Your Weekly Big Fat Dose of Inspiration

From ”Wild Woman Sisterhood” on Facebook

A Traditional Náhuatl Prayer

I release my parents from the feeling that they have failed with me.
I release my children from the need to make me proud, so that they can write their own ways, according to their hearts.
I release my partner from the obligation to make me feel complete. I lack nothing in myself.
I learn with all the beings that surround me through all time.
I thank my grandparents and ancestors who met so that today I breathe life. And I release them from the faults of the past and from the wishes they did not fulfill, aware that they did the best they could to resolve their situations, within the consciousness they had at that moment.
I honor them, I love them, and I recognize their innocence.
I bare my soul before their eyes and that is why they know that I do not hide or owe anything, more than being faithful to myself and my own existence walking with the wisdom of the heart.
I am aware that I am fulfilling my life project, free of visible and invisible family loyalties that may disturb my peace and my happiness, which are my greatest responsibilities.
I renounce the role of savior, of being the one who unites or who fulfills the expectations of others. And learning through LOVE, I bless my essence and my way of expressing, although there may be someone who cannot understand me.
I understand myself, because only I lived and experienced my story; because I know myself, I know who I am, what I feel, what I do and why I do it.
I respect and approve.
I honor the Divinity in me and in you.
We are free.

There are always some significantly gag-worthy memes to be found if you mess around on social media, but this one I like. Or ”respect and approve” if that’s a better phrase. Both the prayer and the picture are from ”Wild Woman Sisterhood” which I follow on Facebook because they are less gaggy than most. Plus they have a very cool name, right?

For homework today, look up “Nahuatl” if you don’t already know what it means. And if you do know, good for you, I’m impressed.

Peace and happiness.

So Where the Hell Have You Been?

There, now you don’t have to ask me that question. I appear to have stopped blogging for over a year (because unfinished unpublished posts in the drafts section don’t count) and boy do I ever have a years worth of excuses!  Want to hear them all?  No, I didn’t think so.

I’ve been right here this whole time, taking a long break from listening to myself, making actual real useful stuff with my hands instead of my head, and resting my brain.

I have made hats and mats and blankets and slippers and shawls.  Dolls and bears and zebras and giraffes.  I’ve made so much stuff it’s getting harder all the time to find anyone willing to take my latest greatest project home with them.  But I’m not finished and will keep going for as long as I’m able and for as long as Michaels has yarn sales.  I had forgotten how much I love to crochet, just like I’ve forgotten for a bit how much I love to write.

The memories that pop up on Facebook for me are getting downright scary.  Nine years ago my two oldest grandkids were nine years old.  Now they’re eighteen;  and the fifteen, fourteen and thirteen year olds are right behind them, with a grandma getting progressively more ancient by the minute.

Time for me to tell more stories while I can still remember things.  Maybe these beautiful young people I’m so happy to have in my life will one day have questions I’m not around to answer.  I mean seriously, look how fast one year, never mind nine years, whizzes right on by.  Maybe I have another nine in me, but you never know.

My grandma started saying “Well, this could be my last Christmas!” when she was in her seventies, and kept it up for almost 30 years.  I’d like to be that lucky.  Plus, the older I get, the greater the possibility of uttering totally bizarre shit that will make my descendants laugh and roll their eyes and wonder if that’s how they’re going to end up.  I like that feeling of power.

 

 

Sharing My World 73

This night nurse pic is what came up when I went to Google and typed in marvel comics followed by my name. Best. Result. Ever. Facebook told me to do it. Now I’m telling you. Listen to the freaky night nurse.

Share Your World – July 24, 2017

List some of your favorites types of teas.

The idea of tea is lovely.  Tea and scones, lemon tea, tea time, cozy tea room, take a tea break, iced tea on a hot day, curl up with a good book and a hot cup of tea.  But to actually brew a pot of the vile stuff and drink it, eww, yuk.  There’s something metallic or acidic about it that I don’t like.  It’s okay to scent candles with or to make shampoo smell nice.  Otherwise I avoid it.

If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?

This one looks like a normal day for me. It basically means “do you have any idea where the hell you’re going?”

What are a couple of things people could do for you on a really bad day that would really help you?

Well they could just sit there with concerned looks on their faces and listen to me rant.  That would be helpful, no advice or solutions necessary.  They could also offer me coffee or chocolate.  Or large sums of money.  Things like that tend to improve my mood.

Regardless of your physical fitness, coordination or agility: If you could be an athlete what would you do? Remember this is SYW, dreaming is always allowed.

The first me-being-athletic thing that pops in to my head is long distance or marathon runner.  Which is pretty funny considering how most days I have trouble motivating myself to walk around the block.  But think of the cool spandex clothes and awesome shoes and sweaty headbands.  Pulling muscles.  Collapsing over the finish line.

Maybe baseball would be a more sane choice for me.  Pinch hitter.  Smacking out spectacular home runs followed by leisurely jaunts around the bases and congratulatory high fives.  I could do that.  (In my dreams.) (You did say dreaming was okay.)  A nightmare on the other hand would be jumping off a diving board head first into deep water.  Who in their right mind thinks that’s a good idea.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Yesterday I was SO SMART taking advantage of the sunshine to mow the lawn.  It’s been pouring rain ever since and generally cold and windy and miserable.  Definitely not marathon running weather.

I’m looking forward to going north for a visit with family on the weekend.  And then the return home mid August of W who is closing up the cottage early this year mostly I think because he is bored being on his own so much.  Well of course there’s more issues than that.  I wonder if he’s tried overdosing on chocolate.  Probably not. Sounds like something the night nurse might recommend.

Because Blueberries

It will always be a mystery to me why I have such an abundance of misplaced confidence in myself when it comes to any kind of food preparation.  Such optimism!  I wonder if this is how gamblers feel.  Play and play and play until finally you hit a jackpot and the amount of money you blew getting to that point is a forgotten and tiresome little detail.

I’m not going to dwell on food wastage because regret is stupid, right?  I admit I’ve had my share of culinary disappointments.  The experience is what’s important.  I’m just going to go with that.

Reasons why I decided to make this:

1. I have liked a lot of recipe pages on Facebook so my news feed includes quite an annoying number of pictures of things people have cooked or baked or fed to their dogs, who really knows the truth behind these things, and looking at them always makes me hungry.
2. Blueberries are good for you.
3. I am really tired of eggs for breakfast.
4. This recipe looked like an easy one in which to make healthier ingredient substitutions so that a diabetic person could eat some practically guilt free.

The original recipe is here.  I will also mention that I am more often than not sucked in by the claim “best ever”.

Here are the things I changed (yep, without testing the original):

1. I used frozen blueberries.
2. Truvia instead of sugar.
3. All purpose gluten free flour with 1/4 tsp xanthum gum.
4. Butter flavoured margarine instead of real butter.  Because if it flops, what a waste of butter.

It was in the oven at least 45 minutes to get to the bubbling stage, likely because the blueberries started out so cold.

The filling was a little watery, probably real sugar would have thickened it up more.  Maybe a little bit of cornstarch mixed in with the orange juice would help.  The orange juice gave the berries a wonderful tart taste.  I wonder how lemon juice would work?  And maybe some lemon zest in the batter?  This is why I end up never making the same thing twice.  The cobbler topping was slightly dry, but still good.  A possible remedy for that problem of course would be the ice cream the recipe so helpfully suggests.  But I don’t have any, and come on, it’s already a stretch to call this breakfast.

Artistic bonus – that pretty round swirly pattern on the edges of the pan, I assume from exploding fruit.

I’m going to call this a success.   It satisfied my craving for something sweet and got rid of a partial bag of frozen blueberries that were giving me a headache trying to decide how long they’d been in the freezer.  I guess you could say I don’t have extremely high standards.

And that’s probably a good thing. Happy Friday!

Sharing My World 69

 Early morning sunshine and shadow which prompted W to ask me what the hell I’m taking a picture of now.  

Share Your World May 1, 2017

Would you rather live where it is always hot or always cold?

No.  I would rather not live in either one of those places.  I would complain about the heat and people would tell me to move somewhere not so hot.  Then I would complain about the cold and people would suggest I shut up about it or move to a warmer climate.  People are weird that way.  Not sure why they can’t figure out I just like to complain.

I would prefer to live in a temperate zone with the occasional heavy rain, cold wind, hot day, chilly evening, dense morning fog.  But mostly blue skies and sunshine with those other things thrown in to offset the boredom and make me less complacent and more apt to appreciate the fair weather.  However,  no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  Or tornadoes.  Or mud.  A lot of mud would be a real deal breaker.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?

Long straight hippie hair was great when I had the face to go with it.  Medium length was great when I had the time and ambition to style it every day and turn up for work looking presentable and sort of half-assed put together.  Now hair that’s too long just drags my face down.  It’s already droopy enough on its own without help, so short and sweet is my preference these days.  I just don’t see the point in going through a lot of fussing about with it anymore.  Tell that to my high school self who spent five years of her life going to bed with rollers the size of frozen orange juice cans in her hair and then trying not to smile too much the next day because it would cause wrinkles. She probably wouldn’t laugh, but I sure am.

What is your favorite month of the year?

May is nice.  It has Mother’s Day and my birthday in it.  I’m also quite fond of July and August.  As long as there’s no volcanic eruptions or earthquakes or monsoons and the bugs leave me alone.

What is the easiest way for you to learn something new? By reading, by seeing and doing, in a classroom?

Definitely by seeing and doing.  I watched a towel folding video three times before attempting to make a bear shaped creation on my own.  I had no idea I was so dense and my towels were so incredibly stupid.  But I got it done.  That sucker is never going to be unfolded again while I live and breathe.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful it appears to be spring-like again after all the weather shenanigans we have dealt with this April.  W did spring cleanup of the lawn for a couple of days and then we watched the snow fall for many days and many nights after that.  We became reluctant to draw the curtains in the morning never knowing whether we would be facing a lawn mower or a snow blower day.  Typical April for us really, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it or not gripe about it.

I am looking forward to finding out if my Tiger Lily bulbs will survive a brutal uprooting and transplant from the back yard to the front flower bed where nothing grows except a big wild-looking thorny thing.  It might be some kind of berry bush, I can’t remember, but it’s very hardy and persistent and refuses to die so I quite like it.    The Tiger Lily bed was annoying to manoeuvre the lawn mower around so I got rid of it.  Yep.  Does not take much to piss me off.

And that is also the reason why I have had to wean myself gently away from the daily news.  Life is just too short to spend so many hours in a day wondering why about so many things.  SO MANY BIZARRE THINGS.  Where do you even start.  And how do you stop once you get started.

The good news is, there has been a marriage in our family!  I don’t know if I’m supposed to make that announcement because it’s not my story to tell, so I’ll just leave you all hanging about the details.  Except to say I’m very happy about it, so there you go. Don’t ask me any questions.  You know what happened to that flower bed.

I found it on Facebook.  Source of all good and worthwhile stuff.

Thanks Helen and Sue

Sixty Minute Workout

Today I was reminded why I no longer bother with a gym membership. Just thinking about it is exhausting.

Need a water break now?  I know, me too.

Just a Line

How to get rid of back pain, joints and legs in 7 days.

Please note: I did not actually read the article with this title on Facebook, so I am unable to enlighten you on what horrors the seven days have in store for you, should you decide that being joint-less and leg-less is for you.

The title was enough.  There are some things I don’t have to know.

for One-Liner Wednesday

Animals with joints and legs.

A Giraffe’s Coffee…

…and other serious stuff found on Facebook.

 

 

Wisdom on a Wednesday

These are from The Idealist page on Facebook. There’s a lot of seriously inspirational stuff there.  There’s also this.