The Taste of Joy

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).

“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.” - Isak Dinesen

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.

And now I am eager to die into the deathless.

Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss

where swells up the music of toneless strings

I shall take this harp of my life.

I shall tune it to the notes of forever,

and when it has sobbed out its last utterance,

lay down my silent harp at the feet of the silent

It’s been a crazy kinda month

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.

~ Rumi ~

(The Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks)