A couple of recipes--*

My new job allows me the creativity to put my own recipes out there, so I've been working on some development and wanted to share a couple that I'm particularly proud of:
(keep in mind that you might want to scale down a bit or have leftovers for a while...)

Sunshine Chicken Salad
10 lbs. grilled chicken breast
1.5 lbs. carrot julienne
2 red pepper, 1/4 in. dice
2 yellow pepper, julienne
1 lb. red onion, 1/4 in. dice
1 bunch cilantro, coarse chop
zest and juice of three limes
2 inch chunk of fresh ginger, grated
salt and pepper
-----------------------------
dressing:
1/3 c. honey
1 can coconut milk
1 cup fresh orange juice

I think next time I might double the quantity of dressing and let the grilled chicken sit in it to suck up the acid and moisture, then dress the whole salad with the remaining dressing. If I did this, I would hold off on the cilantro and add that before dressing and serving. Also, sliced almonds would probably be nice in this. If you try it, let me know what you think.


Orange-Rosemary Nutted Pilaf
(I don't have great measurements for this one, I just threw it together...)
Wild rice blend (I used Lundmans)
quinoa (about 3/4 of the cooked quantity of the rice blend)
asparagus
fennel
red onion julienne
portabello mushrooms, sliced
dried cranberries
toasted, sliced almonds
toasted, chopped pistachios
------------------------
orange juice
orange zest
fresh rosemary, chopped
olive oil
honey

I roasted the asparagus, fennel, onion, and mushrooms and added to the cooked rice and quinoa (*note: rinse your rice before cooking it to avoid starchy mess)...added cranberries and nuts, dressed with the orange juice-rosemary-oil-honey dressing. I think it was about 1 cup oil, 1/4 cup honey, 3 oranges zested, 3 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary. Play around with it; it's a very forgiving recipe and the proportions should be more to taste than anything else. Salt and pepper, of course.

I'll edit the post if I can figure out the exact proportions on these, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy!

...songs I'm digging tonight--*

So...looking at the lyrics, there COULD be an argument for a theme going on here, but really I just like the sounds--some great melodies and fun arrangements--enjoy!

Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor - You Don't Know Me
excerpt:
You could have just propped me up on the table like a mannequin
Or a cardboard stand-up and paint me (paint me)
Any face that you wanted me To be seen.
We're Damned by the existential moment where
We saw the couple in the coma and
It was we were the cliché,
But we carried on anyway.

Matt Nathanson - Come On Get Higher
excerpt:
So come on, get higher, loosen my lips
Faith and desire and the swing of your hips
Just pull me down hard
And drown me in love
I miss the sound of your voice
Loudest thing in my head
And I ache to remember
All the violent, sweet
Perfect words that you said

Madeleine Peyroux - I'm Alright
excerpt:
I asked the boy for a few kind words
He gave me a novel instead
But I'm all right
I'm all right

Colbie Caillat - Magic
excerpt:
You've got magic inside your finger tips
Its leaking out all over my skin
Everytime that I get close to you
Your making me weak with the way you
Look through those eyes

Dave Matthews - Grace is Gone
excerpt:
One drink to remember,
And another to forget.
How could I ever dream to find a love like this again?
One drink to remember, another to forget...

Now that you've read through, don't think that I'm making some comment on my "love life" or anything...

And...we're back!

I think it's been almost two months since I've even been to Blogger...I'd like to say that I was busy doing crazy, exotic, and amazing things or studying language abroad or even taking an experimental vow of silence...

But the truth is, I was just really depressed for a good share of the summer. I foolishly let a couple of interpersonal situations throw me off guard and get the best of me and just...spiraled out. I quit my job on a whim--it was a toxic work environment though, I must say--without having anything lined up, and was unemployed for over a month with no savings and no plan.

As I've mentioned in this amazing post/discussion thread found on This Time This Space, it is so everloving difficult to see depression while in the midst of it, and I am particularly talented at hiding it from myself and most others.

A chance encounter turned into a thoughtful friendship. This person and our friendship has and continues to inspire me to explore my personal space rather than simply wallow in it, be unapologetically true to my needs, trust in letting go, and believe in my own abilities of manifestation. Before it sounds like I again am putting too much stock outside of myself, sometimes we all need a catalyst to start our own chain reaction. I'm definitely rolling my own ball--*

So...yes, I'm back. I'm feeling a little bit...exposed...for sharing all of this, but it feels good to be honest and open.

Update: When I re-read this, I am struck by how bizarre a concept that it's taken me two months to return to the mental state in which I started. True, I do feel more sincerely grounded than before things started sliding downhill, but I'm now piecing back together the interests, hobbies, and research subjects that I "used to enjoy". I feel like Gandolf in Lord of the Rings: "Gandolf the Grey...that is what they used to call me!" I feel almost as though I am recovering from a coma.

The day I woke up deciding to let go and take life back, I interviewed and was hired for an amazing new job that will be challenging, personally fulfilling, and mentally stimulating.

~thank you~

"We're getting there" - or - I really don't know love at all, but I know I could drink a case of you--*

There are a couple of things I keep reminding myself: that everyone has something that I won't like, and that each new relationship or friendship requires to succeed the trust that events and feelings that remind us of older, bad experiences in the past are not necessarily a harbinger of doom this time.

A certain point exists for us where the way we look at love is no longer the same. For some of us, a horrible experience triggers us to look at the other side. For others, it is a beautiful life of light and openness. For still others, a chance meeting and whirlwind weekend romance with no future reminds us of what we deserve to receive.

Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.

Paolo Coelho

There will always be something about every person that I don't like.
Simple?

Is it always the same quality(s) or trait(s) that become(s) an issue? Or are certain things acceptable in some and intolerable in other relationships? When does one situation or issue become a 'dealbreaker' and when does a person or relationship become a throwaway? What is it that makes One person special enough to work through and wait for understanding?

I laugh at myself when I realize that I handle my relationships with humans is diametrically opposite to my relationships with horses. If a mare throws me to the ground, I won't hesitate to keep working with her and work through the issues to create growth, strength as a team, and understanding...it would never occur to me to never again handle a bay Thoroughbred mare under any circumstances.

I used to be a person who always welcomed love and never saw the shadows. It's only recently that something clicked and I've seen different sides of love, different hues of light, and myself. Because I'm more comfortable with me, I find myself calm where always in the past I would be a hellcat, wasting energy and missing the point.

With a different point of view in mind, the only way we can really know anything is when there are no dealbreakers, but only 'things that are part of you'.


Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell (2000)

Other days I just laugh all day, because that's what crazy people do.

I took the sweet life and never knew I'd be bitter...

Never Been to Me - Charlene

On getting caught in the rain...

I'm walking home from the coffee shop and 'surprise'--total downpour. Wearing an unfortunate choice of shirt for the change in weather, I decide the only thing to do is walk confidently down the street, head up, as if it were a gorgeous sunny day. I am not the only person caught in the rain this morning, but my fellow pedestrians are sour-faced and hunched over. People actually look at me like I might be crazy for seeming to enjoy the morning nonetheless!

I've been working on this concept in broader areas of my life...working with what I've got, trying not to accumulate dings in the armour, 'come what may'... Sometimes it means humming to myself when I am tempted to quit my job on the spot so I can just leave the chaos, sometimes it means being much more 'real' than usual and exposing more of myself than I'd like, but always it means shoulders back and head held high through it all.

Florida Gopher Tortoise, our vulnerable friend

The Florida Gopher Tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, is listed as 'vulnerable' by the Threatened and Endangered Species System. Recently, on an extended trip to Southwest Florida, I became acquainted with these stoic, marvelous animals.

Often you will see the adult members of the species out for a stroll on a sun-baked country road, and untold numbers of times I stopped my car on my way to my friend's horse farm to redirect a tortoise to a safer side of the road. This particular shelled friend had an affinity for one of the grooming stations at my friend's horse farm. On more than one occasion I would be working at the station when he would come over to say 'Hi!'

(That's him waving hello...subtle, isn't it?)

Though a herbivorous species, the extreme irritation displayed by the Florida Gopher Tortoise when you try to pick them up and move them to safety can be intimidating. They hiss loudly and blow frothy bubbles. Unless it is of paramount importance to move a tortoise, it's probably best to let them leave on their own.

Several factors contribute to the vulnerable status of these animals -- aside from human predation and carelessness, many animal predators exist: raccoons, armadillos, skunks, snakes, dogs (though we should probably class dogs as human carelessness), and fire ants. Human incidences include road mortality and construction site bulldozing in habitat areas. It is illegal to move a gopher tortoise from its habitat, but faced with burrowing tortoises in a home foundation, many homeowners resort to moving their underground neighbors in the middle of the night to what they deem may be a suitable new home.

We look to the future for these and many, many other animals on the list.

I have kept the text here simple in hopes that interested readers will look into the plight of the Florida Gopher Tortoise on their own, so here I am including some resources: The Gopher Tortoise Council, The Gopher Tortoise Organization, and an excellent article on the management of the Gopher Tortoise habitat on private property.

Everything in its right place--*

Some places inside of us were designed for one person to illuminate. When that happens it becomes impossible to determine or, indeed, even comprehend whether the light exists for the beauty or the beauty exists because of the light.

photo credit ~ Bradrick J. Pretzer

www.bradpretzer.com

Let's hear it for joy!!

The merry pranksters in our lives remind us not to take things too seriously, but rather to pay attention to what is around us and enjoy every bit of it. This horse, Echo's Aladdin Star, is one of those friends for myself and one of my bestest friends, Michele Morrisette-Galloway of Debenaire Farms in Southwest Florida. Check out her site and some of her other magnificent steeds.

O the gleesome saunter over fields and hillsides!

The leaves and flowers of the commonest weeds, the moist fresh

stillness of the woods,

The exquisite smell of the earth at daybreak, and all through theforenoon.

O the horseman's and horsewoman's joys!

The saddle, the gallop, the pressure upon the seat, the cool

gurgling by the ears and hair.

excerpt from A Song of Joys

Walt Whitman

even if--*

My birthday was Friday (thank you, thank you) and I decided that, given my failure to adopt better habits and conform to resolutions since January 1, that my birthday is a better milestone to start the year...
A metaphorical 'fiscal year', if you will...


Alanis Morissette - That I Would Be Good

If You Forget Me


I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

Pablo Neruda

--she lets the river answer--

Leonard Cohen - Suzanne

Lá Bealtaine

The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.

Sir Thomas Malory

Le Mort d'Arthur (1485)

About this blog--*

Sometimes prolific, occasionally thoughtful and temporarily silent...largely a product of how much else I have going on (like anybody) and how much time and space I need.

This is all largely experimental for me--living fully and deliciously out in the wild open pastures of the electric, eclectic wide world. Travel is different.

In many ways, this whole blog is about my opinions, but some issues are more important than my ego and can best be explained by professional experts in their respective fields--in those cases especially, I look forward to discussing and debating thoughts on the articles cited--*

libelula

Moby -- God Moving Over the Face of the Waters

...mad world...

Oil prices closed at/around $118/barrel yesterday...when the economic world at large perceives this as our fault (US), it...well, read the article.

To read deeper into this, check out this bunch of articles--that is, if you have time. I heard Amy Winehouse head-butted someone and Pam Anderson ate a hot dog on the same day, so Friday was a pretty big news-day to catch up with.

Gary Jules - Mad World

[As once the winged energy of delight]

Life isn't always aesthetically beautiful, but the journey always has that potential if we open ourselves to the pure definition of beauty--the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind--and live fully in each delicious moment.

As once the winged energy of delight

carried you over childhood's dark abysses,

now beyond your own life build the great

arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed

in passing through the harshest danger;

but only in a bright and purely granted

achievement can we realize the wonder.

To work with Things in the indescribable

relationship is not too hard for us;

the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,

and being swept along is not enough.

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions...For the god

wants to know himself in you.

Ranier Maria Rilke