Sugar on Snow

Due to COVID, there's no Winter Carnival this year. No ski jumping contest in town. But more importantly, no Sugar on Snow.

In New England, Sugar on Snow means packing a bowl with snow and pouring boiling maple syrup on top. The syrup hardens and forms taffy. Chewy and sweet.

As so often during this past year, i decided to DIY--make my own.

Boil the maple syrup to 235 degree (soft ball stage on a candy thermometer).

Pack a bowl with snow. Last night's snow was light and fluffy. This morning's snow is heavy and wet. Heavy is good.

Pour the hot syrup over the snow.

Spiritual practice is another DIY thing. No one else can do it for you. You already know the recipe.

Meditate or pray. 20" a day is a good start. Use a timer.

Read a spiritual book.

Meet with your spiritual friends at least once a week and meditate together.

The heart softens, and practicing kindness becomes easier and easier.

CBD Doubt

 I harvested my two 5-foot tall hemp plants in September and dried the flowers. Then i packed three half-gallon jars with the sticky, dried flowers. In one half-gallon, i added coconut oil and set it in the basement for 2 months.

I looked and looked for recipes for CBD body creme. I asked advice. I found shea butter, cocoa butter, and beeswax in the DIY section of the food coop, along with almond oil and mango butter. But what to do with the ingredients?

Doubt stymies me every time. Some people just launch into new territory, but i am stumped by doubt. I used to call it procrastination, but that feels like a character flaw and another reason to beat myself up.

Now i call it Doubt and recognize this stuck-in-the-middle-ness as a hindrance. It feels like a hindrance; it feels like my way forward is blocked.

Eventually, i chose one recipe, one path forward. The next batch, i tried a different recipe. Good-bye doubt. Hello variety.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

 

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. This bouquet of herbs sounds like a recipe for Thanksgiving day stuffing. 

I have the parsley, sage, and thyme in my herb garden. But alas, no rosemary.

And on this Thanksgiving Day, no true loves to visit, except the one i live with.

Gratitude is the name of the day. Giving thanks for what i have. Even if Rose and Mary can't come to the feast.

BLT in a Bowl

I planted only 3 tomato plants because my sweetie is allergic to tomatoes. Nevertheless, i now have a lot of tomatoes to eat. Some days, i eat fresh tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

One of my favorite ways to eat tomatoes is a BLT sandwich, but who has time to fry bacon? So i buy bacon bits--fake bacon bits from the co-op or real bacon bits from the supermarket. I try to avoid gluten, so i now eat a BLT bowl. And truth be told, i don't have lettuce, so it's just diced tomatoes, bacon bits, and a dollop of mayonnaise.

Oh, how that recipe for BLT has changed over the years. I grew up with Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip. I used to eat mayonnaise (Miracle Whip) sandwiches after school.

In my 20s i converted to whole wheat bread, and in my 30s to "real" mayonnaise, Hellman's or Best on the West Coast. In my 60s, i started drifting away from bread.

I still call it BLT even though it barely resembles its former self. And come to think of it, i still call me "I," even though i barely resemble my former self.

Is a BLT in a bowl still a BLT?

Am I still I?

Homemade Suet for the Birds

I fry bacon once or twice a year--maybe in deep tomato season for a BLT sandwich. What to do with all that bacon grease?

My mother used to cook with bacon grease, but that's not politically correct any more. 50% of bacon grease is the good-for-you unsaturated fat, but another 40% is the bad-for-you saturated fat.

Last summer, i poured my extra bacon grease into a half-pint plastic container filled with shelled sunflower seeds. Then i put it in the freezer, where i just re-discovered it. Time to get out the suet feeder! The chickadees and nuthatches are loving this homemade suet.

Our meditation practice is a homemade project. What's the delicious recipe that works for you?

Right now, i Skype at 6 a.m. with a woman i met at a meditation retreat last year. Then i meditate with my neighbors at 8 a.m. for 20 minutes. Right now, i'm teaching 2 or 3 meditation classes a week, and i sit at our local meditation center about once a week.

Just like the chickadees, i keep coming back to meditation.

Butternut Stress and Butternut Calm

Harvesting winter squash and pumpkins is sort of like looking for Easter eggs. The long vines winding off into the tall grass that had grown up around them meant i missed a few butternuts. After my sweetie mowed that tall grass, i found a perfectly good squash that had been sheared right in half by the lawn mower.

So we had Butternut Black Bean Burritos for dinner. Delicious!

Our meditation practice can get lost in the tall grass of our busy life. Then some sort of unexpected stress(es) come along, and there's nothing left for us to do but meditate. Today. Now.

Taste just a moment of delicious calm that reminds us that, yes, we are indeed sane. Behind the chatter or the downright meanness of the monkey mind lies one second of peace. That tiny second is our relaxing vacation from "The Mind," which is trying to overwhelm us with its false beliefs, over and over and over. In that jungle mind, there is a still forest pool. Under that tidal wave of beliefs, the ocean is calm. And so are we.

Generosity Grows

My neighbor, Connie, gave me a dozen butternut seedlings in early June. To begin with, they looked puny, then i lost track of them. But enough survived so that i have a couple dozen butternut squashes. So does Connie, So does our neighbor, Whit, who only planted 2 of Connie's seedlings.

We are all looking for winter squash recipes, so help! Send me your recipe.

Whit's wife, Tonia, is taking most of their squash harvest to her exercise class, and the women there are very grateful.

Generosity (Connie's) begets generosity (Tonia's). Who knows who the ripples of generosity will touch next? Connie has already given me some of her last night's squash casserole with sunflower seeds.

Our actions do not happen in a vacuum. Our actions ripple out to affect everyone around us. Sometimes our unskillful actions come back to bite us in the behind. So, choose your actions wisely. Generosity is a great place to begin.