We'll All Meet Up Next Year (A New Year's Song) - (Deirdre Flint)

Today's TUT... A Note from the Universe:

Susan, soon the new year starts, so now's a great time to:

1. Wipe the slate clean.
2. Focus upon what you really want.
3. Chart your course.

Right?

Well... only if you want to risk having to repeat these steps for the same wishes next year! Maybe this is splitting hairs, but here's an adventurous alternative:

1. Give thanks that life is... just as it is (and that it's been... just as it's been). Because of it, you're now "READY."

2. Define what you want in terms of the end result. Don't worry about the hows, or even the course. KNOW that what you want is ALREADY yours in spirit, by divine LAW, just focus on the certainty of this ownership, understand it, claim it, and "it will be on earth, as it is in heaven (spirit)."

3. LET THE UNIVERSE show you the way via your impulses and instincts that appear as you take inspired action. Don't worry that your first steps seem silly or futile. And if you don't know what to do, do anything! Go! Get busy! Do not insist on intermediary successes, only upon the end result.

2011 is going to be your year (it already is),
The Universe

It starts now, Susan! This is your year! Happy beginning of something GREAT!!!

You really are READY Susan. And your self-confidence in my intuition and wisdom is ready for you.

Don't f*cking faint! - after taking 5 months off (for erratic behavior), I have now written and uploaded three posts in as many consecutive days. No promises... but the future bodes bright - pass the shades... :-)

So... as has become my custom each January 1, I subscribe to Christine Kane's Word of the Year concept - the last month I've experienced strong and intentional vibes and was gifted with a *Phrase* of the Year - Let. It. Go. (which is similar to my Release of a few years back, but somehow different). I will not explain but I know why I chose it and how I'll apply it - I will say that it relates to #2 of The Four Agreements (on my right sidebar)... and let it go (see... already putting it into practice) at that!

We hosted a lovely and fun Open House today with friends, family and neighbors - I am exhausted yet full... mimosas segueing to coffee interspersed with healthy spinach dip, raw veggies and a few bites of cookie...

SONG: We'll All Meet Up Next Year (A New Year's Song) by Deirdre Flint

Time to Let Go by Cary Cooper (Cary just wrote this song a few days ago and posted it on her Facebook page - given the synchronicity, I had to include... :-)

BOOK: Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within by Janet Conner

POEM: begin here by Maya Stein

When the last seat is taken,
or the key has trapped in the lock,
when the rain has eviscerated your garden,
or your words have run out one by one.
When the packing is half-finished, or traffic
keeps you from your purpose,
when the bright white of your day
has paled and pixilated.
When the grocery bag rips coming up the stairs,
when the telephone bill shocks
and then flounders you,
when love has flown off course,
when your nails are ragged and wanton,
when the runway is slick and the sky sodden.
When the ache for something nameless
fans out into your bones,
when you are hungry, or lost or in need of a hand
across your eyelashes.
When it’s deadline or dilemma
or just you tripping on the stained carpet of your trouble,
begin here.

Place one leaden, obstinate foot
where you can see it.
Gather your maniacal breath,
your little windbags of lungs.
Eye only the square of sidewalk a blink away,
that quadrant of concrete mottled with the dirty
evidence of living,
and go.

When the manual for what’s broken
has been misplaced, when the view is obscured
by a restless construction site,
when your closet is an echo of castoffs.
When the bridge toll climbs and the road
down the mountain is pummeled with snow,
when your face bears little resemblance
to the person you remember,
when the field is populated with abler bodies,
when poems have been written by nimbler souls,
when no amount of squinting
delivers oasis, begin here.

Guide your defeated arms
into a small fit of swinging.
Coerce your hips into the barest
shimmy. Locate the pocket of a single,
deserted minute, its hum of insignificance,
and go.

When cheer cannot cheer you,
when crumbs cannot feed you,
when the storage space in the garage
topples from the weight.
When beauty eludes you,
when the weatherman confirms your fear,
when the doctor bears his wild news.
When you return to the bad habit,
when the current continues its brutal tackle,
when mess is your middle name,
begin here.

Climb onto your weary haunches. Lift your belly
from its mattress cave. Initiate the wholly
unremarkable act of breathing, and go.

When you have had enough.
When you have had too much.
When your fortress has not kept away the enemy,
and the walls are an abscess of rubble.
Do not fling yourself from the gangplank.
Do not hasten your disappearance
with your own cruelty.
Do not mask your ferocity with a collage of good manners.

The death’s door of your failure
is still a door.
Wrap your shaking fist around the handle.
Hear the cricket click of the latch.
And begin.

QUOTE: “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” ~ Louis L’Amour

Food (Deirdre Flint)

I am a better-than-decent cook (when I make the time/energy) and a bit-above-average dresser (when I have the desire/inclination) - that being said, I am *fascinated* by culinary and fashion shows/articles (go figure, eh?). Loved the following - hope you do too!

From gimundo.com:

Around the Web: Our Favorite Food Sites11/23/2007

If you dared to host a Thanksgiving dinner at your house [Thursday], your fridge is probably chock-full of leftovers: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes – though in most houses, the pumpkin pie is already long gone. You've got a couple of options here: You could just force the whole family to eat turkey sandwiches for the next few days – or you could find a few great recipes, and cook up some entirely new delicious dishes with all your leftover odds and ends.

Well, whether you've got a fridge full of leftovers to get creative with, or you're simply looking for some new inspiration in the kitchen, there are plenty of places to find help. Sure, you could flip through your trusty old copy of The Joy of Cooking and stick with some of your mother's favorite standbys – but if you want something a little bit fresher and more exciting, the Internet is the place to look. Here are a few of our favorite food sites.

Epicurious

As far as food-related websites go, this one is the holy grail. A haven for all things delicious, you'll find the complete archived recipes for two of America's greatest food magazines, Gourmet and Bon Appetit, all of which are free and searchable by name or ingredient. The site also hosts a variety of articles and guides to what to serve for all occasions, from Ramadan to Rosh Hashanah, along with travel guides spotlighting fantastic restaurants in cities all across the globe. In the video section, you'll find how-tos for making pastry cream and croquembouches, user-submitted cooking videos, chef profiles, and more. We could go on and on, but you may as well just visit the site yourself. Just a warning: It may make you very, very hungry.

CHOW

If Epicurious has too much of a Martha Stewart vibe for your liking, then check out CHOW, a fun and irreverent food site geared more towards people who'd rather host a cocktail party with a few plates of homemade snacks and a bowl of chili than attempt all the fuss of serving up a five-course dinner. On CHOW, you'll find a great selection of original recipes that don't require a Cordon Bleu education, tons of stories on topics ranging from a guide to New York City speakeasies to tips on making gourmet dishes in a college dorm (hint: The George Foreman Grill is your best friend here), and plenty of other great advice, commentary, and videos. CHOW is also home to the infamous Chowhound bulletin board, where food fanatics from all over the world come together to talk meals and debate where to find the best Dim Sum in Northampton or the greatest Japanese curry in San Francisco. If you're headed to a new destination and need to find some good eats, just search the archives: You're bound to find tons of gems, courtesy of these wise gourmands.

Simply Recipes

This site is exactly what it sounds like: Lots and lots of recipes, clearly organized into groups like "Thanksgiving recipes," "Low-carb recipes," and "Vegetarian recipes." Here, you'll find all sorts of unique and delicious dishes, including the classic Albondigas Soup from Mexico, Basque Lamb Stew, and the author's father's recipe for Stuffed Bell Peppers. The site's author, Elise Bauer, hand-picks each recipe, and has created many of them herself. Others are family classics. All are delicious.

Here are a few more great food blogs:

Chocolate & Zucchini: A fresh take on food by a young Parisian woman, full of deliciously innovative recipes and tantalizing stories.

Orangette: If you're a fan of Nigella Lawson or M.F.K. Fisher's writings about food, you'll love this beautifully-written blog about life, love, and cooking, full of delectable prose and recipes.

101 Cookbooks: One of the best-looking blogs around, 101 Cookbooks is full of luscious images by professional photographer Heidi Swanson, along with a huge collection of fantastic, mainly vegetarian recipes, both created and discovered.

Original story by Kathryn Hawkins

SONG: Food by Deirdre Flint

BOOK: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: Poems About Food and Drink by Peter Washington (Editor)

POEM: A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked
down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking
at the full moon.
In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon
fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at
night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!
--and you, García Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking
among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops?
What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you,
and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy
tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the
cashier.

Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in a hour.
Which way does your beard point tonight?
(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and
feel absurd.)
Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade
to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automo-
biles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America
did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a
smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of
Lethe?

QUOTE: "Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." ~ Voltaire