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.

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

The Italian Gourmet

On October 23rd we had an Italian cooking class with Antonio Cecconi, owner of The Italian Gourmet and author of the Betty Crocker Italian cookbook.

Coordinating this event was a challenging and sometimes frustrating process…we needed to set a date, send out invites, recruit a minimum number of people, gather money, finalize the menu, secure a kitchen in the Minneapolis area, and finalize travel and lodging plans and more. With all the travel and lodging and the fact that we wanted it to be a gift to our friend C, who got married the following weekend, it got to be a bit expensive but IT WAS SO WORTH IT….


My heart sank when Antonio did not show up on time, but fear not, he was only momentarily trapped in the traffic jam surrounding the presidential motorcade that weekend in the Minneapolis area.

When Antonio arrived, we were immediately mesmerized by his warm and friendly personality. In between teaching us how to make our Italian meal (see menu below), he gave us a lesson about capers, showed us pictures from his recent trip to Italy, and graciously answered some rather personal questions from one of us (not me) who had a few too many glasses of wine! AND he signed my Betty Crocker Italian cookbook! He is a fabulous chef and teacher and was a pleasure to work with before and during the class.

As soon as we began making that pasta, mixing the semolina flour with water, kneading the dough into small round yellow balls, and flattening the dough into long thin yellow sheets using the hand-crank pasta machines, I literally felt all the challenges and tensions melt away and everyone was laughing and getting their hands dirty. I hope you can see in the pictures how everyone enjoyed the class.

Our menu:

• Basil Cheese Truffles & Spices

• Crusty Bread with Tomato Basil Topping

• Homemade Lasagna with Asparagus and Tomato Sauce

• Fresh Pasta with Creamy Four Cheese Sauce

• Pork Tenderloin with Lemon Prosciutto Sage Sauce

• Sautéed Field Fennel Salad with Fresh Herb Dressing

• Seasoned Homemade Buns

• Cream Puffs with Amaretto Chocolate Sauce

All of the recipes are in Antonio's cookbook.

Once again I was reminded how therapeutic cooking and good company can be. For those four hours, I was completely in the present moment, totally focused on the task at hand and on taking in every detail and savoring every wonderful taste. I feel so privileged to be able to do things that are so uplifting.

Harvest!

My harvest season has begun! I'm trying to get as much done as possible before I leave for vacation next week...

This weekend, I canned about seven pints of corn relish (on the left in the picture below) and about 19 half-pints of tomatillo salsa (on the right). For some reason, my tomatillo salsa is more brown than green this year. I wonder if it's because I used purple onions? These recipes are from the PDF SALSA RECIPES FOR CANNING by Val Hillers and Richard Dougherty. I used all locally grown produce that I got at our farmer's markets. The tomatillos came from my own garden...

I bought a meal kit from a farmer's market vendor that included the following purple heirloom tomatoes (sorry, I cannot remember the entire name), swiss chard (left), and several types of summer squash (not pictured). I sauteed these vegetables into a delicious sauce that we put on a pizza crust with other pizza fixings and then put it on the grill. It was delicious.

In the background you can see tomatoes, which came from my garden. I'm gearing up this week to can a tomato-peach relish. This tomato-peach relish is from the Preserving Peaches document located at the Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center.

Before the season is done, I hope to can more salsa (tomatillo and regular tomato), plus some seasoned tomato sauce.

We have had an extremely humid and wet summer...and I'm looking forward to fall...wearing sweatshirts and jeans, watching football, making delicious soups from my frozen/canned tomatoes, and enjoying my jellies and salsas.