Play: The Art of the Heart.
July 10, 2010
Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), summer is a time of expansion and lightness. Just like heat rises and expands, the heat of summer literally creates an expanding shift within our bodies. It is the season associated with the heart and is meant to be a “period of luxurious growth.”
One of my favorite explanations in TCM of the heart comes from the book ‘Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies,’ by Leon Hammer, MD, which says:
The inspiration for the creative, original formulations of all forms of art on both an intellectual and spiritual plane of being, including the ‘art of loving’ as a joyous celebration and fulfillment of organismic well-being, is the energetic function of the yin energies of the Heart energy system.
Summer is the perfect season to nourish our creative appetite and to thrive in harmony with our hearts desires. The best way to nourish the heart is through play! It is when we are at play that we experience the reckless abandonment of pure joy, and the spirit of the heart expands and is increased by the joy of the moment.
So my assignment to you this month? PLAY with your food! Have you been waiting your whole life to hear those words?! Well, I say them to you now with conviction. The vibrant colors of summer foods beg us to be inspired and create artful masterpieces right on our plates.
The next time you set foot into your local grocery store, co-op, farmers market, garden or your parents garden, don’t think about what meal or recipe you want to make, just play! Get in touch with your inner-child and go about your next meal like you would a dream day in kindergarten where you have total free reign of every paint, color crayon, glue stick, pair of scissors, glitter…anything you could want to make your canvas a masterpiece!
Don’t try and plan the meal, rather let your heart call out the textures, colors, and flavors it desires!
Most importantly, have fun! Take a picture of the beautiful plate you create and of the smile it puts on your face, your belly and your heart!
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