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Messages of Love and Thoughts for Spring

2/28/2018

In addition to including Valentine's Day, February was also the "Month of Love". To celebrate, our children created a sweet game in the last week about love and what it meant to them. They cut hearts out of pink construction paper and either wrote on them or drew pictures (these are young children) of their thoughts of love and the wishes that they wanted to send out. They gave them to each other and to us adults as wishes to look at every day to remind us all that we are loved. As we enter the wonderful month of March with its promise of spring and new renewal, messages of love are wonderful to see. So simple yet so profound.

Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple had some thoughts late in his rather short life which are so meaningful about love and life.

"Treasure love for your family, love for your spouse and love for your friends. Treat yourself well, and cherish others. As we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we slowly realize that true inner happiness does not come from the material things of this world. Therefore, treasure your buddies, old friends, brothers and sisters. Chat often, laugh, sing, enjoy them.

There are six Undeniable Facts of Life

1. Don't educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so when they grow up they will know the value of things, and not just their price.*

2. Eat your food as your medicines, otherwise you have to eat medicines as your food.

3. Find reasons to hang on to the ones you love.

4. There is a big difference between a human being and being human.

5. You are loved when you are born. You will be loved when you die. In between, only YOU are in charge of your life.

6. If you just want to walk fast, then walk alone. However, if you want to walk far, then walk together."

As we move into spring, the season of rebirth, these are nice thoughts to remember.

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A Valentine's Day Greeting from Ecuador

2/9/2018

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No matter how you celebrate Valentine's Day, the event is likely to be touched by the country of Ecuador. Ecuador produces some of the most highly prized chocolate and the most beautiful roses in the world and they export worldwide. The roses grow in the high-altitude soil and year-round sunshine of the north central mountainous area and the most flavorful cocoa beans grow in the hot and humid Amazon rainforest at a lower level. When we were in Ecuador we visited both areas.

We did not participate in the rose growing but In the Amazon rainforest we had the fun opportunity of making chocolate. We produced a rich and wonderful chocolate fondue with local freshly harvested cocoa beans. Producing the chocolate sauce was a detailed process that we all got to participate in. The photos below show all of the steps to our final delicious product, a thick chocolate sauce, which we then ate with locally harvested bananas and pineapple.

The photos are numbered in the order of the steps of the process. 1. First our guide heated the cocoa beans over a high heat until the beans separated from the shells. After we let them cool we pulled the beans out of their shells and threw the shells away. The beans were almost bitter at this point so we weren't tempted to eat them. 2. After we had all the beans and had discarded the shells (the chickens at the homestay ate all of the shell droppings so it really wasn't a messy process) we ground the beans to a course powder form. 3. Then we put the bean mash over the fire again, but this time we added a "secret mix" of milk, sugar and spices to make it taste just perfect. 4. After that we all joined in a fondue of our own making with the locally harvested fruit. Even though I'm really not a chocolate lover it was a special and wonderful treat!

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