Live and Learn for Mother Earth

All of the environmental learning I've been doing is birthing yet another new consciousness within me. I'm learning how to cook. I'm learning how to eat healthier food. And importantly, I'm making time for meal planning, meal prep, cooking and even (drum-roll please) ... cleaning up the kitchen. This, from someone who works in her business from sunup to sundown.

Ah, but a new day is dawning, and filling me with eager enthusiasm for the changes ahead. This morning I woke up early. I packed up my cooler, grabbed my cloth grocery bags, and at 7am drove up to Siesta Beach to walk on the crystal sands. Walking is a part of my new healthy lifestyle. I'm pretending I have a dog, so I have to get out of the house and walk the dog at least twice a day. This morning, as I walked on the beach, I feasted my senses on the surf rolling into shore, gazed at the pelicans and shore birds who make their home there, and happily dreamed I lived in one of the villas near by.

Next, I headed up to Morton's Deli for homemade rice, beans, and tofu salads. Satisfied with my finds, I went on to C'est La Vie on Main Street in downtown Sarasota for my favorite bread, an old-fashioned French Baguette. Finally, I walked the aisles at Whole Foods and selected nutritious vegetables and beautiful soups  that will support my new way of being. Three hours later, I was home. I went directly to the kitchen to clean out my freezer, my fridge, and my pantry to make room for the new wholesome, organic natural food I'd purchased.

I put any raw fruits or vegetables that had spoiled in my new compost bin. I'm learning how to buy just the right amount of food as well as the right kind of food, so I can get better and better at eliminating waste. I love that I am a part of the composting consciousness. It makes me feel that I'm doing my part to help the Earth, if even in a very small way.

With joyful determination, next I found and cleaned out all the glass jars from sauces that were years past their expiration date. Throughout this process, I discovered a dozen plastic bags that had various leftover meals or breads or pizza dough in them in the back of my freezer. Here comes the lesson: Did you know that if the plastic bags we all dutifully put into the recycle bin at the grocery store are wet or dirty they will be thrown in the trash instead of recycled? Horrors. I thought the recycle people had some massive washing machine that cleaned it all before breaking it down into some other form to make bags or bottles with.

Since I learned this, I've taken care to rinse out any plastic bag that's outlived it's usefulness and hang it out to dry. Today, however, I had a dozen, and after I'd washed them all I realized my little kitchen could not handle them all. Eureka! I made a clothesline as you see in the photo above. It cracked me up, seeing all those plastic bags hanging out to dry. So I'm sharing it with you. Enjoy! - Raphaella Vaisseau

Inspiration, Food for the Soul, and Allowing the Birthing of New Art

I love being an artist. I enjoy working in my business every day. I create new products, manage my websites, fill orders, and find new retail outlets for my work. The possibilities for creativity are endless, even in how I enter data in my spreadsheets and make charts and graphs to track my sales and growth. I could happily work from sunrise to sunset every day. Yet over the years I've tried to include time for other things that might give me balance in new and healthy ways. Like learning to cook, nurturing friendships, and taking walks on the beach. So, from time to time I pull myself away from work and plan an adventure. Usually it's a grocery shopping trip to Sarasota, 30 miles away.

It takes three hours. But every time I take this time for myself to buy bread at C'est La Vie on Main Street, then shop for organic and wholesomely natural food at Whole Foods Market, I am filled with goodness and inspiration. Just walking in the front doors into the wealth of produce there makes me happy. Last week I was trilled to discover hydroponic basil, which is now alive and thriving on my kitchen counter.

Organically speaking, living on the Gulf Coast of Florida is not like living in Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. I planned these adventures in my decade living there as well. Every time I drove into the City to buy art supplies, I felt like I was on vacation. Going across the bridge into the fog often moved my spirit to tears of gratitude and appreciation. Coming back home again a few hours later, and passing through the rainbow decorated tunnel into the hills of Marin, also brought me joy.

I began treating myself every Saturday morning before opening my Heartful Art Gallery in Sausalito, with a trip to the San Francisco Farmers Market at the Ferry Plaza. Being there at sunrise, surrounded by rows and rows of fresh fruits and vegetables gave me the feeling of pure health. Besides the organic goodness, I browsed the Ferry Plaza shops, sipped a hot latte, bought delicious baked goods, and explored the start-up food companies on Market Street which offered exciting and original packaged food to try.

Don't get me wrong. I love our Venice Farmers Market too, and I look forward every week to setting up my Heartful Art booth and sharing my art with the people. But that's more about my life as an artist and loving my work. These little trips to the market, these gifts of adventure to myself, feed my soul in a different way. Last week as I made the journey, I listened to an Abraham-Hicks seminar in my car, and I felt an unfolding of a lotus flower within my heart (again).

When I returned home, after I put away my beautiful bread and wonderful organic food, I got out my paints and created a new work of art to capture the blessings of the day. Here it is as a magnet, and my wish to you: Allow the Unfolding. Of your magnificence, of the day, of your journey, and mine.

-Raphaella Vaisseau