Hello! I got a wonderful swarm of new friends from around the globe today! Thanks to my friend Elenore, over at Earthsprout (I mention her frequently because of her love of yumminess in food, life, and cacao).
Though it’s nearing my bed time, I thought I’d write a spontaneous little re-introduction of myself and Cigfy. I can go into details during day time hours. You see, I still have a little one (almost 10 months old) that might wake up through the night.
I am a Mom of 4 cuties (8 year old twins boy and girl, 3 year old boy and the little baby girl). Before that and before I married, I was a pastry chef and even before that I was a drummer. A real percussionist who practiced 10 hours a day trying to perfect every stroke on everything from a triangle to a cymbal, drum, xylophone….
But I lacked something, it was passion and letting go. My teachers told me this. I was way too technical. I held something in and wouldn’t let it out. I was so good, but was not allowing myself to go deep inside, I wasn’t ready. So, I sold most of my equipment and got a job and then got married. I snuck in a couple years of part time learning in a local culinary school and came out as a certified pastry chef. I worked in one restaurant, that was enough!
Then kids came. I never stop talking about my music background (talk, talk, talk) but the only thing I put my musical void into is baking. It evolves as I do…kids, yoga, Judaism, friends, marriage, more kids, more yoga, more Judaism, more friends and I just keep tweaking my baking along with my life and all of a sudden I’m trying out beautiful raw food recipies. And, one day I made a special truffle. It was perfect, beautiful, inspiring, energizing. I made them for friends to try. Besides a few breaks (morning sickness, birth)I never stopped fine tuning my raw cacao confections. I found that teas helped balance my very full days and my constant consumption and tasting of raw cacao. And here I am, so fascinated with this part of the journey, enough to return to school (yes, with four kids) and study herbalism for Women’s health with Aviva Romm!
My husband is helping me as much as he can (it’s hard to keep up with me), my kids see Mom in the kitchen with cacao everywhere and sometimes I do forget to make them dinner, I have books open every where, mason jars filled with dry herbs taking over my kitchen, and must make time once or twice a week for a Bikram yoga class.
I love everything I do and just can’t stop, but I know balance is important. That’s what I work on. Good thing my husband is so very grounded that he steps in as needed to slow me down. (and I know a good herbalist, homeopath, and naturopath along with so many diverse friends).
Returning to my music for a moment, I need to explain something. Remember when I said I was told I was missing the passion, the release in my music. That it was just too technical?! Well, that’s where Cigfy comes in on a whole other level. I’m now learning how to release myself through with my cacao confections. Because when I create a Cigfy confection, it is only amazing when I just surrender to it. Might sound odd. This is my practice in letting something other than my mind take over. I can follow any recipe. Following a recipe never becomes a Cigfy confection. The only recipies that get on the menu are from a deeper place that I’ve opened up to (but I do keep a notepad nearby to make it in the Cigfy “cookbook”). Yep. And my goal….is to put that back into performing on stage…kind of soon. See, I’m still practicing! But right now, I want to share Cigfy!
Thank YOU for letting me share. Enjoy the ride with me.
This is me at 6am this morning. Yes, I was up every 3 hours nursing Leila. But at 6am I heard the rain and I couldn’t resist breathing in the not yet congested wet air and washing out the sleep in my eyes with the cool rain. My hunter boots might look cute and trendy with leggings, but today they served a purpose.
