Originally posted on Chronic Conditions & Life Lessons: From the moment we wail into this world there is an ‘expiration date’ atop our head. Perhaps it’s stamped invisibly to the bottom of our baby wrinkled feet. Exposed and bittersweet, this fact of life slapped me in the face yesterday, leaving a white fingered imprint across…
Originally posted on Chronic Conditions & Life Lessons: From the moment we wail into this world there is an ‘expiration date’ atop our head. Perhaps it’s stamped invisibly to the bottom of our baby wrinkled feet. Exposed and bittersweet, this fact of life slapped me in the face yesterday, leaving a white fingered imprint across…
A few days ago, I was at the Trench Town Reading Centre. The heat of summer has worked its way into our very bones, in recent days. The real answer is rain, but our drought has reached a new pain threshold, and many are without water.
A boy and his penguin. (Photo: Facebook)
So, in Trench Town it was predictably hot – and dusty, from the adjoining space where the boys play football. But the children are happy, because it is summer school (yes, July is the month of award ceremonies and summer schools!)
Teacher Joan with Roslyn peeping over her shoulder…and the inevitable penguin. (My photo)
But did I mention that, this month, the children are all obsessed with penguins? Yes, penguins! The Reading Centre’s tireless co-founder and chief bottle-washer, Roslyn Ellison, did not deliberately choose this theme to make them all feel cooler. But it caught their…
I’m filling a special request before I continue with the noodles series. This dish is not widely known among foreigners yet, but it starting to become popular because the ingredients are quite familiar to most palettes and the flavors are just simply irresistible.
Khao Mok Gai is also a one-plate dish. It consists of yellow fragrant rice sprinkled with crispy fried shallots and served with a piece of chicken that seems to be baked (but isn’t). The authentic Thai won’t serve this dish completely by itself, of course. It would be accompanied with cucumber, tomato and the most important part, Nam Jim. The dipping sauce for this dish is very specific. I didn’t write about it in the “Basic Thai Dipping Sauce” post. Even though this looks green, it’s not the same as the “Nam Jim Seafood”. It has mint leaves and ginger, which is different than in…
Blessed is the Source of Life, the Fountain of Being
the wellspring of goodness, compassion and Kindness
from which we draw to make for justice and peace.
From the creative power of Life we derive food and harvest,
from the bounty of the earth and the yields of the heavens
we are sustained and are able to sustain others.
All Life is holy, sacred,
worthy of respect and dignity.
Let us give thanks for the power of heart
to sense the holy in the midst of the simple.
We eat not simply to satisfy our own appetites,
we eat to sustain ourselves in the task we have been given.
Each of us is unique,
coming into world with a gift no other can offer: ourselves.
We eat to nourish the vehicle of giving,
we eat to sustain our task of world, repair,
our quest for harmony, peace and justice.
We eat and we are revived, and we give thanks
to the lives that were ended to nourish our own.
May we merit their sacrifice, and honor their sparks of holiness
through our deeds of loving kindness.
We give thanks to the Power that makes for Meeting,
for our table has been a place of dialogue and friendship.
We give thanks to Life.
May we never lose touch with the simple joy and wonder
of sharing life. —Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro
Leave the world a better place.
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. —Dalai Lama
The only true guardian of peace lies within: a sense of concern and responsibility for your own future and an altruistic concern for the well-being of others.
—-Dalai Lama
As we are together, praying for peace, let us be truly with each other.
Let us pay attention to our breathing.
Let us be relaxed in our bodies and our minds.
Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds.
Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us maintain a half-smile of our faces.
Let us be aware of the source of being common to us all and to all living things.
Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion—–towards ourselves and towards all living beings.
Let us pray that all living beings realize that they are all brothers and sisters, all nourished from the same source of life.
Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other.
Let us plead with ourselves to live in a way which will not deprive
other beings of air, water, food, shelter,or the chance to live.
With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us pray for the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth. Amen —Thich Nhat Hanh
Unrelated, but something I probably need to address anyway…this morning I wrote about my last book being translated into several different language and a ton of you are like, “Where is your next book? Why are you making me wait? Look at your life. Look at your choices.” And honestly the next book is coming but it’s really, really fucking hard. Writing always is for me. It’s something I’ve always done and will always do but I rewrite and rewrite and look at a blank page for days and feel like my head is constipated with thoughts I can’t write properly until suddenly it all comes together and I end up with one perfect page that took 2 weeks. I want it to be perfect because a ton of it is…