Picture Perfect: Everyday Thanks

For some unfathomable reason, the Creator seems to be keen on His human creatures.  He talks to them what must be everyday on His scale (1000 years, give or take a few).  I am thankful for this as it gives me hope, since He still has hope that we will realize our divine nature.  Pronouncing His Word with the desire to accomplish it, most everyday, gives me the strength and courage to try to change myself.  I may not get very far down the road, but at least I know in which direction to go.  This is my everyday thanks which also includes all the many blessings I receive and helps me see there is a way out of the rest.

For more entries on the theme of everyday thanks, go to Picture Perfect.

 

(shown are The Tanakh-the new Jewish translation of the Old Testament in English, The Message-a translation of the New Testament in modern English, the Qur’an in modern English and The Revelation of Arès-bilingual French and English)

November 27, 2008

Let us not be among the ungrateful.

Leaving Pilgrims, Indians, and turkey aside, we have received many blessings–

 let us give thanks.

An Underground Enemy

As I tried to cut a stem or two of chard, it seemed that the plant was loose and then I realized all the roots had been eaten.  I had to fix the whole plant for lunch and now it won’t be able to grow as I had hoped, throughout the winter into spring.  Some kind of rodent, I suppose.

It made me think of the economy, seemingly flourishing, but actually built on debt, lies, greed.

I have faith that if we choose to do and be good, there will be a trickle-down effect and all the world will be set right eventually.  I cannot clearly see the details but if a lion can lay down with a lamb, the rodents shouldn’t be a problem anymore either.

House

Bedroom wall I am re-pointing.

There is still a lot of work to be done on our old house.

Picture Perfect: Worn

These are my old jeans; they need fixed again.  My “good” jeans are getting a bit frayed around the cuffs so I bought a new pair which means the old “good” ones may now be worn in the garden and this pair may be relegated to a trunk in the attic unless I get the urge to add another patch.  I saw a similar pair in a shop window on a ritzy street in the south of France for 285 euros.

The chair you see here was quite worn when we got it; I redid the caning, waxed it and now it’s as good as new.  I don’t know when I will take the time to do its mate.

The stone trough (lower right) was hidden in a wall where we opened a passageway.  It probably was for doing dishes or salting pork originally.  I put plants in it.

One element of worn things that we admire may be the effort involved for them to remain functional.  Perhaps it is also a seeking of the eternal. 

Somewhere within, we have an inkling that we were meant to be perpetual.  A patched up, re-worked, sanded over soul will not have the same beauty as a pure innocent child, but it will have the triumph of having overcome.

For more entries on the theme of worn, go to Picture Perfect.

Lentils and Rice

I like to share cooking experiences because I feel that healthy eating is important and also I like to encourage creativity and self-reliance.  Today’s lentils and rice turned out so good, I presume due to the combination of ingredients, that I want to write out how I did it before I forget.

I splashed some olive oil into a pan, prepared a nice sized onion, half of it I sliced thinly and sautéed in the oil, the other half I stuck with two whole cloves and then added.  I put in some garlic, de-germed, about 4 cloves.  I weighed out 150 grams of lentils and put them in the pot, just covering with water.  Then I prepared two carrots, cutting them into bite-size chunks and added them. There were some tomatoes hanging around which I chopped rather small, about maybe 1 ½ -2 cups, and added.  I put in  approximately  a teaspoon each of salt, turmeric, ground cumin, what was left of the old package of paprika (about 2 teaspoons), some pepper, 4 or 5 one-inch sprigs of savory (sarriette, satureja montana).  This was brought to a boil, then covered and simmered for about 40 minutes.  A little more water was needed.  I started the whole grain rice before the lentils and all was ready at the same time.

Of course I will never have the same combination of tomatoes again, there were some plum type and a Noire de Crimée and a couple of other small ones, and I don’t often finish a package of paprika, but I hope to be able to do something close again in the future—maybe you will be inspired to try this also.  Hey, it’s cheap!

Picture Perfect: Celebrate

Something that always makes me feel like celebrating is seeing a seed that I have sown germinate.  It is only the beginning, it still must grow, be nurtured, protected, but it is full of promise, the possibility of beautiful fruit.

Within each of us is a seed of the divine.  It is up to us to cultivate it.  Do you not think that living in the garden of Eden will be a state of perpetual celebration, joy?

For more entries on the theme of celebrate, go to Picture Perfect.

Post Scriptum

My husband called my attention to the fact that the talking rear view mirror incident actually occurred in the parking lot and therefore the headlights were not yet bothersome.  I must have been blurrier than I thought!

Today I drove my own car, a 15-year-old Fiat Uno whose fanciest button is the rear window wiper or maybe the radio-CD player.  I remembered to change gears, using the clutch.

Our main computer has conked out so we may have lost about 40 e-mails and it may  not be easy for me to put pictures on-line for awhile.

It was good to spend time with my sister and her husband who is fighting a brain tumor.  We talked about practicing forgiveness, something which is important every day, but even more so I think, if you realize you may be called to cross the great divide sooner than anticipated. Maybe it will be like trying to jump across a ditch with a backpack, the lighter, the better.  Sometimes I see the soul, which is built by doing and being good, like a hot-air balloon which can help us rise.

Rental Car Buttons

Over the years we have had several adventures with buttons on rental cars and the series continues. I now am in the habit of asking if the car has any special buttons but the answer is always no.

It was night and the headlights behind us were bothersome so my husband was pressing things on the rear view mirror.  The next thing we knew a woman who identified herself as Lynn was asking could she be of assistance with our emergency.  What emergency?  What’s going on here?  I replied that there was no emergency, please excuse us, we were just testing the buttons.  She then seemed to go away.  I remembered hearing something like a phone ring, two beeps, but how do you hang up a rear view mirror?

A few days later when I took over the driving, I was quite uncomfortable as my head seemed to be hitting the roof.  That’s what I get for wanting my hair to stand up?  I spun a dial on the front of the seat, but nothing happened, no one answered.  Then I found a lever on the side which very conveniently lowered the seat.  Satisfaction.

So beware if you press the plus button on the rear view mirror, you may get MORE than you bargained for.

The photo is a bit blurry, but so were we.