The "other" day.

I love........absolutely love being outdoors in the spring! I am a hog for fresh air. Today I have had to be inside and am grateful that it's cloudy. It's much easier to be inside. I notice that I am not very good at working in the office for part of the day and then gardening a bit and then going to teach a class. I used to think that I should be able to just switch gears. Now, I don't think it's necessary. I just need to do the work in a way that works for me. I like gardening all day, getting right into the muck of things and then a long bath that really soaks dirt off my feet and hands. I love gardening barefoot (I am earthing). And then working in the office another day with emails, phone calls, all the paper work and filing and organizing. A day for cleaning house and groceries and cooking. Teaching on the other days. Hmpf! It seems to me there aren't enough days.

I have a little fridge magnet that says: "I clean house every other day. This isn't the other day."

Today is a office and teaching day. And the sun is coming out. Perfect. A walk to work with the sun on my face.

Herbs

I can grow flowers, herbs, raspberries, bushes, and trees. Food seems hard to grow. Even my zucchini floundered last year. Today I planted some herbs in containers so I can still bring them in overnight. I love spring gardening and making plans and it seems the garden expands every year. One day I won't see any lawn at all. I spent a lot of time drinking tea as well......

The most important thing I do every day for my health and happiness is meditate. It really works to bring clarity to my life. Sometimes life is just a muddle of things that have to be done but meditation holds me in a space where life flows. I feel rooted to something that doesn't change. It's a grounding in sanity. The meditation I practice and also now teach is Ascension as taught by the Ishayas' of the Bright Path. It is a teaching that points towards my own heart. I didn't think there was such a teaching. A teaching that is about praise, gratitude, and love, which has simple techniques that effortlessly and gently bring awareness of the truth that I am whole and infinite.
www.thebrightpath.com

I have been in the garden daily cleaning and cleaning. I bought this little guy yesterday. He is just sitting on a stump waiting for his spot in the garden to be prepared.

Gardening advice: plant seeds and pull weeds. Sort of like life isn't it? I've been pulling weeds and dead things in the garden and also in myself. Parts of me magically appear on the surface of my experience and I am surprised to find out I still have those buttons to be pushed........the weeds are rooted deep and need pulling yet again.

Sweet beauty

It's a beautiful day!

It's all bullshit

Sometimes I have this overwhelming urge to tell everyone off. To tell everyone that everything we believe about ourselves is pretty much bullshit. It's just a story. I've noticed that when I buy into my own story of who I am, what I know, what I do, then I get really attached to that as the truth - and - don't you dare tell me otherwise. And I protect this story. What an ego! The ego is the story and I hold it dear to my heart. But when I drop my story I feel lighter. I feel free of the stuff in my head and even the story of other people. It's my attachment to my story that is heavy.....like carrying a massive suitcase around with me all day. Then opening it and showing my old, old story to everyone. The story of me. It's stale and old.

I notice I can see other people do this too. I wish for all of us to just stop. Just stop. And live fresh. Now. We won't forget how to do our work. We won't forget where we live. We will however, see everyone fresh with new eyes every day. We will see the beauty around us because we are not distorting it with our ideas of it. We will see the person in front of us as a new person today and not the stale old person of yesterday.

Anthony de Mello in his book Awareness says that everyone is crazy, you're crazy, I'm crazy, and the sooner we just realize that - the happier we will be.

Half-sweet, dirty chai latte

Last week I had a little sip of a skinny, half-sweet, dirty chai latte. It was super good and I've been thinking about it ever since. I usually place rather boring coffee orders, but in order to be a bit more savvy I picked up this drink, minus the skinny part, only because I couldn't remember all of it and well, I'm not much into skinny things. Oh man, I really enjoyed this morning after I pulled out my plants and we all sat in the sun together.
Half-sweet = half the syrupy sweetener
Dirty = a shot of espresso

Bengal Beef

60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
750 g lean ground beef
4 onions, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
1 cube beef bouillon, crumbled
375 ml (1 1/2 cups) water
60 ml (1/4 cup) vinegar
100 g (1/2 cup) raisins
30 g (1/4 cup) pine nuts
60 g (1/2 cup) pistachio nuts, shelled
375 g (1 1/2 cups yogurt or kefir)

Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan. Cook the beef and set aside.

In the same saucepan, brown the onions and garlic for 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Add the curry and turmeric and cook slowly for 2 minutes.

Add the flour and salt, stirring well. Add a generous amount of pepper.

Add the cardamon, crumbled bouillon, water, vinegar, raisins, and beef. Mix well, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add the nuts.

To serve, top with yogurt. I love this with rice.

This recipe is from a Canadian cookbook: Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer by Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras, two leading cancer researchers.

Grumbling as a creative act?

I received a phone call this morning from my Mexican friend who is living, guess where - yep, in Mexico. We had a wonderful chat. She knows me well so I told her the truth about my grumbling. I have been hard on myself because I have been grumbling about things. I like things to be like I like things to be. If I can see something could be done better or more efficiently I like to try and do it. And I will also tell someone else that "you know, it would be better, or easier, or prettier if you do it this way". Thankfully I still have some friends who tolerate this.  :)  :)   So, my friend said to be happy about my grumbling. That it's a good thing! It's a noticing that something needs to change. Any creative act begins with some sort of irritation. Just like a bud of a flower breaking open, or a baby bird pecking it's way out of the egg, there has to be some effort. She said I was an agent of change! And I guess that means that grumbling is a sign that change is coming. Well, who would have thought that grumbling could mean that something new is about to be created. And it is so obvious, isn't it?

Thanks M!

The Beaver People - Frogs Return Moon (April 20 - May 20)

People born between April 20 and May 20, during the Frogs Return moon, have the beaver as their totem in the animal kingdom, the blue camas in the plant kingdom, and the chrysocolla in the mineral kingdom. Their colour is blue and they are of the Turtle elemental clan.

Their stone, the chrysocolla, is very similar to the turquoise. It is green to blue, glossy, and at the same time has an earthy look to it. It has the property of sticking to the tongue which is a good way to identify it. Most beaver people are very rooted to the earth and sometimes forget to look skyward. This stone can help. It brings good luck and good medicine to the wearer. Like the stone, the beaver people appear lucky, but the luck usually comes from hard work. They also have strong bodies and can enjoy good health, especially if they wear their stone, and as long as they curb their tendency to overindulge. They are very stable people. When, and if they change environments they do so in a very systematic way. This unchanging part of their nature, which reflects a quality of their mineral, makes these folks very good friends to have. Once they decide that they are your friend, they will not easily change their minds.

Like their beautiful and healing plant, the blue camas, these folks can be conscious of beauty and practically at the same time. Beaver people have the ability to sustain those with whom they are associated. Because their own roots go deeply into the earth, they are able to give a firm footing  to people or projects with which they are involved.

The blue colour signifies physical tranquility and psychological contentment stemming from a feeling of peace and happiness. Beaver people must be happily grounded on the earth plane before they can discover the spiritual aspirations that are also with them.

People of this animal totem, like the beaver, are capable of drastically altering their environment in order to provide for their own peace, security, and contentment. They will make changes in a slow, deliberate way, with resourcefulness. They have some attraction to water: to swimming or sailing, or just walking around lakes, rivers, or ponds. They are clever and nimble. Quick to learn anything necessary or beneficial for them to know. They are patient and persevering. They will spend a lot of time and creativity on designing. They have minds capable of wonderful feats of engineering. Given some time, beaver people can redesign most jobs or work projects to run better, smoother and more harmoniously . These people don't talk much. They take relationships very seriously. They mate for life.

As other people from other totems travel through this place on the wheel, they can learn how to set their own houses in order, so that, whatever they seek, they can seek it form a place of tranquility and contentment. They can also learn the value of stability, of patience and perseverance and they can learn better how to root themselves in the Earth Mother, who sustains us all.

From: The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology
by Sun Bear and Wabun

Writing Down the Bones

I found this little book at the library years and years ago - Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. I spent a lot of time at the library when I was younger and loved to browse. This one book just popped out at me. I never planned to write anything but was always thinking that might be nice some day - so, a wanna be writer. Anyone can read this book because Natalie Goldberg is a superb writer no matter what the subject. Some of the chapter titles: Don't marry the fly; Writers have good figures; Be an animal; One plus one equals a Mercedes-Benz. Natalie also read the book years later on tape and adds commentary. How fun! So, if anyone writes a journal or is a wanna be writer or just wants to read a good writer - check this one out.

Just do it!

A while ago, I started putting down myself on my daily calendar. Things like going for a walk, an afternoon nap or meditation (usually my body decides which), and time to study whatever new idea I am exploring. And I have done them as if they were just some of the many things I have to do during the day. But I have given them as much emphasis as any other appointment and am finding how much more fulfilled I feel at the end of the day. It is making me appear busier but in that busy-ness I get done what I really want to do. I started by thinking that what would I do if I had more time. Time seems to always be lacking in my life. So with extra time, what would I do with it? I put those things on the calendar.....maybe not as a daily thing but I did find room. It is quite remarkable that it is working. I love feeling that I have a life outside of the things I have to do. Who would have thought that putting myself first, well, maybe not quite first, but equal to.....would have such benefit. We all know that don't we? But do we do it? Just do it!

Something perfect

I love it when something is perfect. Yeah, I know everything is already perfect. I mean, perfection like when the paint colour is perfect. My kitchen walls are now the perfect colour. Every time I see them I smile and feel the perfect. I have a pair of short leather boots that are perfect. I want to wear them all the time because they fit well, they are worn in, they look just like I want them to look. I love when that happens. It seems rare in our throw away world. I know that kind of perfection is a little different......good design is important and attention to detail. You never want to change it because, well,....it's perfect.

Here is another thing that is perfect.
My new alarm/timer/stopwatch.
The Enso Pearl by Salubrion.
Isn't it beautiful. It was so lovely to wake up the last 2 mornings to a little opening of light and chimes. It comes in the most impeccable case. It can time anything. It awakes gently. It's soothing. It's perfection in time. :)

A favourite hippie food - Herbed lentil and rice casserole

I can't believe I haven't blogged this recipe yet. It's been a favourite for years. We were vegetarian when Don's daughter lived with us, while she was straight meat and potatoes, yet she called this recipe her favourite hippie food. Don't skimp too much on the cheese. I know it's a lot but I used old cheddar and reduced it a little, however, if you reduce it a lot, well, it's just not as good. Children like this food too.

2 2/3 cups vegetable stock
3/4 cup dry brown lentils
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 dry brown rice
1/4 cup apple juice (or white wine)
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1 clove garlic, crushed
pepper
1/2 pound cheddar cheese, grated

Combine all ingredients except cheese in a casserole dish. Stir in half the cheese. Mix well and cover. Bake at 350 F for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until lentils and rice are cooked. Stir twice during cooking.
Uncover and top with remaining cheese and bake another 3 to 5 minutes.

Baba Hari Dass's Rules for Self-Development

These 19 rules were written on the wall on the way to the dining hall at Mount Madonna in California where Baba Hari Dass guides and lives for a good part of the year.
As I stood in line for food, I remember reading them and thinking wow, this is difficult but that I would love to live this way.
I still love reading the rules.......and they are difficult if you try to do them. Try to do them. I think you recognize the spaciousness and emptiness of the infinite and understand first, that you are that too, without the conditioning, the opinions, the rules, the shoulds and all that stuff - and then you become. You recognize who you are and you "become" ....be-come  to yourself and the rules are no longer rules but how you choose to live life - because that is who you are. Trying to be good is more difficult than just being yourself. Being yourself as the diamond you are only requires that you stop being who you are not. We are naturally good when all else falls away.

Here they are:

1. Express love and kindness in words and actions in dealing with others.

2. Express compassion in your actions toward those who are suffering physically or emotionally.

3. Anything that comes to you should be received as a gift from Providence.

4. Do not hoard things that are not required.

5. Give away things to those who are in need.

6. Keep busy in Selfless service.

7. Reduce your needs to a minimum.

8. Avoid reading books or discussions that are contrary to your self-development.

9. Do not indulge in any action that may cause harm to others in any form directly or indirectly.

10. Look for good qualities in others, rather than looking for their shortcomings.

11. Do not get involved in unnecessary talks.

12. Do not expect praise for your good actions.

13. Anger, hate, jealousy appear in the mind by comparing with others. They should be replaced by love to others.

14. Be humble and give respect to others.

15. Pray to God for forgiveness of any undesired actions, done knowingly or unknowingly.

16. Perform your duties towards your family, society, and country with pure and selfless intent.

17. Do not let laziness or dullness control your mind.

18. Be honest to others, as well as yourself.

19. Be firm in your spiritual convictions.

Routine

I've started a new daily routine for myself. My body functions much better having the same wake-up and eating times daily. The wake-up time is the easiest one even though I thought it would be the hardest. I have woken up all different times during the winter, sometimes early, sometimes later, and been really hard on myself when I wake up later because my morning meditation and exercise routine are pushed into the day. In the day, the phone rings, life starts moving, and my appointments are waiting for me. Getting up early enough every morning so that my morning routine is done before 9 am is ideal. And then I enjoy breakfast and reading the paper and I feel good about being leisurely or even rushing if I have morning appointments.

The evening gets taken care of if I wake up early. Eventually, I have to go to bed earlier.

Meal times are more difficult because every day is different for me. I work at other people's supper times. However, my body is more forgiving for the meal times being a little different as long as I have at least a snack.

I feel so much more lively with my new routine. I get the things I really want to get done - done. Baba Hari Dass used to say to us that humans are more tamasic (the lethargic and slower one of the three gunas) and we have to kick ourselves out of bed in the mornings. So, here I am, early morning.

It's my meditation time right now but since I am hosting a day of silence at the yoga studio today I will be meditating plenty later.

Baba Hari Dass is a silent monk. He hasn't spoken in over 50 years now, I think. He shines! He writes on a chalkboard to answer questions. He is well into his 80's. After I met him I decided occasionally to have silent days in my life. I did them alone for a long time, that is, I just stayed at home and told the family I wouldn't be talking to them that day. It was heavenly! And now I open the studio for anyone who would like to join me. We do chat a bit after lunch and at the end of the day to share our experience. It turns into a very peaceful day for all of us.

May your Sunday be peaceful today!

Blank

Tonight I feel totally wordless. I would like to say something interesting or profound or at least funny but nothing comes to me. I would also wish to be energetic. Instead my bum feels glued to the easy chair. It is a gray, quiet evening outside and I only hear the sound of children laughing as they jump on their trampoline across the street. I wish I could describe this evening, or anything, as beautifully as Nathaniel Hawthorne "Bartram the lime-burner, a rough, heavy-looking man, begrimed with charcoal, sat watching his kiln at nightfall, while his little son played at building houses with the scattered fragments of marble, when, on the hill-side below them, they heard a roar of laughter, not mirthful, but slow, and even solemn, like a wind shaking the boughs of the forest."
I love his long sentences that flow and move and draw me into some special place and moment that I feel I know but could not set words to on my own.

Peace

"We have a misunderstanding about what is going to create peace for us, what is going to create joy and it is misleading. Your peace and your joy exist inwardly right now. And what meditation does is give you a vehicle to go inward now and there is a vast, boundless cavern of silence within us. We don't taste it very often because we are so absorbed in the chatter that is usually always taking us backwards and forwards".

Maharishi Krishnananda Ishaya

Graffiti

Some graffiti cheers the grayness of spring. Here is some under a road on my daily walk to the lake. I hope it doesn't indicate anything negative. I have no idea what it means but I like the colour of it and the youth of it.

And a new building at the marina has this message. Messages come in many ways. Oops, the marina photo is first. But you knew that didn't you?

A nutritious spread

This is a really good tasting and nutrient rich spread for crackers, veggies or to just to eat by the spoonful.

It comes from a copy of the Ascent magazine - I don't know which one because I've just torn the page from it and put it in my recipe file. It was on a page entitled Kuanyin's Kitchen - the most miraculous healing spread.

2 cups walnuts
3/4 cup almonds
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
(all raw and unsalted)
1 tbsp sea kelp
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Grind up all the dry ingredients to a fine consistency in a food processor or blender. Put the nut mixture into a bowl and make a well in the centre.

Then add:
3 heaping tbsp of miso
1/2 cup tahini
juice of one lemon
2 tbsp tamari or Bragg's
1/3 cup warm water

Mix together to form a smooth paste and enjoy!
Makes 3 cups. Keeps in the fridge for a week.

The Secret to Happiness

I was cleaning around in my home office yesterday and a piece of paper fell on the floor. I had scratched some notes on it and titled it - The Secret to Happiness. I know some of it is mine and some I read or heard somewhere. However, it's all true.

Have no demands on this moment. We are always demanding more. We either want more of something in this moment or something to be taken out of the moment. This equals suffering. So, the secret is to stop chasing love. Stop chasing peace. Stop trying to be a good person. Just stop, sit down, and be still. Sit in the space.......just sit in the space. This is space. That's the only reality. Our little self, all that which makes up our ego, which keeps the little self in play, is always trying to acquire something. You have to be ready to let it all go - all those things, all those opinions, all of it.

You need total trust in maturing.....the way we trust a baby to become children and then adults. Everything is already okay!

A good writer

I love books that make me feel. I love books that give me openness and a freedom to feel emotion or movement flow through me. I just finished The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys. I wept and felt such emotion during the last chapter. Helen opened my heart to feeling loss and longing, emotions I've felt but she gave them depth and healed something in me and I feel refreshed. It feels wonderful to go deeply into emotion. I can allow them and this feels good. I feel alive in them.

Here is an excerpt from the book:
"When a writer writes it's as if she holds the sides of her chest apart, exposes her beating heart. And even though everything wants to heal, to close over and protect the heart, the writer just keeps it bare, exposed. And in doing this, all of life is kept back, all the petty demands of the day-to-day. The heart is a river. The act of writing is the moving water that holds the banks apart, keeps the muscle of words flexing so that the reader can be carried along by this movement. To be given space and the chance to leave one's earthly world. Is there any greater freedom than this?"

Happy Easter

May the Easter bunny be good to you!

Creamy Wild Rice Soup

Oh wow, this soup tasted terrific after a day of windy gardening.

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp red curry paste
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup wild rice, rinsed
4 cups water
1 orange-fleshed sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
sea salt
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp shoyu sauce
1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk
squeeze of lime juice

Heat 1 tbsp of the coconut oil in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat, then add the curry paste, garlic, shallot and onion and sauté for 3 or 4 minutes, until the onion begins to soften. Make sure the paste is evenly distributed.

Stir in the wild rice and 3 cups of water. Bring to a simmer, and cook, covered for about 40 minutes or until rice starts to soften, split, and show its fluffy insides.

Meanwhile, prepare the sweet potato croutons. Warm the remaining coconut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, then add the cubed potatoes and a few pinches of salt. Toss to coat the potatoes, then cook a few minutes longer until they start to get some colour on the bottom. Give them another toss to brown the other side, and continue tossing every few minutes to give colour and crispiness. Season with salt, then scoop them out onto a paper towel.

When the wild rice is tender, stir in the turmeric, sugar, shoyu, coconut milk, the remaining 1 cup water and 1 tsp salt. Stir, return to a simmer, cook for another 5 minutes to meld flavors. Remove from the heat and finish with a generous pinch of lime juice. Ladle into bowls and top with the sweet potato croutons.

This recipe is from Heidi Swanson's
Super Natural Cooking. Yummy!

Attachment to things

There is so much talk and interest in getting rid of excess things. Material objects. I don't think we have to think about getting rid of our stuff. It will happen naturally when we no longer have our focus of life on the outside. When we naturally begin to live from our true nature. When it is more fun and more interesting to sense and feel and love the space rather than the stuff that fills it. Just notice how there is a time in your life when you clear clutter and what is going on at the same time.

I was cleaning the garden today and saw such beauty in the bare soil and the possibilities of new growth and then decay again and new growth. Nothing hangs on to itself.

A day

Today has been a day of confusion. I have been very busy the last few weeks and today is mostly free to do what I want. So, what happens to me is I just don't know where to start. I look over here and over there and wander about, partially joyfully because there is no hurry, and partially aimlessly because there isn't a hurry. It takes me a day to get organized to have time off. I have been productive though, the car is loaded with two chairs for the Salvation Army, (yep, finally decided which ones to get rid of), and walked the dog, did yoga, cleaned out the fridge, and got some groceries. But - a whole day! What I could have gotten done if I had known which order to do what. There is always something to do. I would like, one day, to feel like it's all for me.....just to read.....just to do yoga because it feels good.....just to walk for the smell of the air......and have dinner delivered.

Happy Birthday

Thirty-one years ago, on Easter Saturday my oldest daughter was born - Minna Liisa. She was the cutest easter bunny ever! She was funny, active, and adventurous as a child. She was so much fun to hang around with. And now she is an amazing independent woman who has travelled the world, loves photography, fashion, cooking, and all the cities she has lived in. She loves the juiciness of life and has a good eye for beauty. Wow! I am blessed to have her in my life.
I love you Minna!

Aldo Leopold

Last year I had a student in my yoga class who most often wore a t-shirt that said A Sand County Almanac - Aldo Leopold. I asked about it and he said that Aldo Leopold is one of his heroes. I became curious and bought the little book, A Sand County Almanac, written in 1949. It is written so beautifully and poetically!

Here are a few snapshots from the book:

"It is fortunate, perhaps, that no matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all of the salient facts about any of them."

"I sit in happy meditation on my rock, pondering, while my line dries again, upon the ways of trout and men. How like fish we are: ready, nay eager, to seize upon whatever new thing some wind of circumstance shakes down upon the river of time! And how we rue our haste, finding the gilded morsel to contain a hook. Even so, I think there is some virtue in eagerness, whether its object prove true or false. How utterly dull would be a wholly prudent man, or trout, or world!"

"A sense of history should be the most precious gift of science and of the arts, but I suspect that the grebe, who has neither, knows more history than we do. His dim primordial brain knows nothing of who won the Battle of Hastings, but it seems to sense who won the battle of time."

"In country, as in people, a plain exterior often conceals hidden riches, to perceive which requires much living in and with. Nothing is more monotonous than the juniper foothills, until some veteran of a thousand summers, laden blue with berries, explodes in a blue burst of chattering jays. The drab sogginess of a March cornfield, saluted by one honker from the sky, is drab no more."

Absolutely great spring day reading when the birds are announcing their brilliant presence.

Aired out

Occasionally I need to get aired out - just like my blankets and rugs. After being inside a lot of the last few months it feels glorious to walk near Lake Superior. I love the openness of the edge of lakes and rivers and oceans like someone else likes the dense forest. There is breathing room.

When working for some time on a project intensely I also need to be aired out and to do something else, perhaps walk, or to have a cup of tea (that is my answer to many quandries).

Breakfast is for friends

I think one of the loveliest ways to connect with friends is by going out for breakfast together. Our meditation group meets monthly for a Sunday morning meditation and then we go out for breakfast. It's casual and fun. We share differently while knocking back a few refills of coffee and mopping our eggs with our toast. We wake up together.

The day I have breakfast first with friends flows effortlessly with all my got-to-do's. I did something for myself first and felt joyful to see friends first thing in the morning. It's a wonderful way to start a busy weekday too - with friends and food. Plus, I do love going out to eat and my budget allows for more meals when it's out for breakfast rather than a dinner.

My dad used to say he's taking his wife out for dinner - that meant he brought out the bbq in the backyard :)