Ruminations - 22 Feb '10

I've decided that there is faith in belief that focuses less on what could exist at large, but what will exist (maybe?) in a century or six centuries or 1,000 years from now. Taking the focus off of what has been (or said to be); instead focusing on what can and most likely will be.

At death, does it truly matter that you and your perceived center of the universe disappear? What really matters is what continues to be after you're gone. The belief that things will go on without you, despite you, completely ignorant of you. The belief that things could be going on, intelligently, 800 billion light years away from you. Looking at the scientific and historic record, however, you can accept with great faith that existence, wherever or whenever it may be, will continue. But you can't prove it.

I'm not saying that you can't believe in a higher power or a mischief-making God or an angry God or God transforming the universe with love. Is that the only central question in life? To grapple with other questions, such as:

• Have humans reached their full mental capabilities? If not, can humans reach a higher level of perception/improved use of the mind, or are we at our capacity in current form?
• Do societal pressure and man-made systems slow down our mental progression, and if so, can this be overcome? 
• Can humans save current and forthcoming scientific knowledge for distant generations in a way that is safe and accessible, and easily understandable, should there be a sudden, severe population decimation? Or would great knowledge be lost again?

I am not steady in my faith of humanity itself. I believe that things can and will go on, but not that we could improve ourselves and our consciousness to a level beyond that which has been the norm throughout human history. That will take an extra leap of faith.

Ruminations of Others & Myself - 22 Feb '10

The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up. ~Robert Persin

In my head I hear a loop that meanders: Ha! Dried pitted plums. Delicious, but you can't fool me. PRUNES. Say it. PRUNES. Pssh. “Dried pitted plums.”

I'm not denying that it has a much better ring. A female superhero representing antioxidants on a bag of prunes coupon ad is just sad, though.

Ruminations of Others - 14 Feb '10

from COLLECTED POEMS 1948-1984
by Derek Walcott

Love after Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Lazy Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup - made 2/14/10

modified from Sharon123's Recipezaar recipe.

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped (one roasted chicken)
1 cup onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup frozen peas
56 oz. low sodium chicken broth
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic
1 can condensed cream of chicken & mushroom soup
2 teaspoons fines herbes
salt
pepper, to taste
1 package egg noodles, cooked

1. Remove skin from the chicken and chop the meat.

2. Saute the celery, carrots and onions w/ the fines herbes to soften.

3. Put the chicken into a slow cooker with the onions, celery, carrots and peas.

4. Stir in broth and soup. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 8 to 9 hours.

6. When soup is finished, stir in egg noodles.

Feel Good Article of the Day - 4 Feb '10

From Gretchen on Mile High Mamas:
An Ode to the Only Child

Ruminations of Others - 1 Feb '10

from @hikespace

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~Wallace Stevens

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. ~Aldous Huxley

Solvitur ambulando. (To solve a problem, walk around.) ~St. Jerome

Ruminations of Others & Myself - 30 Jan '10

Do you think talent dies over time, or lies latent, waiting for you to get up the courage to do something about it?

from The Angel's Game
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A religion is really a moral code that is expressed through legends, myths, or any type of literary device in order to establish a system of beliefs, values, and rules with which to regulate a culture or a society.

Everything is a tale...What we believe, what we know, what we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated.