zenhouewife and Klara
Best new year wishes to you both and all others as well.
Doing this food can be very challenging to say the least. There is a lot of information available on this list (and others) as well as books that present recipes etc. These are useful tools to help on the journey.
I would like to emphasize a point that I hope will be of use in maintaining a working relationship with this food. Too often it appears that macrobiotics is separate and exclusive to all else. The struggles of newbies, for which I often suffer great empathy, is rooted in not fully grasping the the tenants of "The Unique Principle." (The seven universal principles of the infinite universe.) It suggests that all things are one and part of a single whole. Therefore there is no thing which is not Macrobiotic. We are half way there as we begin. Easy enough, huh?
The tricky part is to balance and be in accord with the universe as whole. Macrobiotics is the conscious effort to use the yin/yang aspect of food as a guide/tool toward balancing. Food is not all there is to the matter of living, however. The food as presented by Macrobiotics is a great exercise in becoming more attuned to the yin/yang nature of things that can then extend into every aspect of one's existence. To this end it is golden.
Being Macrobiotic or not, is actually not the question. We are already experiencing the yin/yang universe. The question is to be conscious or not. We can eat or not what ever we choose. Discerning the consequences of what we do is the realm of judgment. After smashing one's finger with a hammer often enough, one will eventually figure out how not to do it. With nine other fingers (if the carpentry Gods have been with you) and ten toes, it my take awhile.
I have been dealing with this food for a very long time and no longer have any problems with what others choose to eat. I am aware of what other's eating does to them, and I can only deal with them accordingly. It does not, however, alter the way I eat. I have accepted that their limitations are not my own. I must relate to them as they are. My own limitations are the only thing I can be responsible for. Even at that, I am human and there is a long way to go. It would be great if every one was more balanced and living from their own deepest centers, but that is not the case. There is a kind of beauty and balance in that, as well. I must acknowledge the blessing of my wife as we are in accord with the food, but only after long arduous effort.
At the risk of "blowing" any mystique that my have developed about me,(ya-right) I am including my wed site.(
JD Huth Company - home.) to illustrate my efforts to integrate yin/yang. I design and build furniture: a process of bring the yin into the yang--an idea into physical form. This is a never ending process. Not only to accommodate the desires and wishes of a client as rooted in their own balance, but to go more deeply into myself and reflect my own sense of the best that can be done. This entire procedure rarely precipitates perfection. but it does induce growth. All limitation (costs, time, tastes) mitigate the final result. The challenge is to transmute "givens" into something of worth.
The food is great and living is great, but with the food, can be as much as anyone could possibly ask. What could be better then finding more of one's self and depth.
A grain of rice is planted and grows in an almost straight line to become a grain of rice again. I strive to live and design my works with this same direct elegant beauty. I have successes and failures. The process is what matters.
We are all Macrobiotic already. How deep can we go?
Manymoons