EXTRA EXTRA It's Reads, Bants and Eats Time!
It’s a new week my sweet ones and if you can believe it we are a third of the way through the year GULP. I realise this post is late this week by a day or two. Honestly I am brain and body dead from both growing a human and working two on my feet jobs and I delegated this post to a day when I knew I would have a few hours to sit and think and nurse my ONE cup of coffee… A DAY. -_______- Of course now I am here and the sweet dulcet tones of social media are tempting my distractable and sleepy brain from this joyful activity. Such is the classic problem of life today. April is such a lovely weather month, I am enjoying this Spring-soon-Summer moment where it’s warm and breezy and there are lots of baby chickies everywhere fluffing up my day and just being darn adorable as I am going to and fro from work. Wild chickens are a thing here on Maui…it’s the best.
Reads
1.) I have been oh so slowly working my way through this most beautiful and articulate book called Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett. If you are looking for something to really expand your mind/spirit/body in a “MUST HIGHLIGHT EVERY LINE” kind of way this is the book for you. When I am reading this I feel like Tippett is capturing every unspoken question and idea locked within me and sharing it in the words I am not equipped to say on my own. It is profound and diverse. The interviews are beautiful and Tippett discusses so many questions with many different people on meaning across multiple disciplines it is just wondrous and challenging. I am seriously considering going back and re-reading once I am done.
2.) Continuing on with this theme of what exactly is life about when it feels like it’s about nothing is this brilliant article Singularity: Marie Howe’s Ode to Stephen Hawking, Our Cosmic Belonging, and the Meaning of Home, in a Stunning Animated Short Film by Maria Popova. I think this article may have been from around 2018 I can’t be sure but Popova’s site The Marginalian (previously Brain Pickings) has been going for over seventeen years. I love that her articles are multi-media expressions full of deep research and fun, thoughtful ideas and musings. This is a nice short piece dedicated to Hawking who had at the time recently left the embodied stage of living and I just felt myself moved by the mini film.
3.) Ok ok one more delicious essay to really get you musing on meaning this week. Seems this is a common theme for me at the moment I wonder dear ones what issues I am struggling with internally and mentally? This is rhetorical….obvs I am on the struggle bus of what is the point of my life. Anyways Magic and the Machine by David Abrams (Emergence Magazine). This piece is a little bit longer but so worth the burrowing into if you can set aside the time. It is a visceral piece that grounds you in your body and the space in which your physical self is an integrated part of an ecosystem of nature, people and energetic ways of being all around you. Abrams, a geoculturalist and philosopher, writes on the concept of animism-how things that are not human possess spiritual essence-and how we as humanity going forward are fusing technology with our ‘souls’ and prioritising tech advancement while the ecological realm is being largely forgotten or harmed. It’s emotional and full of such good writing it hurts.
Bants
1.) This is the hoopoe bird, a regal little fella found across Africa, Asia and Europe that has significant cultural and mythological relevance to humanity. It was historically often regarded as a thief or harbringer of war in Europe and Scandinavian legend. It is also the national bird of Israel, that’s pretty cool. In Persian folklore the hoopoe was seen as the leader of the birds and one of the sacred thirty birds who survived the perilous journey of thousands who sought the Simorgh (King of the Birds) across the seven valleys in the ancient Persian poem Conference of the Birds by the Sufi poet Attar of Nishapur. Also their call sounds like they are going “WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP” which is just so darn adorable. Here is a fun fact video about this little cutie.
Hoopoe facts: birds with stinkin' great accuracy
2.) Netflix recently released a documentary about the young Scottish artist Lewis Capaldi. It was really moving and interesting. I put it on randomly while cooking to watch with my husband who asked that we turn on subtitles because as a California boy he could not understand the thick Scottish accents eyeroll. Capaldi is about to drop his second album, a pretty big deal considering his first in 2019 skyrocketed the young lad to fame and Grammy nominations for his raw, haunting vocals and soulful writing. This documentary has been filmed over the past few years from before his fame through the pandemic and details not only the career journey of Capaldi but also his deeply personal mental health journey that involves severe mental distress and an eventual diagnoses of Tourette’s syndrome. It’s all very visceral and sad and uplifting too, you really come out rooting for him especially as he is so….normal and his battles with anxiety and imposter syndrome are something many of us can relate to. Anyways it’s called How I’m Feeling Now and it’s worth a watch.
Eats
1.) Here is a yummy little vegan recipe I recently tried that hits both the flavour factor and gives you that satisfied full, energetic feeling. Beans and legumes are a big part of noursishment when you don’t eat meat and lentils are one of those delicious meal components that, when cooked and flavoured correctly, leave you warm and fuzzy inside. As always you can easily add a meat component to this such as chicken which would compliment the adicic tomato profile well, or even some Italian spiced sausage meatballs.
Roasted Garlic Vegetable Stew with Red Lentils & Tomatoes
2.) Trying to eat well on a budget seems daunting especially when living in a place where the cost of living and groceries are through the roof. Even shopping affordably for two is tough but it can be done with the incorporating of a few simple yet, tasty meals in your weekly rotation. This is a very basic pasta recipe with a wondrous sauce that requires a good blender.
Creamy Red Pepper Pasta with Blistered Tomatoes
I love carbs, they are the building block to happyness.