The Power of Substitution

They say nothing is funnier than the truth!

Lately I’ve come to believe it.

Just look around.

The other day I was looking around in Paia.

This place must be a magnet for people who like to…well…substitute!

People who live here have a talent for substitution. They can substitute for anything…that’s food for thought!

Take for example, the basics.

Let’s start with clothes!

We all wear them! Where do they come from?

Go into any thrift shop… in Paia that’s a substitution right off the get-go!

Go to Nordstrom’s? Or Macy’s? Too high end?

Let’s substitute Sears, Penny’s or Target? Or Walmart?

I think that leads us back to the thrift shop! Where else can we go-especially on this island-to find an evening gown that can be turned into an everyday classic with just a few rips here and there, add a piece of Indian fabric, and a few shells! And Voila! Avante gard wear, the height of Paia fashion!

Substitution at its finest!

Finding your style is easy too.

There is always a herd of people with dreads paving the way. To the rack with softly worn, tattered in all the right places, and over washed clothes—all with style!

In this best of all worlds, at 80% off!

Gold mine! Oooops! Too materialistic, Uh, Nervana!

And to add character to the experience, just to make shopping spiritually easier, the minute you walk in the door, you are assaulted by a familiar smell…musty clothes, essential oils, and old shoes!

Not only is clothing a substitutes dream, but furniture is equally rewarding and available.

Most people arrive on island with a duffel bag and little else. Why be bogged down-after all-we are spiritual beings. You know the saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Here you say, “So why have it?”

Living proof that substituting works, so true!

So, if you haven’t tried or just aren’t looking, you can’t for some unknown reason find free furniture on the corner of the street, the coconut wireless is working for you, alive and ringing, and a ready substitute for the furniture store!

A friend’s brother’s auntie’s best friend has a couch to give away. Just the right price!

You know how it works! We’ve all been there!

Bit by bit, a shack in the jungle becomes a home.

And food! The best substitution yet.

We all need to be nourished—and not just spiritually and metaphysically.

Unless you are a Breatharian, food is the answer.

Cooks among us—and you know who you are—are expert substitutes.

Gluten—stuff of death—and of gas!

Avoid it like the plague, let’s face it, popular culture has adopted gluten like it is the new hypoglycemia!

As a child you may have lived off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Those days are over!

Now as an enlightened being, you know that bread might be made of flour bleached with chemicals

Crawling with preservatives

Loaded with gluten

And GMO wheat

And refined by processing to within an inch of its life!

And jelly! OMG pure sugar, am I right? right up there with heroin!

Even peanut butter-full of sugar to kill that peanut taste, and close to poison for anyone with a peanut allergy!.

So twenty plus years of eating PBJ is due for a substitution.

Find something RAW and eat it!

Personally, I think RAW foods were invented by people who can’t (or won’t) cook—or who hate doing dishes!

Avoiding sugar calls for another substitution. It has been called an instant addiction, it is now a class-one drug! (just kidding) And in everything.

Don’t believe it is in everything? Read the labels.

Don’t think you’re addicted?

Try going for a week without it!

NOT EASY! It makes crawling the walls look easy!

So we substitute; Coconut flakes, dried figs, dates, raisins, unprocessed RAW honey, and about a million other (unsatifying) SWEET? Ingredients.

It all comes down to as if you were offering an alcoholic NEAR BEER. They will tell you its NEAR, but it’s not THERE!

As an experiment I tried eliminating all the things that are BAD for me, prior to applying substitutes.

No GMO-organic only please!

No Gluten

No artificial colors-dyed with beet juice and acai berries?

No artificial flavors

No high fructose corn syrup

No artificial sweeteners-chemicals! Yikes!

No sugar (refined or otherwise)

No eggs (for our vegan friends! :)

No cheese (Cows are not our friend!)

No Soy (hormones!)

No salt—amino only please!

After eliminating everything that could possibly lead me to a slow agonizing death, I settled down to a satisfying meal…of water! (filtered and alkalized and non-chlorinated, of course)

To your health! The sacred in me salutes the sacred in you! As long as I can muster the energy to put my palms together and bow after all this substitution!