State of Mind

"If one is true to one's self and follows its teachings, who need be without a teacher?" - Chuang Tzu

How do you respond to chaos? - Dall·e AI

Your internal state is just as important as the external inputs into your body.  You can eat all the healthy food you want but if your internal state is chaos, you will not be healthy.  Conversely, you can do all of the meditation, yoga, etc. you want but if you're only putting junk food into your body, you will also not be healthy.  The type of food that is eaten is important to the health of your body.  Taking care of your mind and spirit is equally important.  They go hand in hand with each other, yin and yang.

The world we live in is chaos, it always has been and always will be.  You cannot control the chaos that happens in the world.  All you can do is control how you react to it.  The chaos is necessary.  Light cannot exist without the dark, that contrast is needed.  Our world is full of contrast, always has been and always will be.  Trying to control that external chaos is a recipe for misery.  Noticing how that chaos affects you and alchemizing it into something good and something beautiful is something you can control.

Berry Preserves

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou

Freshly made berry preserves

Have you ever gone to the store or farmers market and attempted to track down either a no or low sugar berry jam of some sorts?  They don't exist anywhere.  Even at the farmers markets, bounce around to the different fruit stands and ask if they make any no or low sugar berry concoctions and you'll always get the same answer of, "We make that for ourselves and that's what we eat at home but we don't sell it, the sugar preserves it."

Alas, now you can stop hunting and just make it yourself.  Spoiler alert:  It's super easy to make.  Literally anyone can make this in a very short amount of time.  Without further ado, here's how you go about this:

What You Need:

-Edible Berries

-Water

-Saucepan

-Honey or Maple Syrup (optional)

The Desert Teaches

"On your journey to your dream, be ready to face oasis and deserts. In both cases, don't stop." - Paulo Coelho

First time in 20 years this lake has existed - Merzouga, Morocco - November 2024

The poem below was written amongst the Sahara desert of both Egypt and Morocco in November of 2024.  The desert is a very intriguing place and is a lot different from what one envisions.  The majority of it looks like you were flung off Earth and landed on Mars.  The landscape is not endless sand dunes.  The dunes certainly exist but they are in patches, not swathing swarms.  It's mostly, flat, hard, dry, cracked ground just like what is found in parts of Arizona and New Mexico with random herds of wild camels sauntering about.  The desert has its own sound to it, a wispy crack of the wind blowing sand around complete with a low reverberating hum that can only be heard when one really listens.

The perception of the desert is that life cannot exist here, no way, no how.  However, all of the building blocks of life are there, just sitting, waiting for the conditions to be right.  All that is needed is for water to be added and suddenly life springs forth every which way, butterflies emerge, flamingos suddenly appear, birds swoop in, grass grows immensely fast which the camels then devour.  Once the water dries up then poof, the landscape chameleons back into appearing to not be capable of hosting life.  In reality, it's just resting, waiting for the next rains that will once again create the perfect conditions for life.