Thought for the Day

“Friendship with oneself is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt
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THE PERFECT TIME TO PLAY

The other day, during our angel card reading practice night, a friend told me that I needed to stop and smell the flowers. I know I have been working very hard lately and trying to work my way through the pile of things before me. It has felt like there was one deadline after another and I was sitting here thinking I need to just stop and play for a while today. My friend Kerry asked me when I crocheted last and to be honest, I could not remember. How sad. I have books I could read, but by the time I stop, I am too tired to read. So I knew that I needed to claim the time this weekend to play. I had told myself I just wanted to do two more things for sure today: take time to journal (which I am doing now) and finish my piece on forgiveness for the newsletter, as it is the last thing I have to give Zoe for the newsletter which she will be finishing tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit”

― E.E. Cummings
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Inspiritual Song of the Week

If we remember the words of Bob Marley that there is one love and one heart, maybe we will remember how to all come together and feel all right! http://inspiritual.biz/inspiritual-song-of-the-week1/

Thought for the Day

“for once, you believed in yourself. you believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world.”

― Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon
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Spiritual Pasta

Growing up my mother taught me one way to make pasta. You boil the water, you put the pasta in for the time on the box, and then you drain it and pour the sauce over it. We won’t talk about her sauce here. The only time you did something different with the pasta was if you were making the boxed macaroni and cheese, in which case you added the powdered cheese, butter, and milk and stirred. That was how I was raised to think about pasta. My only other memories of my mother and pasta was when she was making a noodle kugel, but then she still made her egg noodles the same way or kasha varnikas in which she boiled the noodles and added them to the kasha. Overall, her basic approach was boil, drain, and use.

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Thought for the Day

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”

― Lao Tzu
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ACCEPT AND SEEK

Growing up, I remember my Bubby (Yiddish for grandmother), reminding me that there was a lesson hidden in everything I felt. Her advice was to accept the feeling and seek out the gift. This was true regardless of whether it was sadness, happiness, or something in between. She taught me to understand and see what I was feeling within the broader context of life. This was a lesson she taught me a few ways. One day, when I was sad she gave me a pinch of salt to eat. I remember needing to rinse my mouth out with water, for what seemed like forever. I had tried to spit it out; however, she would not let me. Later, she took the same amount of salt, sprinkled it on a burger, and had me eat it. As part of the burger, it tasted amazing and seemed to make the burger taste better. This lesson reminded me that everything is part of something bigger then what it appears to be.

I call this “game” my Bubby taught me, accept and seek.

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Thought for the Day

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.”

― Heath L. Buckmaster, Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale
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Thought for the Day

“I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'Well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.”

― Maya Angelou
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Hear the Sound of Soldier's Boots

New Poem from Guest Nina Ploetz!  http://inspiritual.biz/nina-ploetz/2014/5/25/hear-the-sound-of-soldiers-boots

Thought for the Day

“To say "I love you" one must know first how to say the "I".”

― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
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Give someone an affirmation

do you or someone you know need a monthly affirmation that randomly appears in their mailbox? Check out our affirmation card program - http://inspiritual.biz/inspiritual-cards/

What People are Saying about us

Read what others are saying about working and journeying with us. Feel free to add your own comments as well.
http://inspiritual.biz/guestbook/

LETTING GO AND LETTING GROW

Last night, during our living the five agreements group we began talking about Bryon Katie’s book “Loving What Is: Four Questions that will change your life.” For me, her “The Work” is similar to what Toltecs call stalking.  As I was sharing one of the stories about relationship from her book, I came to realize that I have to accept that my son is growing up. As much as he will always, in some respects, be my little boy. He, in reality, is now a 32 year old man who is developing his own way in the world and no longer needs to talk to me as often as he once did. I realized I have had to let go and let him grow. He will call when he needs to talk to me and I will call when I need to talk to him.

Nick came into my life when he was 10 and until recently he would call at least weekly. Now, he has entered this new phase in his life and calls about once a month or every other month

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Thought for the day

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are”

― Kurt Cobain
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thought for the day

“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.”

― Mark Twain
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Inspiritual Song of the week

the lyrics to this weeks song of the week mean the following:
Meaning:
Ra = sun energy
Ma = moon energy
Da = earth energy
Sa = infinity, universal energy
Sa (repeated)
Say = the personal embodiment of Sa
So = the personal sense of merger with Sa
Hung = the Infinite, vibrating and real
This mantra literally means: “I am Thou." It can also mean, "the service of God is within me.“
http://inspiritual.biz/inspiritual-song-of-the-week1/

Thought for the Day

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”

― Gautama Buddha
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The Monk of Bernie Lane

New Blog Post from Guest Contributor "The Monk of Bernie Lane" http://inspiritual.biz/monkonbernie-lane/2014/5/21/the-universe-inside-of-us-and-all-around-us

Thought for the day

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”

― Marilyn Monroe
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thought for the day

To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.”

– E. E. Cummings
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CHANGING PATTERNS

We all have ways of doing things in our life. Over time, they become patterns. For example, my family knows that my morning pattern once I wake up begins with my going to the bathroom, filling up my water glass, if it is not already filled from the night before, then doing my morning spiritual ritual – five things I am grateful, what is inspiring me, what my intention is for the day and taking a few minutes to reflect on the thought for the day. We all have patterns in our life.

Sometimes others become so accustomed to our patterns that out patterns become important to them as well. Some of the patterns in our life have been a part of our life for a long time; others are newly formed.

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Thought for the Day

“I found in my research that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent. They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. Most people have gotten it wrong because our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.”

 – Kristen Neff
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thought for the day

“Self-Acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship with myself.”

 – Nathaniel Branden
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Thought for the day

“It’s not your job to like me – it’s mine.”

– Byron Katie
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FILLING THE HOLE

This morning I was reading a devotional by Iyanla Vanzant about the holes in our life. She asked us to consider how or if we filled the holes. It got me thinking about all the holes I have experienced in my life and how you have helped me to climb out of them and then fill them with love and positive energy. It also got me thinking about all the lessons I have learned about myself in the process of climbing out of them.

One of the holes that I have been dealing with most recently was the hole that was created when I was five years old and had a traumatic experience while having blood drawn. I cannot remember how many times they tried to draw blood, but what I do remember was that with each failed attempt I became increasingly terrified, which made it even harder for them to draw the blood.

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Thought for the day

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

– Joseph Campbell
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Inspiritual Song of the Week

We all want to feel loved, so today know that you are loved. This is the theme for this week's song of the week. http://inspiritual.biz/inspiritual-song-of-the-week1/

Thought for the day

“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”

~ C. G. Jung
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Z is for Ziti

Whoo hoo! I am so excited that I have made it through the alphabet one more time. I am sure my fellow blogger Julia Fox is going to miss seeing me post each week, but I am not sure I am ready to do it a third time, well at least not yet. Blogging my way through the alphabet food wise has been fun and I have learned about some interesting dishes and foods along the way. Today, I am going to end with one of my favorite foods Ziti. Baked ziti, for me, is so comforting. It is not because it is something I grew up with fond childhood memories of, as my mom was not a good pasta cooker. Well, her pasta was fine, it was the sauce that was memorable and not in a good way.

Ziti like elbow macaroni and any pasta with a whole in the middle catches my attention because it provides a tunnel for all the sauce to travel in and through. When I get a tray of baked ziti with the sauce, sausage, and cheeses melted throughout, it just makes my mouth water

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Accept Help

As I look around the world I see so many people in need, but unable to ask for help. I also have become aware that I have gone through phases in my life when I have had trouble asking for help. There seems to be two reasons people have a hard time accepting help. One is that they think it is going to make them look week or vulnerable. The other is the illusion that people who appear to be successful in what they do, never ask for help.

Asking for help does not make one appear weak. Asking for help creates an atmosphere of environment. Asking for help not only creates an opportunity for others to feel blessed, but for people to empower themselves.

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NOTICING THE SIGNS

Dear Ultimate Consciousness,

Just wanted you to know I got the message. How many days in a row can I shuffle my angel cards for daily guidance and have the same card jump out at me. Literally, this card keeps jumping out of the deck – Notice the Signs. I thought I was pulling it for a friend the other day, but maybe it was really for me. I pulled it again yesterday and then again today. So I think I get the message I need to stop and notice the signs. Thank you for the reminder that I am surrounded by your loving guidance and that you have sent a circle of angels to guide, protect and love me.

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Y is for You

This morning while I was posting my thought for the day to my blog on WordPress, I came across this picture about self-acceptance. While the picture has nothing to do with food, other than counting calories or eating vegan, it has do with something important to one’s approach to cooking, food, and spirituality – YOU. After all, as the sign says we are all different. Our relationships with ourselves, Spirit, and food is not about others, but about us.

As I thought about this, I realized that one could re-create this about food.

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EEHH and DDNN

It seems that today we live in a day of acronyms LOL, ROTFLMAO, TTYL, CYA, etc. Sometimes we become so accustomed to them that we assume everyone knows what they are, until they let us know that they don’t. For example, the other day someone asked me what cya stood for; she thought I was saying cover your ass and thought that was a strange way to end a conversation. I meant I will see you later. So today, I thought I would introduce two of the acronyms I use in my own life. The first is EEHH.

EEHH means empty, empty, happy, happy. I learned a meditation from either the movie or book Eat Pray Love. I am not sure I remember which one. However, I love that as a meditational mantra because it reminds to me empty myself of all of my attachments to people and things.

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My Whale Story

This morning I awoke to a picture and a story a friend has posted on Facebook of a humpback whale. This is what it said:

A female humpback whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

This is her story of giving gratitude.

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X IS FOR XAVIER SUPPE

X was a challenge for me the last time I was blogging my way through the alphabet and this time was no exception. I had originally thought xanthum gum, which is normally thought of as a gluten free additive which can be used as a thickener. However, it was not resonating with my spirit and since that is what this blog is all about, it was just not going to happen. Then, in my research on X foods, I stumbled upon Xavier Suppe, which is Italian for Xavier Soup. It is a traditional Italian recipe, normally made in December for the Feast of Saint Xavier. It is a classic chicken and vegetable soup with flour and baked Parmesan cheese dumplings served garnished with parsley and chervil. Perhaps that is why it resonated with my spirit; it looks like and reminds me of my mother’s chicken soup with matzo balls, Italian style.

Learning about this soup, made me want to know something about the person it was named after Frances Xavier was a Roman Catholic missionary and one of the founding members of the Society of Jesus, more commonly referred to as Jesuits. 

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