are accidents really accidents?

Someone in my larger circle of acquaintances hated her job and "needed a break."  Guess what happened next?  She broke her ankle and was out on surgery, in a wheel chair, then physical therapy.  She really got her break.

So are accidents really "accidents?"  Do they rain down from the sky haphazardly to the unlucky, or is there more to it?  I realize that some people may be hard pressed to take full responsibility for what is happening to them and considering the possibility that they create their own experiences.  My pet peeve is the lawsuit against McDonald's a while back, when the company was sued by someone who suffered burns when spilling hot coffee all over herself.    Was it really McDonald's fault because the coffee was too hot?  Or was the woman perhaps clumsy or distracted?  So much in our culture is a reaction to avoid taking responsibility.

Henry Grayson, the psychologist who recently wrote Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind, recommends inspecting what an affliction (this word is more encompassing than "illness") either prevents you from doing or permits you to experience.  In the case of my acquaintance the ankle break permitted her to take needed time off from work.  A cold, flu or stomach bug gives your body and mind time to rest (remember - from all the people exposed to the same virus not all get that flu or stomach bug - mmmmhhhh, why is that?).  Also consider that any affliction lavishes you with other peoples' compassion, kind words and care - something we all love to experience, and some people sadly might perhaps only experience when they are sick.

What about other kinds of accidents?  Some accidents may prevent you from driving for several weeks, some may prevent you from using your hand for a while.  These consequences may have particular meaning to you if you ponder your circumstances.  Or they may not and might be karmic.

In the end we all have to come up with our own answers to these kinds of deep and big questions, and those answers are usually very personal.  But they are worthwhile pondering.

lightbulb 101

As the traditional pear shaped incandescent lightbulbs are being phased out altogether (2009 in Europe, 2014 in this country), LED lights are pushing in and will eventually eclipse even fluorescents, compact and otherwise.

Just from a lifespan perspective the difference is staggering.  Conventional incandescents last about 1,200 hours (about half a year at an average conservative use of 6 hours per day), halogens 2,000, compact fluorescents about 8,000 hours (about 3.5 years), linear fluorescents about 20,000 hours (about 9 years), while LED lightbulbs last a whopping 50,000 hours (yep, that's 23 years!!!!!).

halogen

Yes, LED lightbulbs cost a lot more, at least right now.  But that's an initial investment that pays in the long run and drastically reduces your electric bill and maintenance costs.  On top of that LEDs use only about 1/10th of the electricity of that old lightbulb and 1/2 of that of a CFC (compact fluorescent), so the light output of a 50W incandescent can be replicated with an 8W LED - see comparison chart - and they are less toxic for the environment.

compact fluorescent

That's what an investment is - a higher upfront cost for a later gain.  When we buy organic food or grassfed or pastured meat we make an investment into the health of our body via the higher upfront cost of the healthier meat.  Same with LED lightbulbs, we make an investment into a lower electric bill and a reduced lightbulb replacement cost (and ultimately a reduction on fossil fuel consumption).

Imagine not having to change a lightbulb for another two decades?

bring your own bags

I have never liked the ubiquitous plastic shopping bags the supermarkets and other big box stores almost force on you.  They fly around parking lots on a windy day and end up in shrubs and trees as well as in our oceans (have you heard of the Pacific trash vortex?  what a mess!).  And even though I save those few I do inevitably end up with in my kitchen cabinet with the other recyclables I mostly have no use for them. People have become more aware in recent years for sure, what with all those bags made from recycled plastic bottles you can get at every supermarket (but they don't wash well).  In Europe it has always been customary to bring your own shopping bag, net or basket.  In more recent times plastic shopping bags, at least in Germany, have become so expensive to buy (they don't hand them out for free over there) that it has drastically curtailed the use of them.  California may soon become the first state in this country to ban this environmental scourge, as the NY Times reported a few days ago.

some of my bags

I use machine washable canvas shopping bags of which I bought a whole bunch many years ago, as well as a really neat bottle carrying bag (it fits nine bottles).  I usually have a few in my car, just in case.  Traditional woven shopping baskets are no longer very practical because they are bulky and you can't fit a lot into them.  Mesh shopping bags, on the other hand, fold up so small you can always carry one in your bag for unforeseen purchases.

We begin to become environmentally aware in baby steps.  This is one way to start.

glorious color

I love color.  Color in food, color in clothing, color on my walls, color out in nature.  Color makes life sparkle.  Many years ago I tried that architect-designer look wearing lots of black.  But that's stark.  When my son was little the clothing choices for boys in the mainstream stores were pretty much limited to grey, blue and brown - how drab. Of course, color exists only in contrast to black/white, so we need the drabness, the starkness, the dullness to appreciate color all the more.  I think that's why people in cold climates expand in their beingness and start to breathe again when spring comes around, when all that brown-grey-white drabness explodes into greens and pinks and yellows.  It is so joyful.

The other day we got blue potatoes from our food coop.  Besides all the added antioxidants compared to white potatoes (although I simply bought them for variety), they looked so pretty on the table.  Children often like the safe beige-brown diet (bread, noodles, potatoes, meat).  I say I want color on my table.

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I also want color in my wardrobe.  While red is my favorite color of all, I also love all greens (from Kermit green to a light limy green), all jewel tones (purple, burgundy, burnt yellow, orange, olive green), and creamy yellows. 

Live a little, make a splash, bring some color in your life, it makes life more cheerful.

locavorism

Perhaps you have heard about the term locavorism, buying your groceries from within a 50 miles radius of where you live and in season in order to cut down on your carbon footprint (another one of those "green" terms).   Buying produce locally is a challenge when you live where the growing season stops for several months (more on that in Barbara Kingsolver's delectable book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle). What I have been able to buy locally year round for years now are honey, eggs, milk and meat.  So many people in our area are keeping chickens that I am able to buy my eggs from a friend down the road and a nearby farm.

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Same for honey (when we are not keeping bees, which is a whole other story).  I get it in 5lb jars from a local beekeeper, who processes it minimally.  With all the well publicized bee problems his bees have remained healthy without much interference and "bee management."  We use a lot of honey as a substitute for sugar - in the hot chocolate I make for the kids in the morning, in cooking and baking, also drizzled over yogurt, pancakes, fruit salad or ice cream. 

Our raw milk comes from one of the two approved farms in our county.  Several families have gotten together and we take turns picking the milk up each week for the group.

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Finally, the meat - I buy almost all our meat in bulk from two local farmers and keep it in our large chest freezer in the basement. 

Bulk purchases require different storage strategies than weekly small scale supermarket shopping - you need pantry and freezer space.  It also requires a cash outlay.  In addition, I had to learn to plan ahead.  My chicken farmer for example asks me in the spring how many chickens I want to pick up in June to last me through the summer, and they ask me in June how many I would like in September to last me through the spring.  With regard to the milk I drop my empty jars off each week for the following week's order, so I have to plan a week ahead for the family's milk needs (it doesn't always work out if I decide to make ice cream or panna cotta or something else that requires lots of milk).

Something to consider.  Also look at a previous post on bulk produce shopping.

spice up your life

Spices have healing powers besides making food so much more interesting.  During the Middle Ages, when spices first made it to Europe from the spice islands, they were rare, exotic, cherished and very expensive.  Thus they were surrounded by an aura of far-away-lands and saved for special occasions. It's been said that people who like hot and spicy foods have a zest for life, and that people who prefer bland foods prefer a more unexciting life.  The Indian cuisine has perfected the use of spices and developed world famous spice mixtures such as curry and garam masala.  The North African spice mixture harissa is another example of a widely known spice mixture.  Usually each cook blends her own so that no two curry or harissa mixtures are alike.

Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, cumin, especially in combination with garlic and onions, also all chili powders, are known to kill bacteria and are commonly eaten in warm climates to safeguard against the possibility of potentially slightly spoiled foods.  In Indian cuisine the spices are sautéed in oil or ghee to develop their flavors before vegetables or meats are added.

I buy spices in bulk, 1lb bags of organic spices from the food coop, and keep surplus in the freezer or share it with other coop members.  Why not spice up your life?

heart stuff

"All spirituality is is the path of the heart," says Marianne Williamson. On this Valentine's Day, day of love and day of hearts, let's remember that no amount of material things (diamonds, chocolates, flowers) can replace true expressions of love.

What might those be?  Expressions of love come from an open heart.  A few examples are speaking kind words you really mean ("You always look so pretty,"  "I couldn't have done a better job."), empathetic gestures (a slight touch on the arm, a sweet kiss, a long warm look), encouragement ("I knew you could do this"), true compassion (being a good Samaritan), wanting to be of service ("May I show you how to do this?" or "Is there any way I can help?").

Opening your heart opens your mind and opens your life.  So let's try to be a little spiritual today.

creating meaning

We live in a lopsidely material-scientific culture, in which much of the qualitative, spiritual-philosophical, unseen aspect of life gets shoved under the rug, at least most of the time.

So much of our life seems to revolve around rushing from one place to another, buying stuff and more stuff (more than we need), keeping up with the Joneses on techno gadgets and what not,  stuffing our children's schedules with all sorts of activities in hopes of some advantage or other over all the other children running in the same direction of seemingly limited college spots, job spots, life spots, and spending a lot of time idling around on screened devices by ourselves, alone.

Stop!  We try to stuff the gaping spiritual hole in our lives too often with money.  But meaning does not come from stuff and money.  The reason that no amount of money can ever be enough is that we use it to fulfill needs that money cannot actually buy.   We try to buy excitement, pampering and love, recognition, validation, and - yes - meaning.

Yet, meaning is something we create from nothing.  Meaning is the qualitative aspect of life.  We can find it in and with the people we surround ourselves with and in the activities we chose to do with them (volunteer work, meals and get togethers, church, our work, sports), we can find it in the activities we do on our own (our work, our hobbies, even our chores).  Often we find it more when we give than when we receive.  So teaching, volunteering, inviting, helping, putting yourself out there, giving - those are meaningful and deeply satisfying activities, and they are free!

spiritual cats

Would you believe that I communicated with our three cats (two alive, one dead) telepathically through an intermediary?  Some people, and a few family members are among them, will say that this is a bunch of hogwash.  But I live my life on the spiritual side (with a good dose of critical-analytical thinking!) and I am always looking for deeper ways to understand and connect with the world.  So I am open to something like this and don't dismiss it simply because it goes beyond the present scientific-material paradigm. Among other questions we had been curious about the premature (in our view) death of our beloved first cat Snowball and the jumpiness of our third cat Peter Pepper.  I had recently read that it is possibly to communicate with animals telepathically (see my earlier blog post on this).  So when a friend told me about someone right in town (though distance is irrelevant) who has this ability (take a look at her website) I jumped at the opportunity.

I was amazed how much these animals understand (be careful how you treat them and what you say in front of them!) and at the depth of their spirituality.    Snowball responded to our question about his early death at age five that a life ought not to be judged by how short or long it was but by what was accomplished, and that it was an immense privilege for him to have opened the whole family's awareness to the animal kingdom, and that his five years with us were very meaningful for him.

Peter Pepper, another little sage, communicated that he was aware of his eye condition, which I had asked about, that he resonates with the sound of Tibetan prayer bowls (boy where did that come from?) and that that would help him heal his condition.  This was quite coincidental as I had become aware of a Tibetan prayer bowl iPhone meditation app just a week or so earlier. Hmmm...

Make of it what you wish, but the answers of our three cats had enormous meaning for us.

healthy cooking 101

You may have read food critic Michael Pollan's famous food slogans to  "eat food, not too much, mostly plants," and to eat only "what your great-grandmother would have recognized as food."  This excludes of course all the processed bad-for-you convenience foods, and basically recommends making your own out of a few good base ingredients.   Some people really don't like to cook, the way I don't really like to garden.   They don't connect with the creative act of manipulating raw ingredients and making magic out of it, although they may be creative elsewhere in life.

So for all of you who don't like to cook, here are some really simple tricks to make something delicious out of nothing much in mere minutes.    Some of the simplest and most wholesome homemade foods are of the dippy kind - the stuff you can scoop up with chips, raw or semi-cooked vegetables (crudités in French), a piece of toasted bread or pita or toasted tortilla.  They don't even require cooking.

• Hummus and bean dips - put cooked chickpeas or beans into your food processor  with some tahini (sesame seed paste), lemon juice, garlic and salt, a bit of olive oil if you like, and some water for thinning.  Voilà - hummus, the Middle Eastern specialty.  You could omit the tahini and add rosemary or oven roasted garlic to cooked beans or lentils, you could add sun dried tomatoes or roasted peppers to the hummus, or anything else that strikes your creative fancy (perhaps herbs, cumin, or chili to add heat).

• Guacamole is mushed up ripe avocado with some lemon juice, salt and a bit of chopped tomato, nothing more. 

• Pesto is simply a whole lot of basil leaves processed in the food processor over a base of a bit of cheese (parmesan or pecorino), a few nuts (the traditional pine nuts are expensive; walnuts work fine, I often use sunflower seeds), a bit of garlic and salt, and then enough olive oil to bind it all together.  That's it.  Delicious on pasta, a sandwich, pizza, a slice of toasted bread, a raw sliced tomato, keep on dreaming.....

• Liptauer is an easy spread I remember from my German childhood.  It is simply Greek yogurt (now that it's so easily available) or fresh farmer cheese with some paprika (smoked is yummy), caraway seeds and salt folded in.  So easy.  Great as a spread on some crisp bread (quick and healthy snack), a dip for raw vegetables or chips, or just as is by the spoonful (for breakfast or snack).