Wednesday Morning At Omega

I'm sitting on the deck of Omega's cafe overlooking a garden blooming with black-eyed susans, hostas and magenta phlox as I write this. I'm sitting next to a large planter of bright yellow nasturtiums, and there's another nearby planter that contains a large, spiky purple flower that I think is some sort of flowering sage.

This morning, following Breakfast, I took my daughter on a hike through the woods surrounding Omega on a trail called "the path." I actually hiked a longer version of this hike yesterday, and decided I wanted to share the experience with my daughter this morning. She, however, was in a miserable mood so it wasn't the wonderful mother/daughter experience I was hoping for.

Let's just say that I couldn't wait this morning for the children's program to open up so that I could drop her off. Still, all and all, we've have a great time together. Last night, after dinner, we took a long walk around the campus, climbing steep steps up to "the Sanctuary" and eventually found ourselves down by the lake swinging in a hammock together talking. Altoghter we probably walked 2 1/2 miles.

Talking about walking, I've been doing a lot of it here. The Omega campus is pretty spread out and no cars are allowed. So, I'm getting a lot of additional exercise just going from my room to the dining hall, etc. But it's wonderful. The campus is beautiful, with gardens and sculptures at every turn, so you don't even fully realize the exercise you're getting.

The food is great too. I haven't been sticking to my normal raw vegan until dinner routine, but the food is organic vegetarian, so although I'm eating more cooked foods than usual, there's still no flesh. This morning I had steel cut oatmeal with raisins, pecans, and honey with fresh fruit on the side. Yesterday for lunch I ate a big salad with some kind of cooked tofu, vegetable dish. Last night's dinner was an eggplant curry which was so good, I just had to have seconds (and I would have gone for thirds if I wasn't already so full from the big salad I ate first).

We're leaving today after lunch, and my husband won't be back for until late Friday, so I'll make up for my cooked meal "transgressions" by going completely raw for a few days.

I have a one-on-one yoga session this morning, then I have to pack because we're leaving this afternoon. I wish we could have stayed longer, and I think it has been good for my daughter. Despite the trauma of two nights ago, we done quite a bit of walking. And, I've expanded her dietary routine somewhat. For example, last night because she wouldn't eat any of the food, and none of her usual fall back options were available, so I persuaded her to try brown rice with a little butter mixed in, something she always refused to eat at home. She loved it, and has now asked for me to make it for her at home.

Score one more point for healthy eating. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not much, but you have to take whatever you can when you're talking about an eight year old and food.