Comfort Food

In life, we all have our comfort zones. It is especially true when we retreat to our “favorite” foods. These are foods we might have grown up with, foods we have reached for in times of stress or celebration.

 Source:  Bread, Water, Salt, Oil...

Our comfort food can range from a bag of M&M's, a peanut butter and banana sandwich with sweet pickles, rice krispie squares, a tenderloin steak with mushrooms. The definition of what foods comfort us is ours and ours alone.

While food can be a comfort zone when we need that escape back to “normalcy,” we also need the comfort of a cocoon, whether it's a place, friends or family.

Starting working on your cocoon before you need it.

The Power of Food

Food has many manifestations. In it's raw state, it can be either food or the raw material for a dish.

Food represents the best of an area. Every area is renown for some local specialty. Even withing an area, the specialty will have as many variations as the people preparing the dish.

Copyright:  Frank Sapp

Slovenia dinners will start with a soup. Mushrooms are one of the preferred main ingredient for a soup. Seven days in Slovenia – Mushroom soup prepared seven different ways.

Not to improve on a “classic,” but to make it your own.

Taking a process and thought and making it your own, is part of the trial and error of finding your way and your voice.

Going beyond recipes and soups what else can we make our own?

The Bountiful Table

From the ground to the table with as little delay and the least amount of handling; nothing can compare to the taste and nutritional value of in season foods reaching us shortly after being picked. 

Short of growing our own produce (which many of us do to an extent) is there a way to short circuit the process to our benefit.

Every area has a location where farmers can offer their produce directly to consumers. State Farmer’s Markets allow farmers to offer their produce not only to volume buyers.  More and more areas are setting up temporary markets to allow growers to offer in season produce directly to producers. 

Look for them.  If you can’t find one, maybe you should think about starting your own. 

Start small, think local, eat well.

(in the future, we’ll talk about Aleš Čerin of Slovenia who has set up a project to live on 1€ A Day)

The Debt AND Default

Contrary to what is being reported by the MSM, the U S Government has defaulted on its' debt before.

 

Attribution: motoyen

Tithe Continental-Currency Default

The Default on Continental Domestic Loans

The Greenback Default of 1862

The Liberty Bond Default of 1934

The Momentary Default of 1979

(Source: History of U.S. Debt Defaults

It's not the first time that debt default has been skirted and it won't be the last.

If we do default, it won't be the first time either.

And the impact if the US does default? For the everyday person, very little impact initially. After a period of time, an increase in the prices of all imports, especially petroleum and food commodities. Eventually leading to price controls, rationing and artificial scarcity. The possible breakdown of law and order especially in the more urban areas; imposition of martial law...

Sorry to revert to a past life as an economist, but there is a reason Economics is referred to the dismal science.

Choices V

Everyone during their lifetime has made a choice and always wondered what would have happened on the “road not chosen?”

Most of our choices are not life changing but the fulfillment of wants and needs; going to the beach vs. the Mountains; Steak v. fish; an exotic dish vs a tried and true dish. The list is endless.

It's also why we develop wish lists or bucket lists. Things we would “like” to do when we have the time. At a certain point, we need to plan the timeto work on that list; otherwise it will not only grow bigger but stagnate. Finishing an item on our list, gives us a break from the routine of our daily life and keeps us from stagnating.

Find an item on your wish list and start working on clearing it from your list.

Skydive anyone?

Choices IV

Being that life is a series of choices, how we make those choices says a lot about how we approach life itself.

Do we research and analyze our options before making a choice or do we have a period of reflection, dive head first into the choice.

by Admissions360

Analysis by Paralysis doesn't work. Use your gut feelings and make your choice!

The theory behind multiple choice tests say that usually your first answer is the correct one.

And most of the time if you do make an incorrect choice, no one dies.

It doesn't hurt to research, cut somehow you already know the right choice.

Choices III

To Learn or Not to Learn that is the question.

 

by Chris P Jobling

With the internet, open source education, public libraries, we always have a choice about learning.

An expert in any field is only one or two clicks away. It's our choice whether to take advantage of learning or not.

The problem might be that learning will expand our horizons, forcing us to change or least modify our outlook on life. Change is always resisted.

That may be why so many resist learning – making the choice NOT to change.

Choices II

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

© Copyright Kenneth Allen and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

We can see opportunities be every day. It's our choice as to what we do with those opportunities. The choice to pick a specific opportunity; he choice to reject other opportunities are .

Our choice is what to do with the opportunities we do keep. 

Will the opportunity be used for “good” or “evil?”

Will our choice be to ignore it or take advantage. Will we follow through or let the Dragon(s) stop us before we ship?

Make the choice of  opportunity and ride with it.

Bastille Day, The Marquis DeSade and Coffee

Coffee is a stimulating drink inspiring contemplation, camaraderie and every so often revolution.

 

 copyright capl@washjeff.edu under a creative commons license

The Cafe Foy was the “launching” point for the overthrow of the Bastille.
 

After debating the colors of the revolution, Camille Demoulins jumped on the table and led the patrons out to overthrow the French Aristocracy.

A coffee side note to this auspicious event was the impact the Marquis DeSade had in instigating it.

After losing his coffee privileges, the Marquis DeSade began the false rumor that political prisoners were being executed in the Bastille. This is probably the reason the Bastille was stormed, there were no political prisoners or executions at all, BUT there was a large armory which played a critical part during the revolution.

Bartel Sinhuber remarks that whether political, artistic, or literary, revolutions in Vienna always started in the coffeehouse.

So when you're in your local coffeehouse/gathering place, take a moment to observe your fellow patrons. One of them may not be fomenting a political revolution, but a technological revolution with just as much impact.

 

Choices I

“An act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities “

Life is a series of choices. They define us. Our choices become part of us guiding future choices. Choices made in our early years place us on paths we may not realize we're going.

Attribution:  Orin Zebest:

Choices range from the mundane to the life changing. The problem is we're not always sure which choice  MIGHT be a life changer.

Self Definition

"Something you might not know: When I was in high school, I got really sad about the idea of being a writer. I mean, I wanted to be a writer, but everything I knew about writers made them seem boring and stodgy, or they were older men and alcoholics and depressed. I didn't want to be any of those things. I wanted to have fun and be silly, like a rock star.

But now that I'm older, I realize I can be whatever writer I want to be. That's an important truth. Or at least is to me. You live your life on your terms. Don't let anybody else's definitions rule you. Define yourself."

• Amanda Hocking, Blog Post July 9, 2011

unreimbursed, unsolicited shameless plug

Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson echoes the same thoughts.

While we can read these words, it takes a while for the comprehension to occur. After that the impact of the statement to be absorbed.

We make choices in life, how many are our choices or choices dictated by others.

Small Town Values IV – Crossnore NC

A simple idea, an impoverished rural area and a goal

In 1913 doctors Eustace and Mary Martin Sloop started a school in the poverty entrenched mountains of western North Carolina, because they believed...

"Education is the best way for a child to rise above his circumstances."

 Sloop Chapel, Crossnore School

Education is still the best way to rise above circumstances. With the resources available through libraries, continuing education, webinars and open courses on the internet, it's hard not to learn

What are you learning today, this week, this month...?

Small Town Values III – Crossnore NC

In a small town, in spite of everyone knowing everyone AND their business, there is still a need to make a public commitment.

It was probably obvious to everyone that there was going to be a commitment made, the only question was the timing.

Is it time to make our commitments public?

Small Town Values II – Crossnore NC

Community means working with others. There are many things an individual can do on their own, but many things require the efforts of others.

A community of individuals pulls together to help each other. One of the more visible manifestations of community is the Volunteer Fire Department. Rather than a dedicated group of fire fighters, there is a core group of community members ready to respond at the sound of the fire siren.

No less professional than a full time crew, but not on fixed duty.

Their incentive – to preserve their community.

Small Town Values I - Crossnore NC

A small town (population 292) with strong values and a deep history.

Crossnore Fourth of July 2011

 Not a Norman Rockwell painting but a picture of reality today in Small Town America

Looking at generations of living in the North Carolina Mountains – descendents of The American Revolution. 

Remembering the past and looking to the future.

A celebration in all the meanings of the word.

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Live Free or Die

Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.

General John Stark

Are there worst things than death. Most assuredly!

Think of having no choice in anything, enslaved and no free will.

 credit: incurable_hippie on Flickr

Going beyond mere chains, there is the enslavement to compulsions and addictions. These can bind us just as securely,

Just as people over the years have thrown off the yoke of conquerors, it's time to throw off the yoke of other enslavements.

Unbound

And this is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
This is why
This is why we fight
Come hell

The Decemberists – “This Is Why We Fight”

There are principles worth fighting for. This is a weekend to remember why we can live and die with our arms unbound. 

There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Indepence. All were willing to fight to live and die with their arms unbound

With our arms unbound, our minds can be as well.

Do we need to continue the fight now or have we decided that being bound is sufficient for our needs?

Fight for unbound minds as well as unbound arms.

Recharge for Change

The time during Change can be both exhilarating and invigorating. It can also be exhausting and energy draining. 

During the most hectic times of change, both mind and body need time to stop and recharge.

The highs are inevitably followed by lows.  The adrenaline rush is lost and the energy level collapses. 

A brief respite can work wonders for the body and spirit. A respite can not only be a time of rebuilding strength, but a time for reflection and assimilation of experiences. 

photo by Rachel Ford James on Flickr

The time to assimilate allows the mind to recharge along with the body.

Are you stopping along the way to smell the roses or are you passing by so quick that they’ve become a blur of colors?