Raining & Raining

It’s been raining and raining
this summer
and there’s been thunder
rolling over the landscape
and torrential downpours
soaking through shoes
puddles and rivulets
streaming down the sidewalks
and the daring art of dashing
between unpredictable deluges
has been busily practiced
all across town…
Rosenny and I arrived at our
destinations soaked through
to the skin, which is not
fashionable, especially when
it has stopped raining and
everyone else (having driven)
arrived dry as a bone.




June 21, 2009

Sudden puddles!

The moss and lichen like it :)

Doing it with love

Gemini Team Member Beth Phillips Mallon
& Renowned Chef/Author Rebecca Katz
backstage at Food As Medicine / CancerGuides II, 2009-
beautiful friends & colleagues

I recently helped create and orchestrate a Center for Mind-Body Medicine training for 500 people, mostly health professionals, held here in Washington, DC. On the last day of the program, numerous people came up and thanked me for my hard work and my part in making the program such a wonderful experience-- so nice! The largest single group of our attendees were physicians. They are so accustomed to very different, considerably more cut-and-dried atmospheres at conferences they attend, so it came as somewhat of a shock to them to find the environment warm and nurturing.

One of them said to me, This is the best medically-oriented program I have attended in my 40 year career. I looked her in the eyes, and out of my lips came the words, There is no law against doing it with love.

Wow... that’s really what I have to say. There is no law against doing it with love, whether it’s the way you work with colleagues, family, friends, community, country, or the world…

In putting this program together, our small staff at the Center formed ourselves into a team. We had a name—‘Gemini’, because we were doing two trainings at once—Food As Medicine and CancerGuides II. Each of us identified and committed to a role, which we took on and saw to completion, whatever it took to do so. Each of us counted on the other, 1000%. We met weekly and brainstormed, and helped each other troubleshoot rough spots. We worked with creativity and love. The training was made out of this sublime material—and it showed.

In the same way, I have always thought that if you stir the rice with love, that’s what your family will taste. Put the raw rice in the pot, rinse it with water, stir with your hand. Smile as you stir, and think loving thoughts…. The rice will be sweet and nourishing to those you love.

Go, Gemini! Our team at a pre-program planning session / picnic
with microplaners (a great piece of cooking equipment!)
They look like pirates! Or- are those magic wands?

And no planning session would be complete without a bowl of cherries....

There’s no law against doing it with love.

Summertime!

Summertime! and the livin' is easy...

Stars in the summer floral lineup...

Long shadows on the hillside..

Grazing in the grass!

My walk to work down lovely sun-dappled streets...

But now I'm on vacation for 2 weeks. Yippppeeeee!

Happy summer!