Snow Vitality

When ever anyone speaks of being "snowed in", I am immedietly driven to
recalling that a large reason for the popularity of residence in these mountains known as the Kaatskills was the purity of the air, and it's proported healing propoerties as well. Dozens of people lined open air porches at night to conversate, take tea, and imbibe the air and it's promise of renewed vitality.

Now, when it snows, and that same healing wind blows, people become disgruntled. They begin to feel detained, restricted, somewhat "snowed in". I propose that it is quite the opposite that is true. These people are snowed in by their adherence to a set of beliefs about reality that stop them from seeing the truth that is all around them.

That snow brings health. Even when it is not there. But boy, is there a whole lot now.

When winter approaches, I feel a new growth resurge inside of me. I am preparing for many months of burning heat inside against the impending promise of chill, elements, and exposure. All of these paying the cost for my participation in the healing properties of mountain air.

Well worth it, I believe. Fetching wood, carrying water, getting more copy paper, it's all good for you. It makes it even more healthy if you have to get warm on top of it. This is the secret vitality of the mountains. That your body has to work a little harder, breathe a little deeper, colder air from time to time. This keeps us fresh, even in the face of daunting weather and chill.

As Robert Frost said, wood warms us two times. Once when we cut it, another when we burn it. The thought of facing winter makes mw warm inside. I want to survive, and smile within it's chill. It's that chance to bring that desire alongside a Catskill wind that keeps me here. Year after year...

Climbing the mountaine

People are in trouble. The way we eat needs remediation. I love all of this.

Like the tragedies in life, all illness is the window towards the world of healing that lay outside our perception that the window should be used only to view and judge others who are out on the lawn, so to speak, freely expressing themselves...

Making everything around me that isn't cooking the same as cooking is easy. It lay simply in seeing no difference. If all life is simply a space of time between doing the things that you love and other things that you simply tolerate or cope with, than you are only living half of your life. A chef is never out of the kitchen, they are simply away from the stove. It is important to see your whole life as a big meal. Keep the big meal cooking, keep the balanced flavors flowing, keep your senses and spirit open to what the food is saying to you. Translate this message into healing in your life and others. Make healthy food a condiment to the big meal of your life. See that without a spirit that is full, food carries with it the job of filling both the body and soul. Keep your spirit full with a bright sunny heart, and food can feed both, or whichever that you would care to direct that nutrition to in the moment of consumption. Make the food yours by loving it, and it will love you, in whatever regard you require. Food loves to serve, so by serving it with love, it will serve us immeasurably.

Make the meal with a bright, sunny heart. Give the food with respect for it's own solidarity and power, and with no attributes other than your love added to it. And if someone is to take their meal from you with less that open hands or heart, the only thing to do is to open both of your own even more. Love knows no limits, which is why food will always be beautiful, even when it is eaten simply raw. And for me, as I grow as a cook in this world, that is more and more becoming my perspective as I have come to understand it. Leave food alone, except to translate it's message of love, and adorn it with our own. That, my friends, is a recipe for wellbeing. For all of us...

A bowl of soup cannot heal unless it is made with an open heart,

And taken with open hands.

I asked the world today to open both for the sake of peace and love.

Did you hear me? Were you listening?

I would like to make dinner for the world.

Who would like to eat?