Thanksgiving

Last month, Neil Gaiman challenged his fans to celebrate Halloween by giving away scary books. It fit in nicely with my own plan this month to celebrate Thanksgiving by sending out cards expressing my thanks to folks in my life, both past and present.

Thank yous seem to have suffered in our culture over the years. Thank you cards are not sent, we're all too busy. Too busy to be thankful and appreciative for what we have. No wonder people often say they did not know what they had until it is gone.

This means it can be harder to give that thanks, to acknowledge the sentiment, since we have so little experience it seems awkward. And some things it feels easier to thank others for than others. Some because they are just the nature of the relationship. But I think those are the most important cases, where appreciation is best expressed.

An apology

To the man with the blue car at Paseo today:

I do apologize for any distress that I caused you. It honestly never would have occurred to me to apologize for tapping your car while parallel parking unless there was damage but then usually the car owner is not around. In this case, the only reason I knew you were the car's owner was because you purposefully hit my car in what I considered to be a very aggressive act. When you raised the issue of an apology later, saying you did not understand where I was coming from, I was disappointed you walked away without trying to hear what that might be, and without seeming to understand how your actions altered whatever might have happened otherwise. Say, for example, you had just looked at your bumper after I had parked, without the car hitting before hand, I would have expressed concern as to whether everything was alright.

I do thank you for giving me things to meditate on. The range of when apologies should be given, and expressing myself in a way that better promotes hearing, even in those walking away.

Cleansing

I am just finishing up an Ayurvedic cleanse called panchakarma. It's involved a restricted diet, massage, and lots of oil.

Tonight, I'm feeling nicely energetic, even after a problematic Monday. If my life were a story, I'd say it was the oddly warm, extremely powerful wind blowing tonight.

I'm at least coming out of panchakarma with a new favorite comfort food, that hopefully is healthier than my previous ones. Kitchari is the main diet during the treatments of panchakarma. It is highly digestible, so recommended for after overindulgence. Or just when you need something comforting. Here is my recipe, slightly adopted from one I got from my practitioner. I can not emphasize how nummy it is and how much you need to be eating it.

Kitchari

Makes 2+ servings

1/2 C mung dal
1/2 C rice or 1/2 C quinoa

2+ T sesame oil
1 t black mustard seeds
1 t cumin seeds

1 t tumeric
pinch hing (aka Asafoetida)
1 T crushed coriander seeds

2 C boiling water

1 T sesame seeds powdered
1/2 T salt
1 T tikka masala
1 T shaved dried coconut

1 T brown sugar
2 T ghee

Soak dal for 1 or 2 hours. Rinse rice or quinoa. Drain and mix.

In a pot, heat the sesame oil. Add black mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When they start popping, add the crushed coriander seeds, tumeric, and hing. Mix. Add the dal and grain. Saute for 3-4 minutes. Add boiling water, masala, salt, powdered sesame seeds, and coconut. Cook on medium heat until almost done. Add ghee and sugar. Stir and cook for another 2-3 minutes on low heat. Garnish with cilantro and serve warm.