Check out the blog I started for Zeke's school.

www.scsfood.blogspot.com

When food changes, everything changes.

Little update from Sea Cliff

Umashari Zoon Zutshi is one. She is currently beside me focused on her drawing and the full, slow snowflakes out the window. Sea Cliff has been wonderful with lots of bundled up walks to the quiet beach and our warm kitchen with many cups of tea. We've been able to stay healthy with a simple vegetarian diet, occasional massage, good sheets and of course yoga. I've been enjoying teaching tremendously and have to fight off the urge to pile lots of classes into my schedule. It's expensive to teach yoga in terms of time required and of course our lovely babysitter/neighbor who smells of rose oil and has a lovely kundalini practice herself. I'd like like to carve out some time to develop a private practice with students in my home. I have the pilates reformer set up on the third floor and would love to work deeply and therapeutically with a few clients.

We leave for Rome, Amalfi and Barcelona in less than two weeks.

I'd love to write on this blog, respond to emails, pursue creative work, practice yoga, but I need childcare in a serious way.

I'm a vegetarian again. Well, sort of. I'll eat small fish and occasional eggs and goat cheese and good yogurt. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with animals eating each other, I've just had it with these factory farms and all the sickness and suffering they produce. I've had it.

California

I'm sleepy from our red eye from Cali this morning.

Ela and Chenk are married!

We visited the redwoods and ate at Tacubaya several times in one day. Tacubaya is the sister restaurant to Dona Tomas and is a really special casual place to explore Mexican food. It is also very close to Erica Tanov and the Ark toystore, favorite spots of mine. I love the East Bay, love the jasmine plants and succulents and I love Marin County even more, the Pacific is magic and everything grows and grows.

We stayed at Alex and Aaron's amazing home in Twin Peaks where you can see every church, every hill, the Golden Gate Bridge, the ocean, everything. It is a singular, particular place full of so much love and creativity and warmth. Tony has the most beautiful courtyard I've ever seen complete with a meditation house and a sauna, but my favorite piece is the Greek Orthodox shrine with olive oil and its continuous flame. We were blown away by their family, each individual member seems to be so articulated and developed, yet they come together in this genuine full intermingled way. I couldn't believe the questions they were asking each other, and the listening. We were inspired.

Inspired by Ela and Chenks love story and the photographs of them together at 12 years of age, on the beach in southern Turkey, Ela's hair blond from the sun.

Truly an honor to be there, and best part of all is I got to walk Ela to the podium, I "gave her away". I wish them every joy, every pleasure, every comfort.

On another note--

I'm wondering about all these amazing samples I have from India.

Anyone know a brilliant web designer willing to trade a website for legal council? Or rare antique textiles, supremely lux baby clothing or obscenely fine tea?

While Uma is Sleeping

I'm going to craft this personal mission statement before the new year. Here is a first draft.

I intend to live in a way that is peaceful. I want to build love in the world, to celebrate and delight in nature, to speak and act with integrity and truth. I hope to remember that each person is equally deserving of love and respect and to teach my children this simple truth.

We are in a planning period here on Main Ave. Planning our trip to California this weekend, planning Christmas gifts and yoga classes and our trip to Europe. I'm so excited about the European plans. I have been on a Europe fast for many years. Though I have travelled to Sweden and Spain, I have done so half heartedly. It seemed the European world had conquered my aesthetic so completely in my 20's that I wanted to counteract the potent force with other influences. So I have spent the last ten years orientating myself south and east and even due north. But I must admit nothing stirs me like Bosch and Caravaggio and artichokes and balsamic vinegar, and fresco's and little Italian packages of anything. So Zeke and I read about the ancient cities of Rome and Pompeii and we imagine being pigeons flying above Rome, the old and the new entangled and full of accommodation. Rish found an amazing flat in Rome and we will stay at the Hotel Camper in Spain. Yes Camper, like the shoes, looks whimsical and modern. I'd like to have a tea company with a hotel concern. Waxwing house. House of Waxwing. Truth is I have four years till Uma is in Kindergarten. So I am very much in a period of planning.

I don't think I've ever been happier.

Mission Statements

I wrote a mission statement for the Sea Cliff School Nutrition Committee last week, and ever since feel that I need to consider one for my own person.  Here is the SCS nutrition committee's:

Our goal is to promote meaningful dialogue, initiate reform, and inspire a wholesome food culture in The Sea Cliff School. We view nutritious, minimally processed whole foods as essential to a developing child. We support educational and food service initiatives that foster a healthy, enjoyable relationship with food and empower learners with the tools to make food choices that promote health and well being.