When Apple Fasting Goes Hawaiian

A day of apple fasting is part of the tradition at the Qigong healing retreats I’ve attended for the last two years. I’m feeling grateful for those experiences today.

The purpose of apple fasting is two-fold. One is to give one’s body a rest. One apple, three times a day. Lots of water. Maybe a spot of tea. The second is more about noticing. What is it like to feel what you feel? To set aside anxiety, which is always about the past or the future, and be in the moment? With the scent of an apple. The crunch. The clean, not quite sweet taste. To eat, for just one day, what is offered?

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A Purple Sort of Mood

We have some fairly unusual traditions in our family. One of those traditions, which others tend to find perplexing, is our habit of moving holidays around to days that are more convenient for us. I think it started a couple of years after we got married. We spent the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving helping a mom and her four children find safety in a shelter for battered women, several counties away. It was 2:00 in the morning by the time we got home. Bill and I looked at each other and said, in unison, “Thanksgiving on Friday!” and fell into bed.

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