National Men Make Dinner Day

Today is National Men Make Dinner Day. According to the website, the ideal participant in ‘National Men Make Dinner Day’ is the man who:

• Helps with household chores
• Has a sense of humour and is a great all-around guy
• Loves his wife/girlfriend, kids and pets

I love the top ten reasons given for participating:

10. While cooking, you can still wear your tool belt, simply replace the hammer with a whisk.
9. Several recipes include beer as a legitimate ingredient.
8. The blender, the electric mixer and the food processor are loud enough to drown out anyone in the house who is learning a musical instrument.
7. Whoever is cooking always gets the most attention from the dog.
6. Whatever recipe you choose, you can name it after yourself. Example: tonight’s dinner is called ‘Doug’s Surprise’.
5. Discovering that ‘250 ml’ is the same as ‘8 ounces’ AND ‘1 cup’ is half the fun.
4. Since YOU choose the recipe, it can be a turnip-free night.
3. Some desserts, such as crème brulee, require the use of a propane torch. How much fun is that?!
2. Since other husbands in your neighbourhood are also cooking dinner, ironically this could be the ultimate male bonding experience
1. Participating in ‘National Men Make Dinner Day’ gives you optimum points with your wife. Use those points wisely!

The website does include some recipes, but if your husband is like mine, his talents tend toward the grill. Something yummy he could make would be burgers, potato salad and cole slaw, but with a twist. Try those recipes here.

So, maybe your man looks less like this:

...if he is anything like Chef Brian Patton, aka the Sexy Vegan,

then you may very well be in for a treat!

St. Francis and the Blessing of Animals

Today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, born circa 1181, founder of the Franciscans and patron saint of animals and the environment. Never officially ordained a priest by the Catholic Church, he is nonetheless one of the most beloved, well known and venerated saints of the church. You can watch the story of his early life in Brother Sun, Sister Moon. You can also listen to a song by the same name here, if you are so inclined.

Today is also known as World Animal Day, and coincidentally, Hug a Non-Meat Eater Day.

On this day around the world, many churches perform a blessing on animals. Not just cats and dogs and the usual household companions, but horses, turtles, tigers, etc. A wonderful slide show from around the world can be found here. However, you don’t have to be Catholic to honor and celebrate the life of St. Francis of Assisi or to participate in his Feast Day.

You can do your own blessing and hold it indoors or outdoors. The Blessing of Animals is conducted in remembrance of St. Francis of Assisi’s love for all creatures. You can use the prayer of St. Francis, or change the wording to suit your own spiritual path:

Prayer of Saint Francis for Animals

God Our Heavenly Father,
You created the world
to serve humanity's needs
and to lead them to You.
By our own fault
we have lost the beautiful relationship
which we once had with all your creation.
Help us to see
that by restoring our relationship with You
we will also restore it
with all Your creation.
Give us the grace
to see all animals as gifts from You
and to treat them with respect
for they are Your creation.
We pray for all animals
who are suffering as a result of our neglect.
May the order You originally established
be once again restored to the whole world
through the intercession of the Glorious Virgin Mary,
the prayers of Saint Francis
and the merits of Your Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ
Who lives and reigns with You
now and forever. Amen.

Our three cats, and our two beautiful Rhodesian Ridgebacks, both of whom have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Our house no longer barks, but it still purrs. This just shows how animals can get along, sometimes far better than humans.
Collect items around the home or make purchases and donate them to animal shelters. Call and ask what their current needs are.

Design and create an outdoor shrine for animals, either in general or for a beloved animal companion that has passed.

Winter is coming. Make plans to set out food for wildlife. Consider creating a wildlife habitat.
The Feast Day provides many animal welfare advocates, animal rights activists, educators, caregivers and animal rescue organizations with the opportunity to educate the public about abused and endangered animals as well as the beauty, purposefulness and importance of animals in our world.
The bond between human and animal companion is unlike any other relationship. It is basic, loving, pure and without agenda or façade. The Feast of St. Francis and the Blessing of the Animals attest to the beauty and sacredness of this relationship. Why not share this blessed day dedicated to St. Francis and his love for all creatures with your special animal companion?

St. Francis Prayer of Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

International Day of Non-Violence

Today is the International Day of Non-Violence. It is celebrated on October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. It is a day "to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence" and a day to raise the collective consciousness about peace. This can be achieved through constructive dialogues, respecting one another, understanding and trusting each other, accepting new people in society, sharing love and natural resources, and building bridges with various faiths, communities and countries.

According to Gandhi, “Nonviolence needs more courage than violence.”

I find it interesting that the day falls during the same month as Vegetarian Awareness Month, with its focus on eating a diet that is cruelty-free and non-violent.

To that end, I marked the day by cooking up a spinach stew, which was a recipe I adapted from The Peaceful Cook cookbook.

I have in my home what I refer to as my *peace wall*. It is a collection of things I have that either use the word peace or the peace sign. Too young to have been a hippie, I have nonetheless embraced the peace sign as a reminder to me to not just live peacefully, but to BE peace, an idea I got years ago from an article in Mothering magazine.

Some visuals you can create in your home with your children can be found here.

Today make every effort you can to live in peace and harmony with friends and family. Avoid or disengage from conversations and situations that become heated. Smile at everyone you meet or pass by on the street or in the hall. Step out of your comfort zone, if you must, and invite a coworker or a neighbor to lunch or out for a cup of coffee or tea, especially if they are from a different religion, political party or ethnic group than you, and take a moment to get to know them. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised to discover they are just like you in ways you never knew.

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

World Vegetarian Day is a day of celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) "to promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism." It is a day designed to "bring awareness to the ethical, environmental, health and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle."  It kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month, and ends on World Vegan Day, November 1.

For vegans, like most of my family, every day is a day to celebrate! We practice ahimsa, or the concept of harm to none.

While veganism and feng shui are not new to me, it was the ideas set forth in Robin Robertson's book The Sacred Kitchen that got me to viewing meal preparation differently. In her book, Robertson says, "When you introduce your own chi to the mixing bowl, you unknowingly convey subtle, imperceptible influences into the food as a result of your attitude." She takes it further by explaining how you impart the energy of your own life force into the food as your touch it, imbuing it with what you are thinking and/or feeling at the time. Bad mood=bad energy, good mood=good energy. While this may sound strange to some, it makes a great deal of sense to me. If you have ever walked into someone's home and known instantly that something was amiss before you ever even spoke with the inhabitants there, you will know what I mean.

Robertson describes a ritual that I do to this day before cooking:

Ritually wash and bless your hands. Calm your mind with three deep breaths. Utter a simple prayer to align yourself with spirit. Ask for peace of mind and heart. Affirm your holiness as your prepare the meal. Play soothing music while you cook. Visualize white healing energy flowing from your head through your hands and into the food. Maintain a prayerful attitude while cooking.

Viewing cooking as a sacred act and the kitchen as a sacred place will greatly affect and change your perception of what you may have previously viewed as a chore. Instead it becomes a blessing you bestow upon your family and friends who will be dining in your home.

To get you started in your celebration of both World Vegetarian Day and Vegetarian Awareness Month, visit The Zen Vegan for a variety of delicious recipes!

Namaste.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

We now leave behind the heat of summer and move into the cooling temps of autumn. I am ready for my ac to not have to run so much and the excitement of the coming months. This poem really sums it up well:

Greeting to the Autumn Equinox

Hail! Journeyer of the Heavens,
Queen of Brightness, King of Beauty!
Gifts of gladness richly bringing,
Autumn sheaves and red leaves' fall.
Generous be the heart within us,
Open be our hands to all,
Justice to be in equal measure,
Harvest thankfulness our call.

Caitlin Matthews - The Celtic Devotional

Many people hold feasts today to celebrate the new season. My family certainly did! Salad with pumpkin spiced cornbread croutons, fruit soup, cranberry/raspberry sorbet for dessert. You can find the recipes for it all here.

I bought and lit for the first time today an autumn scented candle. I put away all of my flower and fruit scented candles for next year. Now is the time to break out the baked good scented candles! Hubby and I went out shopping today and I bought a couple of autumn type teas that I can't wait to brew up!

Now that fall is here, there are different things you can do. Besides cook up autumn foods! LOL!

- this season of thankfulness is a good time to donate. Canned and non-perishablel foods to a food pantry. Clothes, books, toys to charities. Perhaps work at a soup kitchen - everyone wants to do it around Thanksgiving or Christmas, but they can use the help year round.
- consider taking a class at the local community college. It doesn't have to be toward a degree; many offer continuing education classes. Learn something new - ceramics, square dancing, welding - whatever sparks your fancy.
- summer is a time for being out in the open, fall is a time to draw inward. Bring out the cozy throws and stock up some wood. Temps might not be cool enough just yet, but they are coming!

Whatever you do, have fun doing it! You're never too old to jump into a leaf pile!

Don't Step On A Bee Day

Today is Don't Step on a Bee Day. It is pretty much a reminder about going barefoot during the summer and to protect your feet. But it is really so much more than this.

Colony Collapse Disorder is where bees are disappearing and dying at ever increasing rates. Wikipedia defines it as:

"...a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. Colony collapse is significant economically because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees; and ecologically, because of the major role that bees play in the reproduction of plant communities in the wild."

If you like to eat, the last sentence should matter very much to you. Bees are responsible for much, if not most, of the foods you eat. Want to know just how many foods rely on bees? Just take a peek at this list. Pretty eye opening, isn't it?

There are things you can do as an individual to help the bees. Some suggestions are:

Plant things bees like. Clover, sage, salvia, oregano, lavender, yarrow, alfalfa, honeywort, dragonhead, echinacea, bee balm, just to name a few. Flowering trees, flowering plants, there are so many bee friendly plants available to you. Just plant some!

Create or provide a bee habitat. Like all creatures, they need a safe place to live. They also need a water source. Research how to make a bee house, one you can do easily.

Don't use or severely limit pesticides. It has been theorized that pesticides are what is contributing to the bee death. Go organic - for you, for the bees, for the planet.

As a vegan, I don't use honey. Bees are extremely intelligent and studies have demonstrated that they feel pain. BeeCulture magazine reports that beekeepers are notorious for contributing to the spread of disease: 'Beekeepers move infected combs from diseased colonies to healthy colonies, fail to recognize or treat disease, purchase old infected equipment, keep colonies too close together, [and] leave dead colonies in apiaries.' Artificial diets, provided because farmers take the honey that bees would normally eat, leave bees susceptible to sickness and attack from other insects. When diseases are detected, beekeepers are advised to 'destroy the colony and burn the equipment,' which can mean burning or gassing the bees to death.

Bees need their honey. I don't.

I'm thinking today should be renamed to Be Kind To Bees Day instead.

Stay Out of the Sun Day

Today is Stay Out of the Sun Day. Since tomorrow, July 4, is a day a lot of people spend outside and in the sun, I guess today is as good a day as any to remind people to take care.

You can find information everywhere about using sunscreen and sunblock, how to avoid the hottest parts of the day, what to do to treat sunburn if you don't pay attention to the aforementioned. The thing I want to remind you about today - and every day - is to drink plenty of water!

Something as simple as drinking water can have profound effects on your health. It can help with weight loss, give you more energy, stave off headaches, help with digestion, give you glowing skin and has even been shown to reduce your risk of heart attack. Yet, most people don't get nearly enough.

How much should you drink? A rule of thumb is to take your weight, divide it in half, and drink that many ounces. Okay, let me explain that better: if you weigh 160 lbs, half of 160 is 80, so 80 ounces of water.

So, how to drink that much if you are more used to sucking down a couple of sodas or chugging down several cups of coffee a day? It's really not so hard to do. When my husband was in basic training in the Air Force years ago, they made the new recruits drink two glasses of water with each meal before they could even consider drinking anything else. That's 48 ounces right there already. You're already over half way there if your goal is 80 ounces. You may need more or less than that based on weight and how much time you spend outside or exercising.

My son insists on filtered water, so we have two different style of pitchers with filters. My daughter likes to add sliced lemon or mint sprigs to her water. I'm a little different. I make a pitcher of this water every morning and drink it throughout the day until it is gone.

To the pitcher I add 1/2 t. turmeric, 1/8 t. black pepper, 1/8 t. cayenne pepper, 1 T. organic apple cider vinegar, 1 T. food grade diatomaceous earth and three garlic cloves cut into pieces. To this I add two quarts of water and stir.

When the water is gone, I add the garlic pieces to a dish I'm already eating and consume them raw.

Seriously.

The health benefits of the ingredients are many, and this is something I designed based on that research. The diatomaceous earth is a later addition based on a recommendation from my doctor.

Try it. You just might like it.

At the very least, please make sure you are drinking enough water. If you are thirsty, you are already mildly dehydrated.