Christiana
Random tidbits:
A mindfulness practice is different for every person. The one thing that I think is beneficial for everyone is meditation. Meditation can come in many forms, but essentially I recommend to start out is to set a time during the day. I prefer the morning. Sit in silence and be alone with your mind. In mindfulness meditation, we focus on the breath. Anytime you become distracted by a thought, feeling, or emotion, come back to focusing on your breath as it comes in and as it flows out. That's the formal practice of mindfulness. The informal practice is everything else that occurs in your life. So when someone cuts me off in traffic, am I immediately reacting in a negative way, or am I choosing to respond?
Mitch (round 2)
Random tidbits:
It is called the RX of Dr. Z. It's unlike my other writing. I had a friend a few years ago who was going for STEM cell transplant and had to be 40 days in isolation. His wife asked us to keep him entertained during his isolation. I invented a fictional person who was worse off than he was. This fictional person was keeping a 40 day journal at the suggestion of his psychiatrist. Each day I would write about a thousand words and send it to my friend. It was a wonderful experience because we had this fictional person between us, to talk about. At the end of 40 days, he recovered and I had 40,000 words.
Dan
Random tidbits:
We invested in Born Free baby bottles, which were the first BPA free baby bottles in America. BPA is a cause of cancer. In the beginning we were sued for making claims about BPA. Now, the FDA has changed the law and forbids BPA in baby bottles. So, it was a good business and we could do something good along the way.
Carlos
Random tidbits:
I met then Senator Obama, on May 20th 2008 at an event sponsored by the Cuban American National Foundation, of which I am a member of the Board. We had a conversation about Cuba and Latin America and about Radio and TV Marti. I thought it was a casual conversation. To my surprise, I received a call from the White House in February.
Joel
Random tidbits:
I think probably the easiest one to describe is our last public piece in Boston, which was called Lost House. The premise of the project started with an abandoned piece of land in Boston. There was originally a house built by a woman in the mid 1800's, which was very rare. Sometime in the sixties, it went abandoned when the area went through an economic collapse. It's now owned by the city. We found it to be almost a crime against the area, that the government was waiting on a developer to find value in it before actually doing anything with it. We fell in love with the site and decided on a 'ghost version' of a house. It took on some of the aspects of the original house that was there, but then also tried to make it as unfamiliar as possible. Essentially, it looked like a bunch of columns that branched out as trees and then connected to other columns and that when put together made a canopy that suggested a roof line of a house. As you walked around, it would change form because from the front it had the image of a house, but as you moved around it looked occasionally just more like trees and these branching structures. Inside the middle, we had a simple set of benches so that people could come and now actually use the site.
Erin And David
Random tidbits:
One of the things that’s so great about the market is the lessons our kids learn. At the market, our kids learn what it means to eat by seasons. Today in the grocery store, with food coming from everywhere, we somehow forget that apples are not in season all year long. For our older kids, that have been dying for the LNB guacamole, we have had to explain to them that Irma stripped off the avocados from your trees and really affected your yield. Understanding this helps them think broader about global warming and climate change and how that affects farmers and other people besides themselves.
Anthony
Random tidbits:
My dad is a great story about coming here and having to make it without his parents - definitely in the same camp as a lot of Cubans. He didn't complain, he sold shoes, and went through school. He really is like a patriarch of big accounting here in South Florida. He is one of the first Hispanics to get recognition for his field. I'm very grateful to be the son of an accountant. It gives you a very good business acumen because you're sitting in a restaurant and he's talking to you about their PNL and how things are going in the books. It gives you an education beyond the face value of things. It's really paid off for me and my brothers. He is one of those great boy-dads who really set up his kids to carry the torch.
Dina
Random tidbits:
Yes. A fun fact about my family, I grew up in a family restaurant called People's Barbecue - located in Overtown. The restaurant is currently undergoing renovations. My Miami is growing up in that culturally rich community, and also in a family business. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours, helping grandma stock shelves in the back with spices and sauces. I used to wash dishes in the back. I used to answer phone calls. When I would come home for college in between breaks, I would help with catering orders. I liked getting to meet a lot of different people. I love our customers and their loyalty. It's fun to see them come in and they're like, 'I remember when you were three years old and you could barely say welcome.'
Stephanie
Random tidbits:
To make the sauce, I use a VitaMix blender. I soak the cashews overnight in water, the next day I add two teaspoons of garlic powder, 1.5 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, and a little less than a half cup of water with 1.5 teaspoons of Himalayan salt and black pepper. I squeeze a whole lemon and mix it until it’s creamy. You can add more nutritional yeast to make it cheesier. It’s a great replacement for an Alfredo sauce. I’ll use it for the whole week.
Bekki
Random tidbits:
PKD or Polycystic Kidney Disease and basically it's a genetic disorder. It effects over 600,000 Americans and it's a quiet disease that nobody really knows about. It results in cysts forming on the kidneys which effect their function. Three years ago we, he and I moved to Tampa for two months and he had a kidney transplant and did his recovery there. Thank goodness he's super healthy now. And my brother is a hero because he donated his kidney to my husband.