Today was an AWESOME day! Absolutely, no doubt, 100% AWESOME.
M is for Magnificent Monday Harvest
I woke up with enough time to make a banana and passion fruit smoothie. It was the first time I tried this mixture and it was pretty good. I was a bit concerned that eating so close to our work time was going to make it hard to digest the food but it gave me no trouble at all.
For work I chose to be on the harvest team with Sam and Destiny. We walked around the property picking up papayas, sapotes, avocados and oranges. I also picked macadamia nuts for the first time. It was very exciting to see how they grow but getting them out of the shell is a lot of work and they don’t digest as easy as fruits so I probably won’t be having them often. I got to say thought, fresh and raw macadamia nuts are way better than any macadamia nuts I ever had from the store.
Party with the Jack Fruit
We also harvested lots of Jack Fruit which is Kanekiki’s favorite fruit, partially because of the flavor but mostly because it is a fruit that we can all eat together at the same time. It is like smoking a peace pipe but way healthier. =D
Getting the Jack Fruits wasn’t easy, we had to get the long ladder and climb three different trees. Destiny was the designated monkey of the day and she did an awesome job getting Jacks off the tree. We worked really well together and our harvest was very successful.
Our lovely monkey Destiny harvesting some Jack Fruit
Sam picking up oranges. They were delicious! =D
My New Book about the Fruitarian Diet
During our transition time I asked Sam and Destiny how they felt about my internship project. Before arriving to Kanekiki I thought my internship was going to focus on building my Fruitarian Bodybuilder website and YouTube account. However, I haven’t been able to publish any videos on YouTube and I also have not been doing as much fruitarian bodybuilding as I was expecting.
Instead, I have been writing a lot, in fact, every day, as you can see from my daily fruitarian blog about my experience in Kanekiki. Since I like writing so much I figured that perhaps writing a book would be more suitable for me. I want to make it about fruit and about my exploration of the fruitarian diet. I have an awesome title in mind, which I am sure many people will like. If I am lucky I may be able to publish in a couple of months. We will see how things flow.
Long Days at Work are Easier with Fresh Coconuts
I ended up working four hours instead of my usual two hours. This is because I have to make up hours for Thursday since I will be gone to Kona for Trevor Halls concert. =D
Today was my first time working four hours at the farm and even though it felt a bit tougher, it is something I can certainly do on a daily basis. This is great to known because if I end up staying past my 6 week internship I will be required to work four hours every day.
One thing that made the work day easier was the 15 minute break I took to open up my first coconut. When I first got to the farm I thought there were no good coconuts because no one was harvesting them and the only ones I could see where on the ground, which I thought it meant that they were bad.
I actually tried some of the coconuts other people where opening but none of them tasted good to me. However, I decided to open up my own today and it was pretty delicious. The coconut water was clean and sweet and the coconut meat was tasty and crunchy. Maybe the fact that I opened it myself made it more yummy than usual. I will certainly give it another try soon, probably tomorrow.
Morning Meeting was a FEAST!
We finished our workday at 11:30 a.m. and got a little break before our Monday meeting. These weekly meetings are the only mandatory meetings we have at Kanekiki and they are a way to tune in to what is going on in the farm. The meeting is about an hour long and we share “requests”, “reminders” and “appreciations”.
Today’s meeting was extra awesome because some of the people worked in the kitchen all morning preparing some delicious dishes. We ended up sharing all the Jack Fruit we had picked up, a fruit pie and THE MOST AMAZING ORANGE JUICE I EVER HAD. Seriously, nothing has ever come close to that glass of orange juice I had this morning.
The meeting was fun and it felt very productive. During my turn I got to invite everyone to practice yoga with me every morning at 6:30 a.m. I said that as long as one person shows up I will commit to being there every morning (Monday through Fridays). Everyone seemed excited. We will see what the follow up is.
Mamey sapote pudding with bananas and cinnamon
Bowl of jack fruit , yummy!!! =D
My Conscious and Productive Afternoon
During the afternoon I “ran some errands” which included changing my bedsheets and doing some laundry (which I actually didn’t get to do because the cue was too long). Other than that I spent a good chunk of time cracking macadamia nuts. It was fun to do as a group but there were so many nuts to crack that I lost interest after everyone left.
A bit later I got hungry and decided to make a salad. I chopped some cucumbers, tomatoes and sprouts and threw them in a bowl. I then asked Sam to help me with a dressing and she help me make a concoction that included garlic, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and tahini. It tasted great but the salad felt a bit empty so I ended up adding an avocado on top.
I was proud that, once again, I was able to keep my salad small and at no point during the say I over ate at all. It definitely made a difference in my energy levels. I definitely will stick to this rule going forward. Now that it is 10:30 p.m. I feel like I could eat some more fruit but I rather not eat anything before bedtime. I am sure I will feel very satisfied when I have breakfast tomorrow after work. Hopefully I won’t overeat then.
A More Conscious and More Productive Evening
After finishing my salad I sat down to prepare for our “Meeting of the Masters”. This is an optional meeting that happens every Monday which is similar to the Speak Easy meeting I ran on Thursday (Day 8). The meeting is intended to get to know ourselves and each other more intimately.
I am not sure why I got invited to run the meeting but I was excited to do so. One thing you may want to know is that I was drawn to Kanekiki because I was looking for a tropical fruit farm to live in. However, what made me chose Kanekiki from the first moment was that this community focuses on non-violent communication and other community building practices.
That being said, when I arrived to Kanekiki, I was disappointed to see that the level of communication wasn’t as “high” as I was expecting and that the meetings we were having where not focused on building DEEP connections. This is why I set the intention to lead these types of meetings and thankfuly I was given a chance to do it.
So far they have been very successful. I ran two meetings and the feedback for both of them were great. I thought the first one I lead was awesome but tonight seemed to be even better. I was a bit nervous at first because it seemed that some people were unwilling to attend and others where upset about my “no food during meeting rule”.
Luckily, a lot of people ended up showing up and were able to understand that it is easier to connect intimately when people aren’t chewing on a salad while other people are trying to open their heart to be heard and be seen. If you are interested in learning how to connect deeply with others I recommend you read the following books.
Thriving in My Element
The meeting was so successful that it ended up lasting three hours. I think it was a record. Everyone was so involved in the process that no one wanted to go to sleep. Some of the games I came up with where very popular, especially the last one, I called it the “Dead Seat” (A twist-off from the Hot Seat where a person sits/lays in the middle with eyes close and the rest of the group talks about that person as if the person was dead).
It may be hard to understand the power of these games by reading this blog, but if you ever get the chance to experience these games I am sure you will understand why I am so passionate about them.
After closing our meeting I sat down on the couch and contemplated on what had just happened. I had never before lead so many people into opening up and sharing so much of their life. We moved more energy that I could have imagined. It was heart opening and beautiful, I almost cried overwhelmed with love.
I remember Sam coming to me after the meeting was over. She asked if there is a limit to how much connection humans can have. My response was yes, I think the limit is absolute union. Then Jake, one of my roommates who was sitting next to me asked if it was harder to achieve this with more people and I responded that the more minds we have, the more difficult it is because minds create separation. However, I explained, the more people we get to unite the more powerful that union is.
Before leaving, Elisa, one of the new girls, mentioned that she thinks that I am “in my element” here. Not only at Kanekiki but also in the role of leading events and activities for the group. I certainly agree with her and I was grateful that she noticed this and reflected it back to me.
Elisa’s comment helped me remember how grateful I am to be here and how awesome it is that I took a leap of faith and decided to venture into the unknown. I am also grateful that I decided to stay because a week ago , during Day 3 and Day 4, it looked like I was about to head back to Boulder.
Gratitude, that is all I can think about.
