Inspiration in the Strangest of Places

Last night I went with one of my sons to see The Last Airbender.  I expected to be bored and almost brought a book with me.  My kids have been watching that animated series for years now and I never really paid it much mind.  I had also heard some pretty negative reviews...

Well, air bend me backwards if that wasn't an amazing movie!  I kept wanting to take notes for Pete's sake!  I am NOT kidding!!  It was like an Eastern Philosophy seminar with M.Night Shyamalan as professor.  And it made me realize several Things.  Big Things.  So as usual, I seem to be learning Life's big lessons through kid's movies.  Let's just say, I take my Inspiration from whence it comes.

In the movie there are 4 worlds within our world, each dominated by one of the four elements:  Earth, Water, Fire and Air. The Avatar is the one being who can control all 4 elements and thus bring harmony and balance to the world.  The Avatar is always cycling through life and re-birth, but the current Avatar "upper limited" himself (that's psych talk, for he freaked out at his own greatness and I'm planning an entire post on that soon!) and ran away for 100 years, throwing the world into chaos.  In the movie, he returns, but because he ran away at age 12, he had only learned how to control the air element and needs to learn the other three elements to become the master he was born to be.

So in this one little innocuous movie, we have the whole issue of accepting one's life purpose which as you know from past posts, is something that has been engaging me for quite some time now.  Then we have the Upper Limiting Behaviors (ULB's) that cause us to self-sabotage.  Again, more on that coming up soon.  And then the whole 4 element thing...

As a Holistic practitioner, I am very familiar with Element Theory.  Chinese medicine adds a 5th element to the above quartet, Wood.  Ayurveda consolidates them into just 3, combining Earth and Water into the Kapha dosha, which just happens to be MY dosha.  I'll do another post all about Ayurveda one day because it really is useful and wonderful.  And in both systems, of course the bottom line is about balance, just like the Avatar.  The ways in which the Avatar is taught to control the water element and to overcome his ULB's, well this is where I found my insight.


Other people cross deserts to reach enlightenment, I just go to the movies.  Life is Sweet.


Anyway, back on Planet Earth...

Yesterday, I also made Vegan Granola Bars Ala Mama Pea.  I changed her recipe a bit because I didn't have powdered stevia. 

Totally YUM!

The recipe is here.  And that's not laziness, I'm just tired of blogger crashing whenever I cut and paste!

And lastly, just wanted to share some photos from our weekend up North.  We stayed in Moshav Betzet in the cutest little cabin!  We were surrounded by fruit trees.

Oranges

Papaya

Avocado

Fruit of my loins

Fruity McFruit

When I asked the proprietor why the commercial lime season is so short here in Israel, she gave me a whole basket to take home with me!

And she said that limes are just not that well-known here which is why they only appear in markets for one month out of 12.  And I buy them ALL.

And finally, for those of you who don't live here and think "Israeli Breakfast" means sand and pita, I give you....

The Israeli Breakfast:

I LOVE this country!!!