Back in the Land of Cacti and Sun

Bonjour! Comment ca va aujourd 'hui? My french is a bit rusty..

I am back in the sunny high desert, and glad to be here :) I've lived in places with four seasons and harsh winters all my life, and truthfully, I don't feel deprived not having them anymore. It was nice to be back home with lots of snow for *ahem* 5 days, but that was quite enough for me. Above is a picture of my dog attempting to make it through the feet of snow. Notice the odd pile of snow on the right? That's on top of a birdbath..

Soooooooo back in Patagoofy, in the low 70's. Sunday evening I had the joy to attend another wedding here at the Tree of Life, another two incredibly awesome souls, wed by Gabriel. One of our chefs made a ridiculous chocolate mousse wedding cake with cherries. Just insane. One of those cakes that makes you just shake your head and say, "I can't believe I live a life where cakes like this are made and I have a body that can taste it."...

The TOL has also commenced building a teepee near the Inipi site here, so that's super exciting. I really love being in a place that honors all spiritual and religious traditions, because I get to learn about all of them and experience so many different ceremonies, perspectives, etc.

Sadly, I think I caught something on the airplane flying back, because I have been sick for the last few days, for the first time in years. Essentially fever & cold symptoms. Thus, I've been taking lots of medicinal mushrooms, Vitamin C, and NCD Zeolite. I've also been taking other things that I'm just drawn to, that feel medicinal to me right now - aloe vera, saurkraut and saurkraut juice, green juice, and garlic. I've been eating very little, and that feels really good as well.

There is a New Year's Inipi tonight, so I'm hoping I feel strong enough to go!

With love,

Courtney

Holiday Vacation

I have loved Calvin & Hobbes all my life. Above is one of my favorite of the snowmen series of comics. Some guy has archived them all here. Enjoy :)

Merry CHRISTMAS to those of you who celebrate it; Happy.. Thursday(?) to those who don't..

I flew home to spend a few days with my family. I always have an odd feeling of minor culture shock when I leave Patagonia. Although I know perfectly well that not everyone knows the information about natural health and live food that I am fortunate to know, part of me always gets tripped out seeing people eating burgers and soda. Living in Patagonia, I'll often go a month or months without seeing someone eating meat or dairy.. "Don't they KNOW??"...?

At one of the book/magazine stores in the Tucson airport, I was surprised to see "Skinny Bitch" by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman displayed as their #5 bestseller, right up front and center with loads of copies.

A cute, tiny old lady next to me on the plane sat doing crossword puzzles from newspapers, and eating her cookies and sprite. Right across the aisle was a Mormon couple talking to another woman about how they just learned to garden this year and are producing lots of radishes, arugula, and chard, and how delighted and fulfilled they are to be able to tend to a garden and eat food they themselves tended to. The other lady didn't even know what arugula was!

Later, at Whole Foods with my family, I was browsing the store while picking a few things up - I am rarely at Whole Foods, since the nearest one to Patagonia is in Tucson, an hours' drive away. I was observing the vegan/raw vegan foods that Whole Foods carries. I had to sigh when I saw the label of their homemade 'vegan' cookies which said, "Contains wheat, MILK, and soy." Part of me would like to think it's a typo, but part of me just wouldn't be surprised if their vegan cookie wasn't actually vegan.

Anyways, being home has been nice, and cozy. I woke up to another 8 inches of snow, more flakes falling slowly - a picture perfect Christmas morning. Among my presents for my family, I gave my mom a variety of natural sweeteners - since she has been taking NDC Zeolite, she getes headaches when she eats conventional white sugar. So, she's stocked with Agave, Xylitol and Chocolate flavored stevia. I'll let you know how that goes! I had the hiccups all morning (odd) and engaged in an epic wrapping paper ball fight. I sit here typing this and listening to Kanye as my family eats chocolate chip pancakes and sausage and I eat a pomegranate. Avalanche bombing going on at the nearby ski resorts. Life is an adventure, yes?

Festively,

Courtney

(Music) Robyn - 'Cobrastyle'

Reject Obamas Decision: Stop Vilsack's Confirmation as Secretary of Agriculture

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1783

Stop Vilsack's Confirmation as Secretary of Agriculture

Despite a massive public outcry, including over 20,000 emails from the Organic Consumers Association, President-Elect Obama has chosen former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to be the next Secretary of Agriculture.

While Vilsack has promoted respectable policies with respect to restraining livestock monopolies, his overall record is one of aiding and abetting Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or factory farms and promoting genetically engineered crops and animal cloning. Equally troubling is Vilsack's support for unsustainable industrial ethanol production, which has already caused global corn and grain prices to skyrocket, literally taking food off the table for a billion people in the developing world.

The Organic Consumers Association is calling on organic consumers and all concerned citizens to join our call to action and block Vilsack's confirmation as the next Secretary of Agriculture. Please help us reach our goal of 100,000 petition signatures against Vilsack' nomination. Sign today! Your email will be sent to your Senators and the President-Elect's office.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1783

Hilarious

From http://www.roac.nl/roac/_pictures/Covers/The%20Policies%20of%20Food%20and%20Fat.JPG

Tree of Life Cafe - Food Porn 6

Pictures by Koali P

Alive with Gabriel December 7

This session I took less notes than usual, but here you go.. For the full episode become a member of www.GabrielCousens.com.

Subject: Intestinal Toxemia

• Too much protein in ones diet can contribute to intestinal toxemia - it creates toxins from the bacteria growing on partially and even fully digested proteins
• Nearly everyone has bowel toxicity, which can be mostly or all cleared by 7 days of green juice fasting
• Diet is the most important thing to address intestinal toxemia. Enemas and colonics are great but more is needed.
• Bowel toxicity can be greatly attributed to mental imbalances
• Excess protein is 75 grams and more. Fast oxidizers generally do fine with about 4o grams per day, slow oxidizers, 20 grams
• Constipation greatly contributes to bowel toxicity.
• Triphala is the best, safest thing for improving bowel function
• Building up healthy probiotics helps bowel toxicity - fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kim chee, and pickled foods (NOT pasteurized). They increase the acid for digestion.
• Digestive enzymes are also of great help - such as HCl supplementation. Without enough HCl, one doesn't digest protein as well, doesn't digest B12 as well, and doesn't absorb minerals as well.
• Exercise, yoga, and drinking lots of water also are huge in healing bowel toxemia. Gabriel recommends drinking the amount of water that makes your body need to urinate about every 1-2 hours

The Sacred Journey of the Conscious Warriors

This Saturday was an excellently awesome day for me :) A few friends of mine had been raving about a hike near their home in a canyon close to Patagonia. I was told it was quite an 'acrobatic' and 'physically challenging' endeavor, being that most of it involved scaling of rocks - a spelunking type experience. Was it EVER. For fun, they even nicknamed this trek, 'The Sacred Journey of the Conscious Warriors'.

We began about 12:30 pm. The first part of the trek, we essentially went through a crack in this mountain. Literally a crack - just a few feet wide at parts, and walls that reached 20 or 30 feet above us. In most parts, there was icky, murky water at the bottom, and so to maneuver it involved some amazing acrobatic moves and hand holds, often quite far above the water and rocks below... awesome :) I can't really even describe exactly HOW we managed to do it... Thrilling, creative movement! Next, we had to climb a tall, vertical rock wall, we happened upon a charming little hidden Oak tree valley, with streams and small waterfalls running through. We hiked up this for a while, and came to the top of this particular mountain, which offered a near 360 degree, the most gorgeous view of this area I've ever seen.

Altogether it took about 3.5 hours, and we returned to our guides' home, where we enjoyed cacao herbal elixir, and talked.. and laughed.. and decided to have a fantastic salad dinner... and talked... and played dice & card games... and had more chocolate... and finally left at 10pm.

Sunday, I attended this month's 'Alive with Gabriel' tele/video seminar. I'll post a few of my notes tomorrow - the whole thing can be viewed with a membership of www.GabrielCousens.com.

The rest of the day was spent walking down the creek at the nearby Nature Preserve/Bird Sanctuary, sipping tea and watching a cozy film, laying in the sun, and reading.

Love love LOVE weekends :) :)

With sore everything everywhere,

Courtney

Desert Holidays & Dance

A FANTASTIC FRIDAY to YOU, my fieldly friends ;)

I hope everyone's holiday season is going great! It's odd being in the desert for Christmas. Up until the past two Christmases, I'd always lived in places that were snowy and very Christmas-y. I remember as a child marveling at people who lived in the desert and didn't get to experience white Christmases.. 'That's not even CHRISTMAS!! They're missing out on LIFE!" And here I am... nonetheless, though, I am humming carols, however out of place it is to do so..

This week has held many great things, including a raw homemade banana cream pie, a VivaPura get together, walking under the stars, and daaaaaaaancing!!

That dancing.. as I've briefly outlined before, I take a 'Middle Eastern Dancing' class once per week. The teacher is a very, very talented dancer, one of our very own Tree of Life massage therapists. Dancing is quickly becoming one of my absolute favorite forms of physical activity and expression. This kind of dancing challenges muscles I don't normally use, and so I am greatly enjoying the opening and sculpting experience! After each class, it feels like nearly every muscle in my torso is sore - back, sides, front.. everything.

Happy Holidays from the Desert!!

Courtney

Flags of the World Peace Prayer

World peace prayer with the flags and energies of 191 countries on Thanksgiving!

This was the first time that this world peace flag ceremony was done in a labyrinth. It took place on a brisk Thanksgiving Day walking the labyrinth at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, Patagonia Mountains, Arizona.










Photos by M. Bedar, A. Multimedia, O. Osterling, C. Fieberg, and others.

May peace prevail in all people!