Odds and Ends

Had been having numb pain on my left arm…until last Tuesday when I sneaked in Avril’s led class for beginners to do mysore (Thanks, Avril, for accommodating the pasaway me, ha ha!). She adjusted my Prasarita C by pushing my arms down the floor, as pictured below. 

Ouch! My left arm REALLY hurt. I could resist…or persist. I chose the latter. Up to my last breath. And as I did my last exhalation, I heard (or felt?) popping, running from my left upper arm down to my wrist. Wow! I felt something had just been released! It made a big difference in my practice that night. That’s for the physical part anyway; the psycho-emotional part is yet to be revealed. 

That experience led me to ask when it is right to surrender and let go (like I did that night) and when to protect oneself and resist. Not only in yoga asanas but in life in general.

*****

I was surprised to find vegetarian options at the Apartment 1B. For appetizer, I had baked samosa–not the typical Indian samosa though. Fillings were made of mushrooms and spinach, and the thinly-made wrap was crunchy, almost like the pastry layers of croissant. Not too flaky, just right. Not greasy, too, since it was baked. Yummy!

Gruyere cheese added a twist in their French onion soup. For entree, I had three cheese (ricotta, parmesan, and cheddar) vegetable lasagna. Yummy, yummy! Even my carnivore friends liked it.

vegetarian lasagna

Another nice thing about this resto is that even the meat dishes come with a generous serving of vegetables (carrots and broccoli). Two thumbs up!   

The flourless chocolate fudge and brewed coffee were equally wonderful.

*****

Early last year, I wrote in this post about my four-month-old (then) niece who effortlessly did cobra cum locust pose. Now she has advanced to Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana!

She’d get into the pose and ask my sister, “What am I doing?” To which my sister would always reply “yoga!” Then she’d giggle! Nah, I couldn’t claim credit for that–my sister did Iyengar for four years while a cousin of my brother-in-law is a yoga teacher.

Let Your Life Speak

BG 3.35: It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.

If Krishna were in human form today, maybe he would have said the same thing to Parker Palmer, the author of the book Let Your Life Speak. In his book, Palmer shared:

I lined up the most elevated ideals I could find and set out to achieve them. The results were rarely admirable, often laughable, and sometimes grotesque…. I had simply found a ‘noble’ way of living a life that was not my own, a life spent imitating heroes instead of listening to my heart.

The book is about the author’s journey in finding his authentic self and as he narrates what he went through, yogic teachings resonate in my head. Here are some excerpts from the book:

The willful pursuit of vocation is an act of violence toward ourselves—violence in the name of a vision that, however lofty, is forced on the self from without rather than grown from within. (4)

We arrive in this world with birthright gifts—then we spend the first half of our lives abandoning them or letting others disabuse us of them. As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little to do with who we really are, expectations from people who are not trying to discern our selfhood but to fit us into slots. In families, schools, workplaces, and religious communities, we are trained away from true self toward images of acceptability…and we ourselves…betray true self to gain the approval of others. Then—if we are awake, aware, and unable to admit our loss—we spend the second half trying to recover and reclaim the gift we once possessed. (12)

If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. (55) God does not ask us to conform to some abstract norm for the ideal self. God asks us only to honor our created nature, which means our limits as well as our potential. (50)

Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks; we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service…“the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deepest need.” (Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, p.119) (16)

What also struck me in Palmer’s writing is the start of his journey: depression. This was the same condition that pressed me to start my own journey five years ago. One of my companions in my darkest days was the book The Wounded Healer by Henry Nouwen…who happens to be Palmer’s mentor. Now I do not know how you’d call that.

This is a unique book that contains yogic philosophy, written by a hardcore Christian.  

When It Makes Sense to Cook Your Own Food

I like eating, but not necessarily cooking, like what I’ve said in my previous entry. I cook only when it is absolutely necessary (e.g. the rest of my household will starve) and that occasion occurs only in my sister’s place (new baby with no maid…somebody then has to cook). And I don’t mind cooking for her and her family really, as her kitchen has a big glass window that overlooks her backyard that is outlined by orange, lemon, persimmon, and apples trees. Lovely. Lovely enough to inspire me into doing something I don’t really like.

Even while I was still new in my practice, Teacher Pio had been encouraging me already in a very subtle way to learn to prepare my own food, as it is the best way to ensure that I eat healthy (no conversion to vegetarianism yet at that time). But I was working full time then, waking up at 4am to beat the traffic going to work. Preparing food would mean getting up an hour earlier. Duh. No way.

Lately, he has been encouraging me (still) to prepare my own food but this time in a not so subtle way. However, no amount of his yucky stories (what could take place in the kitchen which we do not see) could make me change my lifestyle even if I know they are true. (Besides, eating out is fun.)

A friend, who used to work for a restaurant, shared that the cost of food wastage (e.g. if he drops or burns burger patties) is deducted from their salary. Once he dropped the patties on the floor but could not afford to cut his budget so….you could guess what happened next. He also revealed that cooking oil is used several times over until it turns into crude oil, er, really dark in color.  And yes, they did get even with unpleasant customers by doing “something” with their food that you don’t want to know. (Eeks, I know I can be one of them. Taray.)

I myself have witnessed how the cashiers work as servers to make the store operations (supposedly) more efficient but at the expense of hygiene. Most of the time, they do not wear gloves when they assume their serving function. Worst, as I had seen yesterday in the restaurant where my family had lunch, the people who clean up the table with damp rugs and bare hands are the very same people who place utensils and serve food on the table, still with bare hands, but with no break in-between these functions to at least create an illusion that they wash their hands when they shift roles.  You bet, all of us lost our appetite. My mom even had bum stomach later that day.  I don’t know what happened to this restaurant—its service and food quality have deteriorated (or maybe in this branch only?). I used to frequent their branch in Greenbelt before the place was turned into a hardware that’s why I know they serve good vegetarian-friendly dishes. And they’re not cheap.

After this experience, I am not sure when I’ll be up to eating out again. But I am not sure either if this is enough incentive for me to prepare my own food. Hmmm, maybe I’ll just be extra nice to our cook? Or maybe I just need something lovely, enough to inspire me into doing something I don’t really like? A new kitchen perhaps. 

 

Reviews

Posted some reviews in my other blog which vegetarians and hairy yoginis might find interesting. Click here to view.

I had vegetable enchilada at Mexicali’s last Saturday. It was good and quite filling. Had nachos and salsa to go with it–rice and salad would have been too much for me.

Vegetarian-friendly Restos Part 2

La Mesa Grill in Trinoma, despite their being the house of the famous Crispchon, could be a place for vegetarians. Their line-up of veggie dishes, however, is just an everyday fare in our household (adobong kangkong, for example) except for their ginataang sigarilyas. The original recipe has shrimps in it but I asked the waiter to take them out (among all other “customized” things we asked) and he obliged without complaints. Good food (especially when I was still an omnivore, ha ha!) and good service!  

Pancake House also has pomodoro pasta and fruity salad for vegetarians but the waiters (at least the ones in Galleria) are willing to take special orders. I had Asian salad sans the shrimps. 

Another favorite stop in Galleria is Chef D’Angelo. Their people know what goes into their food so if you just tell them your special needs, they have recommendations at hand. They have factory nachos, garden pesto (with mushrooms though–some say they aren’t sattvic) and four cheese pizzas, and pesto, puttanesca, and spaghetti with tomato sauce if you like pasta.  

Cafe Mediterranean is one of the most vegetarian-friendly places I know! They have a wide variety of dishes for us! ;-D So just check their menu here.

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf–so near the yoga studio I go to!–is not just a coffee and tea place (I love their Moroccan mint latte!). They also offer real food. Top choices are Greek salad, three-cheese sandwish, and tomato and herb linguine.

Kung masa ka naman, punta ka sa Bodhi sa foodcourt ng Megamall (sa SM yata mga branches nila). Php65 isang serving ng ulam. It is a vegetarian fastfood place which offers all types of dishes–from barbeque, to kare-kare complete with bagoong, to bistek, to chicken curry–with “fake meat”. I think there’s another one in Glorietta (Evergreen?)  but I haven’t been there in ages.

So vegetarians need not starve in this city! ;-D