See a moment. Take a moment. Give a moment.
A simple flower can brighten the world considerably.
Here, a golden rose unfolds gradually, creating an ever-changing natural sculpture.
It's one more example of Nature's simple elegance.
And while it is fleeting, it is, for the moment, pure perfection.
Adapted from Coconut Biscotti, Cooking Light, April 2005
I tried this recipe for my dad for Father’s Day, 2006. It’s one of his favorite biscotti. This dough is really sticky, so it helps to dampen your hands slightly when patting out the dough logs before baking.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon grated whole nutmeg
1-1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 cups flaked sweetened coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
Optional: 1 c. chocolate chips or dip one end of the finished biscotti in melted chocolate
Preheat oven to 300°. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through nutmeg). Place sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until thick. Add flour mixture and coconut; stir to combine (dough will be very sticky). Add chopped pecans.
Shape dough into 3 15 x 3-inch rolls, or dough “logs.” Place rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper* and pat to 1-inch thickness. Bake at 300° for 40 minutes or until the cookie rolls are golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack (I leave them on the cookie sheet to cool before cutting into individual cookies, rather than to move them to a wire rack; it reduces the chances of breakage).
Cut roll diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices; stand slices upright on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; cool completely on wire rack.
Yield: About 40 cookies
*I use Silpat Baking Sheet
silicone baking mats instead of parchment paper
Perhaps you, too, have been noticing a current controversy between a comedian who went too far (as he admits), and a politician who is doing (as politicians often do) everything she can to create and then aggravate a conflict in order to attract cameras and keep them on her as long as she can.
It all made me think about people who are more "for" and those who are more "against" something.
What are you "for"?
In other words, perhaps there is a major and highly motivating goal that drives you. Or maybe there is a cause you are working for, and trying to engage others in working to achieve. Perhaps there is something you want to create, such as a major artistic work, or a social change.
What are you "against"?
Perhaps there is something you worry about a lot, and work hard to prevent. Or maybe there is something that you work hard to eradicate for future generations.
What do you think about about a lot? What gets you energized, and mobilized?
Some things bring out each person's adrenalin, the fire in their belly, more than other things do.
Are you more energetic and fully alive when thinking about things you want to create, or things you want to prevent?
Would you prefer a different focus to drive your attention, energy, actions?
Is your primary focus now – what you are "for" or what you are "against" – something that you chose, or something you were taught, or inherited?
For example, if you are more "against," what would happen if you found a cause you were "for," instead?
And in the same vein, if you are more "for" something, what if what drove you most was a condition you tried to prevent for others, in the future?
It's just a thought.
It won't change anything between the comedian and the politician, but it made me look at one current controversy in a different way.
I needed a photo of "exuberance," and this was one of the first photos Flickr suggested, using my search criteria.
I smiled. It was a serendipitous find, on many levels.
I love the photo. We've just been to Portland where this photo was taken. And we stopped to see the Portland Rose Garden, which the photo commentary refers to.
What, for you, was a recent serendipitous find?
And what has been (so far) the "ride of your life"?
I had an omelette this weekend prepared by a singing chef.
It wasn't his job to sing. It was his job to cook.
I soon realized he was the type of person who couldn't help but sing when fully invested in his work.
I heard the singing first. And I wondered if he'd get the order right.
But for some reason, since he was singing Italian arias, I decided the odds were high he was a passionate guy. And that meant to me that, as heartfelt as his singing was, his cooking was probably heartfelt, too.
I was right.
The omelette was perfect.
It was artistry on a plate, a perfect melody in every bite.
The experience made me think about singing while I work – at least in spirit.
When – and why – have I most often felt like singing while I worked?
How about you – when was the last time you felt like singing while you work – and did you actually do so?
What made you feel that way?
And is there some way that you can bring those circumstances into your work today?
Sometimes a sample gives you a good sense of what the final product or experience will be like.
And sometimes it doesn't.
Perhaps you, too, have had the experience of choosing a paint color from a little sample. Looked great, right?
Then, as you applied the color on the walls, your reaction was, "Whoa! That's not the color I wanted at all!
And the opposite can happen.
You can choose a product or service from a sample and find out that, in fact, it was even more perfect than you'd hoped.
Here a beautiful, intense rose bud, when fully opened, becomes a bright white rose.
It's not what you'd expect from the preview the bud provides, but each is quite beautiful, in its own right.
In everyone's life there come those times when the finish line seems to be moving out the longer you work, the harder you go.
Or the grades you hope to achieve as proof that you learned all you hoped to learn…well, they prove that you didn't come through at that time, on that test, with as much as you thought you knew.
Or the draft you're trying to write – the harder you work – seems to have a mind of its own.
Whatever the case, on our way to significant goals, there's often a point when frustration or disappointment sets in.
That's when something extra has to kick in.
Or you need to walk away for a while.
Here are ideas from others about that point of frustration and disappointment, and how to handle it all:
Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power – a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappointment.
Marsha Sinetar
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Henry David Thoreau
Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
Joseph Addison
You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.
Ralph Marston
My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual.
Phyllis Diller
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Eric Hoffer
And then there's this tongue in cheek point of view about helping our children have the right expectations about how life really works:
Educational television should be absolutely forbidden. It can only lead to unreasonable disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet do not leap up out of books and dance around with royal-blue chickens.
Fran Lebowitz
