A doll is born..

Raw

Delicious raw chocolate tart, recipe courtesy of Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall (River Cottage)

 

Ingredients

For the base

• 300g pecans or almonds
• 1 tsp pink Himalayan salt, or any other good-quality salt
• 200g medjool dates

For the filling

• 4 medium sized ripe avocados
• 150g virgin coconut oil
• 2 vanilla pods, seeds only
• 200g raw cacao powder
• Pinch of salt
• 300g coconut blossom sugar or agave nectar to taste

Method

1. In a food processor, blend the pecans or almonds (if possible, soak them for around 6 hours and then dehydrate them first. The soaking releases the enzyme inhibitors and makes them easier to digest.) Add the salt and medjool dates and blend until you have a ‘dough’, or until the mix forms a ball.
   
2. Press this mixture into the bottom of a mould. Cover in cling film and leave to harden in the freezer until you are ready to pour on the filling. I like to use a silicone mould. They are freezer safe and easy to get the tart out once it has set.
   
3. For the filling, blend everything together until smooth, then pour onto the base.
   
4. Set in the freezer for 1 hour, then it should be firm enough to slice up. Top with fresh berries, edible flowers, a dusting of cacao powder- whatever takes your fancy and looks pretty!
   

Alone with the Alone

                                                               Odilon Redon "Pandora"

Yesterday my family and I went to Washington D.C. to visit the National Gallery. I am not normally attracted to long museum visits. The vast amount of pictures and information tires me quickly and I prefer smaller exhibits where I can concentrate on one or a few artists at a time. Therefore I spent my time enjoying the scenery and playing with Alia. When she fell asleep I found myself wandering towards the French Impressionists to keep her asleep in a moving pram. After having looked at hundreds of paintings in ten minutes I was feeling that old fatigue when a large pastel coloured painting caught my eye. It was by an artist I had never heard of before and my mind drifted off into the painting that for some reason spoke to me. 

It is a rarity these days that I have the time to converse with my inner self and it struck me so strongly because it has been so long. Even when I was pregnant my mind was full of Alia, as it is now, but somehow this painting gave me a shortcut to that part of me that has been sorely neglected.

In prayer my energy is focused on a God distinct from me, apart from me, I am reaching out, but once in a blue moon a warm feeling rushes over me and I am left with the feeling that inside of me exists an eternal  light  that is in constant connection with the Divine Energy. We are now in the last ten days of Ramadan and these are the times that such blessings occur. Thank God.

Ball all done

Crochet ball made from organic cotton and stuffed with a bell and organic wool. I used this free pattern that was extremely easy to follow even for a beginner like me.

Spiritual childhood

“in receiving her life into my care I was agreeing to uphold a sacred trust — not only to feed, clothe, and protect her physical body but to nourish and protect her soul-life as well.” Author on birth of her first child.

I have been reading Shea Darian's Sanctuaries of Childhood and it has filled me with ideas for spiritual activities to do when Alia gets older. Especially the chapters on music and poetry really made me think about my own childhood and how my mother filled my world with magic, and though she was not religious she made space for spirituality because she felt I was attracted to it.

 I wish to fill Alia's life with the same magic and spirituality both in the form of the daily prayers and also through interacting with nature, storytelling, music and poetry. The book offers so many ideas on how to weave music and prose into the pattern of everyday life in a natural way, and has the sweetest little prayers and songs that the author (a multi-faith director) used herself as she raised her children.

At times I become overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for my daughter's physical well-being and I forget that her soul and heart requires just as much care and attention and that the physical and the spiritual are interwoven.  The book tells how just as a mosque, church or synagogue is a place that nurtures the soul, our homes can also be transformed into sanctuaries in which our spirits can take nourishment. All I can do now is pray that I may be able to carry out this task and make our home, wherever it may be, a place of prayer and broad-mindedness.