Scraping Mud (Again)

Grumble, grumble, this is tiring, I wonder how much this broom weighs, Lazybones here would rather be reading a good book but it’s much better when this job is done and the weather is too nice to stay inside.  I took a break to take the photo and saw the thermometer indicated 22°C.  I wonder if that is a record for a February 29th.

This kind of job gives one time to think.  I miss loved ones who have died.  I feel like saying OK, that’s enough of this game, you can come back now.  I’m tired of people dying, even people I don’t know; they are someone’s loved ones.  But I know we have a lot of work to do before that can happen, the dawning of the Creator’s Day.  He says at least four generations.  Why don’t we surprise Him?  We could offer Him goodness today rather than sadden Him with our nastiness. 

Scrape, scrape the mud from myself, choosing to practice love, forgiveness, peacemaking.  Being creative and freeing myself from all kinds of prejudice.  Pronouncing His Word to accomplish It, doing, not just saying.  Encouraging others to do likewise.  Those are the methods that will lead to a changed world.

The destiny of humanity is up to us.  Either we change, recovering our divine image and likeness, or we revert to being just a thinking animal.  You decide.

Green Pudding for Breakfast?

No avocados were harmed in the preparation of this dish.

In some circles, green smoothies are being touted as the ultimate health food.  Crop circles? No, no. 

I have been enjoying our new high speed blender.  As I don’t care for drinking my food, I make a thicker mixture, more a pudding than a smoothie.  Kale for breakfast?  Spinach?  Chard?  Collard greens?  When it’s blended with fruit, seeds, milk, the taste is completely different from sautéed in butter.  However if the church were vegan, then I would be thrown out as a heretic for I incorporate milk and yoghurt in my mixture, albeit raw and live.

Recipe:  The night before put ¼ cup buckwheat groats to soak in water, along with 8-10 almonds.  Next morning drain and rinse well.  Put in blender.  Add 1 tablespoon flaxseed, 1 tablespoon sunflower seed, ½ banana, an apple (cored), 1 cup greens, about 1 cup milk, some cinnamon or nutmeg.  Blend.  This is surprisingly good.  It provides around 550 calories and a good third of the day’s nutritional needs (40% of the protein).

This is not the special from the diner—eggs, home fries, sausage, toast with butter and jelly.
This is not what we get at a hotel in France—baguette, croissant.
This is not what we had when I was a child—oatmeal or cold cereal or poached eggs and toast.
Preconceived notions of what constitutes breakfast?

How many other areas of our lives are governed by our cultural prejudices?  Can we free ourselves from them, becoming decultured?  This is not the same as uncultured.  It is more a rising above or a going beyond tradition and culture.  Not one of our cultures can be considered ideal.  No where have we created the perfect society.  And yet we have that possibility.  If we apply love and forgiveness, seek to make peace all around, use our creativity for Good, develop our heart’s intelligence in addition to our brains, we can create a world where all can flourish.  A greening of humanity through a recreating of our self.  We can change what is on the menu of human destiny.

“It is indeed very difficult to imagine, from the dark tunnels where we still live, what a changed world (28/7), a world without culture is going to be, but it emerges from The Revelation of Arès that it is going to be a process of diversifying in free harmony, but no mere evolution in the harness of a new culture.”   http://www.freesoulblog.net/zjHu.html

Winter Light

The late afternoon sun lit the hedgerow and maple tree, highlighting the discreet colours of the buds.  About five minutes later the bourrasque hit with gusty wind, sleet and hail.  It was weather related to bourru which means gruff.  Five more minutes and the sun came out again, just as a gruff person can smile.

Challenging Myself

After several squares of garter stitch,  I felt like doing something more challenging so I got out my Encyclopédie des Ouvrages de Dames (by Thérèse Dillmont) and started this one knitted from the center on 4 needles.

I wasn’t too proud of the beginning with that hole.  Nearing the end I realized it was not going to be easy to knit a 20cm square on 20cm needles.  There is no room to space things out and it is difficult to measure.  I had to keep my eyes on 8 needle points plus the two with which I was working so as not to lose any stitches.

It looked like it might be a bit big but it turned out to be a bit small so I crocheted around the edge.  I took care of that hole in the middle with a flower.  Now it just needs an elephant to sit on it and flatten it out.  It will be sent to South Africa with KAS—Knit  A Square.

I thought I might entitle this blog entry A Harrowing Half Hour but I happened to think of those who are truly suffering with situations much more serious than dropped stitches in their knitting.  And yet, if we choose, we can build a world where we have only that sort of problem left.  We can change our hearts, stop seeking to dominate and exploit, practice love and compassion for all others.

Our choir has been working on The Beatitudes put to music by Arvo Pärt.  How often do we think to apply them in our daily life?  To be satisfied when we have enough, to feel with those who are suffering, to act without arrogance, to seek what is right, to forgive, to be pure, to build peace, to work for good even when ridiculed.  It would suffice for only a few generations to live this way and we would be back in the garden of Eden.  This is a challenge for myself.  Will you join me?  (You don’t have to know how to knit…)

February 2, 2012

I saw my shadow and it was a big one. It looks like this will be a year when l’hiver prend vigueur*.  Not that surprising since we haven’t had much winter to speak of so far.  A thermometer close to the house says 2°C and there is a north wind chill factor.  It might end up like in 2009.

Maybe we will heat up the bilig and make some crêpes tonight.  One does not flip a bilig, but I prefer the thin crispy crêpes.  Photos in a previous entry in case you don’t know what a bilig is or what a proper crêpe looks like.  Well,…. actually these were green. 

*Winter gathers its forces, becomes vigorous.