fall day and Taco Soup

ok blogger friends, you are gonna be glad you took the time to read this one.... I woke very early this morning, not to greet the day with vigor and enthusiasm, but rather because I couldn't sleep. I hate that feeling of lying in bed trying to fall back asleep. So here I am not even 8 am and I have been up for hours. Among my sketchy plans for the day, I have decided to honor this cool sunny fall day with some hot spicy taco soup.
Today is 11/11/11 whoopie....just numbers we humans put to days, nothing devine in this. But now taco soup, that is something divine, that is something you can sink your teeth into. I wish I could say that my recipe is handed down to me by generations of family cooks, but I was not one of those lucky ones with generations of anything. I never knew my grandparents, my father died when I was a young girl and my mother lost her mother when she was a toddler. So my connection to good cookin is stuck with my mom ( who is an excellent cook), the food network and an addiction to cook books. This recipe came to me from Shirley at the Ice Cream store in Eureka Springs AR. John loves Shirleys vegetable soup, I love her husband Richard's ice cream strawberry soda! Thus the difference between John's and my bodies. Anyway back to the taco soup. I have made this soup for many a Circle of Nations member, from retreats to Christmas parties a Peggy staple...
Taco Soup
1 lb ground beef ( I use diet lean)
1 small onion chopped well
1 pk of taco seasonings
1 can rotel tomatoes
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 cans pinto beans
1 small package of frozen corn ( I use the steam type with peppers)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
brown ground beef well with onion, add seasonings, then throw everything else in the pot..add corn last, cook for about 1 hour pour in bowl top with shredded cheddar or monterey jack or whatever you like top that with sour cream and taco chips. Enjoy!!!

imagination

Perhaps if I look at this picture long enough, I can conjer up the medicine in this piece of art. At times I do remember feeling like this...and I certainly innvite the magic now. But some days are not red road days, they are blue road days. Today I seem to be traveling on one of these roads. Not by my own choice or my own design, but by the very nature of being human beings we have these days. This is why I appreciate music and humor and art and magic, because they comfort us in our blue day and encourage us on our red day. Today I could just use a bigggg huggg. You know the old saying woke up on the wrong side of the bed, well thats me. And if you know me, you know I am just extremely honest and open with my feelings. So blogging friends when you think of me today...send a hug!

Real Peace

Hello Blogging friends:
long time I have been away, good to be back.......
I took a walk today through the Circle of Nations Medicine Garden (barefoot, thank you Morten) This time was good for me. A friend posed a question today...What do you believe? The only answer I could come up with at the time was I believe I need to go get a cup of coffee, it was early this morning. Now with caffiene in place I am in some way ready to tackle this question. I believe in real peace and in real connection. Real peace happens at the dying bed of your dear friend, picking up your child from the police station, hearing the door shut as your lover walks out for good....and on and on and on. Real peace says this is it....and this is not it. It allows tons of space for hope and doesn't sugar coat a rancid moment. I wonder, what did the Madoff family need with billions of $s....they needed real peace, real connection. And unfortunately you cannot buy these powerful intangible elements. The Medicine Garden is dear to my heart. I have seen tons of healing and connection take place on this little 5 acre area in the middle of nowhere. So what do I believe.... my beliefs change and grow and sometimes show up in the size of a mustard seed. I believe we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. I believe in fudge brownies for my body and awesome sunsets for my soul.
I pose this question to you...What do you believe?

on the road again

I woke up this morning early so I could beat the heat. I thought I would get a running start on packing the rig and preparing for a road trip. Well I snuck up on it, but it clobbered back. So here I sit in the air conditioned house with several more loads of things to pack. Of course now that I need to print things to go....my printer says no. That is so much like life. Oh best laid plans.....well new plan. I do hope it rains here in Northwest Arkansas. The trees look so thirsty. I always am a little anxious about leaving the comforts of my little nest here in the mountains, but the road hold adventure and opportunities. Stay or go, either way I am blessed. But this time, I get to see my grandson, so that is worth it all! Don't even get me started xoxoxoxx...love...love...love.....xoxoxxo. The heat messengers like the spider, bees and butterfly messengers are letting us know it is time to wise up and smell the environment. We can all do a little and that little will help. Fear and worry are totally useless, what is useful is love and hope. Good is good, God is good, you are good...love is good, hope is good....BE GOOD!!

more intentions

My friends have been encouraging me to blog, to share, to write. Somehow life got in the way of my writing about life. Living is good, loving is better, being loved is the best! My dreams and intentions are collected in this circle of life. When I blow on them, like this dandelion, they scatter and take form in the air. I can't see them but I know they are the seeds that grow a million more intentions and dreams. When I put the breath of life to them, the gift of life from God they take wings and give my life purpose and hope. I am a true believer. I believe in dandelion wings and birthday candle wishes, falling stars and fortune cookies. I believe in rainbows that display the love of God. I cannot even imagine what it is to not imagine, to not believe. Each breath is a miracle to me. Even in the onslaught of life, the disappointments, the rejections, the doubts...I still see a sliver of the moon and I hang onto it with a single thread of stubborn conviction. Love will see my intentions through. Life is good....dream no small dream...put them on the wings of a dandelion and blow. Believe!!

Beauty Music

While traveling across the US on tour 7 years ago with Seamus Byrne, he and I would intend new projects. The beauty music project was one of them. We wanted to create music that would encourage the inner beauty in its listeners. We wanted to create a message that true beauty is not found in a bottle of makeup or in the eyes of a fickle and blind society, but in the inner soul. Because we live in a society that has become fixated on youth and equates beauty with a size 2 female waif and a muscle bound man, we have left out 98% of the people and even the 2 percent of people with perfect bodies feel inadequate. Why? Because beauty is in the wrinkles, in the real and true self. Beauty is in the diversity of the forest and the not so perfect life. Beauty is in the hope after the flood and in the getting up after being knocked down. Beauty is in the arthritic hands that have given a lifetime of service and love. Beauty is found where beauty abides, in the still small places and in the aged faces. A child's eyes and butterflies, that is where beauty abides. And when we know that... we will feel beautiful and will be able to see true beauty in everyone we meet. Sir Charles Hammer, my friend who has now passed over to the other world, was and is a man of beauty. His hugs were truly rich and his music is forever alive. Seamus Byrne, my Irish brother and troubadour understands the beauty of the goodness of God and John Two-Hawks' music can be described as nothing if not beautiful. These three have given beautiful music to the world. Cynthia De'Robbins, your painting is exquisite as are you.

Thank you for the gift of "Beauty Music".

why

It has been a while since I have written in my blog. Working on publishing my new book of poetry "The Wind of My Soul" has taken up time as well as being on the road with the new "Vision Seeker Tour". Ok excuses behind me. Today I am wondering why? This can be a dangerous preoccupation. We may see answers we don't want to look into. At my age I am very comforted by being able to say. I don't know. The few things I do know and am convinced of I only have my own experience to depend on to know them. Like, a glimmer of hope and light will always show up in the darkest moments. Like, I will have what I need when I need it and I surely am not just this body of bones, flesh and blood. Love is worth it....Music speaks to the true self.....God is good....a true friend will forgive you....we are co-creators of our lives....chocolate is good....life and love are easy....life and love are tough...what you put into this world, you will receive from this world. Why...I don't know but who, that I know.