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Without With Within

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without with withinEach Monday, Tiffany posts a message that provides positive energy and tips for eating more mindfully. The purpose of the weekly message is to reinforce the ideas from the talks and classes that are a part of the Como Water Membership, and to further support those living the veg-centric lifestyle. To receive our Mindfulness Mondays posts, Become A Member today.

Without With Within

I keep a notebook by my bedside because things–poems, thoughts, solutions to statistics problem sets when I was in grad school–tend to come to me in my sleep. A couple of nights ago, this came to me:

“To have been without makes you so much more appreciative of what you are currently with, and drives home the importance of what you are truly within…”

I do not tend to remember my dreams, so I have no clue what was happening in my semi-conscious state to bring about this sentiment, but when I woke up and read what I had written down, I liked it (and wanted to share with you!). It reminded me of what one of the sisters at Blue Cliff Monastery told us. She was from Vietnam and had grown up very poor. She said that when she was younger she had quite a bit of shame around her background, but that with practice, she had transformed her shame into a capacity. A capacity to connect with people and a capacity to show compassion towards people who are suffering, for because of her background, she knew suffering.

In short, what this vision/quote/sleepy dream sentence means for me is two-fold: a) be grateful for all of your experiences, even hardships because there’s beauty and a lesson to learn from everything and b) when we endure the tough times, it allows us to more clearly see the important things and to see the true essence of ourselves.

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Tiffany M. Griffin is the woman behind Como Water, Washington DC’s premiere veg-centric cuisine consulting company. Through cooking classes, demonstrations, catering, and consultations, Como Water gives people the opportunity to learn how to prepare veg-centric cuisine that boasts maximum flavor, with minimal effort. Tiffany is quickly becoming a go-to expert on the future of veg-centric cuisine, and is a regular contributor to Como Water, the blog, as well as to vegetarian and vegan sites across the Internet. For over a decade, this self-taught, entrepreneurial expert has developed a set of tried and true techniques for making simple, delicious, and sometimes decadent veg-centric dishes. Featured on the Steve Harvey Show and other leading media outlets, Tiffany was born and raised in Springfield, MA. She then earned Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Communications from Boston College and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. She now resides in Washington DC, where she has worked in the US Senate and at a federal agency on issues around health, food, nutrition, and international food aid/development, and of course, as the owner of Como Water. Tiffany gets culinary inspiration from the food she grew up eating, and from her travels throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge on veg-centric cuisine with others and to help others live by her mantra—love life, live long, and eat veg-centric cuisine!

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