The Freedom to Sway, Wilderness Trip, Cabin Remodel Plans!

I've mentioned a few different times on here that one of my flaws is a tendency to be, as Shakespeare puts it, 'a vane blown with all winds.' It's very easy for me to see others' points of view, and I haven't always had the conviction of my own path necessary to stick to it despite everything. Right now, though, I'm stretching into a delicious sense of freedom: a feeling that I can move with different winds and currents, but that I'm not obliged to do so.

Instead of feeling boggled with confusion about all my nutritional research, I'm feeling empowered to sanction all kinds of different choices, because there are so many choices that have something (or someone) to recommend them. When I'm through with this yeast cleanse, I can choose to enjoy fruit and higher glycemic veggies rather than demonizing them or feeling pinned to the glycemic mandate, since I've had such positive experiences with yams, fruit, etc, in my own body. I also recognize that stressing about it is more poisonous than any trans fat (really???) and that realization is helping me to feel more relaxed.

I can feel stressed and imperiled when rushing to catch the tide with Phil's perilous little boat, and often do--but I can explore other ways to feel too: exhilarated, curious, interested. And when it's way too cold out there in the wilderness? If I move around as much as I can, and focus on how beautiful it is and how pleasant without mosquitoes yet, then I needn't be miserably cold. And what about when we run up against a seemingly intractable problem of large objects in a small space?

Well, we've been doing some serious thinking since I reported our shock at the size of the new fridge. Change is in the air, and the current plan is to convert our little side room into a kitchen!

our side room in its current chaos

 This little room is how we coped with such a tiny fridge for so long: for most of the winter, we don't heat it and most of the produce is on the floor in there. It's the 'under the rug' room--if we have company or are trying to tidy up, all the mess tends to end up in there. Also, it's our clothes storage. So, making it into a kitchen will be a big change: we'll have to heat it instead of keeping it chilly, we'll have to move all our clothes out, move the fridge in (not a small endeavor!), put in a counter... There are pros and cons, of course, to having the food prep area divorced from the social area, and I had some misgivings about taking over the spare room so thoroughly--if it's going to be the kitchen, sorry Phil: it's going to be mine!

On the other hand, if I'm going to be commissioned to make more cakes, as I was this one for a 70th birthday party...

coconut-lime cheesecake, raw, no-sugar

...then having more of a kitchen space seems smart. And not having food in the main room (where the storage for it is quite awkward) will free up a lot of space and ultimately help with decluttering.

It's an upheaval, but it's an exciting one and I am looking forward to seeing how the energy moves.

There were big low tides this week after the huge full moon, and we went across to China Poot Bay in Phil's tiny zodiac.

 It is so beautiful over there. Cold, but you dress up well and bounce around. It must be an uncomfortable place in the winter: it's opposite the bay from us, which means that it's oriented to face north: there must be no sunlight there at all!

This is a beautiful carpet of sea veggies. My ND suggested that the best way to protect one's thyroid from radiation exposure is to harvest one's own kelp and eat it fresh. He says that since Chernobyl (and who knows how the Fukushima event has exacerbated this) all above-ground sources of iodine are radioactive, and that even iodine sourced from under-sea will become radioactive within three months. So, harvesting kelp that's washed up recently and eating it soon sounds like a fine idea.

 Phil gets clams and mussels: I'll be happy to get the greenery (and reddery)!

Have a beautiful weekend! Are you a vane blown with all winds, or can you choose whether to sway?