Tuesday, September 23, 2008

What has uncontrolled hunger forced you to do?


“When a person has nothing to eat, fasting is the smartest thing he could do. When, for example, Siddhartha hadn't learned to fast, he would have to accept any kind of service before this day is up, whether it may be with you or wherever, because hunger would force him to do so. But like this, Siddhartha can wait calmly, he knows no impatience, he knows no emergency, for a long time he can allow hunger to besiege him and can laugh about it. This, sir, is what fasting is good for."

-excerpt from Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Saturday, September 20, 2008

A Case For AND Against Organic?


Because FastGirls know that information is power, I have attached a link to an article that will give you a close up look at the Organic Food Complex. The article is extensive in length and scope but I guarantee you won't be sorry you took the time to read it. This ain't your mama's organic; a fact that can spell huge trouble for those depending on the term to insure healthy eating.

 Here is a glimpse:

The chief reason the health seeker will buy organic is for the perceived health benefits. This poses a certain marketing challenge, however, since it has always been easier to make the environmental case for organic food than the health case. Although General Mills has put its new organic division under the umbrella of its "health initiatives" group, "organic" is not, at least officially, a health, nutrition or food-safety claim, a point that Dan Glickman, then secretary of agriculture, took pains to emphasize when he unveiled the U.S.D.A.'s new label in December: organic, he stressed, is simply "a production standard."

"At first, I thought the inability to make hard-hitting health claims" -- for organic -- was a hurdle," Gekler said when I asked him about this glitch. "But the reality is, all you have to say is 'organic' -- you don't need to provide any more information." These particular consumers -- who pay attention to the media, to food scares and to articles like this one -- take their own health claims to the word.

-R. Brooks Gekler, marketing star at General Mills, parent company of Small Planet Foods and the Cascadian Farms brand


Check out the complete article here:

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Power of Collective Energy



I recently received an email from one of the FastGirls congratulating me on the growth of the group. Although I did reply with happy thanks, I want to recognize before the collective, that what we see happening is the power of each of these women coming together in diligent practice. We are creating energy through our regular commitment to fast, which is bursting outward like wild, colorful sparks.

Every time we meet the day with the intention to fast, we are saying to the universe, to ourselves, and to those near and dear to us that we intend to live mindfully. We intend to walk in a space that is always full of presence and care. When we fast we are showing God how grateful we are for an opportunity to express gratitude and welcome towards whatever shows up, knowing that we will remain luminous and secure.

I feel blessed to be able to benefit from the positive collective will of so many women. We are seeing all around us that the work of women is of great importance in our society. While others are breaking barriers in politics and science, education and business, we are setting a precedent for women all over the country and indeed around the world, that says, knowing yourself from the inside out, being able to access and act upon that which is in our highest interest, is a direct route to knowing God and collecting our bounty. 

So congratulations FastGirls, for planting seeds and cultivating a space that has already yielded fields of plenty; for us, the women we share this planet with and even those yet to be born.


"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." 
Matt. 18:20

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Fasting, Old School Style (Really Old School!)



The Essenes, authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, advocated fasting to purify themselves and commune with God. This was one of their primary healing methods. The Essene Gospel of Peace, transcribed by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely from the third-century Aramaic manuscript, suggests that Satan, his evil spirits, and his plagues will be cast out of our being by fasting and prayer. The Essenes believed that disease came from Satan (they claimed that it took three days without food to starve Satan) and from sins upon our body—the temple, which must be purified for God to reside there. To bring God into our life more completely, we would fast on water and "go to the waters (stream, lake) and find a hollow reed, insert it in our rear ends and flush the evils from our bowels."

Now that's time-tested, natural healing you can believe in.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Looking for an Honest Mirror? Try Fasting.


Read one person's account of wading through the unpredictable emotional terrain of a fasted mind and body. The writer talks with great candor about the unrelenting light that was shed on the darkest parts of his self during a 40 day fast. 

One of the things I have come to find I dislike about fasting is how predictable it is. There is nothing surprising in it. Those who fast a lot talk about how it causes your emotions to all come to the surface, so the thoughts you would normally suppress come full blown. The thoughts that would normally just think, come out as words and the thoughts and words that would normally just end there, come out as actions. I would like to think I was different, but really, no. Everything seems to come to the surface and yes, it is only day 8, over the next days I have no idea what is going to happen, what mess is going to come out. Because the truth is there is a lot of anger buried in me, a lot of condescending thoughts, a lot of filth, a whole lot of real honest human mess....

And it is not just the harsh emotions that come out, it is not just the sort of human relation mess that surfaces, it is all my emotions. Fasting shows no partiality. So now I find myself a mess of tears and realizing that I am not really good at this, I am not particularly ready for any of this. I think when it comes right down to it this whole fasting thing just digs up all my fears, my inadequacies, the fast that I might not love God enough, or be trendy enough, or smart enough, or passionate enough or spiritual enough, or motivated enough or whatever enough to actually fit in here. Maybe I love the world too much, maybe I want to have a wife too much or kids too much or to matter too much. Maybe I am not cut out for hiddenness or tenderness or the fasted lifestyle.

Read the entire entry here:

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