I recently had the privilege of cooking for William Spear's week-long retreat called The Passage.  I have known Bill for many years now… I first met him as a macrobiotic scribe in New York City and took notes while he gave consultations to clients.  That was a small, and memorable, window onto his compassion, experience [...]

I lost a good friend this week.
I’m not going to name names. It freaks me out to go public with something so private. Neither Facebook nor my blog are appropriate for that. Plus, he was one of the few internet holdouts… preferring to connect face-to-face with the rest of the world… when he wanted to [...]

Oh Thank God.
So George, my two-year old Tabby  and only remaining pet, had not been seen by his lovely petsitter, Natasha, since the day her duties began… roughly the same day I left for the East Coast.  Needless to say the cruise and all other away-from-LA activities were pretty stressful for me, knowing that George [...]

I recently spent a weekend with Marianne Williamson .  Well, with her and about 500 other women.  It was an amazing, educational and transformative experience called Sister Giant, designed to re-connect us with our female power and to find ways to apply it in the world. 
Of course, this wonderful yin force we are governed by [...]

As kids, my sister and I would spend every other weekend with our Dad.  Not the greatest cook, he would take us to various diners and other eateries for Saturday breakfast.  Invariably, Dad would order half a  grapefruit, and I remember being hypnotized by his precise slicing around the rim of the fruit and down [...]

This is my niece.  She doesn’t always look this squinchy, but sometimes life just makes you squinch!  Maybe she’s been listening to my audiobook.
I’m all about iceberg lettuce these days.  I know, I know… it’s a throwback to salads from the 70s, and maybe that’s why I’m so attracted to it.  Just gimme a summer [...]

However, by cutting out meat, you are taking a lot of the yang out of your diet. Remember, meat, salty cheese, baked flour and salt are all really yang. That leaves you messing around on the yin sides of things: sugar, fruit, white flour, soy “milks” and “ice creams”, chocolate, and if you’re a partier, alcohol and drugs. Without the yang, and with too much yin, vegans can get weak, anemic, depressed and isolated. Not everyone, but some.

That the economy is tanking.
I’ve been swimming lately in the Pacific ocean.  Even writing those words, I sigh…
My friend Lou and I go down to the beach a couple of times each week.  When we get there, we talk on the sand for a while, downloading our respective days, and then one of us says [...]

Sounding like a weird cat lady… I love cats!  They’re just so cool!  I remember having an argument with a dog person once (and I like dogs, but I’m just not a dog person, per se), and in defense of the superior feline, I challenged: “What could be better?  A cat is like a furry [...]

I’ve been avoiding you. I’m sorry.
It just didn’t seem like I had much to say this summer, between double espressos and white pasta dishes. My mind was racing a hundred miles an hour, dashing from irritation to resentment. And when the intensity faded and the race track cleared, I was left with [...]