My editor said, “Emily, slow down with the spiritual/personal development articles!” But it’s hard not to let my mind go there as I just read Eckhardt Tolle’s A New Earth. Between us, I’m just going to indulge a sentence or two.

As we are evolving our consciousness in many ways and turning toward a more eco-conscious way of life, it shows our ability to reconnect with the feminine. By feminine, I mean a more nurturing and caring side of us.

This leads me to the word empowerment I had been thinking about one day while running errands. I was really looking for a way to take off tile grout without resorting to a harsh commercial brand. While perusing, I happened to hear “Green Tile Wild” – a very empowering song by an up-and-coming artist. This song was the catalyst for my choice of cleaners and getting me on this whole kick about reconnecting with the feminine. I wasn’t about to resort to the old commercial stuff! I wanted something caring toward the environment, yet powerful. And I found it. Seventh Generation Tub and Tile Cleaner in Emerald Cypress & Fir fights soap scum and grime with no fumes. And get the description of the blend of balsam fir, lime and emerald cypress: “Green and zesty with a full-bodied heart. Healing, breathing, reflective, (consciousness), joyful, and empowering.”

Now if that isn’t a spiritual shopping spree and a perfectly synchronized match with the song I was listening to and my thoughts of empowerment, I don’t know what is.

The song comes out on iTunes in December, so bookmark this post and we’ll include an update when it’s available.

Image: doolittle1989

The tradition of celebrating Dia de Los Muertos or “Day of the Dead” in Mexico dates back to Pre-Colombian religious rituals of the indigenous population of Mexico. Death was not something to be feared or dreaded, nor was it something final. Instead, Mexican philosophy held that the spirit of a person continued to live even after the physical body ceased to exist.  

Halloween is around the same time that Dia de los Muertos is celebrated (November 1st and 2nd,  two of the most important dates for this celebration). While we are out gathering candy, in Mexico people are traditionally decorating home altars and grave sites and making elaborate food for picnics at the cemetery of their loved ones who have passed on. It is customary to prepare food and drink and offer up utensils to your loved ones who have died to assist them in their journey into the afterworld. Of course, I am sure a few of my relatives wouldn’t have minded a few Reeses Pieces or Mars Bars for their journey; however, some good home cooking at this culturally important time of year can leave all of us feeling pretty peaceful. Whether you celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, Halloween, or both, here’s a fantastic and healthy recipe that comes out of the dynamic celebration:

Pumpkin Guacamole

2 ripe Haas Avocados
1 small pumpkin
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 Jalapeño finely chopped (optional)
1/2 apple chopped
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
salt to taste
1/2 lime squeezed 

Cut off top of pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and roast pumpkin until soft in an oven set at 350 degrees. Mash in avocados, fold in onion, jalapeño, apples and pomegranate seeds. Squeeze lime to taste, and add salt to taste. Use shell of pumpkin to stuff avocado mix and serve with warm corn tortillas.

Image: tambako the dragon

This is my favorite season, late summer. I recall the dimming and faint sound of crickets as their time comes to a close and other sounds of nature simply just seem to be slowing down and becoming more still. Leaves are fullest and the wind captures this heaviness. Gardens look different, fruit and vegetables are abundant and some are even rotting on the vine. There is a gathering in feeling, a slowing down of production.

On the flip side, our culture doesn’t generally heed to nature’s call and we seem to get busier as school begins, and the hustle of both business and school take a spring-like feel. (Once again, an example of humans vs. nature, and humans go against the natural flow of nature’s slow-down at this time.)

In Classical Chinese Medicine, this season of late summer is referred to as the season of Earth. The Chinese associated the power of “decrease” with late summer, and at the same time referred to it as the period of abundance; as such, it connotes nourishment and abundance. With the coming of late summer, nature returns the fruits it has made, which are ripe and ready to be picked. And as we move into autumn we have an abundant harvest, enabling us to survive the winter without scarcity.

Though most of us today may not grow our own food, we ought to keep sight of the fact that prior to being put in packets and stacked in supermarkets, the food we consume is nonetheless a gift from the earth.

Here are my suggestions for living in harmony with the late summer season:

Enjoy the abundance of fruits and fresh vegetables. Be aware of their special qualities, each succulence different from the next. Luscious tomatoes, sweet peaches, dense eggplants, cool cucumbers, crisp carrots”¦

Look at the seeds, and reflect on the fact that within each harvest lays the seeds of the next. Be conscious of the harvest of your life. Think about yourself, your relationships, and your work. What parts of your life are bearing fruit? Holding your harvest in mind, ask what is overgrown or unneeded and consider what you need to do to make ready for the next season: autumn, a time of letting go.

My favorite recipe for this season: tomato salad.

You’ll need 5 ripe tomatoes (heirloom tomatoes are wonderful) sliced in half; some fresh red onion sliced lengthwise in thin paper-like slices; 1 cup of fresh basil leaves, no stems; 1 fresh garlic clove; 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil; white balsamic vinegar; fresh cracked pepper; a dash of salt.

Put basil leaves, garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, in a food processor and mix until a pesto is made. Drizzle over tomatoes and onions. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss and serve. My favorite is to serve this with a pilaf of quinoa and finely-chopped dates. Recipe to come.

Image: ellievanhoutte

By August, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all my cute sandals and fun flip flops as well as plenty of pretty toenail polish.Yet even with all the pedicures and buffing rituals I get those heels that most closely resemble rhinoceros skin.  

Dry, cracked heels are a common complaint as our feet are exposed in the summer.Not only does it happen to women who wear sandals and other open shoes, but men get it, too.  Buffing with sandstone helps slough off the dry and dead skin, but we still need to moisturize and heal the skin. 

Looking around at the options for our lovely feet that have taken us so far are plenty foot creams on the market, but none have been as successful for me as African Gator Balm.Just the name transports you to a hot desert vision, or perhaps one of your poor feet facing the hardships walking the Nile river all day, or fighting through the jungle climbing over rocks and limbs (sounds just like Fifth Avenue).

Save your feet, because African Gator Balm is made from all natural ingredients and the mix is just right.You’ve heard of shea butter, oils of avocado and almond as your best friends for keeping your skin smooth and healthy. The rich balm has this and more, including colloidal oatmeal, coconut, mango and caprylic and linoleic triglycerides, a whole host of vitamins and comfrey that smooth and heal.

Comfrey alone has been reported to promote healthy skin with its mucilage content that moisturizes and soothes while another compound in comfrey, allantoin, promotes skin cell growth.  No more scratchy, cracked heels that look like a leathery beast.

Image: Torsten Mangner

Now that my city, San Francisco, has been given one of the highest walkability rates in the nation – surpassing NY and Boston – I am thrilled to know that the rise in fuel costs and deepening energy crisis has spurred more people onto the streets into walking or riding to their destinations. That’s healthy, in more ways than one.

Personally, I thrive on interaction with people. Seeing people regularly on the street fosters community and Americans need that more than ever in a time when our culture suffers from the highest rate of depression in the world.

I miss the suburbs. In light of the New Urbanist debates over suburban design, I am pro-community. The New Urbanist approach has many of the elements that foster community in suburbia – for example, a kind of social dimension to the architecture where we see the use of front porches on homes that face and relate to each other; home designs that de-emphasize a dominant garage feature where parking your car is detached and forces people to pass one another on a path.

What could be better than shared outdoor spaces and community gardens providing a setting for casual social interaction? Who wouldn’t want to strengthen their social networks and get the perks of having a sense of community that includes a sense of responsibility and safety in a neighborhood?

Let’s meditate for a moment on how people really want to live – in aesthetically-pleasing, affordable homes with shared outdoor space, tree-shaded dead-end streets that keep the neighborhood cooler in the summer, save money on infrastructure, eliminate through traffic and create quiet and safe spaces for children to play and neighbors to meet. Spaces for ball games, picnics, gardens, vineyards, and orchards. Beneath the SUVs and strip malls, suburbia has a green heart.

Image: Pear Biter

Who needs soda, with its health-eroding sugar per serving and corrosive phosphoric acid and nerve-wrecking caffeine?  As a mom, I feel it is crucial for me to provide tasty, nutritious drink alternatives to my kids (and myself).

Lacto-fermented beverages sometimes called kefir sodas and kombucha are a smart choice. Kefir, a creamy, yogurt-life drink, works equally well in shakes and fruit salads. Kombucha is a fizzy, zesty, apple-cidery "tea". They not only taste fantastic, they offer outstanding health benefits that help you feel vibrantly alive.

Just look at some of the benefits of fermented beverages:

They are supportive to the intestinal ecosystem and serve up a nice array of enzymes and nourishing minerals.

The lactic acid has medicinal properties that can promote lactation, strengthen the sick and promote overall well-being and stamina.

They are super-hydrating and, because of the glucose, are superior to plain water during exercise.

When taken with meals they promote digestion of food; and taken after physical activity they will give you a lift by replacing lost mineral ions.

They also contain a host of beneficial micro-organisms that help detoxify the body.

Lacto-fermented beverages traditionally were made from palm sap, coconut juice, herbs and fruits and now we’ve expanded to seeing fermented sun tea. Add your own sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, stevia, vanilla flavor or hazelnut and almond extract.

To go wild yourself, learn more about kombucha and food fermentation.

Image: Arria Belli

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