Spring is still warming up here in the northwest and because of the cold we look for filling salads to keep our body heat up. We're often drawn to choosing ingredients like cabbage or seaweed to make such a salad—to which you might say yuck!—but please read on!

Since delving into the living food diet we regularly scarf down plates of super-finely grated, mild tasting, organic green cabbage, often laced with a liberal dose of seaweed. Our favorite variety at this time is Arame, because it's non-salty, mild tasting, and has a pleasing texture. Arame plumps up to long thin pieces that work nicely with the texture and flavor of the grated cabbage.

Dr. Norman Walker writes in The Vegetarian Guide to Diet & Salad, that seaweed and cabbage both contain 59 vital elements, making them some of the most nutrient dense vegetables. These two foods combine to create a mineral rich, healthful salad. Jicama adds sweetness, and the lettuce adds iron and makes the salad less heavy.

Who would have thought, when as a child, during the short summers in the northwest, paddling through frigid waters filled with tickling, grabbing seaweed, that I would eventually come to eat sea greens!

I remember being about six and swimming one day, just after I'd learned how to dog-paddle, and had the following spiritual experience: I caught a long, smooth swell, feeling the awesome sensation of being totally buoyant. In that moment I connected to the depth and breadth of all the water that was. Everything in Puget Sound, including the land, the distant islands, the sea creatures, and myself, became as One, joined by the living sea. Despite my attempts at catching one wave after another, hoping to make it happen again, the experience never repeated itself—it had been a singular gift.

My brother and I were little sun-worshipers and spent every day that we could from noon to five playing, sunning, and swimming at Alkai beach in West Seattle, soaking up enough sunlight to last us through another winter. We didn't know then that the iodine in seaweed helps to keep the thyroid gland functioning well, hence, maintaining the body's inner heat. I was always cold and probably would have benefited from seaweed, if my parents could have gotten me to eat it!

Most days the sand was littered with tangled heaps of snake-like bull kelp and other unknown types of slippery stuff. Some of the seaweed looked like octopus arms, covered with bumps. The smell of drying seaweed was a part of beach life, and we had fun popping the little bubbles of trapped water in the "tentacles", enjoying the noise—much like popping bubble wrap.

I'll always remember that moment of heightened awareness when I experienced for the first time how the oceans connect us all, with water and consciousness flowing around the world, embracing the family of man.

As a tribute to the billions of souls who deeply love life, and a dedication to the many people recently lost in the devastation in Myanmar, my heart wishes to share with you, "Namaste, the spirit in me honors the spirit in you".¹

Keep being who you truly are! Keep living your truth! Be of gentle courage and help to change the world!

¹ Meaning of "Namaste" by Deepak Chopra