque on my teeth and reduced inflammation on my 27th cusped.  However, she reminded me that flossing is still beneficial for gum stimulation.

All right. All right.

 

 

 

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Seed Swap

 

It’s the little things, the things that come in small packages, which often give me the most joy.

IMG_0998Today, Upper Rainier Beach residents, Iris and Dave, organized the first Seed Swap, an informal neighborhood event. Located in their dining room, it was perfectly little. As I browsed the table filled with thoughtfully categorized vegetable varieties, I was smitten; it wasn’t just the seed varieties that got my attention, it was how they were packaged.  Iris and Dave with typed labels on small plastic bags, gave clear growing instructions; Kim brought seeds in small paper origami packages, complete with a numerical key on a separate piece of paper; others, including myself, simply put the name of the variety on a label and called it done.  Kristen and Don brought their seeds in little plastic tubes. I took a sampling of their Purple Driveway, an otherwise unidentified purple lettuce that, you guessed it, grew alongside their driveway.

While some attendees perused the table making their selections, others exchanged gardening tips, lessons learned, and plans for their upcoming garden.  This kind of free exchange of information and resources, a little thing, an underground thing, has the potential, like in every seed, to nourish our whole community.

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Laugh Medicine

Tita2 Tita1jpegA few weeks ago, when I returned to work as an on-call interfaith chaplain at Harborview Medical Center, Tita, at the front information desk, exuberantly welcomed me back.  It had been three years since I last saw Tita yet her spirit shined as bright as ever. Some staff at Harborview practice medicine.  Tita is medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine understands a person’s shen or spirit as integral to health; when shen is strong, eyes are bright, radiating spiritual and emotional well-being. Tita, stationed at Harborview’s ground floor entrance, not only shares information and directions, she, a practitioner and leader of laugh yoga, also shares joy, love and compassion.  And, of course, laughter is thrown in for free.

Tita described her daily self-cure practices to me: When I wake at 4:45 in the morning, I spend five minutes expressing my gratitude.  I say, “Thank you God for this new day, bless my day; it’s going to be a great day.”  I look at the sky and say, “Thank you for the beautiful day.”  When I take a shower, I laugh.  When I drive, I laugh.  When I am at work, I laugh. When I am in the bathroom, I laugh. You don’t have to have stress.  You don’t have to have other emotions.  You just have to celebrate life everyday.

I can attest from personal experience, Tita’s methods work.  During my chaplain residency, I often joined Tita at Harborview’s weekly laughter club.  At first, I felt awkward and silly, forced even, as I participated in the goofy group exercises. Soon enough the awkward silly me was cutting loose, my goofball self laughed like the most practiced in the room.  Not hard, really. At the time, those weekly laugh-ins became a self-care practice; an antidote to daily grief and trauma exposure.

We know laughter is an upper but beyond enhancing mood, there is also research showing laughter offers pain relief, immune cell activation, stress reduction, blood sugar regulation and blood pressure reduction. When I’m at Harborview, I inevitably gravitate towards the information desk and get in line for my daily dose of Tita.

Join Tita at Harborview’s Laughter Club on Fridays at noon in the resource center.

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Switching It Up

This weekend, I did the unimaginable:  I switched sides of the bed with my husband. Traditionally, I sleep on the right side of the bed, he, on the left.  Every two years or so, it becomes evident, when neck, shoulder or arm pain arises, we’re both ready to make the switch.   It’s baffling why my sleep position can become as static as some books in my nightstand, especially since sleeping in the same position, night after night, year after year, will obviously impede blood circulation and compress nerves. Waking up to my habitual sleep patterns is so difficult because getting into bed grants me permission to drop all conscious self-monitoring, letting the unconscious autonomic nervous system do the work of restoration.   Yet sleep, that delicious still yin time, can be a silent minefield of somatic bombs waiting to detonate if I don’t pay attention to my body’s signals.  That slight tightness in my neck and that insistent ache in my elbow and upper arm, all on the right side, are the signals telling me it’s time to unpin myself from the bed.

After changing sides of the bed, cleaning up every other part of our passive nocturnal den became an active imperative.  The dust under the bed: gone. The pillows that make us sniffle: gone. The previously read books and journals with no entries on my nightstand: gone.

Last night, while comfortably left lying on the left side of the bed, I resisted yearnings to turn back to my old right sided ways.  I reflected on how the yin-yang symbol isn’t a mere philosophical abstraction, it is a how-to diagram from one of the most ancient instruction manuals, giving direction for turning the knob on our life experiences.  If we are stuck in chronic self-harming patterns, in pain or polarized – switch it up, be flexible, and make changes.

This morning, waking up on the wrong side of the bed never felt so right (or, do I mean left?).

 

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Scream Therapy

Haunted House 10At KUBE 93fm’s Haunted House, we three not-so-brave souls, Margaret, Machelle and myself clung to each other as we made our way through the Georgetown Morgue, a wicked chamber of calculated terror.   When the first mutilated woman jumped out at me with no forewarning, I smacked her in the nose, which only made her rear up again like a ghastly living nightmare.  Continuing to walk through dark corridors, we found floors collapsing under our feet and threat at every turn. We took turns being in the lead, pushing through dead bodies bundled and hanging in plastic body bags only to have to squeeze through rubber cots with bloody body parts splayed everywhere.  We recoiled from blood–smeared morticians, crazy clowns and tragic characters like scary mothers with dead babies, sick people in wheelchairs and disgruntled crime victims.  The whole time, we screamed our lungs out – so much so that my sides hurt. The continuous raising and lowering of my diaphragm, the unchecked shrieking and laughing, the clutching to the friend in front of me–all of it felt wicked good.  At the end of our tour, when a zombie goon chased us with a running chainsaw into the November chill air, we had to catch our breath. For the next few minutes, we laughed, coughed, spluttered and spit.  Our lungs had a real workout. Who knew terror was such an excellent expectorant?

 

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Borgenola Raw Breakfast Recipe

IMG_0842 Borgenola, that’s the name of my new favorite raw breakfast.  It’s named after my trusted advisor, Danny Borgen, because it was his brainchild, but like all inventions with a good original formula, it evolved.

Originally, Danny turned me on to his after workout snack/lunch, which was a combination of flax and pumpkin seeds.  As his nutritional trusted advisor, I subsequently recommended chia seeds to replace the flax and later hemp hearts. He, continuously fascinated by the science of food, added raw cacao nibs.

Finally, after all this talk about his combo, I tried it, liking it enough to incorporate it as a breakfast food myself.  To his Borgenola, I added raw sunflower seeds.  The gelatinous chia mixed with crunchy sunflower, pumpkin and cacao nibs offers tasty granola-like textures.  Because of the high amount of protein in chia and hemp, it satisfies, not to mention stabilizes blood sugar levels, but it is light, unlike oatmeal or other grain based morning cereals. Both chia and hemp seeds are also high in essential fatty acids, which give them anti-inflammatory properties. Hemp contains all the amino acids which build protein and aide in developing lean body mass and muscular repair, making it an ideal after workout food.  As for the other seeds, sunflower most notably offers vitamin E, selenium and folate while pumpkin offers magnesium, zinc and manganese.  Cacao nibs, besides its desirable chocolate taste, also offers a significant yield of  magnesium, manganese and copper. All with more nutritional merit than mentioned in this post, these superfood seeds united feel so right mixed together.  Check out the nutritional data for yourself.

Depending on the season, it can be eaten as a warm or cold meal. You can add fruit, jam or sweeteners, or not; chia, neutral in taste, harmonizes well with very little or no sweetener. It’s a clean, simple, high nutrient, non-allergenic, non-inflammatory, raw breakfast or snack that lends itself to infinite permutations.  Try it.

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Borgenola Raw Breakfast Recipe

3 Tablespoons chia seed

1 cup water (hot or cold)

3 Tablespoons Hemp Hearts

1 Tablespoon raw pumpkins seeds

1 Tablespoon raw sunflower seeds

1 teaspoon raw cacao nibs

Optional

1 Tablespoon shredded coconut

Berries, pear or apple slices

1 tsp. maple syrup, agave or honey or fruit jam

Instructions:

Add 1 cup heated or cold water to chia seeds and stir.  Wait 15 minutes until gelatinous.  Stir again and add remaining ingredients.

 

 

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Collage Cure

IMG_0844I hadn’t made collage art in many moons, but when I saw a stack of LIFE Nature Library encyclopedias and a star chart on my neighbor’s curb, I snatched them up for the quiet weekend ahead.  Sorting through images and delving into non-verbalized waters was just the kind of immersion I needed.

On Sunday morning, I found myself surrounded with books and magazines, flipping through pages, reading here and there, and searching for images; I was casual, comfortable with the mess, until I would see something and then out came the scissors.  The open-ended process would suddenly turn into a narrowed down chase. Cutting pictures out, sometimes requiring the X-Acto knife for precision, became my sole pursuit.

I continued to roam randomly through my materials; savagely tearing whole pages out of books and with four snips of the scissors out came graphic images of words too. My hands were busy, and my piles of pictures grew, but nothing was coming together, not in my mind, or on the page.    I threw my Man and Space encyclopedia down.  Useless! Outdated!  A half hour before, collage making felt so purposeful, so easy and relaxed, but with nothing showing for my efforts, doubts started arising. Was I creating meaning or just wasting my time?

Then it happened. The self-doubt gave me access to stronger feelings. With some force, I tore the star chart off its cardboard background; a layer that I had felt inexplicably bound to.  After having thrown off that constraint, my collage quickly came together:  A muscular old lady in a standing pose, carrying a candle on a backdrop of a seasonal star chart.  It clearly expressed my recent reflections on my own aging, and the necessity to keep working my body through all the seasons of my life, and at the same time, carry my own flame, my spark, to keep me moving.

Making art is always revealing.  And unpredicatable.  It is a reliable remedy, bringing to the surface what we are ready to see.

 

 

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Social Climbers

photoFriends and neighbors, Claudia and Jackie, joined me today for stair climbing on this fine, and increasingly rare, sunny morning at the concrete stairs tucked in at intersection of S. Cooper St. and Waters Ave. S. in Upper Rainier Beach. There’s nothing better, in between breaths, than talking about books, gardening and local beautification efforts to take my attention off this demanding, sweaty form of exercise.  All of us carried backpacks with varying poundage (5lbs – 20lbs) of rice or other bulk foods to make it more of a load bearing exercise.  As middle-aged women, we need to keep building lean muscle mass since women tend to lose 5 -7 pounds of muscle a year if not doing weight-bearing exercise.  And besides building strong bones, weight-bearing exercise keeps your metabolism fired up because having more muscle generates more metabolic activity, which burns fat.  At fifty-four years old, I’m all for it.

I would have never imagined that I would voluntarily walk up and down stairs carrying weight, but after my backpacking trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountains this past summer, I can’t think of a better way to stay in shape and partake in my local landscape.  While descending the stairs, one is treated to wide screen views of Lake Washington, a performance stage for precipitation and light.  Mist, rain and fog can seem so miserable when exercising indoors but can actually be the very elements to invigorate the senses when experiencing them outdoors.

Finally, what gets me out of bed so I can climb the stairs, three mornings a week at 8AM, is I feel stronger and better for the effort. If I feel stronger, I feel more self-confident.  If I feel more self-confident then I doubt myself less.  If I doubt myself less, I feel better about my life.  If I accomplish nothing else than climbing stairs in a day then I have indeed done a good amount of cardiovascular work.

All the work, all the sweat, is so worth it, and so much more bearable if I have company.  There’s no denying it – I am a social climber.

Please join me on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8AM at the intersection of S. Cooper St. and Waters Ave. S.  If you want to do load-bearing exercise, use a backpack with a waist belt so the weight is well distributed.  Increase load gradually.