Life Without Electricity... ;)

Our electricity went out recently for about 24 hours...it was a very interesting time...as it turned out, it was just an issue with OUR electricity (we thought everyone in our area was affected ;)...it's all fixed up again now, yet that day or so without electricity was such a valuable experience and eye-opener for me...mostly it showed me how bizarrely attached we are to electricity...it inspired me more than ever to get solar panels in place...and it was so interesting to me to note how the use of electricity is so deeply ingrained as part of my daily life that I couldn't even immediately identify if something involved the use of electricity or not...hmmmm, that might sound odd...let me try to explain further: I was acutely aware that something was different in my surroundings and it was now necessary to first question whether any action I wanted to take was currently going to be possible, with no 'current' ;) The answers to these questions were something I found that I actually needed to think about, e.g. "I want to use the toilet, is that possible?" Yes, the toilet doesn't use electricity. "I want to make a smoothie, is that possible?" Answer: No. " I want to go and buy something at the market, is that possible?" Yes, money doesn't involve electricity...and so on - I found myself questioning everything - electricity is so involved in so many aspects of my life and I'm so used to it just working that I couldn't instantly distinguish which activities involve electricity or not...if you haven't recently experienced life without electricity, I can imagine that this all maybe sounds quite odd - I encourage perhaps living for 24 hours without electricity though, to try this out and see how it feels to you... ;)

Now, I was considering this reality that I currently experience, in contrast to, for example, someone living in a tiny countryside village somewhere, who may use electricity for one light bulb for example. I imagine for them that in cases when the electricity is absent, it seems *much* easier for them to go about their lives as usual and they're very aware of what the impact of the absent electricity means - it just means no light bulb, which can be easily replaced with some candles or smthg similar - no big deal...whereas for us, electricity is the "hidden component" behind so much of what we're involved with daily that life becomes a little bit confused without it... ;) lol...


On July the 16th I enjoyed:

1 quart water
1 cup *amazing* granadilla/mandarin/orange juice
2 cups 'tree tomato' juice - nice ;)
2 cups greeeeeeeen juice mixed with pineapple juice
water of a young coconut, 1 tbsp bee pollen
2 cups greeeeeeeen juice mixed with pineapple juice
little bowl of mango/avocado ice cream, a papaya
20 chllorella tablets
shared cucumber salad meal with Mr. M, followed by a hand-stirred 'yumpot' of tahini mixed with maca, honey, chocolate extractand cinnamon
mug of horchata tea
1 cup water

Another aspect of life that became very apparent to me during this recent power 'outage' was how peculiar and blessed our online connections with other people all around the world are...when the portal to that huge inter-connecting web of individuals was snapped away at the trip of a circuit breaker, I suddenly felt this huge amount of gratitude for the connections we are able to foster through the internet with so many amazing friends worldwide...I reflected on life for raw foodies 20 or so years back, when internet access was a very rare thing indeed and raw foodies were few and far between, supping on wheatgrass juice and probably feeling kinda awkward ;) We are SO blessed to be able to share info and connect online as we do these days and to use this connection portal to arrange to meet people in person too...wow, we are so very blessed...may we remember this ;)
One friend was telling me recently that his impression of how things will likely unfold in the coming years in terms of energy/resources is that most likely power-outages, water shortages and so on will keep on getting more and more frequent...there will be no 'advance warning' about this, things will just gradually go more and more in that direction...so...bring on the solar panels and may we appreciate all the connections that we do have, while we still have them ;) lol...

on July the 17th I loved:

1 quart water
2 cups greeeeen juice mixed with pineapple juice
3 tbsp spirulina crunchies :)
water of a young coconut
a papaya
gorgeous salad straight from our garden - WOW :), followed by a hand-stirred 'yumpot' of tahini mixed with maca, honey, chocolate extract and cinnamon
2 cups water


on July the 18th I appreciated:

1 quart water
little cup of green juice
little cup of sugar cane juice
water of a young coconut
2 cups cucumber/sugarcane/lime juice
2 small papayas, 3 granadilla
1.5 cups almond milk with cinnamon, cardamom, stevia and maca :)
shared cucumber/jicama salad with Mr. M, with almond/dill 'cheese', stuffed into nori sheets, followed by a hand-stirred 'yumpot' of tahini mixed with maca, honey, chocolate extract and cinnamon
1 cup water


LOVE this 20-minute video with Jamie Oliver posted recently to TED.com, sharing his views on the obesity epidemic, disease and teaching children about food. Jamie lays out all the facts in his simple, down-to-Earth, Essex-boy kinda way ;) Some of the images and stories he shares of morbidly obese people in the USA are truly moving, for me at least...and the footage of children who are *clueless* as to which fruits and veggies are which is jaw-dropping for me too...wow, what a bizarre situation we've gotten ourselves into as a species...and Jamie is here as a no-nonsense beacon of clarity for simple food...how *wonderful* to see him invited to share on this topic at TED - love it...I hope you enjoy this video too (thanks to Ricki for sharing this link with us ;):

http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html

All love and grace unfolding,
Angelalalalalaaaaaaaa. xxx