Sunday April 28th

Time: 2:00pm-5:00pm  Cost: $39 in advanced $45 at the door

During our workshop you learn new skills and practices to:

• Restore Balance by implementing self care
• Release fears to reclaim your empowering inborn Energy
• Develop Awareness to intuitively set your boundaries
• Discover your true gifts and the Meaning for your life

EvaAngvert Harren website:www.beam-intl.com

Phone: 510.825.7574

Address: 20200 Redwood
Rd, Suite 15 Castro Valley, CA 94546

Eva Angvert Harren website:www.beam-intl.com

Address: 20200 Redwood Rd,

Phone: 510.825.7574
Suite 15 Castro Valley, CA 94546

It isn’t often that I write book reviews (have I ever? – serious question), but it isn’t often that a truly important book like Lierre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth pops up on my radar just begging for one.

That goes double for vegans, vegetarians, or anyone on the cusp of adopting that lifestyle. If you fit the bill, especially if you’re considering veganism/vegetarianism for moral reasons, drop what you’re doing and run to the nearest bookstore to buy this book. It’s incredibly well-written, and the author has a real knack for engaging prose, but that’s not the main reason for my endorsement. The real draw is the dual (not dueling) narratives: the transformation of a physically broken moral vegetarian into a healthier moral meat eater; and the destructive force of industrial agriculture. The “Myth” in question is the widely-held notion that vegetarianism is the best thing for our health and for our planet. On the contrary, Keith asserts that a global shift toward vegetarianism would be the absolute worst move possible. It’s vitally important. It’s definitive. It’s somewhat depressing, and it’s brutally honest. It also might be the book that changes your life.

Lierre Keith is a former vegan/vegetarian who bowed out after twenty long years of poor health and paralyzing moral paradoxes. Her original goal was to explore the question, “Life or death?” as it pertained to food. She, like most vegetarians, assumed she had a choice between the two, that it was an either/or thing. Eating tofu and beans was life, while a burger represented death. Life didn’t have to involve death – that was the weak way out, and the honorable (and difficult, and therefore meaningful) way to live was by avoiding animal products of all kinds. No blood on your hands or on your plate meant a clean moral slate.

Or so she thought. See, Keith began as a moral vegetarian. She never espoused the idea that meat was inherently unhealthy or physically damaging; she was simply a young kid who “cried for Iron Eyes Cody, longed… for an unmolested continent of rivers and marshes, birds and fish.” We’ve all heard of kids who “turn vegetarian” when they find out their chicken nuggets once walked, clucked, and pecked. Well, Keith was that five year old who bemoaned the “asphalt inferno of suburban sprawl” as a harbinger of “the destruction of [her] planet.” Hers was a deep-seated commitment to the preservation of all living things, not just the cute and fuzzy ones.

That expansive scope meant she looked at the big picture, and suffered for it. She never got to enjoy that oh-so-common smug vegetarian elitism, because she was too aware. Seeds were living things, too. They may not have had faces or doting mothers, but they were alive, and that meant they could die. Killing slugs in her garden was impossible, and deciding whether to supplement the soil with actual bone meal was excruciating. Unlike most of her peers, she knew that avoiding direct animal products didn’t mean her hands were clean. They might not be dripping red, but living organisms died to make that head of lettuce possible. Fields were tilled and billions of microorganisms were destroyed, not to mention the mice, rabbits, and other wild animals whose environments are leveled to make way for industrial farming. And so whichever direction she went – home gardening, local produce, or grocery store goods – Keith was contributing directly and indirectly to death.

What’s a moral vegetarian to do?

She briefly entertains studying with a mystic breatharian, hoping to (tongue-in-cheekily) learn to subsist purely on oxygen. She spends hours picking slugs from her garden and goes to relocate them. Nothing works. She keeps coming back to death.

“Let me live without harm to others. Let my life be possible without death.” Keith realizes this vegetarian plea (which “borders on a prayer”) is impossible to fulfill. She can’t live and eat without something dying, and that’s the whole point of it all. Death is necessary and natural. Circle of life, you know? Without death of some sort, life would get a whole lot worse.

Keith ultimately sets her sights on one of our favorite human “advancements” at the Apple: agriculture! Readers of MDA already know how agriculture altered our trajectory forever, but maybe not in such vivid detail. We focus on the lowered life expectancy, reduced bone density, compromised dental health, and the stooped, shrunken skeletons of our Neolithic ancestors, but Keith shows how grain agriculture actually destroys the land it touches. The Fertile Crescent, ground zero for grain development, used to be, well, fertile. It was verdant, lush, and teeming with life – including nomadic hunter gatherers. Paradise, you might even say. Animals grazed on perennial grasses, pooped out nutrients, and gradually those nutrients would work themselves back into the soil. It was a beautiful, natural life cycle that worked great for millennia. But once grains were grown and the land was irrigated, everything changed. Perennial renewable grasses became annual grains. Animals no longer grazed and replenished the soil. The top soil was robbed of nutrients and faded away. Irrigation meant crucial annual floods were disrupted or even halted. A massive monkey wrench was thrown into the system, and rather than coexisting as a complementary aspect of nature, man thus commenced the conflict with the natural world that rages to this very day.

And that’s the crux of her argument – that modern industrial agriculture is wanton destruction. Grain-based, vegetarian agriculture is even worse, because it attempts to eliminate a crucial player in the normal life cycle of the planet. Animals, which provide manure, calcium, and other nutrients for the soil, have to be part of the equation. Whenever a culture turns to a grain-based agricultural system, these same problems arise. Annual grain crops killed the American prairie and, for the vegans out there, they kill the millions of animals, bugs, and birds that rely on specific ecosystems to survive. The vegan’s soy burger has nary an animal part, but the machines that worked the soybean fields were greased with the blood of a thousand organisms. The vegetarian’s wheat crops feed millions, but robs the land of nutrients and destroys the top soil necessary for life.

Primal readers won’t be surprised by what they read. They may be horrified at the extent of the environmental damage caused by industrial agriculture, but they won’t be surprised (given agriculture’s poor track record with our health). Keith lays out an effective case against grains (and for a Primal-ish, low-carb, high-fat diet, believe it or not) on nutritive, moral, and economical grounds that’s tough to refute. The nutritional information will come as second nature, but the sources are sound and the references are powerful.

There’s more, far more, but I’d rather not spoil the entire thing. Just read it and rest assured that it’s worth your time. The book is a must-read, and a great ally for anyone interested in promoting a healthy, sustainable, omnivorous future. Read this book and distribute it to your vegan friends.

Primal approved!

by: Mark Sisson http://www.marksdailyapple.com/vegetarian-myth-review/#axzz2JTvyfS00

Disharmony Between Yoga Teachers and Students: Why Students Must Eventually Leave the Teacher

What do you do when it’s time to leave your teacher?

At some point, every student must leave their teacher. It’s a built-in principle of yoga. Parents raise children to be able to survive on their own at some point; its the same concept between teachers and students of yoga. Lately, there have been several exoduses of notable teachers from notable lineages. From the outside, and maybe with some of the rawness, it seems like a tragic occurrence, but really, it’s a natural evolution of this process. It took me many years to understand this.

Sometimes we get caught up in the system of yoga and the glory of the teachings that we forget what we’re actually here to do: liberate ourselves. This cannot be done if we see someone else as above us or more accomplished than us — as someone who holds the power that we would do anything to possess. This creates a hierarchy and the potential for heartache as expectations are sorely let down and what we once saw as perfect suddenly changes into something, well, other.

Yes, I’m speaking in metaphor and broad strokes for a reason. It’s not helpful to name names or speak in specifics when really the point I’m trying to get across is so important and valuable that we can use the current hubbub to understand the wisdom of yoga through this very, very important lens:

The guru should be no more than a friend and no less than a friend. This simple statement was first told to me by a lovely man named Mark Whitwell. It came to me at a time in my own life when I was trying to understand this very concept. These simple words created such an illumination that I have been compelled to share them with students ever since. It’s a critical lesson. If learned early on, it can potentially save us from heartache and facilitate our own spiritual journey.

It’s simple. If we see preferential treatment from a teacher to a student: warning. If we see a teacher treating a student in a harmful way: warning. If a teacher treats us just the way a friend would treat us, then we’re treading in safe waters. Another way to eloquently put this would be “We travel as equals or not at all.” This simple line from a Joseph Arthur song clears the idea of hierarchical structures — which is extremely appropriate in yoga. As soon as there is a hierarchy in the system — as soon as someone seems better than us, or less than us — we’ve immediately strayed from the fundamental concept of yoga, which is to be without separation, delineation or hierarchy.

Be Free To Follow The Teachings, Not The Teacher

With this in mind, we can be free to follow the teachings, not the teacher. A specific teacher may convey the teachings in a particular way that we resonate with and love… and so we should sit with that teacher for as long as they nourish us and guide us toward spiritual maturity. But, no matter how good that teacher is, at some point, we will have to believe ourselves fully nourished and walk away from the well-spring. Because what good are the teachings if we can’t stand on our own two feet?

For those who have recently (or ever) decided to walk away, after having learnt and absorbed the wellspring of teachings offered to them by any teacher, I say, “congratulations.” Now, the real teachings can begin. This is what someone said to me as I walked away:

“It was a confusing time. I understand that it can feel unsteady. But, remember the words of Krishnamacharya: “If you have learnt something really well, then the way you express it, will not be the same way you learned it.” At some point, after years of listening, and years of diligent practice, and years of rerouting the teachings through our own internal lens, one becomes more adept at refocusing and transmitting the teachings. It’s a subtle process that happens as a result of the unshakable confidence that begins to develop not in what we’ve been taught, but in what we now know. This is how the teachings continue. And they will. And all teachings, when given from a place of compassion, are valuable. So, let us go as equals or not at all.” — By Alanna Kaivalya

A note from Oregon! Picture of our new home on the range in Stayton, Oregon a town of 8,000. (for more pic’s send me a friend on facebook (Lori Maravilla) and check out El Rancho.  Our first project was the a shed to get the tools out of the rain. That is Chuy’s there on the roof. The weather has been cool, it will take some getting used to, today Tuesday we are at 36 degrees, and it chills to the bone.

But once you start working the cooled does not seem that bad. The land is breath taking in all directions. I have never slept so good and woke to such peace.

Our friend Tom having fun racking the leaves into his name,  and our newest addition to the family Carolina, the german shepard.

This is the first 5 acres. We plans to  raise chickens in this part of the farm. That house in the background is the neighbor Ralph’s house, and a man of few words. Behind his plot of land is the Santiam River and is a tributary of the Willamette River. I here that the salmon run through it every year.

This natural beauty is a flock of geese in flight over our little house heading for Canada. What a sight, we have seen about a dozen or more of these flocks pass over head in the past week. Happy Holidays everyone, more to come as the days go on. Namaste, Lori

Half day of volunteer help is traded for food and accommodation, with no money exchanged.  This is not paid work on farms, it is an exchange of education and culture.  The WWOOF-USA® Host Farm Directory lists more than thirteen hundred organic farms (not necessarily USDA certified organic) and gardens across the country.  The Host Farm Profile contains information about the location, general responsibilities,  and lifestyle of the host.  Any farm, community, or garden project in the US that is willing to host and accommodate volunteers can participate in our program.  We encourage all types of volunteers and hosts who can cooperate to strengthen sustainable agriculture worldwide to be a part of WWOOF-USA®.  The program is open to anyone 18 years of age or older, regardless of experience.

WWOOF farms offer a variety of educational opportunities, including growing vegetables, keeping bees, building straw bale houses, working with animals, making wine, and much more. With over a thousand farms in all 50 states, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, there is something for everyone.  You can preview the Directory of Farms before becoming a member on this website.

A WWOOF member contacts the Host Farms to discuss hopes and expectations to form an agreeable arrangement.  WWOOFing is a way to learn practical farming skills, be part of the organic agriculture movement, and experience the heart of American agrarian culture.

Once you become a WWOOFer by joining the organization, you will receive online access to the Directory of Host Farms.  You can choose to also receive a printed and bound Directory of Host Farms mailed to you.  There are many advanced options available to you once you are registered:  FORUMS online for communicating with our WWOOF community, advanced search options such as ability to find hosts willing to accept WWOOFers traveling with children, and viewing and making comments and ratings about your experiences.  Next, contact the farms you are interested in visiting to check availability and arrange a stay.  WWOOFers generally volunteer for half a day in exchange for meals, accommodation, and education.  Our Hosts do not offer any monetary payment for WWOOFers.  The length of a farm stay is determined by you and the host, and can vary from a few days to a season.  The key to a mutually beneficial experience is lots of clear and open discussion about hopes and expectations before arriving at the farm- we recommend using the telephone to have a conversation.

WWOOF offers a rare opportunity for people to share their knowledge and efforts with others from a variety of backgrounds. It relies on trust, respect, and hard work. Read below to determine if WWOOF is right for you.
Hosts welcome willing WWOOFers onto their property to help get work done with the intention of sharing knowledge and meeting new people while growing food for local communities.

Being a WWOOF host may be right if you:

• will provide a safe, comfortable, and welcoming environment for a volunteer
• are participating in organic or sustainable activities
• have projects and tasks that you could use help with
• are interested in sharing your knowledge and daily life with volunteers
• recognize that WWOOFers are not laborers, and can not receive any monetary compensation for work

One-half day’s work on a farm by a WWOOFer is exchanged for food and accommodation from the Host. Your trade agreement can be defined any number of ways: Work hours, days, length of stay, meal arrangements and accommodations vary greatly, and it is each host’s and volunteer’s joint responsibility to form a clear agreement.

Being a WWOOFer may be appropriate if you:

• are a respectful and courteous guest in the homes and on the lands of others
• are interested in learning about sustainable and organic farming methods
• are willing to work hard on projects and tasks presented to you

If you are thinking about a special gift this holidays you might want to look at the The Omega 8006 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer It is equipped with a powerful commercial motor, this masticating juice extractor thoroughly chews up plant fibers to fully extract vitamins, enzymes, and minerals from fruits and vegetables. The unit’s dual-stage juicing system ensures maximum efficiency, while its low rotation speed of 80 RPMs means no foaming, no clogging, and no heat build-up. Other highlights include a high juice yield with very dry pulp, an automatic pulp-ejection function for continuous juicing, heavy-duty construction, four stabilizing feet, and quiet operation. Easy to assemble, operate, and clean, the UL- and cUL-approved masticating juice extractor measures 14-1/2 by 6-1/2 by 15-1/2 inches and carries a 15-year warranty (unlike the Breville juicer with only a 1year warranty.)

Each of these whole foods is given a score based on the equation H=N/C, which is that the health of a food is equal to the nutrients it delivers per calorie. Each ANDI score is based on a possible score of 1,000-0, with 1,000 being the most nutrient dense and 0 being the least nutrient dense. Kale, Mustard greens, Collard Greens, and Watercress all receive a score of 1,000 using the H=N/C equation, while foods like meat, seafood, and dairy products receive scores below 50 and are not considered by Dr. Fuhrman to be healthy. Fuhrman argues in his book that a nutrient dense diet can prevent or even reverse diseases and also might reverse obesity.

Information from Wikipedia