Pumpkin Hummus rocks!

2 C cooked or canned garbanzos, liquid drained and kept separate

1 C canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

4 tbsp tahini

1 tsp powdered garlic or 1 sm. clove fresh

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp cayenne

Ground chipotle or smoked paprika to taste

Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

In a food processor or blender, combine garbanzo beans and pumpkin. Process until smooth, adding garbanzo liquid in small amounts as needed to puree the mixture.

Add tahini, garlic, lemon juice and cayenne, pulsing until smooth. Add salt, pepper and chipotle or paprika to taste.

A Gardener's Thanksgiving by Max Coots

We read this poem every year at our church 

during our Thanksgiving service. 

I love it because it expresses gratitude 

in concrete terms.

A Gardener's Thanksgiving 

By Max Coots 

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
     
For children who are our second planting, and though they 
grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may 
they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where 
their roots are.
     
Let us give thanks;
     
For generous friends...with hearts...and smiles as bright 
as their blossoms;
     
For feisty friends, as tart as apples;
     
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, 
keep reminding us that we've had them;
     
For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
     
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and 
as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as 
potatoes and so good for you;
     
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and 
as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;
     
And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle 
as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as 
dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be 
counted on to see you through the winter;
     
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, 
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
     
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold 
us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;
     
And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past 
that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that 
we might have life thereafter.
     
For all these we give thanks.
                    

After 8 years of the Bush/Cheney disaster, NOW you get mad?

I don't know who wrote it, but it's right on the money....

After The 8 Years Of The Bush/Cheney Disaster, Now You Get Mad?
    
You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and
appointed a President.
      
You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to
dictate Energy policy and push us to invade Iraq.
       
You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.
      
You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
     
You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no
threat to us.
      
You didn't get mad when we spent over 800 billion (and counting) on
said illegal war.
     You didn't get mad when Bush borrowed more money from foreign sources
than the previous 42 Presidents combined.      
You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars in cash just
disappeared in Iraq.
       
You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.
       
You didn't get mad when Bush embraced trade and outsourcing policies
that shipped 6 million American jobs out of the country.
       
You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping
Americans.
     
You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.
You didn't get mad when Bush rang up 10 trillion dollars in combined
budget and current account deficits.       
You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.
     
You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.
       
You didn't get mad when we gave people who had more money than they
could spend, the filthy rich, over a trillion dollars in tax breaks.
       
You didn't get mad with the worst 8 years of job creations in several
decades.
      
You didn't get mad when over 200,000 US Citizens lost their lives
because they had no health insurance.
      
You didn't get mad when lack of oversight and regulations from the Bush
Administration caused US Citizens to lose 12 trillion dollars in
investments, retirement, and home values.        You finally got mad when a black man was elected President and decided
that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are
sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job losses by the
millions, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, and the
worst economic disaster since 1929 are all okay with you, but helping
fellow Americans who are sick...Oh, Hell No!!


 

Rut Roh

It's amazing to me how often and easily I get stuck in my way of thinking. Stupid example: I hated flossed my teeth and so I never did it. It hurt. My spouse flosses before she brushes. I tried it. It hurts less. Now I floss on a regular basis. It never occurred to me that I could floss before brushing...because "that's not how it's done." At least I guess that's my thinking. I get stuck in other problems the same way. For years - and by that I mean 25 or more - I've struggled to get 8 hours of sleep. Not because I don't sleep well - because I don't go to bed early enough. I've prayed, I've talked, I've tried to bully myself into it... Nothing worked. One night I went to bed early enough. I wasn't paying attention to the dilemma that I'd been focused on for years. When I thought about it the next day, I realized I had listened to my body. I felt tired, so I went to sleep. I was paying more attention to how tired I was than to the problem. My mind was free to pay attention to other things. It's why I get good ideas while showering or doing dishes. I'm allowing my mind to relax (most of the time). A different part of my brain engages and can free associate because I'm not in the rut of the same thoughts and problems.

That's connected somehow to a dilemma I've been working and talking about at work. I have a coworker who has made up his mind about another coworker of ours. He interprets everything she does through his lens of dislike and cynicism. I do it too - I suspect many of us do. I have another coworker who in the past has been a thorn in my side at meetings. He was - in the nicest possible way - trying to take over and control the meeting. The facilitator fortunately was open to my observations and suggestions. We gave the meeting attendee a small area to control and on which he could be the expert. We also encouraged others to step up by asking them cover particular topics.We more evenly distributed the power in the meeting. Since then I've been trying to responding to the attendee as if he is being helpful.It turns out he is. He has good ideas. I would have dismissed if I'd been stuck in seeing all his actions as controlling. I'm working on being open-minded. About people and ideas.

 A couple years ago I was bitching to my counselor. I'd been looking for work in a new field (marketing) for about a year. Nothing was coming. She suggested that perhaps I was not looking in the right direction. I was sure marketing was the path for me. I agreed to "be open to being surprised" as she put it. Shortly after that I found a job listing for a communications and org change consultant. I've been in that job for the past 2 1/2 years. Around the same time I had an experience that pushed me in the direction of writing. No idea where I'm going from here. So far the being open thing has worked better than my brain ruts, so I'm going with it.

Money vs. fun

Helped out at the spring GLT fundraiser and came up with a new graphic (not nearly as creative as thisisindexed.com, but it illustrates a point).
Money vs Fun

The Cost of Not Teaching Emotional Literacy

Today when I logged on to check my email, there was an article about an Alabama professor who shot several colleagues, apparently because she was resentful about being denied tenure. There’s more history there clearly – she shot and killed her 18-year-old brother in 1986 in what she said was an accident. And several times people interviewed referred to her as “odd.” (Sounds like Asperger’s to me.) So no conclusions – it’s way more complicated than just resentment. And yet I can’t help wondering about how much of a factor blame is. How much her inability to deal with disappointment contributed. It’s not just her, of course. I hate disappointment as much as the next person, and I love to blame my feelings on others. It’s a cultural thing.

Yesterday my friend F and I were listening to the first CD of Marshall Rosenberg’s Non Violent Communication. He said there’s been research done and that cultures that use less violent language have (not surprisingly) exhibit less violence.

What’s the cure? I can’t fix the culture – hell, I can’t even fix myself. I just keep observing and gathering in and praying. I think that’s all we can do.

The Chiropractor's Response

Verbatim:

Julia,

Sorry for the delay in sending a response to your letter, I have been out of town for awhile. I take these issues very much to heart. Thank you for expressing your concerns. I can only correct a problem if I know it exists, so I appreciate your comments. First of all I want to express my sincere apology that you felt threatened by my office. People put a lot of trust in us to help them with healing, and I have always strived to create an uplifting and safe environment for my patients. This was obviously not the case with you. I have had a lengthy discussion with Jason since receiving your letter. He is very passionate about his beliefs, and it is difficult for him to turn that off while at work. I have made it very clear with him that actions were inappropriate, and I do not expect that they will happen again.

I very much enjoyed working with you, and you seem to be a wonderful person who does more than your share of good for the community.

I am glad to hear that your chiropractic experience in our office was good, and I am disappointed that I will not have the chance to help you with your condition. Ryan McLaughlin and Monica Schnack are very good chiropractors, and close to my office. I would recommend either of them, if you wish to continue care.

Again, I apologize for the actions of my staff, and I am truly sorry that you were hurt. I wish you much happiness and success in life.

Sincerely,

______________

Letter to the Chiropractor I Won't See Again

January 10, 2010

Dr. _______,

I won’t be returning to your office for treatment and I want to explain why.

I am pleased with the medical care I received. Your biomechanical exam was the most complete I’ve had. Thank you for your thoroughness and care. The quality of the care you provided made my decision not to return particularly difficult. The problem is that I no longer feel emotionally safe in your offices, because of a conversation I had last week with ______, the young man who provides ultrasound treatment.

While working on my neck and shoulders, he and I talked about his plans to be a teacher and his current volunteer work teaching Sunday school in Sunnyside – both of which I am impressed by and commended him for. _____ then asked me if I attend church. I told him we had been attending the Unitarian Church because it is one of the only places we feel welcomed as a same-sex couple – and I added that I think it’s ridiculous that we don’t feel welcome at other churches. _____’s response was, “Well, if you believe in the Bible, it’s a problem.”

I told him I see it as a spirit-of-the-law rather than a letter-of-the-law thing. He asked what I meant, and I said, “God either loves us or he doesn’t. I didn’t choose to be the way I am (who would?) and I don’t believe God would have made me this way if he didn’t want me to be this way.” _____ said he has been given the choice about what behavior to engage in. I told him that I believe God loves me exactly as I am, to which he responded, “Well, there’s the concept of loving the sinner and hating the sin.”

We were finished with my treatment and as I got up to leave I asked him if he’d chosen to be attracted to women. He said no, and I responded, “Neither did I.”
My heart hurt all the way home and I spent most of the evening on the phone with friends dealing with my pain and sadness. No one has ever had the nerve to call my relationship a sin to my face before.

As a business owner, you are no doubt aware that telling your patients that their behavior is sinful is a poor business practice. I have many friends in this community – some straight, some not, some Christian, some not. All of them will be appalled when I tell them this story – and I will tell all of them. The ones with whom I’ve already talked certainly have been disturbed by it.

I’m sure you are also cognizant as a healer that restoring health requires safe space. Making one of your patients feel hurt, judged, and unwelcome isn’t very conducive to healing.

_____’s attitude also worries me for the students with whom he will interact. Suicide rates among gay and lesbian youth are much higher than in the general population. Will he respond in the same judgmental way when one of his students confides that he’s gay? Everyone deserves to feel supported and accepted for who they are.

My spouse and I are both active and productive members of this community. We’ve served on committees at our church, helped prepare meals for Home Sweet Home mission, volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, the Fuller Center, the McLean County Arts Center and the public radio station, among others. My spouse traveled three times to Mississippi, using her vacation time to help with rebuilding efforts following Katrina.

Being in a loving, healthy relationship has made much of that possible, because being loved enables us to pass it on to others. I don’t know if you agree with Jason’s views or not, but I hope not. I personally don’t believe that anything that brings more love into the world is wrong in God’s eyes.

I wish both you and _____ only love and joy.

Many blessings,

L is for Lines

Lines in my face
Seem most unkind
Cause I'm still 33
In the back of my mind.

But there they are now
As clear as can be
They began to appear
When I turned 43.

It's really not bad -
They're a map of my life
Without all those miles
I'd have not met my wife.

K is for Knees - ABCs for the Aging

K is for knees.

I miss them alot -
they served me quite well.
Now they ache and they pop
and sure feel like hell.