Kategoriarkiv: #English

One word at a time – we change the world

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Three young souls, with a desire to change the world, one word at a time. That’s a desire I want to support and aid, in any way I can. Because I have the same desire.

Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen, members of the Get Lit organization perform ”Somewhere in America” on The Queen Latifah Show.

The greatest lessons, are the one’s you don’t remember learning. 

One word at a time, we change the world.

One action at a time, we change the world.

The quality of those words and those actions, determine what the changed world will be like. It’s our choice, we are the creators! You. And I. Together, and separately.

What quality of words and actions have you chosen today?

Create something from nothing

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As a part of the Create the impossible-project, we get a short audio in the morning 6 out of 7 days of the week. This week Michael Neill set off with a challenge to ”create something out of nothing” each day of the week. Yesterday, my creating was the necklace-hangers from the #cleanse4expansion-project that you can read about here: https://cleanse4expansion.wordpress.com

Not ”having created anything from nothing” today, except a few slides and tweaks to a class on quality and environmental management systems I’m holding Thursday, I got a wee bit stressed when evening rolled in, as I had choir practice for the first time this semester tonight. Luckily, that’s where it was. The creation. As a part of the last bit of warming up our voices, we were to no-no-no-sing in three tunes (Soprano, Second Soprano, Alto) to Twinkle twinkle little star. We did. A couple of times. And then, Jens, our choir leader, told us to break out into our own tunes, experimenting… and we did. I did.

Twinkle twinkleAnd as I sang, simultaneously listening to the myriad of notes soaring out into space, while still clearly being Twinkle twinkle little star…. it came to me:
WOW, talk about creating something out of nothing!

And when the last note faded out…. Jens voiced what I was thinking: no one will EVER hear that specific version of Twinkle twinkle little star, ever again.

Pretty amazing to create something from nothing, having it take form for a minute or two, and then fading away, back into the formless again.

Have you created something from nothing today?

Podcast 3/52 – Selfie anyone?

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In this age of selfies, wefies. selfie sticks and the likes, it might be refreshing to listen to this gem from the RSA Events on From the self to the selfie. I listened to this podcast 3-4 months ago. I truly enjoyed the historical backdrop that gave me some new angles to consider while reflecting upon the whole notion of self-love. Simon Blackburn has written a book called Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love that I’m curious about, after having listened to this talk.

selfiesAnd as I opened Boldomatic to create an image for this blog post (considering ”From the self to the selfie”) this is what’s at the top of my feed.

A world

with a little
less selfies

and a little
more selfless.

Well. What to say other than that I’m hoping more people will listen to this podcast (and don’t miss out on the Q&A starting about half way in, as often is the case, that part is often extra interesting to listen to). If nothing else, because I think it’s too easy a route to take to ”blame the selfies”, judging them and the habit of taking them as being egotistical and self-centered. Without taking into consideration the intent behind it, there’s no way for me to know. And I prefer to avoid unnecessary generalizations, if I can.

What’s your take on selfies? Do you take and post them yourself?
Are there too many of them? Are selfies wrong/bad/evil? What do they tell you about the person posting it?

Nettle and feta cheese pie

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Nettle and feta cheese pie

Nettle and feta cheese pie

Posted a photo of last nights nettle and feta cheese pie on Facebook, and got asked for the recipe. Figured I might as well share it, because it is really yummy! Luckily, I picked a lot of nettles this summer, quickly dipped in boiling water and then froze in ”enough for one pie”-portions. Since I cleaned out the freezer the other day I took one of those portions out and made this pie.

Here’s the recipe, starting with the crust:
100 grams of butter
2,5 dl of flour
1 ml of baking soda
1 ml of salt

Melt the butter.
Mix 2,5 dl flour with 1 ml baking soda and 1 ml salt and pour into the pan with melted butter. Quickly mix it all together (and add a wee bit more flour if needed) and then put the dough into a baking pan (that you don’t have to coat with butter first). Pat it all out, on bottom and sides, and pre-bake for 10 minutes in 200 degree C.

Now for the filling:
1 pack of feta cheese (around 200 grams)
Onion (optional, garlic works well also)
Blanched, well-sqeezed and chopped nettles
4-5 eggs
2-3 dl milk
pepper

I chopped 1 pack of feta cheese and half an onion (finely diced). Place in the pre-baked pie crust. Pour over the mix of lightly beaten eggs, milk and some pepper. Pop pan in oven for 30-40 minutes at 200 degrees C. Today I added some baby spinach leaves onto the feta cheese before pouring over the egg mix.

Eat and enjoy, preferably with a green salad on the side.

As you can tell, it’s a recipe that varies every time I do it, and usually, it turns out really nice. Today I used onion for the first time, normally I do a clove or two of garlic. And if you don’t have any nettles, making the pie with goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria in Latin, kirskål in Swedish) works really well also!

Right now I long for summer, so I can pick more nettles and goutweed, neither of which I have growing in my garden, to my great sorrow. (And yeah, I know, most people would kill to be rid of it….) What’s your favorite recipe with nettles and/or goutweed?

All I need…

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Tired after a long day, getting up earlier than in a long long time, and not really sleeping that much either all night because I knew I had to get up early. I’ve been away teaching all day, and when I got home, I had some information that really didn’t sit very well with me. So I realized that what I want right now is a little bit of love, and hence, I’ll share this with you, hoping there might be a few who, like me, need to play around in the feeling of love at the moment.

AllYouNeedIsLove

It sure does go a long way, that love-thing, doesn’t it?

Egg number one!

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Went out to the chicken coop today, to refill the food dispenser, and suddenly saw that the egg my husband put in the nest as a decoy, all of a sudden wasn’t the only egg in there.

An egg with company

An egg with company – left one placed there by husband as a decoy. It worked!

Immediately sent a text asking him is he put another egg in there…. before realizing how silly I was being, because as he very succinctly told me when I asked if he marked the egg he put in that ”Eggs from the hens wont have Best before-dates stamped on them”. Oh yeah, didn’t think of that…. But today I did, so I picked the other egg upp, and yeah, no best before-date anywhere!

Egg number one - and possibly the egg layer herself.

Egg number one – and possibly the egg layer herself.

We have had out first egg in other words, and I’m thrilled! Now it will be very exciting to see if the other two hens also start laying, and if it will be a daily occurrence or more of a slow start. If you have any experience with chickens, is there anything particular that we should be thinking of now?

 

Podcast 2/52 – On habits

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You already know that The One You Feed is a favorite podcast of mine, so maybe it’s no surprise to you that I’ll include an episode from there early on in this yearlong series. But this is a mini-episode, where Eric Zimmer talks about building habits. It’s a short episode really just summarizing Erics best tips for how to build a habit successfully.

I won’t reveal all the different suggestions, except my favorite tip, which is one of the last ones: Never miss twice. Because I’m sure you, as well as I, have started to create a habit some time, only to realize all of a sudden that we´ve missed a day. Rather than beat yourself up over it and/or toss it all away, going There’s no point to it, I just missed a day, I’ll never be able to get this habit in please go Never miss twice instead. That is a loving and forgiving way to look at yourself and building of habits, because who cares if you miss a day? I mean, really. What’s the big deal? It’s like getting tossed off a horse, get back on again!never miss twice

I hope you listen to the podcast, and come back next Sunday for the next podcast tip.

Which one was your favorite tip? And are there any tips you have on building a habit that wasn’t on Erics list, that you’d like to share?

Help me move!

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So, I need your help. You see, my body is telling me that I sit still too much, too long, when I get going on my computer, IPad or IPhone. It’s telling me to move, and I do, but not enough. Because I get caught up in the flow, of writing blog post after blog post, or writing documents for clients, or… whatever, which means I hardly move at all for hours on end!

This summer I got a crick in my neck and back just before heading to London for a weekend course, and then onto a family vacation. Bad timing let me tell you! I went to see a chiropractor and got help so it never got really bad.

I’ve been back to the chiropractor quite a few times since then, and early December felt that it was really getting better. However, you know how it is, Murphy’s Law immediately made sure I was wrong about that. So all through the holidays I’ve had a crick in my neck and back, not really bad, but always there.

I’ve moved a lot, swimming, doing my Seven-exercise every morning and so on, and that I think is the reason it never turned into a full blown torticollis (in Swedish: nackspärr). Privious years when I’ve had this problem I’ve just stopped moving altogether, because it hurts, and that I believe actually just makes it worse for me.

I went to see the chiropractor this week, and now it feels good again after a three week stint. I asked her why I have this recurring problem with my back and neck, and she said ”Well, who knows….” and then I realized: I know.

remember to moveThe week before it hit just prior to Christmas, I’d been sitting by my computer a lot, blogging, writing and whatever I get up to surfing the web, and I also had a short spell last weekend without any pain…. only to have it return over night because I spent a few hours by the computer that afternoon and night (and by few hours…. I’m guessing I’m actually saying like 5-6 hours, in the sofa, with my computer in my lap…).

So. Yeah. I know. I hear you body. I need to get a better work position when I work, not spend too long a time on my Ipad or IPhone to avoid text neck, and more than anything, I need to break my stance and shake it up at least once every the hour!

And that’s where I need your help. Because I forget to move!

So what’s the best way to give my self a reminder to shake it up, do some stretching, go get a glass of water or whatever, for a few minutes every hour? Do you have a favorite app for it, a website that helps, or do you just set a timer?

I’m the fly on the wall

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I just started the 10-pack series on Balance in my Headspace-app, and it started off with Andy talking about what balance is to him. I really enjoyed what he said, even though I don’t remember it verbatim. So I’ll just try to use my own words, because I want to share this.

Balance doesn’t mean level, even, a straight line without up’s and down’s. No, that’s not what balance is to me.

Balance, to me, means riding the roller coaster that is life, with all the up’s and down’s, speed changes, bumps and the occasional stop, without getting swept off my feet.

Balance means experiencing my high’s fully, without believing that it’s only when I am high that I can be happy and grateful.

Balance means experiencing my low’s fully, without believing that it’s impossible to be happy and grateful when I am low.

Balance means being ok with, and accepting, what is, in the moment, feeling it, experiencing it, being fully there.

Balance means laughing my head off, or crying my heart out, with the knowing that the strong emotion will pass, in time, however long or short. Being able to be 100% in the feeling, while at the same time being aware that it’s a passing feeling.

fly on wallThere is something very dual in it for me, because it’s both being inside myself, feeling and experiencing fully, while simultaneously being aware of what I am feeling and experiencing, as if I have also taken a step outside myself, being able to bear witness upon myself and my experience.

It’s as if I am being me, but also a fly on the wall looking at me. *haha* I promise I did not see that analogy coming, but now that it’s here, I like it. Because it explains my experience quite well. I’m me, but also the fly on the wall.

Have you ever felt like that?

The natural progress of society is surging!

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Shocked to hear about the horrific attack on French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo yesterday. Woke up this morning and thought about the video clip with Reza Aslan slamming Bill Maher for saying ”Islam promotes violence”. What I hear Reza say is urge us all to taking extra care of our words, refraining from generalizations that harm more than anything else.

If you haven’t watched it, here it is:

Then, while making my morning green smoothie, I wanted to listen to a pod cast, and found an interview with Reza Aslan on On Being, which I listened to, taking great comfort in Rezas conclusion:

And so when I see fundamentalism surge, I know that what is really happening is that the natural progress of society is surging. And that fundamentalism is just reacting to it. So, I choose to focus on the progress, not the reaction to it.

It’s a very interesting conversation on the whole, as always with On Being, and it’s definitely well worth the time to listen to it:
http://www.onbeing.org/program/reza-aslan-on-islams-reformation/7039

Like Reza Aslan, I chose to focus on the progress of society as well. But at times like these, it sure takes some extra effort, not to fall into despair and angst. But I hope we can help each other stick to the path of progress, of love, light and gratitude. Will you help me, please?