Elizabeth

Glue

People don’t come preassembled, but are glued together by life.

I’d heard of chia seeds (and joked that someone’s found a new marketing angle now that chia pets are no longer the craze). I didn’t take chia seriously until I attended a raw live food cooking demo and now I love them.

Chia seeds are high in fibre (“the stealth nutrient” according to Robert Lustig, MD) and omega 3, and chia is delicious in combination with fruits.

Though the cook demonstrated this with measurements, I cook by approximation. She also added agave or maple syrup, which is overkill given the fruits’ sweetness. And no one needs more sugar despite it’s syrupy whispers to our DNA that it’s safe, since it fattens the liver and body and fosters disease.

Summer’s the perfect time for berries, so here’s the recipe…in approximate measurements. Once you’ve got a sense of it, make it your own!

2 baskets of Berries……..2 ripe Bananas……..5 Tablespoons Chia seeds……..3.5 cups water or coconut water……..

2 baskets of raspberries. Wash in water. (I sometimes soak berries in warm or cool water and a splash of apple cider vinegar as a disinfectant, for at least 10 minutes, then rinse.)

2 ripe bananas

(I show the image because U.S. consumers often buy and eat bananas before they’re ripe.)

5 Tablespoons of chia seeds

Add about 1 cup of water and soak for 10 minutes. You may need to add a bit more water, or coconut water*, so the seeds continue to have liquid to absorb. (They can absorb nine times their volume in water…so don’t eat unsoaked chia or you’ll get stomach cramps.)

After soaking for 10 minutes, add at least 1.5 cups of water, or coconut water*, till the mixture holds its shape while while still flowing from a tilted spoon.

*Coconut water is often clear but sometimes pink. The best is directly from young fresh coconuts, but bottled/canned coconut water is easy if you don’t have time hack through the husk and you like the taste, or want extra potassium.

Now that you have the rinsed raspberries, ripe bananas and soaking chia

mash the bananas with your fingers, a potato masher or

a fork

till they look like this:

And do the same with the raspberries, which is easiest with fingers, though I’ll often do the bananas and raspberries together with a potato masher,

till they look like this:

Then add flavors you like…this medley in decreasing order of amount includes vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove:

Add the soaked chia to the fruit and mix till you have a uniform semi-liquidy glop that can be more or less watery depending on your taste – this is how I like it:

For more texture, you can mix in whole blueberries, or another fruit of your choice.

Cover your chi-licious and refrigerate at least two hours, then enjoy!

(For more crunch, add toasted nuts or seeds like pecans, walnuts, or pumpkin seeds in your bowl.)

It will be good up to three days, refrigerated, though it’s doubtful it will last that long. Delicious and good for you…what a combo!

Bon Appetit!

Bee is Mantis

Oooh, pretty!

Praying mantis! And so well camouflaged in salvia!

Those were my first thoughts.

Though I chose not to publish these photos previously because they disturb me,

they perfectly illustrate the ephemeral beauty of nature and fleeting quality of life and experience since living requires eating.

The honey bee is caught,

savored,

beheaded

and further savored…

and I had to walk away from breathtaking wonder in revulsion despite accepting that the bee is the mantis. We are each bee and mantis, simultaneously, our moments just as fleeting.

Beach Fruit

I don’t know whether I’m more surprised that people leave fruit on the beach

or that crows and mammals haven’t eaten it before I walk past

or how beautiful it can be

or that it can blend in so well.

It starts with the heart's pulse
      womb's embrace
   nourishment from other as if self

before we're spit into this slip slap of blue
      deafening white
   indifferent ground that shatters bone
         if we fall too long
            too hard

yet sometimes hands, like whispers,
      rustle through loss's deep well
   to retrieve silken strands

rewoven then into something like wings
      that expand beyond the contraction of loss
   and whisper through the dark
                                             you are not alone.

Thank you to the editors of 5AM for first publishing this poem.