Enraptured...

 It is said that “the shortest path between two points is a straight line but what happens if that path gets blocked? When sediment impedes the flow of a river, it redirects, zigging and zagging instead of following a straight course. But like to the crow like meandering is to the water’s most efficient route, source to outlet, nature finds a detour.” Jake Bohm

Yesterday while a twitter friend and I were zigging and zagging about in our own little corners of the world, a straight line was presented. To connect us. I am in awe with this wonderful Universe that we live in, and bow in gratefulness.

I’ve quoted Jake Bohm before, the young character that David Mazous plays in Fox Network’s television show, Touch, but maybe I should give credit to creator and writer, Tim Kring. The way in which every instalment unfolds is not only tightly woven within each episode, but to the entire story and is obviously very important work for those involved and for those whose lives it touches, like mine.

These are the connections in life that hold me captive and cause me to be truly enraptured by life, hence the name of this blog. That one person in this world would be studying Mother Teresa and her profound life, and that at that moment another person would see a comment about Mother Teresa and would comment back, and very briefly and yet powerfully be bonded in goodness offering harmony, peace and warmth to each other, restores my faith that “if two points are destined to Touch, the Universe will always make it happen.”

Thank you Vicki for Anyway and for being with me yesterday, for your words… your vulnerability… your honesty… 

~ Ellyn

For the Love of Coconut Oil...

This morning's writing was going to be about edible oils but instead, has become solely about coconut oil. Besides the fat found in the food we eat in some vegetables, eggs, nuts and meat, there are only three fats that we have retained and use in our kitchen. One of those is coconut oil, and although the smell of coconut in the past has repulsed me, I have come to love the heavenly scent of good quality cold-pressed virgin organic coconut oil, and can be found with my nose in the jar just breathing it in.

Our bodies metabolize each fatty acid differently and being that coconut oil is a medium-chain fatty acid, the liver and the gall bladder do not need to digest and emulsify it, causing us to have more energy, an increased metabolic rate and better circulation. If you’ve had your gall bladder removed, this is indeed the fat for you.

There are many uses for coconut oil including applying it to the skin and hair. However, I have found that using sulphate-free real soap (yet another story) on the outside and hydrating and healing my body from the inside, is a better way.  

Aurora Geib, who writes for Natural News, adds that if you have been on a low fat diet the possible side effect you might have from coconut oil is diarrhoea, but eventually proper bowel function will prevail. She suggests that each adult should consume about 3 ½ tablespoons a day and although, in our home, we are not each consuming that much, it has become the primary oil that we use. Coconut oil can be eaten right out of the jar and being that it is heat stable, can be cooked using high temperatures.

There are many coconut oils currently on the market and I certainly have my favourite. A friend of mine calls it coconut butter with the hope that one of her children will embrace it like the others have. Do you have a story about coconut oil? I would love to hear it!

~ Ellyn

We Are Paleo Creatures - 2

We are paleo creatures and have been since September 1, 2012. I began researching the paleo lifestyle, which was gaining popularity, in February of that year, mainly because my husband was increasing his insulin injections, was feeling sluggish and had fallen into a slump regarding his health. I had asked my teens to jump on board with us for the month of September and that if the way of eating didn’t suit them or us, we would make another decision. Quite surprisingly, Brent cut his insulin in half, steadily lost a little weight and we were all feeling like we had more energy. By November, our active and athletic teens felt that their lunches weren’t satisfying enough and we added wraps to theirs but did not add any other grain products to their diet and continued with a complete paleo lifestyle for Brent and me.

Enter December.

With parties and gatherings, grandma’s fudge and Christmas cake, we fell off the paleo wagon. Ugh! Any bugs that were in the air that landed on us, took hold and 3 of us battled colds and sore throats and yet we continued to choose mouth-tasting foods with gluten and sugar in them over good-for-our-body foods.

The thing is, we knew that we were feeling lousy and yet we continued to choose these old favourites. I know that we are what we eat and that we were not appreciating the miraculous way in which our immune system works, which relies on the lining of the intestinal tract to help it work properly.

It will take some time to rid our bodies once again of the toxins that we willingly popped into them, but we will do it! The article about our complex immune system that I want to share with you today comes from one of my favourite blogs, The Paleo Diet Lifestyle as well as one of our favourite mealtime recipes from Irey's Kitchen in Australia.

Enjoy and stay tuned for follow-up posts.

~ Ellyn

My Word for 2013

The word peace has shown itself to me intermittently over the years. Throughout November and December, however, I took note of it showing up more frequently.

In any given situation, I have a choice and I can choose peace in response to all else.

Will I consistently choose it?

Probably not.

In spite of this, what I endeavour to do this year, is to recognize my feelings surrounding a situation, acknowledge those feelings, breathe through them and attempt to choose peace in response to what is going on inside me and around me.

For a few years now, I have worked through A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson. I have yet to get through the entire course and have settled with the decision that that is okay. Maybe each point, at which my being stops, is where I need to just pause; let ideas in the course ruminate. The cool thing is, is that a few of the ideas in the course keep cropping up for me. One of those thoughts is, “I can choose peace, rather than this.” I love it and have noticed situations diffuse when I smile warmly, consciously breathe and step into peace.

This undertaking sounds simple, but I actually laughed aloud and shook my head when I realized what was before me, knowing that it is not an easy task, nevertheless one worth accepting.

I continue to be grateful for this and all else and will be gentle on myself, knowing that peace has chosen me. 

~ Ellyn

Inspired by Debbie Ford, I know that we all yearn for different kinds of love at different times in our lives. Sometimes I need acceptance and gentleness and at other times passion and adventure. When my daughter Jillian was born, everything happened so quickly and I wasn’t sure if I should be helping by pushing or not. Brent was being his gentle self just quietly breathing, offering soothing words and stroking my hand. One nurse with an angry voice put her face in my face and sternly said, “Look at me and I will tell you exactly when to push!” After Jillian’s birth, the nurse apologized but I refused to accept it and instead thanked her. This was the kind of love I needed right then with direct instructions.

This week’s self-love exercise that I have chosen to engage in, asks me each morning to breathe into the area around my heart and notice any feelings or emotions that reside there. This morning the colour I felt was an intense orange, which made me smile excitedly. Orange is my passion colour. It calls me to laugh loudly, eat voraciously, sit on the edge of my seat, run hard and love intensely. No gentleness for me today. Instead it was coloured with fierce expression!

~ Ellyn

Why I Write...

I am a writer, therefore I write.

These are the words that face me as I sit at my desk to write each morning. Sometimes I wonder if I am trying to convince myself that I am indeed a writer or are they inspirational, reminding me to keep going.

Upon reading Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s post last week about the questions she is presently asking herself, surrounding her own writing, have given me the impetus to wonder about mine.

Do I write because that is just what I have always done? Do I write because I think I have committed myself to doing so? Do I write because the words in my heart want to spill out onto the page?

And like Oriah and other writers, the answers to these questions changes.

What is important to me today, is that I ask myself these questions and unlike Oriah, I am asking myself why…

~ Ellyn

Peaceful Parenting...

Parenting is hard work.

Parenting teens, is still hard work.

They look like adults and at times even act like adults, but they are not, and seriously important, dedicated parenting is still necessary.

I have two children, aged 16 and 17 and I find that I bite my tongue to a great extent, often, make comments like “Wow!” and “What did you think?” and I smile and laugh so much so, that I am hoping I will defy the laws of gravity and develop upward wrinkles rather than downward.

My teens have terrific friends and I am grateful to know most of them. When it comes to their friends, what I am most appreciative for is when Max and Jillian bring their friends’ problems or challenges, home to me. It allows me to see how my children are processing these problems, offer suggestions if the situation warrants it, but most importantly, it warms me with the knowledge that my kids are all right.

We eat the majority of our meals together at the dining room table without any external distractions. If one of the kids has a practise at 5 p.m., we eat at 4 or 7. If one has a practise at 7 p.m., we eat at 5. Healthy food and digestion are important to me and the dinner table is where much of our parenting and learning has taken place. The other place where we delve into deep, meaningful conversations is in the vehicle driving from home to practises etc. When the kids passed the stage where they needed a snack in the vehicle, I stopped letting them eat in there, asking that we stop and sit down to eat wherever we were headed or sometimes along the way. We are blessed with abundant food and this practise has helped to teach them that it is okay to go for a couple of hours without food and in this way the vehicle has not become a cue for hunger.

As parents, we do what works for us with the experience, knowledge, resources and guidance that we have in the moment. I knew that I was not a very good reactive person and needed to eliminate possible little problems before they became big ones. These following points were small things that we could create to make certain bigger problems didn’t ensue. 

These rules that I am thankful we instated when the kids were young, and also when they were emerging into the teen years, acquiring devices that have become amazing tools but could be used to isolate themselves from the present, are:

1.       Electronic gaming is an extra activity to be engaged in. It is not something that I wanted my children to exist in daily or become obsessed with, but a little added pursuit. I could never wrap my head around war games, other than chess, and so the other night, when Max told me that he was at a friend’s house and everyone was playing some popular war game and that he “sucked”. I laughed out loud and cheekily apologized to him for not allowing “bad boy games”.  He smiled and shook his head and I know that at 17, he is happy he chooses to be more physical than sedentary.

2.       Watching television was something that my husband loved and still loves to do through the fall and winter in the evenings. I can hardly stand hearing the television on and wanted my children to utilize the off switch. When I was expecting Max, I had a long talk with Brent about my feelings surrounding the television and we came to a compromise that the TV would not come on until 8 p.m. For many years, Max was asleep by then, and the bedtime routine had certainly begun by 7. This practise just became a part of how we live. Do we watch television? Absolutely, but my teens will not choose a program over an activity and they definitely know where the off button is.

3.       Cell phone use: This is a big one because I love the advancing technology surrounding cell phones and I want my children to use them with confidence as hand held web devices, sharing, collaborating and connecting on a global scale. Max received his first cell phone when he headed to another town for high school. We were going to wait until he started to drive but decided that it was time for us as a family, to be able to reach him and for him to reach us readily. Before he was gifted this remarkable piece of equipment, we set up a charging station in the dining room, let him know that it was where his phone resided when he went to bed at night and that if he wanted it as his music device, that was fine but for in his room, he was to use his old iPod for music. This ensured that his sleep would not be broken with overnight texting, as well as notifications of any kind that had been neglected to be turned off. Almost three years later, this has never changed and when Jillian received her first cell phone, this past summer, she too received a station in the dining room. 

Have I made mistakes? Of course, and I will continue to make mistakes but these ways in which we live with teens, peacefully, instilling rules before conflict, have helped us to live harmoniously. I invite you to join me in conversation surrounding parenting teens, what works and what doesn’t for you and your family.

~ Ellyn

Playing - teen style!