Home of the Wanderer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTaN2X_25Mg

You remember how I posted a few weeks back about “how my heart moves“? Well… if that was the deep unseen motion of an aquifer, this past week I’ve felt the sudden rushing of spring mountain streams. It’s all very interesting, and delightful, to experience. So I wrote a few poems, and a few more, and a few more, and now have recorded an extended piece, “Springwater,” that’s composed of six haiku I wrote this afternoon. You can go watch it, of course, on YouTube. Enjoy! (more…)

There’s something moving in my heart that feels familiar, moving in a way like it sometimes has in well-established long-term relationships. It’s not the sparkling brilliance of novelty, nor the inner fire of mutual admiration – though I’m getting those too, to some extent – but a deep, calm, heart-joy, the building of which has usually taken a year or more of living together. It is a feeling that I associate with connection and safety.

Valuing connection, I am in a state of wonder. I wonder how this can be, because I’m not in any relationship where I’m ready to start introducing someone around as anything other than a friend, let alone move in together – or even stop dating others. I’m not in a place where I’d bring this or that person over to meet my parents, even if we were all in the same town. (more…)

I just spent a day adding books to my account over on goodreads.com. At over 450 books, it’s a fair stack. And yet, I probably have another thousand to add, at least, just from books that I own.

But at least I’ve finally got a good way to answer those “favorite books” questions on online dating sites.

One of the things that I noticed, looking through my list, (more…)

One of my new favorite meals is leftovers.  I believe that food should be good several times over, and ideally the leftovers turn into something else entirely; they should not come out looking just like they did when they were first served.  If you try to reconstitute the original meal using leftovers, it will almost always be a disappointment.

For example, this afternoon I took some of the braised kale, apples, and cranberries from last night, and threw them in a pan with some of the roasted root veggies.  Stirring frequently over medium-high heat for three or four minutes, I brought the mixture up to temperature, emptied it onto a waiting plate, and then deglazed the pan with juice from half a lemon I had sitting in the fridge (also from last night).  It wasn’t quite enough liquid, so I added a little water from the kettle.  I scraped the pan clean, reduced the liquid to a sauce, poured it over my waiting meal, and added a little salt.  Yum!

I had thought about thickening the sauce with some flour, but decided against it – I don’t need gravy on everything.  Sometimes, a citrus reduction adds the perfect touch.

I have a flu, or flu-like symptoms – my muscles ache, the lymph nodes in my neck are swollen (big enough that I can feel them pressing into my neck when I turn my head), my head hurts… and I tried to take a bath tonight only to discover that my water heater had somehow been infiltrated with sediment. All the water from the hot tap was brown. Strangely, the cold water tap was running clear. (more…)

Robin Mohr’s recent comment brought to mind a question that has been with me in recent years: does anyone wait for the results of a clearness process before deciding that they are getting married? Given the number of happy marriages with which I am acquainted that seem not to have done so, is it necessary? Have we ever, as a Society, had this as a practice?

From what I’ve seen, such discipline would seem to be a thing of legend. And then I consider a couple who called off their wedding plans twice before finally (after ten years, I believe, and on the third attempt) getting clearness to marry. It was hard for them, but I believe they both consider it to have been appropriate to wait. (more…)

From a recent email to a dear friend: (more…)

This year on Armistice Day a dear friend of mine said, “next year in peace.” There were tears in my eyes as I considered the faith, hope, and despair wrapped up in that phrase – as in the ritual phrase from the Passover Seder: “next year in Jerusalem.” Hope for peace, faith that we will achieve it, and despair at seeing it in our lifetime. These phrases bring to my mind echoes of our common exile from a birthright that I believe rightly belongs to all beings – to live in harmony with each other.

After a weekend-long training with the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a late-night meeting of the initial co-creators of MasterPeace Theater, and an early morning, and in anticipation of three weeks of full-paced work and travel, I decided that tonight I would take some time off.

Fortunately, I’d already heard from most of the folks who would have come to the committee meeting that, for one reason or another, they were already busy. I called the rest of them to check in, and share my hope that I would see them next week.

So now I have time to catch up on my work! (more…)

Another week, another new menu:

• Roasted root vegetables (first sauteéd a little, then salted, peppered, and put in the oven).
• Collards, and maybe some chard, with cranberries, apples, and possibly raisins, braised in apple juice.
• Bread and Earth Balance.

I haven’t gotten the ghee yet, and in any case have been unable to find a local source – the best I’ve found so far is Colorado, and I imagine it’s still a lot more pricey even than Earth Balance, while being less versatile. I will try it, but as you can probably tell… I’m hesitant. The dairy allergy isn’t helping with that. (more…)