Vegetarian Thanksgiving

A few years ago, J + I started our own tradition of having a Vegetarian Thanksgiving at home after the hustle of the Thanksgiving holiday had slowed down. The main reason for this tradition was a chance for us to cook a tofurky since we don't get anything but sides at our families' meals.

One year, my best friend Beth was in town for our Vegetarian Thanksgiving so she joined us and insisted that it become an annual tradition (and one she'd expect to be invited to). We gladly obliged and now it's been 4 years! Due to the small size of the tofurky and our dining room table, the max amount of people we ever have in total is 6. This past weekend we celebrated with some of our closest friends and it was wonderful. The best part is waiting a week after Thanksgiving so you aren't still dreading more casseroles.

 

 We enjoyed tons of homemade food: green bean casserole, corn pudding, stuffing, cheese straws, artisan bread with rosemary + garlic, butternut squash soup (with cilantro + spiced, candied nuts), and gravy (mushroom + nutritional yeast). Everything was incredible and made with lots of love.

 

 The desserts were amazing too! We had lemon meringue, chocolate pie, and banana nut bread! YUM!

 J started a brand new dinner topic at Vegetarian Thanksgiving where we all talk about things we are NOT grateful for. It was so funny to hear everyone's gripes at Thanksgiving for a change! 

  We ended the night by the chiminea/ fire pit (despite the beautiful, warm day).  

My tummy and my heart is so full.

 ♥

People Simply Empty Out

In 1969, a publisher told Charles Bukowski that he'd pay him $100 each and every month for the rest of his life as long as he quit his job at the post office and become a writer. Then 49-year-old Bukowski did just that. 

Then, 15 years later, Bukowski wrote this (for more letters, see here) letter to the publisher, John Martin, explaining his joy of escaping full time employment.

If only we could all be so lucky...

8-12-86

Hello John:

Thanks for the good letter. I don't think it hurts, sometimes, to remember where you came from. You know the places where I came from. Even the people who try to write about that or make films about it, they don't get it right. They call it "9 to 5." It's never 9 to 5, there's no free lunch break at those places, in fact, at many of them in order to keep your job you don't take lunch. Then there's OVERTIME and the books never seem to get the overtime right and if you complain about that, there's another sucker to take your place.

You know my old saying, "Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors."

And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don't want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.

As a young man I could not believe that people could give their lives over to those conditions. As an old man, I still can't believe it. What do they do it for? Sex? TV? An automobile on monthly payments? Or children? Children who are just going to do the same things that they did?

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: "Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don't you realize that?"

They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn't want to enter their minds.

Now in industry, there are vast layoffs (steel mills dead, technical changes in other factors of the work place). They are layed off by the hundreds of thousands and their faces are stunned:

"I put in 35 years..."

"It ain't right..."

"I don't know what to do..."

They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work. I could see all this. Why couldn't they? I figured the park bench was just as good or being a barfly was just as good. Why not get there first before they put me there? Why wait?

I just wrote in disgust against it all, it was a relief to get the shit out of my system. And now that I'm here, a so-called professional writer, after giving the first 50 years away, I've found out that there are other disgusts beyond the system.

I remember once, working as a packer in this lighting fixture company, one of the packers suddenly said: "I'll never be free!"

One of the bosses was walking by (his name was Morrie) and he let out this delicious cackle of a laugh, enjoying the fact that this fellow was trapped for life.

So, the luck I finally had in getting out of those places, no matter how long it took, has given me a kind of joy, the jolly joy of the miracle. I now write from an old mind and an old body, long beyond the time when most men would ever think of continuing such a thing, but since I started so late I owe it to myself to continue, and when the words begin to falter and I must be helped up stairways and I can no longer tell a bluebird from a paperclip, I still feel that something in me is going to remember (no matter how far I'm gone) how I've come through the murder and the mess and the moil, to at least a generous way to die.

To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself.

yr boy,

Hank

Pretty eye-opening, isn't it? I know this letter speaks volumes to my J + me. 

Still brainstorming ways to stay full + unafraid. 

Until next week!

♥

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Thursday Tunes: Winter Song

I have always been a huge fan of The Head And The Heart and this song is no exception. 

The video is beautiful and the title "Winter Song" is so fitting for the feeling lately: " Summer gone, now Winter's on its way." 

Oh, and I also want to ride the Seattle ferris wheel now (despite my huge fear of ferris wheels).

Enjoy my dears! 

xo

Gifts That Give Back

This holiday season it is important to remember how lucky most of us are in our daily lives. 

Thankfully, J + I don't really need for anything. Sadly, that is not the case for all other people or animals. Try donating a gift or your time to charities this season (and always), because not only will you help out our world greatly, but your heart + soul will be rewarded. 

Below are some charities. initiatives* that are doing amazing things to help better our world:

1. Adopt A Gray Wolf - Wolves suffer not only from habitat loss, but they also endure revenge killings for attacks on wild stock.Your donation supports WWF's conservation efforts worldwide. You'll be helping fund scientific investigations, habitat preservation, and other programs to preserve many of the most endangered animals on Earth. 

2. Krochet Kids - Empowering the women of Northern Uganda and Peru with the assets, skills, and knowledge to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. The women make handmade crochet hats, scarves, stockings, etc. to improve their lives and communities. 

3. Farm Sanctuary - Help support Farm Sanctuary's efforts to end farm animal abuse through investigative, legislative and legal actions, public awareness and humane education projects and direct rescue and shelter of farm animals. Adopt an animal or go to one of their sanctuaries to take a vegan cooking class!

4. Water Partners - Provide a safe water supply for the more than 1 billion people in developing countries who wouldn’t have it otherwise. For every $1 spent on clean water and sanitation, another $8 in costs relating to unsafe water are avoided.

5. Soles4Souls - Collects new shoes to give relief to the victims of abject suffering and collects used shoes to support micro-business efforts to eradicate poverty. Soles4Souls has delivered over 19 million pairs of shoes in over 125 countries both for crisis relief and to support micro-enterprise projects (and in turn, kept more shoes out of the landfills).

*Before you donate to a charity, ensure that it is a group that deserves your gift and will spend it properly. Large charities should spend 80%+ of what they raise on their cause (not paychecks or overhead).

"Recognizing our shared humanity and our biological nature as beings whose happiness is dependent on others, we learn to open our hearts, and in so doing we gain a sense of purpose and a sense of connection with those around us" - Dalai Lama

♥

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Malaise Cardiaque

This post is a hard one to write.

On Black Friday, around 9:30 PM, I received a call from my aunt informing me that my father was on his way to the hospital with the signs of a heart attack. Despite the fact that my parents' house is typically never empty, he came home to an empty house and decided to drive himself to the hospital. Although the closest hospital didn't have a cardiology unit, they transferred him to another hospital about 30 minutes away.

J + I actually beat my dad to the second hospital and got upset when they couldn't locate him in the system and we didn't know where he was. When they finally took us back to a cardiology waiting room to wait for updates on his condition and location (such a nightmare), they sent in a chaplain to sit with us. This may be SOP for cardiac issues, but it was very scary.

Finally he arrived at the hospital and the cardiologist on-call went to work immediately (since so much time had been wasted in getting my dad to the hospital). We were taken into a back room and told that my dad was fine, but that he had 100% blockage of the largest artery in the heart and they had to put in a stint in. After a bit of recovery time, we were able to see my dad in the ICU.

He is now home and on his way to recovery. 

I am so thankful that he is better and that he gets this second chance. I am so grateful that this story, his story, has a happy ending. My father is a lucky man and we're all so lucky to still have him.

During these holidays, try to focus on those you love and spending time together. Life is honestly too short to be bitter or hateful. Each day is a chance to love and to be the best version of yourself.

I love you so much Dad.

♥

"Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now" - Denis Waitley

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Kilim Pillows

In an effort to make our living room more colorful and cozy, I've started slowly replacing our current pillows with some kilim-covered pillows. I love the pattern variations and colors!

From what I've seen the best place to find these pillows at affordable cost is Ebay. Just note that most sellers are selling just the pillow cover (one-sided). It is also important to remember that these pillows aren't the most comfortable, soft fabric but they sure are easy on the eyes.

Are you also all about the kilim craze?

♥

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Thankful

It's officially Thanksgiving week!

We had a very productive weekend doing work around the house: landscaping, chalkboard crafts, washed sheets, etched window tints, mowed/ mulched the yard, etc. We also enjoyed some great food: Mellow Mushroom, Panahar, and homemade vegetarian chili + jalapeno cornbread muffins!

Since it's the time of year to reflect on things we're thankful for, I decided to make a list + share!

I am thankful for:

1. My better half, J ♥

2. The sweetest hound/ mutt that ever lived, Townes

3. Family

4. My dear friends

5. Cabin weekends

6. Fire pits

7. Running our first 5K in 2 weeks (strong is the new skinny!)

8. Anything mango

9. Fresh balsam candles

10. Coffee in bed 

What are you thankful for?

♥