Roots and Kites

Tart Triple Root Salad  With a consistent crisp texture throughout, this salad is pleasantly sour, with a splash of lime.  Jicama is a root vegetable high in sweet inulin, a fiber that is also considered a prebiotic.  (Stimulating growth of good intestinal flora.) Also, Jicama root is produced on a vigorous vine growing up to 15 feet long,  it is also one of the heaviest, and largest of the root vegetables.  The flavor blends well with our more familiar radishes, and ginger root. 

3 Green Apples, Cubed
1 Small Jicama, Peeled and Cubed
4 Radishes, Sliced Thin, and Quartered
1 Tbs. Fresh Ginger Root, Peeled and Grated
1Tbs. Raw Honey
3 Tbs. Coconut OIl
1/4 Teaspoon Sea Salt
Juice of 1 Lime

How to Fly a Kite~

Honestly, I am no expert in kite flying.  It's been windy outside where we live, as it is very often.  Wind has never been my favorite kind of weather.  Actually, I find it to be a nuisance.  I have short hair partly because I hate the wind blowing my hair in my face.  The wind whisks things off a picnic blanket, and blows dust into my eyes.  Not very fond of shopping carts running into everyone in parking lots, nor am I very grateful every time I have to bring in the potted plants, and porch furniture to keep them from being carried into the neighbor's yard every time a storm comes in.  Wind robs perfectly ripe fruit from the tree and smashes it on the ground.  Oh, and the way wind finds it's way through the tiny holes of your sweater so it can chill your skin?  I could continue.  I swear it's alive.

Yesterday we bought another kite.  My boys and I were optimistic about getting it up into the air this year.  It was a perfectly windy day.  I wore a snug hat and shades, to keep annoyance at bay.  Teaching my six year old how to fly a kite when I barely understand how to do it myself was fun at first, but soon, discouragement and tears followed, and Aiden reminded me a little of Charlie Brown.  Good Grief.

"Pull it tight! Pull it tight!  You have to pull down in order for the kite to go up!"  I would say.  Aiden held the string, and ran, and ran, and ran. 

"Up Kite, Up!" he yelled.  (Words from reading the adventures of Frog and Toad.)

"Up Kite, Up! Up Kite, Up!"  We said it together.  

The kite spun in loops, which was entertaining, but then it tangled around Aiden's leg, and he proceeded to make it worse by panic.  

"Hold Still Aiden."  said Mom.

We untangled it, and tried to fly it again and again. and for one brief moment, the kite soared up.  Aiden was pulling down on the tail of the kite, and I was pulling down on the string.  Aiden always has good ideas.  

I've made reference to this same principle before--in my blog post from June 11th, 2012, "A Firm Foundation."  Root yourself down, and then you will soar.  Pull the string tight.  A yoga pose feels wobbly without this extension, but as there is opposition of the direction our limbs pull, balance happens.  We must experience some amount of resistance in order to see progress--both on and off the mat.  It helps to have a sense of humor about it though.  Usually, crisis + time= comedy.  By the time I'm 90, I'll have a lot to laugh about I guess.

Angels fly because they take themselves lightly. ~Chesterton, Gilbert K.