Feel Good Guru

Twice this summer, once southbound in July, then again, northbound in August, I rode the Avenue of the Giants, a 31-mile portion of the 101 just south of Eureka, in northern California surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park’s over 50,000 acres of redwood groves – the largest remaining stand of old growth redwoods in the world.

Each time, I couldn’t resist getting off the bike and walking into the forest. Something about these magnificent ancient trees draws you in like a spell. Some of them are 2,000 years old, and stand over 360 feet tall. If I’d been standing there for that long, I’d have some wisdom to impart. So I took a nap on a tree and listened… (more…)

I took this to a recent dinner party, a little unsure whether anyone would go for it, wondering if I should tell my friends it’s a “raw carrot pate” which sounds so…healthy. I was in the middle of my late summer cleanse, and wanted to take a dish that would demonstrate through the taste buds how awesomely delish vegan cleansing could be.

One bite in, and everyone was going back for more, with accompanying mmm’s and oooh-what-is-this’s. I take delicious pleasure in watching non-cleansing, non-vegan, non-healthy-eating peeps enjoy really really healthy food. This recipe is easy-shmeasy, uses simple ingredients, and has been tested on a tough crowd for taste-worthiness. Enjoy! Oh, and if you have a sexier name for it, please shout it out – open to suggestions! (more…)

In Northern California at this time of year, black mission figs, ripe and luscious, are dropping from trees. If you’re close enough to pluck one, break into one straight from the sticky branch, you’ll understand why they’ve played a role since the beginning of life on earth in Greek and Roman mythology and religious lore.

Sweet, pink, and flesh-like on the inside, with crunchy seeds arranged around an unmistakably feminine center, fragile, juicy, rich, complex, ethereal, and a gorgeous taste that transports you back in time, eons to eden, or some idyllic garden where two people or a whole civilization could live under and of this tree’s sacred bounty. Yes, inside the fig’s delicate deep purple outer skin could be the entire universe and all our ancient desires. Consume with reverence. (more…)

Just for a moment, suspend your earthbound beliefs, and consider the possibility you might actually be…an angel… Now, imagine yourself, one infinitely sunny day in paradise, sitting around with your angel buddies contemplating the nature of being an angel. Many interesting observations are tossed about, but none really satisfactory, until one of your wiser angel friends suggests that perhaps you need to experience what it’s like to not be an angel in order to fully grasp what it’s like to be one.

Just then, Maya, Mistress of Illusion, and Director of Heavenly Special Effects, happens by, and agrees to stage an elaborate game of enchantment that would provide a forum for you and your angel buddies to learn on earth, and sets the game in a beautiful setting called “The Magical Theater.” (more…)

According to the Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica is the happiest place on Earth. In this TED talk by Nic Marks, founder of the Centre for Well-being at the New Economics Foundation, some light is shed on what makes a nation happy – contrary to North American and European behaviors, it’s not money.

Mr Marks questions why statisticians are not measuring the things that make life worthwhile – love, health, happiness, social justice, sustainability – and suggests that in order to create a happy society, the media need to put these stats in front of us, to create a collective goal. (more…)