I give you permission to eat whatever you want

Healing our relationship with nourishment

It’s an absolute gift and a curse that I get to choose what to eat.

Part of me mourns that I am so far removed from my ancestral food ways and indigenous living that I can’t even remember what it is to be so interwoven with the land.

The gift is that I get to cocreate this, myself, community of food creators/growers/producers, my family, my resources, the land. To learn, relearn, and experiment in my home and kitchen and body what feels good, what feels healing and healthy for me.

Many of you who read my newsletters are celebrating Thanksgiving next week. This is one of my favorite and to me, most important holy days.

There is so much complexity to this, many with Native American blood and heritage consider this a day of mourning. That the age old Thanksgiving story that has been shared in public schools for decades is a facade, a lie, a continued covering up of the genocide of a culture, of so many lives. And that is a hard truth, yet one part of this complex story.

Perhaps we can and should spend some time focused there, mourn along with those who are harmed/who’s ancestors were harmed by those of us with colonizing ancestors. And address how we share the story and meaning of Thanksgiving within our family and community.

And, we can not solely focus on the shadow aspect. For myself, I will continue to spiral into self hate and shame. I need to focus on moving into the light, and perhaps this is also a privilege because I may not feel the harms as deeply in my blood, yet I can also only pray that the contributions from my individual actions ripple out in service to all beings.

What I see, is that I desperately need more gratitude. I desperately need more family time, especially time where there is a focus solely on the time together, and good food around a cozy table (no gifts, and the only commercial aspect is buying good food from local producers!) 

My family loves to cook. We have some Italian ancestry and our best just comes out in the kitchen. We can flow in and out and around each other without argument. Somehow everything gets out at the same time, the years spent doing this together making us ninjas of the tiny kitchen.

Part of my celebration and gratitude is showcasing the bounty of foods that we have where I live. Perhaps I am lucky that here in Vermont there are many of the traditional ‘Thanksgiving’ foods like Turkey, squash, cranberries, pumpkin all grow and are in season. I try to buy and cook with almost everything from local farms. I spend most of November planning and sourcing ;) it’s exciting and fun for me!

My money stays with my community, my now friends. There is no better way I’d rather spend my hard earned cash.

So…are you stressing about Thanksgiving? Are you wondering if I am going to give Ayurvedic advice.

I guess I could. But here’s what I feel like saying instead:

Eat whatever you want.

How does it feel in your body to read that? Does it hit you in your heart center? Do you feel it in your gut? Your womb? Are your hands sweating?

The relationship with food is so hard. It reflects on everything we are…ancestors and ancestry, culture, parentage, constitution, marketing, teaching, influencers.  Sometimes the Ayurvedic framework is additionally confusing. If we come at this solely through the mind it’s not going to work 100%. That is not a holistic perspective.

For myself, I constantly need to experiment. And over the years I have learned a bunch.

And sometimes, you need to eat all the things.

This doesn’t have to mean a free for all go against my own inner knowing make myself sick binge. (Though maybe you’ll learn a bunch!)

But it might feel like a breath of fresh air to release the control. Release yourself of holier than thou standards you hold yourself to. The most imports thing is not what you put in your mouth. It’s enjoying it. It’s presence. It’s relationships. Friends and family.

And when we are well-nourished we remember that. When I am well nourished I can rest into the present moment and give, and also receive more deeply. I am relaxed.

Do you remember this summer when I wrote about my butt? 🤣 Well when I shared about The Confessions of a Well-Nourished Woman?

It’s going to be 50% off (!!) after Thanksgiving. And if your interested is at all peaked, this is the time to get it. 

The talks in this bundle are so this ⬆️ compassionate, nuanced, personal, passionate, raw and real.

If food as medicine turns you on at all, if caring for mothers and children sets your heart on fire, if living consciously in relation to the Earth and her truth runs through your veins, buy the Confessions of a Well-Nourished Woman. 

I am an affiliate for these talks, and I will get 50% commission. This is another reason My life (yours?) is being changed by this woman, Katya, and this bundle…she has tapped into a matriarchal money model, and bringing flow into the lives of other women, through already life-changing conversations.

I’ll be sending more details about it as we get closer to the sale, but you might feel like peeking at  ‘Confessions’ now.

How does it feel…to have permission to eat all the things?

And here’s one recipe I’ll be making!