First, plant-based, or plant-based nutrition, describes a diet consisting of whole plant foods and minimally processed plant foods.

A plant-based person does not eat animal parts or products such as meat, bone, eggs, milk, butter, gelatin, etc. Generally, the plant-based approach does not include refined or processed foods, which are considered “plant fragments.”

Mushrooms in general have a more hearty, "meaty" consistency and are a great source of protein, fiber and many important vitamins and minerals.

These trumpet and king oyster mushrooms eerily mimic the texture and look of pulled pork.

What really makes this sandwich for me is the slaw -- kale, carrot and red onion. It's the perfect tang to the spice of the BBQ sauce.

“We try so hard to separate joy and sorrow into their own boxes,

but the Archbishop and the Dalai Lama tell us that they are inevitably fastened together. Neither advocate the kind of fleeting happiness, often called hedonic happiness, that requires only positive states and banishes feelings like sadness to emotional exile.

The kind of happiness that they describe is often called eudemonic happiness

and is characterized by self-understanding, meaning, growth, and acceptance,

including life’s inevitable suffering, sadness, and grief.”

It’s possible that our extreme desire for comfort keeps us a little too protected. We successfully avoid situations where we are forced to grow, where there is uncertainty, where we don’t already feel adept and safe. This can make us reactive, entitled, and a little lazy.

A couple of years ago I decided to add a fitness class to the schedule of the yoga studio. Because It's All Yoga is known for the highest caliber of yoga teaching around, people were curious, to say the least, about why I would add a gym-type cardio class to the line-up.

This full moon promised revolution, breaking free to new ground and clarity on how to get there. I wanted it all.

My usual walking route gives me several places to glimpse its rising and ends with the perfect vista point.

I’d taken walks the two prior evenings, feeling the power build. So the dog and I set out on the full moon night to find it.

My projects included the Department of Health, the Department of Child Support Services, and CalPERS. My responsibilities ranged from Business Process Reviews (making maps for a current workflow and identifying potential inefficiencies or dead-ends) to Data Conversion Mapping (matching pieces of information in one system to their correct location in a new system) to Training (Hi, Department of State Workers, I’m going to train you on this new computer system I know nothing about).