While shopping for marinara sauce at my favorite Italian deli recently, I happened upon a little jar of Dalmatia Orange Fig Spread. I couldn’t help but smile, as I was filled with fond memories of my grandmother. My grandmother, Marie, who lived to be 93 years old, was originally from Dubrovnik, a city on the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia.

When you think about typical storybook grandmothers, that is the image that my grandmother held for me. She loved to cook, and fed us full of roasted chicken and homemade apple strudel when we came to visit. Her garden was the envy of the neighborhood. She tended to her flowers and vegetables with such love and care that they couldnt help but flourish. In the front yard she had a fig tree that bore bountiful fruit. She stayed home most of the time. She didnt travel except for one trip back to Yugoslavia when she was in her 60s. She never drove a car, choosing instead to walk to the market to buy groceries.

So most people would not have thought of my grandmother as a very daring, or risk-taking person. But I know better. Marie was one courageous lady.

At her cousins urging, Marie left her family and her native country at the tender age of 16, taking a ship across the Atlantic, landing at Ellis Island, and traveling by train all the way across the country to Eureka, California. It was quite an adventure, to say the least, for a girl who had never left home. She did not speak English, or understand the currency, so she survived on the bread that she brought with her from home. At one point a kind man gave my grandmother a banana, and he had to demonstrate how to eat it because she had never seen one before.

Eventually she got to the train station in Eureka. Waiting for her there was her cousin, Emil, and his friend Jack, whom Emil had declared to be the perfect match for Marie. Of course, Jack and Marie were married, and the rest is family history.

Love knows no time or space, no borders or oceans. My grandmother was following her instincts when she embarked on a journey across the world to marry a man she had never met. My grandparents were true pioneers, in life and in love. They forged the way to create a new family here in the United States.

As I enjoy my Dalmatia Orange Fig spread on sunflower toast I cant help but be grateful for my brave and beautiful grandmother. She took a chance to create a better life for herself and her children, and now were all living that life. And I know she knows. I know she has everything to do with my own adventurous spirit, with the blooming flowers in my garden, and with the fact that I can find such a thing as this delicious fig spread.

FEATURE FILM
WINNER: Alfonso Cuarn, Gravity
Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen, Twelve Years A Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

DOCUMENTARY
Zachary Heinzerling, Cutie and the Boxer
WINNER: Jehane Noujaim, The Square
Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing
Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell
Lucy Walker, The Crash Wheel

DRAMATIC SERIES
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad, “Blood Money”
David Fincher, House of Cards, “Chapter 1”
WINNER: Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, “Felina”
Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland, “The Star”
David Nutter, Game of Thrones, “The Rains of Castamere”

COMEDY SERIES
Mark Cendrowski, The Big Bang Theory, “The Hofstadter Insufficiency”
Bryan Cranston, Modern Family, “The Old Man & The Tree”
Gail Mancuso, Modern Family, “My Hero”
WINNER: Beth McCarthy-Miller, 30 Rock, “Hogcock!/Last Lunch”
Anthony Rich, The Big Bang Theory, “The Love Spell Potential”

MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
Stephen Frears, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight
David Mamet, Phil Spector
Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford, The Sound of Music Live!
Nelson McCormick, Killing Kennedy
WINNER: Steven Soderbergh, Behind the Candelabra

VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING
Dave Diomedi, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, “#799”
Andy Fisher, Jimmy Kimmel Live, “#13-1810”
Jim Hoskinson, The Colbert Report, “#10004”
WINNER: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live, “Saturday Night Live with Host Justin Timberlake”
Chuck O’Neil, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, “#19018”

VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – SPECIALS
Louis C.K., Louis C.K.: Oh My God
Joel Gallen, 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Louis J. Horvitz, The 55th Annual Grammy Awards
Don Mischer, The 85th Annual Academy Awards
WINNER: Glenn Weiss, The 67th Annual Tony Awards

REALITY PROGRAMS
Matthew Bartley, The Biggest Loser, “1501”
WINNER: Neil P. DeGroot, 72 Hours, “The Lost Coast”
Paul Starkman, Top Chef, “Glacial Gourmand”
J. Rupert Thompson, The Hero, “Teamwork”
Betram van Munster, The Amazing Race, “Beards in the Wind”

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
Stephen Herek, Jinxed
Jeffrey Hornaday, Teen Beach Movie
Jonathan Judge, Swindle
WINNER: Amy Schatz, An Apology to Elephants
Adam Weissman, A.N.T. Farm

COMMERCIALS
Fredrik Bond, Voyage, Heineken; From The Future, Johnny Walker
John X. Carey, Real Beauty Sketches, Dove
WINNER: Martin de Thurah, The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down, Hennessy VS; Human Race, Acura MDX 2014
Matthijs van Heijningen, Perfect Day, Sony Playstation; #Forty Eight, Verizon
Noam Murro, Basketball, Guinness; Kids, DIRECTV; Mask, Volkswagen

I am beyond upset right now.  I am appalled, sickened, and totally thrown by what I just witnessed on television.  If I had seen this sooner, I would have written sooner.  I had E! Entertainment on in the background while I was busy working on my newsletters.  The show “Kourney and Kim Take Miami” was on – I was hardly paying attention, until I saw Scott Disick, Kourtney’s baby daddy, shoot and kill an alligator. 

Yes, he did.  We saw the shot.  We saw the blood.  We saw the lifeless body.  It was horrible.  It was REAL.  This is not fiction, this is not a scripted drama – this happened ON CAMERA.  And then, to make matters worse, Disick and his group of hunter pals guffaw as they take the dead animal to the skinner, and he proceeds to cut off its leg.  The whole time the group is making jokes, and Disick arrogantly is caught up in how great his alligator shoes are going to be. 

This network is called E for “Entertainment” – how is this entertainment?  I understand that there are people who don’t get it, who take life for sport, who think hunting is a game.  But I certainly don’t need to see this on television.  Have we gotten so de-sensitized to killing that this can happen on a cable television show and no one blinks? 

Thankfully, PETA noticed, and responded.  But that’s not enough.  Any one who values life, who values the tradition of television needs to respond, and loudly!  There is no excuse for this.  I know that the Kardashians are known to trash talk – they are bleeped out all the time – even their subtitles are bleeped out.  And yet, to kill an animal is ok?  No – it’s not.  If this were a dog instead of an alligator would people be more upset?  A life is a life – whether it is a pet, a wild animal, or a human.

E! needs to have some respect – for its viewers, and for the value of a life.

Eat, Pray, Love has spiritual seekers everywhere following in Elizabeth Gilberts footsteps, literally, traveling to Italy, India, and Bali on an adventure of a lifetime.And now that Julia Roberts has followed suit on the big screen, it is likely that many more will make the sojourn to these exotic locations in pursuit of something to marvel at.There is much to marvel at anytime you travel.Everything is new, and different.It opens your eyes, engages the senses. Travel is an amazing opportunity to learn and grow through new experiences.

And yet, as Confucius stated so plainly: No matter where you go, there you are. The spiritual journey is a journey within.We dont need to climb a mountain in Tibet to achieve the kind of inner peace we so desperately crave.We dont need to go anywhere, we dont even need to do anything, to find ourselves in a place of balance and bliss.

So, given that we can’t all jet off to foreign countries on a whim, let’s go on our own spiritual quest, right where we are, starting with eat.

Tantra teaches us that we experience the world through our five senses.Taste is definitely one of those senses where we can experience much pleasure  and given the cuisine, one might even say nirvana.When eating, the sense of smell also comes into play; the aroma heightens the anticipation, and enhances the flavors.Sight is involved with food.We’ve learned from the many Food Network shows how important presentation is in a meal.When food looks good, we’re more likely to perceive it as tasting good.Touch is in the texture of the food.How does it feel in your mouth? And even sound is in food from the sizzle on the grill to the crunch of that perfect bite, to the oohs and aahs that emerge from satisfied diners.

Great pasta dinners aren’t only in Italy. We can cook, and have fun in our very own kitchen creating and experimenting with sauces and seasonings. Or we can find a lovely little neighborhood restaurant, and allow ourselves to be served with careful attention. Eating gives us a chance to indulge all of our five senses, to be present in the moment, to savor the experience and to be aware of the feelings that it evokes from deep within. When we are in present moment awareness there is no regret, fear, or guilt. There is only gratitude. And that is a beautiful place to be.

Pray takes us into silence, into the stillness where all the wisdom of the universe can be found. Our busy world is filled with commotion. We are inundated with errands and e-mails and obligations. Our lives are slaves to the clock and the calendar, scheduled out farther that we even care to plan. But when we meditate, there is no time and space. The world seems to stop; our mind begins to quiet. Gone are the commercials and the traffic and the to-do lists. Suddenly we become aware of our breath, which brings us back to ourselves. We listen, and answers come, truth reveals itself, calmness settles in.

We could be in a temple, some historically preserved monument. Or we could be right where we are, perhaps smack dab in the middle of the couch.It doesn’t matter, because it’s all the same, it’s all connected. When we get together and meditate in groups, the experience is amplified. Energy rises, and circulates, and infuses each participant. Take that time away from the busy-ness, shut off the phone, unplug from technology  get back to nature, get back to yourself and you’ll remember who you are.

Love is all about relationships.And life is all about love.Who we love, and what we love. When we are doing what we love and also helping people, then we have found our dharma or purpose in life. There is nothing more fulfilling. If there is anything this world needs more of, it is love. We can never get too much of it! Extend yourself beyond your comfort zone, beyond the parameters that have been self-imposed, and reach out to someone with love. It’s easy to love a baby, or a kitten. So innocent and sweet, so receptive and accepting. The challenge is for us to love something or someone that might appear to us to be unlovable. The rejected, the downtrodden, the messy, the annoying. Yet when we do open our hearts, and we allow that love to pour forth, we feel an influx of love coming right back to us. Love the moment, every moment. Love where you are, wherever that is. Marvel at your surroundings, the miracles that extend in and around the immediate environment. Everything that is here is here for you. The ground yearns for your footsteps. You love, and you are loved completely.

When you implement these simple techniques, what starts as a holiday becomes a habit. That habit then becomes a lifestyle. It’s a matter of mindfulness. We have the opportunity to practice every day, every moment, anywhere we are.

My new e-course with Daily Om is 9 Weeks to Joyful Living. Do the exercises and you’ll find you are living a life filled with elegance, joy, and simplicity. Once you do that, you can’t go back.