This Week I.....

Opened and Gave Christmas Gifts

Prepared My Famous Sweet (no sugar!)Potato Dish (three of them) for a Christmas Day party--a very popular dish with my friends

Cleaned-up the after-Christmas mess around our home

Put Christmas photos in new Christmas frames

Made a pact with my partner for continuing our healthy eating plan

Been catching-up on snail mail correspondence and email

Organizing and cleaning-out old STUFF in preparation for the New Year

Reading a chapter or two in some of the new books I was given for Christmas

Updating my blogs so that I feel RELIEF on New Year's Day 2008

Making plans for my 2008 priorities

Enjoying the beautiful Maui weather--it's absolute perfection!

Making lists of places to travel in 2008 beside the ones already planned

Feeling GRATITUDE that I survived my viral pneumonia and pleurisy this year and that my great health and vigor is returning

Watching very little television because of the re-runs. Thank Goddess for Tyra and Oprah so I can still hold onto my last vice--watching tv!

Listening to firecrackers and rockets going off in the neighborhood. People are already ready to celebrate the New Year. 2007 was so rough for everyone I think.

Reading all the many online HEALTH newsletters that I signed up for when I became sick. Now I'm flooded with daily emails and newsletters, and I'm becoming even more knowledgeable about alternative medicine, anti-aging and health issues! I plan to share much of this information with you in future posts.

Catching a few good movies here and there on the Big Screen

And NOW I'm thanking you for reading my blog posts this year. You're the greatest!

Happy Holy Days!

May your Holiday Season be healthy, joyful, peaceful, and LOVING!

Mahalo Nui Loa for your visits and comments this year--everyone of you is loved and appreciated!

I'm sharing the following quote which was sent to me because it really resonated with me and felt perfect for this blog. Perhaps it will resonate with you too!

"Your work is to create the new heaven and the new earth. Therefore do not dwell on the troubles and tribulations, on the disease and suffering, on the wars and strife in the world. Do not allow yourself to become involved in it, for if you do, you will become part of the disease not the cure. As you raise your consciousness, you become immunized against the trouble in the world, and you can live and work with it all about you and yet it will not be able to affect or touch you in any way. A doctor or nurse has to be immunized to be able to work freely with highly infectious diseases, and there must be no fear in them. Let there be no fear in you as you watch the situation in the world become worse. Never despair. Simply hold on in faith, let your mind be stayed on Me, and know that all is very, very well."

Source- "Opening Doors Within" by Eileen Caddy

Are You A Christmas Gift Procrastinator Too?

I didn't intend to be a PROCRASTINATOR this Christmas Holiday season, but that's what has happened. Even though I shop for Christmas gifts all year long, the illness which surprised and side-lined me this Autumn (and kept me slow for the ensuing three months) has thrown me way behind with purchasing Christmas gifts.

So I was delighted to discover there was a way to send a healthy gift basket through 1-800-flowers! Usually most gift baskets include an insane amount of sugar products in their gift baskets! If you've read some of my past posts on this blog, you will remember that I've totally gone off of food and drink with toxic sugar! And furthermore, my ethics require me to NOT send a gift basket with sugar-y products in it to others.

If you click under the topic Christmas on the 1-800-flowers website, you will see they offer a great selection of organic, natural, and healthy gift baskets. For example, the Treleela Organic Tea Experience (the photo is shown above). The site EVEN has the option to send fair-trade certified roses! How cool is that?!

I like it that such a big company is getting with the program of healthy, fair-trade, organic and natural!

So if you're a Christmas gift procrastinator like me, you NOW have the option of a fast, last-minute and healthy gift solution!

Cats On Tuesday--Anela Shares Her Wisdom

Anela meditates frequently (as you can see in the photo above), and she has asked me to share some Wise Old Cat Wisdom:

1. Don't limit yourself! If you can manipulate treats out of both of your cat slaves at different times, go for it. Why not?!

2. Detach yourself from the battles of others. Let the other neighborhood cats fight if they wish. Serenity is achieved by remaining aloof from their squabbles.

3. Be Still and Observe. By remaining quiet, one can perceive more of the Big Picture.

Anela and Kuanyin wish ALL OF YOU a very Merry Christmas and Joyful Holiday Season!

Christmas Without Sugar

This is the most wonderful time of the year for many people: Christmas. And what does this mean for most: SUGAR in the form of holiday drinks, cookies, pies, chocolates, candies, cakes, etc.

And this year will be my first year WITHOUT any sugar whatsoever! When I became sick this year, I changed my diet to an alkaline diet. Since sugar is acidic, out went all foods and drinks with sugar in them!

This wellness plan is working for me, and I'm feeling so much better without eating sugar. Plus the extra weight I've been carrying around is easily falling off me. I've dropped one size already.

Giving up sugar was easy for me since I had an obvious choice: good health or suffering! For many who don't have such clarity, giving up sugar isn't so easy, especially this time of the year when all the parties and events have sugar highlighted in some form or other.

Tomorrow I'll be attending a "cookie" party, and I've informed the hostess I don't eat sugar or drink alcohol, so she's assured me, she'll have something special for me. As the odd person out, it'll be interesting to see if I resonate with others who are getting high on sugar. :Smile:

Cats on Tuesday

This past Tuesday I posted that Anela was apprehensive about the weather, and as it turned out, she was a BETTER weather forecaster than the professionals who said there would only be gusty conditions. Instead Maui experienced without a doubt the worst storm in at least 50 years!

There was a power outage island-wide with some folks being without power for four days. Flooding and never-ending rain went on for nearly a week, and trees downed on roadways kept many people from going to work. Schools were closed. And during this time, Anela wisely stayed in HER bedroom and didn't even come down to eat her breakfast on some days.

Now that the sun has returned, Anela is sleeping in her favorite sun-bathing spots, and she's a happy cat again.

Cats On Tuesday

The weather has been bewildering and unsettling for Anela lately. First, there was rain for several days which wasn't to her liking. Now it's very sunny & windy, and she keeps looking out the window with apprehension. The radio news says to tie everything down outside because for the next two days it's going to be very gusty. I told Anela to be careful and try not to get blown away like in the Wizard of Oz.

I took this photo of her today on the stairs leading up to what she thinks is HER bedroom. Actually, it's our gym, art studio, and guest bedroom, but she has a different opinion. It's very challenging to get a shot of Anela looking at the camera because she's really camera shy, so this one little close-up took me many attempts.