Ithaca is GORGE-OUS!

The only thing more beautiful than Ithaca, NY is the people who live there. After the family reunion, I decided to spend a week in Ithaca. My old boss, John, at the ABC Cafe welcomed me with a giant plate of prasadam. It was African night.
I have so much to learn from my friends. My buddy, Josh, is a permaculture freak. We spent the day on his land, ooing and awing his garden and then took a short herb walk through the woods, rich with Elder berries, Blue Cohosh, Bloodroot, Pawpaws and Hepatica.
This spring Josh started cultivating shitake and reishi mushrooms by drilling holes in oak logs harvested from his land and filling them with spore-laden "plugs". The crew formed an assembly line and pulled the logs out of the pond after a week-long inoculation period. Harvest starts next year and will continue for up to 3 years.
A rare photo of a newly initiated mushroom log in its natural habitat. Oh, the thrill of stalking the wild mushroom- curbing carnivorous tendencies.
The first raspberry of the season. I made a simple offering back to Krishna then popped little red into my mouth, the whole time smiling with ubolic devotional tendencies running through my heart. And who did I find next door? Brother blackberry darshan, a sure cure for city slumber and dormant taste buds.What would be a trip to Ithaca without spending time with Dunkelman and Astra. These are two of the more outrageous spiritual-minded women you'll ever meet. Dunkelman leans towards the Vipassana, and while Astra does have Buddhist tendencies, her heart is more into shamanism.I spent two days with Dunkelman at the Zen Retreat Center she has been working at this summer. Folks come for 10-day healing sessions that revolve around the detox method as prescribed by Ann Wigmore. One of Dunkelman's duties is to prepare the "party packs" which are actually DYI enema kits. The retreat diet is mostly raw, lots of spouts, wheatgrass juice, and something called energy soup.Fortunately, I was visiting during an interim break between retreats and was, thus, able to offer some service and cook for all the staff members. Kichari and chapatis for breakfast, and homemade "guru-approved" veggie burgers, whole wheat buns, fresh garden salad, and lemon-tahini dressing for lunch.
Belly certification. Heart purification. On Indian night at the ABC cafe, I was able to offer kirtan, singing the glories of Krishna, during dinner in the restaurant side of the cafe. Dunkelman even decided to skip dinner and chant with me the whole time! The entire staff from the Zen Center showed up and asked lots of questions in between bhajans. At the end of the night, after four hours of chanting, Dunkelman was glowing. Notice her instrument of choice: old school spoons. Some fight revolutions with pens and others with swords, but this revolution is fought with spoons!
And here's the little man who only three short years ago, appeared in this world surrounded by the prayers of a home birthing support team, including Astra and myself. Elijah is a terror on his scooter but a whimp in the water. His mother and my dear friend, Danielle, is more beautiful than ever and even sweeter than her homemade peach pie. We talked a lot about heart break and the importance of goddess worship while I was in town. My main point was that if you could have a personal relationship and receive guidance from the topmost, Supreme Goddess, why not jump on that opportunity in a second. I explained that the "Hare" in Hare Krishna refers to this Supreme Mother, Hari, and that we ask for her guidance and direction by chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra. The necessity of women taking shelter of our Supreme Mother has never been so apparent as present day when marriages dissolve faster than Emergen-C packets.