Shrimp Scramble

Yesterday I was loving the combination of lime, cumin, coriander and cilantro.  With little left in the fridge but eggs and shrimp and went all out and created a scramble for dinner.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and no one complained about eggs for dinner!

Whole 30 Shrimp Scramble

3-4 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 stalk brocolette chopped
2 tablespoons cumin and coriander each
1/2 pound of fresh, local shrimp
juice of 1 lime
5 eggs
1/2 cup cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

How to...

1. Saute garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes over medium heat
2.  Add bell pepper and brocolette then the cumin and coriander and cook for 3-5 minutes
3.  Add the shrimp and saute, add the lime juice
4.  When the shrimp begins to turn white and pink, add the eggs.  I crack them right in the pan and scramble them in the center then slowly mix in the rest of the food as the eggs firm and turn yellow.
5.  When the eggs are completely cooked (no slime) turn the heat off and add the cilantro, salt and pepper. 

Sweet and tangy!

Whole 30 Sweet Potato Hummus

Sweet Potatos will likely be the theme for a while.  They are nutritious, dense enough to satisfy me and they are amazing in just about anything.  I love hummus but on the Whole 30 diet all legumes are off limits.  So I compromised and came up with this sweet dip for carrots and sugar snap peas. 

Whole 30 Sweet Potato Hummus

1 head of garlic, peeled, smashed and coarsly smashed
1 quarter red onion chopped coursely
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 sweet potato peeled and thinly sliced this coursely chopped (thinner and smaller the quicker they cook)
2 tablespoons cumin and coriander each
2 small zuchini (from the garden) cubed
juice of half a lime
1/2 cup raw cashews
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cilantro chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

How to...
1. Sautee garlic and onion in olive oil over medium heat for a couple minutes.
2.  Add sweet potatos then the cumin and coriander.  Cook for 3-5 minutes.
3.  Add zuchini and saute with lime juice.
4.  Cook until the sweet potatos are soft no longer than 10 minutes.
5.  Add mixture to a food processor and blend until combined.
6. Add cashews, olive oil and cilatro and blend some more.
7.  Add salt and peper to taste. 

Enjoy!

Whole 30 Sweet Potato Salad

My first day on the Whole 30 diet forced me to be creative with food in the kitchen. I hadn't prepared for the restrictions when I went shopping that day. In fact, making the decision to go on this diet really snuck up on me and suddenly I decided - Today is the day! July 11th!

My motivation? I want my energy back. I want to sleep well. I want to be able to something other than just work. Here's to hoping this diet works.

whole 30 Sweet potato salad

1 Sweet potato, peels removed and chopped into cubes
3 spears brocolette chopped into rough cubes
1 Heaping tablespoon of coconut oil
1 orange, cut into cubes
1/2 cup raw cashews or other nuts (the sweetest of cashews is stunning in this but almonds could be good too)
1 avocado cubed

How to...
1. Steam the sweet potato amd brocolette in steamer for about 20 minutes.
2. Remove from steamer while still hot and add coconut oil. Let it melt and cover them.
3. Add orange and nuts. Mix gently.
4. Top with avacado as a green garnish. Don't mix it unless you want a creaming avacado dressing.

This was delicious and I ate it all in a day. I'll make it again today.

the more I see the (more and less) I know

I don’t consider myself a fan of pop culture.  I appreciate art, music, drama and like many people my taste’s fluctuate  but simultaneously stay the same.  I have a mark, a code that calls and describes me.  I follow some artists and the interest usually wanes.  I rarely attach much meaning to one icon.  
  
But I’ve got to admit that I’m a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Sure, like anything, I’ve lost interest and the guys have certainly had their share of drama.  But who doesn’t love Blood Sugar Sex Magik?  They played from the gut terrifically tapped into the primal. And now as they age, they play with a softer edge buttered with insight.   

This year, I have a burning desire to see them in concert.  I booked tickets to my husband’s delight this November.  I can’t wait to see Anthony Kiedis and Flea and expect an unforgettable show. 

I have so many memories attached to these guys; high school parties, broken hearts, Southern California surfing, college road trips, unforgettable odysseys , mountain camp outs, ferris wheels, rich evergreen forests, red canyons and deep swimmable springs. 

And now, parenting?

As I drove Dana, Snow played on the radio.  Anthony Kiedis sang:

The more I see the less I know, the more I like to let it go.

Dana exclaimed, “What! That’s not right.  The more I see the less I know?  It should be the more I see the more I know.”

As in many parenting moments, many things went through my mind. 

·         Crap, my daughter is really listening to the lyrics of songs.  I’ve got to edit some of our favorite Pandora playlists that stream through the house and get rid of songs like Lily Allen’s “Fuck You” 

·         What?  My daughter is really listening to the lyrics of songs!  I shudder to think about what is she learning from pop media's cultural bombardment and misaligned values. How can I get the funds to buy that island we will live on until she is 21?  Please help.

·         What?  My daughter is having a conversation with the lyrics of songs?   Not only is she listening, she is processing and aligning those lyrics to her own meaning making and amazingly her own meta-cognition, she is thinking about how she is thinking.  And if it doesn’t align, she resists it and attempts to correct it.  Anthony Kiedis got the lyrics wrong and broadcast them publically.  Shame on him.   

·         Dana is right.  In her world, the more she sees the more she knows.  That is the way a six year old learns.  The sponge analogy is accurate.  She absorbs every experience and extracts the learnable moments in the instant.  She is building a knowledge bank filled with writing, reading, vocabulary, math, geometry, science, history, culture, love.

·         Anthony Kiedis is right.  The more I see the less I know.  Adulthood is a process of unlearning all the assumptions and habits of mind we acquired in childhood.  Personally, I have unpeeled an unknowable number of layers of assumptions.  When I learn something new it simultaneously uncovers that I know very little.  I’m learning how to let assumptions go and just be open to the world.  It is a process with an unwinnable goal.      

I told her that she was right.  But It will happen when she is an adult.  The more she sees the less she will know.  It is a way adults learn. 

I wonder when that happens?  When do we switch from acquiring knowledge and assumptions to unlearning them?  There can’t be a singular moment.  But can it be identified? 

Likely, it is like the ebb and flow of the ocean waves.  As the tide rises we acquire knowledge and as the tide lowers we unlearn and deconstruct meaning.  Then the tides of acquisition rise again and we create new buildings of meaning only to be wiped away by another tide.  We take two steps forward and one step back.  Learning is a process of construction and deconstruction. 

Dana had a conversation with Anthony Kiedis and it opened up her understanding of the world and how she interacts with it. Maybe it widened her understanding of her learning, meaning, adults, songs, and her mother.   It certainly deepened my understanding of the learning process.    

And I have a new memory of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

Turning to Each Other

Yesterday, I let someone get to me and I was angry. Really angry. I felt my heart constrict, my muscles tightening, endorphins kicked in and I was ready to fight. As I tried to control the impulse, I lost focus. Frustrated, I forgot my point which compounded my angst.  I precariously tread a thin line between passion and anger. It is one of life’s gifts, a consistent reminder of my challenges.    

 Afterwards, I ranted, fumed and gestured. It put me off balance for the day. I forgot myself. It took me twenty-four hours to regain equilibrium.

 In hindsight I know that the person's behavior was not a personal attack but a private story acted upon. My anger stemmed from my own acquired stories and meaning making. Our stories clashed in a meeting room. Extract those stories and the event was only words that missed each other across a table. A damaged but shared act of unheard phrases and broken dialogue.  Something fixable.

When we throw the private stories into the scene our worlds explode into unsolvable riddles.  Menacing words are dropped like missiles at war; disrespect, uncaring, rude, prejudiced, incompetent, horrible, unjust, unfair, unsupported all punctuated by expletives.       

These personal stories, the private reality we build in which good are good, bad are bad, we are victims, they are aggressors, all the reasons we or they can’t change, all the explanations why we can’t have our dreams.  All the ways we draw lines around ourselves, our society, our workplace, our family.  These stories are the destructive force.  None of it is true. 

The truth resides when we turn to each other and engage.  When we deeply listen, we dialogue and freely enter into a conversation that explores the biggest questions, they whys, the things that matter, the passions, the humanness of existence.  We leave the stories behind, suspend limiting assumptions and open ourselves.  These connections trigger meaning, creativity, innovation, deep paradigm shifts and ever deeper appreciation of being.    

This is the life force.

I have a lot to learn about it. 

      

Flipping Opposites

Is there really such a thing as opposite?  Rather what appears as two extremes only comes back to itself, full circle. Opposites entirely observed are the same and contrary simultaneously. 


Black is empty of light expressed as a color.  White is light’s full spectrum encompassed in one.  They are both expressions of light neatly facing each other.  They dialogue, expose their weakness and reveal a different option.  Personified, they giggle while riddles expose their inconsistencies.   Neither right or wrong.  The same but different.  In reality, they tell us they are more alike than dissimilar. 


It struck me recently when a colleague said “this is a good example of her strengths being her weakness.”  And it was true.  In context, her strength is a weakness.  What a strange truth.  Context can flip our abilities, suddenly the reason we succeed is the reason we fail. 

What are my strengths?  What happens when I flip them? 

Most would say that I am fiercely independent. 

 I like being alone and enjoy time to reflect.  I observe, read, study, reflect, discuss but come to conclusions independently.  What emerges is original thought, uninfluenced by groupthink.   What emerges is also incomplete. 

I am a self-starter.  I can point myself to the next priority and begin without external direction.  I can map my goals and forge their pathway.  I enjoy this process’ inherent ambiguity.  I don’t like being told what to do. 

I love to travel alone.  The inexplicable freedom of feet traversing on new ground and eyes on novel sights is exhilarating.  My perspective crystalizes and the world’s expansiveness unfolds around me.  It is inspiring and isolating. 

I love to read, paint and write.  The moments when I live for being, thinking, mindfulness, and creativity are grounding.  They place me in the center of myself, a place where love clarifies everything.  But these are solitary endeavors.

What imbalance? 

The opposite of independence is community, family, friends, connections, relationships, shared visions and collective wisdom.  There is equal power in it. I respect them. I believe in them. But it isn’t my first calling.  I’m drawn into myself first.  Maybe this is selfish, but I seek to bring myself fully to my endeavors before searching out others. 

But community is a blessed testing ground for reflection, ideas, arts, networks, adventure, relationships and action.  My passions cannot rest solely in my domain; eventually they are birthed into the world and shape our community.  My fierce independence bumps into society whether I like it or not.  Independence and community fluidly circle back.  If I don’t embrace this, I will miss the point of my own gifts.   

I’m resolved to flip my strengths and explore their weakness.  This is a challenge that requires my full attention and as I’m writing I feel fear.  Can I really do this? 

I’m resolved to ask for help.  I promise to call my friends when I am lonely.  I’ll explore multiple voices and conflicting ideas.  I will pursue the tension between my goals and others. I’ll seek shared adventures where compromise creates the journey. I’ll seek complexity of networks.  I’ll build intentional community.

Ultimately, I’ll pursue the balanced tension in opposites because I suspect the rewards will be exponential.    

     

Dharma: The pursuit of life purpose

I love teaching and learning but at times it has treated me like an unfaithful lover, broken my heart, kicked me around and forced me to choose heartache or disengagement.   Lately, I have struggled with two choices:  

1.      leave education entirely 

2.      co-create a culture that would support the passion every teacher has for their profession. 

I surprised myself when I chose number 2. Actually, I did not mean to do that. Number 2 chose me. 

Thursday, April 19^th 2012. I accomplished my biggest breakthrough professionally.   I presented the culmination of my professional and significant learnings  which exposed my raw heart with all its passions and heartbreak.   For me, it was momentous. 

This presentation represented a moment in my life when everything came together; the heartache and pain, the victory, the hopes.  I suddenly understood why I had bared the hardship and exhilaration at work. Why I read dearly loved books and studied concepts of transformation, social change, leadership, sustainable business, learning, education. 

My passions converged into what I term a pedagogy for a sustainable future based on hope, transformation, inclusion, action, empathy, connections, shared authority, lifelong learning and technology.  The pathway to which necessitates establishing trust, integrity, inclusiveness, relationships and renewal.  This requires a renewed appreciation for our profession.  Teaching and learning is a decidedly human endeavor, we do it because we love our disciplines, students and process.  We are motivated by love. 

As I spoke, my audience eyes welled with tears.  These were colleagues, faculty, deans, presidents, students.  Those shiny eyes made it hard to not break down.  I touched hearts and bared a glimmer of communal truth.  It was powerful. 

Dharma is the pursuit of life purpose.   Teaching and learning is my purpose.  For over ten years, I’ve been dedicated to my professional love.  That presentation represented a new level of my dedication and a renewed understanding of educational institutions and systems.  It reignited my sense of my purpose.   It realigned me with dharma. 

Why the presentation?  Potentially, a new job.  It is an entrepreneurial endeavor and an opportunity to reignite enthusiasm for teaching and learning on campus.  It is a chance to help faculty find, keep and fuel their passion.  I want it.  I realize now, that I’ve been prepped and pointed to it for most of my adult life.

But now I wait.   

Regardless of whether I get it or not, I accomplished a lot.  I touched people.  I challenged colleagues to think differently.  I placed a framework down that offers faculty a rejuvenated workplace and students a life as informed, engaged, empowered and courageous citizens. 

Afterwards, colleagues approached me and confessed that they want my vision and hope it can happen.  I want to prove that it can.  It is worthwhile challenge and exciting in its dynamic possibilities.

And more importantly, even while facing disillusionment and systemic apathy, I followed my dharma.