I've been sleeping in, staying up late reading and live in a world of fantasy that I just can't pull myself out of. I suppose it's my way of running away from all the things on my list of things "to do" and my way of distracting myself from just sitting down to practice.
I blame Harry Potter (finally read the last book), Avatar (finally saw it) and my cookbooks.
This cooking thing is out of control. I can't help but daydream about what I'm going to cook. I complain about "not having enough time," but then I'll spend 2 hours in the kitchen making lunch...loving it, yet feeling a twinge of guilt for being there rather than working or studying.
Macrobiotics is everything in my food world that Buddhism has been in my life. I'm calling it the Dharma of food. It's based on Taoism and living in energetic balance & every thing I read I'm nodding along, going, "yeah, yeah! I totally get that!" I have a lot to learn before I'll really understand and put into practice all of this knowledge, but my journey into Buddhadharma began in the same way, with investigation.
There are always growing pains along the way, but even having just a glimpse of what it's like to follow this lifestyle, I feel superb. I've been (mostly) off of caffeine, sugar & white flour for well over a month and I've really mellowed out. When I do eat sugar or have green tea, I notice how it feels in my body, my heart rate, the heat rising, a headache (when I eat sugar), moodiness, a big high, then a hung over feeling... I'm totally fascinated by that. I can't believe what a garbage can I was & how unmindful I was to what I was eating. I've also been must more conscious about being vegan. Before, I was eating things that had eggs or dairy in it, but now I'm not. That makes my decisions a lot easier when faced with sugary dessert of some sort. Don't you worry though, there are tons of great macro desserts, sweetened with brown rice syrup or barley malt. I just don't eat them every day. :)
Another thing I adore about macrobiotics is that you have to learn about what's in season & what's local to where you live. Then you have to learn about the yin & yang of each food and the yin & yang of you (again, the balance thing). I bought 2 new cookbooks, Cooking the Whole Foods Way and The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics (cheesy, I know, but really good & written by Jessica Porter, who co-wrote Alica Silverstone's The Kind Diet, which got me started on this whole thing).
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In other news, life is good with work. Awakening Joy is doing well and the class started last week, both nights were sold out. I have SO much gratitude for James and that I am able to work for him. He led a celebration/daylong workshop yesterday at Spirit Rock Meditation Center with a lot of guest speakers and musicians. It was such an amazing day, I was moved to tears multiple times...but that's not too unusual for me (as many of you know, haha).
My BFF, Barbara, is coming to visit me on Thursday! I've known her since we were 13 and were student ambassadors to Australia with the People to People program. She's never been to the Bay area- I can't wait to show her around! I haven't seen her in almost 2 years, before I went to India. I can't believe how fast time flies...another example of why I should appreciate each precious moment I'm here.
I feel like my Tibetan is stagnant, although I'm still going to class every week, I haven't studied outside of class for awhile. I'm trying not to get down on myself about this, but also need to put more pressure on my study habits...so that I actually have study habits.
All in all, I feel that I'm in a good space, despite a lot of things going on at once, and my co-worker, Deborah, and I decided to take the Awakening Joy class (since we're the admins for it). Month One is "Intention" and we were asked to set one. Mine is to live with an open heart. So, here goes.....
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