Month: July 2010

Forgiveness

A young friend of mine called me late last night. He grew up here in Westminster, but moved out-of-state a few years ago. We keep in touch and talk about once a month.

He wanted to talk because he had gotten himself into a very tough situation due to some poor choices he’d made.

Mainly, he was mad at himself. Not even twenty-one yet, he’ll be affected by the decision he made for the rest of his life.

I told him he needed to begin the process of forgiving himself. Not an easy thing to do when it comes to serious matters, but necessary.

I don’t know how it is for you, but I find it a whole lot easier to forgive someone else than to forgive myself. The issue with that is that you carry it around with you all the time. It affects every other relationship you have, and I don’t think it’s especially healthy.

I was thinking the other day how stupid I was to have sold all my investments (not that it amounted to a whole lot) in my mid-twenties and used the proceeds to pay for grad school. Had I kept that money where it was, my retirement planning would be going a whole lot better right now. But I did what I did, and it’s time to move on.

My young friend wants it all to go away so he can get back to just being an easy-going twenty-year old. Instead of trying to find something positive (there are many) in his situation, he’s totally focused on negative.

Forgiveness, especially of yourself, can be really difficult. But once you make the decision to do so, you can get back to genuine living. Is there really anything stopping us?

Blogging Inspiration Mind

You Have To Be Yourself

Have you heard about the newest craze sweeping the internet? It’s all related to a website called I Write Like. I think the site got over 100,000 hits the other day.

Here’s how it works. Simply past a few paragraphs of something you’ve written and best exemplify your writing style into a text box, and within seconds you’ll find out who you write like. Now, it’s not an exact science, since the inventor only uploaded works by fifty famous authors, three books each.

Margaret Atwood, a contemporary writer who was included on the list, decided to try it out herself and entered a few paragraphs. It turns out she writes more like Stephen King than Margaret Atwood. She sent out a message on Twitter asking, “who knew?”

I entered three of my blog postings, just for fun. The first one came back stating that my style most matches William Shakespeare. Wow! There must be some mistake…

The second and third entries matched me to contemporary authors I’ve never heard of. They will remain nameless until I can check some of their stuff out 🙂

When it’s all said and done, it really doesn’t matter whose writing style matches mine. I can’t be them, and they can’t be me. In everything we do, isn’t it best to just try to be yourself?

Soups and Stews Vegan Vegetarian

Summertime Favorites

Hot and humid. That’s the kind of weather we’ve been getting here in Maryland for the last few weeks. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time eating when it gets like this.

But I have a hard time getting enough of one of my favorite summertime treats, Gazpacho.

This soup, served cold, is really easy to prepare and very refreshing. Sadly, my homegrown tomatoes are not quite ready yet, so I had to improvise. My guests and I were really impressed with the results, and I hope you’ll try some soon.

Gazpacho

serves 4

1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped

2 14.5 oz cans Mexican style stewed tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped, more for garnish

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 bell pepper, cored, seeded and roughly chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3 tb orange juice

1 1/2 cup croutons

3 tb red wine vinegar

Put tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers, jalapeno, red bell peppers, and onions in a large bowl and toss to combine.

Working in batches, puree vegetables in a blender or food processor until smooth, adding a little water if the mixture seems too thick. Strain puree through a medium sieve to remove peels and seeds, discarding any solids.

Transfer smooth puree into a large bowl and whisk in juice and red wine vinegar. Cover and chill well. Place 1 cup croutons in food processor. Pulse several times until croutons have been reduced to medium fine bread crumbs.

Before serving, whisk bread crumbs into puree . Transfer to individual bowls and serve immediately, sprinkling remaining croutons on top, if desired.

Catholic Church Ignatian Spirituality Prayer Spirit

Finding God In All Things

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 07/15/2010
No Comments on Finding God In All Things

When I was first introduced to Ignatian Spirituality, I spent a fair amount of time pondering one of its key components, that being “finding God in all things.” For most of us, we’re used to finding God in our church buildings. We can also find Him when we look into the eyes of a loved one, or when we have a great day and everything seems to be just right.

For some of us, it’s a bit harder to find God when we’re confronted with some major issue, like the death of a child, the loss of a job, or it could be a terrible and unjust war, or maybe a devastating earthquake. The list goes on and on.

But St. Ignatius taught us that our God is active, personal, and, above all, present to us. His DNA is everywhere, in our family and friends, in our joys and sorrows, in nature, and also in the daily rhythm of life. He’s right there when we want Him to be with us, and He’s waiting for us to return after we reject Him. He’s always present, in the good and the bad.

Over the next few days, be open to God’s presence around you. Even if you feel distant from Him, it doesn’t change things. He made a promise a long time ago to be with us (Matthew 28:20), and He continues to keep it. Yes, we really can find God in all things. But you have to look 🙂

Inspiration Mind

Have A Plan

For the past few weeks, my staff and I have been planning for the upcoming school year, which for us begins at the end of September. It’s tedious work and we want to get it right, since our plans effect well over a thousand people. In the end, some hard work now will greatly improve our chances at having another wonderful year.

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, I think you’ve also picked up on this theme of planning. If you want to be successful, you must have a great plan. Not necessarily a perfect one, but rather one that reflects long-term goals and at the same time can be quickly adapted to meet current circumstances. What a challenge.

Do you think that’s why 49% of adults in the US could not cover even one month’s expenses if they were to miss a paycheck? Yes, getting our lives back in order after, what for most of us has been a disastrous couple of years, is going to be tough. As I’m trying to work on this myself, I see all kinds of sacrifices coming. But I have no doubt that good planning now will greatly improve my quality of life in the future.

As the sign above reminds us, we also have to plan for the unexpected. How about you? Are you working on a game-plan for your future? Just yesterday, Congress started floating the idea that they may raise the retirement age to 70. I guess we should have guessed that one was coming.

Well, to sum all this up, I’m hoping that you’re starting to develop plans for your future. This isn’t only about saving up money. It’s also not just about getting ourselves in shape physically. How about your spiritual future? When it’s all said and done, isn’t that the most important future we’ve got? If we’re trusting our stockbroker or trainer more than God, we’ve got a big problem.

For you procrastinators, stop worrying about it. Worrying isn’t going to resolve the situation. Instead, when you wake up tomorrow, remember it’s a new day. You can start fresh, and do the best you can.

Our futures will be very bright if we get our priorities straight, and we begin working on getting our lives back on track. If we can do that, then our transformations, body, mind and spirit, will be secure.

Inspiration Mind

Be Happy

The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine, and he told me that when he’s stressed out, he takes a couple of minutes and goes to his “happy place.” Although it sounds a bit corny, I think we could all use a visit to such a place from time to time.

When I am down in the dumps and need something to make me happy, I can think of three images right off the bat. One is dreaming about one of my favorite places to visit, and that’s Sedona, Arizona. It has one of the most remarkable landscapes I’ve ever seen, and when I make it there, I love to hike among the red rocks, get my feet wet in Oak Creek, and dine in one of the many great restaurants. I always come back from that daydream with a smile on my face:)

The second place I love to visit, sometimes only in my mind, is Tuscany. Like Sedona, this area of Italy is blessed with a beautiful landscape, terrific food, and wonderful people. Throw in great history and art, and I can dream about this spot just about every day.

The last image that brightens my day comes in a little package, at least for the time being. Awhile back, one of my co-workers gave birth to a joyous little boy named Brendan. I can’t recall ever being around a baby that is so consistently happy, and he brings a smile to all of our faces every time his mom brings him in to visit. Sometimes, he gets to stay for a few hours, and we love having him around. I’m sure he gets grumpy and screams like any six month old, but we never really get to see that side of him 🙂 He can come by and visit any time, and his sisters are always welcome too.

So, in about the span of two minutes, I’ve been reminded that I have a lot to be happy about. I’ve had the blessing to not only dream about these wonderful places, but I’ve gotten the chance to visit them many times over the years. I get to share in the happiness of having a little one around, one so joy-filled that, when we see him, he makes our day a bit more bright.

When you’re having a bad day, what do you think about to make you happy? I hope you can think of at least one person/thing that reminds you that, when it’s all said and done, we have it pretty good.

Blogging Inspiration Mind

For the Hundredth Time

Well, this is my 100th post to Making All Things New. The idea came from reading a book, Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. I was in the Dallas airport with time to kill, and I saw the book on display in a bookstore window. The gist of the book is to how to use social networking to tell people about something you’re passionate about.

Although my objective is more about getting the word out about personal transformation than it is about making money, this book really helped me see the benefit of using tools such as blogs to reach a larger audience. It certainly has worked for me. Helping people see the need for transformation, body, mind, and spirit is what this blog is all about. Each of our transformations is going to be a bit different, because each one of us is unique. That’s the way God made us.

We’re all in need of transformation, though, and I hope my efforts have helped you figure out what you need to do to make that happen in your own life. Don’t worry about past failures and false starts. Each sunrise reminds us of the great gift of life. We can start again. It’s a new day!

I’m really looking forward to all the future posts I have floating around in my head. This has been a lot of fun, and it’s only going to get better. I’m very grateful to have you with me on the journey 🙂

On a totally different note, I went to a wedding over the weekend. The groom is someone I’ve had the blessing of watching grow up into a fine young man. He now has a beautiful bride to share his life with, and I’m so happy for them.

In their invitation, they listed all the places they were registered, so that you would know exactly what they wanted. I don’t have a lot of money, and I’m always wondering how I can give newlyweds something of meaning, rather than an inexpensive item that won’t last.

I remembered a charity I had read about recently, charity:water. I went to their website, and I really liked what I saw. A donation of $20 will provide one person with clean drinking water for 20 years. A gift that will keep on giving. They’ll even send an e-card, and the recipients can jump on-line and choose which country their gift will go.

I felt so happy to give them this wedding gift. When you have a similar opportunity, I’d ask you to consider doing the same. Such gifts will help bring about transformations in the lives of people we will never meet, and will help them to move from surviving to thriving. How cool is that?

Catholic Church Inspiration Prayer

Grace Before Meals

I was talking to my friend Fr. Leo Patalinghug at a youth conference a few weeks ago, and he mentioned that a new edition of his cookbook was coming out at the end of July. After our conversation, I realized how similar the goals of Grace Before Meals and Making All Things New are. In some sense, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at that. We have been friends for many years now, and we both are striving to help people integrate faith into their daily lives. Plus, we love to cook.

Fr. Leo is a great cook. We’ve prepared meals together in the past, and I’m always amazed at his culinary talents. His idea of bringing families together to not only share a meal, but, maybe more importantly, prepare it together, is one worth supporting.

When talking about preparing a meal, he doesn’t mean taking a box of lasagna out of the freezer and putting it in the oven. Instead, he reminds us that “the natural informality and familiarity of the kitchen” should be a place where families and friends can be comfortable talking.

When I designed my own kitchen, I wanted to create a very casual environment where I could talk with people while I cooked. Now, when I invite friends over for one of my sacred feasts, we start our appetizers while I’m cooking the main course. I feel like many people are afraid to cook, thinking it’s too complicated.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily true, and a shared goal I have with Fr. Leo is to make cooking simple, fun and enjoyable. We also want to remind people God is present with them all the time, even in the most basic daily events like cooking and eating.

Be sure to check out his website. There’s a lot of good info, and plenty of tasty recipes, although it’s a little light on vegetarian recipes. I’m going to have to talk to him about that 🙂

Blogging Inspiration Mind

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 07/10/2010
2 Comments on A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

I had a couple of really good conversations yesterday. The first was with my new financial advisor. It was our second meeting, and now I feel like I’m back on track with planning for retirement.

I know I’m not alone in being afraid of opening those monthly statements that came from my previous stockbroker. The envelopes stacked up, unopened, for about two years. I knew I had aggressive investments, and what was inside those legal-sized envelopes would show I ended up the loser in a bloodbath. Sound familiar?

Gardening Inspiration Vegan Vegetarian

Farmer’s Markets

About now, Farmer’s Markets are up and running just about everywhere. I did a quick search and, impressively, there will be 113 open in Maryland this week. Every single county in our state has at least one, and I’m pretty sure it would be about the same where you live.

These opportunities to get good, local produce at a decent price shouldn’t be missed. In our big grocery store age, it’s nice to be able to speak to the person who is growing the food we eat.

If you have the chance to check one out in the next couple of weeks, don’t be afraid to try something new. I recently tried some kale which was labeled smokin’ hot. I asked the farmer just how hot it was, and he pulled off a leaf and told me to find out myself. More peppery than hot, I liked it and bought a bunch. Sauteed with a bit of olive oil, onion and garlic, it was delicious. Even if they’re busy, these farmers love to talk, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. When you buy something, ask them how they prepare it. You might just walk away with a new family favorite:) If you remember, don’t forget to thank them for doing what they do. Small, family-run farms are fading fast. It’s hard work for very little compensation. They deserve our thanks.

We’re moving into the height of the growing season, and fresh fruits and vegetables are bountiful. Try and make some time in the next few weeks to visit a farmer’s market in your area. I think you’ll be glad you did! Enjoy the weekend.