…and then i made a map

hey 2010, i think you’ve discovered what you’re all about.

[via: Daily Paris]

And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

//mary oliver

lcyhrty

Upon further analysis, I’ve decided to spend some time using tumblr as my medium for blogging. I like the mixed media emphasis and think the format is fitting for the kinds of things I enjoy sharing. So… yeah.

This is where I will be for a while.

words with friends

i spent the day with south korea and boston and felt some relief in the middle of here.

i miss these girls and being able to share our experiences which so often mirror one another’s. sure we all may go about things… um, incredibly differently, but sometimes we tell the same story with different characters.

i rarely use this space these days, but as i see the long, archived list to my left i know it is good to occasionally visit the past and to presently share the now and also the hopes for the not yet. there are so many stories held here and i want to remember to add a few more this year. i have a feeling there will be a few for the books.

[or at least some for south korea and boston]

Another Round

God of the seasons, Lover of the ages, Master of every moment: You who are beyond time yet within all time. We return to you what you have given to us — the moments, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, and the year of 2009. Time has been gracious to us again, and we thank you for freely giving us these human bodies, these events, and these relationships. We have lived another year and we have died another year, and now you are granting us the beginnings of another. We now hand over to you the blessed year, 2009, with all that it gave us and all that it took from us, knowing that both are necessary, just like our breath. We trust you in both the givings and the takings, the inhalings and the exhalings. May every breath of 2010 be a breath of the Holy Spirit, joyfully received and joyfully returned, beginning with this one right now. Amen. /Richard Rohr

knowing is love and love Is

what do you mean by “know’?

what we mean by know is… the deeper kinds of truth… more like “knowing” a person- something which takes a long time, a lot of trust, and a good deal of trial and error- and less like knowing about the right bus to take into town. It’s a kind of knowing in which the subject and the object are intertwined, so that you could never say that it was either purely subjective or purely objective.

one good word for this deeper and richer kind of knowing, the kind that goes with the deeper and richer kind of truth, is “love”. but before we can get to that we must take a deep breath and plunge into the center of the story… we must begin to talk about God. which is like saying we must learn to stare at the sun. -nt wright

//

Just look at things as they are, and see what’s real and see what’s unreal

All I Wanted Is To Be Good

Question of the Day//Richard Rohr

Whom or what do I need to include?

Jesus was consistently inclusive. And yet, I think most people’s estimation of most Christian denominations is that they are largely exclusionary institutions, who define themselves by who they are not, and what they do not agree with. One is never sure if they have actually found anything positive or loveable.

Even the Eucharist itself is used, at least in my Catholic Church, to define the worthy, the pure, and the true members. But every time Jesus eats, he seems to be eating with the wrong people, at the wrong table, or saying the wrong things, or not washing his hands ahead of time. By doing so, Jesus redid the social order and this upset both religion and state. That we would forget such a message and make the Eucharist itself some kind of measuring of worthiness or understanding (who really understands?) is pretty much turning Jesus on his head. Apparently, he changed most of his lived policies after the resurrection.

I haven’t posted on this kind of Thing in a while. For my closest friends, they know I’ve kind of wandered around in imaginary places where no one chooses sides, no one has a destination pre-destined, where love is much louder than fear or hate. I don’t say this as if these things aren’t possible… I just say it because what I imagine isn’t always bridled with reality or tested in any way. But, I don’t apologize for wanting these things to be true. I think its the sum of who I am that longs for these things to be true somehow. The same person who from the age of 14 got her first teen bible and basically carried it around like her purse… to the person who 11 years later [WHAT?], isn’t exactly sure where her Bible[s] is/are. I still want these things to be true, I think everything I’ve ever learned has brought me to this place of a longing for inclusivity.

Oh, yes, there is one of my bibles right there in the corner of my room.

I love the paradox of Jesus. I love the confusion he brought to the culture He was within. I love the ability He had to pierce directly through the questions a person voiced to the interior battle people thought they were hiding pretty darn well from everyone around them… even from themselves.

I love that even today, the example of Jesus is one people still can’t quite articulate. Maybe its my love of the in-between, not looking for what’s wrong or right, the side to place myself upon. I love how He did it and how no one can completely claim they’ve systematized Jesus’ words and life into the correct theological orthodoxy. [I didn’t say people haven’t tried to claim this… but I won’t go there.]

Loving things about Him isn’t necessarily the same as loving Him, is it? I know I’ve loved Him. But over the past few years I think my love has changed its form. I don’t really know what to do with this and I am not quite sure why I am sharing this, but its where I find myself right now… feeling like I am doing a lot of the “wrong things.”

Richard Rohr will always be someone who, like Jesus, breaks through the exterior to make you look at what’s really going on. Because something else always is.

vegan mofo survey

I love quizzes and food, so why not join in the fun of Vegan Mofo?

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Unsweetened Rice Milk

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Pumpkin Brownies, Butternut squash pizza, Vegan French Toast…

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
I actually don’t eat it much anymore… it kinda kills my stomach for some reason. If I do, maybe lightly salted or with cinnamon and sugar.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Pumpkin Brownies round one last fall. Disgusting. Veganizing brownies is a bit of work.

5. Favorite pickled item?
I don’t eat anything pickled. Not my thing!

6. How do you organize your recipes?
With a tab in my Safari browser 🙂 That’s it.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
All of the above. We compost at work so I sometimes take things there. I recycle at home but definitely use the trash for things I can be lazy about on occasion.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Watermelon, Bananas, Peanut Butter

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
When my mom would make us pancakes, my brother and i always looked forward to her mickey mouse creations or having our names spelled out. Now that I can make my own, its funny how hard I thought this was back then. 🙂

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Store: Coconut Bliss Chocolate… and Stogo [in NYC] has amazing vegan ice cream as well.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
My food processor.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Cinnamon and Cumin [can’t pick one]

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Ha. I bought myself my first cookbook a year and a half ago by Mark Bittman called “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.” Yes, I was 24 before I got my first cookbook. I’ve added to this, obviously, but I still prefer online databases like Epicurious, The PPK, Tastespotting, or various vegan food blogs.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
You know, I can’t even remember the last time I bought jam. Blackberry or Strawberry.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Black Bean and Quinoa Tacos [dinner] or one of my scone recipes

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tempeh, actually. I can cook with it better than tofu… I just tried seitan and its good, but the texture is really a bit strange if I think about it too much.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Sunday Mornings are my absolute favorite. Its the first of two days I get to actually make myself french pressed coffee and breakfast. Every other day I am doing this for other people and I really, really look forward to doing it for myself. I love cooking breakfast!

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Nothing really. A cabinet is above which makes the top difficult to use for any type of storage.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Frozen blueberries, Ezekiel bread, Frozen homemade cookie dough

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Greens, Olive Oil, Apples

21. Favorite grocery store?
I love Whole Foods [I worked there once] but I rarely can just get what I plan for… I am a new convert to farmer’s markets though… and really, I just determine what’s the most inexpensive and/or most local and base my choices on those factors. So you may find me at Kroger or Trader Joe’s as well.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

French Toast….. tomorrow.

23. Food blog you read the most.
I love Happy Herbivore. Lindsay’s recipes never disappoint. They are very healthy and are not expensive to recreate. I have several I read, though. If you want links let me know!

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

I don’t really care about candy that much… I do love dark chocolate. Apparently there is a dark chocolate with fig by Theo and I am on the hunt for it!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
I try not to get anything extravagant, but occasionally I will get Coconut Bliss icecream. I want to cook with coconut oil but can’t quite bring myself to buy it. I also have a new addiction to Perrier or San Pellegrino that I really need to stop. But this isn’t technically a food item.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
Beets, Silken tofu, seitan… and I am sure there are others.

then, now, now, then