Square-Peg People

Peonies and Gratitude

Right this minute I am far afield from gratitude, I'm visiting the land of Overwhelm - even had dreams of drowning last night (in the waters of tension and "I can't keep up") - sigh! Maybe the drowning dreams just came from going to sleep listening to rain for so many nights in a row (rabbits in our area were beginning to grow fins, I swear)...

 

Thing is - today was beautifully sunny - so was yesterday - and I enjoyed the sun so much. And now I'm posting this note as my offering to gratitude, even if I'm not actually in the gratitude mood - maybe it'll help me get there!

The picture above is a Peony from a group we have that used to be in our family matriarch's garden. She's been gone for awhile, but every year - when the Peonies poke up out of the ground I read Mary Oliver's poem, Peonies - and I think of my great-aunt and her gorgeous garden (and her way with beauty in all things).

Here's a part of Mary Oliver's poem - found in my copy of New and Selected Poems:

...

all that dampness and recklessness
    gladly and lightly,
        and there it is again ---
            beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
    Do you love this world?
        Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
            Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

...

I do! I cherish my "humble and silky life" - even when I'm feeling overwhelmed and crabby! Even now!! How about YOU?

 

Happy Wishes to Mothers and Others

 

I'm grateful today for all the women in my life! I was taking a nice soak a short bit ago and read a lovely bit in Nora Seton's The Kitchen Congregation, which I will share with you now - as I drink some Peppermint tea brought up to the office by the heart warmingly wonderful Slightly-Brit:

"...the ancient tradition of daughters and grandmothers and infants at the feet of elders, the world's waterfall of women, splashing onto the rocks of one generation after the other..."

What gorgeous writing, it's from the essay/chapter "Ida" in the book.

I'm grateful today for ALL the women in my life - past, present and future. I came late to appreciating the friendship of women, but on this glorious day (the sun remembered to shine here today!!) I won't indulge in regret, but just ENJOY...

Wishing all who read this a day of open-hearted JOY and gratitude no matter what is going on outside your eyes!!!

Baking Bread

 

The other night Slightly-British Daughter and I made (to quote the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day): "a lightning-fast batch of moist no-knead dough". And - can you believe it? - it was lightning-fast and easy (the whole process!!).

The book said it would be easy. But you never expect the instructions to say: "This one'll take years off your life!" - and, not surprisingly, they never do say that kind of thing.

This one went well even with all the angst surrounding the coveted heater-repairman visit! That's saying something.

We've had the book for awhile, but we were timid. Who wants to look for trouble when there's always crazy-making stuff like oil burners shooting soot that pop up unexpectedly? Maybe the fear is what caused us to do tag-team baking...

Usually we have our own specialties - and pretty much keep out of each other's way in the kitchen. It's not a big kitchen and we spend a lot of time together already - so we give each other a wide berth cooking-wise.

Actually, I kind of fell off the berth - I've avoided the kitchen for a few years since forever for awhile and have only recently started to play there again. This time SBD studied the instructions, gave me a video to watch about how incredibly easy this stuff is, and mixed the first batch.

Then she handed the process off to me (after making sure I'd watched the video). I was to cut off the first blop and stick it in a dutch oven to rest (of course that's not how they did it in the video - we're Square-Pegs !).

So, I used one of our terribly dull knives and whacked at the bloppy stuff - "cutting" (using that term very loosely) off a hunk of ¿ blop ? and began to shape the loaf. All along SBD was giving me instructions (ones that went counter to the video she had me watch!!) like she was a master surgeon overseeing a rookie (with me arguing: "Nuh-uh, that's not what they did on the damn video!" and "Then why did you have me watch the fricking video?" As you can see - brilliance and reason sometimes rest on me like a cloak).

Finally - laughing all the way, because we did have fun - the blop was tossed into the dutch oven and got baked and I'm pretty sure we're going to be baking all kinds of bread! Although we might give up the tag-team thing.

Here's the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day site - where they offer all kinds of ideas (a great companion to the book!!!) - if you're even slightly timid about baking bread - or looking for a quicker, easier (no kneading!) way to make great bread - check this baby out!

I think I'm going to get myself a chef's hat - SBD got Manchild one when he was little (she was such an incredible big sister - and he was so proud to do big boy stuff in the kitchen, which I would never have had the patience for) - and she got one for Little Princess a few years ago - it's my turn. And you may have to call me Chef Square-Peg Karen...

 

(Photo is of the bread before baking)

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Normal is

"Normal is someone you don't know very well."
Anonymous

I found this, attributed to Anonymous (her again!) in a book called Broken Open, by Elizabeth Lesser, cofounder of Omega Institute. The quote made me laugh. It's so true!

There is no normal. Except on the dial of the washer - well, the dryer too - so there actually is a "normal", but not related to people. Ok, it's related  to people - in that people wash and dry their clothes - but it doesn't define people...

Trailing off muttering to myself - there - that's normal. Sigh!

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Beyond Inspirational

 

I only just learned that it's ok (good even) to share other people's videos from YouTube - late bloomer yet again - sigh!

I must've gotten at least 10 "you gotta see this" suggestions (first one from none other than keep-your-mama-current Queen, Slightly-Brit) and finally (the straw that broke the camel's back - or, more to the point - got me to watch this video - was sister Ter's "you gotta see this" early yesterday).

And now - let me be the straw that breaks your camel's back. Or, if you're camel-less - let me say: You gotta see this!!!

This is Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love talking about creativity - it's beyond inspirational...

(note: it's long - 19 minutes - but totally worth it. Watching this, if you're are any kind of creative creature - and I know you are - is like giving yourself a huge present!!)

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Yawn, Yawn

 

In A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink I read this:

"Contagious yawning, says Drexel University cognitive neuroscientist Steven Platek, is likely 'a primitive empathic mechanism.' His research has found that contagious yawners score high on various tests that measure levels of Empathy. Such people--some of you, no doubt--are so in tune with what others are going through that they can't help but mimic that behavior."

Ohman, I'm a sucker for yawn mimicking - I can't see someone yawning without yawning, I can't read the word "yawn" without yawning - and just thinking of the word (like I was when I decided to write today's post about this) causes me to yawn so much that I've got half a headache right now! I don't think I ever told that to anyone but my kids - it seemed so odd...

I like the idea that it means I'm empathetic - I mean - I spent years as a therapist. But though I see how mimicking a yawn (even unconsciously) could mean you're picking up on another's feelings - why would thinking about yawning cause the response? (she says while she yawns for the 475th time) - ohman, I cannot write about this anymore - my head will FALL off!

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Crazy Eights

 

 

I finished The Wishing Year (by Noelle Oxenhandler) last night. In the book the author wishes for (subtitle of the book) A House, A Man, My Soul.

It's a great book for a number of reasons: it's full of stories, about an interesting subject, written by an author who writes personally - brings you into her world - which, in this case, means meeting the people in her life and being privy to - not only her experiments in wishing, but her thoughts about wishing.

Then there are incredible descriptions of Hawaii, so great that they made me (a person with nada/nil/zip wanderlust) add Hawaii to my "If I ever get the bug to travel, I will go HERE" list. AND - it's not sappy about wishing - not pie in the sky. Noelle Oxenhandler expresses some healthy skepticism (and she still gets her wishes).

There's also the number eight. The author describes an "eight-fold path" for wishing that she read about - the final step of which includes using 8 short words. I'm not so much into the crazy eights, but the book is great - and who knows...

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That Reading Thing

The past couple days have been inside days. Not because it's too cold/wet/dreary to go outside, I'm talking internal - reflecting - inside time. I had a wild and wooly dream last week and that began some heavy duty reflection - which began some heavy duty grieving - which began my inside days.

So I don't have much to share right now - though I'm guessing I'll drag large quantities of gold or diamonds up out of the dark (not now though, now it's just coal dust - and plenty of it). But I do have a list of incredible books that I just picked up - they're doing that thing that delights me and is always a surprise when it happens...

How do I describe this? It's like the veil is lifted - or like I'm nose to nose with the weavings of the universe - or, I dunno - something on that order. It's the thing that used to happen in classes when different subjects overlapped and a pattern - a whole way of seeing opened up. The connections became "visible" - if that makes any sense...

That thing happens infrequently, but when it does - ahhhhhhhh - it's minddazzling fun and always connects me deeper to myself, the universe, everything and everyone (until I forget).

The books that are dancing to the tune of that thing for me right now are:

Everyone Is Beautiful: A Novel  by Katherine Center

Here if you need me : a true story by Kate Braestrup

The wishing year : a house, a man, my soul : a memoir of fulfilled desire by Noelle Oxenhandler

After the darkest hour : how suffering begins the journey to wisdom by Kathleen A. Brehony Ph.D.

and Life entrepreneurs : ordinary people creating extraordinary lives by Christopher Gergen

with a few others thrown in for fun - but the above ones are making my head spin with the weavings and insights that seem to connect so many deep ideas/beliefs.

Here's hoping you find patterns, weavings and insights this weekend to take you behind the veil!!

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Photo copyright Noah Urban, 2009

Quotes About Greatness

 

Aha! I found the C.S. Lewis quote that I had (somewhat distortedly) in mind when I wrote the post on Saturday. It's substantially more and less than I remembered. Here it is:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare."

The quote is from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis (from the essay also entitled "The Weight of Glory")

After spending half the day chasing down this quote it appears that it's different from what I had in my head - also his views are significantly different from mine.

Other of C.S. Lewis' writings (should I tell you how many books I looked through before finally finding the quote? And how many essays in each book?) read as if he does not believe we are intrinsically worthy, which I'd argue about - but, since he's not alive anymore, I guess we won't have that argument.

Here's another quote about glory/worth - I think I had this rolled up in my mind with the C.S. Lewis quote:

"Someone who sees you and does not laugh out loud,
or fall silent, or explode
is nothing more than the cement
and stone of his own prison." Jalal al-Din Rumi

When I said (above) that the second quote might have been rolled up with the first in my mind - I had this image of my mind as a vast emporium of rugs with poems and phrases woven into the fibers (the textile-aholic's version of Seymour and Buddy's wall of quotes - from Salinger's Franny and Zooey).

It's hard to find the right rug when you want it - no clear sense of order - some rugs pushed so far to the back that it takes forever (or half a day - as happened with the C.S. Lewis quote) to find them. Rarely is a rug where you expect it - it's like the shoe-maker's elves come into the emporium late at night - and instead of making shoes - rearrange rugs.

And what do YOU think? Do I need more coffee today??

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Another Great Quote

In a section called "What, Exactly, Should You Do Now?", toward the end of Seth Godin's book Tribes, he writes:

"Are there thousands of reasons why you, of all people, aren't the right one to lead? Why you don't have the resources or the authority or the genes or the momentum to lead? Probably. So what? You still get to make the choice."

Yes! Make the better choice!!

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Full Disclosure: we're affiliates of Amazon.com - so when you buy from the links above you don't pay a penny more, but you help support Square-Peg People. Thanks!