Walking Through Illusion...Five Lessons Of Spirituality

Betsy Otter Thompson asked me to review her book, Walking Through Illusion. I have to preface this by saying I’m really not one to read religious books.


However, I have read books on spirituality, such as The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and I find Walking Through Illusion to be similar. For example, it is not an easy read. It is full of so much information that often you have to go back and re-read the sentences several times over. Having said that, if you are up to the challenge, it’s worth it. These books are full of nourishing, enlightening, soul-healing lessons that will leave you feeling enriched. Walking Through Illusion reminds me of the healing power of faith and spirituality, which often starts with things as simple as changing your attitude and paying attention to your inner thoughts.

The book’s title is explained in this passage: “See success differently, I told Bartholomew, and instead of insisting it’s something you see with your eyes, see it as something you feel in your heart. I called this process walking through illusion.”

Getting in touch with your heart, your inner self. This is one of the lessons in this book…lessons of spirituality that are useful no matter what your religion. I’m going to summarize five of these lessons here.

*Live in the present moment.

Ch 1, Reform, discusses Bartholomew and how he was always unhappy, especially in his profession. He blamed his unhappiness on his job and other people when in fact his attitude was the problem. By complaining and blaming others, he missed the point of life: “The good life was one in which the heart found love. Love was found in the moment. When the moment was denigrated, he missed the love it had.”

*Take responsibility for your life and focus on internal (not external) change.

In the author’s reflections at the end of Ch 1, Reform, she takes responsibility for her life by focusing on herself: “Not until I realized that no amount of reform on the outside would solve my problems did I take responsibility for all that I had created. That was my turning point. I knew that if I’d created the mess I was in, I could create something else.”

*Accepting what is creates happiness; resisting what is creates needless suffering.

Ch 2, Gifts, is summarized in the following quote: “Disappointment comes from thinking that life should be different. Enjoyment comes from thinking that life is wonderful the way it is.”

This chapter reminds us to accept what we have, and whatever challenges life brings. If you’ve had a family crisis, perhaps it will take you years to come to terms with the changes it brings and also to realize all you’ve learned from these challenges.

You also have to find acceptance in your daily life. My husband and I went to our local parade of homes the day I read this chapter. Walking into new, enormous, immaculately decorated homes with features like enormous workout rooms reminded us just how modest our home is. When we got home, my husband said he felt very inadequate, and I couldn’t agree more. But then I thought about acceptance, and I realized that we have everything we could ever need. A bigger home and a bigger mortgage payment will not bring us more happiness. I want to break free of the thought pattern that having the biggest, latest, best of everything can buy happiness. There is so much fulfillment in complete acceptance of what you have.

*The world mirrors what you put out into the world; you have to live what you want the Universe to mirror back to you…

In Ch 3, Obstacles, Peter the Fisherman has trouble with the success of his business until he learns there is more to success than catching fish. “When he believed that being the best meant having the biggest catch, the buyers didn’t bite. They knew their reward didn’t come from the size of the catch, but from the size of the heart offering it. Therefore, they zeroed in on warmer hearts regardless.”

This reminds me of Eckhart Tolle’s discussion of attitude and the importance of remaining in the present moment so that you can bring peace and gratitude to whatever job you are doing. Put out what you want to get back.

*It’s all about your inner state; inner, not outer transformation is the way to create change

Attribution: David F. Fry
http://www.ideas.wisconsin.edu/

Ch 4, Morality, again discusses Peter the Fisherman who “began finding the highest form of nourishment in the heart,” rather than in the number of fish he could catch or in attaining the approval of others.

Jesus says, “I was gathering people together to encourage belief in self. Self was the only place I knew that God could always be found. Peter was thrilled to be included and, just as he’d been finding the highest form of nourishment in the sea, he began finding the highest form of nourishment in the heart. But wisdom from the former held him in good stead with the latter.”

News flash!! Your perceived challenges are not everyone else’s fault!! You are the only thing that you have control over, the only thing that you can change. So work on yourself, your own heart. I used to agonize over my perceived problems—work conflicts, family challenges, etc. This just creates suffering. Now I just pray to the Universe to help me let it all go, move on, and do better next time. You’d be surprised how much baggage you’re holding on to if you start paying attention.

Often you can start just by tweaking your attitude a little. From the author’s personal insights in Ch 4: “I went from wishing people were different to welcoming their uniqueness.”

Overall Lesson: Knowing God—or your higher power—is about knowing yourself…The higher power that created us is inside of us and everything on Earth is connected. So act accordingly!

Homemade Christmas Exchange

A couple years ago we decided to try something different for Christmas...abandon all the stressful, superficial Christmas shopping in favor of something a little more meaningful. In my family, we decided to forego the gift exchange altogether. No one has to shop or stress or rack up their credit cards. Instead, we each agreed to make a donation to a charity or a cause that we wanted to support.

In my husband's family, we decided to do a themed gift exchange. Last year we did a “buy local” theme…this year we did a “homemade” theme. Both were equally fun. Each person brought one gift to exchange. You had to make your own gift. We knew about it a year in advance so we had all year to work on it. During the gift exchange, we drew numbers and made a game out of it…you could steal gifts from each other, steal them back, etc. I discovered that it is a lot of fun to put time and thought into creating your gifts, and even more fun to see the unique talents of the family emerge in a showcase of all the different gifts.

I decided to put together a collection of some of my canned goods, and add some different jar mixes for soups and cookies. I found some recipes for chunky chocolate cookie mix, rainbow bean soup mix, and love soup mix. The following is what I started out with.

Ingredients for Jar Mixes

JAR CHUNKY CHOCOLATE COOKIE MIX

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup chopped pecans
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup jumbo chocolate chips

Mix together the flour, baking soda and baking powder and salt. Set aside. Layer ingredients in order in a 1 quart wide mouth canning jar. Use the bottom of a small clean juice glass and press each layer firmly in place. It will be a tight fit. NOTE: Wipe down the inside of the jar after you add the cocoa powder. Use scissors to cut a 9 inch-diameter circle from calico. Place over lid and secure with rubber band. Tie on a raffia or ribbon bow to cover rubber band. Label and store in a cool dry place away from a heat source so condensation and clumping does not occur. Attach this recipe to the jar:

CHUNKY CHOCOLATE COOKIES (attach this recipe to the jar)

Empty jar of cookie mix into a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly blend mix. ADD:
3/4 cup butter or margarine softened at room temp. DO NOT USE MARGARINE
1 egg, slightly beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix until completely blended. The dough is sticky. you will need to finish mixing with your hands. Shape into walnut size balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. DO NOT USE WAXED PAPER. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 11 to 13 minutes . Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to racks to finish cooling. Makes 3 dozen cookies.


Love Soup Mix in a Jar
"Makes a wonderful gift for a new bride-to-be, a friend under the weather, or just to say thanks! And it tastes great, too! Decorate the jar with a fabric lid and/or a bow tied around the neck. Be sure to attach the cooking instructions to the jar. "

18 cubes beef bouillon
¼ cup barley
1/4 cup dried minced onion
½ cup dry lentils
1/2 cup dried split peas
1/3 cup long-grain white rice
1/2 cup uncooked twist macaroni
1 cup uncooked tri-color spiral pasta

Use a canning funnel or any funnel that has about a 2-inch neck. This will make it easier to fill the jars with the ingredients. Be sure to use a wide-mouth, 1-quart canning jar. Layer ingredients in the order given: bouillon, onion flakes, split peas, small shape pasta, barley, lentils, rice, and enough tricolor spiral pasta to fill jar.

Attach tag with cooking instructions: In large kettle, brown 1 pound ground beef or stew beef cut into bite-size pieces in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the kettle with 12 cups water. Let come to a boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more. Serve with your favorite bread or rolls and a tossed salad.

I found the rainbow bean soup recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/rainbow-bean-soup-mix-in-a-quart-jar-107349

I assembled the jar mixes using the instructions in the recipes above, then wrote out and attached the instructions and decorated the jars:


Soup Jar Mixes



Decorated Jar Mixes



My Homemade Christmas Gift: Jar Mixes Plus Peaches, Salsas, and Jellies



Magnetic Spice Rack

There is a spice rack on amazon.com that I once showed my husband, and he took the idea and crafted his own hand-painted, wood-framed magnetic spice rack. It is a masterpiece!

This spice rack went home with my brother-in-law, and my canned goods went home with my sister-in-law.

We left our Christmas gathering with some beautiful gifts. I got a basket of my sister-in-law’s organic vegetable-enriched pasta sauce, raspberry chardonnay salsa, spicy pepper pickles, multicolor durum wheat semolina pasta, and a bottle of white wine.



My husband got his brother’s masterpiece...a framed collection of nature photos, each photo depicting one letter from their last name, matted and framed by my husband’s brother. Even the wood frame was homemade. This was the most popular present.

The Collection of Nature Photos

Other homemade gifts included quilts, blankets, beef jerky, cheese, ice cream, furniture, and more. Everyone used their unique talents and materials available to them. For example, my sister-in-law, who runs a dairy farm with her husband, used the milk from their farm to make a collection of cheese and ice cream.

For me, these gift exchanges have been much more meaningful than going to the mall and buying a gift. You put some thought, time, and talent into your project and you get all that in return. I think everyone else would agree with me...since we decided to do that homemade gift exchange again next year.

Open

I haven’t been writing a lot lately because I’ve been busy working on my writing…I’ve been sending out a lot of query letters for articles I’ve already written and for article ideas that I have. I usually never hear anything back but I’ve been getting some amazing tips by following some freelance writing blogs: http://www.thewmfreelanceconnection.com/ and http://writetodone.com/ and http://www.makealivingwriting.com/

The result? I feel enriched. And inspired. I am feeling excited, rather than overwhelmed, about the possibilities. Based on these blogs, I’ve decided that I need to create an “author website” that shows some of my work and some testimonials from clients…and I’m going to start working on that right away…

And just as I’d been settling this in my mind, a good friend of mine from college messaged me and said she’s been doing some writing for http://madisonconsumer.com/ -- a great resource that offers money saving tips for people in the Madison, Wisconsin area -- and that she suggested me as a writer should they consider starting a similar resource in my area. Wow. The timing on all of that was incredible.

It reminds me of a line from The Alchemist:

"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

— Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)

(On that note, check out these inspiring quotes from The Alchemist. I also enjoyed A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle for its similar themes).

I’ve also enrolled in a fiction writing workshop at KSURF http://ksurf.net/ and I plan to do the memoir writing workshop next…I subscribed to a fiction writing newsletter, and here is the quote I got today:

"Even if what you're working on doesn't go anywhere, it will help you with the next thing you're doing. Make yourself available for something to happen. Give it a shot."

- Cormac McCarthy

I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I felt like this quote was speaking directly to me. Maybe this is a new way to think about all those articles I’m sitting on that no one apparently wants! I need to change my mindset, and keep working on things…keep myself open to the possibilities of the universe.

Presents!!!

I just love getting presents! I sure wasn't expecting it, but presents at work have been coming in steadily this week. It's sure nice that people show their appreciation for each other.


My Green Tea Sampler and a Storybook

My Beautiful Green Tea Sampler



A Bottle of Wine



Snowman Doorknob Hanger & Homemade Plum Jam

And here is a photo of a gift I gave to a co-worker who has been especially helpful and supportive as I began a new job this fall. I decorated two cans of my homemade rhubarb jelly. I also gave her a jar of freezer jam but I didn't decorate that one because it was still cold. I love receiving homemade gifts as much as I enjoy giving them (the plum jelly above is one of my favorites).

My Homemade Rhubarb Jelly

Lefse: A Family Tradition

Families have their own special food traditions. Some of these traditions are captured in those famous church cookbooks (aside from having good recipes, these cookbooks reveal much about the nature of a certain time and place and the personalities of the contributors…) But how many of these traditions are simply forgotten?

Lefse, a Norwegian tortilla made from potatoes, is our family tradition. My Grandma Carrie has always made lefse for us, especially for the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Lefse, according to Linda’s Culinary Dictionary, is “to any "good" Norwegian the same as the tortilla is to the Mexican and the crepes are to the French. A Scandinavian tradition for decades, lefse is a pastry made from potatoes, flour, butter, and cream. It is widely prized as a delicious delicacy, whether served plain or with butter and sugar.”

Grandma Carrie tells me that she didn’t learn how to make lefse until after her mother passed away. She also tells me that my Grandma Tena used to make and sell her lefse. According to http://www.foodtimeline.org/, "Lefse is not yet a lost art. But it is dwindling...” I don’t want this dwindling art to be forgotten in our family. So I’ve been making lefse with Grandma Carrie. Here is Grandma’s lefse recipe and the technique for making it.

 Grandma Carrie’s Lefse

Ingredients

• 3.5 pounds of russet potatoes (In my Grandma’s words, 2/3 of a 5 pound bag of potatoes or enough to fill s small 2 QT sauce pan)
• ½ stick of butter
• ½ C condensed milk or heavy cream
• 2 T salt
• 1 T sugar
• 2 C unsifted flour

Equipment
I've included the Amazon widget here so you can see what the pastry board, corrugated rolling pin, and lefse stick look like.

• Pastry board and cloth (optional)
• Lefse stick
• Lefse grill / 'Heritage Grill' or a pancake griddle
• Corrugated wood rolling pin
• Cloth rolling pin covers
• Potato ricer (optional)
• Flour sifter

Directions
Preparing the Dough

• Peel the potatoes
• Boil the potatoes in a 2 QT sauce pan
• Rice or mash the potatoes. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and chill overnight
• Using the microwave, melt the butter in the condensed milk and stir
• Add salt to the butter-milk mixture and stir
• Add sugar to the salt-butter-milk mixture and stir




The lefse dough


• Add the liquid to the potatoes and mix with your hands
• Sift the flour into the potato mixture and knead with your hands until the flour disappears. If the dough is still sticky, add a little more flour.
  
  Grandma tells me that a "natural leavening process" occurs with the potatoes, so it’s important to use your hands rather than an automatic mixer, which could over-develop the gluten and cause the dough to rise.

Rolling Out the Dough





Starts as a small round dough ball!


• Spread a thin layer of flour on the pastry board (Grandma uses a circular Bethany pastry board, which is covered in fabric to help prevent the dough from sticking)
• Fill 1/3 C with the dough to roll out
• Place the dough on the pastry board and shape it into a circle
• Lightly flour each side of the circular dough ball with the flour sifter
• Using a covered corrugated rolling pin, roll the dough into a thin, circular shape, flipping and flouring the dough as needed to prevent the dough from sticking




Rolled out lefse dough


• Continue to flip, flour, and roll until the dough is about 12 inches wide and very thin
• Transfer the lefse to the ungreased griddle using the lefse stick
• Cook the lefse on high heat on each side until it is lightly browned
• Flip the lefse as needed using the lefse stick



Flipping the lefse with the lefse stick

Let the lefse cool on wire baking racks. This recipe makes about 14 pieces of lefse.

To prepare, spread the lefse with butter and/or sugar and roll it up and serve. Some even use the lefse as a bread, serving sandwich fixings or meats rolled up inside the lefse.



The final product: about 14 pieces of lefse

Stress is Bad at the Bottom of the Hierarchy...Luckily Your Attitude Counts for Something

I just read this amazing article in Wired about the connection between stress, your physical health, and your emotional state. This article describes how anthropologist Robert Sapolsky proved that baboons at the bottom of the social hierarchy were more stressed out and had more health problems than baboons at the top of the hierarchy. This article cites studies of stress in baboons, Oscar nominees/winners, and British civil servants, showing that there is a direct connection between stress and your health:

Stress hollows out our bones and atrophies our muscles. It triggers adult-onset diabetes and is a leading cause of male impotence. In fact, numerous studies of human longevity in developed countries have found that psychosocial factors such as stress are the single most important variable in determining the length of a life. It’s not that genes and risk factors like smoking don’t matter. It’s that our levels of stress matter more.

The shocking part of the article for me was the finding that it’s not necessarily a stressful, demanding job that is so “deadly,” but rather the feeling like you have no control or that your work is meaningless…sound familiar to anyone?!

While doctors speculated for years that increasing rates of cardiovascular disease in women might be linked to the increasing number of females employed outside the home, that correlation turned out to be nonexistent. Working women didn’t have more heart attacks. There were, however, two glaring statistical exceptions to the rule: Women developed significantly more heart disease if they performed menial clerical work or when they had an unsupportive boss. The work, in other words, wasn’t the problem. It was the subordination.

This passage also points to the fact that some groups are more vulnerable than others. In this case, women. That got me thinking about our campus hierarchy and our limited term employees, roughly 75 percent of which are women. It is even more troubling to think that many of these women, probably the most vulnerable in our campus community to stress-related health problems, have no health insurance, paid time off, and don’t make a living wage.

I was floored by the description of the following study by Michael Marmot about British Civil Servants. For the past 25 years the study has tracked 28,000 British men and women working in Civil Servant positions who all have access to the same health care system, who “don’t have to worry about getting laid off,” and “spend most of their workdays shuffling papers.” Here is a description of the findings:

The differences are dramatic. After tracking thousands of civil servants for decades, Marmot was able to demonstrate that between the ages of 40 and 64, workers at the bottom of the hierarchy had a mortality rate four times higher than that of people at the top. Even after accounting for genetic risks and behaviors like smoking and binge drinking, civil servants at the bottom of the pecking order still had nearly double the mortality rate of those at the top.

This study is haunting to me because our campus has the same type of hierarchical Civil Servant system. If the people at the bottom of the hierarchy have “double the mortality rate” in a situation where they have the same benefits as people at the top of the hierarchy, what about the people at the bottom of the hierarchy who DON’T have benefits? What would a study of stress reveal about this population?

In light of these thoughts, the following quote really stuck with me, and I’ll be thinking about how I can be more aware of my own emotional state and my attitude and how these affect my health.

The moral is that the most dangerous kinds of stress don’t feel that stressful. It’s not the late night at the office that’s going to kill us; it’s the feeling that nothing can be done. The person most at risk for heart disease isn’t the high-powered executive anxious about their endless to-do list — it’s the frustrated janitor stuck with existential despair.

Best Cookies Ever: Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

I stayed at a Doubletree Hotel in Minneapolis once and I was amazed to receive, upon check-in, the most delicious cookie I'd ever eaten. I am pleased to announce that I googled "Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe" and the following is what I found. They are truly the most delicious cookies EVER.

(Side note: This was a holiday indulgence and I have since begun the Couch to 5K Running program! I have been inspired by two amazing friends who have completed this program. But first I had to indulge myself!)

Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies, from http://www.foodgeeks.com/recipes/18302

20 servings

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup rolled oats
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
2 eggs
3 cups semi-sweet, chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts


INSTRUCTIONS

Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well blended.

For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies.

Spoon rounded 1/4 cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake in a 350°F oven for 16-18 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep soft.