@eco-alex

The Medicinal Cooking Collective Week 4 Guidelines: Cooking For The Lungs & Large Intestine / The Metal Element

Welcome to this fourth and penultimate week of the medicinal cooking collective challenge! We are cooking according to the Chinese 5 Elements, and this week we focus on the Metal element which is associated with the lungs & large intestine, the colour white, a spicy flavour, and the feeling of sorrow. When the lungs are out of balance they can be helped by eating foods that embody these traits, and help you to restore balance to the body. These days with pollution as it is, eating for the lungs is a great benefit to people in most parts of the world. If you eat white-coloured food, it is supposed to benefit your lungs, large intestine, nose and respiratory system, and skin. So I hope you join us this week and start your shopping for white foods! These foods have a dispersing effect and promote energy circulation. They most benefit sluggish, damp, lethargic and cold people.

Pumpkin Curry & Brown Turmeric Rice: The Gourmet Medicinal Cooking Collective Challenge Week 3

definitely yellow and its definitely sweet, and also FULL of aromatics and Indian spices... this is my favourite pumpkin curry dish of all time. It is also flavoured with cashew nuts, roasted gram flour (chick pea flour), and curry leaf which is a very unique flavour to India. I have served it with brown rice that has been cooked with turmeric and some onion and garlic. This very yellow dish is very comforting to the stomach, and embodies all the aspects of the Earth element. If you have never tried a pumpkin curry before, be prepared to be delighted because this really is one of my favourites!

@misslasvegas

I had sad, sad news last night and I need your help!

It was late last night and my daughter and her boyfriend were watching a movie when my best friend from Holland called me. I instantly knew there was something wrong because she wouldn't just call me in the middle of the night unless there is. A nightmare that became reality I answered the phone and didn't hear anything for a few seconds. Then her voice... She was very calm and collected when she spoke. "There is something I have to tell you and you're the only one I can talk to right now..." My heart rate went from normal to overtime in a split second. "Just tell me..." Her youngest, her 14 year old son had been hit by a car and passed away on the way to the hospital.

@trucklife-family

What Is It That I Want?

What is it that we all want, do we want security and stability. Those two words can mean completely different things, depending on what your lifestyle is. Depending on what your needs are. We have been led to believe that we have a lot of needs, it seems that the list gets longer and longer as time goes by. We are bombarded with so much information informing us what we need to live healthy and happy lives. Suddenly are lives are so much easier if we have certain things. Suddenly our lives are so much more comfortable if we invest in certain objects. Suddenly we need other people to tell us what we need.

No One can Give you Back the Pieces of Yourself, That you Gave Freely in The First Place.

I sit here wanting to write, wanting to get so much off my chest, yet I don't know where to start. I have written before about how writing is my therapy. How that in writing, we get things out off our heads and onto paper (or this case the screen) and then it is there to be seen, to be made sense of, to try and grasp some understanding as to what is actually happening in your life right now. I have had so many things going round and round inside my head. My life feels like it has been completely shook up, that everything is all up in the air.

@riverflows

Garden Journal Update Part 1: Working Together, Love and Gardens

The last few days have been divine, the sun showing her lovely head and smiling on us all as if to make up for the moon. The eclipse has been quite disruptive for many of us over the last week and I've had my heart broken about five times as I listen to the terrible upset that many have had in their lives. Although I always hold onto a healthy dose of skepticism, there's too much going on for it to be mere co-incidence, can it? Yet the actual rise of the full moon had me calmer on Friday, and the two warm days we had (I'm talking t-shirt weather, folks, and sunblock!) saw us in two gardens - not just ours, but my folks.

Full Moon Blessing, Whales and SaltWater: What a Cure for My Week

It's been windy and cold for weeks, and my anxiety's been so awful that it has pushed me to those black edges around depression. I have tried to fight back, but mostly have found myself crying or unable to find the will to do basic things like cooking dinner or tidying up. It's taken all my strength to go to work and put on my happy face. Steemit's been a kinda blessing - there's solace in writing, and I've loved the support I've been given here, as well as my darling honey who's wrapped me in love and made me endless cups of turmeric tea.

@mountainjewel

On finding your purpose in life and thoughts on my purpose as an Earth protector.

In light of this incredibly powerful eclipse where so many energies are coming up and so much is coming up to be seen and transformed (read more @indigoocean's wrap-up post on it), many of us are having more intense dreams, having things fall apart and come to endings in our lives, while the beginning of new possibilities (not always easy) are coming to the fore. My friend @brazen asked me last night in an email: Writing Prompt: Why were you put here on this Earth? I laughed and said, How can you ask me that?! - in jest ... For this is a question I have long pondered and at times feel some insights into why, but others the reason evades me.

Forest Bathing: Speak for the Trees // The Trees Speak to Thee

Yesterday I was walking through the forest and I knew that I needed to just stop and look up at the trees, to be with them a while. It's an odd thing living in the forest because my walks there (usually) aren't intentional, but rather just to get from A to B. Like any well trodden path in our lives, the mundane aspect of its "everydayness" can make us forgetful or not pay attention to what is actually around us.Well yesterday the trees called to me and as I stood there I felt them loving on me and talking to me. I don't care if someone labels me a crazy hippie because I just said that - that's my reality, I talk with the trees. Likely many of us have heard of the Lorax, he who speaks for the trees in the Seussical narrative.

@artemislives

Lemongrass - What You May Not Know About This Asian Kitchen Essential

It grows like a weed in Asia and it best tackled with a razor-sharp machete. Lemongrass.That quintessential Thai flavour and a fragrance that is stamped into my Being after 16 years here in Thailand. I went into the garden to harvest some from my monsoon-rain-battered plant for making iced tea this morning. My roughly 4 foot tall, extremely vigorous plant is not so happy in the rainy season and yielded her medicine meekly.

Sacred Burning & A Candle Junkie's Dilemma

It SHOULD be a time of complete fulfillment for a hardcore candle junkie but, instead, I am always conflicted when Khao Pansa comes around. What is Khao Pansa? It's the beginning of the 3 month Buddhist Rains Retreat, or "Buddhist Lent" as many call it. It starts here today in Thailand, the first day after the full moon of the 8th lunar month. Monks are required to remain in temples during the 3 month retreat time (as opposed to traveling & wandering the countryside) and it is a time of dharma, teaching, intense meditation and inner-ness. The faithful temple goers (of which I am NOT one - the bodhi tree was good enough for the Buddha & it remains enough for me) bring offerings to the temples to "earn merit" (if that could ever even be possible!) and they do that by gifting symbolic large candles - a sign of the dharma illuminating the darkness .

@holisticmom

Finding Home : Off-Grid Adventures ~ Part 5, Time To Return Home and Life Changing Decisions

This is the final post in the series of our family's off-grid adventures. It was our intention to look for land to buy while we were staying off-grid. However during our visit some amazing things transpired. This post is all about how we felt and what we have decided for our future. We set off on our adventure to get a feel for off-grid living. We wanted to dip our toes in the water before ultimately taking the plunge and buying our own land. From the moment we arrived at the community, we felt at home.

Finding Home: Off-Grid Adventures ~ Part 4, Nature's Abundance & Wild Herbs

This is part 4 of a special series of posts about my family's off-grid adventures. The land of the off-grid community is peppered with plant and herb life. I wanted to talk about some of the herbs and trees there as many of them have highly useful qualities that are beneficial to human health.The area where the community is situated is extremely dry, but somehow an abundance of plant life still manages to thrive in these scorching temperatures and harsh conditions. Most of the watering of the plants and trees comes from grey waste water. Almonds and peach trees grace the property and seem to produce, even with very little water. But there are some places where almost no water touches and yet both Rosemary and Thyme grow abundantly. Not only do these herbs survive but their scent suggests that they are faring very well under this extreme heat.

@rainbowrachel

Book Review: The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure -- YOU should read this book! Yes, YOU!

What is the reason for human existence? What is our purpose, here on Earth? What is the energy that connects all things together? Have you ever pondered these questions? Have you ever wondered what your soul’s true purpose is? Or what it means to be truly alive? These are the questions that lay the foundation for the novel, The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure. This story, while fictional, rings true for me on so many levels. The book talks about many spiritual and philosophical ideas, like the perception of energy fields, the truth behind “coincidences” (referred to as “synchronicities” in the book), and the power of your thoughts in creating your reality. While these concepts are part of a fictional story, I have already experienced them myself and know them to be true, which is why I have so much love for this book.

@stillgideon

RETURN. A holiday by the Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth. That's as may be, but the water level goes down year by year, which goes to show, you can always get lower... Ephraim, the bass playing Jew from New York is going out of his mind. He's spent the last four years working out to the very last detail, a peace plan for Israel and Palestine, which is fair and just to both sides, realistic and includes measures for every unforeseen eventuality. Nobody will listen to him. He feels like a nobody. He's been trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians to talk to each other, but the Israelis call him a traitor and the Palestinians are too wary to be seen to be colluding with the enemy to talk to the Israelis. He wants me to fight his trolls on facebook, but I've got better things to do. Besides I've got my own trolls to deal with. They're relentless. I think they get special training. They make you lose all hope. At least, they try to. Right now, it feels they're winning. At least with me.

@solarsupermama

The Drama of Money

Money, it's a hit. It's such an incredibly touchy subject, isn't it? There is probably nothing so totally surrounded in judgement. If you have too much, you're an asshole. If you have too little you're either lazy or some kind of victim. And if you want to be spiritual at all, you must totally renounce it as the root of all evil. Oddly enough, prayers are usually not an accepted form of rent payment. You can't buy food with good vibes, and land prices are rarely listed in terms of meditation hours.

Small Change, Big Difference: Whatever You Do, Take Care of Your Shoes

It’s time for the next installment in the Small Change, Big Difference series. Today I want to talk about something that affects me every day of my life. Carelessness. I’m a mom, and any mom on this planet will tell you that teaching away carelessness is just part of the job description. All kids are careless. I’m sure of it. Certainly some are more careless than others, but it’s a sickness that affects all children.

@nainaztengra

My Experience of the Monalisa painting at the Louvre

What I write today is completely my view on this topic and not meant for any controversy or to put down any Artwork For years I have been hearing about this Beautiful painting of Monalisa at the Louvre, and it was one of my dream and in the to do list to see this once in my lifetime. I had read that it is one of the most beautiful Art work of Leonardo da Vinci so for sure had my curiosity to see it. Luckily I got a chance to visit Paris and Louvre Museum. The Museum is beyond words. Such beautiful, mind blowing paintings, sculptors, culture representation. Dignified Art at its best. You have Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Jean Auguste, Jacques-Louis David and who’s who of the Art world there.