Fresh Living

This has been making the rounds for a while, but this music video of "Say Hey" by my fave band Michael Franti and Spearhead just gave me a nice Friday afternoon boost with its super-positive vibe. Enjoy!

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Oh, cranberry, how do we love thee?  Let me count the ways.

In the health arena, you make our hearts go pitter-pat--and not just because you may lower bad cholesterol and increase good.  You're also packed with immune-boosting antioxidants, urinary health-protecting antibacterial properties, and even--if you believe one Rutgers researcher--a compound that prevents plaque from binding to your teeth.  Super-food, anyone?

But Foodie Friday is about more than mere healthy eating, it's about feel-good, taste-great foodie joy.  And there, we're smitten too.  Because not only do you contain a major dose of pectin, which, once released, brings you from firm fruit to delectable, just-burst gel in mere minutes.  You're also so perfectly tart so as to act as the perfect foil in sweet desserts, and a delightful zing to savory dishes.  Is there anything you can't do?

I'm lucky enough to live in cranberry country--New England--where my store stocks several brands of local berries fresh from the bog.  Seeing as how 'tis the season for all things cran, I thought I'd share my 5 favorite ways to enjoy this tiny super-fruit.  What are yours?

5 Ways to Enjoy Cranberries

1.  Drink 'Em.  Cranberry juice + sparkling wine + lime juice = fizzy, tarted-up perfection.  Also, you know cranberry juice is a chief ingredient in a Cosmo, right?

2.  Sauce 'Em.  As if I have to tell you.....boil a bag of crans with a cup of water, a cup of sugar, and the zest of an orange.  Some crystallized ginger never hurt anyone either!

3.  Bake 'Em.  Toss in a handful of cranberries to your apple pie filling, or use them instead of blueberries a crumb cake or breakfast bread for little bursts of tart-sweet goodness (note: you may need to adjust the sugar because crans are so tart).

4.  Savor 'Em.  Concocting a wild rice, quinoa, or wheat berry salad?  Try some chopped roasted vegetables, dots of goat cheese, and a handful of dried cranberries.  A splash of lemon juice, a few glugs of olive oil, and you're on your way to Savory City!

5.  Snack 'Em.  Dried cranberries are pleasantly chewy, super-sweet, and very happily eaten by the handful with salted nuts, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips, and any other dried fruits you like.  Wait, did I just describe a trail mix?  Take dried cranberries with you on a fall hike or winter snowshoe, and you'll be rarin' to go!

Still hungry? Click here for more Foodie Friday tidbits.

(image via: http://www.goodguide.com/)

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One of the great ironies of writing this feature, Fresh Morning, is that I am sooo not a morning person and never have been. When I was in elementary school I recall loving the Garfield quote "I will rise, but I refuse to shine."

And here are a couple more that you might relate to if your engines are exactly full-blast when your feet hit the floor:

"I'd like mornings better if they started later."  - Author Unknown

"I don't think jogging is healthy, especially morning jogging.  If morning joggers knew how tempting they looked to morning motorists, they would stay home and do sit-ups." - Rita Rudner

"Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious. " - William Feather

"Dawn:  When men of reason go to bed."  - Ambrose Bierce

"Luxury is an ancient notion.  There was once a Chinese mandarin who had himself wakened three times every morning simply for the pleasure of being told it was not yet time to get up."  - Argosy

Et tu? Night owl? Early bird? In between?

Need more morning inspiration?  Read our entire Fresh Morning collection!

Today in my acupuncture session, I had a fascinating conversation about toxic thoughts.  I shared with my acupuncturist my "message dream" in which I heard the phrase "toxic thoughts are water soluble" over and over again. 

I told her how that image had turned into something of a mantra for me these past couple of weeks.  We human beings are essentially made of water, and I've been visualizing clear, clean water flowing through my veins...dissolving any toxicity that might find its way in via bad food, negative thinking, polluted air, and more.  Water, purifying, cleansing water. 

She then shared how she imagines toxicity--as wind.  She visualizes herself as a screen door, able to feel the toxic wind and live with it, but just watching it blow through her, unable to stick or hold onto her body or mind.

Wow - between the two of us, we hit on two of the four essential elements.  I thought I'd give the other two a try.

Fire seems like a gimme, right?  Like those little pieces of flint-y paper that burst into a spark-flame and incinerate?  In the purifying fire of a clear mind, toxic things will simply consume and be gone.

Earth is a little more tricky, because it conjures an image of being buried - not something we want to do with toxic thoughts.  But here's my attempt--think about dirt as the rich, fertile remains of something that was rotten and dying (like the contents of a compost pile, aka leftover salad from last week).  Imagine toxic things crumbling into clean, dark earth, ready to receive the seeds of something new and alive.

Which element are you drawn to? 

(image via: http://www.freewebs.com/avatar-videos-online/pictures.htm)

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Gallows humor, dark comedy--created for very good reasons. Something along the lines of "If I don't laugh, I'm going to cry." And because funny is hidden in the deepest crevices of grief and suffering sometimes. And in the nooks of stress and general despair. It's a way of distancing ourselves from the bad feelings that threaten to consume us, covering up insecurities, bringing light and perception into the shadows.

Today I'm trying to laugh because I am steeped in fear. I've got my bi-annual oncology checkup in a few hours and I can't think, can't really speak too well, and am just barely functioning (also, I've had a hell of a crazy week--my shrink looked at me today and said, "Wow, you're still standing."). And really, fear sucks. It's cold, it's depleting, it's contracting, it brings our energy down, causes our insides to squirt danger juice (cortisol), slows down our immune system, actually takes out brain cells. It's just a total buzzkill.

So when I came across this quote today, it was such a delicious, chain-shaking relief to spontaneously laugh, hard--fear's ultimate antidote:

"We're in the middle of nowhere, which is the safest part of nowhere." - Futurama (the Matt Groening show). 

I feel like it's still making my organs laugh it connects so deeply with the kind of fear I'm in.  Like, nowhere! Ha! Middle of it! Safest! That's the thing with darkish humor (even in its lightest form), you kind of have to be there (read: freaking out) to get it. But anyway, that's all I got.

Have you gotten through a tough time with dark humor?

The other night, my sister and I went to see Grant-Lee Phillips. One of the songs from his new album, Little Moon, is a sweet, un-cynical, not-too-peppy song called "Good Morning, Happiness."

When my stressy brain saw this, it just about dropped its ball o struggle. On a blog I love, ColorMeKatie, photographer Katie Sokoler created a tent in her apartment. Because she felt like it. I love that idea. A contained, cozy...

Many of us were surprised to read that the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) is recommending that women get their first mammograms at age 50, not 40--and, more shockingly, that doctors stop advising women to administer monthly self-exams on their breasts.

I forget who was the first person to really get across the importance of three deep breaths to me. But, man, life-saver, for real. So today, try this: Before eating, take three slow, deep breaths. Before picking up the...

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." - Thomas Merton Yes,...