Light, Life, and Love

Dang, the holidays come faster every year! It’s hard enough seeing Christmas decorations in the stores before Halloween is even over. But this year even Hannukah comes early. It starts tonight: December first. Have you noticed how everything feels speeded up?

Thank goodness we don’t have to fall lock-step into holiday madness. One of the biggest secrets to a happy holiday season is staying conscious – making choices based on our values instead of automatically doing what we think is expected of us.

Of course, this sounds easier than it is. Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas and haven’t done so for 25 years, I feel myself drawn – nay, sucked in – to the consumerist vortex. I drive past the Christmas tree lots and think “Oh, I’d like to buy a tree!” Never mind that I have nowhere to put it and nothing to decorate it with; never mind what the cats would do to it if I did have decorations; never mind that I’m Jewish – I see the trees and start wanting one. The same dynamic occurs with shopping for presents. It’s a challenge to avoid being consumed by consumerism!

And yet, if I am to remain true to my values, I must resist spending money I don’t readily have on things that my loved ones don’t really need. For me, this time of year is about the solstice, about feasting our way through the dark nights and celebrating the return of light and life (which, some propose, is also what Hannukah and Christmas are about). It is about illuminating the love we share.

I realize that many of my readers do celebrate Christmas, though, that checking out of the holiday altogether isn’t a desired option. For those of you who love Christmas, I encourage you to ask yourself what’s most important to you and then focus on that.

May this be your most joyous holiday yet!

Blessings,

Claire Josefine


Tip of the Month

Think about past years – what went well during the holidays, what didn't, and what you'd change if you could. Then make a list of what you most want to do this season. Sit down with your calendar and write it in. Be realistic, and don’t overextend yourself. The consequences are rarely worth it!

Also, start a holiday binder. Put a calendar in it and note what you did, when. Include lists for holiday card recipients, gifts given (and to whom), invitations sent, and menus. You may want to keep your holiday recipes here, too, as well as any notes for next year.

Quotes of the Month

There is no use pretending that the sun is always bright; there is no use pretending that the moon is always full. It is only by recognizing the season of darkness that we know it is time to light the candles, to sow a seed of light that can sprout and spring forth, later in the year.
– Arthur Waskow Seasons of Our Joy

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
– Wendell Berry

The universe is a constant explosion of Light. Every moment of kindness, compassion and forgiveness is a new star that's being born.
– Marianne Williamson


Recipe of the Month
Latkes

Grandma said, with a thick Yiddish accent, “You grate some potatoes and onion, add egg and flour and salt – try not to grate your knuckles – and fry it up in oil.” That’s pretty much it, although some folks prefer to use matzo meal to flour and, of course, Grandma’s recipe is a bit shy on measurements. So here’s the recipe from Sara Kasdan’s Love and Knishes (parenthetical comments are mine):

2 cups grated potatoes, drained (I use Russets)
1 yellow onion, grated
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 rounded Tablespoon flour or matzo meal
pinch of baking powder (I never used this, but it would give a nice bit of leavening)

Combine all ingredients. Mix well. Drop pancake mixture by the Tablespoonful onto a hot skillet generously greased with butter or shortening. (I use canola oil.) If you like thin, crisp pancakes, flatten with the back of a spoon. Fry on both sides until brown. Serve piping hot with sour cream, or with applesauce.

And then she adds a note: “This recipe should serve 4 to 6 people, but when some people see potato latkes they act like they haven’t eaten for a week. They will want to make from latkes alone a meal. When you have people who enjoy so much, so you won’t mind grating potatoes all day long.”

Giving Thanks

Every Thanksgiving before sitting down to eat, my friends and I gather in a circle, hold hands, and say what we’re grateful for in that moment. I know, it’s kinda New Age dorky, but I like the ritual. I also give thanks before my daily meals – thanking “everybody and everything that has given of its life energy so that I may have this abundance before me”* – and at night after I’ve nestled under the covers. And, of course, I do my best to express my gratitude throughout the day when people are helpful and kind.

We appreciate being appreciated. And we feel better about ourselves when we are appreciative. Conveying our gratitude makes the world a better place. It is one aspect of Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World).

Gratitude works wonders on many levels. Not only does it make us feel better about ourselves, it helps move us out of scarcity thinking (the belief that there isn’t enough, which can lead to cluttering out lives with objects “just in case”). It can shift us from feeling whoa-is-me funky to a sense of, if not joy, at least contentment. It can also help to create the life we want. I’m not sure how this works, whether it’s because of a magnetic energy responding to the increased energy of gratitude (like finding like), or because we are more likely to see and respond to that which we are focused on, or some other reason. But years ago I heard someone rephrase the Serenity Prayer from “Grant me the Serenity” to “Thank you for the Serenity,” and I realized how right this change was. I didn’t need to ask for serenity, it was already in me. I only had to recognize it, which I could do through gratitude.

Before embarking on my journey in search of home, I wrote to a friend about what I was looking for, what I wanted my life to look like. The description began with “I want.” Once I landed in Humboldt County, I looked at that list and remembered the Serenity Prayer lesson. I rewrote it from a place of gratitude, understanding that all these things already existed, I just may not have caught up with them yet. This Thank You vision is posted on my fridge where I read it most days. And you know what? Just about everything on that list is an active part of my life these days. I know I will meet up with the rest in due time. Here is my vision:

• Thank you for my perfect country cottage with organic flowers, herbs, veggies, and fruit trees, chickens, and cats.
• Thank you for a home in which to cook and arrange flowers.
• Thank you for the ability to see stars at night and to hear running water.
• Thank you for green valleys surrounded by trees.
• Thank you for community and family, for wonderful neighbors and friends and joyous gatherings with them.
• Thank you for the ability to live my life in synch with the earth and her seasons in a life-nurturing way.
• Thank you for the opportunity to do Tikkun Olam.
• Thank you for daily walks outdoors and senses with which to delight in Creation’s beauty.
• Thank you for dancing and laughter and love making, for passion and play.
• Thank you for a husband who is conscious, affectionate, honest, dependable, kind, prosperous, grounded, joyous, monogamous, healthy, physically attractive, playful, communicative, wise, gentle and strong, who sees me truly, finds me beautiful and loves me deeply, and is committed to spending his life with me.
• Thank you for a life rooted in love and faith, knowing we’re all one and there’s nothing to fear on this path of compassion, joy, and kindness.
• Thank you.


How do you practice gratitude, and what are you grateful for?


Tip of the Month
This month, make a practice of saying “Thank you” to someone every day. If you’d like, keep a list of whom you thanked and why.

Quotes of the Month
“Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.” Marcus Aurelius

"Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary." Margaret Cousins

“Instead of looking for love, give it; constantly renew it in yourself and you will always feel its presence within you. It will always be there smiling at you, gazing on you kindly.” Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov












Recipe of the Month
Pumpkin-Cranberry-Pecan Bread
Combine:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/3 cup honey)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add:
1 egg
1/2 cup oil (or ½ cup melted butter)
1 cup puréed pumpkin

Mix quickly to combine wet and dry ingredients.

Fold in:
1 cup chopped cranberries
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup chopped pecans

Pour into bread pan or muffin tins.

Bake at 350° for about an hour. (I use the top-is-cracked-and-browned cue to determine doneness. Inserting a toothpick and having it come out clean works, too.)


*The grace continues: “May I use this energy to do good, and may we all be blessed. So mote it be.”

Making Room for the Bounty of Harvest

I’m watching some of my friends undertake major purges right now. The circumstances inspiring their decision to finally dig themselves out from under years and years of accumulated detritus are difficult, but their response is admirable.

One friend recently found himself no longer in relationship with a woman he loves, partly because of his hoarding tendencies and having not dealt with his mail for the past two years. He is finally letting me help him with his backlog of paper, and has moved a large pile of boxes that were hiding a couch and table I never knew were there.

The other friend’s housemate died suddenly, and she discovered just how serious a hoarder the housemate actually was. The process of hiring a dumpster, enlisting her friends’ help, and clearing out the deceased’s belongings so that the room could be rented shed light on her own self-defeating relationship with material objects. She has continued the momentum, begun because of her housemate’s passing, into her own space, clearing out the broken and unwanted items, making room for the life she does want. Every time I see another posting by her on Freecycle, I give a silent cheer: Way to go, girl!

October is a strange, transitional time of year. On the one hand, the farmers market is brimming with a regal abundance and variety of produce. On the other hand, autumn is in the air, auguring the dead of winter. Leaves are turning and dropping, nights are getting colder. I have a Native American friend who says October is the time of loss and that it often intensifies as we near Halloween when, some people believe, the veil between the worlds is at its sheerest.

Culturally, we shun loss, we call it bad and grieve it. But loss and death are an intrinsic part of life’s cycle. The Eleusyinian Mysteries use the story of Persephone – who was abducted by Hades to be his queen and who, because she ate a few pomegranate seeds, must spend part of each year in the Underworld – and the symbolism of grain, which is planted (buried) only to be reborn again each spring – as reminders of life’s death-and-rebirth cycle.

We mourn our losses. But we can also embrace them as an opportunity to make room for change, to create space in our hearts and lives for new blessings and joys. Nothing is permanent; the only constant is change. The more gracefully we learn to recognize that change is as natural as the waxing and waning of the harvest moon, the better off we’ll be. And the more we let go of, the more room we’ll have for something wonderful and new to appear.


Blessings!

Claire

Tip of the Month

What really matters to you? And what stands between you and what matters most? Let it go. Beliefs, commitments, objects – if it’s holding you back from what you hold most dear, out it goes. No ifs, ands, or buts – out.

Just remember, you don’t have to do it all at once. Sometimes renting a dumpster is in order. But “slow and steady” can be equally effective. If the job feels too big, do just a little piece each day. Every tiny change you make takes you toward the larger goal of an authentic, meaningful life.



Quotes of the Month

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, compiled by Paul Reps


Barn’s burnt down –
Now
I can see the moon
-- Masahide

An Interview with Claire and Kim

If you're interested, here is a new online interview with me, conducted by Kim Caldwell (who wrote a book about how green smoothies saved her life). The sound quality is a bit uneven, but the content is good. Enjoy!

Can Organizing Be Spiritual?

September 2010 Newsletter

September 9th is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. A time for renewal, Rosh Hashanah is also a time for reflection, for making amends, paying our debts, and changing our behavior in an on-going effort to become a better human being. The holiday is celebrated with apples and honey – with wishes for a sweet year ahead. Its observation also includes Tashlich – the casting of one’s sins upon the waters. (Usually this is done by emptying the lint or bread crumbs from one’s pockets into a body of running water.)

While the obvious theme for September would be “back to school,” I just couldn’t bring myself to write about anything quite so predictable. I admit to being tempted when I saw “chickens” listed as a September theme on a themes-by-the-month web site, but not everyone loves chickens as much as I do. Besides, how would I tie chickens into organizing advice? But renewal, that’s an easy fit.

Anyone who knows me knows that I encourage clients to live a conscious, examined life, and that I believe the greatest advantage to being organized is that it allows us to share our gifts toward making the world a bit more lovely and whole. Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity to look at ourselves – our behavior, beliefs, and belongings – and to make changes. If a behavior, belief, or belonging is bringing you down – if it does not support your highest good – let it go like bread crumbs cast upon the water.

And then make amends to yourself. The saying goes that “amends is changed behavior.” Take a look at what you’ve chosen to release. How did it come into your life in the first place? What was your part in bringing it in? What can you do differently the next time you’re in a similar situation? And how will acting differently improve you and/or your life?

I was reflecting the other day on the cycle of life. Walking along, seeing the bushes lining the trail laden with blackberries, I started thinking about the sequence of the seasons, how the blackberries will be gone soon, followed by barren trees and winter rains, and then the plum blossoms will arrive, then asparagus, then… And the plants and foods cycle through each year, but why? Why do they, and we, continue on year after year after year? To live. Perhaps there’s more to it than that – I’d like to think so – but from a purely biological perspective, life perpetuates for the sake of living.

And so, our lives come full circle. Here’s my favorite honey-and-apples recipe, with wishes to all of you for a sweet new year!


Lukshen Kugel

Boil 8 ounces of wide egg noodles until just tender. Drain, butter, and set aside.

Combine
2 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup honey
1 Tablespoon lemon juice (fresh)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Add in
1/2 cup raisins
2 to 3 peeled, cored, and chopped apples

Mix noodles in with the cheese/fruit.

Add the whole kit and caboodle to a well-buttered 9 x 13 pyrex.

Crumble about 1 cup’s worth of (organic!) Corn Flakes over the top.

Bake at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes.


Tip of the Month:
Designate one day of the week as a money-free day, a day when you don’t spend any money. Not only can this help reduce your expenses, it can minimize the stuff you bring into your life. Also, having one day each week on which you spend no money encourages you to be more aware (and creative) about how you are spending your time. (Thanks to my sister Jessica for this idea!)


Quotes of the Month
"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
– Howard Thurman

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the "atomic age" -- as in being able to remake ourselves."
– Mahatma Gandhi

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
– Dakota proverb

"May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being."
– Apache Blessing

February 2010 Newsletter

Heart Connection

Where would we be without the many people who make our lives a bit more lovely and whole? Whether they're our best friend, our lover, our neighbor, or the grocer who goes out of his way to help us, our lives are richer for the people in them.

This month, let people know how much you value them. Thank them for the gifts they bring that make your world more wonderful.


For more ideas on organizing, please visit my website at www.ClaireJosefine.com. And if you haven't had a chance to see the 5-minute snippet of me discussing the spiritual aspects of being organized, check out the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKFzZqJK2I

Tip of the Month

People think I have a great memory because I send them birthday cards on time. While once upon a time my memory was sharp, these days I depend on a couple of tools: a perpetual calendar and a tickler.

Here's what I do. I write birthdays, anniversaries, etc. into a perpetual calendar. Then, at the beginning of each month, I go through the calendar and pull cards for everyone I wish to celebrate. I address the envelopes and place them (cards inside) in a 1 through 31 tickler/sorter in the slot for the day I plan to mail the card. When that day comes, I mail the card.

Quote of the Month

"The ultimate prayer, the prayer that comes from deepest wisdom, is thank you!"

– Sylvia Boorstein

March 2010 Newsletter

Wind & Breath

I’ll bet you’ve never thought of taking a deep breath as an organizational technique, have you? Usually we associate conscious breathing with mindfulness. But mindfulness is an organizing tool. By slowing down and paying attention, we bring intention back to our actions. Being aware helps us to maintain focus and make clear decisions.

In fact, studies have shown that meditation practice helps people with AD/HD. One of the easiest forms of meditation is to focus on one's breath. So this windy month, be aware of the rhythm of your life's winds -- your breath.

And if you need a fresh breeze of hands-on organizing to sweep through your space, give me a call:707-268-8585.


Tip of the Month

When you find yourself starting to “spin out,” or hear yourself saying “I’ll just” or “for now,” –- stop. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly, then take another deep breath. Keep breathing until you’ve come back to the present moment. Now, notice your surroundings and your situation, calmly choose your next action. And keep returning to your breath as needed.

Quotes of the Month

"Breathing in I calm my body and mind; breathing out I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is the only moment."
– Thich Nhat Hanh


"The sin of inadvertence, not being alert, not quite awake, is the sin of missing the moment of life — live with unremitting awareness."
– Joseph Campbell

April 2010 Newsletter

Facing the Inevitable


April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

T.S. Eliot introduced this classic poem, "The Waste Land," with a reference to Sibyl who, when asked what she wanted, replied that she wished to die. You see, Apollo had granted her eternal life, but she had forgotten to ask for eternal youth, too.

I think of this poem every April, when the earth is readying itself to be reborn from winter's darkness. This is also the time of year my mother died -- goodness, it's been ten years ago already!

When my mom passed, I discovered the importance of an organized estate. Even though she had written her will, showed us which file cabinet held all the crucial papers, and discussed her wishes with us before she passed, my mother’s estate was full of surprises, including discovering her best jewelry hidden in a box labeled "Old Sheets."

I realize that most people probably don't want to think about the inevitable day they meet their mortality. But preparing ahead has its benefits, including:

• Peace of mind from knowing everything is in order
• Renewed awareness of what your assets are
• Opportunity to review and update information, beneficiaries, and instructions
• Smoother transfer of information and responsibility for assets
• Fewer expenses – administrative, legal, and accounting
• Fewer taxes
• No search and discover fees
• Less stress
• Less bureaucracy
• Increased efficiency in handling the estate proceedings
• More money and assets retained by your heirs

Of course, we all probably think of taxes come April, too. As good ole' Ben Franklin is famous for stating, only two things are certain: death and taxes. And in some odd way, they do go together. So, now that your taxes are (almost) done, I encourage you to get the rest of your financial matters in order. As always, I am happy to help if you find you need assistance.

With your taxes done and your estate in order, you can close two doors behind you on winter's darkness as you emerge into the joy we know as Spring.



Tip of the Month

Is your will up to date? How about your Advanced Health Care Directive? For the month of April, I’m offering my comprehensive checklist for organizing your estate for free. Send me an email requesting the checklist before April 30, 2010, and I’ll email the e-booklet (which usually retails for $6.95) to you at no charge. You may also want to check out my colleague Maggie Watson's excellent workbook, "A Graceful Farewell: Putting Your Affairs in Order" (ISBN 978-1879384-68-2).

Quotes of the Month

"What is life, but one long risk?" – Dorthy Canfield Fisher

"If each own sweeps before his own door, the whole street is clean." – Yiddish Proverb

May 2010 Newsletter

April showers bring May flowers...

I have a confession to make. I love having a garden. I love being able to pick flowers and arrange them in vases around my house. I love being able to pick herbs and veggies and fruit and cook them up right then and there. I love growing enough food to be able to share with people who are hungry by donating to my local food bank. But I really don't enjoy gardening.

Okay, I like some of it. I like planting seeds in starter pots and watching them grow. I enjoy planting the starts into well-prepared soil. I certainly love the smell of the earth. It's just all that work -- the hoeing and weeding and picking of slugs -- that I find painful and not at all fun.

Where I live, May means lots of work in the garden. The rains have finally let up enough that the clay soil is dry enough to work, but they've also nourished vigorous growth of wild radish, sheep's sorrel, plantain, and thistle. All of which is fine out in the pasture, but is unwanted competition for my cultivated plants (flowers and veggies) in the garden. And so the mowing and weeding and slug picking begins...

But guess what? Basic organizing principles apply to the garden, too! Keep It Simple, Sweetie reminds me to tackle only small areas at a time, rather than try to weed the entire garden in one day. Create (and use) Habits reminds me to weave the watering and slug patrol into my daily chores. Adopt an Attitude of Gratitude helps me to see (and appreciate) the garden I have instead of the work that still faces me. And Ask for Help encourages me to call my gardener, who takes care of the mowing and weed-whacking (and some of the weeding) for me.

Whether you're organizing your garden or your home, the basic principles serve as a helpful guide. If you need a reminder of the principles (and want to see what some other organizers have come up with), read my article "Organizing by the Numbers" on my website. http://www.clairejosefine.com/art.htm#organizing%20by%20the%20numbers And, as always, let me know if I can be of any help.

Happy spring!



Tip of the Month

Get ready for your garden by discarding old seeds, sharpening and cleaning your tools, and recycling broken and excess pots. Then organize: put your hand tools together into a bucket or caddy and hang your larger tools (shovels, rakes, etc.) on the wall of your gardening shed or garage.

This year, I've organized my seeds in order of when I'm planting them, so that the ones due to be planted next are on top of the bundle. You can also organize them by type -- flowers, herbs, veggies -- or alphabetically, or by shade vs. sun. However you think of them and want to access them is how you should organize them.

Quote of the Month

Our life is shorter than flowers
Then shall we mourn?
No, we shall dance
Plant gardens
Dress in colors
And teach our children
To make the world more beautiful
Because our life is shorter than flowers.
— Toltec fragment

June 2010 Newsletter

Simplicity


The simple life: warm bread baking in the oven, laundry drying on the line, veggies fresh from the garden, chickens contentedly exploring their yard, finches and grossbeaks at the bird feeder, cut flowers placed in a vase by the bed, cats curled up in the sunshine.

Idyllic, yes? And yet the simple life is not necessarily easy, if by easy we mean requiring a minimum of work. Simple means both easy, effortless, and natural, unadorned. When we daydream of "the simple life," I think we are longing for a life stripped down of pretension and complication, a life of connection and meaning. But because simple also means effortless, we don't consider how much work is required to "live simply." Unless we have servants (at which point the work is deferred to someone else, but it hasn't gone away), we need to make the bread dough that's baking, hang and fold the laundry (which smells delicious, as good as that baking bread!), tend the garden and the chickens and the cats, cook meals from scratch, and so on.

Of course, there's the saying that "Work is love made visible." Some of us feel deep satisfaction and pleasure in doing the work of creating and tending. There's a connection to Source that comes with these labors, if we can remember to be aware of it.

My own challenge comes with this month's tip: to make time for fun. I get so caught up in the daily chores of my simple life that I forget I'm choosing them, I forget that connection to Source and to enjoy my life. And so my response to the tip is two-fold: one, to recall the joy in the work of simplicity and two, to go play!

Anyone want to join me for a play date on the Trinity with Redwoods and Rivers Rafting?

Happy June!



Tip of the Month

As summer approaches, simplify your time commitments so that you have time for fun, whether that’ s reading a novel, BBQing with the neighbors, or swimming in the river. Declutter your time the same way you would a room, by looking at each activity and asking: Does this make me smile, or is it useful (supporting my goals)? If not, let it go.

Quote of the Month

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
– Charles Mingus

July 2010 Newsletter

Liberty

My sister-in-law recently told me that she’d read an article in the French Elle about feminists who’ve gone back to the land, and that it made her think of me. Did I know that I was avant-garde? she asked. No, I replied, I just thought I was an oddball trying to live life my way, and grateful that I live in a time and place where that’s possible.

We are blessed to live in a relatively free society. While I won’t argue that we are a long way from what we could be, we are (for the most part) free to be ourselves, to pursue our unique versions of happiness.

As an organizer, my aim is to help others be the best version of themselves. What’s organizing have to do with freedom? Bear with me here. I know that the “free spirit” sort tends to think of organizing as a restrictive straight-jacket, a set of rigid rules, too much oppressive order. I encourage them to instead see organization as a life jacket, a tool that supports us as we navigate our way down life’s river. After all, the better organized we are, the more easily we can share our gifts, be it teaching children, feeding the hungry, creating beauty, defending the downtrodden, tending a garden, or otherwise making the world a bit more lovely and whole.

And, just as there are many talents to share, there is more than one way to organize. What works for one person might not work for another. Along those lines, I’m teaching a new class in August. Here’s the blurb:

Not everyone thinks alike. Some people are great at making lists and plodding methodically forward in a straight line toward their goal. Others find their mind full of ideas and their energy drawn in a number of directions at once. If you tend to be better at brainstorming than getting things done, “Playful Planning for the Creative Thinker” is for you. Learn creative techniques for turning those great ideas into a plan of action.


------------------------------

Speaking of taking ideas and making them happen… Last month I wrote about needing to play more. I’m pleased to report that I spent a peaceful day under blue skies and redwoods along the Eel River (at Women’s Federation Grove), reading a novel while my friend taught the puppies to swim. And in a few days we will be enjoying a combination camping and river-rafting excursion.

What fun do you have planned?




Tip of the Month

Free yourself from expectation. “The word “should” often puts undue pressure on you to conform to standards that probably aren’t even your own.” (Jennifer Koretsky) Rather than thinking that you “should” be more organized, celebrate your creativity and individuality – your strengths -- and ask for help with your weaknesses.


Quotes of the Month
I didn’t belong as a kid, and that always bothered me. If only I’d known that one day my differentness would be an asset, then my early life would have been much easier. – Bette Midler

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself. – Carl Jung

August 2010 Newsletter

Lazy Days of Summer?


Message on one of the local school’s marquee: “Enjoy your summer, but be ready for the first day back on August 30!” What? Already? Nooooo…

Does anyone else remember summer break being longer and more luxurious? I don’t mean luxury like a fancy cruise, more like long days kicked back reading novels and hanging out near (and in) water. Plenty of time to be with friends, walk in the woods, go camping, star-gaze, feel like life is easy and carefree.

And yet, here it is, August, with the end of summer looming. Only a few short weeks before school’s back in session, before the crispness of autumn creeps back into the air. I am not ready, physically or emotionally. Which I suppose isn’t very Zen-accepting of me, but sometimes I just don’t feel like going gracefully into that dark night.

Still, the seasons sing a natural rhythm, and we’re probably better off if we can live in harmony with them. It’s harder to tune one’s life to nature’s rhythms when our lives are conducted by the cultural calendar: arbitrary dates of school sessions, unconscionably short vacations from 40-hour workweeks. Even our modes of building and transportation separate us from nature’s rhythms. But it’s do-able.

For me, working only 10 to 15 hours each week, living in the country, and having a garden have strengthened my connection to nature’s cycles. But even city-folk who work full-time and have black thumbs can build a relationship with natural time by nurturing their awareness of it.

Which brings me to this month’s invitation. I invite you to start noticing the little details of the season. What is special to this time of year in your region? In the coastal river valley I call home, the blackberries will be ready to begin picking by the end of the month, and the spider webs are sparkling with dew. This is the month when the Farmers’ Market is bursting with produce and variety. When the river is barely a creek. When the hay has all been bailed and moved, and the Jersey cows cross that trickling river to graze in the pasture outside my kitchen window.

I’d love to hear what you notice about the natural rhythms of August in your neck of the woods!


Tip of the Month

Replace the word “routine” with the word “rhythm.” The goal in time management is to create a gentle flow to our days, not a rigid structure. Think of your life as a float down river. What do you need to do in the morning before putting in? What do you do when you take out (end your day and prepare for bed)?

Quotes of the Month
"Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor." – Paul Hawken

"I think over again my small adventures, my fears, those small ones that seemed so big, all those vital things I had to get and to reach, and yet there is only one great thing: to live and see the great day that dawns, and the light that fills the world." -- Old Innuit Song

January 2010's Weekly Quotes

January 4, 2010
"There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive….We have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have a sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls." – Sam Keen

January 11, 2010
"Joy is not in things; it is in us." – Richard Wagner


January 18, 2010
"…when we remove ourselves from direct and wholehearted participation in life…emptiness and boredom creep in. It is then that we begin our search for something or someone that will alleviate our gnawing dissatisfaction. Yet the search is endless to the extent that we are continually led away from ourselves and our experience in the moment. If we fully appreciate the learning and love that life offers us in each moment, then we feel less desire for material luxuries that contribute little to our well-being and that deprive those in genuine need of scarce resources. When we live with simplicity, we give ourselves and others a gift of life." – Duane Elgin


January 25, 2010
"They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price." – Khalil Gibran

Want to hear a great talk?

I just discovered that the talk I gave a couple years or so ago at Many Rivers Books and Tea in Sebastopol is available at this site: http://www.manyriversbooks.com/Audio/FollowingRavenFindingGround.mp3.

I listened to it again tonight and was wildly pleased. It was a really good talk, based on my book Following Raven, Finding Ground: A Road Trip in Search of Home, that discussed the importance of facing your fears to find the life you want. As an added bonus, I remembered how much fun that night was, sharing my thoughts with that room full of people.

The talk comes in at a little over an hour. If you'd like to hear a shorter version (24 minutes), recorded over the telephone specifically to be available as an mp3 (instead of recorded live and then uploaded to the internet), visit my website (www.clairejosefine.com).

January 2010 Newsletter - Get Organized Month

It's January, a new year, and the perfect time to clear out the old, bring in the new. Take a look around you and ask, "Why do I have all this? Is it still of value to me?" If not, perhaps it's time to pass it along.

If you would like help determining what to keep and what to pass on -- or how to organize the things you're keeping -- please call me. I can be reached at 707-268-8585. (And to help motivate you, I'm offering 20% off all client sessions for the month of January.)

For more ideas on organizing, please visit my website at www.ClaireJosefine.com. And to view a 5-minute snippet of me discussing the spiritual aspects of being organized, check out this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKFzZqJK2I


Tip of the Month
Instead of asking how recently you used an item, ask yourself, "Does it make me smile?" If not, and if it’s not fundamentally useful, put it back out into the world so that it can bring joy to another.

Quote of the Month
"The more he gives to others, the more he possesses of his own." – Lao Tzu

Final quotes for 2009

December 21, 2009
“I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.” - Eckhart Tolle






December 28, 2009
"Our lives are also fed by kind words and gracious behavior. We are nourished by expressions like “excuse me,” and other such simple courtesies. Our spirits are also richly fed on compliments and praise, nourished by consideration as well as whole wheat bread. Rudeness, the absence of the sacrament of consideration, is but another mark that our time-is-money society is lacking in spirituality, if not also in its enjoyment of life." – Ed Hays

Quotes Nov. 16 through Dec. 14, 2009

November 16, 2009 – one year anniversary of weekly quotes!

"Whatever we want to turn away from is precisely where the gems are – right behind the dragon. When we go toward what's frightening, we breathe it in. We connect with it, we get a bit more intimate with it. Then we make a discovery – things are less terrifying when we connect with them, when we make room for them in our heart, when we stop losing ourselves in separation. When we feel like we belong in the deepest sense, we can uncover and move our unique gifts forward, feeling empowered and at home in this mysterious universe. Fear then is not a problem, but just excitement in drag."
– Robert Masters


November 23, 2009
"Back of the sun and way deep under our feet, at the earth’s center, are not a couple of noble mysteries but a couple of joke book."
– Tennessee Williams



November 30, 2009
"What we are doing right now is what we are doing right now. Wanting a different scenario is useless. This is the movie we have rented, so why not watch it? The other movies aren’t available or haven’t been released yet."
– From Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe


December 7, 2009
There is no better exercise
for your heart
Than reaching down
and helping
to lift someone up.
– Bernard Meltzer


December 14, 2009
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
– The Dalai Lama

Quotes: 10/12 through 11/09

October 12, 2009
"There is a light in this world: a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people, who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways."
– Richard Attenborough


October 19, 2009
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
~ Lao Tzu


October 26, 2009
“[O]ur future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.”
– Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States

November 2, 2009
“To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal matter. We each know where our lives are unnecessarily complicated. We are painfully aware of the clutter and pretense that weigh upon us and make our passage through the world more cumbersome and awkward. To live more simply is to unburden ourselves – to live more lightly, cleanly, aerodynamically. It is to establish a more direct, unpretentious, and unencumbered relationship with all aspects of our lives: the things that we consume, the work that we do, our relationships with others, our connections with nature and the cosmos, and more. Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face. It means confronting life clearly, without unnecessary distractions. It means being direct and honest in relationships of all kinds. It means taking life as it is – straight and unadulterated.”
– Duane Elgin

November 9, 2009
“Underlying beliefs are the building blocks of your concept of heaven and your concept of hell. They show exactly how you think you would improve reality if you had your way, and how bad reality could look if your fears came true. To watch it all collapse, to discover that those painful beliefs that we’ve carried around for years are not true for us, that we’ve never needed them at all, is an incredibly freeing experience.”
– Byron Katie

Bread Recipes -- Free for the asking

I've finished compiling all my bread recipes into one document. Including pizza dough, biscuits, and muffins, there are a total of 20 recipes, plus info on maintaining your sourdough starter (if you acquire one).

If you would like a copy of these recipes, email me at clairejosefine@wildblue.net and I'll email the PDF file to you.

More Inspirational Quotes

Sept. 14, 2009
As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged on the shingly beach of a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.
– Stephen Graham

Sept. 21, 2009
“Life is as fleeting as a rainbow, a flash of lightning, a star at dawn. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?”
– Jack Kornfield

Sept. 28, 2009
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”
– E.F.Schumacher

October 5, 2009
Were all the year one constant sunshine, we
Should have no flowers,
All would be draught and leanness; not a tree
Would make us bowers;
Beauty consists in colors; and that’s best
Which is not fixed, but flies and flowers.
–Henry Vaughn

Quotes - 08/10 thru 09/07

Oops, fell behind on posting these here! To receive these regularly, sign up at my web site: www.clairejosefine.com

Issue 39, August 17, 2009
“As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it. If you were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for you."
– Mahatma Gandhi


Issue 40, August 24, 2009
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”
– Albert Pike


Issue 41, August 31, 2009
"A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are insisting merely that the government and industries mend their ways."
– Wendell Berry


Issue 42, Sept. 7, 2009
"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. … All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness, is a simple, frugal heart."
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba The Greek

Inspirational Quote -- week of August 10, 2009

"You are not here to judge or know all the answers. You are here to be the creative conduit of heaven and earth, as Chinese Medicine likes to say, and dance with the great mystery of life. When you feel the pure wonder of the inner and outer realms coursing equally through your own veins, and experience your life as a series of joyful learning experiences, you are fully embodying your true nature. You become a cascade of gratitude, a font of appreciation for the majesty of life pouring through you."

-- Terah Kathryn Collins

Inspirational Quote -- week of August 3, 2009

“The exploration of new ways of living that support new ways of being is a movement that arises from the awakening of compassion – the dawning realization that the fate of the individual is intimately connected with the fate of the whole.” – Ram Dass

Inspirational Quote -- week of July 27, 2009

"Getting rid of the clutter is not about letting go of things that are meaningful to you. It’s about letting go of the things that no longer contribute to your life so you have the time and the energy and the space for the things that do."

– Elaine St. James

Inspirational Quote -- week of July 20, 2009

"Grant me the ability to be alone.
May it be my custom to go
outdoors each day
among the trees and grasses,
among all growing things
and there may I be alone,
and enter into prayer
to talk with the one
that I belong to."

– Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav

Inspiration Quote - week of July 13, 2009

“Our deepest fears are but dragons guarding our deepest treasures.”
– R.M. Rilke

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité -- and Organizing

Happy Bastille Day!

The storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution is celebrated as a sort-of French 4th of July. Because the Bastille held both ammunition and political prisoners, its storming represents liberation from the oppression of monarchy.

For me, becoming organized is also liberating. Some people think of organizing as a restrictive straight-jacket, a set of rigid rules, too much oppressive order. But I prefer to think of organization as a life jacket, a tool that supports us as we navigate our way down life’s river.

The French motto is Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité – liberty, equality, and brotherhood. In honor of Bastille Day, I thought I’d look at the benefits of organizing from the motto’s perspective.

Liberté
I had a client once who was in charge of her psychologically-disabled sister’s estate. We worked together to organize all the paperwork associated with her sister, and were eventually able to put it all, neatly labeled and filed, in a portable file box. The day we finished, my client pranced gleefully, singing “Betty’s in a box! Betty’s in a box!” Now, when she wanted, she could hand over the responsibility for Betty* to someone else. Whoo-hoo! Freedom!

I have another client for whom we’ll be doing something similar. She currently handles all of the paperwork and finances for her 20-something-year-old son. In the course of organizing her office, one of our goals is to set up a paper-management system – again, self-contained in a portable file box – for all her son’s affairs. Her goal is to teach him how to use it and eventually turn it over to him, empowering him to make his own financial decisions and liberating her from the responsibility.

Egalité
Possibly because they’ve struggled to function as a right-brain creative sort in a left-brain culture, many artists scoff at organization as being dreadfully dull. One of my readers once wrote to me: “I have always detested neat, highly organized people. They are not like me. They made me feel faulty, inadequate, guilty, and so I pronounced them without creativity, spontaneity, or passion.” The rebellious artist rejects organization as antithetical to the creative process. And yet – organization supports art. Creation is easier when the artist can find her toys – her favorite camel-hair brush, the Italian hand painted blue bead, the silver glitter. Being able to find our toys – or really, our tools – put us on an even keel with our fellow craftsmen by enabling us to practice our craft without unnecessary hindrance.

Ditto for attorneys, or teachers, or healers, or carpenters, or chefs. Having our tools readily available allows us to do our job more effectively and helps create a level playing field – equality.

Fraternité
Brotherhood reminds us that we’re all in this together. My last principle – I have 12 Basic Principles of Being Organized, which are the focus of my book – is to Ask for Help. I remind people that we are not alone and we shouldn’t try to do it all ourselves. If those artists, attorneys, teachers, healers, carpenters, and chefs need help organizing, I can help them. The principles are universal across professions. But I can also help people get organized so that they can bring in help. Some people – especially entrepreneurs – need help setting up basic office systems so that a secretary or bookkeeper can come in and take the administrative load off, allowing the entrepreneur to focus on growing her business. Other people need their home decluttered and organized enough to allow a housekeeper to come in and help them with the cleaning. Or they need their kids’ areas organized so that they can start teaching their children how to be organized.


Why We Organize
In my book, The Spiritual Art of Being Organized, I write about why people get organized. Here’s an excerpt from the book:

Why get organized? What are the benefits to you? When I ask my clients this question, they toss back answers:
* so I can find things;
* so I can pay my bills on time;
* so I can have company over without feeling embarrassed;
* to feel happier, more peaceful and serene;
* o reduce stress;
* to save time and effort, make my life easier;
* so I can meet deadlines, improving my work performance and relationships with co-workers;
* to save money (on late fees, duplication of possessions);
* to make money;
* to improve the way my home (or office) looks and feels;
* to have more time to spend with my family and to do what I really want;
* to feel better about myself.

Artists, doctors, mothers, gardeners—I believe that each of us has gifts to offer, and a duty to offer them. Each of us brings something to the whole, to making the world a lovelier, safer, happier place. Being organized helps us share our gifts.

What, then, does it mean to be organized? For me, being organized means being able to access what we want quickly and easily. Organization does not require perfection, only that our systems are easy to use and maintain. Contrary to images of organized homes being the result of constant vigilance, organization is actually about being lazy; about making our lives easier. Rather than seeing organization as a dam that restricts our life’s river, think of it as the raft that supports us, that provides structure and a modicum of safety and control as we float (or ride rapids) downstream.

In fact, Class IV rapids are an excellent reason to become organized. Life happens. We lose our job, our health, a loved one. Or we become deeply involved in a creative project, a long and fabulous vacation, an all-consuming love affair. We have babies, move, return to school, start a business, write a book, change careers. Being organized helps us to survive, even thrive, as we ride through these transitional rapids.

In The Way of Zen, Alan Watts wrote, “If the wind were to stop for one second for us to catch hold of it, it would cease to be wind. The same is true of life. Perpetually things and events are moving and changing…. We can only understand life by keeping pace with it, by a complete affirmation and acceptance of its magic-like transformations and unending changes.” And, I would add, by being organized enough to flow with it.

So why get organized? Because, when all is said and done, being organized makes life easier.


Taking it to the Streets
Consider furthering the cause of liberty, equality, and brotherhood by reaching out to those being held prisoner by their disorganization. Do you know someone who is often running late? Losing things? Being assaulted with late fees? Complaining about being disorganized? Complaining about their spouse being disorganized? I don’t recommend ramming their gates with critical judgment – “Boy are you a mess! You should hire Claire!” – but a quiet coup de grace – mentioning that you know me and that I’ve helped hundreds of people, encouraging them to visit my web site and then call me… that would be one way you could make their lives easier and the world a better place. Together we can make the world a bit more lovely and whole.

*Not her real name

Inspiration Quote - week of July 6, 2009

“Liberty is not license to do whatever you want to do. It is the freedom* to do what you ought to do.”
– Sylvia Boorstein, quoting a sign she saw somewhere

(*And, I would add, the responsibility to do what you ought. – Claire Josefine)

Inspirational Quotes June 2009

Issue 28, June 1, 2009
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”
– Pablo Picasso

Issue 29, June 8, 2009
“Why is it that we yearn to be more or other than we are? It so rarely occurs to us that what we are looking for may be – indeed, always is – already within us, simply undiscovered.”
– from Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe


Issue 30, June 15, 2009
“[T]he making of money and the accumulation of things should not smother the purity of the soul, the life of the mind, the cohesion of the family, or the good of the society.”
– Duane Elgin (paraphrasing David Shi)


Issue 31, June 22, 2009
“Observation of my life to date shows that the larger the number for whom I work, the more positively effective I become. Thus, it is obvious that if I work always and only for all humanity, I will be optimally effective.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller


Issue 32, June 29, 2009
“Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.”
– William James

Inspirational Quotes May 2009

Issue 24, May 4, 2009
"When you come right down to it, all you have is yourself. The sun is a thousand rays in your belly. All the rest is nothing."
– Pablo Picasso


Issue 25, May 11, 2009
"He who will, Fates lead. He who won’t, they drag."
– Joseph Campbell


Issue 26, May 18, 2009
“Simplicity is the result of stopping the identification with so many desires.”
– Ram Dass


Issue 27, May 25, 2009
"Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."
– Arnold Toynbee

Inspirational Quotes April 2009

Issue 20, April 8, 2009
"If you should be holding a sapling in your hand when they tell you the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling, then go out and greet him."
— Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakka



Issue 21, April 13, 2009
"Salvation is seeing that the universe is good, and becoming a part of that goodness." — Arthur G. Clutton-Brock



Issue 22, April 20, 2009
"I no longer expect things to make sense. I know there is no safety. But that does not mean there is no magic. It does not mean there is no hope. It simply means that each of us has reason to be wishful and frightened, aspiring and flawed. And it means that, to the degree we are lost, it is on the same ocean, in the same night."
— Elizabeth Kaye



Issue 23, April 27, 2009
"…there is an aesthetics of time that is violated when we live in constant rush, when our lives are a succession of agenda items, when we live like someone racing through the supermarket with a shopping list. To live well means giving things the time they deserve, be it time for the children, one’s spouse and lover, one’s friends, or the garden."
— from Graceful Simplicity by Jerome Segal

Inspirational Quotes March 2009

Issue 15, March 2, 2009
“[W]hen the health of one part of the food chain is disturbed, it can affect all the other creatures in it. If the soil is sick or in some way deficient, so will be the grasses that grow in that soil and the cattle that eat the grasses and the people who drink the milk from them. … Our personal health cannot be divorced from the health of the entire food web.”
— from In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan



Issue 16, March 9, 2009
In Tales of the Hasidim, there is a story about Rabbi Baruch, who talked about three ways of bringing money to the zaddik, the head of the temple: “Some say to themselves, ‘I’ll give him something. I am the kind of person who brings gifts to the zaddik.’ Others think, ‘If I give gifts to this devout man, it will profit me hereafter.’ They want heaven to pay them interest. It is a loan. But there are some who know: ‘God has put this money in my hand for the zaddik, and I am his messenger.’ These serve with full and open heart.”
— Ram Dass



Issue 17, March 16, 2009
"Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy."
— Elizabeth Gilbert



Issue 18, March 23, 2009
“A mystery is that special kind of problem which has no solutions because the more we understand it, the more we see that we don’t understand. In mysteries, knowledge and ignorance advance lockstep. As known unknowns become known, unknown unknowns proliferate; the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
– Huston Smith


Issue 19, March 30, 2009
Our life is shorter than flowers
Then shall we mourn?
No, we shall dance
Plant gardens
Dress in colors
And teach our children
To make the world more beautiful
Because our life is shorter than flowers.
— Toltec fragment

Inspirational Quotes February 2009

Issue 11, February 2, 2009
“The free man, the person who refuses to rule himself according to the tutelage of the market, may choose different satisfactions: time instead of things, happiness instead of wealth. If so, the productive capacity of nations will have to be diminished or production will have to be described in a different way, revalued, like something brought out of a long sojourn in darkness and suddenly exposed to light. Wisdom could become more valuable than widgets. Professors and poets would become the wealth of nations.”
— from A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture by Earl Shorris


Issue 12, February 9, 2009
"To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer."
— Mahatma Gandhi


Issue 13, February 16, 2009
“We are each responsible for the conduct of our lives – and we are each unique. Therefore we are each uniquely responsible for our actions and choices in this pivotal time in human evolution. There is no one who can take our place. We each weave a singular strand in the web of life. No one else can weave that strand for us. What we each contribute is distinct, and what we each withhold is uniquely irreplaceable.

More than anything else, the outcome from this time of planetary transition will depend on the choices that we make as individuals.”
— Duane Elgin


Issue 14, February 23, 2009
“When someone steals a man’s clothes we call him a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has not shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”
— Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, around 365 A.D.

Inspirational Quotes January 2009

Issue 7, January 5, 2009
"When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly."
— Patrick Overton

Issue 8, January 12, 2009
"I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run."
— Henry David Thoreau

Issue 9, January 19, 2009
"The poor long for riches and the rich for heaven, but the wise long for a state of tranquility."
– Swami Rama

Issue 10, January 26, 2009
"There is no spiritual practice more profound than being kind to one’s family, neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, an unexpected visitor, the person who does the laundry or picks up the garbage, or any other of the usually 'invisible' people whose paths we cross in the course of a normal day."
— from It’s A Meaningful Life – It Just Takes Practice by Bo Lozoff

Inspirational Quotes Nov/Dec. 2008

In late November of 2008, I began sending a weekly inspirational quote (via email) to over 200 people. The quotes focus on simplicity and spirituality.

I recently realized that I should post those quotes to this blog, too. So here they are, by month (for the most part). Once I've caught up with the past quotes, I will start posting them here each week when I send them out. Meanwhile, if you'd like to receive the weekly email, send a request to ClaireJosefine@wildblue.net. And if you know of anyone else who might appreciate receiving these quotes, please, let them know!

Blessings, and enjoy --

Claire


Issue 1, November 24, 2008
"In truth, it is not the number and diversity of our possessions that are the problems but our attachment to them. When the attachment grows thin and the filament breaks, then we discover that we do not really want so much anymore. What we need to relinquish, therefore, is our attachment to possessions and experiences, not the things themselves. The freedom we are all seeking is freedom from the fear of losing what we believe we own."
– from Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe



Issue 2, December 1, 2008
"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
– George Eliot


Issue 3, December 8, 2008
"[Think of] God playing hide and seek with himself, remembering himself, then dismembering himself into the myriad roles played by sentient beings… All bodies are the clothes of the one and only Self in its innumerable disguises, and the whole universe is a masquerade ball pretending to be a tragedy and then realizing it’s a ball."
– Alan Watts


Issue 4, December 15, 2008
"The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp."
– John Berry



Issue 5, December 22, 2008
"God is more glorified by a man who uses the good things of this life in simplicity and with gratitude than by the nervous asceticism of someone who is agitated about every detail of his self-denial. … His [the latter’s] struggle for perfection becomes a kind of battle of wits with the Creator who made all things good."
– Thomas Merton



Issue 6, December 29, 2008
“It can be said that the Earth is a mask of God which appears in many contradictions – good and evil, refined and coarse, alive and dead, enduring and transitory. But behind this cover of plurality is God’s oneness. The boulder and the soap bubble are identical. Stupidity is only crippled wisdom. The dead aren’t dead, the departed haven’t vanished. God lives, and everything that comes from Him is alive. Darkness is only dimmed light. The wrongs are disguised mercies.

Why did God require this concealment? … God bestowed upon the people of the Earth – which is the lowest and darkest of all the worlds – a gift that no other world could have received: free will, the freedom to choose between good and evil. In the higher spheres, God’s light is too radiant to allow doubt and error.”
– from Reaches of Heaven by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Uber Bread

I’ve been working on eating a low(er)-glycemic diet. Toward this end, I’ve modified my multi-grain bread recipe into what I call my Uber Bread – the ultimate in healthy, tasty, dense bread.

Soak ½ cup of wheat and/or oat berries overnight. In the morning, drain them, then put them in a pot with fresh water, bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour. Remove from heat and allow to cool to tepid.

Once the berries have cooled, combine and proof
2 teaspoons yeast
2 Tablespoons honey
3 Tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces liquid (I use 1 cup room-temperature milk and ½ cup of the liquid that I cooked the berries in)

Once the yeast has proofed, mix in
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups stone-ground whole wheat flour
½ cup oat bran
½ cut wheat bran
½ cup flax meal
½ cup oats
the cooked berries
1-plus cups white flour (as needed to knead)

Knead until dough is smooth and springy.

Coat with olive oil, cover, and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free place. (This might take a couple of hours.)

Once doubled in bulk, punch down and knead again. Divide in half and form two loaves. Sprinkle a pizza stone with coarse cornmeal (I use polenta) and place the loaves on it. Cover and allow to rise a second time. Once risen, place in a 350-degree oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

A Few Passover Recipes

Feels like I've been cooking all week!

I hosted a seder for nine people last Wednesday for the first night of Pesach, and attended a friend's very abbreviated seder last night.(Mostly it was a dinner party that used Passover as an excuse to gather, although we did tell the Exodus story and eat all the ceremonial foods, so I guess it counts as a seder.)

My charoset (which is chunky, not paste-like) is delicious, and at least one friend says it's the best she's ever had. Also, both the desserts I made were a big hit. So here, in my inimitable style, are the recipes for those three dishes. There's still two more nights of Passover, if you want to give them a try. Or heck, eat them any old time of the year!

Charoset
Finely chop and combine:
2 apples
approx. 1/2 cup raisins
approx. 1/2 cup dates
approx. 1/4 cup dried cherries
1 orange
approx. 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon and cloves
moisten with kosher blackberry wine or grape juice. If using grape juice, squeeze in the juice from half a Meyer's lemon, too.
Mix well and let sit, covered and refrigerated, for several hours so the flavors mingle nicely.

Serve as a fruit salad, or as a Hillel sandwich (matzah with horseradish and charoset).


Claire's Passover Sachertorte

Preheat oven to 325

Butter the bottom -- but not the sides -- of a 9 inch spring form pan

Melt 5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Guittard)

Beat 5 egg whites until stiff

Cream
3/4 cup sugar (although I used about 1/2 cup of agave nectar)
3/4 cup butter
either 1 teaspoon orange rind, or a splash of orange liqueur (I used Triple Sec)
3/4 cup finely ground almond meal
5 egg yolks

Beat in the melted chocolate

Gradually fold in the stiff egg whites

Pour into spring form pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

Top with a chocolate glaze:
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
another splash of orange liqueur (or 1 Tablespoon orange rind)

Once cooled, add cherries or raspberries, or a raspberry coulee


Almond/Chocolate Lace Cookies
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt:
1/2 cup (one cube) butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons 1/2 'n 1/2
1 Tablespoon flour

When melted, stir in
3/4 cup finely ground almond meal

Place 5 or 6 teaspoons of batter on a well-greased and floured baking sheet. Give them lots of space, because they'll spread out wide and thin.

Bake for about 8 minutes. Remove, allow to cool for a minute or so, then place face down on a paper towel to finish cooling. Repeat with the rest of the batter. You should wind up with 24 to 30 cookies in all.

Once all the cookies are baked and cooled, drizzle them with chocolate made by melting about 1 ounce of cocoa butter and 4 to 5 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips together.

Place the chocolate-drizzled cookies in the fridge so the chocolate can harden.

Devour.

Pies! Pumpkin, Pecan, and Mince (sort of)

Here are three Thanksgiving pie recipes that are healthier than the usual versions – and tastier, too!

Pumpkin Pie

(I use fresh pumpkin – cut a small sugar pumpkin open, remove the seeds and gook, then bake, covered, until soft. Scrape the pie meat away from the shell, compost the shell, and use the meat.)

Puree in a blender:
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups half and half
½ to ¾ cup honey
2 Tablespoons molasses (Aunt Patty’s, unsulphured)
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Pour into a single pie crust (basic recipe is 1 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, and 5 or so Tablespoons cold water or milk – can jazz up with a bit of spices and sugar)

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes or so, until the pumpkin has set and is beginning to crack. Cool before eating.


Pecan Pie (without corn syrup!)

Beat together:
3 eggs
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup agave nectar
5 Tablespoons melted butter
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups pecans (lightly toasted)

Pour into a single pie crust (see above recipe for pumpkin pie) and bake at 350 until done.
Cool before eating.



Also, I tried an experiment that came out pretty good. This is a general guideline, not a recipe as such. I think of it as my Sort-of Mock Mince Pie

Combine:
4 to 5 sliced, peeled apples
About a cup of dried fruit of your choice. I had figs, cranberries, cherries, and raisins on hand, so that’s what I used.
Season with cinnamon and cloves
Splash in some brandy (maybe ¼ cup?)
Throw in some pecan pieces

This one has both a bottom and top crust, decorated as you wish. Bake for 10 minutes at 450, then reduce heat to 350 until golden brown – about 45 or 50 minutes. Cool before eating.

Creamed Spinach, Garlic Kale, White Beans, and Creamy Polenta

Oy, two months already since I last wrote? Okay, I’m a lousy blogger. But then, I’m not writing to be a blogger; I’m writing to share my thoughts, recipes, and life with whoever’s out there reading. (Hello? Anybody there?)

Garden update: Except for micro-slug damage, the winter veggies are doing well. The garlic has sent up its leaves, and the greens are beginning to show up at the dinner table. I’ve harvested the first round of spinach, plucking the largest leaves from the outer edges of each plant. Made an amazingly delicious creamed spinach by wilting the spinach, then covering it with a bechamel sauce (make a roux from 2 tablespoons each of melted butter and flour, then add about a cup of milk and stir it in until thickened) seasoned with a packet of Simply Organic’s onion soup mix.

I’ve also made one meal from the kale – sautéing it with garlic and serving it with white beans and creamy polenta. To make the white beans, soak 1 cup of them overnight, then:

Sauté one chopped onion
Add the beans
Add sprigs of thyme, rosemary, and sage
Add whole, peeled garlic (an entire head)
Add just enough water to cover the beans

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, covered, for a couple of hours, or until the beans have softened.

If you’d like, add two Aidel’s chicken apple sausages, sliced into ½ inch pieces, about ½ hour before the beans are done.

Serve the beans with the garlic kale over creamy polenta:

Bring 4 cups of liquid to a boil. I use 3 cups of chicken broth and one cup of milk or cream.
Add 1 cup of polenta
Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly for five minutes, then reduce heat further, to a simmer, and continue stirring regularly for 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is asbsorbed and the polenta has thickened.
Stir in ½ cup of mild grated cheese – I like fontina or jack
Add one small diced red bellpepper
Remove from heat and serve

Reheated polenta for lunch:
A client of mine turned me on to this. She takes a slice of leftover polenta and heats it briefly in the microwave. (Not owning – or wanting – a microwave, I use the toaster oven.) Then she drizzles olive oil on it and sprinkles it with pepper, toasted sunflower seeds, and a bit of grated parmesan cheese. Yum!


Farmer’s market only has two more Saturdays before it closes for the winter. Luckily, the garden is like a mini farmer’s market. Waiting patiently for me to choose them are beets, chard, kale, and spinach. And I saw the beginnings of a broccoli.

Also, the apples are ready to harvest. I’ll probably wind up drying them or making applesauce. They’re Fujis, and don’t taste very good. No doubt some of them will wind up in the Thanksgiving stuffing, and possibly in a pie. I’m thinking about taking some pears a friend canned that are too sweet for my taste and making a pie with them, apples, figs, cranberries, brandy, cinnamon and cloves, and I’m not sure what else.

Veggie Songs

Peas squeak.

Seriously. When I pick the snow peas from the vine and place them in my hand, they gently rub against each other and produce a squeaking sound. It’s quite charming.

The green beans are quieter, issuing a small percussive snap when I break them free. Although would somebody please remind me next spring that I’m fonder of the idea of yellow wax beans than of the taste? I think there must be something about leaving the beans on the vine long enough to yellow that causes them to get a bit too starchy and tough. The Haricots Verts, however, are delicious: fresh and crunchy.

The sound of dill is softer yet. I picked a paper-lunch-bag full of dill leaves and set them out to dry, the whole time telling the dill how wonderful it smelled and that I was grateful for it; that it would be used well in spanakopita and zucchini latkes, in bread, and maybe even on fish.

And snails make a satisfying (if guilt-ridden) smack as they hit the pavement, having been launched over the fence once discovered hiding among the bean leaves.

This morning was dedicated to harvest. I walked over to the neighbors and picked up two dozen eggs, five of which I gathered directly from the hen house. (The cackling and carrying on of chickens is its own symphony of sorts.) While there, I helped myself (upon my neighbor’s invitation) to zucchini: four little, four medium, and one huge honker (for stuffing). Three small tomatoes made their way home with me, too, destined for tonight’s pizza. Then I wandered into my own garden, from which I harvested ½ pound each of peas and green beans, the bag of dill, and two bouquets worth of flowers (mostly dahlias).

Meanwhile, a loaf of oatmeal bread was baking. And later today I’ll wander over to the cows’ side of the pasture to collect blackberries. I’ve picked and frozen four one-pound bags so far, but would be happier with more. I love blackberries.

But what I love even more is gathering, and eating from my surroundings. I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle right now (I’m in June), and am absolutely loving it. She’s a wonderful writer, and her attitude is refreshing. I wind up comparing her year-long experiment of eating only local food with Judith Levine’s Not Buying It. Where Levine came from a place of deprivation, Kingsolver embraces the challenge with a mindset of abundance and gratitude. And her daughter’s recipes are enticing – I will definitely be trying them. In fact, the book may wind up living on my cookbook shelf once I’m done.

Not that I’m ready to take the localvore pledge, but that’s mostly because of the dearth of local grains where I live. But I eat mostly local food, and of that, probably 90% organic.

In fact, one of the things that amuses me as I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the differences in crop availability. Kingsolver lives in a region that has seasons – snow, even. She also has more heat than we do here on the coast. My god, she’s talking about teasing tomatoes ripe in mid June! Here it is mid September, and my tomatoes are still little green guys. (My neighbor has a warmer garden plot, shielded from the wind, and his tomatoes are up against a wall that adds reflected heat. Hence he has some ripe already.) I can’t even think about growing hot-weather crops: melons, peppers, eggplant… Of course, I’m allergic to them, so for me it doesn’t matter.

Also, everything seems to be late this year. The first of my sunflowers just opened its sunny face today. And most of my dahlias are tight buds. Hopefully this means it’s not too late for me to put in the winter garden. I planted broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, chard, spinach, and onion starts on Sunday.

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My goodness, searching through my posts to provide links to recipes, I realized that I never shared my recipe for spanakopita. I apologize! Here it is:

Wilt one pound of cleaned spinach leaves.

Transfer the spinach to a large bowl and add:

8 ounces crumbled feta
one bunch of scallions, chopped
dill (about 1/2 cup fresh, or two Tablespoons dried)
mint (about1/4 cup fresh, or one Tablespoon dried)
nutmeg (just a light sprinkling)
Pepper (to taste)

You can also add:
toasted pine nuts (about 1/4 cup)
cottage cheese (to give it more bulk, up to 8 ounces)

Melt 4 Tablespoons butter and 4 Tablespoons olive oil together.

Brush the bottom of a square pyrex with the butter/oil.

Now begin the layering/buttering process with the phyllo dough, one sheet at a time, until you have about a dozen buttered sheets in the dish. Place your spinach/feta/herbs mixture on top of the phyllo, then proceed to cover it, one buttered sheet at a time, for another 8 to 12 sheets. Tuck it all in, brush the top with yet more butter, and bake at 350 until golden brown.

Warning: the measurements here are off the top of my head. You may need to tweak them. As always, I'm assuming you know how to cook and am offering the recipe as a guide.

Being Prepared

September is National Preparedness Month.

Just yesterday, a couple of my fellow organizers and I wrote up an informational press release to help members of our community be prepared, just in case. Ironically, tonight when I came home from dinner out with a friend, I discovered that I had no running water. Apparently the water tank has run very low and, this being a dry (drought) year, the well has been inadequate in its duty of keeping the storage tank topped off. Oy. I’ve put a call in to Puryear water delivery so that Bill Puryear can bring me a load of water to refill the tank, which will set me back about a 100 bucks.

Luckily, I have water stashed here and there, enough to get through until Bill comes to save the day. And once I remembered that I have water stashed, I stopped stressing about the pipes being dry. Once again, I have everything I need for this instant, and can be grateful that all really is okay.

So, for your amusement and benefit, here are the preparedness tips that we wrote up yesterday. Hope they help you.

Prepare a communication plan. This includes important contact information for family and friends, and who will contact whom. Remember, if the power goes out and your phone cell dies, you will be without your phone list. So keep a written hard copy and an old-fashioned non-electric telephone handy.

Agree upon a reunion plan. Where will you meet, and when?

Stock up on the necessities of life. The general rule of thumb is three days and three nights of provisions to get you through 72 hours of living without electricity. (In Humboldt County, you may want to plan for longer outages.) Don’t forget your pets! Necessary provisions include one gallon of water per person per day, basic grains, and ready-to-eat, non-perishable food. Remember to include a manual can opener.

Pretend you’re camping. Have a camp stove, fuel, water purification system, a flashlight, extra batteries, candles, waterproof matches, toiletries, and a first aid kit readily accessible. (You may want to keep another first aid kit in your car, too.)

Don’t forget your medications. Advice varies, but we suggest having a two-week supply of all important prescriptions available. Remember to rotate them each time you refill your prescription so that they don’t expire.

Create a Grab and Go bag. This contains a change of clothes (extra underwear for children), jackets, blankets, basic toiletries, a picture of each family member, high-protein bars, bottled water, and your essential documents file. (For more information on creating a documents file, see below.)

Have a radio with extra batteries. A NOAA weather radio is a good idea, especially if you’re in a tsunami zone. Either way, tune to KHUM at 104.3 or 104.7 FM for excellent live local coverage.


How to Create a Documents File:

What goes in a documents file?

Anything that would be a nuisance to replace. This includes:

A copy of all the cards in your wallet, front and back.

A copy of your driver's license.

Your passport.

Other vital documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, adoption papers, naturalization papers, your social security card.

A copy of your most recent insurance policies.

Photos of your valuable possessions.

Photos of your pets and other family members.

Your vehicles' pink slips.

Any other deeds showing title to property.

A copy of your most recent tax return.

A copy of your "just in case" data -- all that information someone would need to pick up the pieces if anything happened to you. (You can purchase my e-booklet, Organizing Your Estate, which takes you through the steps for compiling this data. Go to www.wintersdaughterpress.com and click on e-books.)