Open Your Eyes!

"Love lives in everything -

Little or big.

Open your eyes."

--Unknown, from the guest book in the ladies' room at Thrive Cafe

Every time I go to Thrive I make sure to include a trip to the ladies' room to read their guest book. I always find something worthwhile written there. 

On my most recent visit, it included this little gem of a reminder. I feel like it's like a love poem from The Universe to all of us. 

And I believe it has worked on me in the days since I read it. 

A couple of weeks ago I was walking home from dropping the kids off at school, texting and emailing as I went, when I suddenly looked up and saw the beauty all around me - the pure blue sky, the dark green foliage, the fresh clean air - and I realized I was missing all of it. 

I couldn't remember the last time I had made that walk without my head in my iPhone and that struck me as a little bit sad.

So I decided to try and "just walk" for the rest of the year, whenever I was walking. 

I did well for about a week and then the pull of old habits sucked me back in, so far that I didn't even realize it until I sat down to write today, found this quote, and remembered that I was supposed to be opening my eyes. 

So today I recommit myself to that and ask you to join me. What beauty - what love - in your life are you missing? Open your eyes to it!

Finding Happy

"Finding yourself happy in the place where you are is the best way to know where you're supposed to be." 

--From the Guest Book in the Ladies Room at Thrive

There is a new restaurant in Seattle that I absolutely LOVE. It is called Thrive and the food served there is organic, vegetarian and raw.

Many of you are probably thinking, "Ew!" But you have no idea how wrong you are.

Friday night I had one of the best meals of my life: a Coconutty smoothie (their signature smoothie) and Awaken, a warm grain bowl of steamed Bhutanese red rice and quinoa tossed with marinated kale, avocado, toasted nori, scallions, seasonal veggies, and dressed in their house-made sesame-ginger sauce. They describe it as, "cliff-jumping for your taste buds." I call it the perfect meal.

Tasty and filling, without being too much food, my whole body felt ALIVE after eating. I wanted to eat more, and at the same time I was utterly satisfied in a way I hadn't been by a meal in a very long time - maybe my entire eating life.

As I do, I started to think about how I could make this kind of eating a permanent part of my life and the life of my family. I fantasized about serving my children raw, home-made granola with strawberries and almond milk for breakfast, warm brown rice with heaps of veggies and a special sauce for dinner with homemade raw, date-paste and carob cookies for dessert. We would all be so healthy!

Later that night we went to a movie. I was determined to sip water and eat the date-paste, chocolate and walnut granola bar I had in my purse as a snack, right up until the point where we swung open the doors of the movie theater and I could smell the popcorn.

Popcorn! It's a definite weakness of mine and I didn't pause for even a second to consider the raw, chewy goodness waiting for me in my purse before walking right up to the counter and ordering a large buttered popcorn and a Sprite.

Sitting in the dark movie theater, watching a new Aaron Sorkin project come alive, and eating the warm, buttery kernels one after another was an entirely different kind of bliss, but a kind of bliss just the same.

My body didn't feel as alive after eating the popcorn as after eating the veggies and rice, but on some level, I did. 

Sometimes happiness is a healthy meal, and sometimes it's an unhealthy snack, but hopefully it's always right where you are.