Holding the Opposites
Roots and Truth
Late Summer Harvest Soup with Tortellini
The following post includes a recipe that make my family often. This popular recipe helps in my effort to gather my family, as we eat the same meal. Connecting with others over warm meals and on quiet afternoons have been key to my healing story!!
Hi, I’m Cami. And I talk about my healing, as I have been navigating a devastating chronic illness for twelve years of my adult life (and I’m still in my 30’s). My goal is to help educate others and help them feel not quite so alone in the own personal story.
Welcome!
The most delicate dance that I have noticed recently is learning how to hold the opposite views in a common space. In my experience this has been a more advanced way of the healing process.
Expansion
My life, and my experiences have taught me to hold space for not only one view, but to open up to even more…
more information…
more perspectives…
more softening…
and more inner strength (including setting boundaries).
I invite you to join me as we uncover what it means to dig into the softening into and building up courage as we face ourselves in our own individual story.
One of the challenges that I faced through the last three years is deciphering what messages that depression has to share with me. I don’t believe the depression shows up because is part of our genes. I actually believe the contrary.
I believe that if I am not living the design of that my genes will fully be alive and operate optimally, then depression comes knocking. There’s an emotional component to it that can’t be ignored.
So when my depression comes knocking, I start to feel and believe what it is saying. This is important that I don’t lean into it too much. Logic is needed as well, but listening to it’s cries helps me understand what the feelings are underneath the full body shut down.
I wrote in this blog post about listening to the truth of what my body is saying. In this post I will share an example.
In this case I have depression speaking, that says, I’m not equipped to be a mother and take care of all of my children’s needs. That’s what the underlying discouragement speaks. I can’t deny it. I’ve heard that message over and over again.
And after I grieve that specific (which does feel very sad in the body—the reason for grieving), then I ask what my alive self is feeling.
What I Do When It Feels Like, Too Much?
I’ve been inspired reading a book written by Pete Walker, The Tao To Fully Feeling. His encouragement in this book is to learn how to let out anger, in safe ways, and to find safe spaces to cry.
There are techniques to gain and acquire. Working with a somatic experiencing practitioner my also help to learn to develop these skills. They help their clients access emotions and movements inside the body that need to be expressed, but all to often when we are damaged, we express them in ways that are damaging to others.
I have the directories listed for somatic practitioners here on my website:
Finding ways to express emotions physically can also be an avenue out of a depression rut.
As I have been engaged with healing my chronic pain, and raising a family there are days where I have been completely overwhelmed. I talk about how I balance the two in this youtube video below.
Let’s Talk About Feeding a Family
One Saturday, I had done so many uplifting activities, then I came home and realized my nine year old wasn’t fed. It started my on a guilt spiral. This video was recorded that day, illustrating some of my frustrations that I am having as I’m trying to do what I feel is the way to properly fuel the body!
I need to mention in this post (because I have included a recipe) a little about diet change and healing the physical body.
If I said that this has been easy, I would by lying. We are nine years into my diet change and every evolving eating journey and my oldest child is getting sick of how I eat. He’s seeing the way that his friends eat, and wanting more of that.
My two year old only eats a few things. She hasn’t been as adaptable as my older two boys.
It is hard to eat differently then everyone in the outside world,
AND
I wouldn’t change that I had to shift out of a “Standard American Diet” to more eating whole foods. It has been a gift for myself (because I’m still alive!!!) and it has been a benefit to my family. I am giving them a foundation and base of healthy eating and a balanced diet with vitamins and minerals.
Here is a recipe that I use often that the whole family will eat for dinner. I have many of these recipes, this is just the one I have chosen to share today!
Happy Cooking!
Late Summer Harvest Soup with Tortellini
Ingredients
- 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 4 cloves chopped garlic
- 2 onions, diced
- ½ c. water
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2/3 c. apple juice
- 2 16-oz. can small diced tomatoes
- 1 c. sliced carrots
- 5 cremini mushrooms, chopped (or mushrooms of your choice)
- 2 medium zucchini, grated
- 8–10 oz. package cheese tortellini Also (optional)
- 1/4 of a cabbage, sliced (option #2)
- 1 Tbsp. dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- black pepper to taste
- parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- On the stovetop, preheat a medium-sized pot on medium heat. While this is preheating, chop four cloves of garlic.
- When the bottom of the pot is hot, add the ground beef to the pan. Break up the beef with a wooden spoon. While the beef is still cooking, add the chopped garlic, dried basil, dried oregano and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Stir these seasonings into the chunks of ground beef. We are creating, not only the seasoning for the meat, but flavor for the whole soup!
- While the ground beef is cooking and starting to brown up, dice the onions then add them to the pot. Continue cooking for about three minutes.
- While the onions are cooking, chop, or slice the carrots and mushrooms. Add them to the pot and stir.
- Next add the diced tomatoes. (If tomatoes are in season, fresh tomatoes are wonderful! Add around three cups of diced tomatoes into the pot.)
- Add the water, chicken broth and apple juice. When the liquid starts to simmer (or have any bubbles) turn the heat down to medium-low heat. Put a lid on and let the mixture simmer for another twenty minutes. During this time, grate the zucchini.
- Add the remaining salt, and black pepper if desired. Then add parsley and zucchini and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.
- I personally love sliced cabbage at placed in the bottom of my bowl, as I serve this soup. Many members of my family enjoy store-bought tortellini. The tortellini can be boiled in water in a separate pot, (cook according to the packages directions) then the soup can be served for everyone to enjoy!
Notes
I have a family of five. Each person has different preferences and needs when it comes to meal time. This recipe is a family favorite. Since I don’t eat gluten, I love to put hearty thinly-sliced cabbage in my bowl as we are enjoying this soup. My family loves tortellini (store bought of course!)
I think that is important to eat home-cooked meals as a family that simply please everyone. Enjoy and let me know what you think about this soup in the comments below!!
- https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/somatic[↩]
