Do You Give The Best Of Yourself To Your Loved Ones...?

I'd love to let you know about a series of inspiring short free videos from our dear friend Brian Johnson over at PhilosophersNotes.com - as you may recall, Brian recently published a book on the top 100 ideas that most stood out to him from the countless dozens of inspiring books he has read in the last few years for his "PhilosophersNotes" project...now he is taking those top 100 distilled ideas from his book and making a short video for each one, so you can actually pretty much "read" the whole book for freeee via this video series - you can check the videos out HERE - there are 9 of the 100 videos already posted as I write this - the rest will keep on coming, so get on board now if you wanna see how they flow - enjoy :)


on April the 9th I loved:

1 quart water
chunk of fresh watermelon
1 quart greeeeeeeeen juice mixed with pineapple juice
40 chlorella tablets
bowl of chia pudding with maca, ashwaghanda, banana, mango
3 cups water
YUMMERRRRSSSSSS Gopal's Curry Powersticks :)
Water of a young coconut

There are still a few last-minute rooms left at the beautiful Madre Tierra hotel here in Vilcabamba for the 2011 Raw Food Gathering, May 1st-14th...if you're intending to head this way and you're not sure where you're staying, you can contact Peter, the hotel owner on 509-928-2141 or back2olam@gmail.com to secure your place.

You can check the current schedule outline for this gathering, along with travel guidance etc at http://www.TheRawFoodWorld.com/vilcabamba.html.

Come on down, meet other like-minded lovelies, soak up the radiant sun and munch into the luscious fresh produce... If you'd love to offer a talk or other kind of event during the gathering, just email matthew.monarch123@gmail.com and let us know your preferred date/time slot and the theme you'd love to share...

As ever, if anyone is also willing or able to bring extra goodies/baggage down here with them, we'd love to hear from you...please email matthew.monarch123@gmail.com to let us know your travel plans :)

We look forward to enjoying a fun gathering soon with whoever actually finds their way here... :)

on April the 10th I appreciated:

1 quart water
chunk of fresh pineapple
3 cups greeeeeeen juice mixed with carrot juice
40 chlorella tablets
an avocado spread onto nori sheets with a little spicy red bell pepper sauce on top, followed by 2 cups sesame/banana milk
water of a young coconut


At a retreat I was holding once, a wise woman once shared this idea with the group:
 

"I like to make sure I give the best of myself to my loved ones, not other people." 

This struck me as simple, golden guidance. How often it seems that people reserve the apparent "best" of themselves for maintaining a public show that "all is well", while behaving in other-than-radiant ways with their families, close friends or house mates...whether that means complaining, arguing, gossiping or shouting at our supposed "nearest and dearest", or whatever this behaviour manifests as...what a refreshing idea to consciously choose to keep our best for those whom we believe that we love and cherish the most...makes sense, non...?
Of course, it would be the loveliest intention methinks to treat everyone with a gentle, open heart, compassion, understanding and joy...however, if we do not yet, for whatever reason, feel able or willing to hold that kind of space with everyone we encounter, we could at least choose to treat our closest associates with loving appreciation and compassion. What a turn around this could bring, if people everywhere chose to act on this idea...
I am reminded of another sage piece of guidance shared with me along this theme when I was in the grip some years back of a particularly co-dependent, abusive relationship...an older woman pointed out to me that the guy in this relationship was CHOOSING to speak to me in unsupportive, violent and unkind ways - he would not, for example, choose to scream or shout in rage at someone he briefly encountered, like someone trying to help him locate an item in a supermarket, or someone who had just delivered him mail...yet he would choose to speak to me, the person supposedly nearest and dearest to him, in harsh tones and with violent outbursts - a bizarre state of events when viewed from the outside, yet one that seems remarkably common from my observances of modern, strained human relationships...may we all remember to do our best to share our radiant selves with others, especially those whom we claim to love the most... ;)

All love and explorations of joy,
ACS-M. xxx