'To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings'
Some words are like a balm to the soul. Today I hope something you read
(somewhere I mean, not just here! :)) holds you like you need to be held.
<3 <3 <3
Reading corner
Everything is waiting for you
by David Whyte
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things to come,
the doors have always been there to
frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
(Source: https://onbeing.org/blog/david-whyte-everything-is-waiting-for-you/ where you can also listen to the poem being read)
Healing notes
The first question my therapist asks me every time I meet her is, "How are you?" It is such a gentle opening question. I find it loaded to be honest and gets me wired up. I always respond, often quickly and surely, "I am okay." She waits for me to settle down and the rest of the hour with her probably gives her the more detailed answer of how I am actually doing and how my past few weeks have been. I don't think I am lying when I say I am okay. Though what I say in the hour is not a lie either. It makes me wonder about this question though, "How are you?" It is almost a common courtesy to ask each other this question. I have gotten into a habit of replying a particular way. Not because I mean to be rude. But I often feel I am not ready and/or they are not prepared for the detailed response.
I suppose it is okay to leave the detailed response out of it. Yet, the question is asked by many. So, how does one (I am mostly thinking out loud) authentically respond to this question. I know I ask it and I receive some authentic responses.
I have been thinking even more about this as I read 'Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine' by Gail Honeymoon. The title gives you a hint to part of the reason for my pondering but she wonders about the question herself in the book. “If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn't spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say.”
It just had me thinking how do you respond when you are asked, "how are you?"
Do you think it has anything to do with how we relate to each other? How we reach out to one another? Or is it just, a common courtesy? A habit?
Food experiments
I first discovered this dish through my sister, the original baker, who I mocked mercilessly about it 'so posh'. But when I ate it in a restaurant turns out it was pretty yummy. Since then I have been making versions of this and storing for months. It is quick, delicious and a dessert or a breakfast depending on what you put in it and how you like to eat it. Traditionally, the chia seed pudding has milk in it. On the lactose free diet, I had to use Almond milk or coconut milk, which I have been avoiding off late unless in my baking. So often my fridge is not stocked with it (also it is a bit expensive). I thought it would be a fun experiment to try it with yogurt!
Chocolate chia seed pudding
Cocoa powder
Chia seeds
Yogurt
Walnuts
Chocolate sauce
Fruits if you want - Bananas, strawberries.
Add water to the yogurt and make it a slightly watery mixture but not too watery. Add cocoa powder depending on your liking - dark, light, extra dark. I rarely add sugar to it. But you can add if you prefer it to be a little sweet. Add 2-3 tablespoons of chia seeds. The proportions are roughly 200 ml of the mixture to the 2-3 tablespoons. Mix properly. Put in the fridge for the chia seeds to expand for a few hours, say 3-4 hours.
I usually make it in the night and eat it for breakfast. In this heat it makes a nice cool breakfast.
Remove in the morning and add cut up fruits, walnuts. Add chocolate sauce on top. Serve! By which I mean, eat with a spoon :)
During the strawberry season, I made a lot of strawberry chia seed puddings with strawberry toppings. Basically anything strawberry for me. So most flavours work work and fruiter the better :)
Happy eating!
Dear you,
I hope you have been having a good few weeks with lots of mangoes and litchees. I clearly like a lot of fruits. But I hear they are good for you and all that.
Love, kindness and warmth,
Nidsitis
'I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: Am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?' - Rainer Maria Rilke