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Kitchari, A Powerful and Delicious Spring Cleanse without cleansing!

Super Simple Kitchari Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
½ cup split yellow mung dal
6 cups water
1 Tbs ghee
1 Tbs Kitchari Spice Mix:
For my kitchari spice mix:  1 T turmeric, 1 T fenugreek, 1 T cumin seeds, 1 T coriander, 1 T hing (asafoetida), 1 T Sea Salt
You can also substitute or add mustard seeds, but they are more fiery so I don’t use them in the summer.
I take a spice bottle and mix all these spices together in equal parts, so that when I make kitchari all I have to do is use 1 T from the bottle.

Method of Preparation:
Wash and then soak the yellow mung dal for at least 4 hours.  Drain the soak water when you are ready to cook.  Also wash the rice at the time of cooking.  In a large saucepan, add the ghee and allow to warm.  Add the Kitchari Spice Mix and sauté for about 1 minute.  (Take caution not to burn the spices.)  Add the rice and mung dal and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.  Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a low-medium heat, cover the pot and let the kitchari cook on a simmer for 40-45 minutes*.
If you would like to add vegetables, add dense vegetables (like sweet potatoes and carrots) after the kitchari is half cooked (after about 15-20 minutes).  Add leafy vegetables like kale towards the end of the cooking process.  Once the cooking is complete, add salt to taste, and garnish with lime, cilantro and coconut as desired. Enjoy!
*Cook times may vary in higher altitudes.  If longer cooking time is necessary, you may need additional 1-2 cups water.

Also, I love this film: Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Quality, Originality, and Consistency. These are attributes that this sushi master shares. It so soooooo delightful.

I think if i just ate kitchari and Jiro’s sushi for a few days everything would be right as rain.

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Actors must know their motivation

Acting 101: stay where you truly are, long enough, and it will morph. That’s it, at least in the tradition that I come from. Resist, avoid, do anything but be where you are, and you don’t stand a chance of captivating anyone else. You don’t get results. My 1st year acting teacher, Joel Rooks, was more fun to watch then my fellow classmates. His instruction:  be honest, be where you are at. If you aren’t or you miss a beat, he’d stop us. So he’d watch us do the exercise. He’d be living it with us. His anticipation growing and then you’d see his shoulders slump over and his face drop.

Someone missed a moment. One moment missed. Then a train wreck.
I find good actors are generally pretty healthy people.  If they aren’t absorbed, as a spectator you won’t be either. They’d be thrown to the lions. We throw ourselves to the lions every day. No focus and direction. We live a haphazard life.
We are all actors on life’s stage. Why miss one more moment? It’s time to live the life you want to live.

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Stick with it…

Currently attention spans are miniscule, as is happiness and peace of mind. When we stick with something- see it through, have integrity, complete it, even if it’s a mood, its power over us diminishes. That’s what I did. I sat still. It was a turning point as I had been physically and mentally running everywhere.

One of my first inspirational teachers, Carolyn Myss, did that. She needed direction, and sat at a stop light watching it change from red to green to yellow several times. She was begging for a sign and then she would move. Her eyes finally focused on the medical center where her mentor, Dr. Norm Shealy was resident. The rest is history. If you don’t know her story, she began as a medical intuitive and her work with Norm was instrumental. They are colleagues to this day.

I talk about facing things, and seeing them as they are. This may not mean that we totally understand, but if we can look at something without judgement, we will get direction. Judgment (look how fickle it is it even has two acceptable spellings) is the spoiler. Hurray..out of judgement and into action! But what now, how?
~Do you know how long it takes to make a movie? And people barely have the attention to sit through them. The devices we can view them on are getting smaller and smaller. Soon enough an acceptable movie may be three minutes.

I like to get people to sit still. One of my favorite people to spend time with on this planet is my mother. She loves to have tea with no agenda. She and I can sit together til the cows come home. Can you tell I’m from Indiana? One of our secrets is we laugh a lot. Now she is in a different state of mind, doesn’t speak, and I still enjoy sitting with her. This freaks people out! It’s not hard for me, because I don’t need her to speak with words, to be other than she can demonstrate. I am grateful we are still laughing. I attribute some of this ability to my training as an actor. Actors can be very healthy people, they try on roles instead of identify with them.

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Here’s to Wes Anderson; may he win the oscar for best screenplay 2013- along with Roman Coppala

I just listened to an interview between Terry Gross and Wes Andersen discussing Moonrise Kingdom since it is up for best screenplay this year at the Oscars. I am a huge fan of Wes Andersen, namely due to The Fantastic Mr Fox and Moonrise Kingdom. I like all of his films. These last 2 are complete, and that is no small feat. So, I have felt connected to his work in many ways. His opening scene in the movie, with the close and play, when I saw that I almost jumped out of my seat. I wrote a scene years ago, with a little girl and her close and play. Anyway, glad to finally see it, especially by his masterful direction.

In this interview he spoke about a situation at school that was likely very helpful to him. He got in trouble a lot and his teacher knew that he liked to put on theatrical productions. So she would encourage him. If he stayed out of trouble he could put on a production. How fantastic! I was also in trouble a lot of the time in school, especially very young, like kindergarten and first grade. It usually happened like this: I would be talking and my teacher would ask me what I was talking about. So I would say, “Herbie the love bug, or that darn cat!”, movies I had seen. I was over the moon about them. She didn’t care and punished me by making me stand in the corner. This went on and on. I didn’t understand how this wasn’t fascinating to her. There wasn’t a lot of tolerance for my brilliance and certainly not encouragement in the right direction.

By 3rd grade I was so stressed out over school even though I made good grades. My teacher that year was really concerned about me, and actually gave me a day to create an event. We were studying Hawaii, and my father had traveled there many times. I had a miumiu from one of his trips, so the class made muumuus (pronounced moo moo) and I led a day about the culture of Hawaii and my dad came in and spoke and showed …a movie. It was very satisfying. I loved that teacher, Mrs. Martindale. She had a good eye and a heart and most importantly wasn’t lazy. My first blog was all about movies. I wouldn’t critique as much as I would revere them. I wrote about many very obscure films. Although I discontinued that blog site I am still looking for its remains, because it had a ton of hits. I didn’t realize at the time how beneficial that is.

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A story: He look a like a golfer, and acted like a Buddha

A little story:
I met a man years ago in NYC, Howard Wills, he looked like a golfer. A good ole boy from the south. Well, he was a Buddha. This is what he taught: You have to clean your mirror.
How do we gauge our outer projection, albeit badly or incorrectly?  Likewise, there is an inner mirror. Clean up the uninvited foot prints. Be your own Valentine, you will then reflect back to everyone their value and beauty.*Oh this is funny: I just googled Howard since I haven’t thought of him in years, and he doesn’t look like a golfer any longer. He sports long grey hair, and lives on Kauai, quite clearly still a Buddha.

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Let go of the shore.

Let go!

When I woke up this morning  my first thoughts were about being a river. I saw very clearly the things that keep me clinging to the shore.  Zen uses the river as an example of how to live a life in flow.  Whoever I am still carrying and wherever I perseverate is me clinging to the shore. We don’t have to stay on the shore. Comfort is also the shore.  That’s why Zen says stay moving. I see self inflicted torture as standing on the shore watching life go by, they are the thoughts that keep us from jumping in and letting nature deliver. When I got up and  I looked at new emails  there was one from my sister:

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some
blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a
spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Entertain this for 2013: Napoleon Hill on being born with two envelopes

As Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, taught about creating wealth he shared his belief which I believe he got from Carnegie. He said that we are all born with 2 envelopes. It’s up to each one of us how we use them.

Contents of envelope one: Taking control of your own mind and direct it to ends of your own choice:

  1. sound health
  2. peace of mind
  3. a  labor of love of your own choice
  4. freedom from fear and worry
  5. a positive mental attitude
  6. material riches of your own choice and quantity

Contents of envelope two: Price one pays for neglecting to take possession of the mind and direct it:

  1. ill health
  2. fear and worry
  3. indecision and doubt
  4. frustration and discouragement
  5. poverty and want
  6. a whole flock of evils-anger, hatred, jealousy, superstition etc….

Let this act as a reminder for even one moment, that we literally only control one thing, and that is which thoughts we focus us.  It’s indeed a full time job. One of my teachers recently said, “Avoid the mental plane at all costs!” Peace of mind is not selfish. Excuse yourself politely from situations where you’d have to engage in too much thought. Truth purifies, untruth complicates. On it goes. You decide.

To keep the conversation going, at least from Napoleon Hill’s pov, have a clear description of your major desire, a circumstance or position which you will accept as your idea of success.

Ask what limitation you have set up in your mind.

Ask what limitation you have let others set up for you.

Finally, what precisely you will do in return for what you ask. This may be work. This may be giving money in a charitable fashion.

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I am the vehicle for whatever I call the life force that is in me. To be sure, until an understanding of this is fully realized, I am likely to be in process, and talk process. My knowing is directly proportional to how I demonstrate, create, share or not, this very potential. -It must be a calling- The way I do it, is likely flavored by karmas.

Can’t i just enjoy the ride? I say yes!

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Keep Moving

– from thoughts. Go through, under, over, beyond..straighten the hook. Failure is staying in the thought, nothing more, that’s all. We look for results, we think this will mean that. Keep moving. Put everything to rest everyday and lighten the load. Complete- Isn’t this ADHD another label for  visiting, entertaining thoughts, wondering if it should have been done differently causing so much pain, thinking we could have done something differently. Let it go. Loosen the grip, straighten the hook. We “think” we figure things out, figure ourselves out. Problems are created there, and cannot be resolved there. Go beyond- Keep moving.

Oh Oz never did give nothing to the tin man, that he didn’t, didn’t already have. ~America

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Creators!

Creative people seem to have more resistances. I was thinking about a pregnant woman, and how clear it is that nature is now in charge. She is not figuring out what she is creating. There can be so much angst and overwhelm on doing our art, or doing anything that is authentic.  Making it a thing, monetizing it. Because who is doing? Aren’t we expressions of the Creative Source anyway?

What is this agency-this energy we sit on? misunderstanding it. The impulses to create then the resistances. The very reason we are here is to create, but if we keep avoiding this power it becomes more frustrated. And we wait for something to clear. We must understand to just do. Don’t dilute, ride it. Make art for its sake. Be the experience, drop the worry, the result. Deny your gifts and you spiral downward. Do what you do with every impulse you have. Let it teach you and show you the way. Let nature deliver. Then this doer is the vehicle. That’s a perspective that tames the beast.

This is a drawing of me with my cat. We are vortexes! It’s my superhero power…What’s yours?