Today, I did something I have not done for many years. I sat outside on my back porch and watched the sun rise. It was a beautiful, calming thing to do! The birds were singing at the top of their lungs, the grass was so green and the world was so quiet. It gave me a chance to experience real stillness inside and around me, an experience I really needed in the face of the reality of the extreme difficulties facing our world today.

While I sat and rested and felt reassured, the affirmation my spiritual director gave me recently came to mind. She invited me to say daily: “At the core of my being I am beloved of God. I am intimately united with Christ through the Spirit. I dwell in the Abiding presence of the Trinity and the Abiding presence of the Trinity dwells in me. This is who I am.”

For me, it is so important in trying, destabilizing times to be reminded of and get reconnected with what is '“true, noble,right, pure, lovely and admirable.” (Philippians 4:8) For each of us, truth will look a little different and our spiritual foundation and traditions may also differ, yet underneath it all, there runs a stream which is life giving for each of us. It is important at times such as these to connect with it, whether it be by sitting out on our porch in the early morning, walking a labyrinth, praying with our rosary beads etc etc. We each know how to do it, and I encourage you to intentionally connect often with what for you is the ‘stream of living water’ in your life.

Since we have quite a bit of time on our hands still, and we have seen all there is to see on Netflix, and tried out a lot of new recipes, how else can we occupy ourselves during this time of quarantine?

We could learn something new!

One day I was scanning my bookshelves for something new to read, and I noticed the pile of financial planning books I have. There were ten of them! I love learning new things about personal finance, and I was wondering how I could do more of that during the pandemic. My friend Sheri directed me to the continuing education site called Udemy. We went there together, and believe it or not, there was a finance coaching course for life coaches. The usual retail price was $200, but it was on sale for $19.99! I signed up!

My favourite thing about the course was the different assessment tools they gave. Many of them came from a free government of Canada website. If you are interested in learning a little more about personal finance, google www.canada.ca and look up the self assessment tool and the financial toolkit pages. I have enjoyed exploring the various topics that are covered and I learned a lot! If you decide to check out this website, I hope you enjoy it too!

Early on in the pandemic, I watched a lot of Netflix movies. At a certain point, I felt like I needed a change. My Mom lent me Pie in the Sky, season 3, on a DVD. This is a British TV show which features a British police man who is also a chef, and who combines his police work with running a fine dining restaurant. During May, each evening we settled in with tea and cookies in hand to watch and we just loved it! This TV series ran for 5 seasons in the 1990s. After we watched season 3, we wondered if we could see more. Fortunately, it is available on Acorn TV. This is a site that offers a lot of British TV series, and as I perused it, I could see I would interested in more of their offerings after we finish Pie in the Sky.

If you go to www.acorntv.com you will see you can try it for free for 7 days, and then you pay $7.49 a month thereafter.

I wanted to share this with you, in case you too need a little change of scenery for your evening view pleasure!

Oh my goodness, the extreme heat of the past 3 days fried my brain and I really couldn’t think straight! Last night around 2 am I awoke with what I would call a tension type headache. I haven’t had a bad headache for several months, so this one took me by surprise. Happily, I remembered a technique I read about many years ago for how to get rid of a headache, if you can catch it early. I am sorry to say I cannot remember the name of the book or the author, but I do remember he was a clinical psychologist. Somehow, he developed this technique for his own use and he said it was remarkably effective if he could go to a quiet room by himself for 10 minutes or so, right after a headache started. In that quiet room, he would think about the headache and ask himself the following questions:

1) What colour is the headache?

2) What temperature is it?

3 )What substance is it made of?

4) If it was a 6 year old, what would it say?

5) If it was a well, how deep would it be?

I know these questions seem strange, but I have always found them effective to get rid of a headache, as long as I caught it within the first half hour.

I once asked a very wise art therapist, Ed Hagedorn, how the expressive arts heal. He said, “They allow us to externalize, transform and then reintegrate a problem or issue.” I think this is how asking ourselves the headache questions works too. We become able to see what the message of the headache is. Once we get the message, it seems the headache has served its purpose, and it can go away. Pretty cool, eh?

I invite you to write the headache questions down and keep them in a place where you can readily access them the next time a headache arises. I will be excited to hear whether or not they work for you too!

During the past few weeks, I have been delving into a cook book I was given at my bridal shower, 40+ years ago! This book, Cooking for Two, by Betty Crocker, is now in tatters, held together by two elastic bands. However, since some of my favourite recipes come from that book, last week I went online and ordered a new to me, used copy. The book was first published in 1964 and is so much fun to flip through, even now!

I have been making homemade macaroni and cheese every other week during the pandemic. It is fan favourite around here, so I am going to share it with you this morning!

Macaroni and Cheese

Heat up your oven to 350 degrees.

Cook 1.5 cups of macaroni noodles.

While you do, grate 2- 3 cups of medium cheddar cheese. (with some experimentation you will come to know how cheesy you like your mac and cheese!)

Get 1 cup of milk ready and 1 tbsp of butter. Grease a baking dish with some butter.

When the noodles are ready, in the baking dish alternate layers of noodles, cheese, milk, and a dollop of butter, doing that about 3 times in succession.

Place the baking dish, uncovered, into the oven for 30-40 minutes, depending on how long it takes for the top to be golden brown. ( again, it takes some trial and error!)

Prepare a tossed salad, set the table, and serve the mac and cheese right away when it’s done.

Yummy! Comforting! Filling! … It’s a winner!!

Enjoy!

Growing up, Mom always had a cleaning lady, and I have always had one too. I have looked at cleaning as a real nuisance, a necessary evil. So when I found myself having to clean for myself since mid March, I at first totally resisted it and didn’t do it, then grudgingly, when it became necessary, started in. I found I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would, especially as I had a spouse who was willing to share the duties with me, 50/50.

I have been reading Sarah Ban Breathnach’s updated and revised edition of Simple Abundance this year. In May she is writing about the home. I love what she has to say in the May 17th meditation about doing housework:

“Drudgery can be transformed, through a willing and open heart, into labors of love. I’ve mentioned it before, but it takes a little time for us to understand the profound power we have over any situation by the words we use to describe it. Start with the words that describe, or name, your efforts. The biggest catalyst for change at home was when I started calling “chores” my “tasks.” Instead of calling your daily round “housework” why not call it “caring for my home.”….. After all, caring-for yourself, your loved ones, your pets, and your home—-is truly what you are doing when you dust, change the kitty litter, sort the laundry, prepare the meals, and work in the garden.”

I read this meditation a few days ago, and shared it with my partner. Neither of us enjoy cleaning, but we were both willing to try looking at cleaning as “caring for our home.” Dusting is on my list of tasks, and I found a little quote which has changed the way I look it:

“Time to dust again.

Time to caress my house,

to stroke all its surfaces.

I want to think of it as a kind of lovemaking…

the chance to appreciate by touch

what I live with and cherish.

Gunnilla Norris

Yesterday, I tried dusting with this quote in mind, and I found it really did change the experience for me. I was dusting our dining room suite which belonged to my beloved Nana. I started remembering dinners at her house when I was growing up, and as I dusted the chair at the head of the table I remembered my grandfather, and how I got to sit at his left hand. The dining room suite is beautiful, and it could use some polishing with lemon oil. I actually think I will do that this week. Wow! Who knew dusting could be such an enjoyable experience, when viewed with a different perspective?

Thank you Sarah, and thank you Gunnilla for introducing me to a new way to approach caring for my home. May it be helpful for you too!

My mom is an excellent cook and baker. She has a great eye for a recipe which is simple, yet gets great results. Here is her recipe for what she simply calls:

Chocolate Treats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or a greased sheet of aluminum foil.

Place 40 saltine crackers, salted side up, side by side and touching, on the cookie sheet.

Combine 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of butter in a saucepan, cooking over medium heat , and stirring constantly for 3 or 4 minutes, until the mixture is bubbling and syrupy.

Pour the mixture over the crackers. Bake for 10-12 minutes and then remove from oven.

Sprinkle 2 cups of chocolate chips over the crackers and let sit for 2 minutes, while they melt. Then spread the chocolate over the crackers ( I found an icing knife worked best, but you could use a spatula too).

Now sprinkle 3/4 cup of either chopped walnuts or chopped pecans or slivered almonds over top.

Put the tray into the fridge for 30 minutes or so so the candy can cool and harden.

Take it out, and break the candy into various sized pieces.

Keep it in a covered container, either in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (but it will never last that long!) or put into the freezer.

I made the recipe on the weekend and my spouse says it is the best candy he ever tasted! I thought it gave a great result for the 30 minutes or so it took to make it!! I invite you to give it a try too either when you need a sense of accomplishment, quickly, or you have a need to do something creative and fun!

Every Saturday morning, I look forward to reading Bruce MacNaughton’s blog. He is the owner of the PEI Preserve Company and his weekly blog is a treasure trove of quotes, videos, music etc. Today he pointed us to a You Tube video called The Great Realization. It is a 4 minute bedtime story written in the form of a poem. It was, for me, an example of beautiful, insightful simple truth.

If you are interested in seeing it, if you google ‘The Great Realization Tomfoolery’, you will find it.

Enjoy!

Here is another beauty from Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart : Meditations for the Restless Soul:

In Each Moment

Oh,teach me in each moment

of every Now to know that

You are the Here in all my

wandering and the Yes in

all my wondering and the Love

in nothing less than everything.

I invite you to read this beautiful poem aloud to yourself two times. As you read, listen for the word or phrase that shimmers for you, the one that your soul is really attracted to in this moment, today.

Take a few deep breaths. Then read the poem again, and as you do, focus on the word or phrase that shimmered for you, and allow images, memories, and feelings to arise naturally from pondering that word or phrase. Breathe deeply and enjoy this unfolding.

Read the poem again and this time, listen for an invitation that may be arising from the word or phrase that called to you. Breathe deeply a few more times as you do so. Let the invitation come to you, don’t force it.

Then letting the poem, your memories,images and feelings, and the invitation go for now, simply settle into a few minutes of enjoying the presence of God, and the peace you feel, and the stillness of this moment. Breathing deeply, rest in God’s presence awhile. When you are ready, open your eyes and step back into the business of living your life today.

Sometimes I see a flower so beautiful, or read a poem so lovely that I feel like I might faint! I am not quite sure why this happens, but it’s a sure sign for me that I have come into contact with something that is really important for me. Yesterday, I started reading a book called Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul, by Jon M Sweeney and Mark S Burrows. Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) was a priest and a mystic. I read the first poem and experienced that feeling of swooning… Oh boy, the words were so beautiful and seemed so true that I wanted to share it with you:

Opening the Heart’s Door

Ours is not the work

of seeking You here

or there where we

think You might be,

but of opening

the heart’s door,

and when we do this

You cannot resist

coming in, since

our opening and Your

entering are one; You

knock and wait, and

when we open we

find that You were

there all along and

will not leave us.