Be Real: Surrender

Today I prayed. This is the dialog.

me: God, help me be who you want me to be and do what you want me to do.
Him: That is surrender my dear.

me: Really, that is what I prayed all those many months ago that started this journey.
Him: I know.

The conversation quieted for a bit until we were in the car running errands. And then Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel came on the radio.

Him: "Son," he said "Grab your things, I've come to take you home."
Him: "Hey" he said "Grab your things I've come to take you home."
me: "Hey" I said "You can keep my things, they've come to take me home."

That's surrender. He calls, all the time. He calls to surrender everything, all of me, all of you, to Him.

me: Pretty scary.
Him: I know. But trust me, it's better this way. I have so much for you if you would let go.
Just surrender to my plan for you.
me: What is it?

Silence.

intellect: Follow the good feeling and you'll know.
Him: Release yourself to me.

intellect: Aren't I to be clear and focused in order to create or achieve a goal? How else will I be successful.
Him: Be clear in your surrender and all goals are achieved before you know it. Your desires are answered before they are asked. We've been through this before, do we really have to do it again?

Thy Will be done. We pray this constantly, and I understand now what it means. It means I give my all to Him. I surrender to His Will. I trust it is the best choice forever. This is what sacred means. This is consecration. To surrender completely to the Will of God means to be consecrated and made sacred.

me: That's for nuns and priests. I'm a mother and wife. How do I do this? It seems too difficult. I'm afraid. Afraid of failure, afraid of letting others down, afraid of the unknown...
Him: That's part of the challenge this time around. More distractions, more responsibility, more joy and experience. Can you surrender to Me although you are not in a convent praying in silence? Can you surrender to me amidst the noise and chaos? I am there in the silence and the chaos.

me: I want to. Please help me. Correct my thinking. Lead and guide me. Show me the way.
Him: Come to me child, come to me.

me: I'm not content. There are things I want to do. What about good sense?
Him: I am good sense. Do not be content. Always question. Use the brain I gave you. Use the intellect I gave you. You are here for the joy. Put yourself in me. I want you.

me: Can I do this? Can I handle all that you send me?
Him: You now know what is yours and what is someone else's. You know what I ask of you. Do only what I ask. Surrender to me and no one else.
intellect: That feeling inside tells you if you are coping out or if it God. Be aware of that feeling. Do not ask others, ask yourself. Ask God. As Mary did - ponder these things in your heart.

The dialog continues.

Peace.

Eat Real: Slow Down with Soup

According to Macrobiotic living, miso soup is a powerful healing remedy, that is when it's made with Nature's ingredients. Its stock is made from kombu seaweed. You can read more about seaweed in one of my summer posts: Ocean Vegetables. Actually, when you look at the historic nature of most cultures, you will find soup to be at the center of many of the medicinal treatments. Chicken soup, matzo ball soup, minestrone soup. Traditionally, we made soup to heal our ailments. That is before pills came into the picture.

Macrobiotics is more than a diet, it's a lifestyle. One of the reasons soup is so healing is because you have to stop everything you are doing and cook. Then you have to sit down, wait for it to cool and then eat it slowly. Think about it. Everything about soup forces you to S L O W D O W N. And, usually, when we are sick, that is exactly what our bodies need!

Fast food, email, texting, etc... everything that is marketed in our culture is about going faster, getting it done quicker and more efficiently. And what is it that is getting done faster and more efficiently? Everything - eating, sleeping, sex, work, meditation - you name it, there's a way to do it faster and more efficiently. Life is a long time. Pace yourself. What is the rush, really? Can't we find time to sit down and have a meal together? Can't we find time to make a meal together?

Listen, if anyone has fallen prey to the fast, efficient model, it's me. In fact, the Creator knows how much I appreciate efficiency that when I ask for a blessing or a download, it literally comes down through tubing in my body like plumbing in a house. No blocks, one way in and one way out. Keep it simple right? Well, what if we could keep it simple and be efficient and take time to enjoy life. It is possible and I'm experiencing it right now. More is more. More to juggle, more to fit in, more to get done. What I find though is that when I slow down and stop thinking or doing more, then I actually let joy in my life. The joy is from doing less stuff and enjoying more slow. More laughs, more peace, more sleep, more sex, more money, more health, more fun. That's when I know I'm in the flow. His Grace is for us all the time.

And it all starts with soup.

Miso Soup Recipe:
2 tbsp. miso
1 onion
1 carrot
1 turnip
1 leak
3 pints of water
2 kombu seaweed
1 pinch dried wakame seaweed
salt
sesame oil

Make kombu stock by boiling water and simmering with kombu for 1 hour. Wash and dice vegetables. Saute the onion in the oil, then add salt, carrot, turnip and leeks. Remove kombu from water. It is now considered stock. Add the vegetables and wakame and simmer. Just as you are ready to serve, add the miso with a little stock and pour in the soup. You can garnish with leek stock.

Wishing you more of what you want more of...

Eat Real: Listen to the Apples

An apple a day keeps the doctor away... Bet you've heard that your whole life! It's true. The apple is full of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Not only that, but they are in season right now. If you have become accustomed to listening to the cues in Nature, you might be eating quite a few of them right now. I know we are!

We went apple picking a week ago and have been eating them ever since. There are plenty of places in North Carolina. Here's a favorite farm: www.steppapples.com. The kids are all apple-d out! Turns out, this is the perfect fruit to be eating right now as we transition into the colder weather. According to Aurveydic principles, eating apples draws the heat of summer out of your cells and boosts immunity for the coming winter. Depending on your constitution, eating them raw or cooked may benefit you in different ways. If you are drier, more constipated, than cooking them will be of benefit to your body right now, yet if you have a strong appetite, raw is best.

By learning the language of Nature and listening to what your body is telling you, you can determine what works best for you. Just like snowflakes, each of us is completely unique. Perfection is not the goal, practice is. Keep listening, learning and developing awareness of yourself and what occurs in nature. Here's a favorite recipe great warm or cold!

Easy Baked Apples:
5 cups peeled and sliced apples
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix all together, cover and bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Garnish top with oatmeal and more nuts.

Be Real: 4 Addictions

Addiction is defined as, "being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming." When you hear the word addiction you may think - drugs, sex, alcohol, or gambling. What if the addiction is more benign? Perhaps it's that morning latte, or the gossip magazine. Don't forget the favorite TV show, your face book account, or texting. All seemingly harmless, right? Addicts lose themselves in their addiction. Some even lose themselves in food.

After reading the post: The Four Addictions That Destroy Your Dreams, I've come to see addiction in a new light. External sources or things can become addictions because they feed a need deep inside - a need for love. But now we are asked to look inside and how the relationships in our lives feed us. Where are we feeding the need beyond material items?

Depending on your conditioning, any one of these 4 may be a source of addiction for you:
1. Opinions of Others
2. Drama
3. Past
4. Worry

Opinions of Others:
Are you a good girl or boy? Do you worry that you might hurt someones feelings just being you or speaking your truth? Do you look to authority figures for approval? Our society has an incessant marketing push to get the newest, latest and greatest item. Along with this culture comes the idea of being judged. No one wants to be judged. We are taught to follow the rules. Here's a freeing thought - "There's nothing you can say or think about me that I haven't already thought of myself." So, if I (or you) are already all those terrible things, and we both know it, what's there to worry about? For all those awful things you or I may be, we are also all those wonderful things as well.

Drama:
I grew up with a lot of family around and plenty of opportunity to stick your nose in other people's business. Just stirring the pot, so to speak. Do you over react or always seem to be the one in the crisis holding everyone together? Do you get tired of it? Then there is the chronic complainer. She has the answers to solving the world's problems. The only problems is, the world isn't asking her. How about the Uncle who goes to every wake or funeral? What about the friend who always has a problem. Do you seem to be the one who is always fixing or solving it for her?

Past:
My dad was very sentimental. Always remembering when... sometimes I can get that way too. This addiction is taken to the extreme when you can't seem to move past the past. Maybe change is way to scary or you just can't imagine anything being better than how it used to be. Are you open to new ideas or open thinking? Buddha said, "Change is." Life is change. Evolution happens. Go with it.

Worry:
I've come to understand worry as a lack of trust in God. A lack of trust that all is and will be taken care of in Divine Order. There is a meticulous, intricate dance to all of life. Your small part in it is suppose to happen exactly as it does. There is no should or shouldn't have. There is only 'what is'. You can't block God. He told me so. This is God we are talking about - anything and everything happens according to HIS PLAN. The ultimate designer and coordinator has everything under control. Just show up and enjoy the ride. Great things happen IN SPITE of bad attitudes. Wonderful opportunities show up when the time is right. You don't have to try and force anything. Fruit that is ripe, falls from the tree. This is true for everything...

Just because you may indulge in any one of these areas does not mean you are necessarily addicted. I encourage you to look at your life and any blocks or resistance you may notice and ask yourself if the root cause is one of these addictions. Do you see a repeating pattern of behavior?

Can you start taking back some of your power and trying to break out of any habits that really get in your way? What if you tried something new?

Eat Real: You are What You Eat -part 2

Ultimately you know what to do to feel better. Eat fruits, whole grains, vegetables and a little meat (if needed). Get plenty of rest, exercise and reduce stress. This video prompts the question - Does it make any sense that the food provided by nature (by God) would be substandard to what the food industry makes?

Your body is a miraculous organisim. The heart never skips a beat, the lungs always draw in O2 and expel CO2. Science is spectacular in that it continues to prove our bodies don't end. Our body is as infinite as the Universe itself. There is always more to discover, more to see, more to understand. And, when you can get yourself past the 'more' concept, you will see that you already know exactly everything you need to know. It's just a matter of listening to the voice inside. The voice of your Soul.

We are what we eat. Listen to world renowned experts about the current state of the food industry and where we fall in the middle of all the marketing hype. Be informed, be empowered, be the change and change happens.

Be Real: Dream for Me Mommy...

My boys still like me to lay down with them at night. I get to climb two bunk beds and twist and contort myself into strange positions in order to fit in their comfy little nests. I usually start top down. That means big kids first, little one last. He has the most comfortable bed. After the big ones tell the stories from the day and I answer their questions and hear about their Christmas list, I lay down with the little one. (I know it's September, but my kids like to plan ahead. Wonder where they got that from? ;)

So, here I am snuggled up to a warm little body and you know what he said? "Mommy, dream for me." The request is usually "Tell me a story about me and tractors, me and trains, me and bulldozers". But that night, it was bigger - dream for me...

I caught my breath. Isn't that what we all want? Don't we want to live the dream? To hear all the best and wonderful things God has to bless us with and to experience them? This little person understood all of this at such a pure level. He is just open to the blessings God has in store for him and wants to hear them and live them. He trusted me enough to dream for him. To imagine his blessings and put them in words.

I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was along these lines... "To always be happy, healthy, safe. To have a great life doing great things. To know we love you, God loves you, Jesus loves you. May you walk in a circle of love and light all the days of your life. Oh yes, and may you have the best John Deere tractor or tractors money can buy."

We live the dream traveling from blessing to blessing.