Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. The Universe Is Unconditional Love.

<< We were created out of love, to be loved, and covered in unconditional, inexhaustible love from the very Source of love. So for us to live as if we were unloved is the limitation, self-imposed, not the other way around. Living with the perception of being unloved is like clipping a bird's wing and removing its ability to fly. A bird is not defined by being grounded, but by her ability to fly.

Remember this: humans are defined not by their limitations, but by the intentions the Universe has for them; not by what people seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in the image of the Eternal.

Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. The Universe Is Unconditional Love.

If any one thing matters then all things matter. Because each of us is important, everything we do is important. Every time we forgive, the universe changes; every time we reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, The Universe's eternal purposes are accomplished and nothing will be the same again.

Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person's throat. All the Universe wants from us is to trust with what little we can, and grow in loving people around us with the same love poured upon and in and through us. It's not our job to change others, or to convince them, of anything. We are free to love without an agenda.

Oh! So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is The Knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. ~ mostly William Paul Young from The Shack >>

2020: Looking back, looking foward

We can be taught through experience? or we can learn through Wisdom. Which will it be. Do you want the learning to happen TO you? or do you want to willingly study and prepare, do you want to be ready to be actively engaged so that you don’t have to RE-act, you can have as much of the situation under control as possible. Sure, no kiddin’, the chaos is still gonna fly around our heads, but srsly, I’m sick to death of allowing circumstances to dictate my impulses, I’m tired as all get out of being pummeled by selfishness and ugliness, that I think it best to study up, prep up, train like an athlete, and face our destiny head on like warriors.

Listen, I don’t mean to threaten you with a good time, but we can do this the easy way or the hard way, and the EASY way is going to take A LOT of work. It’s going to take a selfless concerted effort on our part, on the part of those who are awake while they’re alive, those who are paying attention and who want to strive to make this world a better place. We’ll talk about the 1960s in a second, but meanwhile …

All these happenings in the heavens are all going to happen with or without our consent, and they are going to happen with or without our cooperation, too. We can swim in the current and navigate our trajectory through it, gorgeously, or we can let it hit us, knock us off our feet, tumble us ass over teakettle, and sweep us in its wake. I mean, we can just walk outside and hit the pavement, push our way through the wind and have the elements pelt us, do our very best Lear with ye olde, “Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!”

but srsly?  WHY ! do we want to continue to live the hard way when there’s SUCH an EASIER way. Because it’s gonna take some work? Well TOUGH TIDDY ! Know what? There are no grown-ups in the room, people ! So, know what that makes US !?!? THE GROWN UPS IN THE ROOM people. WE’RE the ones who are going to have to continue and double-down putting in all this karmic yoga. WE’RE the ones who must continue in selfless actions, philanthropy, volunteering, and embracing selflessness. The era upon which we’re embarking is for the common good, not for individual glory.

I know that sounds very far away, especially looking around us at all the ugliness, but the day is going to come when there are going to be more of us than of that, because it’s what happens when the extreme implodes and the pendulum starts to swing the other way. Karmic Yoga is a means of serving the community and saving the world. There's no goal of glory or fame involved, there’s also no bitching allowed either; we have to pour sweet and kind and good and whatever is charming and beautiful and worthy in to the ether so that it can get in to the stream and spread throughout the Universe.

I know I jumped head first in to this, I’m sorry/not sorry, but I thought it might help to come at an astrological forecast through the back door and not begin with the astrological jazz words. There are eternal dispositions to every one of these massive celestial objects which spin and whirl and twirl and twinkle in the heavens because they’re the exact same ways in which they’ve been dancing since they first exploded on the scene. People been studying and charting and graphing their behaviours and our responses to their positions in this universe for thousands of years, so … we can navigate the immediate future the easy way or the hard way, and here's what's transpiring as we speak.

See, we are moving out of two centuries of an epoch ruled by materialism and might-makes-right (the age of Pisces), and into an era of two centuries of interrelatedness and community (the age of Aquarius). It’s not going to be an easy transition, but some light news is after this Mercury retrograde at the end of March? things are going to speed up at a mind-numbing pace. A door to a radically changed world is about to be unlocked in late March and kicked wide open by December when the forecast says all this … ugliness ... will resolve itself. By the end of the upcoming three year period, if we’re not personally radically changed beings, then we really are just coasting.

Now, know what? COASTING IS PERFECTLY RESPECTABLE, #NoJudge. I am fine and dandy where I am.  But know what else? There’s so much more to do. There’s so much more I can do if I’m given the gift of another day. and if I can stomach the selfishness of sitting on what’s been given me? If I don’t make the most and the best use of all the resources at my disposal? Then that’s a shande as they say in Yiddish, a shame … a low-down dirty shame … a misuse of gifts and talents and opportunities afforded me each and every day I wake, and the LEAST I can do is some Karmic Yoga … not for the benefit of Karmic Cleansing, not for any benefit on my part, but for the betterment of humankind, pitching in … it’s the least we can do, no?

Okay, I know I buried the lede, but here we go, DEFINITIONS FIRST !

• JUPITER: The planet symbolized as the sky god ! the god of thunder. Know what thunder is? The result of lightning. Know what lightening is? When nature equalizes itself after a buildup of electrostatic energy. The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces a rapid expansion of air and creates a sonic shock wave, often referred to as a "thunderclap" or "peal of thunder". Thunder and lightning are ways the Universe cleanses itself from a buildup of tension. JUPITER is also the bringer of Light, the god of gods. JUPITER's temperament is philosophical, variety loving, knowledgeable. JUPITER LOVES expansion, indulgence, growth, optimism, risk taking. JUPITER  governs our ethics, our philosophy about life, where we want to learn and how we can benefit from that knowledge. JUPITER is a lucky charm that expands whatever it touches, thus showing what it is that we do on a large scale. JUPITER is about the search for truth, and governs law, religion, philosophy, and education.

• SATURN: The planet symbolized by the god of farmers, sort of, the god of agriculture kind of, the patron of sowing and harvest, seeds and wealth, abundance. SATURN LOVES hardworking and ambitious people with discipline and commitment. SATURN LOVES to reward those persons who work hard with fame and success and achievement and a sterling legacy. Saturn describes our ambition in life, our major life lessons, and our feelings of inadequacy. SATURN informs us about restrictions, limitations, boundaries, safety, and practicality. 

• CAPRICORN: The star sign ruled by Saturn and embodies all of the above attributes of the planet Saturn.

• AQUARIUS:   The star sign who says, "We’re in this together, I am a connector, I achieve and desire to achieve and make a name for myself in this world; I am orderly, a planner, ambitious, and know how to have and maintain discipline."

So … Jupiter and Saturn are huge, big planets that have a lot of gravitational pull in the galaxy. Every 30 years, Saturn comes back to the exact place it was when you were born. Your 29th to 30th year on this planet is very important, it’s called your “Saturn Return Year,” and it KIND of solidifies the type of person you're going to be for a while … we sort of come to some conclusions around 25, 26, we experiment trying on different personalities and costumes, but about 28? 29? our subconscious starts to firm up who we are and it’s not just the “ohmuhguh I’m turning 30 !” sort of thing, it’s actually a force greater than our fears.

So … Jupiter chases Saturn through the heavens, and every TWENTY years, Saturn and Jupiter end up spending time together in the same place, the same “house,” the same area of the wheel of the zodiac. Every SIXTY years, Saturn and Jupiter come “home” to Capricorn where they are most comfortable, where they have “Dignity” because they are in their home turf, where they have the highest universal vibration, and where they are most powerful in influence.

Know what 2020 - 60 is? 1960. Remember what happened in the 60s? Chaos, yes, but a destruction of all norms, all strongholds on what is true and good and right and just. All the walls surrounding all the lies came tumbling down and all the people who did the most harm were uncovered, at least, even though many not brought to justice. Even though many of the lessons learned were easily forgotten or misplaced or taken over by other forces like the "ME" generation of the 70s, the "GREED" generation of the 80s, the bills which came due in the 90s, and the general flailing of the aughts and here we are ...

So right now we’re going in to a period where the cosmos is lined up in such a way that we can completely change who we are and our trajectory through this existence. Like … you know those times when people say

… outside of like rehab, but rehab too, I guess, I mean like

someone goes from being a paralegal to being Wanda Sykes

someone goes from gluing plastic flowers on to his mother’s flip flops to being Michael Kors

THAT is the level of complete Doctor Who Regeneration possible to each of us is right now in this era … as everything else swoops around us, and things get faster and nastier until it all implodes, we are able, right at this second, not as much to make our dreams come completely true, as we are literally on The Cusp of A Great New Age, building an infrastructure to support a major refocusing, setting priorities, learning on a whole new level, and being inspired to achieve a legacy that is worthy of the gifts we've been given.

REALISE ! however, this is taking place in Aquarius. Aquarius is concerned with the environment and with paring down excesses. Notice the new plastic bag ban that is coming in to effect, notice little things you might be sacrificing, ordering in, going out, to save up for a Ninja Foodie or a cruise (ooo, not a cruise, a trip to a domestic seashore far away from international travelers ... sorry ... too soon?). Think of these adjustments not as punishments but for sacrifices which will reward in days and years to come.

It is possible right now to begin starring an entirely different movie if we want to, and the universe is POISED to remove all the obstacles in our way, bless our every step with bounty and peace and prosperity and auspicious voyages …

Pam Gregory says that if we can just allow ourselves these monumental blessings, if we will just get out of our own way, do the work, and allow these blessings to come upon us, we can use these months “positively to find a sense of deeper personal purpose to live with a deeper state of meaning in our lives … like it's almost starting our life with a blank sheet of paper because the veil is so thin between the inconceivable galactic energies which are descending into our earth plane right now, so much so that … this is a superb time to create an entirely new life for ourselves … and the more we can forget the past the better …

... so we need to just get that blank sheet of paper, meditate, think of what we would really like to offer to the world, living with a deeper sense of meaning and a deeper sense of personal purpose, and what best of ourselves we can bring to the party to help heal the planet.”

One of the blessings of Mercury in retrograde during this era is, anything that stalls? any business dealings, any writings, any projects, any communications which don’t quite click? the stalling gives us the opportunity to check our work, to cross the Ts and dot the Is and wow is THAT an antiquated phrase. The pause gives us time to make absolutely sure that everything is absolutely correct. THIS is the time to do our breath work. THIS is the time to meditate, to chant, to ruminate. THIS is the time when the Galactic Center is open to us, hears us, blesses us, and is at its highest frequency in our consciousness.

We are well blessed by imagining a column of white, diamond-sparkly light coming from above through the top
 of our head, pouring that light in to our heart’s center, and imagining breathing through that center and expanding the light throughout the universe. The cross of a “t,” the light down from up and out through us. We are poised to make quantum leaps in our own elevation and the world’s evolution.

I’ll close with this right now because there’s an important watch-cry for the next, oh, 90 years that I think we need to employ:

SIMPLE IS BESTEST. 

If you're writing something and it's three paragraphs? make it one. Especially right now during this Mercury Retrograde (Feb/Mar 2020)? Especially through the end of the year? We may have every best intention on the planet to tell someone something? But if they have no ears to hear it, it’s going to possibly go south, possibly be used against us.

There is no “convincing” anyone of anything right now, people are locked down, baybee, locked down TIGHT, and they’re not letting go. They’re happy in what they swear works, they say they don’t want to bitch and moan and the next thing you know they’re reposting something HORRIBLE about this one or that thing and all you can do is shake your head. They know spreading discord is antithetical to a life filled with bubbling joy, but habits are hard break. The older I get the more I realise why old southern women do that thing, that shake their head thing, with a wry smile and say, mmph mmph mmph.

Listen, now, conversely, people are going to be careless with what they’re saying, and a good way not to get caught up in the misunderstanding on OUR side is just the old side-step.  People are going to tromp through puddles, but you can just jump to the side and not get caught, not get splashed on.

We are NOT required to engage, you know, we are NOT required to respond. That’s where the old chestnut “bless your heart” comes from, and you don’t even have to say it out loud. I don’t CARE anymore if people think I’m rude, I literally just stand there now, I literally just walk away. I can't afford to say anything anymore because it’s not worth it to me, it’s like talking to a drunk.

When I MUST engage, I give it the old E.S.T. routine, Erhard Seminars Training, a.k.a Meisner Acting Method, “What I think I hear you saying is this, and then I repeat what they just said to me back to them with no line readings, no emotion, just the exact words they used. I've LITERALLY had people completely deny they said any of that, and most times they’ll hear how awful or stupid or careless what they said was, and they’ll try to fix it with backpedals or new utterances, but “Honestly, Lucy,” it’s just exhausting and so much better to let it be and let them figure things out for themselves.

There is SO much more to talk about, but let's start with this, shall we? now you have the overview? Peace, dear ones, and love and soul ...

<< Harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding. No more falsehoods or derisions! Golden living dreams of visions, mystic crystal revelation, and the mind's true liberation ... Aquarius ... >>

Mercury Retrograde Once and For All permalink

Hello, stargazers. Love you. This is going to be one of two longish entries because of the monumental shifts transpiring in the Universe which will affect us for the next 30, 60, 90 years and require a look-back to 1960, 2000, and even 1100 ! c.e. ! isn’t that thrilling ?!?!

THIS post is going to be a permalink for MERCURY RETROGRADE and this information is ALWAYS true, regardless of where Mercury is Right Now on [INSERT DATE HERE]. These are the Cosmic Rules for a Mercury Retrograde.

p.s.: I haven’t been writing lately because it seemed to be the same old thing: "new moons offer a chance to sew new dreams; full moons bring to fruition the dreams we sewed; Be Kind Rewind, lather rinse repeat." So, ganug already with all of that, you got bored, I got bored … and then I was sitting in the sacristy the other Sunday and the 15 minute warning bell sounded and it reminded me of my time in the rolling hills of southern Indiana when those same sounds called us back to the Abbey and we would hike up our skirts and say, “SISTERS ! WE’RE LATE FOR PRAYERS !” … (okay, maybe that was just me? I can’t remember, but) I remembered at that moment there have ritually been bells which ring to remind us to bring our spirits home, to center ourselves, to ready ourselves from a higher purpose … and so if there needs to be a yenta to clang the teakettle, then let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

THE FAKE-NEWS-IN-ASTROLOGY-REPORTING IS THE TERROR BAKED IN TO THE WORDS “MERCURY RETROGRADE,” okay? So quit pushing that narrative please? Mercury retrogrades are WONDERFUL ! ya know why?

“I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way s/he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Maya Angelou, sweetie. She goes on to say, “I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”

If you’re new to the ‘ole Rumi chestnut: "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself,” then Mercury Retrogrades are thee Perfect time to experience the LEISURE the Universe offers us during these periods. OH ! it can be such a languorous time ‘cause GUESS WHAT ! there’s NOTHING you can DO about it except have aye GORGEOUS sense of humour about the whole thing.

When calamity strikes, it’s a time for you to shine, to be that devil-may-care gal in all the ‘40s fashion shots, laughing at it all, "AH ! ha ha ha !," and remember that beauty is not in “good looks,” no; beauty is grace, grace under pressure and stress; beauty resonates from the heart and pours out of the eyes and makes the entire Being glow with a radiance that falls on everyone in its path. OH ! to be in the company of a truly beautiful human, who never wishes to be regarded, no; they turn your gaze to something truly beautiful like some flowers out the window, the perfection of this cup of coffee, the magik of the moment you’re sharing; true beauty isn’t something one possesses, true beauty is a gift we give others.

“Okay cute, Auntie, but my computer just froze, all my crap is on there, I lost my phone, I missed my train, my email was hacked, and I keep getting in to fights because no one can hear anything I’m saying which is all intentionally life-giving.”

Yeah, I get all that and I love ya like my best pair of socks, but you knew we were going on a months-long journey and I told you to pack a change of clothes and some nibbly things … We gotta be growed up and know that if we’re in a period when transportation is going to CONSISTENTLY be thwarted, then we need to LEAVE EXTRA EARLY and if we don’t, and our plans are stalled (STALLED, HELLOWUH, sitting still in space) then that’s on us and it’s a no bitching zone. (and seriously, if you don't back up your data or if your data isn't in the cloud and on a thumb drive then please join us in the 21st Century. Thank you.)

I mean, BITCH ALL YOU WANT ! PLEASE ! LET IT OUT ! LET IT RIP ! LET IT ROAR ! but it CAN’T continue to be a monologue you pull out four times a year every time you show up somewhere, every time you’re in the middle of a typical stall, and you walk in and serve a performance of "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS CRAP" over and over and over again. Aren't YOU tired of it? It's EXHAUSTING and  it’s cancerous, that kind of thing, and it spreads like wildfire.

Why not choose beauty instead, and take along a copy of Atlas Shrugged or shoplift the new issue of Vogue on your way to the train or take some beautiful sheets of paper and a gorgeous liquid pen and WRITE someone a friggin’ LETTER. Write it to yourself ! about how FRUSTRATED you are being stalled on a train under the east RIVER for an hour, but for the love of apple strudel, DON’T say you didn’t know it was going to happen, DON’T sit there and add to a collective evil YAMMER about how the subway sucks and people suck and Mercury Retrograde sucks …

evil really does feel good, doesn't it? being mean is so satisfying and spreading discord brings a great self-satisfaction because it catches so quickly that fire, but those days are over and gone, please? WE MUST BE BETTER than this, we MUST CONCENTRATE on THEE COLLECTIVE GOOD or we’re not going to come out of this era whole or kind or nice or healthy, it’s going to be like Pottersville in It’s a Horrible Life because George Bailey was never there to be selfless. WE are George Bailey, get it?.

Can’t you see, darling one, that the Universe gives us these respites through the symbol of the planet Mercury for our very own good? To breathe, to restock, to replenish, to check ourselves walking through this life? Let’s take a look, definitively, at Mercury, shall we?

Mercury is the ruling planet of both:

• Virgo (I serve, I analyze, I am logical, I am efficient, I pursue health and thrive on routine); and
• Gemini (with quick wit and brilliant intellect, I connect to the Universe through self-expression and personal observation).

Mercury has its highest power when it is in Virgo and

• Aquarius (We’re in this together, I am a connector, I achieve and desire to achieve and make a name for myself in this world, I am orderly, a planner, ambitious, and know how to have and maintain discipline). 

[I KNOW this bit is an o.t., I know this bit is “off tangent,” but it is NOT ! off topic. When we’re speaking of a retrograde which is just a planet who went one way, then traced its path backwards and is now coming forward on the same path, we necessarily need to look at the “shadow” side of these signs, the sign on the opposite side of the astrological wheel, because the planet is going backwards, hello, and also the negative aspects of that opposite sign (THEE VERY WORST of the unrepentant spirit’s default) which is the worst case of any scenario that can occur during a Mercury retrograde, just so we can see how that negativity can manifest in our spirit.

So the shadow of

• Virgo is Pisces: With Virgo, "Mercury expresses the way that we integrate what we experience and how we make sense of the world around us through our mind." The shadow side of Pisces is to just give up. OH ! do they give the best pity parties, and they can drag ass. The bed can be on fire and they are positive that someone else is gonna get a hose. They will avoid conflict at all costs and at the first trip or spill of the day? they’re gonna go home, get in bed, pull the covers over their head, and stay there until it’s safe (and they DON’T want to TALK about it).
• Gemini is Sagittarius: The shadow side of Sagittarius is touchy about criticism so much so that you can’t even DEAL with them, they are completely unapproachable. They react violently if their actions are judged to be wrong, they don’t want to be micromanaged, they’re not going to check their work, they’re just going to shoot information out from every orifice, and if you look over their shoulder you’re gonna walk away with a bloody stump. Sagitarians are very physical and can put a lot of vitality into an argument … “it’s called, uh … OOMPH. (#TheWomen)”; and the shadow side of
• Aquarius is Leo: The dark side Leo is personified by this era in U.S. politics: the trait is schadenfreude, sheer and utter delight in other’s misfortunes and glee in watching them suffer. It's worse when they act like they're sorry, and it's over-the-top insincere. Leos throw temper tantrums, especially if they feel ignored and they will drop you like a hot rock to find someone else to pay attention to them. 

Now let’s get back to it …]


<< In classical Roman mythology, Mercury is the messenger of the gods, noted for his speed and swiftness. Astrologically speaking, Mercury represents the principles of communication, mentality, thinking patterns, rationality and reasoning, and adaptability and variability. Mercury governs schooling and education, the immediate environment of neighbors, siblings and cousins, transport over short distances, messages and forms of communication such as physical mail, email and telephone, newspapers, journalism and writing, information gathering skills and physical dexterity. It is the planet of day-to-day expression and relationships. Mercury's action is to take things apart and put them back together again. It is an opportunistic planet, decidedly unemotional and curious. In medicine, Mercury is associated with the nervous system, the brain, the respiratory system, the thyroid and the sense organs. >> sort of Wiki

We good? We get it? So what happens in a retrograde is:

 

There’s a ramp up to Mercury Retrograde Station where Mercury just sits in the heavens and STALLS before it goes BACKWARDS to see if you’re paying ATTENTION ! and to give you a chance to settle in, and get ready. That ramp up you'll sometimes feel, and you'll be all ... my printer just exploded, do you think there's a Mercury Retrograde coming? and then in middle of the whole thing Mercury sits again at a Mercury Direction Station where you get a chance to say, "Hey ... I could be kinder, I could learn to be still, I could extend my mercy on someone instead of kicking them in the throat," and then Mercury trots along smartly to push ALL the lessons we didn’t learn RIGHT back in our face … Sorry, I’m sure there are more lovely ways to phrase that, but time is running out, kids, and we need to start shining with peace and love and joy and stop pushing crabbiness, discord, and dis-ease, m’kay?

Maybe we might try “Clearing Our Shadow,” looking at each Mercury Retrograde cycle as a small wake up call and an opportunity to notice when we are caught up in the patterns of our own shadow. It is during Retrogrades that we tend to be less conscious, that we tend to re-act as opposed to bend in the breeze, and we get caught up in the chaos instead of keeping steady. Moreover, when we act from this place, we set ourselves up for frustration and failure.

The two pauses Mercury makes, the one just before going backwards, and the one just before trotting forwards, are breaths the Universe gives us to take stock, to decide who we want to be, to get it together to proceed feyusly through the world. We are given those gorgeous opportunities to choose, so, Let’s Choose Life, shall we? Let’s choose goodness and kindness. Let’s plan ahead, let’s get out of the way, let’s extend peace and life-giving words. Yeah, it’s all very expensive, but don’t you think it’s the least we can do for the gift of waking up each day?

Some of this is Roman Oleh Yaworsky.

CROCK POT: (Green) Split Pea Soup

I was given this recipe by Terry King in, like, 1994 as we were coming down from the elevator sky lobby in the World Trade Center where we both worked. We got down to the street, she climbed on to the back of a Harley driven by this GAWJUS man who vroom vroomed me, and as they pulled away she screamed, DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE WEENIE ! and they disappeared in to the sunset on their way back to Brooklyn. I've been working it often and well since then, but it's only the spirit of that recipe that survives.

Reason is, it's an old Irish recipe of her mom which involves a ham bone her mom would beg from the butcher. Times were hard by them, she a single working mother of several kids, most of whom grew up to be police and fire captains, and she was a legal secretary downtown. There's no seasoning to it, it's just a Hambone, dried peas, carrots, onions, tinned potatoes, 6 cups of water, and you leave it to cook until the spoon stands up straight in the pot. Terry's mom would buy a foot long hot dog on her way home that night, cut it up in to pieces and stir that in so everyone would get a little meat for that meal. That part still kills me and I honor her with that every time I turn this recipe.

So, the problem with my version is, I grew with smoked ham that had a sweet glaze. Wuhl, everything was sweet by us, and our ham was no exception. You mix French's mustard with brown sugar and Autumn Spices and slather than on the skin, 350 for an hour and 300 for two hours done. There's also a version with pineapple for summer (with a side salad of iceburg lettuce topped with a pineapple slice and scoop of cottage cheese, you're welcome), and I know some low country common folk who use a can of CoCola too, but I always found that bunred quickly ...

So, anyway, when it came time for me to make this soup, I would use the hambone and skin and leftover bits, and there was always that yummy pumpkin-pie-ie kind of deep woodsy flavor to my soup. Fast forward to me getting married to a Yankee, and his people teaching me about a "Fresh Ham", a "pork shoulder," a "picnic ham" and my life changed dramatically. Boy are THOSE good and less sugar is always better so ... but ... the first time I made the pea soup I didn't know WHAT had gone wrong, it was like some Yankee-Bean-ass flavorless crap they feed you in prison (movies) or nursing homes.

So, I'm sorry there are no measurements to this, I'm  just gonna give you what I got. I'm talking about a normal-sized oval crock pot, nothing fancy, and here we go. Kisses. p.s.: You need this recipe and I pray you enjoy it and that it brings you health. p.p.s. you can also make a ham, FREEZE the bone, and pull it out weeks later. LAST pee ess: you can also use hamhocks instead and take a ham steak and chop that up, that works ok. xoxo

• 1 Hambone
• Dried green split peas, one 16 ounce package
• Chopped onions
• Chopped carrots
• 1 or 2 cans of sliced potatoes
• 6 cups of chicken stock
• 1 or 2 frankfurters at the last

So ... one of the things I do is, the night before? I drain the sliced potatoes and rinse them off thoroughly, then I soak them in some water for about an hour? and then after I drain them again, I sprinkle the top with sodium-free chicken bouillon powder, cover that with water, and let that sit until morning. Can they be real potatoes? yes. I suggest little red potatoes with the skin still on them, please.

DO NOT USE BABY CARROTS. You can google how they MAKE baby carrots, it's so gross. You're gonna cut, like, half-inch-think slices of carrots? and you're going to want them to cover the bottom of the crock pot. Not too much more than that.

You're gonna cut up some onions. I prefer, always, sweet, Vidalia onions, and you want a nice rough cut, like, half-inch-think pieces? enough to cover the bottom of the crock pot. not too much more than that.

You're going to dump the potatoes on top of this and toss all those up together. One to two tins, or half-inch-thick slices of real potatoes.

If my husband weren't a Yankee, this is where I would sneak in a few hundred shakes of hot sauce.

Now ... you want to lay your bone(s) down. Also any skin left over, and any fatty chunks you've trimmed. These are all glorious goodness in the soup.

Now the beans. There are people who wash them? Sometimes I run some water over them? but I don't do anything dramatic because they STICK to everything so I'm a little lazy about that. Pour them in to the nooks and crannies around the bones in the crock pot, and try to make sure none of them are on the tippy top of anything, else they're going to get dried up and brown.

I'm now going to give directions with the oval of the crock pot, the long way, going north and south () and I'm going to call north to south "top to bottom."

Take some French's Golden Yellow Mustard and squirt a thin ribbon in the crock pot like a wave., top to bottom.

Take some handfuls of brown sugar and crumble them over the top of the crock pot, top to bottom.

Take a jar of allspice, then a jar of cinnamon and lightly shake them back and forth the length of the crock pot, top to bottom.

Take a jar of cloves and shake it back and forth HALF way down the crock pot, top to bottom.

Take a jar of nutmeg and shake it back and forth the OTHER half of the crock pot, top to bottom.

And we're done. Pour 6 cups of chicken broth in to the nooks and crannies. Everything just fits.

I put that on low and slow and go to work and come home to THEE most delicious smell ever. I'm sure it's done done after six hours, but I leave it for eight and up to 10.

Don't forget to  push your weenies down in there at the last, and remember to say a prayer for all the mothers out there who make a banquet from nothing, who make things beautiful for their children, even when there are only pennies at the bottom of their purses. xoxo

Like most things, it's better the next day. It freezes beautifully, and when I reheat it, I pour some milk in to loosen it up, because it comes out thick as mud. You can use water, but I don't know why you would; use chicken stock if you have to.

Forgiveness is about letting go of another person's throat.

<The whole thing is asinine. "Religion" has been the primary impediment to actual relationship with God because it puts rules to something with no rules and creates a mythology about performance -- that we can perform our way into the appeasement of the deity. It also devises rules, but the problem with that is, the only rule to a relationship with God is that love for us exists, there is nothing we have done or can do to earn or deserve it, and it's going to flow unconditionally our way whether we want it to or not and weather we acknowledge it or not. So, the rules cannot bring freedom, they only have the power to accuse. It's really not about God at all; it's about our ability to perform according to whatever the expectations are. We have sort of an accepted rationalism within which we frame religion and we think that belief, intellectually, is the same as relationship. In our Western conversation, that’s become an incredible impediment toward actual wholeness, where the heart and the head are aligned and relationship – with not just God but with each other – is nothing but a set of contracts which are agreed to at a certain point, then signed, sealed, delivered, done. But some of us learn, over the course of our life, that a full spiritual life is not about pleasing God, it's not enough to say we believe in God, it’s more about learning how to trust God, to live in relationship with God. That's a huge watershed, because trust is a whole different ballgame than appeasement or pleasing. Without trust there can be no context for relationship. The world has no meaning apart from relationships. Some are just messier than others, some are seasonal, others are difficult, and a few are easy, but every one of them is important. Pain, however, has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly ... and if left unresolved for very long, we can almost forget that we were ever created to fly in the first place. But if we can be kind and loving towards ourselves, with God’s help, we can begin the process of healing, submitting to God’s overwhelming love as the source of healing. Submission is not about authority, though, and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect. We must always remember, however, that healing is as incremental and mysterious as the damage ... what took time, takes time. Most importantly, forgiveness is not about forgetting. Forgiveness is about letting go of another person's throat. – sort of William P. Young>

The Hunger of First Love

It’s very easy to sit here, collected and hopeful, and talk of a time when I was unsettled and forlorn, but i’m’a tell ya, I don’t know anybody who can throw a more spirited pity party than me. (It’s funny, I’m thinking of the woman at the party in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY(s) who stands in front of the mirror and watches herself cry.) While I was in it, so few things felt better than a nice good wallow. “No one here can love or understand me…” And when I was able to reach out, placing myself in the company of loving friends, it almost fueled the fire of my malaise because when you talk about it out loud it’s comical and silly and easily dismissible but "galdernit I’m not done sinkin’ my butt in to it yet so leave me to it !" It’s times like these when the Pentecostals like to pull out this old chestnut: “Press in to God.” It’s different than the Benedictine’s Ora and Labora (prayer and work), which just tells us to keep our head down and maintain The Rhythm and eventually we’ll snap out of it. It’s, instead, an almost substitutive therapy in a way. It’s like when you hear a fantastic new song, or you read a novel from an new author that sounds like a diary from your own heart, and you thoroughly and tirelessly run through that artist’s entire catalogue, finding new inspiration and new treats; it’s a hunger of “first love” that Revelation 2 talks about. It’s one of the reasons I’ve always prayed each day to find new ways to fall in love with my husband all over again (which isn’t hard to do if you know him). It’s turning back, not away, seeing the mundane but with fresh eyes. "Yeah, yeah", it’s easy to say, "yeah, yeah, I get it, but my FEELZ !" and go back in to the cycle of wallowing. I fully support it. But throwing on some moving piece of audio and letting it transport us from this world to the next? Priceless. Illuminating. Refreshing. Soul-stirring. Life giving. Shaking one’s self out of the doldrums can really be as easy as the transition through the rain storm at the beginning of Beethoven's 6th 'Pastoral' straight through to the other side when the sun shines through the clouds and all is breathless and terribly gay again. #LentUnEdited (Symphony here: https://youtu.be/dbfa86bTD34)

Feast of the Annunciation

LOVING this. Paula Jackson adds the immediate below to Katie Sherrod's POWERFUL post (snip follows and full text below below): 

</The phrase from the Greek, "Let it be me as you have said." There is no preposition in the Greek. "Me" is in the dative case. Considering that prepositions were available and none were chosen here, the possibilities are left open for our imaginations. "Let the revolution begin / the world be changed through me, because of me, by me, on account of me, with me; let the world-shaking event happen through me. Count me in.></What today should celebrate is Mary's "yes." This should be the Feast of Mary's Courageous Yes, or the Feast of the Agreement. Because, according to the story, the angel DID wait for her reply. It is only after she responds, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word,” that the angel departs. Only with her "yes" could the Incarnation happen. / Mary was no wimpy passive vessel. I mean, look at the Magnificat -- the Song of Mary. Among other things, she says, "God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; God has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; God has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich God has sent away empty." That's pretty stout stuff.>

<FB friends who aren't Christians, just skip this post. It's me venting about a pet liturgical peeve. Today is the Feast of the Annunciation, celebrating the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mary of Nazareth. Now, I've always thought the name of this feast day is about as outrageous a name as a patriarchal church can come up with. So God sends an angel to announce to a teen aged girl that God is going to impregnate her. Pretty wild, huh? In this version, God sends a messenger to tell her God is going to rape her. God doesn't even bother to break the news in person, although I guess sending an angel beats sending the news by text.
Because without Mary's agreement, that's what this is - rape. You can pretty this up -- and God knows we have with some gorgeous paintings, frescoes, tapestries, etc -- but if you leave the story like that, it's not pretty. What today should celebrate is Mary's "yes." This should be the Feast of Mary's Courageous Yes, or the Feast of the Agreement. Because, according to the story, the angel DID wait for her reply. It is only after she responds,“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word,” that the angel departs. Only with her "yes" could the Incarnation happen. Only with her "yes" could God enter the world and become human. Mary was no wimpy passive vessel. I mean, look at the Magnificat -- the Song of Mary. Among other things, she says, "God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; God has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; God has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich God has sent away empty." That's pretty stout stuff. So let's stop selling Mary short. Heck, let's stop selling God short. Let's celebrate the "yes' of the woman who changed the world.>