Jul 5 2013
Thought of the Day – 5 July
Comfort Food & The Good Life
Cooking for Comfort
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so entwined that we cannot think of one without the other” ~ M. F. K. Fisher
Comfort Food: Quirky. A matter of personal taste. A matter of personal memories taken from specific events, smells or sounds from our past. All of these things have the ability to transport us back to a part in our lives that sometimes hold fond memories, sometimes from difficult times. No matter what the memory or reason, Comfort Food plays a part in our lives and has a part in our futures
“Comfort food is hearty. When hearts are heavy, they need gravitational and emotional equilibrium: meat loaf and mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, chicken pot pie, red beans and rice, creamy risotto. Food that reassures us that we will survive. With such sustenance we can keep on going, especially when we don’t want to take another step. Soul food takes us back to our roots, nursery food tucks us into bed, and chocolate alters consciousness. Different foods for different moods” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach – Simple Abundance
The Good Life and Comfort Food are closely linked and go hand in hand together
Scott and Helen Nearing, Inventive visionaries determined to create a completely self-sufficient lifestyle that was solely dependent on their wits, hard work and perseverance, went in search of the good life: “Simplicity, freedom from anxiety . . . an opportunity to be useful and live harmoniously” Two decades later they had succeeded and wrote a homesteading handbook entitled Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World. First published in 1954, it took until 1970 when it was finally published as a paperback that it became a best-seller
At the age of 91, Helen Nearing shares her moving memoir, Loving and Leaving the Good Life:
- Do the best you can, whatever arises
- Be at peace with yourself
- Find a job you enjoy
- Live in simple conditions: housing, food, clothing; get rid of clutter
- Contact nature every day; feel the earth under your feet
- Take physical exercise through hard work; through gardening or walking
- Don’t worry; live one day at a time
- Share something everyday with someone else; if you live alone, write someone; give something away; help someone else somehow
- Take time to wonder at life and the world; see some humour in life where we can
- Observe the one life in all things
- Be kind to the creatures
I suspect that we often think some of these things and maybe some of them everyday; perhaps if we lived some of these suggestions we would realise, just as Helen Nearing and her Husband did, that the good life is truly here and now
“The one fact that I would cry from every housetop is this: the Good Life is waiting for us – here and now” ~ B. F. Skinner
Aug 9 2013
Thought of the Day – Honouring Our Personal Gifts – 9 August
Honouring Our Personal Gifts
“Explore daily the will of God” ~ Carl Jung
As the fourth Simple Abundance principle – Harmony – starts to stir within our souls, Discerning our personal gifts is essential if we are to experience harmony in our lives. “Because our gifts carry us out into the world and make us participants in life, the uncovering of them is one of the most important tasks confronting any one of us” writes Elizabeth O’Connor in her Eighth Day of Creation: Gifts and Creativity. She goes on to say “When we talk about being true to ourselves – being the persons we are intended to be – we are talking about gifts. We cannot be ourselves unless we are true to our gifts”
It can be difficult for us to be know, let alone be, who we truly are. We are often taught by Masters, Mystics, Sages, Philosophers and even Poets, that the authentic path exists and is passed down through the ages. So why have many of us tuned out from this? Perhaps it’s partly due to our belief that any such mysterious uncovering may be down to the will of God, rather than relying on ourselves and our own unconscious to guide us along our path of destiny to help us realise and achieve all that we are and are meant to be.
The Force is Love
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By Cherida Barnes • Thought of the Day •