LISTENING

Never speak with your mouth full,
my mother would say.
there is a time to speak and
a time to listen.
A time to hear and
a time to be heard
There is a time to eat and
a time to speak.

Learning to find balance
in our conversations with others
is about respect and honor.
It is about recognizing that
we each have something to say
and creating space for all to speak
and be heard.

It is more than just not speaking,
it is also about listening.
It is about hearing what is said and
not thinking about what we want to say next.
It is about learning to be okay
with moments of silence
as we process and reflect
before speaking

May we take the time to listen,
to think,
to speak,
and to create balance
in our conversations

Y IS FOR YOGURT AND GRANOLA PARFAIT

I love this recipe for a few reasons. It is simple, yummy, and balanced. Even though I work at home, I do not always have or take the time to make a well-balanced breakfast. What I love is that in just a few minutes I can grab some of the granola I premade, some berries out of the refrigerator and some Greek Yogurt and I have a great breakfast filled with protein and fiber, I can eat while I am working and sipping my morning cup of coffee.

The other thing I like about this is that with the Make and Take Snack Jar I have portion control at breakfast, which is one of those skills I need to work on in my life. I also have a balance of protein and fiber and I do not need to worry about what is really in my granola a I made it myself.

Making my own parfaits reminds me to maintain balance in my life, to make time for what is important, and not take on more than I need in my life. If you want to make these, here is the link https://www.pamperedchef.com/pws/sharonjacobson/recipe/Appetizers+%26+Snacks/Healthy/Yogurt+%26+Granola+Parfait/1113008 and you can find the Make and Take Snack Jars at https://pamperedchef.biz/sharonjacobson

DANCING WITH GOD

Life is like a dance.
God is my partner.
God makes suggestions
and I respond
it is a conversation
between the two of us
which is all about us

God is skilled,
if I have faith
then I do not have to guess
I just have to follow.

God’s timing is perfect.
so I just have to follow,
without doubt,
without fear,
without the desire to
change the dance.

Dancing with God
is about trust.
It is about
releasing anticipation.
It is about moving with
and matching the movements.
it is about maintaining balance
in my relationship with God

It is about following the signals
which God is giving me.
It is also about knowing that
God never forces me to follow.
That choice is always up to me.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Keep yourself in tune and balanced

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Are you balanced? If not, then we are contributing to the global imbalance

MICROWAVE GRIP SET

No recipes this week. I was talking to a friend of mine, trying to quiet my mind so I could hear what I was supposed to blog about. There have been days that my life has felt like a hot dish in a microwave, as I have tried to get through a rapidly increasing number of projects and tasks in a very short amount of time.  

Sometimes managing your life can look much simpler then it is. As a friend of mine said this morning, “I cannot explain how hard it is to get a hot bowl over of the microwave. One day, I swear, I’m going to drop one.” We all have those phases in our life when what should be a simple thing, tend to become complicated, because our “dish” has become overheated with demands.

Maybe that is why the Microwave Grip Set spoke to me this morning. To use them all you have to do is slip them over your fingertips and thumbs before you take a hot dish out of the microwave. The raised bumps and ridges give you a secure hold, and your hands stay safe from the heat. The grips are easy to wipe clean, or you can run them through the dishwasher

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KITTY LESSONS

So today I want to thank you for the lessons that Dr. Wally and Mr Mittens have tried to teach me. Some of them I have mastered more then others, but at least they have tried. So thank you for sending them into my life. So here goes.

Lesson #1 – Never be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Mr Mittens has taught me to be willing to explore what is on the other side of my comfort zone. He always tries to get through the doors that are closed and when he senses it is not where he needs to be he leaves and if he really likes it, then he stays. He has taught me a similar message to what I am reading about now in Kyle Cease’s book I Hope I Screw This Up. It is the same message my Bubby used to tell me, “She who fails to fail, fails to succeed.”

Lesson #2 – Take a nap. Cats seem to do this so well. Whenever they are tired, they sleep, which with them is about 16 hours a day. Working at home, I have the luxury of taking a nap when I really need one. Sometimes it is the way for me to quiet my brain so I can hear your ideas and inspiration coming to me. Sometimes it is just that my brain and body need a break.  Even you took a rest from creating, so I should too.

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TOPSY TURVY CAKEOLOGY

Hard to believe it has been almost a year since I have blogged here. For the last year, I have been praying about whether or not to continue with this blog. I had been praying for guidance about whether or not to restart. This past week, I was contacted out of the blue by a food site called Chew the World. They wrote a blog called The Definite Guide to Spaghetti Squash. While doing research on the topic they had run across a blog on Spaghetti Squash Spirituality I wrote over a year ago. We chose to help make each other’s work visible. Even though I was not included in their guide on how to cook it, to have my work recognized and shared by another food blogger inspired me to think about writing about the spiritual lessons from food again.

It was this connection with Chew the World that inspired my writing again this week. Their most recent blog was about How To Make A Topsy Turvy Cake The Easy Way. I am not sure if you have ever seen one of these cakes but they look amazing and like they are so difficult to make as if layer tilts at a different angle. The secret they point out is having the right equipment,

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LACKING ENTHUSIASM

This morning I was seeking inspiration and came across this blog about dogs who are not enthusiastic eaters. I had to laugh because the only time I had known a dog who did not eat with enthusiasm was when they were sick. However, as I read this piece I realized that a lot of her advice had to do with people as well personally and spiritually. So today, I am trying something a bit different and my responses to her are in italics.

Most dogs are eager eaters. You’d be hard-pressed to find a dog that actually knows how to chew.

However, there are some dogs who don’t eat well. Some are finicky about what foods they eat while others are just less than enthusiastic about the whole experience. There are temporary circumstances when your dog’s appetite may suffer and that includes vaccinations, illnesses, changes in the household, changes in his normal routine or travel. But these are usually short lived decreases in his appetite that will return to normal without much delay.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

P.E.A.C.E.

Recently, I was rereading a reflection by Iyanla Vanzant and she listed Peace as an acronym for Please Excuse All Crazy Experiences. We all have “crazy” experiences in our lives. By “crazy” I mean anything which causes us to be extremely enthusiastic or extremely angry, irritated, frustrated, agitated etc. Crazy can include all those experiences that take us to the extreme from being crazy about shoes (i.e. I know someone that has over 300 pairs of shoes and keeps buying them) to that place of extreme agitation and anger where one is in need of therapeutic care to help restore balance. Sometimes we have those experiences in our life, which can easily pull us off balance and make us feel “crazy”, such as pain, anger, loneliness, being tired, hunger, and sickness. I know when I am extremely tired, due to the lack of sleep I am experiencing, I have to work intentionally at staying focused and centered and am constantly asking the Ultimate to give me energy to balance out my tired.

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SCALLOPS SENSE

The other night I was watching a rerun of an episode of Chopped where they had amateur home cooks competing on the show. In the first round, the contestants were given amongst other ingredients scallops in a shell. One of the contestants was unfamiliar with how to deal with scallops in a shell. To be honest, most of the time when I get scallops they have already been cleaned and shelled. So, had I not taken the time to learn about this I may not have even known that they come in shell, but they do. While they are not as difficult to open as other shelled mollusks, they do need to be opened and cleaned before preparation. Besides having the sand and grit washed off them, the various organs such as the liver, abductor muscle, and sex organs need to be removed. Then and only then they can be baked, broiled, fried, or prepared in some other way.

Scallops are one of those foods that are not only healthy to eat, but they are powerful spiritually. Eating scallops is like any information that life presents us. There are some things that need to be removed and some things which need to be washed off before we can even consider ingesting them and making them part of our internal belief system.

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