Our Best Advice

EASTER-PASSOVER-SPRING

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | Our Best Advice | No Comments

HAAS CHOCOLATES "Thomas" EASTER ROADSTER

Over the years, our doors have been open and crossed by people of all races, orientations, and denominations. We have always done our very best to help each one of them, and did a pretty good job which earned us our highly regarded reputation. The two big holidays for April are EASTER and PASSOVER. We’ve got some good TIPS for both and SPRING (see more in our previous April TIP on GREEN holiday themes), regardless of what your race or religion. For Easter, there is nothing like chocolate. Our TIP is bring more sweet delight into your life at Holiday times with chocolate. Thomas Haas Chocolate brings a smile of appreciation for his great imagination. They don’t use any preservatives or artificial flavors in their products, see them here: Desserts I prefer and believe it’s best to strive for organic products whenever and wherever possible (protects our ground water just for starters). If unable to find any in your local retail stores try to find products online with the least amount of processed ingredients and fair trade practice.

bunny-cookies

I was privileged to meet the brilliant Actor Katherine Hepburn (she did not refer to herself as an actress) during her zenith years. In my chat with  one of the iconic American performers of all time I admired her amazing vitality and strength. I wasn’t going to gush over her acting which was exactly what I wanted to do. She attributed her endless energy to among other things, her love of chocolate. Ms. Hepburn enjoyed a piece of chocolate daily she insisted was part of her health regiment. We’ve been mislead by current fads of dieting that chocolate is not part of a healthy lifestyle due to its fat and sugar content. This is silly. Just see the film Chocolate and easily be convinced! I won’t go into the healthy properties of chocolate, you can research that yourself. Spring-time sweet tooth strikes again! These adorable organic chocolate bunny cookies make the perfect seasonal gift for your sweetie or anyone you want to treat sweetly. Made with organic fair trade cocoa and topped with organic raspberry and lemon icing, these cookies are delicious and fun. But we might first ask, in contrast to the general public’s understanding and Christian beliefs (which considers Christmas the most important Christian holiday), many theologians regard Easter as the preeminent celebration because it commemorates Jesus’ resurrection. As with Christmas, we find that the popular customs associated with the Easter celebration—rabbits, Easter-egg hunts and sunrise services—have nothing to do with the biblical record of Christ’s life, in this case His rising from the dead. In fact, this ritual was never part of Jesus’ teachings (only introduced in the thirteen hundreds). His only recorded celebration ritual in April was of Passover. The symbols of eggs and fertility actually harken back to pagan spring rituals not His resurrection, an entirely different understanding historically. So if you don’t want to do chocolate or eggs, you can indulge in organic jelly beans which look like eggs too!  Just make sure not to eat the kind with corn syrup, the cause for much of our current obesity  along with hidden MSG put into fast foods.

COME INTO MY REST

April is also celebration of SPRING. Celebrate all good things that come in April including mother nature. Our TIP is rest and joy are central to our well being, so let yourself go into a deep meditation ritual of some kind on Easter (if you don’t do chocolate, cookies, or candy) and contemplate the resurection of life. Do some meditation or Yoga towards restful going deeper, not for the purpose of calisthenics as Yoga has been turned into. One of the best lessons in the film LOST HORIZON is the Yogic advice of doing things in moderation, a key art of  balancing practice. If you haven’t seen it, this film is a classic must. Jesus taught others by inviting them into his “rest”, among other pearls of wisdom that transformed the world in the last 2,000 years. In His name much unrest has been perpetrated by those manipulating His teachings (and name) for their own power. This is true also of The Prophet Mohammed, who mentions Jesus in the Koran no less then thirteen times in homage to the Master he was inspired by.

PASSOVER is a holiday jewish families celebrate as a reminder of being freed from slavery. It is an important remembering. Our TIP is to participate in this ritual regardless of your religion, for it is actually performed on behalf of all mankind for we are all slaves in one form or another. Who among us is truly free? Even if you are not jewish, this year is meaningful for this ritual because it relates to our nation’s HISTORY of slavery with Obama being elected President. Slavery is a shared fracture to our humanity in all races. Each race has been, and continues to suffer, some form of slavery even today. And as I see it, there are only two races on this planet: male and female. They are truly different biologically and physically, although both belong to the human specie. Perhaps that is why men and women are still undergoing the “getting to know you” phase that is endlessly mysterious. It might be difficult to believe a “white” race suffers from enslavement but any belief in superiority over other races is in itself enslaving. So here I digress a little at risk of going on soapbox rap. Bear with me.

The tragic historical events that drove past civilizations on this planet into extinction faces us today with ours, directly related to enslavement and ignorance. Few know that Rome was created by Spartans fleeing to the hillsides after being defeated, kidnapping wives of other men, then settling in a new place they named Rome. So Rome was initially founded on kidnapped wives and women belonging elsewhere, then a group of men organized a new religion their Caesars claimed to be descended from God. The History shown on TV is often mistaken or doesn’t give a true context of the correspondences. The Jews have indeed gone through trials and tribulations of extraordinary proportion to their small population and considered as  “chosen people” to have survived them. Something Mysterious certainly protected a population so small, that by all statistical computations should have become extinct long ago. But there is no shortage of jewish people who unleashed evil against their own good jews as history and biblical lore shows. Good and Evil exists in all humanity regardless of race or religion, unless transformed. As I understand it, Jesus’ teaching of ‘let ye who is without sin cast the first stone’, covers this just right.

The Black race in ancient times enslaved other races to build their great empire, today they enslave and kill one another brutally in Africa. The oriental race enslaved each other and others in Asia including the Mongolian tundra. This is also true of the Ottoman Empire Moors and Kurds today known as Moslems. The Arabic tribes always warred against one another unless they had a common enemy, so that scapegoat serves that distraction. India is enslaved with its massive population despite its glorious ancient teachings and current emergence into a high tech population, with huge populations starving while cows are treated as sacred. China is fragile, unstable, a massive population difficult to govern, with a long history of brutality and warlord warring, and faced with the current problem of product contamination and quality control among other challenges. So what if the products are cheap if they’re dangerous. Native tribes used to steal each others men, women, and children, chronically warring. Reduced to drink and drugs having forgotten their great heritage, they face a broken lineage throughout North America. The Hispanic and Latin populations are killing each other with mafia type brutality of the ancient Aztec empire.

Today, we have a heartbreaking unprecedented kidnapping of young adults and children into a world slave trade market of all races, a reflection of the debauched level of  humanity we’ve had in the past. Organized religions have not done a very good job in creating “peace on earth” despite all of their beliefs not because they don’t understand one another, but because they do, and disagree– as worldwide conditions show. All the therapy in the last 60 years has not helped. Or the Om chanting in ritual groups, weekend retreats, and new ideologies which are actually old ones reconfigured. Utopian communities experimented and failed on Earth.

In short, if you believe in Aliens, one can only imagine how crazy they think we humans are. You can quickly see how this pretzel of history becomes a snare (or as my husband Roger calls it the knots of history needing to be combed out).

PEACE DOVE SYMBOL ON EARTH

PRESIDENT OBAMA announced today there will be a PASSOVER along with EASTER celebrated in the White House this month. This is a wonderful new direction of merging all faiths as a new reflection of our nation. Most likely in the future he will hold other celebrations of other religions as confirmation of our diverse population, symbolic of our religious freedom and tolerance. Take every opportunity to refine yourself regardless of your goals and success. Learn our world history and how our spiritual heritage and wisdom traditions emerged. Do it for the love of learning and to keep yourself from regressing into past patterns. Sadly, many worldwide do not haven any access to education. Indentured service was at the core of our humanity until the 15th century, when a middle class finally began to rise in Europe. This means thousands of years of slavery on this planet that unacceptably continues to date. So whether you are jewish or not, stop and take a moment to reflect. Give thanks in gratitude for the end of slavery. Toast that it is over in this country and we can move forward with its end for women through the suffragette movement. Yet, we still have the resonant patterns needing to be healed. There is still much work to do for slavery to be abolished in all forms on this planet. Wisdom is a much higher order of power, a daily practice. A glass of wine and piece of matzoh will serve to toast bringing it in. If you’re not inclined to celebrate Passover, think of Matzoh as a blessed cracker made of flour and water that is universal to enjoy and hold a sacrament. If you cannot drink wine use grape juice, or cider in a wine glass instead.

And if you’re into a different spiritual persuasion or are an atheist, or are simply not into Easter, have a piece of chocolate anyway. Personally, I celebrate all of this planet’s humanity — you can too!

HAPPY EASTER AND PASSOVER, AND HAPPY SPRING!

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Torrance, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Westwood, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, & the greater United States…

Our Best Advice has been brought to you by www.ISAstaffing.com, renowned Best of The Best in Household Work and Domestic Help staffing. Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friend featured link to this blog, and our Domestic Staffing website to pass our HOT TIPS and renowned services. THANKS!

Tags: 21st Century, candles, Celebration, Chocolate, Diet, Easter, French, Happiness, Health, Holiday, Holidays, organic, Organic Chocolate, Passover, Peace, spring, wine, world, Yoga

VALENTINES DAY – ECO AND ROMANTIC

Sunday, February 8th, 2009 | Our Best Advice | No Comments

Vintage Valentine Cards remind us that Humans have been giving each other love covenants seemingly forever. Go green with LOVE this Valentine's Day.

On this Valentine’s Day, Go “Eco” and “Romantic!” It is my understanding there is no such thing as a “selfish gene” as Richard Dawkins (the renowned genome scientist) believes. Love transforms all, and all exists in love first including “selfishness”, which is merely an aspect of ignorance as a fear based separation illusion. So my advice for this Valentines Day is to love more deeply, and our HOT TIP for today is to Go GREEN with LOVE on Valentine’s Day and every day.

In these hard economic times when so many are deprived of so much we all could put out extra effort to share the love broadly. What we can do is to create or give gifts that have minimal impact on our environment. This Valentine’s Day follow tips that keep the planet alive and also restore harmony. Hand made gifts are always so cool and takes it up as a more memorable exchange. Take photos of yourself making the gift and include a small handmade photo album with love notes as part of your present. Hand made “eco friendly chocolates” from recipes found on line are easy if chocolate is your thing.

Make an extra gift for a stranger as “potlatch”, the Native American Indian ritual of “give away”. Give a gift to someone you don’t know on the street as you pass them by, or donate to an organization that supports eco friendly giving. Don’t forget “Fair Trade bubbly” to go with your love if Champaign is your thing.

Avoid candles made of petroleum paraffin that produce soot and release harmful benzene and toluene chemical toxins. Find natural beeswax or soy candles with a wick that has no lead insert in it. Sexy and romantic can also be green. Forget the dozen red roses and buy a baby tree, or organic herbs that you both can plant in your lovers back yard together. Offer to cook the herbs in a memorable meal and give them a LOVE MEAL IOU included with your gift.

Take a romantic stroll around your neighborhood and spend time getting to know your neighbors by sharing the love. Leave them a treat in their mailbox with a Valentine’s Card. Don’t forget the age old “Breakfast In Bed” we all love; a gift that’s pocket friendly too.

vintage art deco valentine card

Give handmade Valentine’s Cards made with recycled paper. A great way to recycle grocery bag brown paper is to cut it up and turn it into hand crafted cards you paint and glue meaningful things onto. Use eco-friendly glue! Organic cotton T-shirts with your declaration of love painted on it can replace your Valentine’s Card. Roll it up and include a poem of love painted on a large green leaf from your garden. Have your significant other insert the leaf into a book with other books kept on top for a month, and it will dry out beautifully preserved.  If you’re good with computer graphics, you might design a photo collage made up of green hearts or wild grass or green flowers of love. Print it on nice paper and insert it into a frame you’ve made. Or, you can give a micro-loan in someone’s name included into your Valentine’s Day card through an organization like Kiva, an amazing and highly effective program helping small businesses to get started all over the world. Micro-loans as grass roots program will help get us out of global recession and likely become the permanent way of social networking economics.

As we know, this is a small planet in a big back yard we call the Cosmos. Think Cosmic Valentines. Rather then a day of celebrating love, give it up daily — offer it up “Eco” and “Romantic!”

Have A Happy And Green Valentine’s Day!

Serving Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Torrance, Hancock Park, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Marina Del Rey, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose. Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Woodland Hills, Topanga Canyon, Westwood, Hollywood Hills, Pasadena, San Mareno, Santa Barbara, Orange County, Ventura County, California, New York, & the greater United States…

Our Best Advice has been brought to you by www.ISAstaffing.com, renowned Best of The Best in Household Work and Domestic Help staffing. Visit often for other great ideas, use our Tell A Friend featured link to this blog, and our Domestic Staffing website to pass our HOT TIPS and renowned services. THANKS!

Tags: candles, CHEFS, eco friendly, ecological, environmentally friendly, garden, Gifts, GREEN, handmade cards, Herbs, Holiday, Holidays, love poems, meals, natural, organic, organic cotton, plants, Romantic, romantic dinners, small planet, soy candles, Valentines Day, yard