Musical Interlude -- Franz Ferdinand's Can't Stop Feeling

Alone, Together

A couple weeks ago Ayya Tathaaloka, a Theravadin nun, traveled Sravasti Abbey in Newport, WA to visit with her old spiritual friend Venerable Thubten Chodron-la and the community there. She was featured in a daily teaching series called the Bodhisattva Breakfast Corner. In her video, she talked about the value of spiritual friendship and the joy in seeing our friends mature spiritually. And in her video she talked about “being alone, together.” It is a charming section of the teaching, as she admits to having the thought be spontaneous and expressed interest that the audience understand what she was trying to say.

I totally got it.

Being alone, together is the way I live my life. I am hermit-like when given the opportunity, but I never feel alone because my friends and family are out there and I know they’re doing well. I do not feel compelled to be with people more often than not. I do not regularly seek people out solely for the idea of spending time with them. I like to keep in communication and can do that easily thanks to the interwebs and post office. I like the slowed down pace of my friendships. There’s little drama and few misunderstandings. Though I could call friends every day, I choose not to. And though I live in the same city as my family, I see them once a week and that works out for everybody.

In my Ayurvedic studies I’ve run across info that my hermit-like nature is a cause of kapha imbalance (the same imbalance that helps me hold on to extra weight, ugh) and that were my doshas balanced, I’d be outgoing and like being with people. I believe this because there have been times in my life when I have been more balanced doshically and I am more outgoing and exuberant. I’m not sure if that’s a better way to be, but there it is. I kind of like my reserved character though I hope it’s not interpreted as unfriendliness. I don’t know what to tell you other than that. I’m anticipating having wrinkles emerge as I lose weight (which I’m doing this year) and ending up looking like Grumpy cat (I have a natural frown that’s my “regular” face) but hey, there are worse things.

a New Beginning in the Pantry: Real Food Adventures

I'm a little embarrassed that it's taken me this long to get back to a healthy place when it comes to eating. At one time, I was vegetarian, and then vegan, and while I relied heavily on processed food like fake "meats", I certainly ate more veggies and fruits than I have of late.

I'm way embarrassed about this. I like to consider myself a little educated when it comes to food, food systems, and the ethics of eating. And yet I found myself in the drive-thru at Taco Bell last week. For shame! Convenience is killing us and the planet. I should know better.

A while back I was doing a series on the Food Rules as written by Michael Pollan. I think that book is a goldmine of information and common sense and I'm making it my "diet." I'm going to lose over 100 pounds by following the Food Rules and I'm going to put it all here on the blog. It is a return to a traditional way of eating. You'll see me try new veggies and fruits, and I'll (try to remember to) share my farmers market finds too. Though I might talk about some key stories about real food that catch my interest (like the anti-Monsanto movement), I'll try to keep it personal and largely non-political.* I don't consider myself smart enough to comment intelligently on the vast area of political topics related to food though I might sprinkle in a link or two to sites that can do a better job at explaining all that than me.

I'm not a great cook. I'm a mediocre cook who relies heavily on onions and garlic. But I will try to share some of my (mostly vegetarian) cooking-for-one recipes as I develop them. I'll try to point you to other bloggers and websites that are doing similar things as well. I can't guarantee they'll all be vegetarian or vegan but I will do my best to share sites that share a belief in humane agriculture (such as it is).

I'm pretty excited about this renewed adventure. I'm also looking forward to eventually sharing before and after pics with you. I'm anonymous here for a reason and for now it needs to stay that way. But honestly, I'm a real person, I do read your comments and your emails and will do my best to answer them should you pose a question or suggestion.

Disclaimer: I'm no expert. In anything. Seriously. Everything I say should be taken with a grain of pink Himalayan salt.

In Which I Admit to Deleting a Controversial Post

A few weeks ago I went ahead and deleted a post that over the years had received both scathing and encouraging comments. It was a piece about my disdain for a particular adventurer with his own show on television. I’ll not mention his name. Disdain may be a harsh choice of words and it’s not even that I dislike him as a person (I don’t even know him), but rather disagreed with his treatment of native and indigenous people and their traditions. Anyway, I wrote this piece in a huff and was pretty mean (in a humorous way) and angered some of his fans. The fact that my silly blog post was still at the top of a Google search for this character tells me that he’s not in the media much these days. But I was read the riot act by folks nonetheless.

I don’t usually bow to pressure but I felt that my little bit of writing was causing these people mental angst and that’s something I didn’t intend on doing. So I took the piece down. I don’t want this to be a place that contributes to anyone’s angst. My views on this gentleman haven’t changed but being that I haven’t seen or thought about him in more years than I can count, I didn’t feel that my blog post needed to be up reminding anyone else about him. Search his name and go to his own website. No need to detour to mine.

Six Word Saturday: CRACK!

Presently addicted to in-shell sunflower seeds.

No spitter of spent seed shells.

I love the salty, salty goodness.

Why yes, this IS spectacularly boring.

*bows*

Six Word Saturday: Different

My 38th year will be different.

A trip to St. Louis and back

For folks who don't know, I'm vacationing in the great American mid-west this week. I lived here in Indiana for about 10 years and came back to visit with friends. I truly love it here and don't even mind at all that it's rained most of the time. The columbine are almost ready to bloom, the air is fresh and the soil moist and all is right with the world.

Last weekend a friend and I took a mini road-trip over to St. Louis to see the sites and taste the tastes. We're both fans of food and like exploring regional dishes and specialties. On our first day in StL we took a trolley tour around the city to help us get a sense of where things were and to learn about other things we might want to see. For just $20 you can enjoy a 75 minute narrated tour of some of the high-points on the city. Charlie, our driver, was very knowledgeable and quite humorous. I'd highly recommend a bus or trolley tour of any city where you want to learn what's what.

We didn't go up in the arch. That didn't sound like fun and anyway, seeing the arch itself peeking at you from different areas of the city gave you a sense of where you were and was a nice hello. On day two we visited the St Louis Art Museum (free!!) in Forest Park, a beautiful park area that was used for sporting during the 1904 World's Fair. The museum features world-class collections of art from a variety of areas and periods. My favourite was the Asian arts, and one Buddha statue in particular that really spoke to me. It was so lifelike and amazing. Luckily they had postcards of it in the gift shop! After a spin around the museum, we stopped over at the zoo, also in Forest Park and also FREE! We had lunch and took a ride on the zoo train to get an overview of what they had to offer. Unfortunately, the rain moved in along with a bitter cold so we didn't stay too long.

Foodwise, St Louis is a good time. We sought out some dishes that we'd heard or read about as being St Louis specialties. First is Provel cheese. Provel is a processed cheese made of a mixture of cheddar,  swiss and provolone. It's delicious and melts incredibly well. It's like a tangier white a little firmer than Velveeta-like texture cheese. I hope that description isn't insulting to the cheese. We had garlic cheese toast at Zia's, an Italian restaurant in the Italian area of town ("The Hill") that was made with Provel (we think) and was awesome. (The rest of our experience at the restaurant was a little iffy but I don't want to make a public judgment after only one visit.) St. Louis is also known for a thing called a gooey butter cake which is something like a buttery blonde brownie with a firmer crust than top, dusted with powdered sugar. We tried to get a cake from a place that was recommended called Gooey Louie but when we got there Saturday afternoon, they'd sold out! So, we located a market and were able to find all the goodies we were looking for... the Provel, the cake, and a particular brand of salami called Volpi.

On Sunday, on our way back to Indiana, we stopped off at Cahokia Mounds, the site of an enormous city that thrived in southern Illinois way back in the 1250's and beyond. It was larger than London at that time and home to a sophisticated native American culture. The interpretive center is very comprehensive and wonderful, and there's a 15 minute film that introduces you to the culture and ideas behind the mounds that were left. No one knows why the city was abandoned even before the settlers arrived.

All along the way I picked up goodies and postcards. Some of you can expect a postcard in the mail in the next few weeks! I'm in Indiana for just a few more days, relaxing and enjoying myself. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my tattoo artist that I haven't seen in over 3 years!

I'll report back in when I get back home. Ciao!