In an ideal world, I'd twinkle-toe out to my organic garden, harvest my thriving and luscious vegetables and herbs, and spend timeless musical moments in my well-lit, perfectly feng-shui'd kitchen preparing, then serving my dearest and nearest the most delightful meals that the Earth could provide.
But I'm way lazier than that. And I just don't like to cook that much. Sometimes, yes, but I have to REALLY be in the mood.
So, in the name of laziness-heavily-dosed with a desire to eat healthily, I discover/create dishes that suit my taste and lifestyle.
The Easy Kale Supper is such a dish. Here's what you need & do:
EASY-AS-HELL KALE SUPPER:
Vegan bouillon cubes
Redmond's Real Salt
Rice (or quinoa)
Olive oil
Garlic
Kale
Can of stewed tomatoes
1. Boil water for rice. Add Real Salt and desired amount of the bouillon cube (I sometimes half it).
2. Make rice according to package. (Or quinoa-- quinoa is healthier. Brown rice is super-yummy with this though.)
**2.5. Do whatever you need to do for the majority of the duration of the cooking of the grains.
3. When you have about 10 minutes to go, heat a little olive oil in a large pan. Add minced or chopped garlic. Don't burn it.
4. Add the kale. (The lazy version comes in a huge bag -- chopped and ready to go! The little bit less lazy version, means you chop it yourself.)
5. Add the can(s) of STEWED tomatoes. (I used Del Monte -- I haven't found organic stewed tomatoes yet. In the non-lazy world, you stew your own tomatoes that just came out of your garden.)
6. Put a lid on it, medium heat, stirring occasionally.
While on Spring Break, we came across this lovely little place.
Funny coincidence, because I have two different friends talking to me about butterflies.
In my recent lecture at Little Professor bookstore, I flashed images and asked people to call out words that came to mind. One of the images was a butterfly. I wanted to impress upon everybody the significance of symbolism in the home. Remember, that nothing goes unnoticed by the subconscious. There is personal symbolism and universal symbolism. Later, a friend of mine in attendance expressed to me that she wanted to bring more butterflies into her home.
Butterflies are easy -- they are the epitome of "transformation" and "beauty." If a client wants to implement change in his or her life, I may suggest buying something that has the image of a butterfly and bringing into their homes. It doesn't have to be anything too obvious. As always, a little goes a long way in feng shui.
Another friend of mine went to a healer who told her that her totem animal was Butterfly. What does this mean? Many cultures revere animals as "medicine." According to some Native American and Aboriginal lore (to name a mere two), each individual is born with "totems" or protective spirits in the form of animals. Have you ever known someone that was so cat-like (or bird-like or dog-like) that it was uncanny? Well, their totems may be a little more obvious to detect!
Also, if certain animals appeared to someone, lore had it that the animal was giving you a message. Native Americans considered every living creature to carry "medicine." You come across a bear in the woods? Then perhaps you need more introspection and rest. A hawk flies overhead? Maybe you need to take a bird's eye view on a situation.
In short, if Butterfly flits along your path, you may be coming upon a big positive change. Or maybe you are being asked to take a lighter approach to life and float amongst the flowers. Maybe you need to introduce more color into your wardrobe. If you are feeling stuck, maybe it's time to emerge from your cocoon.
Butterflies are everywhere in the Springtime. If nothing else, succumb to their message, and get outside...and enjoy!
For more information on the symbolism of animals, I suggest books by Ted Andrews. He's great!
A current client is having storage issues for all the toys, toys, toys that come with having a toddler and a baby.
Right now this is what she has going on:
Yikers! The problem with this is that...the toys never go away!!! When you have see-through storage like this, it calculates to the brain as overwhelm.
Lucky for her (and all of us), there are TONS of options out there.
At the most basic, what comes to mind is this Ikea bookshelf...
.., filled with the canvas inserts, also found at Ikea, or Target, or Wal-mart, or just about anywhere.
The boys can pull out the boxes one at a time, and then, when playtime is over, the toys are actually cleaned up! And this option is very nice on the wallet. It might cost a person $150.00 total. Maybe.
In this case, this client is moving the play area into the quite large family room, so she has the choice to make it look really adult when the kids aren't playing, or to simply designate a section as the "play room."
My latest inspiration has to do with the Power of Image. Honestly, this particular inspiration first hit when I was a freshman in college while sitting in an America on Film class . Professor Girgus (--and those of you who know him are smiling at the very mention of his name--) had an obsession with Woody Allen, Freud, and pretty women. In this particular class, he was speaking of the subconscious (Freud) and the subjective vs. objective in regards to the way women are portrayed in American cinema. He showed us a clip from the movie Rebecca by Alfred Hitchcock, where the leading lady was being photographed by her husband.
I can't remember Professor Girgus' exact words, but something he said triggered a deep knowing. I had a flash of insight, if you will. Film is powerful. Film is f---ing powerful!! Film (and imagery) in general has a direct line to our subconscious minds -- the same part of our mind that creates our dreams, stores deep memories and beliefs, and shapes a large part of our lives, whether we give it credit or not. Think about it: our dreams play out like films in our minds! What if our brains really don't differentiate the two on some level? Which brings us to the Power of Dreams, which I won't touch on here.
The point is, I left class on that sunny day thinking, "There is so much GOOD we can do with film." And a passion was born.
A few years later, I moved to Los Angeles on this notion, in pursuit of a career in screenwriting.
But I digress....
This past weekend, a friend told me about the Kony 2012 video that is floating around the Internet. I came across it later that day and spend thirty minutes completely enthralled.
After getting over my disgust for Kony, I was then impressed by the guts this Jason filmmaker guy had. I mean, he had a mission. And it was a noble mission. And he was getting his point across really really really well. I mean, this guy can whip out a film! AND motivate lots of people to do the right thing and help! Wow! Wow. Wow. Wow.
I posted the video on my Facebook page. I went to their website. I wanted to buy the kit! (But they were sold out?) I went to their Facebook page. That's where I started seeing the controversy behind the video.
One guy said: The whole "Kony 2012" thing is just a ruse being used by the military as an excuse to occupy Uganda. Vast amounts of oil were recently found there and now the government wants to get their grubby hands on it. By the end of this year we will be $16 TRILLION in debt! We simply don't have the money to occupy yet ANOTHER country! We can't help everyone in the world. Here's another interesting fact..Joseph Kony hasn't been in Uganda for over 6 years. I bet ya didn't know that.. I've noticed people are slowly realizing this. :) I can't believe it! The truth is growing.. FORGET ABOUT KONY! This is a very sick excuse for america to take over another country. Don't believe me? Find out more info about Uganda and Joseph Kony on your own..
People had filmed themselves, calling the whole thing a fraud. Okay -- I thought -- I better do a little homework. I sheepishly Removed Post (aka: took the video off my FB page) until I had more info.
I watched this (most of it, anyway):
And this one:
Anyway, there seems to be something fishy going on. Is there something fishy going on? I have no idea. Maybe this is all great altruism, which of course, I'd love to believe. Personally, and after a little thought, I don't really trust something that says, "Hey, let's send some troops over to other nations and save the world." Then again, my Aunt Rita, once when I was in a mild debate with her over American military, reminded me of Hitler, WWII, and how he needed to be stopped... I shut up very quickly. She was alive then. I wasn't.
Another note: this video sure does make Obama look good. Interesting, as it's an election year, and 2012 is plastered all over this video (and I guess all over the nation on April 20)... as if Kony the criminal were up for presidency???
Hmmm. And Shepard Fairey, who designed the iconic HOPE Obama poster, is featured in this Kony video. Did he design these posters too? Can anyone say: subliminal?
actual poster for the Make Kony Famous campaign
I realize that I'm throwing all of this out there quite carelessly on this humble little blog. I'm no journalist nor am I an expert on anything going on in Uganda or anything political campaign-y, therefore who am I to comment at all?
However, I do want to say that I believe that awareness of any injustice in the world is 100% definitely the first step to getting any problem solved. And in the end, I'm glad I know about this Kony character, wherever he may be. An interesting global dialogue has begun, and that in itself cannot be bad. I give kudos to Jason and his filmmaking team for their craftsmanship and for getting a message(s?) across in a creative and powerful way. After all, I was ready to go! I was all set. It got to me, yes it did!
Speaking of getting to me, I watched the movie, Drive, the other night. My friend called just as I was about to press Play. Ironically, she had worked with the director, (I had totally forgotten), and I asked her if it was violent -- because I don't do violent -- and she said, "No. I mean, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was way more violent." That didn't help me too much, because I didn't see Girl for that very reason.
But OMG! I watched the entire film to my detriment because, let's face it, it was great filmmaking and the story trapped me from the moment Ryan Gosling first cracked that adorable partial smile, but OMG! SO violent!
I admit it, I'm a lightweight when it comes to this stuff. Usually, I go to sleep with lovely little Pinterest flowery, cute-outfitty, Goodnight-Moony, cupcake-y dreams floating around in my (yes) subconscious, but that night, it was not good! To say I'm impressionable, well, says it all! I have a really clean diet with what I let in my head. I don't even watch the news. (Facebook and word-of-mouth provide me with plenty.) And last night, I was reminded why: I couldn't fall asleep and when I did, I had warped, weird dreams.
Later that night, toddler-girl woke me up crying for a certain stuffed animal, and, now awake again, I decided to go Pinterest it because those horrible images were still there. Interestingly, the flowers and fashion of Pinterest worked! It was as if the pretty images tape-recorded over the other bad ones.
The question is: where did those bad ones go? They are still there. I can still see them, blurred, as I type. They are there, with zillions of other things, buried.
I have (WE have) a lot to learn about the subconscious and the way it reacts to images, especially moving images, with music, words, and intentionally-placed items. It's a fun study though, I tell you.
I'll leave you with this... A psychologist/professor friend of mine introduced me to these YouTube videos a few years ago. I HIGHLY recommend you watch them if this topic interests you in the very least.
.........Hmmm -- won't embed. Anyway, check out Derren Brown on YouTube. I recommend Subliminal Advertising and NPL.
If anything, I hope this post brings about a different awareness of your world, especially one where we are constantly bombarded with information and all sorts of who-knows-what. Our subconscious is taking every bit of it in, and who knows what actions we are taking because that sneaky part of our brain likes to play at captain. Personally, I'd like to be at the helm of my own mind, so I'm going to learn as much about it as I can, just to make sure my subconscious keeps its place as the wheel and not the driver.
