Sharing a song and a potluck

First, a warm welcome to Ruth Flemming, who is joining our email circle! Ruth lives here in Portland and came to our Summer Potluck last weekend. I'll tell you more about the potluck soon.

This week's new recipe is for Sloppy Joes, a vegan version of a classic dish usually made with hamburger. John in Texas made up the recipe and included a colorful photo---thanks, John! Sloppy Joes

We have something new this time --- a song! Ann Freeman Price read my article, "Dinner Makes a Difference", in the MIndfulness Bell last year. She appreciated the words at the end, a prayer by John Robbins--- May all be fed... May all be healed... May all be loved... to which I added...May we do right by the Earth. In fact, Ann liked it so much, she set it to music. I'm attaching it to this email for all to enjoy. Maybe we can sing it at our next potluck....? Thanks, Ann, for helping to send these beautiful intentions out into the world!

Last week's potluck took place on a strange day. The sun was pink, the sunlight on the ground a shade of orange, and the air smelled of smoke. We were afraid there was a fire in the neighborhood, but walked around looking for it and saw that the smoke was everywhere. It turned out to be coming from the numerous forest fires in our region, the smoke blowing for miles, reaching us in the city for the first time we can remember. As we gathered for dinner in the garden we were well aware of the seriousness of our planetary predicament. Nancy put it into words for us, noting the bounty of food on our table, gifts from the Earth who feeds us and is so generous to us, even while we do her so much harm. Celebrating that generosity, Lucy spoke of the joy of peaches and tomatoes in this season and Evan told us he's happy tending their veggie beds. John and Sally, new to this way of eating, were inspired to change their diet by Joel Fuhrman's book, Eat to Live . This new diet has brought them together in the kitchen and made them much more aware of what they are eating. They were able to take a road trip through 17 states and stay with the diet by making big salads for lunch and buying Amy's vegan frozen dinners ---- which we learned are now available everywhere, thanks to Walmart.

Linda saw the film, "Plant Pure Nation", and is hoping to join a "pod" locally to lobby the legislature to address the problem of food deserts and get the facts of the health benefits of a plant-based diet included in food policies. Ruth spoke eloquently of her dismay that her home county in Iowa has the distinction of having the biggest hog and chicken factory farms. In her childhood, people there had a caring relationship with their animals. The shift to cruel practices has happened in just one generation.

Mary finds that coming to our potlucks inspires her to explore this kind of food. Sally is trying to cut down on sugar, heeding the advice of Dr. Neal Barnard ---- but had to make an exception for Lucy's fresh-baked apple cake! We commiserated with Susan, who can't resist the challenge of trying something new --- in this case making soymilk from scratch ---- then finds it takes way more time than expected ----and wonders, where did the day go? Finally, Sigrid helped us lighten up by showing a couple of funny cartoons and reading a poem that answers the question of what vegans eat. I'll try to attach those next time.

There were 15 of us here. We marveled at the world map that shows where all 162 of us live, and we thought of all of you out there who are with us in spirit. Our group keeps growing, both locally and in our email circle, each of us creating ripples of change wherever we are, as we face into these new times together. I will be sharing our potluck recipes in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, the sky here is blue again and I am humming Ann's song: May all be fed....May all be healed....May all be loved....May we live right with the Earth.

Happy cooking,
Eve
P.S. I was able to attach the music when this message went out to my email list, but can't get it on the website. If you would like to have the notes, just let me know by email.