A little slice of life. Full of truth as I know it, inspiring, saddening, encouraging, informative, entertaining, pleasant, beauty that is hideous, ugly that is precious, seriously whimsical, and alarmingly humbling...
I feel like last weekend might just have been the last weekend of Summer, but if it was, I totally lived it up! I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon life guarding at the pool (and subsequently getting sun-burned), and then I saw Eat Pray Love with some girlfriends.
The week has been cool and creamy, just how the tail end of Summer should be. Luck for us, it's not officially over 'til the 21st of next month!!
The painting American Gothic by Grant Wood resides in Chicago, but the house featured in the painting still stands in Iowa. Earlier this week I went with a few friends to check it out. Let me just say, the visitors center is twice the size of the dinky house! The woman in the picture is Grant Wood's sister and the man farmer is his dentist.....wish I knew more of that story!
I love that this tourist attraction is virtually free! The American Gothic Visitor's center let's you use the costumes they have at no cost so that you can dress up and take pictures. My friend and I didn't realize this before we went so we planned a silly fourth of July midwest outfit, but it turned out to be sillier in our heads than on our person....what do you think?
Two years ago I planted some hollyhock seeds in flats, not realizing that they are biennial. At the end of the season we emptied the flats that had soil in them into the veggie beds, totally forgetting the hollyhock seeds. This year what my inexperienced eye viewed as melon plants growing outside my kitchen window exploded into seven foot tall flowering hollyhocks!
I cut a stem from one of the plants and placed it in a vase on the windowsill, it promptly started to wither; but oh how morbidly delightful and sorrowfully peaceful. I left it there and before too long the top buds started to blossom even though the bottom ones were curling in on themselves like ancient hands. Life lives in unexpected places...
Dad and I kicked off the weekend on Saturday by biking to the trails and jogging 3.5 miles. Yes, I am proud of myself for that; though, my dad coulda easily kept going another 2 miles. Endurance - I hope that's one thing that get's better with age. After we cleaned up, we re-grouped at the Farmer's Market for crepes and fruit tarts under the shadey trees in the park, yummmm. Next on the itinerary, MOVIE NIGHT:
MOVIE: Action packed movie that dad's enjoy more than wives and during which daughters must view particular scenes through squinted eyes, we chose The Watchmen, good choice!
MEAL: Tailor made for the father of honor's ideal party food desires
1. Home-made pizza in a deep dish corn crust w/herbs from the garden
2. World's-best-daughter-made potato chips (well, an attempt at least)
3. World's-best-daughter-made walnut, chocolate chip cookies w/ mint chip hemp milk ice cream
DAY 2:
We had a delicious organic, vegetarian, non-gmo brunch at a local restaurant followed by a relaxing afternoon discussing alternative healing techniques and eating the leftover cookies from the night before.
For movie night number two, we went out and saw Toy Story 3 in 3D. Great flick, especially if you were a fan of the other two, which my family is wholeheartedly!!
When I come home after dark my kitty cat waits for me on the side walk to make sure I'm ok. We walk inside and he meoooows and meoooooows until I pet him and brush him and scratch him and cuddle him, then I give him a mid-night snack (half a scoop of dry food) and he starts to get playful and energetic so, I let him outside to prowl the night away......
It doesn't so much matter to me what brings you joy, as long as joy is somehow brought into your life.
There is something about making food that brings a palpable joy to my life. Over the weekend, I made raw chocolate coconut macaroons, baked pineapple-banana bread, and created raw Italian crackers with herbs from my garden. I have yet to taste the crackers, but the ground flaxseed, hemp seeds, tomato, bell pepper, garlic, thyme, oregano, and rosemary that make them up promise to taste fabulous. The under-done, dairy free, pineapple banana bread is deliciously moist; the bananas weren't ripe yet, so I added pineapple juice to make the dough more appropriately thick and squishy, and it added a delicious tropical tartness.The macaroons look like something a dung beetle would prize, but taste like the richest thing the jungle has to offer for human consumption.
Coconut Macaroon Recipe by Sarma of www.oneluckyduck.com
3 cups dried, unsweetened coconut flakes
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut butter
1 T vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well to combine.
2. Using a small ice cream scoop, your hands, or a big tablespoon, spoon rounds of the dough onto dehydrator screens.
3. Dehydrate for 12-24 hours at 115 degrees F…until crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
For Blonde Macaroons: Replace the cocoa powder in the recipe with an equal amount of fine almond flour (soak almonds for 6 hours, drain/rinse and dehydrate for 12 hours…pulse almonds in food processor for a fine consistency).
After spending two days at the beautiful Moody Beach in Southern Maine, it's easy to understand why doctors used to prescribe their patients a season at the seaside to cure whatever ailed them. Taking one gulp of that tickling, crisp, lively air is enough to start re-patterning and re-enlivening the body's cells and systems.
For over 2,000 years humans have been utilizing the healing properties of salt. The Egyptians are said to have used it as a disinfectant in 1600 B.C. The Greeks drank salty/mineralized water to aid digestive ailments and breathed steam from salt water for respiratory problems in 460 B.C.; and the Romans expanded the repertoire of salt as medicine by using it as a laxative and to aid earaches in 100 A.D.
Ocean of Forms
by Rabindranath Tagore
I dive down into the depth of the ocean of forms,
hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.
No more sailing from harbor to harbor with this my weather-beaten boat.
The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves.
I lost my job, moved into a new house (inheriting a cat in the process), moved my boyfriend across the country, and have been dealing with all the details of chaos and confusion that comes with these kinds of major transitions. Details such as, planning for the future, overflowing sewage in the basement, broken lawnmowers, cleaning, craft fairs, and conversations with people I love.
The craziest part? I’ve chosen all of this. 3 months ago I decided I needed more floor space than my 500 sq. ft. carpeted apartment was offering me, was aching to play with kittens, and exercise my creative crafty side.
I’m not surprised by the fact that the things that I think and desire become reality – thoughts become things people, thoughts become things – but the ensuing emotional weather and life lessons never cease to amaze, astonish, and inspire me. The simple experience of amazement, astonishment, and inspiration are weather and lessons that make the chaos, craziness, and confusion bearable and occasionally even enjoyable.
We all have our own way of desiring and thinking that yield our own perfect storms. To help me weather the storms, I often read The Guest House by Rumi:
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
April brings showers, May flowers, and Madagascar?
Yes, Madagascar.
The island is my calendar's country of the month.White sand beaches, mountains, monkeys, and even the giraffe weevil sound like pieces of nature that I would love to be surrounded by right now.
Alas, I am landlocked in Iowa, surrounded by Geraniums, African Violets, Blue Moon (my betta fish), and a cute, chubby, tail-less, cat -- not quite the same as a beautiful island, but on this gorgeous Spring day..... I'm content :)
I installed Stumble Upon'stoolbar for Firefox on both my home and work laptop this week.I love it! It's nice to take a 2 minute break now and again to put your head in another space and see the cool things that people are up to. There are also the not-so-cool things that people do, but those sites are on at least one person's cool list, so even if I "thumb it down" I know someone else out there will "thumb it up." Don't take this thumbing lingo out of context. It is simply Stumble Upon's user rating system. When you make a Stumble Upon account, you click check boxes of categories that you are interested in like photography, philosophy, dance, yoga etc...When you click the SU icon on your toolbar Stumble Upon takes you to a site that other people "thumbed up" who had similar interests as you. If you like a site, you give it a thumbs up; if you don't like it, you give it a thumbs down.
I walked home from work to find a USPS Medium Flat Rate box on my steps labeled "Perishable Live Worms." I was so excited!
Me and two of my friends drilled holes in plastic bins, shredded paper, and scored some sawdust from a local wood-shop. With the help of Barb Finnin's apartment composting tutorials, we successfully made homes for our travel-weary worms. Now, we feed them each time we have extra kitchen scraps - broccoli stumps, toast, fruit peels, all the yummy leftovers (minus animal products) - and they turn it into high quality compost.
I hold a degree in what many people have made their life-long hobby and what others consider the latest fashion trend. My college diploma says Sustainable Living, which to me is more consuming than my hobbies and more impactful than a fashion trend. Sustainable Living includes the text book definition: living a life that can be maintained and endured over a long period of time without damaging or depleting Earth’s natural resources; and surpasses this definition by emphasizing the importance of experiencing a sense of fulfillment and happiness with the quality of one’s life.
(photo courtesy of Brandon Neil)
There are many off-the-beaten-path degree names out their – Transformative Language, Military History, Consciousness Studies, and Interdisciplinary studies in which students design their own major; as well as traditional fields of study such as Business Administration, English, Fine Art, and of course the educational catch all – Liberal Arts. With all these options how do students choose their major and what are they doing with their degrees?
Here are my answers to these questions:
How did you decide what to study in college?
Many people pursue a skill they have been previously successful with; A-grade math students can make excellent engineers or chemists. Others delve deeper into an extra-curricular activity; community theater enthusiasts may seek to make it big on Broadway. Still others use the college experience to explore where their special skill-set or passion lies and post-pone specializing until grad school arises on the horizon. I decided to get a degree in what makes me happy.
I saw the Sustainable Living Degree program at Maharishi University of Management (MUM) as a way to ensure my life had a positive impact on the planet and its creatures, facilitate my continued connection with nature, and to increase what I call the “happiness factor” in my life. The “happiness factor” is my capability to experience happiness. It consists of all the enjoyable things I do that make my least favorite activities more enjoyable. For example, as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed being outside; Building snow-people in the winter, dancing in Spring rain storms, swimming outdoors in the Summer, and watching the leaves turn colors in the Fall. If I do these things as the seasons change, then seasonal maintenance activities like protecting myself against colds and the flu and spring cleaning are actually something I look forward to. By doing the things I enjoy, I am better able to accomplish things that I must get done and my overall success rate increases. This is how I approached my education: if I do something that makes me happy and brings me inner satisfaction, I’ll find a way for it to positively influence my quality of life and material success.
What do you do with a degree in Sustainable Living?
I graduated with a BS in Sustainable Living January 31st, 2008 and have been asked this question many times under different circumstances, first, when I was studying for my degree, next upon graduation, and then when I was working as a college Admissions Councilor at MUM. My initial answer was always the same – save the world! That is what my friends and I told each other when we were studying. We had lofty ideas of how we could change the world and create paradise anywhere for anyone, and if worse came to worst we would at least be equipped to create a mini- paradise (complete with window herb gardens, indoor compost units, and low flow faucet heads) in our post-college apartments.
The reality is that the earth is faced with enormous challenges right now – we’re losing ecosystems, energy prices are rising, temperatures are rising, and many people around the globe don’t have access to basic necessities, such as food and water. Thinking that the Earth needs us to save it may well be an egotistical idea, maybe it’s humanity that needs saving; but regardless of who or what needs saving, it’s difficult to ignore that there are global problems hungry for solutions.
Sustainable Living requires integrating practical skills and logical thinking with creative problem solving and imagination. After 4 years of studying things like solar and wind energy, organic farming and permaculture design, environmental law, and leadership in a hands-on setting, Sustainable Living students are primed to join the workforce of any industry, or to start their own organization, to help create solutions to life’s challenges.
Currently, I am the Sustainability Director for a new start-up online membership shopping club. We feature environmentally friendly and socially responsible products at a discount of 20% or more in order to make them more accessible to wider audience and lessen humanity's collective impact on the planet.
Choosing to purchase products from companies that are making as many positive choices as they can, in regards to their operations and product manufacturing, is a way of voting with your dollars and making a statement to industry leaders about the types of issues that are important to you. These statements are being seen, heard, and responded to. Companies as big as Wal-Mart are responding to these dollar votes by undergoing serious re-evaluations of their business practices and actively making progress to reduce their negative impact on the planet.
NGOs, Non-profits, community groups, as well as the Federal Government are rallying to find solutions and whether you are a degree holding individual, a sustainable hobbyist, or a concerned citizen there are ways to get involved and make an influential impact. Explore the options popping up in your local community or check out these sites for specific ways to pitch in:
Most calendars remind us what day it is, whose birthday it is, when so-and-so is going to come for a visit, when we are going to visit so-and-so. My calendar reminds me that the world is bigger than this moment; that right now waves are crashing against lonely islands, whales are swimming with their young, and people are sky diving...
(photo credits from top: Anna Bruen, Associated Press, jacobsco.com)
I have one of those picture a day wall calendars and it hangs just above my right shoulder when I'm at work, a little bit in front of me. If I turn my head just slightly, I see an amazing array of photos. This month's highlight is a golden-orange, whiskered monkey face that would have to try very hard to be any more majestically cute!
The calendar on my wall features a new country each month and a different picture on each day. Looking at it reminds me that tomorrow is Wednesday and that each year is made up of months that are made up of days in which an unfathomable number of activities, thoughts, and emotions are expressed in an unfathomable number of moments. Sometimes I get consumed by what is going on in a single moment, but then I remember that moments pass and life continues, that in fact life is continuing all around the world even in the single moment that I feel consumed by; People are being born, dying, laughing, crying, taking their first step, walking home form school for the 52nd time this year - all in a moment. This reminds me of the power that a moment can hold and that we each have a choice as to how we live our moments. Imagine what would happen if every single person on the planet chose to experience happiness at the same time, just for a moment...
I acknowledge the taste of cheese here, but you know what? Sometimes truth is cheesy. YUM! Provolone!
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb....
So far, there are no lions roaring at my window, but I am still looking forward to the lamb at the end of the month!
Questions about my first blog:
why do it?
how to do it?
when to do it?
on what to do it about?
My answers:
I'm blogging because life is happening.
I don't know how to do it, but do it I will!
Expect blog updates weekly...
I'm using this space in a patchwork of ways to highlight events and activities that are silly, inspiring, beautiful, outrageous, saddening, thought provoking, confusing, amusing, and even just plane normal.
