Daily Om Reading

I know Donna will like this one.

October 28, 2008
Intertwined Fates
We Are All Connected

There are times when we may feel disconnected from the world. Our actions can seem like they are of no major consequence, and we may feel like we exist in our own vacuum. Yet, the truth is that our simplest thought or action - the decisions we make each day, and how we see and relate to the world - can be incredibly significant and have a profound impact on the lives of those around us, as well as the world at large. The earth and everything on it is bound by an invisible connection between people, animals, plants, the air, the water, and the soil. Insignificant actions on your part, whether positive or negative, can have an impact on people and the environment that seem entirely separate from your personal realm of existence. Staying conscious of the interconnection between all things can help you think of your choices and your life in terms of the broader effect you may be creating.

Think of buying a wooden stool. The wood was once part of a tree which is part of a forest. A person was paid to fell the tree, another to cut the wood, and yet another to build the stool. Their income may have had a positive effect on their families, just as the loss of the tree may have had a negative impact on the forest or the animals that made that tree their home. An encouraging word to a young child about their special talent can influence this person to develop their gift so that one day their inventions can change the lives of millions. A poem written “merely” to express oneself can make a stranger reading it online from thousands of miles away feel less alone because there is someone else out there who feels exactly the way they do.

Staying conscious of your connection to all things can help you think of your choices in terms of their impact. We are powerful enough that what we do and say can reverberate through the lives of people we may never meet. Understanding that you are intimately connected with all things and understanding your power to affect our world can be the first step on the road to living more consciously.

It's That Time of Year

This title could mean any number of the things, like the Christmas decorations are going up in Madrid, which I've heard that in some areas they've already started.  But that's not it.  It could mean that we've put the clocks back an hour so we've got an extra hour and I have plans for my extra hour.  That's not it either.  It's that time of year when the sun feels wonderful - my sentiments when I was taking my dog out for a walk earlier.  How good the sun feels and how it will warm things up today!  Gone are the horrible memories of this past Wednesday when I had no choice but to go out in near-hurricane winds and freezing rain.  Oddly enough, I didn't get too wet because I think the rain must have swept over me.  I was also using an umbrella, which luckily only almost lifted me off my feet a couple of hundred times but didn't turn inside out like so many others that I saw abandoned in the bins.  Yes, indeed this is one of those times that I appreciate being out in the sun and not getting burnt to a crisp.

I swore this week that I wasn't going to save any secrets.  I swore that if I included a picture with the blog it would be a photo of my dog, the pot of beans that I'm going to put on to cook or my dirty windows (that's where my extra hour is going - cleaning them in anticipation of the next rainstorms).  I saw this postcard and couldn't resist, because I have a thing about TP too.  Only I overstock it, fearing that I'll somehow run out.
There were lots of other wonderful secrets, and I was visitor 189,502,190 (one of the first times I've got an even number).

Hope everybody has a nice sunny week, or if it does rain that it's a gentle rain and not an umbrella wrecker.

Vegetable Lasagna (requested by Sandra, the New Jersey girl)

Description:
Here's the vegetable lasagna that I once mentioned in a blog. Actually I haven't used this recipe since the first time I tried it. I just throw everything together and I use a substitute for the ricotta cheese. If you wish , you can use cottage cheese instead. What I really like about this dish (and similar casseroles) is that it tastes even better the next day and it's low-calorie. I always freeze a few portions to have another day.


Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 zucchini, chopped
2 cups (16 oz.) reduced-fat ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 jar (16 oz.) spaghetti sauce
8 ounces no-cook lasagna (about 9 sheets)
10 ounces frozen broccoli, thawed (I chop up fresh broccoli)
1 can (28 oz.) chopped tomatoes
¼ cup (1 oz.) grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup (1 oz.) shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350º F. Coat a 13" x 9" baking dish with cooking spray.
Warm oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini and cook 5 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix ricotta, egg, basil, salt and pepper. Set aside ½ cup spaghetti sauce.
Place 3 sheets of lasagna in the prepared baking dish. Evenly spoon half of remaining sauce over lasagna. Top with half of ricotta, half the broccoli, half the zucchini, half the tomatoes (with juice), and half the Parmesan. Repeat layering with three more sheets of lasagna and remaining ingredients.
End with remaining sheets of lasagna. Spoon reserved sauce over top, and sprinkle with mozzarella.
Cover with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover and bake 25 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Happy Anniversary, Happy Day

One of the saddest days for cyberspace me was the day I decided to leave Y360 after it became all too apparent that Yahoo cared nothing about what their customers wanted or needed.  Not knowing where to go but knowing where I didn't want to go, I signed up on another site and on Multiply.  I'd heard some people were migrating to Multiply, but they weren't people that I was in contact with on 360.  Still, this is one rumour that I'm glad I listened to.  In one of the first blogs I wrote on Multiply, I expressed how lonely I felt not knowing anyone here - at least for a short time because I soon found one person that was on my friends list from 360, and I discovered that the author of one of my favourite You Tube videos was an admin on the group 'Those who blogged or blog on Y 360'.  It was also through this group that I found some people I knew and met others.  In the days and months that followed more and more people flocked to Multiply, and I'd like to hope that we're all here to stay.  I'm also happy that three of my sisters, a brother-in-law and two nieces have pages on here though they're not as much a booger, I mean blogger, as I am.  LOL

I began blogging on Y360, so that much I have Yahoo to thank for.  In all the time I've been blogging, I haven't really introduced my fabulous family, which is what I intend to do now.  I'm only going to name my brothers and sisters, because if I name everybody it's going to be like in Genesis who begat whom - my family is that big!  I've got 4 sisters: Diana, whom I used to fight with all the time when we were little.  She's 4 years younger, but she had sharp nails and always won those fights.  Then there's Jackie, Karen and Kim.  My brothers are Roger - the one who stuck his head in the snow drift - James - I always hit him on the head - and Timmy, the silent one.  Me, I'm the eldest and the nicest - joking, of course.

Seriously, I hope everybody is as happy as I am on Multiply.  Not so secretly I think Yahoo did me a favour.  I won't speak for anyone else, but as the Daily OM always asks: 'What do you think?' I sure hope being in the lead early on is prophetic because right now Multiply is ahead of the other sites which have been nominated for the 'Best Blogging Host'.  Voting has started for 2009 as I've already mentioned.  You can find the link to vote on any of the group sites.  Here's wishing everybody who made the switch around this date a happy anniversary and to everyone a happy day.

Long and Winding Week

As some of you know, I usually go out for Chinese on Thursday nights with my friends.  For a long time we were a regular foursome until one of my friends decided that Chinese food didn't agree with her. So now, unless there's a special occasion, it's usually just three of us like this past Thursday.  Here's part of our conversation, and I honestly don't know how we got our wires crossed here.  I had just commented that I'd seen part of the tennis match (Masters Series) earlier on in the day.

Friend 1: So who do you think is going to win?
Me: I'm not sure.
Friend 2: Well, it's obvious.  Nadal.  After all, he is number 1.
Friend 1: No, you wallies!  The Presidential election in the US!

I'm sorry if it seems that I'm more interested in who wins at tennis than who wins the next election for President.  I don't usually talk about politics in my blogs, but I do find it sad that there are still people, both black and white, and other colours in between, who are racists.  After all, aren't we in the 21st Century and doesn't everyone have red blood (except maybe University of Kentucky fans)?  I would have put UK fans like I normally do, but I'm afraid McCain might think I'm talking about England.  LOL.  Anyway, I hope the best candidate wins ( and, of course, I hope Rafa wins the tennis later on today).

This also happened during a stressful week in the life of Brenda. I know some of you, like Ed, can probably say if something is an urban legend because you've seen it on snopes.com. How about the one where cell phone numbers are being sold to telemarketers? According to snopes, the story is false and I hope it is in the US. I received a letter from my land-line telephone company which is Telefonica. Other companies are always trying to get me to change companies, but my philosophy in some matters is better the devil you know. Anyway, in this letter they were asking me for permission to send advertising messages to my cell phone, which I have with Vodafone - another devil I know - and my cell phone number was included in the letter. My conclusion? Well, it's obvious that Vodafone has provided Telefonica and who knows who else with our phone numbers. What happened to the privacy of data? At least Telefonica sent a letter asking permission. The text messages I receive from Vodafone are sufficiently annoying, and if one day (like they've talked about), we're charged for incoming messages as you are in the US, I won't be a happy camper. To make a long story short, I denied permission.

Now to make a long week short I give you two stories in one. Are you aware that Multiply placed third in Blogger's Choice Awards for 2008? Voting has already begun for the 2009 awards. I was voter number 6. You know my thing about looking at visitor numbers and such. Disappointing. Still, Facebook and MySpace didn't make the top three. Recently Multiply has had an influx of people from MSN. It's incredible how quickly they've been welcomed and arrangements have been to accommodate them so that they can bring over their groups, etc. Although I know most of you voted in 2008, I encourage you to repeat in 2009 and to spread the word. The other story is Post Secret, what else? I enjoyed today's secrets and I was visitor 187,997,565. Need I say more? No, except this postcard was among them.

Hope everybody has a good week. I'll be posting something short later on, because the 22nd is my first anniversary on Multiply.

Happy 16th Birthday!

Today is my nephew Aaron's 16th birthday, and this is Aaron when he was three and having a bad hair day.  It's one of my favourite photos of him.

What can I say about Aaron?  He's intelligent, but that's something you'd expect to hear from a family member though, wouldn't you?  He likes the computer, and the last time I saw him he was really into 'Second Life.' He's a good guitar player and has been known to play with his father.    Who knows, maybe we'll have a famous guitarist in the family? He has the right surname for it. This year he decided he wanted a vegetable garden (good move!).  However, I've heard someone else has done most of the work in it.  His newest hobby is tea.  According to my sister, he has all kinds of tea and knows a lot about it.  He'd probably enjoy some of Diana's blogs about tea.  I hope he's learned to prepare something better to accompany his tea, because I once saw him make a grilled cheese sandwich in the microwave.  I'll have to say something funny about Aaron and that is he can tell a lie to anyone except his mother.  He can't lie to her without laughing!

So happy 16th birthday, Aaron.  Hope it's a happy one and I hope you're not expecting a car for your birthday!

Have You Decided Yet?

If not, maybe this secret from Post Secret will help you. I had to copy at least three that I thought were cool secrets for this week. As always there were all kinds of secrets - sad, funny, informative, some that I've wondered about myself. The visitor counter said that I was number 186,542,247. BTW, I can't really relate to the reasoning of this person who sent in this particular postcard, but if it helps someone decide...

We had storms all night. Okay, the thunder and lightning weren't that close but enough to make my dog stay under the bed the entire night. I didn't even think about getting up early this morning and going down to the bullring. I'm not such a dedicated photo taker. I do have one photo of the bullring that was taken this past Wednesday afternoon. I'll post it when (and if) I take some more to go with it.

On Friday evening in one of my classes that I give just around the corner, we could hear music coming from the bullring. I asked my student, who's 14, if he knew who was playing and of course he didn't. I told him it was 'Los Secretos' - a group he'd never heard of because they were popular 30 years ago. They supposedly were going to sing 30 songs with the help of other singers and groups like Amaral, Miguel Bosé, David Summers, etc. I sat outside for a while listening, because, although we may not have ringside seats, we can hear the concerts perfectly.

I think the sun is trying to break through the clouds - at least for a bit. However, I wouldn't go far without an umbrella. Hope everybody has a great week. I'll be doing a special post on Friday.