Right now, my goal is to do 2 vegan days a week and see how I feel. If I have energy and stamina, then I will add more. I already eat at least one vegan meal and all vegan snacks every day, but I’m excited for more!

I also want to get back to a regular yoga practice. I walk on lovely nature trails here in Wisconsin and that is fabulous, but yoga adds variety, moves my body and muscles in ways I don’t every day, and centers me, body, mind, and spirit. My husband has been joining me and that’s been great! My favorite yoga classes online are by Esther at www.yogatic.com, she embodies the calm, strong, spirit of yoga and explains in simple, patient, language how to do the poses.

So, what are your New Year’s resolutions? I hope you join me by adding vegan meals or vegan days to your diet, here’s a menu I created to get started!  ( I will follow with recipes asap, in the meantime, use recipes you like and replace meats/dairy/eggs with tofu/tempeh/soy or rice milks/cheeses). -Amy Roemer 1-1-11

Amy’s Vegan Menu

It’s the holiday season, and no matter what holiday you celebrate, you’re bound to be inundated with candy, cakes, and an abundance of calorie rich foods! How lucky we are to live in such a bountiful country! Okay, so do you tend to overindulge over the holidays and can’t button your pants on January 1st? Feel guilty about every cake, glass of Bailey’s and cookie you ate? What if you went into this holiday season deciding to overindulge? What if you said to yourself. “It’s the holidays. I enjoy eating beautifully decorated desserts and home-cooked comfort foods with friends and family.” Take the guilt right out of the equation by choosing what you want to do and being okay with it.

Go out and buy a pair of pants one size up and call them your January pants! Then you can also decide that in January, you will go back to (or begin) choosing healthy foods and exercise. Buy a pair (or dust off an old pair) of yoga pants and call them your February pants! Because you’ll be taking walks, doing yoga, cycling, whatever it is you enjoy doing that gets you moving, and heading to Whole Foods, in February!

When we make a conscious choice of when we are going to eat something for pleasure and when we’re going to eat something for health, we can release guilt, we become empowered. What we believe is what manifests in our bodies. By taking control and making a plan, we not only become empowered, we lose the stress every time we grab a cookie, we lose the fear of lack, and that is much healthier than being a guilt riddled famished wreck over the holidays!

So indulge! Imbibe! And I’m betting, that with your new guilt-free attitude, you’ll be grabbing for less, anyway!

Amy Roemer – 12-1-10

Coconuts, we’ve seen them as the savior on many a film or tv program, think Gilligan and the Skipper, too! Tom Hanks in Cast Away! Sometimes referred to as a tropical fruit, others say it is a tree nut. In any case, it packs a lot of nutritional punch. Coconuts provide protein, vitamins B and C, calcium, Iron, and phosphorus, as well as a healthy fat, essential for good health.

Coconut water is used to treat kidney and urinary/bladder issues, building muscles, treating sore throat, stomach ulcers, constipation, goiters, and is great for your skin (wrinkle remover) and hair! Almost makes you want to live on a deserted island!

How do we get more coconut in our diet in a healthy way? One thing I like to do is take an old spice jar, fill it with 1/3 cinnamon and 2/3 finely shredded coconut. In the morning, I sprinkle that on my toast or oatmeal and get that cinnamon toast taste without the sugar! (You can also add some sugar, if you want).

Another way I like to get coconut into my diet is to replace 1/4 of the flour in a bread or cookie recipe with finely shredded coconut (if you can’t find it, just get any shredded coconut and grind it in your blender at home). The healthiest choice is unsweetened and organic, of course! Start where you are comfortable. The coconut adds moisture and sweetness, yum!

I made a simple coconut flax bread using finely shredded coconut, ground flax, apple sauce, and cinnamon. So simple and so delicious toasted with a bit of Earth Balance (vegan butter substitute).

Amy's Coconut Flax Mini Loaf

Amy’s Coconut Flax Mini Loaf:

1 Cup finely shredded coconut

1 Cup ground flax

1 Tsp cinnamon

1/4 Cup apple sauce

1 Tsp Vanilla (optional)

1/4 Cup warm water

Measure 1 Cup of ground flax, spoon out 2 teaspoons and place in a small bowl with 1/4 Cup warm water, set aside for 5 minutes or until the flax becomes thick ( This is used as a binder, you can also use egg whites if you like)

Mix all other ingredients in a bowl, add the thick flax. Mix together. Add more warm water or almond (or other milk) to the mixture if more moisture is needed. It should be a thick mix, not runny.

Place dough in an oiled mini bread loaf pan (available at Michael’s) and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until browned.

Let cool, eat plain, or toast with Earth Balance, cashew butter, etc…!

(double the recipe for a standard bread loaf pan)

Enjoy! -Amy Roemer 9-9-10

A great source for coconut recipes is: http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/

Me painting easter eggs with my autistic nephew, Harry, and my daughter, Helen.

“What’s wrong with her?” I over hear someone ask about a child who seems to have autism. This scenario plays itself out over and over again around the globe. Someone in a wheelchair, someone who is blind, deaf, short, tall, with cerebal palsy, severe injuries gets asked this question. This leads me to ask “What is wrong with us?” How do we have this global reaction to difference? Maybe nothing is wrong with these people, maybe, they just wear there differences in a more obvious way than most. If everyone in the world were the same, the world would stop. Think about it. If we lived in a world where everyone were like me, for example, we’d have a whole bunch of people who love to talk about healing, do lots of painting, write poetry, spend time with their family, yes, that’s all good, but who would invent and build the computer I am typing on, or the lights that I am using, or grow the food I eat, or make the car I drive? So, diversity is a gift to us all. We may not clearly see the purpose of each other’s differences, but they are there.

We can reach even further on this theme and look more closely at how we speak about even our “normal” friends. (”The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well”-Joe Ancis). How often does conversation about a mutual friend or family member revolve around how you or others think they should change? Or how often are we “hurt” because someone didn’t act how we would have or we wanted to? I have a friend who never called me back when I called her. For years I got so frustrated by her behaviour. I wanted her to call me back within a day or two, just like I would if I were her. Well, I am not her! So, I reflected on that and decided that if I want to be her friend, I have to accept her and love her for the way she is, not try to change her. It was such a great relief for me to no longer be victimized by what she was “doing to me”. I knew it was a weak spot for her and not personal. So, I accepted that difference between us.

So, let’s try to ask the question “What’s right with that person?” more often. Imagine the energy shift in that question. Next time you are thinking of or talking about a friend or loved one. Try coming up with what you love about them. How uplifting would that be? What if that became the global question?-Amy Roemer 7-30-10

Jill Augustine Carter was born in Chicago and as of this year has spent the other half of her life in Los Angeles, CA. Teen model, actor, fine art consultant, ghost-writer, Realtor, and insurance agent, her most exciting vocation so far has been her recent work with Peace Warrior Brigitte Secard, author of SoulFire-The Birth of Wild Aliveness (http//:generationinstantgratification.com). She is also working on a project near and dear to her heart, CampaignforCivilDriving.org (currently under contruction) as well writing her new blog : www.Channel941blog.blogspot.com. She is honored to have been asked by Amy to contribute to “Life Art Healing”.

Sing Your Song

Lately, I have taken to watching Channel 941 on Time-Warner cable. Actually, ‘listening to’, is more accurate, as it is a music station; “Light Classical”, to be exact. I like the fact that the music is continuous; never interrupted by a spoken word. Once in a while, if I walk past the television in the living room, a fact about the composer or musician currently playing will be at the top of the screen. Here’s an example: “Chopin finally succumbed to tuberculosis while living in Paris. He was only 39 years old.”

There are several things about Chopin that I find particularly interesting. Not the least of which being, I used to detest his music. I didn’t get it. It struck me as treacle and overly romanticized. I hated the flourishes and aimless meandering all of his pieces seemed to include; so fussy compared to my favorite classical composer, J.S. Bach. Then, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum… On December 5^th, 2008, nineteen days after turning 49, I was diagnosed with stage 2 colon cancer. Within days, I was relieved of about 1/3^rd of my colon. It was a sudden and shocking turn of events.

And one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.

My favorite line of that New Year was that I was “new and improved and 1/3^rd less full of shit!” I thought I was making light, but the reality is, somewhere inside myself, I knew those words were actually true. What before may have seemed important became trivial; what before had been important became imperative.

Like singing my song.

What IS my song? I have spent a lifetime humming various melodies in search of it. I have hung in there with some of the tunes for years and years, only to decide that the chorus has become monotonous or that the through-line is no longer pleasing to my ear. My ear… Wait. Let’s get specific: MY SOUL and what it wants, what it hears and what it hungers to hear, reveals itself more and more to me with each passing day. It is a mandate I am joyfully learning to fulfill.

Chopin is delicious to me now.

His melodic meandering is like the path of life itself. The sweet, aching, melancholia, balanced by occasional outbursts of exquisite trills can be seen as a musical narrative of the human heart. Thank God Chopin sang his song before he died. And thank God I lived long enough to appreciate it.

So it is time to sing. Even if my song is not perfect. Or it changes. Or it even grates, occasionally. The voice may wobble or occasionally falter, but if sung with conviction, the song cannot help but be beautiful. Regardless, it is my turn now. No time to waste.

Steve Garrison, a single dad and a student of personal development study, has summarized his 20 years of learning into five secrets to truly transform. Steve works as a motivational speaker, personal coach and author to help others find their inner light. With his passion, energy and enthusiasm, he shares his profound knowledge of these secrets with people who are ready to make a change in their lives. A native Bostonian, Steve now lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his three children.

Now recently endorsed by the prestigious Cleveland Clinic as a powerful book who help patients to cope with surgery and to recover with the most optimal attitude and mindset. The Clinic will begin medical trials in 2011 using “The Five Secrets from Oz” as a guide to help patients heal after surgery. www.thefivesecretsfromoz.com

Waterskiing 101: Rule #1: Let go of the rope!

I like to think of myself as a very good athlete. One of the sports that I have a little fear of is waterskiing. I think it is because I had a traumatic event when I was 10 trying to get up and out of the water and failing time after time. When I finally got up I proceeded to fall. Now the normal person would let go of the rope. This by the way is the number one rule in waterskiing when you feel like you are falling or about to wipe out. So, not me…not Mr. “I don’t listen to instructions” (typical male right). Anyway, I was dragged what seemed like a mile (actually it was 50 feet or so) before I actually let go. Now, here I am, 28 years later and on a boat with my two nephews, both great athletes in their own right. As my nephew David was driving the boat, he looked at me and said, “Uncle Steve, here is the life jacket, do you want to ski!”

Now I had a choice to make and I know what most of you are thinking. “Oh, what a great story, after all these years he got right back up…awe…good for Steve!” Well, I wish I could have told you a Rudy or Karate Kid story with a happy ending, but alas, I chickened out. I am not sure if it was because I was having a flashback of when I was ten or if it was because I was terrified of looking like a complete idiot in front of my two nephews?

What does this all mean you ask? Sometimes in life, we need to just have faith to let go of the rope. We as adults are constantly getting in our own way, just like I did when I chickened out from waterskiing. We make excuses as to why we can’t do something. We convince ourselves to not let our new boyfriend/girlfriend see our feelings for fear of being hurt. We make excuses as to why we can’t start a business or tell someone we love them for the first time for fear of rejection. We are forever letting our past dictate our present reality because we can’t let go.

No matter what ropes are dragging you through the water, remember the first lesson of waterskiing. Don’t be afraid to let go. Understand that you have a life vest and it will keep you from drowning so just let go. Many of us think it is acceptable to allow ourselves to be dragged through the water. That is not O.K. and it will only keep you from getting back in the water of life.

As for me, I have decided that next summer when I am at my family lake cabin in Maine that I will put on the water-skis and enjoy the ride. Now that I realize that it is O.K. to let go and to get out of my own way!

Remember. The past is HISTORY so finally let it go, the future is a MYSTERY, but today is the PRESENT. That is why they call it a GIFT.

Happy skiing!

-Steve Garrison  March 1st, 2010  www.thefivesecretsfromoz.com

Their voices drifted as I entered the woods. The grey-brown trees dark from the moisture of the snowstorm last night, the branches covered with a thick layer of snow, like the whole world had been frosted for some king’s birthday. How quickly I had left witnessing such a tense situation to seeing such peace and beauty. So, I thought, why did I see that today? I believe that everything that happens in our experience is a chance to learn, so what would I have to learn from these two men arguing over a traffic stop?

As I noticed deer and squirrel tracks in the new snow, I thought about the conflict and the two main characters. The police officer believed he was right. The man believed he was right. The truth, I believe, is they were both right, at least to themselves. The police officer would report that my neighbor did the wrong thing. The man would tell his friends about the crazy cop who pulled him over.

A woodpecker high up in a dead tree pecked away for his winter meal. I was circling back home, when I realized the lesson in what I had observed. As Aimee Mann, one of my favorite singer-songwriter’s, lyrics say “perspective is everything”. In every conflict, there is a truth to both sides of each story, a truth so strong that we will raise our voices, slam doors, turn to addictive behaviors, isolate and even cut ourselves completely off from each other. I was able to have a neutral perspective on the cop and my neighbor, I could see both truths.

So, perhaps from this perspective I had today, the next time I am in disagreement with someone, I will be open to not only my truth, but have compassion for their truth and to quote myself from my painting titled pure truth, “The truth exists pure somewhere…”. -Amy Roemer 2-22-10

Pure Truth by Amy Roemer

To view more paintings by Amy Roemer, visit www.amyroemer.com

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/everything_else&id=7021110