Beans are one of my favorite things to eat, and I am always amused by everyone’s jokes about them.  The truth is not everyone gets gas when eating beans and, if they do, it likely has more to do with what they ate along with it.  Only if you’re eating processed foods for much of your diet will you have a problem with gas after eating beans.  People don’t understand that it’s their processed foods that cause them to have food interactions.  Processed = anything with a label. When cooking beans, you simply clean, rinse, then soak. Long slow soaking, and long slow cooking is best.  Don’t add salt or baking soda to beans when cooking, because the sodium prevents them from softening.  Instead add a few fennel or cumin seeds, a slice of ginger, a bay leaf to soften the fiber, convert the sugars, and add nutrients to make beans more digestible. Cover and simmer until very soft. Continue reading →

I learned of the September 11th attacks two hours after it happened, when I checked email and AOL had it on the front page.  It was a Tuesday, so I went to Unity of Melbourne for the noon prayer service.  I purposely did not watch any news reports of it and to this day have seen very little of it.  The next day, September 12th was spent in and out of Unity of Melbourne in their 24 hour World Day of Prayer vigil.  I thought it fitting that the Unity churches nationwide had already scheduled the prayer vigil, and it fell on the day after the attacks.  Perfect timing.  I was writing my October 2001 editorial for Horizons Magazine two days after the September 11th World Trade Center event.  The cover of the September 2001 Horizons Magazine was Rob Shouten’s The First Noble Truth.  The First Noble Truth is that life is suffering. To live, you must suffer. It is impossible to live without experiencing some kind of suffering. We have to endure physical suffering like sickness, injury, tiredness, old age and eventually death and we have to endure psychological suffering like loneliness, frustrations, fear, embarrassment, disappointment, anger, etc. Continue reading →

I made a Facebook post about winning a bet from my cousin that mortgage rates would fall again in September. It was a spidey sense flash I had when I was at the closing on my mortgage refinance in July.  My friend and long time colleague Ron Van Dyke commented:  When people really get it, there will be amazement. Commercial mortgages, and ALL foreclosures derived therefrom, are lawfully considered fraud. Banks and lending institutions not only don’t sign them, which means they are not valid contracts, they also sell them as collateralized debt instruments or other fancy names, to unscrupulous investors… many times over in most cases. The debt is, therefore, lawfully discharged; and the bank no longer holds the paper and no longer has standing to foreclose. Only our ignorance and compliance allow this to continue. As the Andromedans once channeled, We don’t understand why you have to pay to live on the planet you were born on. I do. Because some people recognized that they could live well off the ignorance of others. There’s so many things I learned because of my lawsuit. I wish people had more of a hunger to learn the truth.

Andrea responded: We have many freedoms but we must be prepared for consequences from those in authority over us who have limited vision and don’t play fair. If the govt and mortgage companies and everyone else is playing a game, I don’t mind playing along. After all, it is really my own consciousness that frees me or impedes me. I don’t mind paying a fake mortgage. I seem to be able to handle whatever the Universe throws at me. And more so the less I push against anything anyone else is doing. Continue reading →

My brother has a cockatiel named Nicole that he’s had for years.  A month ago he retired from his job at Honeywell Aerospace and bought a quaker parrot.  Here’s an email update on Nick and Nicole.  Jerry writes: My new bird Nick is totally spoiled now.  I open his cage every morning then sit down in my recliner.  He gets out and stretches a bit, then it’s down in the floor, waddling toward me.  He tries to climb my leg to get to me, but his toe nails aren’t sharp enough to grip the fabric of my pants.  So he sits and watches me until I put my hand down so he can get it.  Then it’s wrestle my fingers time.  He likes for me to tease him so he can fake biting me.  He doesn’t clamp down but likes to nibble.  He loves to be petted like a dog, and scratched behind his ears.

Continue reading →

To everyone who’s been waiting for someone to drop a wad of cash in their lap so they can quit their job and have time to do “the real work” they want to do – you know, that “spiritual work” that will help out humanity and all?  Well, as you can see, waiting for someone to do that is not how it works.  How it works is that you are so passionate about doing your work that you make time to do it in between getting the kids off to school, doing the housework, going to one or two jobs, and caring for your family at night.  As you do that, the Universe sees you’re serious about it and they begin sending you people and circumstances that make your way easier.  Until then, you’ll just get one person after another offering to help (for a fee) and offering to promote (for a fee) and not really being into it other than wanting to make money off you.  Ah, you’ve already witnessed that, huh?  And “friends” can be the worst offenders, meaning well, but knowing less about it and being less able that you are to do it. Continue reading →

I spent some time this weekend whittling down my Facebook friends list.  I removed a lot of business names and names of people who had their occupation listed as part of their name.  I appreciate hearing about what people do for a living, but I don’t care to be solicited.  What interests me most about other people is what they spend their day to day time doing, what things interest them and what they find enjoyable and life enhancing.  I skip over the ones who post political news items or event announcements and I look for the ones where someone reveals some personal something about their life and comments on how it makes them think or feel.  Even if it’s an inspirational quote, don’t just post the quote, post why is means something to you. That’s what I look for on Facebook. Continue reading →

Lunar Cycle Turns Hurricanes Into Beasts by Michael Reilly, Discovery News — Werewolves aren’t the only terrors that follow the lunar cycle; hurricanes strengthen more often under a new moon than at any other time, according to a new study.  The moon’s spooky influence on Earth and its denizens is legendary, and rightly so. From fertility to suicide, most phenomena attributed to Luna are almost exclusively superstition.  But Peter Yaukey of the University of New Orleans has found what he thinks is real evidence that the phases of moon drive hurricane behavior. Storms that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean between 1950 and 2007 were more likely to form right after the new moon. They also intensified 49 percent more often after a new moon than at any other time in the 29.5-day lunar cycle. Continue reading →

Jan Phillips writes in The Huffington Post: I woke up last night to the sound of laughing and realized I’d fallen asleep with the TV on. It was 3 AM and I knew it was Jon Stewart but I had to fumble around for my glasses to see who his guest was. Unbelievable! It was Jesus, in his robe and all. His nose was bigger than I thought, his skin a lot darker, but his eyes were more piercing than I’d ever imagined. It was like light came out instead of going into them.

John was making some joke about both of them being Jews and Jesus, after laughing harder than I thought he would, said quite seriously to Jon, “Yeah, that’s one of the weirdest things, isn’t it? How could they forget that?” Continue reading →

The past couple of weeks I’ve been cleaning my floors repeatedly. Moving furniture to clean the floor beneath it, taking everything away from the wall and away from the corners to get the entire floor’s surface.  My typical m.o. is a quick sweep, vac and swipe with the Swiffer wetjet.  But lately I’ve been cleaning it more often and more thoroughly.  I love how Mop & Glo puts a nice teflon shine on the floor, but I need to clean the floor really well first or it’s going to get that waxy build up.  As a test, I just tried a patch 3 tiles wide by 3 tiles down with a 50% solution of Clorox Kitchen Cleaner and water. I used a scrub brush for one minute and I was shocked at how much it lightened it up. The longer I left the solution on, the lighter it got.  I’m considering renting a floor scrubber or asking a friend to do it for me. I don’t know why it’s suddenly more important now than it’s ever been to get the floor clean, but it is. During meditation this morning, I reflected that so often in the past I’ve made do with a surface clearing of my thoughts and behaviors and beliefs.  I’d make room for something new, but not completely replace the old.  I’d let myself walk between the worlds, so to speak, until I got used to the new ideas and until they ultimately replaced themselves.  Now something is clearly happening, and being reflected in me being obsessed with getting my floor clean.   I have something I want to strip away, to get at the bottom of, to make new and fresh with a clean start, to get in on the ground floor with.  I look forward to the unfolding.  When I get to the bottom of it, I’ll let you know.

RELATED:  My first ever Steam Mop — A Bissell PowerFresh