My quiet space

For years now, I've made it a point to dedicate a corner of my bedroom to be a quiet space that is all my own. In that corner is an altar, my most sacred of spaces. I often sit at that altar and do Tarot readings, relying on my intuition and insight to bring life to the cards spread before me. Sometimes I light a special bundle of dried sage and smudge, or cleanse, myself with its perfumed smoke. Other times I light Nag Champa, my favorite incense, and just relish the process of quieting my mind.

Lately though, as I alluded to in my last post, peace of both mind and spirit have been elusive. I have my altar, equipped as it is with tools and candles and incenses, readily available for me ... yet I haven't made the time for it. For months now, I have been a stranger to my Quan Yin statue, my Tibetan singing bowl, my Tarot decks, and my many and varied candle votives. A place that normally brings such a sense of peace has suddenly become a burden, a drain on time that I just couldn't be bothered to spare anymore.

In the past few weeks, my wife has patiently prodded me towards it, sometimes going so far as to refuse to let me into bed until I've meditated - for as long or short a time as I deemed fit.

As the weeks have rolled on, my time at my altar has become just that: my time. My time to quiet myself before bed. My time to reflect upon my day. My time to just sit with the Goddess and be. I relish it. I crave it. I can hardly wait for my time to come around. I never put a time-frame on it; even five minutes of quiet reflection is time well spent. But lately? Lately I have been dedicating more and more time to my meditation.

Something Merry, my wife, said made me pause: When I am at peace with myself, it rubs off on her. Everyone around her notices - in the time that she has known me, she has been more at peace with herself than she ever has been before.

It is said that when a Chakra, or energy center in the Auric field of a person, is out of alignment, the attributes of that Chakra become skewed. Take, for instance, the Throat Chakra: balanced, it represents being able to speak your truth, boldly but still retaining that tenderness that knows when it is the right time and the right place to do so. Skewed, your voice becomes either too timid or too brash, both of which are ineffective ways of expressing the Self.

I have been skewing my gift - instead of simply bringing peace along with me to a situation or relationship, I have been trying to be a peace maker, attempting to force peace to flow into a situation about which I feel I have no control. I realized during meditation the other night that I need to release my need to be in control. It is only then that my natural gifts can flow freely and bless myself and those around me.


Those are my musings for the evening.

Blessed be.

My lover, my love.

As I lay here in bed, my wife snoring gently beside me, my thoughts turn to the past weeks, and I am filled with an overwhelming feeling of contentment.

The past few weeks have been tumultuous to say the least. Many aspects of my life have seemed to be in a constant state of upheaval and I haven't known what to do about it. I've lost my usual zen attitude, and frankly I'm none too pleased about it.

I've slowly been getting my groove back, thanks in no small part to my wife. She has a large heart, and a huge capacity for compassion and love. She has been supportive not only through the mundane (my vegetarian aspirations), but also through my search for peace and sense of self.

I cannot say it enough - I love and appreciate my wife. Every day is a new adventure with her, a fresh start with every sunrise.

You have my heart and devotion, dear one.

Forever yours,
K.

Various and sundry updates

Hello, my name is Kathryn and I am addicted to juicing without a juicer.

It has been, oh, 7 hours since my last juice fix and I'm already craving MOAR! Today I made Apple / Pear juice and LOVED it. It was crisp and refreshing - perfect for a morning pick-me-up.

I'm finding that as I cut back on my coffee intake, I crash less during the course of the day. Juices and teas are turning out to be a great way to help the waking-up process.

Visiting coffee houses during the week is a social ritual for me, so instead of cutting out the visits, I'm changing what I imbibe while there. I'm trying to remove milk from my diet completely, so I'm doing a lot of creative substitutions and really enjoying the challenge ... and the change. My body feels less "icky" after eating a bowl of cereal with Almond Mylk than how it feels after consuming cow's milk.

I bought a book - How to Become Vegetarian for Dummies - and am really enjoying it so far. I bought it because I (rightly) assumed that it'd have great information on the mechanics of nutrition, all in one place.

I also cooked a vegetarian stir-fry, and will post pictures of it soon!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I love my Wife

I came home a little late this evening. If it hasn't been in the news elsewhere, Dallas / North Texas was hit by a snowstorm the likes of which have not been seen in some time. This translates into slower driving times, because as anyone in the South knows, Texas drivers are made more stupid by the presence of inclement weather of any kind, not even counting the level of cold-i-tude and general icy-ness that has blanketed the place for the past several days.

My darling Wife has been so supportive throughout this entire endeavour, and I so appreciate her. But tonight she did something super-special:

As soon as my key was in the door, my beautiful Wife was in the kitchen, busily making me only the most delicious salad EVAR. It had ...

• lettuce
• one whole tomato
• half a large-ish cucumber
• a pinch or two of canned roasted red pepper strips
• and a smattering chopped yellow onion

I was tired, and the last thing I wanted to do was to make dinner for everyone tonight like I normally do. It took all of 5 minutes to toss together such a lovely salad, but it made me feel like a queen. My love, I thank the Goddess every day that she made sure you're in my life. As Valentine's day draws near, know that you're in my heart, now and always.

Thank you for tonight.

XOXO
Kathryn

Also, MOAR JUICE

Yes. I made MOAR.

I am in love with how simple juicing without a juicer has turned out to be!

Behold, the beauty that is ...

Grapefruit / Blood Orange Juice

I used ...

• one whole Texas Red Grapefruit
• one whole Blood Orange
• four pieces of ice

... blended it all together in my Handy-Dandy Food Processor, strained it through a paint-straining bag, and ... VOILA! Juice of the most delicious kind! 

A belated update

I did it!

I cooked a vegetarian meal!

And I was especially proud of myself - I economized. I only purchased two special ingredients for it! I had everything else on hand!

I sat down and thought, "What can I make with what I have?" And I came up with ...

THIS!

Rice without cheese
 
I cooked Basmati rice in vegetable broth, tossed in sauteed onions and sun dried tomato bruschetta, and topped it with lots of mozzarella cheese and called it a day well conquered.

Rice smothered in cheese

I made JUICE

and it is FANTASTIC!

I used this recipe from {gone raw DOT com}, a truly wonderful resource, both for its RAW recipes and for its forum community.

The recipe had only three ingredients, most of which I had on hand -

• 1 apple
• 2 peaches
• half a can of pineapple with its juice

It called for fresh pineapple, but because I'm on a tight budget, I used the canned variety that I had on hand. I found it to be extra handy, since it had the juice and all.


It's so smooth and light! Delightfully refreshing and tingly on my tastebuds! And all I needed was my food processor and a paint-straining bag-thing! It took all of 5 minutes to prepare the fruit, blend, and strain, leaving me plenty of time to enjoy!

This healthy eating thing is just so darn novel, I can't get over it!

Watch out for my post later this evening (or in the morning), for I am preparing a Vegetarian meal, as promised!

Bananas and I ...

... don't seem to get along.

I have a love/hate relationship with 'nanners. I love them, they hate me! It's happened a few times - I eat a banana, and then have to run to the bathroom to allow it a hasty exit, stage left. It sours my stomach, usually very suddenly, and I have the uncontrollable urge to hurl.

I (foolishly) tentatively tried one again today. I needed a quick pick-me-up. My sugars were low, and I didn't want to make a sandwich. My roommate's bananas called to me quite beguilingly, only to prove once and for all, that bananas are not for me.

So I made my first bowl of cereal with Almond Mylk instead of Milk-milk. I was a bit trepidatious, as milk often has the same violently disasterous result with my stomach chemistry that bananas do, but ...

It. was. delicious!

And my stomach is calm as ... something that is very calm!

Now I'm off to conquer my day-off from work. I recently found out from Bitt of Raw that I can make juice using only a Blender! So I'm off to Home Depot for to buy some paint-straining bags. I want to experiment with juices before I try a juice fast next week that I was inspired to do after reading Raw Goddess Healthy's post.

Toodles!