Gratitude

Tis the season to be thankful...and I've been thinking about gratitude...a lot.
Which has made me reminisce about my simpler life when I lived and taught yoga out of The Yellow House. Yes, it really was school bus yellow. I loved that house, loved my business, loved my students and they loved me...and because of all that LOVE I was so full of gratitude. I used to walk a circle around my house every morning and every evening in meditation and prayer, but it wasn't just prayer...it was daily thanksgiving.

I once taught my students to live in a place of love and gratitude.
I was once a light in this world...and illness sucked that light out of me.

I realized yesterday when I saw a trailer for an upcoming documentary May I Be Frank that gratitude has been lacking here of late. It's not because I'm less grateful. It's because in my illness I've become apathetic. So when I really looked at my situation I realized the only way I am going to turn my life completely around is to find my GRATITUDE again and embrace it.

I have a lot of inner work to do now that body is feeling better...
I see a lot of positive affirmations, prayer, and meditation in my future to find the woman stolen from me by disease.

Anyway, all this thinking made me wish for a trip to California so I could visit Cafe Gratitude in person...barring winning the lottery anytime soon, that isn't happening. So I went off in search of a recipe book by the founders of the restaurant.

And I found it! Woot!!
I can't wait for it to arrive in the mail:)
In the meantime, I'm lighting incense and more candles...and walking a circle around my new house twice a day to speak my gratitude out loud to the divine...

Here's the book:

I also found a Cafe Gratitude youtube video by my favorite raw foodie couple, Matthew and Angela Stokes:

And a recipe for DEVOTED that decadent coconut cream pie  ... since coconut cream pie is my absolute fav pie in the world I may have to give my fat gram counting the day off next Wednesday, because I am having a very special friend over, one of my former yoga and reiki students (who is now a reiki master in her own right) and it will be the first time we share a raw meal together so I want it to be super amazing! This pie looks like it might make that happen...