It's Friday, I'm in LoVE! #5

Wahoo for Friday, people! Happy Rastafarian Christmas, too!

Tree by Juan Luna

I love me because:

1. I have values, I am aware of them and I walk around acting upon them daily.
2. I am very spiritual. I can relate to people of all faiths deeply through a broad overstanding* of divine presence. (*overstanding is Iyaric)
3. I did a good job being in the moment this week... several times. I felt like a child.
4. I pray in my own way daily. And I like it.
5. I appreciate my life. Truly. It rocks.
6. I cook yummy food from scratch everyday. And I like that, too.
7. I don't weigh myself. This is random but I don't even know how much I weigh to obsess.
8. I have started to replace my sense of sin and wrongdoing with compassion and overstanding.
9. I've helped keep the house clean since Christmas. Yeeeuh.
10. I am researching baby stuff now in anticipation of our future children. Hopefully one will be conceived later this year...

So... Rastafarian Christmas! To celebrate, we are not eating anything outside of the the Ital from sunset tonight until sunrise on Sunday. Enjoy your carnitas for lunch now, Shawn; we're having quinoa pilaf and fish for dinner!

Basically for us this is a way to celebrate our beliefs and also to do whatever the hell we want, which is the spirit of the entire Rastarfari movement and way of life. As long as love is in our hearts and we are pure of motive we can celebrate in our own way; there is no "Rasta Christmas" tradition that is set.
Our tradition will be something like,

• Smudge ceremony to cleanse the house
• Start a fire in the fireplace for reflection
• Take part in the religious rite
• Meditate for an extended time
• Eat Ital dinner
• Exchange handmade gifts (if any)

Then tomorrow we will wake up, meditate and do some yoga stretches. After that we'll do whatever we feel like, I guess! It will most likely mean we do nothing, which is great. I found some Ital recipes for tomorrow, too. Here's one:


Baked Sweet Potatoes Ingredients 2 lb (900 g) sweet potatoes2 oz (55 g) unsalted butterjuice of 1/2 orangefreshly ground black pepper2-3 firm tomatoes Method 
Carefully wash the sweet potatoes and boil in their skins in plenty of water for 20 - 25 minutes until soft. Drain. When cool enough to handle remove the skins and rub the potatoes through a sieve. Mix 1 oz of the butter into the sweet potato puree with the orange juice. Lightly season with freshly ground black pepper. Butter a shallow baking dish and spread the mixture evenly on it. Top with sliced tomatoes and dot with remaining butter. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees f for 20 minutes. Serves 4

Thanks for reading; if you do anything special for ANY holiday I'd love to hear about it in the comments!