Harvest Some Wisdom this Fall

Wow! The last couple of weeks have brought us the most gorgeous weather here in Austin. I don't know about you, but this time of year always makes me feel a sense of renewal. I feel cooler, happier, more peaceful, and more grateful for the simple joys in my life.

My legs work, I have enough to eat, the sun is shining, and I don't have a toothache. Looks like it's going to be another glorious day!

I find these cool, crisp fall days seem to slow my noisy mind. I want to forget all the activity for a while and become more contemplative. And whenever I slow down, I start to consider which of the many goals I am currently pursuing are truly most important.

Inevitably I come back to one simple truth. I should focus more on my health and on enjoying the beautiful gifts that the Universe sends me on a daily basis. I always remind myself (because I tend to be forgetful) that if I let my health go, then I won't have the energy or enthusiasm for the other 100 things on my Caught Up For Life list.

And then I am reminded of how simple it is to create good health. Notice, please, that I didn't say good health was easy to achieve—just that the formula for healing and happiness is neither secret nor complicated. It's pretty simple.

(In the middle of writing the last paragraph, I took two minutes, went to the kitchen, cleaned my pressure cooker, and washed and began soaking some rice. Good to practice what I preach.)

Think about it for a moment. We eat 3 times a day (or more, if you suffer from hypoglycemia). Let's see ... that's 3 meals per day multiplied by 365 days a year, for 30, 40, 50 or more years. That's about 85,000 meals over an average U.S. life span. If, say, at each of these meals, we eat a donut or a breakfast cereal or a dessert or drink a glass of fruit juice—all of which are loaded with simple sugar—or eat vegetables containing toxic residue from pesticides and herbicides or a piece of acid-forming, artery-clogging meat or cheese, surely it will affect our health over the course of a lifetime. And not in a good way, I dare say.

Personally, I find it way too easy to rationalize that eating something that is less than the best choice won't do me any harm, because it is “just this one time.” Funny how those one times soon become my habit and the effects begin accumulating. Next thing I know, I'm feeling crummy. My low back pain comes back, or the pain in my knees comes back, or the afternoon sleepiness returns, or my outlook on life turns sour. I know these symptoms. And I know how to prevent them. But still I need to constantly remind myself that making the right choices each time I sit down to a meal (or worse yet, eat one over the kitchen sink) will change everything else that I do or say or feel from that point on.

So at One Part Harmony, we dedicate Autumn to the study of simple truths. If you feel like renewal would be a good thing for you, then please come and join us.

For you beginners or those wanting a refresher in the basics, we offer our very best seminar: The Origin of Disease—The Road to Recovery. In this weekend conference we give you a solid foundation for understanding how the effects of your diet and your environment can accumulate to create either very poor health or a lifetime free of pain and degenerative disease and filled with energy and happiness. We'll explain exactly how different foods and drinks and habitats either support health or contribute to disease. We'll give you loads of theory and we'll feed you amazing and delicious healing meals prepared by Dawn Steinborn and her senior students from The Natural Epicurean Academy.

If you already understand the why, then I suggest you sign up with Dawn for a series she calls The Fundamentals of Cooking for Disease Prevention. (You can find the dates for the next meeting of this course on The Natural Epicurean web site.). You'll leave this class with the knowledge and the recipes to begin preparing great-tasting intentional and healing meals in your own kitchen.

And if you aren't quite sure you believe all this macrobiotic stuff—or you want to know more about what kind of healing is possible—then join Dawn for her free introductory lecture entitled How Foods Affect Your Health & Emotions that she offers on the second Wednesday evening of almost every month.. In this two-hour lecture and question-answer session, Dawn will share some of what she has learned during her own personal healing journey. Perhaps there will be something useful for you. And you can't beat the price!

No matter where you are on your personal path to health and happiness, I pray our paths will cross soon. The Universe is truly a place of abundance, but still ... it helps to know where to look.

Peace, love, and brown rice.

Last modified: 02/21/05