Make a date with a friend to meet at a Monday Dinner, or come by yourself and make new friends! Either way, you'll get a great meal and a lot more--everyone wins!

Help publicize the Monday Dinners! An easy way to spread the word about our weekly community gathering is to click on the Tell-A-Friend link in the upper left of this page. Just fill out the form with the email addresses of up to two friends, along with any personal comments you'd like to add, and click Submit--this emails your comments along with pre-written details of the Dinners and a link to this website!

Another way to help is to post a copy of our Dinner Menus in public locations. For a pdf file suitable for printing, click here.

The 40th Annual French Meadows Macrobiotic Summer Camp concluded successfully on July 19. Veteran teachers David and Cynthia Briscoe were welcomed back after an absence of several years. There was an infusion of many new people who became enthusiastic initiates into the French Meadows experience. The abundant, unbridled energy of the many children made the camp feel more youthful and complete. The fun times passed by very quickly. The 41st Annual camp takes place July 17-25, 2010!

Monthly Vegan Potlucks! The Peninsula Veggie Potluck People, a spinoff of the Monday Dinners, sponsor monthly vegan potlucks; for details, visit http://pvpp.org. To host a potluck, call Diane Wohler at 650 704-0669, or Harold Stephenson at 650 856-1125.

The 13th Annual Relationship Seminar, led by Monday Dinner regular Al Lampell, takes place September 11-13 at the Presentation Center in Los Gatos. $650/couple or $450/single, includes lodging, all meals, seminar, and materials. Info: 408 296-0567, http://www.conscious-communications.com.

The North Bay Macrobiotic Potluck Group usually meets the first Sunday of each month in Santa Rosa, contact Stephen Starkweather (), 707 542-9739, http://www.northbaymacro.org.

James Holloway, frequent Guest Chef at the Monday Dinners, does personal home cooking in Palo Alto, in macrobiotic and classical styles, call 650 852-9182.

Speakers receive a gratuity from the audience; please show your support and appreciation with a donation ($5-10 suggested).

Modern medicine, which dominates our health care system, is preoccupied with diseases and expensive, high-tech methods of treating them. Contrast this with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which sees health in a much broader view, as a state of abundant free-flowing energy which applies not just to individuals, but to families, communities, and ecosystems as well.

Would our health care system be improved by adopting the more encompassing view of TCM? Find out on August 24, when local QiGong teacher Joe Deisher will discuss and demonstrate the TCM approach in his presentation Talking and Walking: Outlining an Understanding and Living a Life of Health. The discussion portion will consider the advantages of shifting the emphasis of health care away from the medical business, to the broader TCM approach of keeping ourselves, our families, our communities, and our ecosystems abundant, free-flowing, and energetic. The demonstration portion will include QiGong, a system originating in the East that we can use to train (gong) our internal, metabolic, energies (qi). In its external, or moving aspect, QiGong activates circulation of blood, lymph, digestive juices, and Qi. In its internal, or quiet aspect, QiGong subtly manages the body's various circulations. We will experience both moving and quiet aspects, and work our way towards a balanced, or TaiChi, way of moving in the world.

Joe Deisher went to Japan in 1964 to study the martial art Aikido and the board game Go; during his stay in Japan he discovered macrobiotics and the underlying practices and theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine. By the time he left Japan in 1972 he had begun teaching TaiChi Chuan for health. Joe has continued his transcultural approach to studies in do-it-yourself, good-health care ever since.

Celebrate this Autumnal Equinox by Reducing Your Stress! On September 21 you will have the opportunity to cultivate practical Compassion, Awareness and Relationship skills to Ease Stress. For all of us stress is an unavoidable part of modern life. Its effects can be far-reaching. The good news is we can learn and apply practical methods to reduce stress and its harmful effects.

Fifty years of scientific investigation of the stress management process have identified three fundamental points:

• Stress levels predict physical and psychological health.
• People facing the same demands can experience different stress levels.
• Compassion, mindful awareness, and emotional intelligence determine stress levels.

On September 21, psychotherapist and teacher Dr. Tia Rich introduces CARES™, practical Compassion, Awareness and Relationship skills to Ease Stress. In this presentation, you will learn how these research findings are true, actually apply the skills to reduce current stress in your life, and construct a personal action plan to start enjoying the benefits of your new knowledge and skills.

Dr. Rich has a psychotherapy practice in Menlo Park, and teaches health and wellness classes at Stanford University. She earned a M.S.W. and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley, a M.A. in Health Psychology from Stanford, and completed 15 months of full-time residential training as a mindfulness yoga and meditation teacher while living at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy. Her background also includes training in Chinese Medicine, Buddhism and Christianity, Chinese brush painting and pastel portraiture. She studied macrobiotics with Michio Kushi, Herman Aihara, and Patrick and Meredith McCarty, and has been a member of the Monday Dinner community since our beginnings 22 years ago.

The concepts introduced in this presentation will be covered in more depth in a six-session, Tuesday evening class on practical Compassion, Awareness, and Relationship skills to Ease Stress (CARES™) at Stanford beginning October 6. For information on the class and Dr. Rich's stress management, psychotherapy and health promotion services, see http://tiarich.com.

The Community Connection feature appears when an author is inspired enough to produce an interview or profile for publication.

Enjoy these past features on community members by Denise Huajardo Springer, Sky Ann McGrath, and Gerard Lum:

• Simply Paul Schmitt
• Life Really Does Begin at 40! An Interview with Diane Wohler
• Eating Mother's Chicken: Making Choices in Life, An Interview with Gary Alinder
• Plain Miklane? An Interview with Miklane Janner
• Ken Becker on Macrobiotics, Part One
• Ken Becker on Macrobiotics, Part Two
• Passionate About Growing Healthy Food, An Interview with Patricia Becker
• By Having Hope, What Are You Going to Lose? An Interview with Geneva Page and Baron
• You Can Really Fly with It, An Interview with Gerard Lum
• An Evolving Vision of Community, An Interview with Miklane Janner
• Making a Difference Through Cooking, An Interview with Susanne Jensen 

Email Notification of Newsletter: To receive an email notification each time the Newsletter and Dinner Menus are published on this site (every two months), .

 

Mailing List Policy: To get a printed copy of the Newsletter and Dinner Menus delivered by postal mail, or call the phone number below. To offset the expense of producing the Newsletter and Menus, we suggest a contribution of $10/year or more. The date and amount of your last newsletter contribution appears on your mailing label. Write checks to "Peninsula Macrobiotic Community", and mail to Gerard Lum, 101 E. Middlefield Road #9, Mountain View, CA 94043, 650 903-0447.

We periodically review our mailing list. Those who have not made a recent contribution are subject to removal.

Tax-Deductible Contributions: We welcome and can use additional contributions to the Peninsula Macrobiotic Community, as income from the Dinners does not pay all of our expenses. We are a nonprofit organization, so additional contributions are fully tax-deductible. Send contributions to the address in Mailing List Policy above.

Back Issues of the Newsletter and Menus: Click here.