In Creation All Needs Are Met Instantly

MIRACLES EACH DAY

“In creation, all needs are fulfilled the instant they become needs, which is why there are no needs. If everything you need has been provided, having needs makes no sense.” (ACOL, C:19.14)

This quotation about needs being fulfilled is an echo from A Course in Miracles. Our wants are not always satisfied, maybe especially when those wants are ego-oriented, but our needs are met, and at the point of their arrival in our lives.

A similar statement from ACIM, that the solution is always found with the problem, is appropriate as well. What are our needs except problems waiting to be solved? For what else do we normally pray?

A Course of Love is so heartwarming, and this is certainly appropriate for a work that focuses on listening to our heart as the way to live. This particular quotation reassures us that needs are not actually there at all in…

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Classic Chocolate Mousse Recipe

A couple of months ago, my son went to Homecoming and enjoyed some of Kansas City’s finest dining before the dance.  I decided to try to  recreate his exquisite chocolate mousse dessert for him yesterday.  His response was “What’s IN this?”!!  Perhaps it will take a few more tries.  Here’s the recipe:

Courtesy of Bon Appetit

INGREDIENTS

6 servings

  • 3/4 cup chilled heavy cream, divided
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee, room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate (60-72% taco), chopped
  • 2 large egg whites

PREPARATION

  • Beat 1/2 cup cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form; cover and chill.
  • Combine egg yolks, espresso, salt, and 2 tbsp. sugar in a large metal bowl.  Set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (do not allow bowl to touch water).
  • Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is lighter in color and almost doubled in volume, about 1 minute.
  • Remove bowl from pan.  Add chocolate, whisk until melted and smooth.  Let stand, whisking occasionally, until room temperature.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat egg white in another medium bowl on medium speed until foamy.  With mixer running, gradually beat in remaining 1 tbsp. sugar, increase speed to high and beat until peaks form.
  • Fold egg whites into chocolate in 2 additions; fold whipped dream into mixture just to blend.
  • Divide mousse among six teacups or 4-oz ramekins.  Chill until firm, at least 2 hours.
  • Before serving, whisk remaining 1/4 cup cream in a small bowl until soft peaks form; dollop over mousse.

 

 

Dear Mom, You’re My Favorite Badass

My Mother was born prematurely during a record blizzard on December 1, 1932, in Memphis, Tennessee (a night, we learned later, on which her Grandmother was babysitting her future husband, one-year-old Dickie Killion!).   She lived in an incubator the first few weeks of her life before her parents, Opal and Ronnie, were allowed to take her home to Hayti, Missouri, a rural farming town in the Southeastern part of the state.  As a young child, she contracted rheumatic fever and the doctor said there was nothing he could do – he advised her parents to buy a coffin for Rhetta.  So they did.  Fortunately, they did not need it.  And even more fortunately, this impish child who cheated death early in life continued to thrive and grow into a beautiful young woman who would marry and bear 7 children, the youngest of whom is me.

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Growing up in the  post-Depression South, there were certain expectations of young ladies that Rhetta continuously defied.
For instance, one of her very best friends, Carliss, was African American.  They enjoyed playing outdoors together for hours.  To Rhetta, the color of her friend’s skin was of no particular consideration at all.

Rhetta was strong-willed and did not want to go to school.  She recently confessed that she was, in fact, expelled from kindergarten for refusing to stop pulling the little girl’s pigtails who sat in the desk in front of her!  Rhetta did not mind the unconventional.  To her Mother’s horror, while performing in a piano recital, Rhetta suddenly forgot the music so she stood and sang the words instead!  When she was instructed to trim the rosebush – a chore she despised – Rhetta simply cut off all the lovely heads to hasten her task.  When cautioned that young ladies did not get muddy, she rode her bike through every single mud puddle she could find.

Spanking never worked because Rhetta refused to cry!  She liked visiting an Uncle who purportedly had taken up the company of a “woman of ill repute” because the woman was so friendly!  She had a daily habit of stopping along the way from school to home at the courthouse to enjoy a cigarette in the ladies’ restroom.  Rhetta was, indeed, incorrigible!

Mom recalls there was an internment camp for German Prisoners of War (for some reason in Hayti, Missouri!) when she was a child.  Fearful of what unknown harm could become of the adorable blue-eyed blonde little girl, Rhetta was absolutely forbidden from ever riding her bike to “that part of town.”  Well she did.  And Mom remembers talking through the fence to the Germans, they speaking German and she speaking in her inimitable Southern drawl – and relishing the smiles on their faces and laughter on the other side of the fence.  “I’m sure they thought my accent was as strange as I found theirs’ – but we were fascinated with one another,” Mom remembers.

Her Dad, Ronnie Greenwell, was a proud member of the Missouri Cotton Producers Association and Lions Club.  He somehow gained access to President Harry Truman and took his precocious daughter along with him to meet the Great Democrat from Missouri.  Mom only recalls President Truman asking her how she liked school – and that she was fairly bored throughout the encounter!

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In spite of all her youthful spiritedness, Mom managed to easily slip into the “ladylike patterns” of the day and married my Dad, whom she adored, at the tender age of 20 in 1953.  They began a life together in Southeast Missouri in a small farming community where Mom bore 7 children and participated fully in the spiritual life of the Catholic parish to which our family belonged.

Mom smiling

But there was always a restlessness about Mom – she loved life and learning and wanted to participate in the world as more than a caregiver.  She convinced Dad to move to St. Louis, where she began a wallpaper business and eventually became a tax preparer for H & R Block.  She brought energy and life into our family with her diverse group of interests and friends.  Mom volunteered for hospice and a program for teenage runaway girls.  She helped the local United Way with its annual “100 Neediest Cases” Christmas program.  She became enthralled by the study of Jungian Psychology which led her to the work of Elisabeth Kubler Ross, whom Mom personally escorted from the airport to a workshop she attended!  And she handmade beautiful quilts that are treasured by many.

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Now in her eighties, Mom is confined to her bed.  She still enjoys a lively imagination and interest in many people and things, especially the St. Louis Cardinals! Here she is meeting one of her great-grandchildren, a beautiful gift she treasures.

She never fails at giving me the perfect advice.  Ever.  When I was in my twenties, Mom often sent me “Affirmations,” her own compositions in her own handwriting, to help me navigate the difficult adult world.  She once wrote to me, “I love you.  Don’t give your personal power or your $ away.”

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For these reasons and so many more, my beautiful Mom is and always will be MY FAVORITE BADASS!  I thank God every day for the blessing of a life with Mary Henrietta Greenwell Killion as my Mother.

 

Bitter With The Sweet

I am ashamed to admit it, but I am outrageously jealous of my friends who are enjoying the companionship of vibrant and involved octogenarian parents.   This is such a selfish and unfair statement, I know.  I had great parents (Mom is still living) and they were there for me when I needed them.  So many people can’t even say the same.

So many of my friends did not have the joy of being given away by their Fathers.  I did.

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So why am I feeling sorry for myself that my parents weren’t the “take the family on a trip to celebrate our 50th Anniversary” type?  For many years, whenever we were together, Mom and Dad took the family to their favorite Italian restaurant in South St. Louis, Missouri, Giuseppe’s.

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My parents cooing with my nephew and one of the family’s closest friends over amazing Italian cuisine in South St. Louis.  GREAT memories.

I can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy, though, when I hear a friend tell me she spent the afternoon shopping with her Mom and then out to dinner with both parents – and they are in their eighties and enjoying active lives.  Like the famous Carole King song, I know I need to do a better job at taking the bitter with the sweet:

“A friend of mine once told me

and I know he  knows all about feelin’

down

He said, “Everything good in life you’ve

got to pay for

But feeling’ good is what you’re paving the way for”

But you can’t enjoy the sweet without “paying for it” with the bitter, right?  That’s the deal.  Sometimes it stinks!

The morning my Dad passed away and I called my husband to share the expected but dreadful news, a feeling washed over me I had really never felt before and I told him through my tears, “I wasn’t done with him yet.”  That must be why sometimes in my dreams I watch him ride away, alone in a limo with darkly tinted windows – no room for me.  The separation of death is bitter.  Memories are sweet.  I guess I will always taste both.

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In my heart, this is where my parents remain – in their late 60’s, active, involved, enjoying life.  Laughing with me.  Together.

Nobody prepared me (or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention) for this constant ache you get from watching your parents age and then losing them.  Maybe it’s because loss from death is the first thing I have ever encountered in my human existence that simply cannot be prepared for.

And the really strange truth about losing a parent is this:  the permanent pain is because of the sweetness of their love.  Like C.S. Lewis writes in “A Grief Observed,” -“For in grief nothing ‘stays put.’ One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?”

At the end of the day, I don’t begrudge any of my fortunate friends who are still enjoying happy times with both parents.  It’s a gift and, after all, not something to be overly examined.  I had what I had and that’s it.  Boy, was I lucky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abrazos Fuerte for 2016

Dear Friends,

Last year, ironically without anticipating all the difficult emotional terrain I would cover, I selected the word “Awaken” (or awake, I cannot recall!!) as my “Word of the Year.”  Boy did I subconsciously Nail It!  The Universe mercifully gave me lots of wake-up calls……and my Divine Power gave me the strength to answer.  Suffice it to say, our family soared through potentially staggering emotional challenges and I am now a strong, proud “Friend of Bill’s” (aka Recovering Alcoholic).

This year, it took fewer than 5 minutes to imagine my guiding phrase/philosophy:  “Abrazos Fuerte” – Translated from Spanish, it means “Strong Hugs.”  Our wise and adoring Primo from Argentina (Spanish for Male First Cousin), Charlie, always ends his written communication with this beautiful phrase – it is his “signature.”

Cousin Charlie (pictured above, enjoying his 71st birthday in Bariloche, Argentina and in 1998, “supervising”  my sister-in-law Christine in the family tradition of empanada making), is a strong and loving figure in our family.  He is the existing “Patriarch” of the Tamburini family of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the homeland of my husband’s father, Mario Tamburini (my son has his name).

Charlie is the lifeline between my husband and his Argentinian heritage – he can tell us stories and share history that brings the family ancestry to life and provides a strong foundation for our children.  When my husband and I announced the news of our engagement to the Argentinian branch of the family, they sent telegrams of congratulations and Charlie offered me abrazos fuerte in the form of one simple line:  “Grandma Isabel is smiling for she would have found you extremely simpatico.”  Simpatico means likeable and easy to get along with.  WHO COULD ARGUE WITH THAT?!!!!

Anyway, life continues to amaze me and the journey would be impossible without MUCHOS ABRAZOS FUERTE.  As a side note, I should add that the Tamburini family are known to be extremely strong huggers – so much so that my sisters, as Aunts, have had to caution my son Mario before hugging, “Not too hard, Mario!”.  I am the proud Mother of 2 very strong huggers – they will do well in life.

The infamous Alfred Eisenstaedt photo published in Time Magazine from “V-J Day in Times Square 1945” really, for me, visually depicts the spirit of what I hope to achieve in everything I do with everyone I encounter in 2016.  In life, one must march onward and celebrate moments with laughter and abrazos fuerte or else what the hell is the point?

Happy New Year, friends!  May 2016 bring each of you your own special moments of warm embraces that melt away life’s jagged edges.

Love always,

Joanie, the Big Cheese on Cheeky Street

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Sorry, Kids, But The Lunch Lady Is Just Another Chump

When he was in 3rd grade, and already resisting the daily grind of attending a full day of school, my son said the funniest, saddest thing I have heard a kid say as we were pulling into the drive of his elementary school.  “Here we are, Chump Elementary!”.  Stunned, I stopped the car and looked back at him and said, “Well, your job is to stay 3 steps ahead of all the chumps, okay?  When you grow up, you will discover that a lot of chumps will be your boss.”  Hardly the motivating piece of advice he was possibly looking for, my son just sighed and stepped out of the car.  I could almost feel the heaviness in his heart as, each day, he watched the clock until dismissal time.

“What were your favorite parts of the day,” I would cheerily ask, hoping for a different answer each afternoon when we would reunite.

“Lunch and recess.  Everything else was boring”

The response never wavered or varied.  Always the same.  Even today, 7 years later, I get the same answer.

So I began asking myself, what is it about lunch that it is the highlight of his day?  I know the food is not good.  I took myself back to my elementary days. Funny how one’s sensory memory is so strong:  I can place myself there, at St. Eustachius Catholic School, eating a healthy portion of homemade chicken and dumplings followed by a freshly baked cinnamon roll made by Florence Scherer’s capable and caring hands.  She was the wife of a local farmer and easily fed the 100+ students (k-8) in our school the heartiest, most sumptuous of healthy farm fare every single day.  How I loved school lunch!!  For me, fortunately, a child of the 70’s, it was still about the great food in the lunchroom.

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Today’s pubic school lunches are woefully less desirable than Mrs. Scherer’s delicious grub.  I was a lunch lady.  I was a “chump,” a part of the Federally regulated “system” that endeavors to adequately nourish schoolchildren across America.  What a joke.

1 in 5 children live in “food insecure” households.  In many large cities, as many as 90 percent of the public school students qualify for the free lunch program based on poverty guidelines:  they are living in a household of 4 earning less than $31,005.00/year.  The kids that qualify for a “reduced-rate” lunch (still considered food insecure households) are living in households with incomes of under $44,123.

Teachers report having the most difficulty with classroom management on Mondays and Fridays.  Why?  Because, on Mondays, students coming from food insecure households have possibly spent the majority of their time away from school in a state of hunger.  One hungry student in a report I recently read admitted, “I would stare at the teacher and imagine her as a banana, I was so hungry.  It was all I could think of.”  And on Fridays, the learning environment is once again tainted by students’ obsession over food:  hungry children were burdened by thoughts of returning to their food insecure households for long weekends.  The “backpack program,” which discreetly provides qualifying students with bags stocked with nutritious foods like peanut butter to sustain them over the weekends, helps a little. But I have heard reports from school social workers about students who gorge themselves on the bus ride home with their backpack bounty to avoid having to share it with “unworthy” family members at home.

Then there is the remaining 30 percent of students in an average public school environment that fall through the poverty guideline cracks yet still live in food insecure households because their parent(s) don’t make enough money to buy enough food to satisfy their needs.

Kids come to school hungry and tired, not ready to learn.  Now schools are left to deal with not only the education of students but they must also the address the number one reason why students are not motivated to learn.  Lack of sufficient food.  Yet, as a Lunch Lady, I personally witnessed a huge amount of wastefulness – I would ask myself, “if these kids are poor and hungry, why is so much food going to waste?”.  Because it tastes TERRIBLE!!!

I have been doing a lot of reading about food cooperatives and school lunch programs in cities like Boston that are applying knowledge and techniques from farm-to-table eating that are resulting in better food, prepared in ways that kids like, and resulting in less waste and therefore sustainability.  This is the ideal – for all the school-aged children across America.

Are you totally depressed yet?  I am just writing about this because I am so sick of the problem.  And I think the solution, having been on the “inside” of the public school nutrition program, is for public schools to move away from federally funded nutrition programs and work with communities to address the nutritional needs of students.  This won’t happen overnight.  It is going to require the guidance and intelligence garnered from all the active social justice, sustainability, food-growing and child-centered wellness initiatives working together.

To learn more about the government’s “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” and the current guidelines/implementation for schools to be reimbursed based on income eligibility guidelines (the system that isn’t working), visit the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service at:  www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/history_4.

To learn about the exciting partnerships, ventures, think tanks and social justice movements around our nation dedicated to addressing the problem of childhood hunger/food insecurity in America, go to sites like these:

TakePart.com

Resilience.org

MomsRising.com

There is still so much to learn but I am convinced that the solution to the problem begins with addressing building communities focused on reducing waste and building food sustainability for all.

I became a Lunch Lady because of my ridiculous fantasy that the lunchroom could once again be a happy, friendly place where all children were treated well and left satisfied.  On the day I witnessed a darling 6th grade boy maliciously refused a full lunch by the Head Lunch Lady because his account balance was below negative $6.00, I knew my efforts would be better spent on finding a solution to the absurd problem of food insecurity.

After all, it takes a WORLD CLASS BI*!@ to refuse a kid even a lousy lunch on his birthday!!!!

 

 

 

20 Minute Lemon Broccoli Pasta Skillet

Peeps, if you are like me, you have already been to several Cookie Exchange parties and feeling more than stuffed with Holiday treats. This time of year, I try to keep weeknight meals as light, simple and healthy as possible.  For instance, I found this awesome recipe from The Food Charlatan that my family loves:

[servings=6]

Ingredients:

  • 3 quarts water
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 and 1/2 to 2 pounds fresh broccoli
  • 1 pound rotini pasta
  • 3-4 cups fresh spinach
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
  • 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1 cup fresh Parmesan, plus more to garnish
  • olive oil, to garnish
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. In a large skillet or pot, bring the salt and water to a boil.
  2. While you wait, prep your broccoli by trimming the stems and cutting the florets into similar sized pieces.
  3. Add the rotini and boil on high for 4 minutes.  Add the broccoli, cover, and set a timer for 3 minutes (Leave the burner on high enough to keep a rolling boil).
  4. When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and drain the pasta using a lid or colander.  Return to the pan and stir in the spinach.
  5. Sprinkle with lemon zest.  Let it sit for a few minutes so the spinach wilts.
  6. Meanwhile, in a small skillet melt the 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat.
  7. Add the minced garlic and crushed red pepper and saute for about 1 minute, until fragrant.
  8. Turn off the heat and add 2-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.  Add the lemon butter to the pasta and stir.
  9. Stir in 1 cup fresh parmesan cheese.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  10. Garnish with more cheese, fresh lemon wedges, and eat hot!

 

 

A Go-To Favorite Chicken Soup Recipe

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Alas, my favorite time of year has arrived:  bone-chilling winter is upon us, time for me to get yummy soups going on my stove.  This is a particularly favorite recipe that I keep coming back to, so I wanted to share it with you – It takes only about 20 minutes to prepare and then you are feasting (hopefully by a cozy fire) on heart-and-soul-warming goodness.  Enjoy!

Southwestern Chicken & Rice Soup Low-Fat and My Way

Ingredients:

  • 48 ounces fat free chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup onions, chopped
  • 1/3 cup celery, chopped
  • 1/2 cup green bell peppers, chopped
  • 1/2 cup long-grain rice, uncooked
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
  • 12 ounces boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped (*I purchase a baked chicken and de-skin and shred)
  • 1 cup tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 cup whole kernel corn, frozen
  • 1 (4 1/2 ounce) can green chilies, chopped, undrained
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan.  Stir in rice and cumin.
  2. Return to a boil.
  3. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes until rice is tender.
  4. Stir in chicken and next 3 ingredients into rice mixture.
  5. Bring to a boil.
  6. Remove mixture from heat, add salt.
  7. Serve with fresh cornbread and green salad.
  8. Enjoy!