What feeds you?

What really turns you on? What do you really like to do? What do you really like to read? What do really like to eat? What kind of art feeds you? What makes you feel full and saturated?

Do you feed yourself with these things or experiences? Or do you settle for something else? If you settle - think what it would be like to always be fed with what you love.

Cooling off

It has been a hot day. I haven't acclimatized yet. We went to the Fish Market in Grand Marais, Minnesota, today for fish and chips and Dorothy's root beer. The best place of both.

Meet Weber

Weber is the new love of my life. He is a fantastic cook. He cooked dinner and before I could photograph the plate of food it was almost gone. But at least there was some left for me.

Here he is! I haven't had a BBQ of my own for a long time........maybe 12 years, so it's a novelty.

I can't feel yours and you can't feel mine.

"Some people think that compassion means feeling another person's pain. That's nonsense. It's not possible to feel another person's pain. You imagine what you'd feel if you were in that person's shoes, and you feel your own projection. Who would you be without your story? Pain free, happy, and totally available if someone needs you - a listener, a teacher in the house, a Buddha in the house, the one who lives it. As long as you think there's a you and me, let's get the bodies straight. What I love about separate bodies is that when you hurt, I don't - it's not my turn. And when I hurt, you don't. Can you be there for me without putting your own suffering between us? Your suffering can't show me the way. Suffering can only teach suffering."

Bryon Katie in A Thousand Names for Joy

Strong Sun Moon (Flicker) June 21 - July 22

Those born under the Strong Sun Moon, between June 21 and July 22, have the carnelian agate as their totem in the mineral kingdom, the wild rose as their totem in the plant kingdom and the flicker as their totem in the animal kingdom. Their colour is the pink of the rose and the flicker, and they are of the Frog elemental clan.

Carnelian is a clear chalcedony, which ranges in colour from pink to red to yellow. Because of its colour, the carnelian has been associated with blood. It was considered to be an emergency stone useful in healing injured people and stopping the flow of blood. It is also associated with the heart and carried, is said to keep the heart healthy. Like their stone, these people are often associated with the idea of ornamentation, especially of the home, because having a comfortable and beautiful dwelling is very important to them. Flicker people are very home-oriented, and they function best when their home, be it physical, mental or emotional, is in proper order and an attractive place to be. Like their stone, these people are easily engraved with new thoughts and feelings, and once this engraving has been done, they are very solid in their belief in whatever new concepts have been put upon them. However, they analyze and take time to consider first.

These people have the ability to flow freely with life. They are useful to have around in an emergency. Their hearts are capable of overflowing love to those around them.

Flicker people, like their plant the wild rose, have a wild quality about them and a special attractiveness when they are in a natural setting. When their lives are in flower, they bring happiness to those around them. Like the rose, these people are also useful because of their deep inner knowledge....like the rose hip. Rose hip or rose petal tea is useful for these people to keep their blood in a clean state and to help with any colds or flu.

Their colour is pink which is the colour of universal love.

The animal totem is the flicker, which is the most numerous and mystical member of the woodpecker family. Unlike other woodpeckers they spend a lot of time on the ground and will perch upright on limbs as songbirds do. The flicker is considered to be a courageous bird, and they are especially valued because of their drumming. Their drumbeat, like the beat of any drum, represents the beat of the heart and the beat of the earth. Flicker people do have mystical abilities when they are in balance. They don't realize what guides them and find it difficult to explain to others the decisions they make.

People of this moon need to be able to drum and sing their song in life, whatever they perceive that song to be. But, before they feel balanced enough to do that singing, they must first have a comfortable nest. More than most people they have a true love of home. Part of the harmonious home must be people with whom they feel a true oneness. Relationship is very important to these folks, and they will give much of their energy to establishing and maintaining good relationships with others.

When other people from other totems find themselves in this place on the Medicine Wheel, they will be able to learn about their own needs for giving and receiving love and for following their own perceptions and intuitions. They will also learn about their own sense of security and their personal need to find a spiritual direction that helps them to channel the life energy that always flows through all of us.

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

Happy Birthday Teppo!

Goodbyes

Goodbyes are no longer as difficult as before. As before phone calls became so cheap and before Skype. My daughter left for home today after a lovely time together with home town and far away family. The house feels empty. And I phoned her already. I've been saying goodbye all my life to someone. But that means that I have been saying a lot of welcomes and hellos and love you!

Cookbook treasure

This is Don's grandmother's cookbook from the year she got married in Battleford Saskatchewan, 1909. Copyright 1887. Wow! What gems of information in it! I've learned so much today as I've sat drinking Earl Grey tea, from jolly old England, and perused this well-worn copy of culinary history.

Pectin can be made from orange pith.
How to make wine - really from scratch.
One should always sleep with windows open, summer and winter, to prevent colds and sicknesses.
Rainwater is the best for drinking for most nourishment and healing - they boiled their drinking and cooking water.
Beverages can be made with almost everything - dandelions, honey, molasses, hops, apple cider vinegar.....
Fruit cake has a lot of eggs and a lot of sugar.
Baking doesn't need a lot of foreign ingredients - but good fat, good sugar, and a lot of muscle - they mixed some cakes for 20 minutes!
How to cut your own beef.
You can make all kinds of catsups at home - even oyster catsup, yup.
How to boil a calf's head.
How to keep meat from flies.
How to cook squirrel.
How to roast pigeons.
How to cook a haunch of venison.
They already had macaroni in 1887.
Toast back then was very different. What they called American toast, we now call French toast. There was Nun's toast which was boiled sliced eggs and a light gravy poured over bread. There was Milk toast, Cream toast, Cheese toast, Oyster toast, Tomato toast, and Reed birds on toast. Mostly they were stale bread quickly fried in a pan and then these other foods cooked, boiled, or melted on top.
I learned how to wash feathers.
I now know that 4 tablespoonfuls = 1 wine glass or half a gill.
How to dye white eyebrows with walnuts.