I am thrilled to be back from our Rome trip, and am loving being in our Central Kitchen doing the work to fine tune our operations! Besides it takes me out of the rain and cold!

It is always so good to return home. We have such an amazing community here. We have our first ripe tomatoes in the greenhouse and are so happy for the early harvest that is coming up before too long. My baby chicks are all feathered out and are wondering outside of their nesting box for the first time this week - they are SO cute. Our lettuce, kale, and potatoes are growing beautifully. The cilantro, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are wishing for sunnier days. 

Have you tried the new menu yet? So many great new items. Our Harrison store is remodeled and awaiting the framed pictures, coming soon. Drop by and take a look, the colors are warm and welcoming. Thank you all for your on going partnership. 

At Cafe Gratitude, our goal is to be "The Space for All of It."  What we mean is that we can not always choose what or who shows up at our door, but we can choose to be an invitation to whatever shows up, and to greet it with joy and gratitude.

In 1987, Issan Dorsey, a Zen teacher and former Drag Queen, invited a homeless student dying from AIDS to live in what was then the Hartford Street Zen Center.  Issan, a charismatic and colorful leader, founded Maitri there, in the heart of the Castro, and when he passed, left a group of followers devoted to deal with whatever came to the door.  They started the hospice because death came to the door.

Maitri has been providing residential hospice care to patients suffering with AIDS since 1987. They have provided a final home to over 900 people with AIDS, and  14 of their 15 hospice beds are reserved for people who are HUD-defined as low income. They are the only facility in California to offer AIDS-specific residential care to the community.

This week I invite you to feel the burn.  Consider that if you aren't stretching yourself and feeling discomfort, that you are sedated and content... moving with the flow of how things already are.  

I've taken on several new commitments to myself these last few days in areas of my life that I've been feeling comfortable.  I've taken on fuller honesty in my relationships, giving up addictions, and exploring yoga.  It's allowed me to feel the borders that I've set up in my life to keep myself small-- boundaries that keep me safe from my imagined fears of judgement and failure.  By stretching outside of my comfort zone I get to explore my actual freedoms and choice that I have in my life.  It has me feel like I'm traveling:  exploring other ways of being and trying them on to see if that's more so what I want in my life.

This week I invite you to try on getting uncomfortable around something.  Matthew Engelhart always says that safety is a sedative.  What are you missing out on by playing a small game and hiding out in comfort?