A New Sacred Place...

Peace and Quiet

Yesterday I visited a gem of a place on this little island.  My friend Dianne  who is a fabulous fountain of fascinating facts relating to feminine awesomeness http://www.femininefaceofmoney.com/ and all round cheerleader and great friend, recently told me about this place, and recommended I check it out.

Despite living in the area since 1993, clearly, there are still wonderful surprises that I have yet to discover about this corner of our world.

This little park, has a great and healing atmosphere with its exquisite views of the water, under-stated asian style landscape -  that doesn't distract from the natural beauty that surrounds, but also lends a person to go inside and experience ones own inner landscape....

Everything has obviously been done with so much care and thought... here's a few more photo's so you can see what I mean...

A wise owl welcomes visitors...

A smiling fox (or bear) beckons..

A Tibeten Prayer Wheel... look at the detail...

Surrounding the base is this quote...

"Faith is the daring of the soul to go further than it can see"


This was such a treat, and my first experience with a prayer wheel.  It's presence added great tenor and quiet import to the park.

As directed, I slowly turned the wheel nine times clockwise and said a prayer, on completion of the ninth turn the sound of a deep toned bell resonated from within the hollow wheel, its vibrations moved inside me to my core.

Sitting down, I was able to receive a respite from my over active mind and just be at ease with myself and the world - at least for a little while...

Needless to say, I plan to visit this sacred place often.

Finding My Way Home...

For the past five or six months I have been struggling to write and be creative and reach out.

Its as if my creativity has been held hostage by my emotions...   These past few months, I have experienced loss, betrayal, heartbreak, moved homes, had niggling health issues and little by little my appetite and love of writing, photography, blogging, cooking, art have been edited out of my daily life...

During this time of heartache, it would seem natural to by kind and gentle, to feed myself tender morsals of  inspiration, little truffles of delight to coax myself back to my center,  back to my alive and vital self but rather, I have struggled - literally my heart just wasn't in "it" - or anything for that matter, and rather than nourish, I have starved myself of expression.

When I started "A Year Of Finding Love," I really thought that I could write every single day about some reflection of love..  some might say (naively) that I didn't plan for those little moments when the road of life hits a pothole or two, and gets messy, or someone you love dies... I didn't take into consideration the impact of life's "little circumstances"  and how they might throw me off course for months on end...

But here's the ironic thing, denying my creativity is also the same as denying myself the opportunity to create myself back out of the world of grey-ness - its my escape ladder when the house is burning down... - I just figured that out - like... today!!!

After months in this state - and seeing no end in sight I've decided to tell myself in the immortal words of Cher in the movie "Moonstruck" (to Nicholas Cage,) "SNAP OUT OF IT" (I decided the words are enough and no, I don't need a slap across the face to grasp the reality of it all - remember - I'm going to try and be gentler with myself...)

So, I am going to try and find my way back home I hope to post something most days, energy allowing. The posts may not always be amazing and in fact be less than brilliant, but it is after all my practice to find love, and by allowing less than perfect,  I hope to find love for myself.

With Love and Appreciation

Neinah

What To Make On A Cold & Rainy Day...

 Well, here in the Pacific NorthWest, March has come in like a lion..., cold rainy, blustery days, we've  even experienced the occasional explosive thunder clap or two...

Neither the dogs or I enjoy going out in this weather..., in fact, I prefer to be dry and warm (ditto say the dogs,) and in particular on days like these, I enjoy being in the kitchen, making something comforting, healthy and tasty... 

Like this....

Split Pea Soup With Turkey Bacon

Here's the easy recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

.  Olive oil

.  1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped finely

.  2 large washed, peeled, finely sliced carrots

.  1 cup of washed, chopped celery

.  4 rashers of finely chopped turkey bacon

.  1.5 cups of rinsed dried split peas

.  1 tspn. of celery salt

.  1 bay leaf

.  Sea salt &  fresh ground pepper

.  7 cups of vegetable stock

(p.s this can be made into a vegan recipe by omitting the turkey bacon, or simply substituting a smokey tempeh or field roast type meat alternative.)

METHOD:

.  Heat oil over moderate heat, add onions and cook for 5 minutes till they start to look transparent.

.  Add carrots and celery and saute for 5 more minutes.  Add celery salt, and chopped turkey bacon.

.  After a few minutes all the veggies should be looking shiney and par-cooked, add the split peas.

.  Stir the peas and veggies well then add the veggie stock and bay leaf, heat till it starts to boil then 

   turn down the heat to a low simmer, cover the pot, set your timer for 40 minutes (check on it a couple

   of times, giving a gentle stir.)

.  After 40 minutes the peas should be soft and the soup almost done,  season with salt and pepper, 

   remove the bay leaf and puree the cooked veggies and stock.  ( I have a hand held blender which 

   makes this job very easy.)

.  Serve hot topped flavorful, chopped parsley (or whatever your favorite topping might be!)

BON APETIT !

Neinah

We've Been Away For A Few Days...

Guess where we went for a few days???

Need a few more clues???

How about this stately Saguaro cactus?

Or this drop dead view of big sky and red, red rocks?

Yes, we flew to Arizona for a few days and soaked up the sunshine, and on a day trip to precariously perched,  ghost infested, mining town of Jerome, we soaked up the exquisite views, frosted in a layer of recently fallen snow..., it was beautiful, the sunshine, the snow, the mountains, the cactus... did I mention the sunshine??? Oh, and some very tasty chicken and queen olive stuffed blue corn enchiladas with incredible jalapeno and cilantro salsa (gluten free of course..) at a wonderful little place called the "Quince Grill & Cantina." Gosh..., I LOVE good SouthWest food...

Here's some snapshots, to share the flavor of one of my favorite states...

Enjoy!

Neinah

The facade is all that's left of this old building in Jerome.

The Quince Grill & Cantina...(note the icicles on the awning!)

Snow covered twigs against a startlingly blue sky.

The drive home..., sorry to be leaving...

Strange Snow...

Strange Snow

by Neinah Avelin

A strange snow is falling 

around me

broadcast from a 

goose grey sky.

Not the usual 

silent flakes 

but something other.

This snow in tiny 

snowball form 

passes by my ears with 

a quiet hiss 

on their way

to be collected in

mossy twigs,

foxes coats 

and curled and dried

leaves left 

from the fall.

Giving...

(Finding myself speechless and the incredible generosity of a total stranger...)

Today at work I'd got an inkling to go to lunch with CG and his lunch buddy Mino... Most days I do my own thing, preferring to work through lunch and leave work earlier... but today, as my belly rumbled at me and with quite a lot of work yet to get through I invited myself along...

As I thought he would, CG drove us to a little Mexican place on the island.  A family run business that had three restaurants, the one closest to work (which CG loved to frequent,) had closed just a few weeks previous (like several other small businesses in our area,) due to the lack of business. So here we were trekking several extra miles for his favorite chile rellenos...

Behind the counter the man (Miguel the owner,) started to chat with CG, remembering him from the other restaurant..., then he looked at me, and I was shocked that not only did he remember me from the one time I went in there when he had been working, but also remembered our conversation about his beautiful reproduction painting of Our Lady Of Guadalupe situated on the restaurant wall looking down kindly upon the hungry customers...

He pointed to the wall of this restaurant, and asked if I noticed the same painting?  "I did," I replied (still shocked he remembered me,) "she's very beautiful, one day I will go visit Our Lady in the Basilica in Mexico City." I told him..

He served us our food and disappeared into the kitchen.  We sat at our table and started our lunch, Miguel appeared again, carrying a slightly smaller, framed image of Our Lady of Guadalupe... holding it out to me he said, "this is for you."

Our Lady of Guadalupe

If your curious you can check her out here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe

I couldn't believe my ears, and was so stunned by his generosity.  I immediately said "oh no... I couldn't... "  I was a little embarrased, but he went on, saying that he had brought this back from Mexico city and that he wanted me to have it..  So, I said "yes."  Standing up I gave this generous stranger a BIG thank you hug,,, and hugged my own copy of Our Lady...

Our Lady - Looking very much at home here.

Do you have a story to share about the kindness of a stranger?

It can be such a powerful experience can't it?  Proving the point to me over and over again, that though we think that we are "separate" from others (folks different from us - spiritually, economically, racially etc. etc.) We truly aren't that different..., we aren't that separate... The fact that I can share a love of an image with a total stranger, and he endows and trusts me with this image that he loves and cares about so much makes me filled with love and filled with wonder and appreciation, at the kindness of this stranger.

A Day Late...

Though Valentines Day was yesterday, I wish to celebrate it with you today...

So, Happy Valentines Day Dear Friends and Family!!!

Last night the power went out at our house before I could make a special dinner for CG and I, so I'm planning on making it special tonight instead, but... the power just went out again for who knows how long...  So maybe this "special dinner" won't get cooked for a while...

 Still one very lovely side benefit of having no power is the excuse to light up the house with candles...

...which I absolutely LOVE....

I love the softness that candle light brings to a room, don't you?

Here is a love poem by the great and wonderful poet  Pablo Neruda

'Who ever desired each other as we do'

Who ever desired each other as we do? Let us look

for the ancient ashes of hearts that burned,

and let our kisses touch there, one by one,

till the flower, disembodied, rises again.

Let us love that Desire that consumed its own fruit

and went down, aspect and power, into the earth;

We are its continuing light,

its indestructible, fragile seed.

Happy late Valentines Day...

With LOVE,

Neinah