I spent this past weekend in Santa Barbara, California, at the annual Health Classic.  It’s a gathering of West Coast macrobiotic teachers and personalities sharing their knowledge and strengthening their practices.

Of course, it made me want to barf .  Well, at first.  You see, I always find stepping back into the fold an ego-threatening experience.  I resist with all the hardness of self until, after a couple of hours, something just melts (thank goodness) and, as I hear other people discussing the weird ideas that swim around in my head all day, I warm happily in the lap of the tribe .  It was great. 

Some of the teachers there were:  David and Cindy Briscoe of Macrobiotics America.  He wrote a great book about his recovery called A Personal Peace.  Mina Dobic , who recovered from cancer many years ago and details it in her book, My Beautiful Life .  Others in attendance were Susan Kreiger, who practices The Feldenkrais method in New York City and Dr. Lawrence Kushi , son of Michio and Aveline, a totally genuis science dude and overall wonderful guy carrying on the dream of One Peaceful World. 

Most moving for me was a class taught by Sanae Suzuki and her husband, Eric Lechasseur. 

I met Sanae 15 years ago at a Kushi Summer Conference, after she had healed herself of ovarian cancer using the macrobiotic diet and lifestyle.  She went on to live a beautiful and abundant life until, 3 days before 9/11, she was in a horrible car accident which put her in a coma for many weeks.  Although she missed a global tragedy, she was stuck in her own.  The doctors thought she wouldn’t survive, let alone ever walk.  But eventually Sanae awoke, to a completely new world, on every single level. 

Eric cooked for her, day in and day out.  Eventually, Sanae began to walk.  Now not only does she walk, she gives consultations, teaches classes, and writes books. 

This week her book, Love, Sanae , came out.  It is a beautiful labor of love, filled with everything anyone would ever want to know about healing themselves.  I cannot recommend it enough as a Christmas gift to yourself or someone you love.  Because she’s done it herself, she offers not only practical advice, but inspiration and hope.  Check it out at their website. 

By the way, Eric–an unbelievable chef who has cooked for Madonna, Sting and Tobey Maguire–is no slouch in the book department either, with one on mouth-watering desserts and one covering seasonal cooking that he wrote with Sanae.  They include exquisite full-cover photography on almost every page… so they are a little more expensive than other cookbooks.  But worth absolutely every penny.

Chew well,

Love, Jessica

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 3:36 am and is filed under Blog, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.