Be Kind to Yourself

All you Vegans, especially new ones, know that this lifestyle takes a bit of planning.  What we don't ever want is to find ourselves in a state of lack, or with a feeling of being deprived.  As Alicia Silverstone says, (paraphrasing here) The Kind Diet is first being kind to yourself, then kind to the environment and the animals who share our world.  The whole point of this is to feel fortunate about our abundant delicious and healthy choices.  Without planning, though, we may easily find ourselves short of time and hungry, and too tired to be imaginative enough to be thrilled with a fabulous creation.

With all the sewing I have been doing lately, I am frequently lost in thought.  The other night the kids noticed it was dinner time before I did, and so I almost found myself in the unfortunate position of being hungry without a clue.  Happily, from odds and ends, inspiration struck and I was able to step away from the sewing machine and quickly come up with something which turned out to be fabulous.

We had been to a surprise birthday party over the weekend which featured a buffet of many global cuisines.  The hostess sent us home with a container of Cuban pork (I know . . . ) and an amazing pico de gallo to dress it (separate containers).  The Cuban pico de gallo is different from its Mexican counterpart in that it contains more onion, and parsley instead of cilantro.  It reminded me a bit of the Chileto we had in Nicaragua, but instead of vinegar, the flavor was bright with fresh lime juice.  So I served the pork and pico de gallo to my husband,  made Amy's organic mac and cheese shells for the kids (I know . . .) and for me, sauteed collards with shallots, and the beautiful tops of fresh beets I had bought for another recipe.  I used the leaves and the stalks.  They were all so delicious together!  For protein, I opened a can of garbanzos and topped them with the aforementioned pico de gallo!  Inspired!  And finally, green salads were served all around.

This might sound like a lot of work, so many different meals, but really, I look upon it as more of a buffet from food we already had, with just a couple of new dishes added in.  Normally my non-Vegan family members will have some of my fab food, but I think purple, or the mention of beets turned them off (they don't know what they're missing!), so in this case there was more fab food for me!  Never underestimate the potential of leftovers!

Yin and Yang

I'm not sure which is yin and which is yang, but the idea is that in life we are always met with balance in the form of contrasts:  good and evil, dark and light, easy come - easy go, you get the idea.  I always feel like there is more going on when I am met with evidence of this phenomenon, a deeper meaning, a lesson, or that it will at least all make more sense a bit further down the road.

If you follow this blog, you have already heard about my lovely raised vegetable patch, built by my husband while I was out of town with my friends, but I haven't yet told you the whole story.  In a hurry to complete the project before my return, my man was backing up perhaps a bit too quickly (I don't really know, I wasn't there . . .) and jack-knifed our flat-bed trailer against the side of my car.  So when I returned from my relaxing overnight, I was met with a fabulous place to nurture fresh veggies, and . . . a hole in my car.  What are my lessons here?  I guess I got a great opportunity to practice perspective, gratitude and kindness -- I think I passed that test pretty well.  What were my husband's lessons here?  Maybe patience, humility (at first he thought someone else had damaged the car, and only later put two and two together).  How did he pass?  I'm guessing he did well.  The kids were unscathed, nobody was injured.

There must be more to this incident that will come to light at some point.  At any rate, I am turning my car in today for repairs and will be without it for several days.  The car is just a thing, of course, but it does afford flexibility and convenience which I will be doing without for a short while (we forgot to add rental reimbursement to our insurance when we sold our jeep).  So this episode of yin and yang lessons may not be over.  I will keep my eyes open for clues to the greater meaning of this during my small season of inconvenience!