food for thought

When flying solo, it sometimes too easy to be lazy about preparing nutritional meals for one. However, eating better has been one of my objectives this year - fresh food and simple preparation is the key for me.

Having a visitor this week means that I have been preparing a few more meals than usual. I do enjoy cooking for someone else. A side benefit is that I have been inspired me to be more creative with food options. Today I came up with a combination that was totally delicious and I think will become one of my go to snacks in the future - a nutty avocado salad.

This is so simple. Half a freshly hulled and peeled avocado filled with a mixture of macadamia and cashew nuts, finely chopped snow pea sprouts and capsicum drizzled with garlic infused virgin olive oil. As it turns out this is a highly nutritional meal packed with flavour.

Avocados are packed with vitamins, fibre and healthy fats. Eating avocados can actually help in the absorption of antioxidants from other foods. Avocados have more potassium than bananas. Macadamia nuts benefit the health of the nervous system. Similar to avocados they are high in monounsaturated fatty acids and also help in the absorption of nutrients. Being rich in oelic acid and as a good source of copper, macadamia consumption supports the health of our nervous system and brain functioning. Cashews are also well known for their health benefits and are a great source of copper as well.

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Flying Solo Tip 091365 : When we take time to listen to our bodies, it will intuitively tell us the nutrients is needs.

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resurrection

To be honest, lately I have started getting a bit down on myself, so it was a good reminder for me to notice today that the fig tree in the courtyard has burst forth with new life after being bare throughout the winter months. So far it has been a very intense year. Lately it has felt that the events of the past year has caught up with me, my energy levels have dampened, ideas remain dormant, and in many ways I have lapsed from the practices I had put in place earlier this year to get through the tougher times.

One of the amazing plants of the world is the Rose of Jericho, one of the known resurrection plants. The Rose of Jericho can "aimlessly" tumble through the deserts of Africa in a desiccated and dormant state for years, even decades. Then under the right conditions, in a phenomenally short space of time take root in the sand, spring back into life and release seeds that quickly germinate for the next generation of plants, thus ensuring the survival of the species.

When we go through change and personal transformation, there are phases of natural dormancy. The seeming lack of external evidence of change does not mean that significant changes are not happening internally. Then, as with the resurrection plants, or the magic of springtime when plants burst into leaf and bud into flower, under the right conditions, external evidence of those changes burst forth, ideas spring into creation and energy returns tenfold. However, there are moments in that period of dormancy, when we feel gone out on a limb, we can be tempted to simply give up and let the benefit of the work already done to wither and die. This is a critical moment. The moment just before breaking through the barrier. It is the moment, we feel we just simply cannot take another step forward, yet we can. It is the moment we unfurl our wings and ready for flight.

Eckhart Tolle says "Whenever an experience come to an end, you die a little death. Often this leaves behind a feeling of emptiness that most people try hard not to feel, not to face. If you can learn to accept and even welcome the endings in your life, you may find that the feeling of emptiness that initially felt uncomfortable turns into a sense of inner spaciousness that is deeply peaceful. By learning to die daily in this way, your open yourself to Life."

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Flying Solo Tip 090365 : Have patience to await the springtime of your transformation.

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waiting

on the corner ... for my friend who is going to stay for a few days, to arrive from Melbourne. I am so looking forward to our late night esoteric conversations and guaranteed laughs.

The Lebanese philosopher and poet, Kahlil Gibran wrote the following in reference to friendship:

"Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When you friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay".

And when he is silent you hearts ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth, and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds it morning and is refreshed."

I find this to be a wonderful description of a meaningful friendship. I also think that it is rare to find such friendships where in each other's company you are comfortable to express the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, to share and build ideas and even disagree with mutual understanding. However it is within those kind of relationships that we are able to enrich our own souls and experiences of the world.

In Julie Beck's article "How friendships change over time in adulthood", she mentions that in the hierarchy of relationships friendships generally fall to the bottom of the priority list because the voluntary nature of friendship makes it subject to life’s whims in a way more formal relationships aren’t. We have all heard or even uttered the phrase "We must catch up soon", yet surveys and research show that friendships are essential to our wellbeing and deeply influence our personal development and potentially more than the formal relationships.

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Flying Solo Tip 089365 : It is the quality, not the quantity of friendships, in our lives that benefits our personal wellbeing.

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