Although I was tempted to sample every bakery item, I began with a delicious, light but filling Mexican Quinoa salad made with organic quinoa (healthy wheat alternative), organic roasted corn, black beans, tomatoes, wine sauce, salsa, cumin and I won’t give it all away! That was more than enough for my lunch, but I was talked into trying the delicious agave (lower glycemic index than cane sugar) sweetened Upside Down Pineapple Cake; my friend was enchanted by the Black Magic Bundt Cake.  Along with the desert I tried the hot chocolate which was made with potato powdered mix.  I was skeptical but found it to be delicious.

Owner and chief baker Lorilyn Teasdale began her special needs son on a gluten free and dairy protein free (that is, caseine free) diet when he was seven years old and had been diagnosed with autism.  Certain foods were causing him to have seizures so his mother explored possible causes and solutions.  She was warned that teenage years might be extra challenging and that is when he would need to go on ADD medicines.  But he was calmer and more focused than most of his peers with similar conditions.

Her son’s challenges and strengths inspired Lorilyn to start what she called a “Starbucks for People with Allergies” and thus the current name All of the Above, referring to multiple allergen checklists.  In addition to her items being gluten free, casein free and soy free, her recipes include rice milk, powdered potato milk, coconut milk, almond milk, and for several recipes she uses ghee instead of butter.

I was interested to learn that in addition to digestive problems that result from eating dairy, gluten or soy, there is now a recognized condition called neurological celiac disease, the most extreme example being a man who ate gluten and soon after drove and crashed into a tree.  Other milder reactions include stuttering and interchanging words. 

Lorilyn made an observation about our society’s need for anti-inflammatory medicines such as aspirin, ibuprefren, Tylenol and stronger ones such as arthritis meds.  She pointed out that it might be wiser to eliminate inflammatory foods from our diets, including gluten and dairy, or at least to minimize their consumption.

Her recipes, many her own creation, also include vegan items (no animal products).  2/3 of her cookies, all her cupcakes, most muffins, carrot bundt cakes, rice and quinoa salads and half of her soups are vegan.

Lorilyn and her husband, with help from their daughter and two sons, have been in operation since May of 2010.  Their website is almost complete, which will list the soup of the day or other items being cooked that day, as well as hours and days.  Currently they are closed Tuesdays and are open for three day weekenders. 

If you want more information, go to their website at alloftheabovebakery.com or call 951-693-4000.

 Southwest U.S.A.  Tribal Prayer Request
>
>
>
>
>                            Friday, 24-Jun-2011 11:38 AM
>
>
> Wallow Fire – Special Request from the Native Brothers
> and Sisters in the SW
> Please forward as you see fit
> Hello everybody – as you can see on the news the Wallow fire in Northern
> Arizona is still uncontrollable and spreading.
> The fire has destroyed everything in its path, over 1/2 million acres so
> far, the largest fire in Arizona history. Please join us in a tribal
prayer
> to help the firefighters and all involved. Pray so the winds stop and the
> rains start (without lightning please) We want to pray for the safety of
> all. Ask for heavenly walls to protect our land and animals from fire. All
> the choppers, manpower, planes, and bulldozers are not enough, they need
our
> help. We are one Nation as Natives and our traditional prayers to the
> Creator as Natives can be pretty powerful; not only are our tribal lands
at
> stake (White Mountain & San CarlosApaches, possibly Zuni, and some Navajo
> areas), but our non-native friends also need our help. Please let us all
> connect our minds, hearts and our prayers across the miles and pray.
> Wherever you are and whatever you have plan please stop for a few minutes
> and raise your hands to the Creator to ask for help. If all of you can
> forward this message across the Nations, we can reach many thru phone and
> internet. Please start forwarding ASAP to reach as many as we can. Please
if
> your spiritual preference is not traditional – pray with us in however way
> you talk to the Creator.
> Thank you,
> Dorothea Stevens, San Carlos Apache Nation
>
> ****

** **

Angela Teske
Carp Ridge Learning Centre
Leader, Sustainable Education
Tel:613-839-1179 ext.1
www.carpridgelearningcentre.ca
2386 Thomas Dolan Parkway
Carp, Ontario
K0A 1L0

Celebrate this Father’s Day with a gift certificate for an hour of massage therapy or private yoga instruction for only $50…  for a father, or anyone he knows!

-                                                                       

with Wendy Hammarstrom

California Credentialed Massage Therapist

Thirty-five years experience with all ages and bodies

I have been practicing and teaching massage and yoga on the west and east coast, where I directed Innerworks Center in Philadelphia, PA.  I have written about bodywork for various publications including Awareness Magazine, The Californian (Temecula), Neighbors Newspaper and High Country Journal.  My book, A Mandala of Massage and Yoga, will be available soon.

In-home or in Wildomar at Korrie’s Pilates Place

Call me at 951-677-5962

Or email me at Innerworks1@aol.com.

www.wendyswellnessworld.wordpress.com 

What is man without the beasts?  If all the beasts were gone man would die of a great loneliness of the spirit.  For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man.  Chief Seattle 1854

Several years ago I was walking in the arroyo behind my house near Murrieta Hot Springs when my five dogs ran into the creek-side bushes at full force.  Ten seconds later they were running back out, tails between their legs and heading for home, with the exception of Peanut, who held his ground and remained with me.  I was curious but not too concerned.  As I made it the rest of the way home, I noticed a large tan animal quietly walking stealthily along the creek, head down, looking like he wanted nothing to do with me.  I thought it was a coyote, until I saw that it was a cat.  I thought it was a bobcat or a lynx, but noticed its long tail.  If I got any verbal message from its demeanor, it was “leave me alone.”

That was my first and only mountain lion encounter, although old timers near Murrieta Hot Springs tell me they had often seen, several years before, a mama mountain lion and baby lounging on the picnic tables.

I felt honored by that brief meeting.

Around the same time a pack of coyotes ran in the same arroyo and one who was separated from the others, perhaps even part domestic dog, moved into our backyard.  We fed “Scruffy” and my dogs played and rested peacefully with him (as well as with the pack at large.)  My cats kept a wary, but not particularly fearful eye on this very small, thin coyote.

I know, there have been tragic encounters with mountain lions, especially with runners or mountain bikers alone in wilderness areas, and I know all too many cats and small dogs, and even on occasion small children, have been carried off by a roaming coyote.

The coyotes I have seen are painfully thin and hungry, a result of housing tracts and malls encroaching on their homes, cutting back on their natural habitat and food sources.  It is understandable that they hunt and eat anything they can.  Respect them, give them space, and take precautions to avoid their visits. 

Do not leave food outside that will attract their prey.  In a previous home I made the mistake of leaving food for possums, raccoons and skunks and lost a very dear cat friend.  Keep your cats indoors as much as possible.  If you start them indoors as a kitten, they don’t have to suffer from confinement frustration, and they are safe from communicable diseases, unwanted pregnancies, cars, other animals, and even, sadly, poison from neighbors who are not cat friendly.

When aware of a mountain lion, give the animal a way to retreat, which is what they usually want to do.  If face to face, the wildlife experts say to stand tall to appear large, never bend or crouch even when picking up a small child or pet, make yourself larger by putting arms up and opening your jacket, and speak loudly and firmly to appear as the predator.  Never run away as the cougar may see you as prey.  In the rare instance of an actual attack, you can fight back with pepper spray, rocks, sticks, jackets, even bare hands.

Rob Hicks, Park Interpreter at the Santa Rosa Plateau for Riverside County Parks says to always hike with a least one other person.  He says no one who has been hiking in close proximity to another person has ever been attacked by a cougar.  He also notes that there have been less than twenty attacks in California the last one hundred and sixty years.

Keep children and pets in before dusk and until after dawn.  Never leave children or small animals unattended unless your yard is totally cougar or coyote proof.  Install outdoor lighting and remove dense or low-lying vegetation so that you can see the area around your house.

Make sure that outside animals are securely fenced in.  Or, according to The Mountain Lion Foundation, some people with livestock are having success combining larger livestock such as cattle with more vulnerable such as sheep.  When the animals sense the mountain lion, the cows make a ring around the sheep.  Other people are finding that reviving the ancient art of sheepherding by humans, or in some cases with guard dogs such as the Akbash, Great Pyrenees or Komondor                has radically decreased death from predators.

I believe that animals can pick up our thoughts and intentions and by holding thoughts such as, You don’t have to be afraid and I don’t have to be afraid, or, I respect your strength and beauty and your need for privacy.  Perhaps by acknowledging that cougar and coyote ancestors have been here as long as or longer than ours, we can co-exist.

For more information you can contact Rob Hicks or other staff at the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Center at 951-677-6951.  Or call the Mountain Lion Foundation in Sacramento at 916-442-2666 or go to www.mountainlion.org.

Winnie in the moment

Before I moved to my current home outside Sun City, California,  I had to work hard to entice my thirteen year old wolfhound-bouvier-terrier- rotweiller-retriever mix to take walks with me.  Not so anymore.  She has had a rebirth, or more specifically, she has discovered sheep!

The first time we bumped into the (hundreds of) sheep on one of our hillside walks she stared in disbelief.  Next time she barked and they listened.  Third time they were not in the same field and we climbed and climbed until we found them.  Today she talked to them, and they answered. 

The shepherd who only speaks Basque is always nearby with his herding dogs.  He spends his days and nights in solitude, and apparent equanamity.  I envied that quietness around him until I became aware it was seeping into me.

Southern California in February is sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy, often with pink and lavender sunsets amidst gigantic ocean clouds.  The blue and white spring flowers are beginning to appear, peeking out above the soil while the snow covered mountains are ever near.

As I walk along these hillsides I feel my worries fall away with every step I take, slowing down, becoming in sync with the rhythms of nature.  I remember reading about Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh who suggests during walking meditation to rather than focus on stepping into the ground with the purpose of dropping your fears and dark thoughts downward that each step we take be filled with happiness and love for the earth and each other.  Some walking meditation masters sugest inhaling as you step on one foot and exhaling as you step on the other.  All practitioners suggest that to be totally in the moment of walking is meditation in motion.

Is the Basque shepherd free to focus only on his steps, how he contacts the ground, how straight he is standing, feeling his way around the fields, or is he thinking about his precious wards, how to protect them, how to contain them? Perhaps a combination of the two.

Thanks to the sheep, the shepherd and the springtime-green rolling hills of Riverside County, I am once again feeling that child within, lost -or found- in time and space, in no hurry to move onto further details of the day, savoring the moment.

She was the unfortunate recipient of a brownie cooked with a large amount of hashish.  She did not know that it was not a “normal” brownie when she ingested it but soon after noticed as she was getting ready to sit on the floor that she did not know if she was standing or sitting.  This concerned her and she wondered if she was having a stroke or a heart attack.  Soon after she was told about the brownies and then she blacked out. 

After vomiting for several hours at the ER and having cat scans of her abdomen and head and blood work and a long list of diagnostic tests that would have not been done if her driver had admitted knowing what she ingested, she realized that to end the nightmare she would have to act as if she was feeling okay.  She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t end this nightmare like she usually did.  She has little snippets of images from 8 hour black out, including being treated unkindly by those trying to move her, and a doctor saying it is a good thing you vomited that all up, because it was very toxic.  She also remembers hearing an angry voice say several times, “vomit into the blue bucket” but she had no idea where that was.  And she remembers hearing several times, outside her “room”, “They found her lying face down in her vomit.”  Some friends took her home, (sadly the hospital only supplied a hospital gown and slippers over her pajama bottoms ).

The combination of the hash and the tranquilizer the ER doctor gave her, in a body that had experienced a few drugs but not since 1970, did a number on her nervous system.  She told me she remained in a doped up space for ten days!  The first few days were a wash.  Then she became more alert but was in shock and could not sleep.  She said she felt as if there was an electric current pulsing up her spine and getting stuck in her neck.  She forced herself to drive to her first healing treatment from a craniosacral therapist who helped her let go of shock in her spine, skull and legs.  He told her she was pale when she got there, but had plenty of color when she left.  Driving home she felt more relaxed and that night did fall asleep watching C-SPAN Book TV.  Her second treatment was with an acupuncturist who put needles in her areas of depleted “chi” and on points to help her sleep.  She felt much better after that but could not sleep that night.  The next day she thought she better get some sleeping pills because she knows that not sleeping can make it impossible to recover from shock to the system.  She went to the health food store and found Bach flower Rescue Remedy sleep aid and that night used it whenever she woke up.  She did get sleeping pills to have on hand if needed, but she  never used them.  She had a second craniosacral treatment during which she released some more shock but was concerned that a week after her event she still felt liked she was going to faint.  Her acupuncturist told her she was probably dehydrated and suggested water with electrolytes and emergen-C.  After a day and a half she no longer felt faint.  One more acupuncture treatment, and then a massage on the 10th day helped her turn the corner.  She now felt grounded and in her body.  But she had to work hard to get there.  She also took hot baths in epsom salts, lay on tennis balls to release tension from her spine, did yoga in the middle of the night when she woke up, began to take  some walks and constantly had to remind her self to stop holding her breath and breathe.  An aromatherapist also put some anti shock oils on her solar plexus and shirt and some myrrh for protection.  She slept in that shirt for several days as that also seemed to help her sleep.

She told me she wondered how all the people who experience shock and trauma recover from it.  Do they get help, or ignore the physical and emotional symptoms.  Does the painful event(s) stay stuck in their nervous system?  Or are they able to release it gradually and gently, without causing more shock to their body/mind/spirit.

She says she is thankful for the help she received, medical and holistic, for her friends who cooked her nurturing meals, for her pets who stayed tuned into her throughout, and for healing touch which she noticed was essential in her healing.  Anna is savoring every minute of her peaceful holidays.

Wendy Hammarstrom massages Freida Wone, Innerworks Center, Philadelphia

Although I have expressed my frustration with the process of becoming credentialed through the California Massage Therapy Council, as have many others, I was thrilled to hear the following news, in a letter from Ahmos Netanel:

You might have heard by now that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 1822.  The CAMTC and the massage therapy community strongly believe that the governor listened to reason instead of rhetoric in making his decision, and that the veto itself reflects the disciplined, transparent and cooperative approach we have brought to certification of massage therapists in California.

In his veto message to members of the Legislature and the public, Governor Schwarzenegger wrote:

“I am returning Assembly Bill 1822 without my signature. This bill is unnecessary and inappropriately requires specific law enforcement association appointments to the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC). This Council is already working closely with law enforcement professionals across the state to ensure the profession is appropriately screened for past criminal activity before being certified. In addition, there are members of the public, not associated with the massage industry, already appointed to this Council. For this reason, I cannot sign this bill.”

In a decision of equal importance, the Governor signed Senate Bill 294, by the Chair of the Senate Business and Professions Committee, Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod.  This measure contains language written by Legislative Counsel and supported by the massage therapy community, clarifying that statewide certification by the CAMTC does allow CAMTC certified massage professionals to practice anywhere in the state – in general law cities and charter cities alike. 

On behalf of the CAMTC Board, I would like to thank all of the therapists and practitioners who stood up for their profession. The Board is very proud of how the massage therapy community so cogently expressed to policymakers the critical role they play in providing safe, quality care in California.  You and your colleagues are the ones who told the story of an honorable profession that is doing an extraordinary job of working constructively with law enforcement to weed out the bad apples. It is rewarding that massage professionals were able to make their own case against very difficult odds, but it is equally important that we leave the door open to our critics so they can be further educated about the benefits of massage therapy.

Respectfully,

 Ahmos Netanel

Chief Executive Officer

CALIFORNIA MASSAGE THERAPY COUNCIL

 Yoga is a Sanskrit word for union of body and mind; some people say it describes the union of the individual with the divine. For a super athlete or for an immobile person, yoga is about finding one’s center.  It is also about finding one’s limits and playing that edge. An advanced yoga student may hold a full backbend for twenty minutes, using the breath to go deeper into the pose.  For someone paralyzed from the neck down, a stretch for opening the chest and elongating the spine can be as simple as sitting in a wheelchair with soft rubber balls between the shoulder blades, leaning back, and breathing into the area.   

Here are some other ideas for simple stretches that you can do seated, lying on the floor, or on a bed.  Remember not to hold your breath, and imagine your breath is traveling to the areas that are being stretched to help them release. Take your time, pay attention to how you are feeling, what works and what doesn’t, and enjoy the possibly new sensations!  Notice any changes in your movement, or posture throughout the day and the next days.