the healthy bachelor cookbook, lego pictures, plants

I should just take some of those lego pictures that me and Suzannah created together for this post: 

Time to water the plants. Or finish watering them. Suzannah has collected enough to make parts of our house feel a bit like a greenhouse, 

which is nice, but makes watering take like an hour, if I'm being careful to water enough to soak through, but not so much as to spill over the saucers onto the floor.

I really like having a place for everything and everything in its place. I've been slowly working towards that, room by room, and when it is done, it feels great, and looks good. (no pictures on that because it's not done.)

I've been slowly learning to make more dishes. Last night, I made an asian sauteed vegetables and tofu dish in a mandarin orange sauce. It's pretty good!

I've even tried learning how to make salmon, though I don't eat it, to earn brownie husband points. I'm still not confident on cooking it correctly though, and I don't want to eat it, so it's harder to test it for not being overcooked.

I need to broaden my repertoire though. I've only got a few dishes for now, though I'm learning how to improvise on them with what I've got on hand. One of the problems is I'm so slow, it takes me like twice as long as a normal person to cook things. I like to wash my vegetables well, so that takes longer, and I'm not a fast chopper, though I also don't cut myself very often. I also can't multitask well, especially if it's a dish I'm just learning. All that adds up to a lot of time. It means I have to make enough for at least a second meal, if not a third, to make it worthwhile, which adds even more time. Hopefully I'll get faster as I continue to learn/practice.

I need a very specialized kind of cookbook, something that focuses on quick and easy to make meals, while also being tasty and healthy. So many recipes have so many extra, little finicky steps that make things take forever without adding that much to the dish. And don't explain why they are doing what they're doing, or how things can be modified. It makes it less useful. I want dishes that teach general principles that can be used universally, and modified, for example with different sauces, to give variety while not having to learn a whole new dish. And the principles behind the dishes, so I can get better at improvising. Also, vegetarian. Maybe I make this cookbook? I've already called my healthy but as simple and quick as possible philosophy "healthy bachelor cooking" so I guess that could be the name of it. Though I'm certainly not a bachelor anymore.

OK, I've rambled enough, and it's getting late. I'll probably see most of the people (which I estimate at 3) who read this, in a few days, so I can catch up more then. Though I technically have another post due in a day or two. I bet I'll have more to write about when I'm fresher, some time in the morning.

Warmly,

I

Thanksgiving in Boston, almost done with papers for the semester, yearly review approaching.

Quick one.

One more paper to write and I'm done for the semester! (except for the in-person residency dec 6th-11th). It's due this Sunday, but I'm busy all weekend with other stuff, so I've basically got to finish it tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I also basically have to pack tomorrow, for the same reasons.

Heading to Boston and the east coast for Thanksgiving.

Loving my cozy fireplace and using it lots. I no longer want to be in any other part of the house when it's cold out :D

Also enjoying my "legos for adults" sets that I've made with Suzannah. I should post some pictures of them, they're quite cute, and thematically relevant.

Once I'm done with school stuff, I've got to think about what I want to do with the rest of that time! Definitely some fun and some cozy time. But also I'd love to do some cleaning and organizing. And maybe some deeper reflecting, yearly review style. What are the goals that are really important to me? I'm getting more comfortable with my own finitude, and what that means is I have to be picky with what I put  my time into. And there are some things (like being creative) that are definitely worth putting my time into, but that I haven't been putting my time into, because I've been thinking "I'll get to it later, after I get all this less important stuff out of the way."

But I now don't think that's how it works. There will always be less important stuff in the way, you just need to press on, regardless, and make time for those important things.

Also, somewhat unrelated: sleep. Going to bed early, waking up early. I love doing that, but I haven't been. I've been more rested, but I haven't been getting up early. Or going to bed early (not super late either, but not early.) That's been a thing for me for a long time. But I've always mishandled it, being either too lax, or too hard on myself. I need a synthesis, that is both gentle on myself, and rigorous.

OK, I'll stop for now, since I've got another one to write to catch up.

Love, Unity, Peace. Pumpkins.

 I have a few more pictures to share, so I'll start with that:

My Shiva pumpkin with a strange top (I couldn't tell you a specific reason I cut it that way, it just seemed like a cool idea. I can confirm, it was quite satisfying to fit the three prongs into place, kind of like a giant key fitting into a lock.) In any case, I think it came out quite well.

Next up, our cats are getting cuddly due to the cold weather. This morning Reiko just wanted to curl up in my lap and periodically look up into my eyes while I pet her, purring like a gentle motor. It's easy practice for loving the God present in another. No words to distract, no emotional baggage, just simple affection. 

I like to take these moments to practice gratitude, and think about how the Creator is present in each of his(/her) creations, and to love and cherish and treat them with kindness, is to treat God with kindness. I think when we consciously remember to see the God in others, it uplifts them as well. It's like the Pygmalion effect, which I was introduced to and had illustrated to me in my teaching. If a teacher thinks a student is especially bright, they perform especially well. Same is true, unfortunately, if the teacher thinks they are not bright, or a trouble-maker. We all contain multitudes, and whichever facit we put our attention on, in others, is what we tend to enhance and strengthen, in those others.

And, perhaps an even deeper lesson, is we enhance those qualities we see, in ourselves as well. Thus it behooves us to see the best we can, in all those around us. (while avoiding being pollyanna and gullible, of course.)

And even further, others see us, and if they see us talking and thinking poorly about others, they assume we are doing that about them as well. To criticise is to throw mud on yourself. Or perhaps you could think of it as getting mud on yourself, when you attempt to throw it at someone else.

I could probably say something about this current election (or most elections, really) but I will refrain. My prayer is for peace and understanding among all of us, and a reaching of hands across the alienating and darkness filled divides that separate people from each other. We are all trying to do our best, we all have reasons for our feelings, our choices, and if we could only find each other in a meeting of minds and hearts, our unity could bring about positive change, even if we continued to hold differing views. The division and hatred weakens us, diminishes us, makes us more vulnerable to manipulation by bad actors. 

I know it's terribly hard, but the way out is through love, understanding, and peace, while holding to what our conscious tells us is right (not convenient or easy, but right.) And that is different than what hatred or fear tells us we should do. An example of one man doing this sucessfully, here.

In my recent readings, I came across a cool question, for guiding one's actions, it's something like this, "does this diminish or expand me?"

All the best, and I hope you find peace and love and good people to support you in this stressful time.

-Isaac

Fire, leaves, play

Coming up for air, and that means a blog. Or two, in this case.

I'll just give a few quick impressions, for this post:

Playing 'catch the leaf' as the wind blows them off the trees.

(This is a picture of all the leaves I caught during a particularly fruitful walk.)

Reveling in the fall colors.

Starting my first indoor fire in a fireplace (at least as far as I can remember)

I had no idea how much I enjoy creating, having, and tending a fire until I did this. It's absolutely magical. And especially nice as the fireplace insert makes burning wood actually energy efficient and not bad for the environment (it burns up most of the bad stuff that comes out in the smoke). And safe and mostly not smoky. I'm a convert.

As a side note, it's interesting, how 'magical' is one of my favorit words for something I really enjoy. I think that says something about me and what I like. It's true: I quite like magic.

Lots of things to enjoy in this fall season. Continuing to be deeply grateful for the extra time I have due to taking classes a bit slower. It just makes everything better.

I'm thinking about how I'd like to have a habit of being creative every day. That free-flowing creativity I've experienced with a few of my favorite teachers, have been some of my favorite times in my life. So why am I not doing more of it? Haven't yet figured out how I want to incorporate that without making myself super busy again, but I think I'm going to give it a try some time soon.

Alright, see you in a second with a second post ;-)