Yesterday morning, when I awoke at 4:00am to take my brother and his wife and baby to the airport, my bleeding cycle began, and it was raining. My adorable six-month-old niece thought that the dark car ride was pretty funny – she smiled and even laughed at me the whole way! When I returned home, I was filled with such a deep love, and I felt in synch with the Flow of the Universe.

By mid-afternoon, the rain turned to snow, and my mind shifted into some hormonally-induced negativities. In Amma’s little book Immortal Light: Divine Mother Ammachi’s Advice to Householders, she says, “Some women experience more negative thoughts during their monthly periods. It is all the more necessary to chant the mantra during that time.” Knowing this, I did a lot of chanting, especially as I took out the ingredients to begin creating my new recipe, “Teja’s Turkey-Free Thanksgiving Vegan Delight.”

Well, that recipe did not turn out so delightful. As my teenage son would say, I was “emo” and the recipe was “a fail.” Our emotional state, when cooking, really does affect the food we create. I even wrote about just that in the helpful hints section of the vegetarian soup cookbook I published! (Love Soups: A Vegetarian Soup Cookbook Inspired by the Soup Devas) Unfortunately, even with lots of mantra chanting, I was not able to maintain a calm, balanced state of mind for preparing that new recipe. I will try it again on Thanksgiving, and if it turns out delightful then I will share it here.

The funny part, which did not seem so funny last night, was that the reason why the recipe failed was like a metaphor for all the watery flowing that was going on yesterday, with the raining and snowing and bleeding and copious tears falling. The recipe failed because I put way too much vegetable broth and then stirred it way too long into the bread, so that the bread broke down into mush and then baked itself back into gooey dough. Uggh! Time to light the Fire in my yogini heart and balance out all that water!

May all beings know Dynamic Acceptance of What IS.

Om Shanti (Peace), 

Yogini Tejaswini

Photo of wet day by Teja Shankara.