A bit of poetry

I am not a poet at all. I maybe end up to lay some singular verses like once a year, when I am extraordinarily inspired by something, someone, or a whole magical world that really affected me in a good way, and I've never shared them.

But while I was doing camping with the wonderful Rainbow Family of Quebec this summer, I've met dozens of inspiring people. Two of them in particular got my attention, and they gave me their poem booklet. I'd like to share a part of their work with you. I am pretty sure they would be agree with my choices!

This first one has been written by Henrik Vierula, a young and highly energetic man that I kept passing by while he was frolicking in the trails, shooting "You are beautiful and I love you!" to everyone! Here goes the untitled poem:

My fellow humans,
This is an invitation for you to awaken,
to your true nature as light workers,
for our very name hu-man contains the clue:

a hue is a colour in a spectrum of light
which a prism can divide
the rainbow inside the light of the sun
the light of the one
in motion

and a man is potential to manoeuvre
and manipulate this light.

I can see it in your eyes, reflected in a smile,
when we laugh and make light of a situation.

Illumination is our natural state of affairs,
our statements and affirmations frame our perception
and a string of words can turn into
tunnel vision
repetition, hypnotism, television that's the prism
that divides the spectrum of race and religion,
all meta-fiction scripting our relation to every-one.
The one in every-body, personified melody,
speak it into being:
identify i-densify
make dense the matter, materialize

The two next ones are only parts of texts (since his are longer) from another loveful fellow, but whom was completely different in the energy he was vibrating. With his bald head and his utterly calm attitude, he was making me think of a Buddhist monk. His smile has something really inviting and comforting. Something from the divine, as if all the love of the Universe was sitting in. Emanated from him all the beautiful light gathered from all those places of wisdom he visited. Thus, here go the two parts, written by Joseph Corallo:

Not All Angels Have Wings

Not all angels have wings, but they all have love.
Some are simple like you and me, ordinaryhuman beings learning to be better everyday. It's natural for angels to love and be good, but it is miraculous for humanbeings to be able to do what angels do. Wings or no wings, we are angels too, and able to fly.
(...)

(...)
The world doesn't need more jewels and treasures, but it sure needs more compassion and love. Diamonds may be shining and bright, but a happy soul shines even brighter. If you come with me, we would do so many wonderful things together. We will make the world a better place, transforming it into a globe of love. I will show you how to charge yourself with God's pure light, so you can shine day and night.

Now, with all this inspiration in my hands, maybe one day you here will be the very firsts to read one of my own tries? Who knows!

I invite you to meet up with the Rainbow Family of your country next summer (yes, the family is all over the world!). I garanty you that you'll meet only amazing brothers and sisters, each as inspiring as the other. And why not traveling up to here, and meet us? There were people from all around the globe here this summer! Cheers to the extended family!

MUCH LOVE, BROTHERS ANS SISTERS READERS!

For a reason, a season or a lifetime

One of my colleagues has always been like an angel to me. Back in April 2009, she sent me the text that you'll read in a moment. I'm sure it will affect you as much as it does for me (not surprising that I kept it during all that time and that I am just to rediscover it in doing some clean up through my email box! This was meant to be so.)! After you'll have finished reading it, you will also know the reason why it has reached you today. Here it goes. Enjoy!

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty,
to provide you with guidance and support,
To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
This person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die.
Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met,
our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share,
grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons,
Things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson,
Love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant

THANK YOU ALL, FOR BEING A PART OF MY LIFE!
WHETHER YOU ARE A REASON, A SEASON, OR A LIFETIME.

P.S. Thank you C. for your love and kindness! ♥

Pssst, hey friends! Have you missed the addition of the videos of two great Quebec's nature spots? Yes! I finally added the two vids to the post that is telling you about my last weekend of camping! Enjoy them by clicking HERE! I'm pretty sure that these will make you want to come visit our beautiful province next summer!

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND, EVERYONE! ☼

Cleaning your fridge is fun!

Yes, I know: All I seem wanting to share lately is about food. It looks like I'm eating up my emotions for seeing my favorite season to go away... It probably IS the case though! Can I move where it's always sunny and hot? haha! Oh well! I suppose I have to enjoy one more white season, then! What do they say again? Enjoy the NOW, yes, it must be it! ;)

So! The topic of the day: Who said that cleaning the fridge was just another yuky chore?

Of course, if you let a bunch of food to rot in it, you won't enjoy cleaning it! But hey, don't let your veggies to get wasted: turn them into cream soups as soon as they get a little too soft to be interesting to crunch onto! Cut them all in big chunks, whatever they are, brown them a little in a big cauldron, and scarcely cover it up with water, flavored with a bit of stock and spices. Let the mix boil until it gets just soft enough so your blender can turn it into cream. Once it is cooled down, separate it into a few small containers and freeze it. With not much efforts and just like a half hour, you'll have a delicious soup, just as grandma used to make those! For an accompaniment with your sandwich on a lunch time, you'll just have to take a quantity out of the freezer, reheat it -and it will then be up to you to add some milk or cream to make it more creamy if you'd like, or to add a handful of fresh sprouts to increase its nutritional value- and... TADAM!

Here are the benefits that I got from the last cleaning of my fridge.

Two different soups. I've put in the right cauldron: a broccoli (with all of its trunk), one big onion, just a bit of leek, a yellow potatoe, chicken broth and Provence herbs -which gave me two big yogurt containers- while my left cauldron was being treated with a few carots who started getting hairs, a bunch of yellow beans, some leeks, two leftovers of onions, a yellow potatoe and a small leftover of celery, water, chicken stock and Provence herbs. -No need to specify for each: everything was organic! Yum, is saying my body!- Towards the end of cooking, I added: a bunch of fresh basil, the leaves of the celery and two diced tomatoes. This marvellous mix gave me three big yogurt containers to freeze.

Doesn't it make your mouth watering and make you want to run to your fridge for a clean? Yeah? Well, this makes me happy, 'cause it was the purpose of my post! :)

Okay, Mother Nature likes to have a snack with your wastes, but just snacks, yo! Not your whole fridge!

Have fun turning yummies into meals before they get wasted! And enjoy the colors of the fall season! Yes, it's officially there!
MUCH LOVE AND GOOD SMELLS FROM MY KITCHEN! ♥

No cars in town: We like it!

Breathe fresher and easier in downtown this week!
Hey, Montreal peeps, do not forget! Use the subway to go downtown this week, or you’ll get stuck!

A loud YES, I am saying! I love this week called “In Town Without My Car”, which takes place every year (always around today's date) since 2003. It all started with only one day but, on citizens demand, has just become a whole week for the very first year!

Thus, for five consecutive days, car traffic is forbidden in a certain area of the town (bounded by this quadrilateral) during daytime until 3:30 PM. In addition, the Place-des-Arts section of Sainte-Catherine St. will be closed to traffic until 8 PM! Awesome! Apparently, this is the largest perimeter closed to all vehicular traffic in a city among approximately 1300 cities organizing similar days in the world. This IS definitely something that makes me smiling very wide!

No gases emissions, no irritating horns: for sure we will breathe easier and be a way more zen!

Enjoy this great week, Montrealers! And you, yes YOU, other friends from other parts of this magnificent globe: Wanna share a green and inspirational initiative organized by your town? Please, go ahead! We want to know!

LOVE TO ALL OF YOU!

The sound of love - John Lennon

Hey there!
It is impossible to do not think of John Lennon when we are looking for peaceful and love words, so here is a video that I recently discovered, although I already knew the song.

And naturally, this is an inescapable one...

In peace, and sending you much love,

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!

Sprouting: for the love of your body!

Sprouts, sprouts, sprouts! My lovely little sprouts, how you are good to me!

With the days getting shorter and the grayer temperature brought by the autumn that is arriving to our door, my body is screaming to me for more of raw energy. Thus, I've listened to the call and immediately doubled the diversity of my production! Yep! I have tons of seeds at home, but I usually sprout only one or two varieties at a time. But why is that exactly? Well... I'm affraid I have to admit that it is by lack of perseverance, and nothing else!

Alright! We all feel the reactions of our body, right? But when do we stop to ask it ''Okay, I heard you, but what are you trying to tell me there?'' and relate the reaction to a specific need? I actually am to develop my attention to the deep calls trown to me. I am slowly opening my senses and improving my connectivity with my Self. And it is obvious: with the universe as well. ;)

So! Yeah! Let me introduce you to my little healing friends! What do we got here...

The colorful pair of beans, Mr. Mung and Ms. Adzuki. Then Misters Wheat and Incredible Fenugreek are the little guys I've been eating for breakfast on my rock (in the middle of the rapids, remember? By the way, I recently added directly to the post one of the videos we made of the highest point of the camping site. Hope you'll enjoy it!). And the last, but for sure not the least: my beloved Alfalfas! I also made some Quinoa sprouts, but I've eaten them all up already (these are pretty quick to sprout though)!

I cannot part with sprouting, especially for Alfalfas! I even started doing it at Zero One also, as well as mung beans and lentils! It is such an easy thing to do by yourself at home, and is so beneficial for your body! Look at this video from Kristen's Raw to get to know, step by step, how to do it! And why wouldn't you take the opportunity to visit her blog? You really should!



As a person from the Hyppocrate Health Institute wrote me once: "If you don't take care of your body, where will you live"? So, fight the little drops of energy naturally, while treating yourself!

ENJOY THE GOOD RAYS OF SUNSHINE THIS WEEKEND, MY DEAR FRIENDS! ☼

LoVE!

Some tips for preserving your precious crops!

Because I am back living in the big city of Montreal and that all the spots into the community gardens of my neighborhood were already booked, I couldn't make my garden this year... I miss gardening so much, but I've at least planted two window-boxes of fine herbs that I hung on my frontdoor balcony, and I still have participated in the creation of a few gardens during my visit to Zero One, which is a gem of intentional community doing permaculture. Have a read of the post I’ve wrote about it! Also, if you want to know more about it, please read my friend Jackson’s exciting posts.

Even if I haven't done my own garden, I've eaten local, fresh and organic veggies all summer, thanks to my subscription to the CSA baskets. So then, of course I'd like to continue to eat the same quality during the Quebec's long winter as much as possible. And so, I will have to hurry up and go buy some vegetables in greater quantity at the organic food store -that is at four street blocks from my place- in making sure they are really produced in my province. Why? I think it isn't necessary to tell you the whole story of how are preserved the vegetable produced in other countries so they can get "fresh" in our plate, nor the one about all the gases released in the atmosphere to meet our "needs"... Right?

And what will I do with these veggies? Well I'll prepare and freeze them, of course! Then I thought «Let’s share some tips with my friends (that’s YOU!), so they can do the same with the veggies they have grown, or so they can give me their own tips!»

Thus, to keep your crops, there are interesting alternatives that do not date from yesterday : preserves, pickles and jams, fermentations, freezing and dehydration. Some food, such as herbs herbs can be kept steeped in oil. These are all simple ways to save and preserve the flavor and nutritional values of your food, and avoid commercial products often containing high levels of sugars, salts, artificial colorings and preservatives.

Let’s take a closer look to the advantages of some of these ways…

The preserves, pickles and jams

Cooking and keeping food into airtight glass Mason jars allows you to keep it for about a year or so. The berries are, of course, delicious in jams. The pickles, onions, beets and peppers are excellent for pickling, or to make ketchup and chutney. And homemade tomato sauce is a vital asset for last minute meal.

Also, even if they require a little more of preparation time, canning and jams are offering much more advantages. Indeed, beside the fact that they can serve as nice and healthy gift when we are invited for diner at a friend's place, to prepare them can be a fun activity with family, friends or neighbors!

Nothing less complicated: you just have to do a quick internet search, or to go for a walk to the library, to find recipes that match our tastes and our needs. Even better: pay yourself a visit to your grand'ma, you'll make her day by asking her for her best recipes!

The only tip I have to give you, to do it right, is to pay attention to the sterilization process of your jars and of the food. For preserves of acid food (such as fruits, pickles, chutney, etc.), the bacterias are eliminated by simply boiling the jars once they are filled and sealed. But other preserves (such as meet, soups, sauces, ect.) must be heated to a temperature above 116 °C. How to know if your preserves have been heated enough? The lids should be "sucked" towards the inside of the jar when cooling. If it inflates, this means that sterilization has failed and you must restart the process, or consume the product very quickly and keeping it cold.

The freezing
Any fruits or vegetables can be freezed, this is not an issue. Simply spread them on a plate for the first few hours of freezing, then put them in a container or a freezer bag. This will prevent them from sticking in a bread unbreakable.

Where you have to be careful is when freezing prepared meals. To freeze a prepared meal containing milk or cream is never a good thing… Thus, my tip is to prepare the meal without it, and you’ll simply adjust the recipe when you’ll reheat it to serve. This is what I do with cream soups though.

The dehydration
Dehydration keeps all the vitamins in it. Dried food is long shelf life, contain no fat, and taste delicious. Apart from traditional herbs and raisins, it is quite possible, with a dehydrator, to preserve many foods, such as tomatoes, pears, berries, which can serve as healthy snacks, or can be add to the preparation of many desserts and salads. We can even make grain crackers and dehydrate fish and meat.My tip would be to keep your dried food in a cool place, by limiting its exposure to light, which can degrade the vitamins.

Now! Feel free to share you knowledge on the topic!
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PROJECTS OF PRESERVING YOUR PRECIOUS CROPS! HAVE FUN, AND SHARE YOUR SUCCESSES! LoVE!

It's time for some Quebec music!

Happy Monday everyone!

I did not really intend to narrate you each of my weekend... But it seems that I can't help but to do so! 'Cause I am too lucky and they are too extraordinary! Haha

Seriously, I came up wanting to share with you what will come next because of the great evening I got last saturday, to picnic with some friends in the park. After having joined our hands before starting to share the yummy things we all had brought, one of my friend asked: "Hey, don't you feel like, each in turn, to report a beautiful moment of our week?" Then we have been discussing for a long moment about nice things. The just-so-perfect question! But we had to put a limitation to the current week ('cause we would still be there talking at this time!), and I couldn't help but to think about a moment I had the weekend before, so let me share it now, with you all!

Back to a bit more than a week, I went to a fest called La Fête Bières & Saveurs with some very cool cats. The event -that promotes the flavors of local produces, such as beers, cheeses and grilled meats- is settled down every year in a very beautiful park, on the historical site of the Fort Chambly, on the edge of the Richelieu River. There, I got a few of great moments, as to connect with really amazing people, and to taste delicious food and liquids. Then, what a surprise to see a friend of us playing with his band!

I'd like to share their music with you. They are called Écho Kalypso, and I must warn you: you'll be groovin' on and demanding for more, 'cuz they are awesome!

I told you! Yes? Now, I highly recommend that you go on their MySpace and discover some more from them. I really enjoy Citoyen and Olan, both commited songs.

Echo Kalypso: Where was I for never having seen this amazing video? You really should make some others! It is of such quality! Thank you, guys for your music, that has added so much to the great time we all have had that weekend! And what a frantic moment we had with that incredibly beautiful rainbow coming out while you were singing your last song! Yep! A DOUBLE RAINBOW, my friends!! And it turned so bright for a moment! I was sooo feeling like in that famous Youtube video that has been seen all over the world! Aahhh, so moving! :)

Okay, now let's end that post by sharing with you which are the beers I've tasted there! Remember they were some of the products in the spotlight of this fest... Thus, booth after booth, we discovered new beers made by some Quebec's carft breweries. I've had three (which is way enough for my small shape!):

• Saison No.6, a white beer with lavender brewed by Boquébière.
• El Lapino, a very delicious (and spicy!) blond beer with jalapenos, brewed by Microbrasserie du Lièvre. I already knew them for their Ginger Beer (which is my favorite beer, along with La Chi Orientale -an unfiltered white beer brewed from barley, wheat and rice, flavored with ginger, citrus and citronella- this one brewed by Brasseurs de Montréal.
• Brune Au Miel, a beer with organic honey and caramel, also brewed by Microbrasserie du Lièvre.

I've been very pleased with all of the choices I made! Quebec brews beer of a really great quality!

If you are one of my fellow citizen and you've never been to this festival yet, well you really should go! And if you are living in another beautiful part of the world and you plan to visit us next summer, please stop by La Fête Bières & Saveurs to have a taste of our Quebecer flavours and of our warm music!

Bring your tankard, and come to say hi and sit down on the grass to enjoy a good show!

Enjoy the fresh breezes offered by this nice month of September, everyone!
A COLORFUL RAINBOW SMILE FROM MONTREAL TO YOU! ☼

Places I love - Café Santropol

Good morning my dear friends!

As second post of the series, I wish to introduce you to a Café where I love to go when I am craving for a heavenly delicious sandwich without making it by myself...

Café Santropol proves that even small businesses can have a large impact. The opening of the hippy-dippy restaurant, 34 years ago, was mainly to stop a block of buildings on St. Urbain Street from being demolished. The facts are that, in the mid-seventies, many of the row houses in the immediate area of Montreal's first hospital (Hotel Dieu hospital, founded in 1645 by an order of nuns) had been demolished. And the block of buildings at the corner of St. Urbain and Duluth streets was next.

Gilker, a man living on the upstair flat of one of these buildings, decided to take over the first floor for an extra raise of his rent, although he was already indebted, because he figured that a building with a on going concern in it would be harder to tear down than an unoccupied one.

He cleaned the premises, pending an idea to come to him for knowing how to use them. The winter passed by, In the meantime, he was scrounging the alleys for discarded furniture. And it occured to be all clear by the spring of 1976. This part of the city has always had a large student population, because of the two universities close by. The area was ripe for restaurants. But still indebted, Gilker couldn't even afford to put in a grill or any other usual kitchen equipment. Thus, he decided to have a menu made with stuff that didn't require cooking: sandwiches, salads and soups. The bakers of the neighborhood were bringing desserts, quiches and bread.

Café Santropol, wearing rather eclectic furniture picked up here and there in the neighboring streets, then became known as a quirky restaurant with a simple menu and a comfortable decor.

Gilker admit that the business sense was the last thing his two partners and him learned, and one of them declared: "It took five or six years before we could really pay the bills. We sold some stuff for years at less than cost and didn't know it."

As the café became established, the threat of demolition receded. The block of housing became a co-operative. The restaurant has been expanded in 2003, and now accommodates about 50 people. The beautiful garden they have added behind the building has been voted best terrace in Montreal many times over by alternative newspapers. When weather permitting, an additionnal 30 people can sit there, amongst a wide variety of wild flowers and indigenous plants, under the trees, or around the fish pond.

Today, the Café still makes its own bread and grow its own sprouts that goes into their delicious sandwiches and decorate the plates.

Thank you, Café Santropole, for welcoming people with so much love! Paying me a visit to your restaurant, always make me feel so good!

A recommendation for my friends: bring your own container and take the sandwich to go! The Café is close by the pretty and big Jeanne-Mance park and the Mount Royal park, wich one I'll introduce to you into a next post.
ENJOY YOUR DAY, EVERYONE! ☼

I am posting LoVE!

Back to last april, the discovery of the blog Things We Forget had inspired me for a series of love spreading actions. But, as summer was passing by, and as I was being busy doing camping and meeting up friends, I’ve been close to forget my mission. But a post of SuperForester Aaron about secret agents of positivity spreadings has refreshed the desire to accomplish it.

So here is what I came up with, by the mix of the two sources of ideas, and what I did on last Friday evening… (excuse the bad quality of my pictures!)

Yep, you well guessed it! I've walked across the streets of my neighbourhood and I left love notes anonymously! And especially this street was beautifully blooming with flowers!

Okay, now I know what many will tell me: ''Yeah but what do you do with your fighting against wasting, Marie? Aren't you supposed to be green?'' Yep, I can hear you from here! Haha! Aaaah, I love you all so much! ;)

Yes, I am green. But I am trying to get a little less drastic when it comes in terms of making someone's day, and to give a chance to convince some of my peers for starting to accomplish random acts of kindness. Because I AM convinced it worth it!

Thus, I now keep my little yellow pad and my red felt pen in my bag, always ready to be used! Transform yourself also into special agent! Not the kind doing sabotage, no! The kind "working to spread positivity and joy in the world"! Yes!
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE! ♥

The sound of love - New Soul - Yael Naim

I like Yael Neim's songs and videos. I know that we have already heard this next one a lot, but I like it! And, oh! I DO have to make one of my rooms like this!


We can feel so good and free by inviting all other beings in our universe! It's a privilege to meet you all!

SENDING LOVE AND GOOD VIBES TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!

Meet up with our Inner Child

I know I've shared much more personnal/spiritual stuff lately, but I think that what I am experiencing are gifts of life, and that everybody should be allowed to experience it and share about it. So, I am saying: ''Why not?'' It seems that this does not help only me, but some of you also. Thus, if this must be part of the many tangents that is taking my blog, that's fine!

Then, here is another one!
A sister from my large universal family has recently published an awesome post –which I recommend to have a read of, on her blog : Today, Tomorrow, And Sometime Yesterday– that made me take a cosmic journey.

Through the read of the post, she made me stop and think to my Young Me. And through this thinking, I saw more clearly one important thing: that I am not two, but one, in a different time and space.

Okay, let’s make a digression to explain myself: since my shift to a different mentality, I was seeing myself as a (kind of) new entity, as if I was a too different person and not recognising the old me… So wrong I was! I can now see and admit that it seemed easier to cut myself from this past of wounds than to undertake the long journey for its heal. It is clear that this path would have led me to the eventual return of things...

Thus, with the flow of my thoughts, triggered by the read of the post, I realized that a much bigger part of me didn’t changed as much as I thought. I did not became someone else: I've evolved! Duh, I know it seems clear to most of you but, nope, it wasn’t for me! Thus, as and when I was realizing all this, I slowly entered in a fairy garden –probably something to do with the drawings of the post- where I met my Young Me, nicely sat down in a fetal position under a magestic tree -a Weeping Willow tree, for sure. I took the time to observe and feel Young Me, then we connected. Tears of joy and compassion gain me, and I told her how proud I was of how she made it this far! I held her in my arms, against my heart, so she can feel all the love fulfilling it and to give her the courage for even better.

This cosmical connection with Young Marie-Eve totally dumbfounded me. And now this post will be there to always remember me of returning for quick visits, to give myself a hug and bring me the healing peace. Coming back from there, feeling this love I've just been giving myself through my Young Me, has no price, and I think ''This is wonderful''! This definitely is an experience I recommend to everyone!

I also began to divide the clutters of my closet and mind, as sister Hana wrote about, and do some cleaning, to give back to the moments from the past what is their own, and move forward feeling lighter, and get ready for a new adventure! Yay!! Dear Universe, get ready to feel and feed me with your awesomeness! Haha!

Much gratitude for this great reading and for everything that resulted from this. Thank you, Miss Flower Joyologist from the Big Apple! Love,
~Marie ♥