The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

“When we honestly confront the things we own, they evoke many emotions within us. Those feelings are real. It is these emotions that give us the energy for living. Believe what your heart tells you when you ask, ‘Does this spark joy?’ If you act on that intuition, you will be amazed at how things will begin to connect in your life and at the dramatic changes that follow. It is as if your life has been touched by magic. ”

— Marie Kondo

Tuesday night, cleaning my apartment. Three hours have passed, the sun has long since disappeared behind Dougherty Hills. I'm knee-deep in a pile of blouses, long-sleeved button-downs, old race t-shirts, tank tops and black Express pants. I'm touching each piece of clothing that has been hanging in my closet. I am holding and caressing each book on my bookshelf one at a time. I am opening drawers and pulling out old souvenirs from road trips and bike rides. I am feeling every item in my hand and asking a single question-

"Does this spark joy?"

In the process, I look up from my six garbage bags filled to the brim with items and clothes, and stand back, wiping my bangs out of my eyes with the back of my hand, and sigh. I feel this overwhelming sensation of freedom wash over me. Freedom from clutter- of things that no longer serve, that no longer spark joy.

If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. Rather than asking, "When's the last time I've worn this?", changing the question to a more intuitive one- "Does this spark joy?" makes the cleaning/clearing out process much more objective. Yes. Or no.

My living space is now in order. And it's funny, somehow I feel as though my life and my past are more in order, too. I only want to be surrounded by things I love, and things that spark joy. The same goes with the people in my life too.

Try it out for yourself. Gather your garbage bags, take a deep breath, and ask that one important question. Experience how this process of letting go changes the physical and emotional landscape of your life.

“But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future. The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.”

— Marie Kondo

After dropping off my bags at Goodwill, I felt this truth resonate in my heart-

Letting go is even more important than adding.

Simplicity = Joy.

Coconut-Lime Black Rice with Red Beans and Mango

“Life is so ridiculously gorgeous, strange, heartbreaking, horrific, etc., that we are compelled to describe it to ourselves, but we can’t. We cannot do it! And so we make art.”

— Miranda July

#eattherainbow #foodasart

Today I slept in. The original plan was to go for a bike ride, but after glancing outside and seeing the dark rain clouds, I welcomed the graceful inconvenience of having to stay inside and snuggle up and listen to the light drizzle of rain outside. I sipped on some ginger tea and felt the thirsty earth's gratitude for this little tease of nourishment from the sky. 

The rain has a way of making me feel more introspective. It's on the rainy days when I love wrapping myself in a warm blanket and burying myself in a good book, when I compose effortlessly on my keyboard, and when my writing feels more fluid and ideas come more easily. Rain = good art. Staying inside when it's raining always seems to spark my creativity and inspiration. Today, it resulted in a new recipe incorporating one of my favorite grains, forbidden black rice.

Ingredients:

-2 c. forbidden black rice

-1 c. organic coconut milk (full fat)

-2 1/2 c. vegetable broth

-1 can organic adzuki beans

-1 mango, diced

-juice from 2 limes

-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

-1 onion, diced

-1 Tbsp. organic ghee (clarified butter)

-1 tsp. freshly grated ginger

-chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Heat the ghee over medium heat in a large pan. Add the diced onion and ginger and saute them until soft. Add the rice and keep stirring until the rice starts to slightly toast, about 2 minutes. 

2. Add the coconut milk, vegetable broth, cayenne pepper and bring to a simmer. Cover it and reduce the heat to low. Allow it to simmer until the rice is tender, around 40 minutes.

3. While the rice is cooking, chop up the mango into bite-size pieces.

4. When the rice is tender, fold in the beans, lime juice, and mango. Garnish with the chopped cilantro.

5. Enjoy!

Food is art. And if art is the manner in which we attach meaning and describe our lives, this recipe definitely captures the essence of it- colorful, savory, tangy, a little nutty, with just the right amount of sweetness mixed in. 

Stepping Forward With Faith.

“E.L Doctorow said once that ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.”

— Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Night riding near Cull Canyon...

The other day, I was sitting outside of a charming little cafe with a friend. In between sips of my almond milk latte, we spoke about how the course of our lives have changed so dramatically in just a few years. Mostly good changes, of course. Brilliant new business opportunities, new relationships, and more responsibilities on top of 'life' stuff- but all in all, we were following our passion. We laughed at how all of this could have never been predicted. Ever.

Everything started out by just having faith. Taking that first step and trusting that the stone would appear. It's all about being able to only see two or three feet in front of you, but still moving forward with trust and not caring too much about the scenery around you. Just focusing hard on that light which is only illuminating the next step. And the step after that.

And pretty soon, you're further down an incredible path that you never could have imagined. Whether it's in business, writing, or adopting a new eating plan, rather than getting overwhelmed with the final destination, it's all about blindly taking that step into the light just a few feet ahead. So say 'yes' to that opportunity that scares you. Write those three pages a day. Incorporate a green drink into your day. Even if you can't visualize the end result, move forward in faith. When the sun finally comes up, I guarantee that you'll be amazed at the roads you've traversed, and how you've arrived at a destination you could have never imagined, even in your wildest dreams.

Isn't Life Colorful?

“The preparation of good food is yet another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…”

— Dione Lucas

Some of the craziest work days result in my most artistic meals. It's like all of that energy needs to be channeled somewhere, and what better place than in the kitchen?

Roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, forbidden black rice, roasted chickpeas, carrots, roasted broccoli, red cabbage and hummus on a bed of organic arugula. 

Banana Bread Delights.

Sometimes the mood to bake comes on so strongly that all I can do is surrender, throw on an apron, and get busy mixing and measuring and chopping and rolling. Today's creation answered the question of how to handle the desire for solid food on long bike rides when GU gels just don't cut it. I know these will also be perfect for hikes, and will also satisfy you when those mid-day sweet snack cravings hit.

The best part? They are made with real food. No added sugar- not even maple syrup or coconut sugar. Just dates and bananas (and the non-dairy chocolate chips are optional).

INGREDIENTS:

2 large ripe bananas, peeled

1/2 cup packed pitted Medjool dates

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt

2 cups gluten-free rolled oats, divided

3-4 Tbsp non-dairy chocolate chips (optional)

1/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Add the banana, dates, coconut oil, and vanilla into a food processor. Process until smooth.

3. Add cinnamon, baking powder, and salt and process again until combined.

4. Add in 1.5 cups of the rolled oats and process for only 4-5 seconds, just long enough to roughly chop the oats.

5. Remove the mixture from the food processor and stir in the remaining oats, along with the walnuts and chocolate chips.

6. Spoon 1 large heaping Tbsp onto the parchment paper. Do not press down the dough to flatten.

7. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for another 7-9 minutes until golden brown on the bottom.

8. Immediately transfer onto a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

9. Enjoy!

P.S. Share these vegan, gluten-free, no-refined-sugar treats with your gluten and sugar-loving friends! I promise you that they'll love them, and it won't cost you your friendship.

Make Good Art.

Naure makes good art too...

I laugh at how the perfect words land in my lap seemingly out of nowhere, snuggle their way into my world and nestle themselves inside of my heart, right where I need them most. Today those words were from Neil Gaiman-

“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do-

Make good art.

I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician?

Make good art.

Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor?

Make good art.

IRS on your trail?

Make good art.

Cat exploded?

Make good art.

Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before?

Make good art.

Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best.

Make good art.

Make it on the good days, too.

The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you’re walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.”

— Neil Gaiman

So this has become my manifesto. Whatever comes my way, I'm going to do one thing with it-

I'm going to make good art.

Deconstruction.

“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

— Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

This concept of things falling apart feels so true in my life, especially recently. It's easy to float along, but when the big waves come crashing down and cause you to flounder and get water up your nose, it's harder to keep your perspective. I get hopeless and scared, too. I get fearful and obsessive and my mind runs off the rails like a runaway trail and I have to rein it in over and over from dwelling on the things that scare me down to my core.

Avocado, cucucumber, carrots, kamaboko, shiitake mushrooms and nori over a bed of black rice.

Tonight's dinner was metaphor for myself, really. A deconstructed sushi bowl to tangibly prove how life's discordant events can in fact, be beautiful. After I took this picture, I mixed everything up together. It was messy and delicious and colorful and reminded me of how grief and joy and loneliness and hope are all ingredients in life, and are not separate from each other. Life doesn't always present itself neatly, rolled up and sliced into perfect sushi rolls. Sometimes it falls apart, and you just have to be ok with experiencing it in a different form than what you initially expected.

I scribbled these words in my journal early this morning-

"I'm discovering now that writing is much more than transcribing words into a journal, in black and white, on a page. It's a lifesaving buoy, keeping us afloat, providing us with something tangible to grab onto- to rest our weary arms around as we make sense of our world and re-establish our voice and direction in the vast sea of life."

Even if things seem to be falling apart, I've found that making sense of things on the page can make life's obstacles more palatable, and I dare say, more delicious. Just like a deconstructed sushi bowl.

The War of Art.

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.

Do or don’t do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it.

Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

— Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

This has been added to my Top 5 books list.

This entire weekend I've been submersed in amazing musical and artistic talent.  After watching the incredible actors performing

Fiddler On the Roof

on Friday and the mesmerizing performance of Mona Golabek in

The Pianist of Willesden Lane,

it is clear that the world is more beautifully expressed when everyone follows their own creative call.

Right now I'm loving Pressfield's book…get yourself a copy and armor up.

I can't wait to see what you've got.

Beyond What I Know.

First hike up Castle Rock

Last night's beautiful sunset at Point Isabel

“I love going out of my way, beyond what I know, and finding my way back a few extra miles, by another trail, with a compass that argues with the map…nights alone in motels in remote western towns where I know no one and no one I know knows where I am, nights with strange paintings and floral spreads and cable television that furnish a reprieve from my own biography, when in Benjamin’s terms, I have lost myself though I know where I am. Moments when I say to myself as feet or car clear a crest or round a bend, I have never seen this place before. Times when some architectural detail or vista that has escaped me these many years says to me that I never did know where I was, even when I was home.”

— Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Decadently Delightful.

As much as I love words, some of the best art contains none of them.

Someone described this as "decadently delightful," and I couldn't agree more.

Colors.

I am sitting in my hairdresser's chair, hair freshly washed, and hold the book in my lap. I flip through it, examining the various colors and my split-second associations. So many colors, so many options. I settle for an in-between color that is both subtle enough for the workplace yet shines lighter in the sunshine. I'm happy with it.

I pull out my snack, and it is a glorious burgundy color. Just chewing it makes me feel love. If I was a fruit, I'd want to be this brilliant color. Its rich hue puts white bread and white pasta to shame.

Dried dragonfruit. Exotic. Colorful. Delicious.

I drive and notice the pastel colors of the sunset, and how it is both soft and magnificent at the same time- strong blues, subtle oranges and pinks spread across the sky. I realize how much of my world, my mood, my pleasures- are dictated by the colors that surround me. I've worn red when I've felt confident, as well as black when I've just wanted to blend in and not be seen. Guilty as charged.

And in thinking about this, it challenged me to ask myself, as well as you- In a world with no color, only black and white, how would you stand out?