In honor of National Poetry Month, and Mary Oliver, our beloved national poet who passed away in January, I will be posting one of her poems each evening in April. I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Clarkson and read a poem on Instagram Live in the evenings as well…Follow me on Instagram to tune in.
Moments
There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled.
Like, telling someone you love them.
Or giving your money away, all of it.
Your heart is beating, isn’t it?
You’re not in chains, are you?
There is nothing more pathetic than caution
when headlong might save a life,
even, possibly, your own.
This poem can be found in the collection, Felicity.
Today I’ll be sharing a recipe from my early childhood. When I was small, my mom kept us well with home-cooked meals that included plenty of unprocessed, whole foods, and very little sugar. One of the treats she would make for us included “Healthy Fudge”. The original recipe contained peanut butter, wheat germ, and powdered milk, none of which I can tolerate today. So I revamped it and enjoy it as much, if not more, than the original.
Healthy Fudge
makes about 16 balls
1/2 cup cashew butter (or almond butter or tahini)
1/2 cup molasses, honey or (1/4 cup of each)
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, plus extra for rolling
1 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips or raisins (optional)
Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a mixing bowl and stir together with a spoon. Add in chocolate chips if using. Put some coconut into a small bowl.
Form into 1-inch balls, roll in coconut, and place in an air-tight container. Store in refrigerator for up to a week.
In honor of National Poetry Month, and Mary Oliver, our beloved national poet who passed away in January, I will be posting one of her poems each evening in April. I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Clarkson and read a poem on Instagram Live in the evenings as well…Follow me on Instagram to tune in.
I Don’t Want to Lose
I don’t want to lose a single thread
from the intricate brocade of this happiness.
I want to remember everything.
Which is why I’m lying awake, sleepy
but not sleepy enough to give it up.
Just now, a moment from years ago:
the early morning light, the deft, sweet
gesture of your hand
reaching for me.
This poem can be found in the collection Felicity.
Each Tuesday I go Live on Facebook at 12pm ET and Instagram at 12:15pm ET with a series called “What Should I Do With My Oils”. I focus on one essential oil each week, sharing benefits, ways to use it, blends and recipes, as well as any safety concerns. And on Wednesday I share the info here on the blog. This week I’m focusing on Bay Laurel also known as Laurel Leaf or Sweet Laurel.
Bay Laurel
Latin binomial: Laurus nobilis; Family: Lauraceae; Parts used: Leaves and branches
Aroma: Fresh, Spicy, Sweet, Camphoraceous,
Safety Concerns: Do not apply to the face or near the nose of infants and children under the age of 5. Use caution when applying to hypersensitive, damaged or diseased skin or on skin of children under the age of 2.
In honor of National Poetry Month, and Mary Oliver, our beloved national poet who passed away in January, I will be posting one of her poems each evening in April. I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Clarkson and read a poem on Instagram Live in the evenings as well…Follow me on Instagram to tune in.
Over the weekend I finished a couple of books and picked up my stack from the library. The librarian was extremely happy to see me since my books were taking up space on her small shelves. My local library is tiny and I love it! The friendly librarian knows me by name and I don’t even need my library card. Every time I go through the doors my spirits are instantly uplifted and I always walk out with an armload of books. This takes me back to my childhood when my mom would take me and my siblings to our little local library in Brooklyn every week.
Night Tigerby Yangsze Choo was a book I saw at Barnes and Noble a month ago and was thrilled when I placed it on hold and it arrived at the library so soon! I know absolutely nothing about this book but did notice there was a giveaway of this book on Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club Instagram.
I read about Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon in Kirkus Reviews. A good part of my reading is for entertainment, but I also read to educate myself and to see the world through the eyes of others; particularly others who are different from me and who have lived a very different life from my own.
Listen to the Marriage: A Novel by John Osborne was a book I heard about on Roxanne Coady’s Just the Right Book Podcast. This book is a story of a married couple, newly separated, who are going to marriage counseling. The interesting thing about this book is that it’s told through the marriage therapist’s eyes.
I can’t actually remember where I first heard about The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, but it was on a recommended list. (That’s the trouble with listening to so many bookish podcasts and reading book reviews.) It is set in Britain after the Romans left and that is all I know. Since I haven’t read a historical novel in quite a while I’m hoping I’m in for a treat.
I’m really looking forward to Garden of Lamentations by Deborah Crombie. This is the latest in this mystery series set in London. It follows the investigations of two detectives: Gemma Jones and Duncan Kincaid. These two are lovable, well-developed characters and it is worth following their stories. Also, the mysteries are solid and don’t end abruptly or in a disappointing muddle.
Now it is your turn: please share what treasures you found at the library lately!
In honor of National Poetry Month, and Mary Oliver, our beloved national poet who passed away in January, I will be posting one of her poems each evening in April. I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Clarkson and read a poem on Instagram Live in the evenings as well…Follow me on Instagram to tune in.
The Old Poets of China
Wherever I am, the world comes after me,
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
I don’t know about you, but I have a lifetime of breaking promises to myself. Of telling myself one thing and doing another. Of agreeing on a course of action only to face the unpleasantness and lack of novelty of follow-through and fizzle out.
Last summer, I was made aware of this while listening to a podcast by Rachel Hollis. She talked about how so many people are in the habit of starting and stopping things, about the lack of commitment to our own priorities, about how breaking promises to yourself makes you not trust yourself. And how no one would flake out on another person the way we often flake out on ourselves. That idea–of keeping promises to myself–was one I hadn’t really thought of before. I don’t know why.
Although I neither blame my parents or the Christian culture I was raised in, my life–the way I think and live– has been affected. Sometimes it’s been very positive, sometimes not. One of the “nots” would be this rather irksome saying my mother used to quote to me when I was a child: “Jesus first, Others second, and You always last. That spells JOY!” Sorry, Mom, but it ain’t necessarily so!
The whole concept of living to serve God and others is a noble one and I am not suggesting that now I have seen the light and only serve myself. I believe that a human who lives only for self winds up feeling empty and dissatisfied, lonely, and worthless. We all need to be investing part of ourselves in that which is greater than us, in that which may not serve us, but which will benefit others.
But in the past few years, I have begun to see how damaging the above concepts can be for women who think that God wants them to spend their entire lives putting aside their needs and/or desires, because someone else’s needs or wants must always come first. And as much as I hated to admit it, I had done a good deal of this as well. Until age 39 when I fell apart. My experience is not so unusual, really. As Brendon Burchard says, “Living incongruent to what you believe is the greatest form of unhappiness.”
So after I had my mid-life crisis, as it’s aptly called, I reassessed everything. I began to catch myself when I would say yes to something that I really didn’t want to do. I had to remind myself often of the Jen Hatmaker quote, “If it’s not a Hell, yes, it’s a No.” And this past year, I have begun to deal with my lack of consistency in many areas of my life and make myself do what I told myself I was going to do.
Commitment to myself is tough, but I know it is right! That means if I have time scheduled to write or work or exercise and one of my kids wants me to drive them last minute, or a friend wants to come over, I have to say no. It’s hard to disappoint people–I hate it!!! But I’ve had plenty of practice disappointing people in the past few years between leaving church, getting a divorce, getting remarried and living differently than I did before. (I am starting to warm up to the idea of writing more about this difficult season I’ve been in.)
If you have a habit of breaking promises to yourself, it’s going to be a process to turn things around. Begin with something small, but be on the lookout for places in your life where you constantly shove yourself aside to please others. You put things off, change your plans, let personal growth and wellness goals fall by the wayside because someone else is demanding. Again, I’m not saying live to please only you, but there has to be some place for you in this life. “Your one wild and precious life” as Mary Oliver says. I will leave you with her poem The Summer Day. Happy Monday, friends!
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand.
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down–
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
In honor of National Poetry Month, and Mary Oliver, our beloved national poet who passed away in January, I will be posting one of her poems each evening in April. I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Clarkson and read a poem on Instagram Live in the evenings as well…Follow me on Instagram to tune in.
I Wake Close to Morning
Why do people keep asking to see God’s identity papers
when the darkness opening into morning is more than enough?
Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.
Think of Sheba approaching the kingdom of Solomon.
In honor of National Poetry Month, and Mary Oliver, our beloved national poet who passed away in January, I will be posting one of her poems each evening in April. I am hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sarah Clarkson and read a poem on Instagram Live in the evenings as well…Follow me on Instagram to tune in.
Moon and Water
I wake and spend
the last hours
of darkness
with no on
but the moon.
She listens
to my complaints
like the good
companion she is
and comforts me surely
with her light.
But she, like everyone,
has her own life.
So finally I understand
that she has turned away,
is no longer listening.
She wants me
to refold myself
into my own life.
And, bending close,
as well all dream of doing,
she rows with her white arms
through the dark water
which she adores.
This poem can be found in the collection, Evidence.
Life of Kim 