What Does It Mean To Lose Your Temper?

To be "tempered" is to improve hardening.  We've all done it before, lost our temper.  When circumstances cause you to break the hardness of all that tempering that the buffet of life doles, we are at times reduced to weakness, losing our centeredness. 

Break the habit of acting without thinking when you find yourself reacting to something strongly.  Ask yourself why you are reacting this way.  Think clearly upon how you react and why.  Losing your temper, becoming angry, is a sign for you to pay attention to.  Is it because of injustice, inequality, ignorance?  Has someone mistreated you, or taken from you, or is it simply a matter of misconception?

When you use Spirit as your sword, wear the belt of Truth about your waist and hold onto Faith as your shield, no harm will come to you.  Fear not what the world will judge, for you are protected when you do all things with love as your guide.  You may certainly cause a ripple of great magnitude and ruffle some feathers when you stand up for Truth, but understand that you are giving others the gift of seeing what needs to be brought to Light.

^{Matthew 21:12-13
12} Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.

What placid pot of platitudes will you stir up when you take a stand for what is right, true and good? 

For when you have faith, you can move mountains, and for what you ask in and of love, you shall receive.  It only takes a little bit of Faith to do great things.

  

Where would we be without Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo?

Or Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr?

Will you take a stand for what you know is right?

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Hummus is a great source of protein as well as being easy to make.  One variety which is one of my favorites is adding roasted red peppers to the chickpea paste.  Often easier than starting up the grill, I roast the peppers in the over under the broiler until done.

Ingredients:
Roasted Red Pepper
Cooked or canned garbanzo beans
Garlic cloves,
Tahini (Sesame paste)
Olive Oil, Salt and Lemon juice to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.  Add smoky paprika and an additional splash of olive oil to the top.

Serve with pita, tortilla chips, bagels, vegetable sticks, etc.  Adds a lovely flavor to sandwiches and wraps in leiu of mayonaise.

Pesto

Making your own pesto is really quite easy- and it's healthy, too!

Ingredients:

• Fresh basil
• Garlic cloves
• Parmesan cheese
• Olive Oil
• Pine Nuts (you may also substitute walnuts)
• (Optional- add 1/2 ratio Fresh Spinach to basil leaves to keep the pesto greener for longer)
• Salt as desired

 Puree all ingredients together in food processor until a paste is made, adding olive oil as needed for consistency.

Serve with pasta or atop crostinis.
Add to tomato sauce for and easy marinara.

Easy to freeze for later.

Caprese Salad

Tomatoes and basil come into harvest about the same time in the mid- late summer.

What do you do with fresh basil and tomatoes from your garden?  You make a simple and easy salad.

Ingredients:

• Fresh Basil leaves
• Fresh Mozzarella
• Freshly sliced tomatoes
• Reduced Balsamic Vinegar

* To reduce balsamic vinegar, simply heat on the stove-top until desired thickness.

Layer ingredients and drizzle the cooled balsamic vinegar over the layers.

42 Tenets of Love

1. Peace
   
2. Prosperity
3. Wisdom
4. Truth
5. Forbearance
6. Appreciation 
7. Beauty
8. Loveliness
9. Fortitude
10. Compassion
11. Calmness
12. Wholeness
13. Thankfulness
14. Centering
15. Unity
16. Acceptance
17. Patience 
18.  Kindness
19. Goodness
20. Self-Control
21. Forgiveness
22. Abundance
23. Worth
24. Kenship
25. Levity
26. Grace
27. Joy
28. Completion
29. Illumination
30. Vibrancy
31. Reverence
32. Gentleness
33. Longevity
34. Integrity
35. Care 
36. Absolution
37. Satisfaction
38. Reflection
39. Contentedness
40. Hope
41. Empowerment
42. Faith

The Beauty That You Seek

Where is the beauty that you seek?
The whispering cries that make you weep,
The soulful sighs and desperate lies,
The carnal lust now incomplete.
What is the beauty that you seek?

Come find the beauty that you seek.
The journey long, the road so steep.
The greed, the need, the ego weak,
Building walls of fear concrete
And hides the beauty that you seek.

Go to the beauty that you seek.
From marshy pits of sadness deep,
From gained and lost, from battles tossed,
Diversions all they cannot keep
You from the beauty that you seek.

Join with the beauty that you seek.
The dance of life, the soul's true beat.
Sound with your voice and come rejoice
With that which Love will always keep.
Be One with beauty that you seek.

Now see the beauty that you seek.
Lift up your heart and let it speak.
Let go the pain, there's only gain.
Unite with that which is complete.
I Am the beauty that you seek.

When Change Comes- Are You Ready?

We have become creatures of habit.  Routines are created and reinforced by our daily decisions.  Think for a moment about your morning routine.  You often wake up at the same time, consume your coffee or tea, take a taste of the world around you via newsfeeds, emails, FaceBook, take the same route to work and greet each person with “Good morning,” and “How are you today?”  All of these simple patterns are formed and grooved whether or not we consciously choose to act upon them.

But what happens if your alarm doesn’t go off and you wake up later than usual, find that you’re out of coffee, don’t have time to check the news and end up in a traffic jam on your way to work and as you arrive late to your place of employment, there is no time to make your friendly good morning greetings?  

How do you feel when your routine is disrupted?

Most of us would consider such a morning to be a bad start to the day and we may very well allow it to effect the rest of our day and how we interact with each other.  

Life is full of surprises and changes to our routines, no matter how established they are.  When changes occur, challenge yourself to see this disruption as a gift rather than as a denial.

Know that you will be taken care of when you let go of your pre-conceived ideas of what you believe needs to happen vs. what is happening, because honestly, when the rug is pulled out from beneath you, you do need to have this happen to remind yourself that you are balanced enough to withstand the shaking, that your foundation is not where you stand, but more deeply aligned from within in how you stand and move, bend and bow. 

Rigidity will break you.  Fluidity will keep you moving.

Keep your chin up, Beloved One; there is always going to be something to look forward to and you’ll want to have your eyes open to see it.