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Path of the Heart

Life as a Garden

Blessed Season.

Dear Beloveds,

The Path of the Heart is a scenic one that can be straight and gentle to steep and challenging.

An English Robin signaled the way to go on the Coast to Coast Path, near Robin Hood’s Bay, in NE Yorkshire, England, as I was thinking of where my life path was going.  I was walking it………Following my Heart.

My time away from the US has been more fulfilling than I expected on all life levels. 

I returned to the US twice.  In August to support Calvin with 6 weeks of chemotherapy treatments.   They didn’t work, and I returned for his surgery in November.  Cancer is a steep and challenging life path.  Calvin has been as positive as one can be in this situation.

My daughter, Jasmine (44, can you believe it) and I, had a mother-daughter journey in England in October 2025.  It was a glorious experience for us to be together for 10 days, just the two of us.

Therefore, I’m traveling back and forth across the Pond.  It’s not possible to do full time Europe as I originally planned due to Calvin and Jasmine’s needing my presence and assistance.  I don’t mind at this time.  It’s been fun and I plan to continue in this way.

DUP Holiday Card 2025 – The DUP Holiday card has always been a beautiful reminder of the call to peace, love and harmony in this time of year.  The North America DUP Board chose an artist from Mexico for this year’s holiday art with a beautiful painting of unity. 

The inside of the card features, All my Relations, my Dance with a link to the song and the Dance demonstration.   

The words and meaning of these simple words beyond the Dance, is the deeper message, that we are all part of the web of life and all beings are a part of us at each moment.  What we do to us, we affect the web of life.

It is with deep gratitude, respect, honor and feeling a great privilege to share this message, together with the link to the song and dance I created, chosen by the North American Dances of Universal Peace Board.

It is a dance that is now sung and danced in many different countries using their native language.  The message is felt worldwide and touches the depths of one’s core.

The message of ALL the Dances of Universal Peace, touches the depths of so many, and changes lives, creates love, peace and harmony, and sends that energy to all sentient beings.

And Thank You NADUP Board for continuing the message of Love Harmony and Beauty to North America and the world, through your time as members of the Board supporting the Dances. 

Grace’s Dances – Videos and instructions.  Two sessions at Wilderness Dance Camp in Idaho, in early September 2025, were dedicated to video recording 18+ of my Dances.  This project took many hours by a dedicated team of people, videotaped at Camp N-Sid Sen, Lake Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, USA.

Thanks to the Wilderness Dance Camp organizing team for allowing optional sessions for making videos of my Dances.

Thanks to Alex Gunter of Portland, Oregon, and Douglas DeMeres of Walla Walla, Washington, for their musicianship support.

Thanks to Selim Robb Remington of Sonoma, California for assisting with recording the video and David Hazen of Eugene for assisting with video upload.

Thanks to DUP volunteer, Rabia Pam Prichard, of Salem Oregon, for her work with video recording and editing and to Wayne Rollack, Canada DUP volunteer, and Rabia Pam for their creating Dance write-ups associated with this project. Thanks to Valerie Hazen of Eugene Oregon for video editing assistance.

Thank you to the Dance participants of the video recordings that demonstrated very fine unified movement instructional videos.  You can watch the shorter, edited version on my YouTube channel using the below link.  

youtube grace d marie channel

Rabia Pamela Prichard posted the longer instructional videos on her YouTube channel under Pam Prichard.

The longer instructional videos and written instructions are posted on the INDUP website for DUP leaders.

Thank you to everyone involved in co-creating this project.

2026 English Garden Group Journeys, Spring and Autumn:  Limited to 10 participants.  Please contact me soon if you want to attend.

April 22 – 29, 2026 – England – English Gardens and Walks of SW England – I am planning for the Rhododendron and Azalea blooming, as well as tulips and other spring flowers for the end of April 2026. 
Details to come soon.

September 22 – 29, 2026 – England – English Gardens and Walks of the Lake District and Yorkshire.
Details to come soon.

France Dances of Universal Peace Retreat – Love is the Key.  Open the Door.
December 27, 2025 – January 1, 2026 – Roissard in Trieves, France – Winter DUP Retreat.  Dancing in the New Year with Grace, Yarrow Nelson, with French and European leaders and dancers.  

Contact Ashani at Contact@dupprovence.com

Signal – Communication App – Many in Europe use an app called Signal. It is non-profit, dedicated to privacy.  I use Signal now and encourage my WhatsApp friends to consider it.  I will continue to use WhatsApp as necessary.

Closing Comment:  In my experiences as a teacher, leader and participant worldwide in the Dances, this past year magnified an important topic shared in sacred circles by participants:  Friendship.  Support.  Community.  Some developed deep friendships and community.  Some expressed lack of true friendship and support and longed for it.  Some come for only the Dances without expecting a friendship to develop or want to have a conversation.  Some feel judgements, experienced gossip and feel a lack of trust.

However, those people still come, still Sing Dance and Pray, and receive the personal benefit from the song and prayer.  We can be who we are, we can feel what we feel, we can be more assertive to obtain our hearts desire, we can be the change for ourselves and others.  Be the change.  Be the action.  Be the words we sing and dance of.

The Dances offer Love Peace and Harmony to all sentient beings.  Where does one stand in this statement and the statements expressed by sacred circle participants?

Much love to you in this season and always,

Grace

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Super Greens Soup-Vegetarian or Vegan

Life as a Garden

Soup is one of my favorite meals at any time of the year. There is no need to purchase soup stock as the ingredients used creates its own. This Super Greens Soup is one I make often, always using fresh organic ingredients. Enjoy.

Super Greens Soup – Vegan and Vegetarian

Butter or Avocado Oil for sauté

Salt to season

½ onion finely chopped*

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 medium size baby bella mushrooms, finely chopped

1 bunch baby bok choy finely chopped

2 handfuls fresh super greens finely chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste or a squeeze of tube tomato paste (optional but gives it great flavor)

1 small potato chopped (substitute noodles for potato for Vegetable Noodle Soup)

1 hefty tbsp freshly grated ginger

Boiling Water to add to sauté for soup**

Sauté onions, garlic and mushrooms in butter for 5 minutes.  Add a pinch of salt.

Add butter or avocado oil. 

Add bok choy and sauté for 2 – 3 minutes.

Add tomato paste and mix. 

Add a pinch of salt.  More butter or oil if needed.  Add super greens.  Sauté.

Add potato.  Sauté 2 minutes.  Add ginger to mix all.

Add 2 cups boiling water, then add more water to create soup consistency you want, thick or brothy. 

Add salt to taste.  Bring to boil. 

Simmer covered 5 minutes on low heat.

Take off the heat and let it sit covered for 5 minutes.

Uncover.  Let cool.  Then warm it up for eating.

For me personally, this process works the best for integration of flavors. 

*Finely chopped or to your chopped size preference

**I add boiling water to the soup mixture so I don’t have to wait for it to boil.

Variation:  Add noodles to soup after it boils, (instead of potato) for Vegetable Noodle Soup.

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Vegetarian Nutmeat Loaf

Life as a Garden

This is my first post in a long time.  Thank you for your patience.  I plan on posting more often as my life has opened up more time to share Life as a Garden. I am having to re-learn how to post on this Blog. I will get better as I do it more.

nutloaf 3 crop

Vegetarian Nutmeat Loaf

This recipe is the closest taste to beef in a meatloaf I have ever eaten.  You may even ‘fool’ your meat eating friends.  I use all organic ingredients.  Side dish recommendations are cole slaw, steamed vegetables, a salad.

Pre-heat oven to 400° F  (200° C)    Grease a 3 ¾ “x 2 ¼” x 8” loaf pan

  • 2 ¼ cups shelled walnuts, then, finely chop them in a food processor
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
  • 2 medium Roma tomatoes, blanched, skinned, de-seeded, finely chopped, squeezed of moisture*
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste
  • 1 Tbsp basil
  • 1 egg, beaten

Put in a large mixing bowl, the chopped walnuts, onion, shredded cheese, tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil and lightly mix together. Add the beaten egg and mix well.

Put the mixture in the greased loaf pan and push down to firm.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or when the top is well browned. Take out of oven and cool in the loaf pan. Slice and serve warm.

*How to blanch the tomatoes and de-skin easily:  Cut an X on the top of the tomatoes to cut the skin but not the meat.  Boil enough water in a pot to cover 2 tomatoes.  When water boils, add the tomatoes to the boiling water for 20 seconds only.  Remove promptly and place in ice to prevent them from cooking more.  The skin will come off easily.  Quarter the tomatoes, de-seed, and chop finely.  Take a handful of the chopped tomatoes, squeeze out the moisture and add to the nut loaf mixture.

Interesting information about tomatoes:  For a close to a lectin-free tomato, I skin and de-seed them.  When tomatoes were introduced to Italy, the Italians discovered the skin and seeds in tomatoes caused health issues.  Therefore, they skinned and removed the seeds before cooking them.  Roma tomatoes were developed by Italians for more meat and less seeds.