May 17, 2008 I’m Back!

A vacation in Cape Cod – the only bad things were getting there and returning — a normal 5+ hour drive took over 8 hours each way.  Was it the rain?  Was it Friday? Both?  Nancy and I loved even the travel.  It’s rare to spend that much time together, but really — together.  Enough to have us overjoyed at arriving there…when plain joyed would have been enough

My favorite was finding this organic farm a few miles outside of Falmouth.  What got me was their collection of field greens, including edible flowers…Flowers!!  Who knew??  Nasturtiums…Spicy and wonderful.  Owned by a couple from Ghana.

It was cold, ridiculous for mid-May; never wore short sleeves all week.  Cold; don’t think of a wine-tasting as being for warmth.  ’nuff.  My inbox has well over 500 emails and I have to readjust to being here.

May 7, 2008 A Brief Absence

I’ve been sick and incommunicado.  Ah, well.  I’m back.  I’ll be gone next week –in Cape Cod.  Just thought I’d catch up.

Being in the hospital –entirely my stupidity – I have to look at the vcalue I got from it.  Most important, I see my most fundamental mind game:  “this doesn’t matter to me.”   I give great, great coaching.  But do I pay attention to myself?  Why should I?  This doesn’t matter to me.

I went for a walk in the hospital and I borrowed their socks.  They have grips on the bottom and they’re grey on top.  I put them on and had never seen grippers before; I thought they were decorative.  So I carefully turned them upside down.  A nurse told me it was backwards.  And I noticed how often we ALL do that – Do exactly the opposit e, thinking —no knowing — we’re doing it right.

Anyhow, a hospital is not a fit place for sick people.  They are kind and loving and do the best they can, but they really don’t have a mindset of health; they have a mindset of medicine.  They don’t have the slightest understanding of nutrition – You can’t get whole grain anything; only white rice, dot dot dot.  But they eventually get you out and it will only take a few deays for me to re-learn how tro heal myself.  This time not succumbing to “I know better; it doesn’t matter to me.”

February 17, 2008 – Another Transformation

Yesterday I erote about Chuck E Cheese.  But after I got home I had an asthma attack.  I’ve written that I just started a homeopathic regimen.  This was my first test.  Changing my regimen has evidently removed the “protection” that years of medication provide.  Rather the accumulated medicines masked my body’s sensitivity, keeping the fundamental sickness hidden.

As I become more like a thorobred and less like a mutt, I become more aware of my body, quicker to react when something is amiss.  Anyhow, I responded to the asthma attack with my homeopathic remedy, rather than my asthma medication.  And I came out of it much faster than I would have.  I was very surprised and gratified.

I realize, thought, that my diet needs to be much healthier – I can’t afford to cheat any more.  When I took a stand for environmental sustainability, I didn’t realize I was talking about my own personal one, that the spiritual fulfillment would be my own, that the social justice was mine.

November 18, 2007 The Last Pick

Today is the last picking before our organic Honeybrook Farm closes for the winter.  Nancy leaves with large bags – we’re ‘limited’ to 50 pounds – and they close to open next year with new fields and earth’s bounty for another year.

And while this has nothing to do with anything, I wonder about other places where there are last pickings, perhaps not as bountiful.  I often go to the annual Bryn Mawr book sale in Princeton.  The first day costs some minor money and has the low hanging fruit.  The second day (usually the day we go) has a good selection of what’s left.  And the third day is ‘last pickings.’  People come with shopping carts, with huge boxes– It’s all you can carry for $5.  I wonder what they do with loads of apparently random selections.

I remember going to ’sold out’ ball games – Sitting in the top rows of the bleachers — and ’sold out’ broadway shows, sitting in the top rows of the bleachers… There is something special about the last pickings, a camaraderie among the pickers – a new and ill-defined community…  But a very real one.

The last pickers are InotI defined by economics.  They are often time-pressed or moved by impulse or opportunity…interesting when looking at creativity.

November 9, 2007 What Could Be Nicer?

My granddaughter Diamond will be 7 in less than 2 weeks.  It’s fascinating to see her transitions from one stage of being into the next.  She now lives downstairs from me and I see her grow daily.

This is a teacher’s conference day — she has discovered Utube, particularly Godzilla videos and she uses Nancy’s computer, not yet having one of her own.  I told her I have to leave for a while (food shopping and library.)  “Can I come, I can borrow some tapes?”  Seven.   Utube.  Tapes & DVDs.  Aint the world I grew up in.

The sure sign of love is requests.  I’m not at all sure that’s only true with grandchildren and grandparents.  It may be universal.  Requests allow a response of no and we are so intolerant of hearing ‘no’ that to make a request implies a great trust… I think indistinguishable from love.

So a brief trip- books, tapes, — bread, steel-cut oats, raisins and love.

October 18, 2007 ShopWrong

Normally I shop at Whole Foods - My intention is to be entirely local and organic within a year.  But sometimes I have to shop at standard supermarkets -  I have the same feeling as when I go to a drug store — so weird walking through aisle after aisle of anti-drugs – candy, cigarettes,…

Anyhow, I took my daughter (and her 3 boys) to ShopRite.  She needs to budget down and can’t afford to upgrade her buying.  I had no cash or credit cards and intended to write a check.  They wouldn’t cash it.  Why not?  My wife had cashed checks at a different place twice this week.  And it’s against their policy to do it more often.  I’ve seen the new Visa ads, obnoxious but cute – And I really didn’t think there was a prjudice against check writers.

I either had to go home to get my cash or credit card or – and this is what I did – have my wife go 1/2 hour out of her way to “rescue” my daughter’s food.

This is called non-service.  The unwillingness of their young store manager to violate the store’s (rock-hard – a quote) policy for a 40+ year customer and for a young family of 5 obviously incenses me.  I will never shop there again.  The problem with these enormous food chains is they won’t care or even notice.  I wish there were local food stores again.

September 22nd, 2007 Everyone

Wottaday — Farm  – I didn’t go, but I cleaned up, made lunch and put everything away in the regrigerator — a flat out impossible job – and once it’s away I can’t find anything – because it all got stuffed in every crook and nanny.  Then I’m studying for an extraordinary course by Jay Abraham – And just when I’m rolling, I’m taking Diamond out to play (she’ll be a big sister in four days – I’ll be a frazzle)

What keeps me going with energy and brightness is that I know I’m the same as Everyone (just changing some details.)  This is where we create from.  And it’s all the way we say it is.

September 2nd, 2007 Creative Lunch

I just finished lunch – which I enjoyed immensely. Immensely,   And I realized that with the possible exception of mayonaisse, I never even heard of anything I ate as little as five years ago…

OK, I swtched from Hellman’s to Canola Mayo longer than 5 years ago.  It was a totally,   simple meal – A tomato sandwich.. I had never heard of Heirloom tomatoes — It’s as if I never ate tomatoes before.  And soft, spreadable Goat Cheese,,, on Ezekiel Sprouted Wheat (with sesame seeds) Bread.   Who knew about this?  The Heirlooms came from an organic farm – a CSA. 

Try it.

September 1st, 2007 It All Makes Sense

I was wrong about my grandson — He will arrive September 26th.

I was at the organic farm today picking blackberries and plum tomatoes.  What’s particularly nice about doing this is that we’re in a community of people with this shared value.  I was waiting for Nancy, watching Shayla and talking with  others doing the same thing.  Our little group included one each: 2, 3, 4 and 5.I can’t remember anything they said (I suppose I could make it up)–One topic was losing teeth and loose teeth.  They all knew different nonsense about it, and it made sense to them.  They discussed zebras, finally agreeing that they eat zebras in Africa…made sense to them.  And giraffes eat leaves, not kangaroos.  (I know giraffes don’t eat kangaroos; the topic was leaves)

And I began to see our own thought processes — not so different as we get older.  We’ll hear something that we decide is plausible and the leap to ‘true’ is hardly noticeable.  The closes we come to learning about thinking is Geometry.  We confuse learning to get right answers with thinking/

August 11th, 2007 It’s all next week

A week from today our youngest daughter gets married and family is coming in from Germany, from Maine and from Massachsetts (we don’t count NY, NJ, & Pa.) And they start coming on Tuesday.

Today we took our 2 granddaughters to the organic farm – This is truly the bountiful part of the year.  Heritage Tomatoes (5 lbs) and 6lbs of regular NJ tomatoes AND 2 lbs of yellow or red cherry tomatoes plus peppers, hot peppers, 6 lbs of onions, many, many potatoes, beets, raspberries, watermelon + more

Now – we have to figure out how to store and divide the food.  Bruschetta – yes; Ratatouille, of course, … cole slaw?  maybe, Caesar Salad — Sure.  It’s not the kind of creation I trhink I write about, but I notice that food crops up (ho ho) often.  See you tomorrow.