Cooking with diamonds, and other transitions

I spent yesterday, last night, today and tonight working on things related to the Louisiana joy weekend. I AM SO EXCITED! Definitely check out the online flyer I made, and especially read “A message to you from Julia.” The flyer is accessible from the events page, too. It’s just such a juicy prospect, our weekend. I had seen photos of the St. Francisville area before, but discovered many more tonight while looking for some to add to the events page (if you see three pictures there now, Tony—my awesome web guy—has not yet added all of them as of this writing, but if you see seven pictures, he has!). You must—even if you don’t think you’re coming to the Joy weekend—check out the photo gallery on the St. Francisville website. Fabulous! The first picture under “Flowers” is enough to get you to want to drive to the airport right this minute!

I also need to get to work on the Spring newsletter. I won’t send it out till Mercury goes direct, but want to have it done and ready to send as soon as possible. SO much to do “all of a sudden.” I say that, because for weeks, I’ve felt cerebrally congested and suddenly yesterday, I came to and realized that it was high time to get a whole bunch of stuff done—and it seems it all needs to be done at once! Just glad my brain fog cleared. Fortunately, I’m practiced at idling and then suddenly snapping into action. I’ve almost given up on trying to modulate my energy. It’s wonderful in theory, but I’ve never figured out how to attune with the expansion and contraction of the universe and somehow stay evenly paced at the same time! Ah, maturity. It's such a relief to stop fighting my nature and start aligning with it.

Have you ever noticed that there are times when it seems like there’s a big ol’ bus that has come to take a bunch of folks to the other side? What with the massive earthquake in Indonesia, our dear friend’s passing, Terri Schiavo’s transition, Johnny Cochran’s passing, and now the pope’s impending demise, it would seem there’s a big bus run being made this week! Obviously, that I am not as aware all the time of people dying doesn’t mean more have died this week just because I’m noticing it, but it is interesting to me how “in our faces” death is at some times more than others. It is definitely a time of transition on all kinds of fronts. Obsolete forms are breaking down to make way for the new. Hooray! (Okay—some of it doesn’t feel so great, but basically, it’s progress!) My friend, astrologer and counselor/coach Allison Rae, speaks to this, as well as to the general “lay of the land” for April, in her latest “Alignments” newsletter. You can read it online at her website, www.quantumrealitycoach.com.

Today I received the new set of cookware I ordered. We desperately needed it, too. I did lots of research and finally was strongly internally guided to purchase “Swiss Diamond” cookware. It’s nonstick—and yes, I know the horrors of typical nonstick coatings—but this is different. It’s a new process that has won awards in Europe for innovation and is highly rated in at least one foreign consumer magazine that I found out about. I would have loved a really heavy 7-ply surgical-quality stainless, but joint damage has caused my wrists to be weak, and even average-grade stainless is a challenge for me. So I needed something lighter, and I found it. Swiss Diamond is made in…Switzerland (!) and has a bonded, highly stable, nonstick composite with diamond dust in it for durability and even heat distribution. It’s on a thick aluminum base (lighter than other metals), which can’t leach into your food because the pans are coated inside and out. It has a lifetime warranty against the coating coming off, and they say using metal utensils with it is fine. I probably won’t tempt fate with those, but it’s nice to know that it’s that durable! The funny part is that I didn’t even think about the diamond aspect, metaphysically speaking, until tonight. It occurred to me that since diamonds are excellent stones for spiritual attunement, maybe the food I cook in these fancy new pans will be rarefied! I can believe that, anyway! (wink) The other cool thing is that it has little Swiss crosses on it--that reminds me not only of the plus sign/cross that symbolizes God on the front of Recreating Eden, but also of my amazing healing and mountaintop experience in Switzerland!

Remember to check out that new flyer!!!