The Perfect Recipe 11/20/10

There contains many ingredients.

Some are tasteless, odorless, and colorless.

Some are robust, full of flavor, savory and sweet.

On their own, they are strong, but together, they are powerful.

Bake, blanche, broil, boil, roast, simmer or stew.

Put it all together and the result is…bliss, memory, gratitude, yummmmm!

Preheat the oven at 100 degrees.

Place people from all races, times, ages and attitudes evenly on a PVC floor.

You get where I’m going?

Cookies are brown sugar but they’re also baking soda. Butter but also oil. None are good enough on their own without the other. Add some chocolate chips or an intention and you’ve got yourself a desert. You’ve got yourself a practice.

What’s your recipe today? As we near the end of the year and the season of gratitude and giving what do you want and what do you give?

Take it all in and take care.

Today’s collective intention is gratitude. Measure your ingredients and postures carefully and allow yourself the room for a smidge of this and a pinch of that. Maybe a spice. Maybe a sprig. Use the recipe of this practice as a guideline to find the freedom to add what you want for flavor. 86,400 seconds in a day to be grateful. Here’s 90 minutes to move into stillness to find it.

Gratitude makes sense of our past. It solidifies peace and enough for today. It creates a vision of all possibility for tomorrow.

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We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. – Thornton Wilder

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did. – Sarah Caldwell

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. – William Arthur Ward

When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears. –Anthony Robbins

Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. – Kahlil Gibran

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. –JFK

Gratitude is a duty, which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect. –Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get. – Frank A. Clark

If you count all your assets, you will always show a profit. – Robert Quinlan

Praise the bridge that carried you over. – George Coleman

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. – Denis Waitley

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. – Cicero

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity. It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. – William Faulkner

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are charming gardeners who make our soul’s blossom. – Marcel Proust

Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality. – Alfred Painter

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. – Albert Schweitzer

There are only two ways to live your life. One is though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. –Albert Einstein

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings; turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. – William Arthur Ward

Find the good and praise it. – Alex Haley

You’ve followed the rules. So, open the oven, close your eyes. Do you smile? Does it smell good enough to eat? If so, it is ready. –My mom

PS – Use oven mits

PPS- don’t worry about the blackened edges, it makes good roughage.

**Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” — Buddha

**For each new morning with it’s light. For rest and shelter of the night. For health and food, for love and friends. For everything thy goodness sends. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Darlings,

On November 14^th 1851 The Great American Classic Novel, Moby Dick or The Whale by Herman Melville was published. (It was first published on Oct 18, 1851 by Richard Bentley (the same name as my daddy) in London)

In short, a lost wandering soul, Ishmael was on the search for truth and a better life. He encountered some people that showed him a path that seemed, on the surface a good path to lead. He followed it in trust, but it revealed and unfolded themes revolving around good and evil, purpose, faith, power, trust and forced him to question his place in the universe. He believed in the people he surrounded himself with and it reflected and brought up all of the issues he was trying to escape on his search. And of course, those issues came right to the surface and faced him head on.

When we look at ourselves we often look to see who is around us. Those people are there, whether we know it or not, to support our highest purpose. And sometimes, it brings forth our demons. Through both good and the bad, alone or with others - we find our truth.

What do you believe in? What is your truth? What length will you go to live your purpose purely?

Today, our collective intention is to invoke our truth, power and potential, like Ishmael on his voyage in the vast sea and the vast mind.

Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it’s gone. Herman Melville

It is better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation. Herman Melville

Truth uncompromisingly told, will always have it’s ragged edges. Herman Melville

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow man. Herman Melville

Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things. Herman Melville

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. Mark Twain

You never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl Bailey

Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. – Steve Jobs

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. – Albert Einstein

For every beauty there is an eye to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it. Ivan Panin

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end there it is. Winston Churchill

If you want your dreams to come true, don’t sleep. –Yiddish Proverb

Whatever’s meant to be will work out perfectly. Just stay strong. There’s no other way, when it comes to the truth. So, keep holding on. Cause you know we’ll make it through, I’m here for you, we’ll make it through. –Avril Lavigne

The search for the truth is more precious than it’s possession. – Albert Einstein

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time. But it ain’t goin’ away. – Elvis Presley

Rist. Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth. – Katherine Mansfield

True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile. – Mother Theresa

The love of truth has it’s reward in heaven and even on earth. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence is the key to unlocking our potential. – Winston Churchill

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who ha mastered himself is mightier still – Lao Tzu

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. – Leo Buscaglia

He is most powerful who has power over himself. – Seneca

Knowledge is power. – Francis Bacon

Whether on the vast tumultuous sea or serene wake of water, we are in this together. Stay present and ride whatever is present with the calm collection of intention against the rough or smooth.

Dramamine sea stalking love,

Lady

Darlings,