Charmed Monday Minute Jan. 7

Happy New Year to all! I hope 2007 will bring you success, peace, and every opportunity to fulfill your happy destiny.

I’m thrilled to report that I am feeling much, much better. I spent a week at a marvelous, healing place, the New Age Health Spa in the Catskill Mountains about 100 miles from New York City (www.newagehealthspa.com). When I first arrived there, I felt so bad I thought I’d made the wrong decision, that I should be at a starker, more medical kind of place. But within a couple of days I was feeling better and now I’d say that 90% of the pain in my head in gone. I don’t know the reason: I had some amazing treatments there – hot stone massage, acupuncture, cranial-sacral therapy, foot reflexology, and several steams and wraps and scrubs to detoxify. In addition, there were two yoga classes and two meditation sessions each day, plus other classes in tai chi, Alexander Technique, Nia, Chinese healing, and more. And I started to reread Deepak Chopra’s wonderful book, Perfect Health, and I’ve been following an Ayurvedic lifestyle for my body type. (According to Ayurveda, having Vata dosha out of balance – I’m a Vata, so that imbalance is what I’m prone to – exacerbates nerve pain. Very interesting.)

In addition, before I left one friend gave me Reiki, another treated me to a massage, my fabulous Chinese healer from KC just sent me some specially compounded herbs for the condition I’ve had, and I just learned that someone dear to my heart has been doing distance healing for me from the Midwest. And I’ve been on the Silent Unity prayer list this whole time. (If you don’t know about Silent Unity, they use affirmative prayer for people of any faith or no faith, 24 hours a day, and they’ve been at it for over 120 years. Their number is 816-969-2000 and you can call any time day or night.) It all adds up to feeling more well than I had dared to hope. I’m seeing a medical specialist on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see what he thinks of my recovery via these unusual methods.

Anyway, I have a new lease on life – a perfect way to start a year, I think. I wish you this kind of joy (but without being sick first!).

(Note: This is a longer Minute than usual – okay, it’s a 4-or-5-Minutes)

Love and Light to you in this New Year,
Victoria

Movie of the week: Miss Potter. This is the Renee Zellwegger film about Beatrix Potter who wrote and illustrated Peter Rabbit and other classic children’s books. It is visually exquisite, charming and heartwarming, and a lovely look at a woman’s life in a time when women had precious little freedom or self-determination. I loved it, my husband loved it, and all the women in the bathroom afterwards loved it. Only the critics pooh-poohed it as “too sweet.” It’s not! I don’t go for gooey-sweet myself, and this isn’t. It’s just a beautiful movie and one that you could take a child to without wishing you’d brought a blindfold and earplugs. Recipe of the week: In the pre-Christmas newsletter, Joya and I forgot to include the pumpkin pie recipe kindly sent by Lori Finlay Hamilton (www.wisewomanwellness.com). We’re adding it here. Certainly it’s okay to enjoy pumpkin pie in January! Happy Heart, Happy Hormones (low fat, dairy free- "guilt free" pumpkin pie) Pre-heat over to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) 1-1/2 package Mori-Nu Lite Tofu (firm or regular Silken Tofu) 1 cups (480 ml) canned or cooked pumpkin 2/3 cup (160 ml) honey 1 tsp vanilla 1 Tablespoon Pumpkin pie spice 1 unbaked 9" pie shell Place Tofu in Blender or Vita Mix container. Blend until smooth, about 20-25 seconds on medium speed. Add remaining ingredients, and run until well blended. Pour into a 9" (22.5 cm) unbaked deep pie dish shell and bake for about 1 hour. Filling will be soft, but firms up as it sits . Chill and serve. Great for breakfast treat- without the guilt! A note from Lori: I've served this with company and they had no idea this was a "tofu pumpkin pie" :)

In search of... ...the lovely reader from out West who is an Arbonne representative. Please email me: I want to do a little write-up on Arbonne in a future newsletter (the products are yummy) and my daughter is craving body butter and some kind of magical masque. Thank you. Question of the week: I apologize: I was so sick before I left town, I managed to somehow delete your questions. It was some kind of Blackberry-to-regular-computer misstep on my part. In any case, please accept my apologies, kindly resend your questions to charmedassistant@aol.com, and I’ll answer all of them next week. The whole Monday Minute can be a sort of tribute to Ann Landers. Thanks for understanding. My resolutions: Yes, I make them, and they are: Enjoy life each day (I write more about that in the blog entry, pasted below), and: Live Ayurvedically for one full year. I find an assortment of ways of being and ways of living so fascinating that I’ve never really stayed with one system of well-being consistently for an extended period. This year I intend to stay close to the Ayurvedic principles for all twelve months and chart my progress. This includes keeping a regular schedule, getting up early and to bed on time, doing warm oil massage most mornings, meditating twice a day, doing yoga regularly, and eating the diet that’s best for my body type. Much of this I’ve done before or do a good part of the time, but this year my intention is to have a serious commitment to this way of life. I also want to go for panchakarma, a special Ayurvedic cleansing/healing program, at least twice this year as well. It seems like a lot but I have a lot of incentive. I’ll keep you posted. (If you’d like to share your resolutions with the rest of us, send them to Joya (charmedassistant@aol.com) – and we’ll include them next time with your first name or, if you’d prefer, in total anonymity.)

Help for a friend:

To any New York area readers who might be able to help: my dear friend Alima is looking for an apartment-sitting situation for a minimum of six weeks. I’ve known Alima since I was 22, when she and her mom and brother were renting a big house in Kansas City with Patrick, my then-to-be-husband, and his sister. Alima is a gifted intuitive and for some years has divided her time among Kansas City, Sarasota, and New York City, never having a permanent residence here. When she last came up to see clients in NYC, however, she was struck with a serious illness and has been hospitalized for nearly five months.

As you can imagine, not being able to work for that long, plus dealing with uncovered hospital expenses, has made a huge dent in her financial reserves. When she is released in the next few weeks, she’ll need a place to live in New York. If you or anyone you know is looking for someone to stay in their place while they’re away---especially is there is a cat (or cats), bird, or fish to care for---this would be a godsend. (She is using a cane and is not physically able to care for a dog.) A perk is that she is an animal communicator and would be a lovely friend for a pet whose family is away. And she would probably work something out with you so that you could get regular readings for some extended period. She is very good at what she does. If you can help, you can call her directly at the hospital (212-636-8521). She cannot be reached by email there, but if you’d like to visit her website as an fyi, it is www.alima.ws. Thanks, all.