The Blessings of Coconuts

I had posted part of this in a response on how to open coconuts, but I had been meaning to write it as a blog for almost a week now, so I took it as a sign to finally do it.

I know everyone raves about young Thai coconut, but I have never had the pleasure of having one! I'm really looking forward to getting one finally, but I'll have to order it in where I live. I'm sure I can get one shipped from Montreal or something.

So in the meantime, I've been using the regular, hairy brown ones that I've known since I was a kid. I never used to like them much as a child - smashing them open was more fun than eating the meat to be sure, and I used to think that coconut water was creepy, and refused to even try it.

Now that I'm older, and know the benefits of eating foods like coconuts, it delights not only my sense of taste and smell, but my sense of satisfaction, gratitude, and well being. I truly feel the spirit and light of all things blessed enter into me when I ingest the coconut water - it is as though I have been invited to sit amongst the gods, and drink the nectar of life and immortality with them! Coconuts are truly a gift from the earth! The kind that keeps on giving and changing and yielding such wonderful things to us!

It was Canada day, and I had gotten up early to go clean a night club in town as a favor for the owners ( I used to work there) and I had just started a new job, so I was doing like 16 hour days for a little while, and I was exhausted! Although I was off at noon, biking there and back and working at 2 different places had wiped me out for a bit. So while all my friends were partying down town and my husband was at work, I decided to take it easy at home and hang out with a few coconuts.

After opening one and drinking it's water, I began the daunting task of shelling and prying the meat out. As I worked away at peeling the bark from the meat, I noticed that the oil from the meat was moisturizing my hands, seeping deep beneath my skin, healing me from within. I have very dry and cracked hands, as my mother before me. I have spent countless dollars and more than a few years trying to heal my hands. How simple and elegant that the mere task of food preparation would help heal my rough and sore fingers. They haven't felt this soft or looked this good since I was a teenager, and it only took an afternoon and a coconut to do it!

After I finished peeling the meat, and had had my share of coconut, I wondered what to do next with all the meat. I had heard tell of people using it to make raw ice cream and pies and such, but I was tired, and it was hot, and I just didn't have the energy to be creative with it, so I threw it in my blender, added some water, and left it up to the Mother to decide what to make of it.

A thick, creamy milk was produced, with lots of shredded coconut floating around in it. It looked good enough to drink, but I thought I would prefer the milk without the shreds in it. So I strained the milk into a mason jar (it gave me quite a bit!), pressed all the liquid out of the shreds, and put it into the fridge, the shredded coconut alongside it in a separate container.

When I woke up the next morning, I had the idea of using the milk in my daily smoothie. So I took the mason jar out of the fridge, but to my surprise, it had separated, and a thick white band had formed on top. I tried to shake it up, but it wouldn't budge. So I investigated with a spoon, and to my utter delight and surprise, it had formed coconut butter!

This truly was a gift for me, for I had priced coconut butter at the store, but I hadn't been paid for over a month (a whole, other blog post, to be sure), so I felt that I couldn't afford it until I had a steady pay check once again.

Out of one coconut I was given a rejuvenating spiritual experience, some food, some milk, a treat I had desired but couldn't afford, and the healing experience that I had been looking for for years. All from one coconut, that cost me a little time, a little love, and about $1.80.

It makes me realize how simple things really are, and how beautiful they are if you don't complicate things. I know that as raw foodists, we like to indulge in gourmet food and exotic fruits and vegetables, but experiences like this remind me just how beautiful life is without anything in the way to sway our love and our thoughts away from what really matters. It's easy to get caught up in what's going on around you, but all it took was little coconut to remind me and bring me back to the love.