The Love of Simple Food..

My six-month Central American trip is almost over and I am finally full to the brim with stories and thoughts and things to share (the picture will make sense soon-I promise!) As a newley minted massage therapist and health and nutrition educator, I think I am finding that the best way for people to maintain the joy in their lives and the motivation they need to thrive is to focus on maintaining SPACE in their lives. Space can mean a lot of things. In massage it is a central concept for many of the most effective therapists-connective tissue in the body responds to stress and injury by clamping down and tightening up. their job is to create space in the muscle so it can fully function again-That's space in the body so the body can thrive.

Space can also be thought of as the time between stimulus and response-when someone angers us, is the space so tiny we respond with our instantainious anger and tension, or do we have the grace of space to step back, see the other side a bit, and modify our instantanious response? With the pressures of life closing in on us, we can all use a bit of space to breath..grace to live in our lives.

Ok, you are going to wonder how any of the following has anything to do with what I am talking about, but go with me here: Identifying the wholesome, simple things we love just as much as the rich things is a kind of space in our lives..isn´t it?
There is nothing like a gourmet meal and a fancy, rich, well-crafted glass of wine. But for me, there also is nothing like a simple bowl of beans. Over the last 6 months in Guatemala and Costa Rica, I have never grown tired of the wonderful black beans..perhapts a bit of salsa or chopped pepper and onion. Serve it with a bit of rice and I, along with most of the population of Latin America, will be perfectly content. If you don´t normally eat beans, eat small quantities to start. This will give your body time to adjust the digestive process and for most people will help with the gas issue. I explain this to kids by taking the following liberty with the famous rhyme: Beans Beans Tropical Fruit, the MORE you eat, the LESS you toot!

How to cook beans? Very Very simple, and Whole Foods Market website has a great guide: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/guides/beans.php