'What if your blessings come through raindrops?'

I love this song by Laura Story. (If you're my Facebook friend, you've probably seen me post it over there at least once in recent months.) I needed to hear it again today, during this Lent that feels particularly desert-like to me for so many reasons, none of them earth-shattering. And still it feels awfully dark. This song reminds me to look for light there anyway.

Meatless Monday: Recipes to get you through Lent

So we're into our first full week of Lent with two meatless days under our belts already, and right about now you might be thinking, "We've done pizza. We've done fish fry. Now what?" I've got a combination of vegetarian and vegan recipes to see you through. I'll start with a bunch today and add more in the coming weeks.

The meatless thing is easy for me since I'm a vegetarian. However, during Lent, in order to make abstinence count for something, I go vegan on Fridays. That presents more of a challenge for me, although it's not as difficult as it seems on the surface. The dish in the photo above, for example, is vegan and totally awesome. That was last night's dinner, so obviously I'm not adverse to going vegan on non-Fridays as well.

Last night's dish is from the current issue of Vegetarian Times and is attributed to Paul McCartney. It's super simple, and Dennis, who was eating chicken with his veggies, tried the cornmeal-crusted tofu and declared it "restaurant quality." So there you go. Here's that recipe in a nutshell:

Recipe # 1: Steamed Veggie Salad with Tofu

2 pints cherry tomatoes

4 cups broccoli, separated into florets

1 red pepper, sliced

2 cups sugar snap peas

2 cups baby carrots

Romaine lettuce, chopped

Scallions, minced

1 block of tofu, cut into rectangular slices

Cornmeal

Salt, pepper, basil

Dressing

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp maple syrup

2 tsp dijon mustard

Whisk dressing ingredients together and set aside for later.

Preheat the oven to 400. Roast tomatoes for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, steam veggies in a steamer basket. (Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand. The original recipe called for string beans, but I had snap peas, so I made the substitution and added red peppers since my kids like those.)

Coat the tofu slices in cornmeal mixed with salt, pepper and dried basil. While the veggies steam, sauté the tofu in olive oil for about five minutes per side. Drain on a paper towel.

Put chopped Romaine lettuce and scallions on your plate. Put steamed veggies, roasted tomatoes, and tofu slices on top. Drizzle with dressing. Serves four to six, depending on how much your family loves tofu. Just add another half-block of tofu to get six big portions.

I served this with a side of quinoa. Take 1 cup of quinoa that has been soaked for five minutes and rinsed. Put quinoa and 1 1/2 cups of water in pot with a little salt. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until liquid is gone. Remove from heat and let stand for five minutes. Loosen with fork.

Recipe #2: Pasta and Lentils

I shared this recipe last year after surprising success with it. Here's what I said about it then:

Before you click by this post because the word "lentils" scares you, especially in relation to pasta, I beg you to stop and just consider it for a moment because it is out-of-this world delicious. This particular recipe is actually a combination of two: a lentil sauce recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and my own addition of roasted butternut squash and garlic that gets added in right before serving. (That change-up happened because I had a squash that needed to be used and, voila, a new recipe was born.) The result is a dinner that is not only vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) but incredibly yummy, with a complex texture and taste even though it's easy to make.

Click HERE for the pasta and lentil recipe.

Recipe #3: Kale Two Ways

Click HERE for a great Beans and Greens recipe using kale and cannellini beans. As a bonus you'll also get a recipe for Kale Chips, which are a great low-cal salty snack.

Recipe #4: Israeli Couscous with Apples and Dried Cranberries

Click HERE for a great side dish to go with your Lenten fish or tofu. The recipe I have posted suggests chicken broth, but that's easy. Just swap it for vegetable broth.

Reciped #5: Creamy Polenta with Garlic and Cheese

This can be a main dish or a side dish. It can be vegan or not, with some minor adjustments.

1/2 cup milk, preferably whole, although I used skim with a splash of half and half (Use plain almond milk to make this vegan.)
2 cups water
Salt
1 cup coarse cornmeal
I tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 spring fresh rosemary chopped, or a teaspoon of dried rosemary
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon of butter (Earth Balance for vegan version)
Grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Combine milk and water with large pinch of salt in a saucepan over medium heat. When it's close to a boil, add the polenta in a steady stream, whisking the whole time to keep away the nasty lumps. Add the rosemary.

Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep whisking until the polenta gets thick -- about 10 or 15 minutes. If it starts to look too thick too soon, add a little water. (I did this. I was fine.)

Add the butter, cheese (if using), garlic and stir. Grind some pepper into it to taste. Serve immediately as a side dish or main course. I doubled this recipe for my hungry family and used it as a side dish with baked salmon and sauteed broccoli rabe.

Variation: You can make grilled or fried polenta by decreasing the amount of water and making a thicker mixture. Don't add the butter, cheese. I'd probably skip the garlic and rosemary as well for this version. When it's done, spread the polenta on a board and let it cool for a while. Then cut it into slices -- about 1/2 inch thick. Now you can brush the slices with olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them on the grill or into a frying pan.

Stay tuned for more veggie recipes for Lent...

Don't miss the Fat Tuesday book giveaway

From my post at OSV Daily Take today. Follow the link at the end of this post to leave a comment and enter the book giveaway.

Paula Huston’s beautiful new book, Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit, is so much more than spiritual reading for one particular season. With its daily meditations, practical exercises, and gentle guidance, I know this book will be one I pull out not only during each Lenten season but any time I feel spiritually “stuck” and in need of something to jump start my prayer life.

Maybe it’s because so many of the daily activities remind me of things I’ve tried at different points along my journey -- making a meal from “stored or forgotten items,” spending time in solitude and silence, turning off the cell phone or TV, learning to do the Examen. Maybe it’s because I'm intrigued by suggestions I hadn’t yet considered or tried -- sleeping on the floor for a night or covering the mirrors for a day. And maybe it’s because Paula reminds readers that her book of Lenten practices does not include Sundays, days typically set aside as celebrations of the resurrection in miniature. Do you know how many times I’ve had to argue that point with people who insist the Sundays “count”?

Here’s a brief excerpt from Paula’s introduction:

“The beauty of the Lenten season is that it encourages the development of a humble heart. In Lent, we are invited to look deeply inside, identify what is impeding our ability to follow Christ along the way of humility, and begin applying antidotes...Simplifying the Soul is meant to aid you in this process...My prayer for you as you begin this retreat is that, first of all, you enter into it with the right spirit. This book is not meant to be a spiritual version of the Girl Scout honor badge program, and if you look upon it as a handbook for self-improvement, you’ll more likely become frustrated and disappointed. Instead, think of it as an invitation to self-knowledge and as a small step in liberation from destructive complicatedness -- that is, from sin.”

And here’s a snippet from Ash Wednesday, with its focus on clearing out a junk drawer or closet, so you can get started while you wait for your book to arrive:

A junk drawer is the classic repository for what we are meant to leave behind. Not only does it symbolize our histories, but it also reveals the speed at which we lived through them: how did a sunflower seed wind up among the rubber bands and old corks, and this seventy-five-year-old baptismal gown stuffed into a brown paper sack?

When we clear out a junk drawer for Lent, we are in some small way dealing with the detritus of breathless hurry and our corresponding inability to focus. We are beginning to tear through the sticky web that binds us to our past: not only to the fine and happy times, the poignant seasons of growth and change, but also to the tears we once shed, the idols we once worshiped, the myths we once believed, and the lies we once told ourselves.

If you’re hungry for more, enter our book giveaway and you just might win a copy of Simplifying the Soul (Ave Maria Press, $14.95). Leave a comment at OSV Daily Take by clicking HERE. Share what you’ll be doing as a spiritual practice this Lent, and we’ll pick one winner at random. (My kids will be picking a name from a hat. Very scientific.)

Happy Fat Tuesday, and blessings as you begin the journey through Lent.

Being an older mom has its benefits

Chiara is the star of my most recent Life Lines column, which is running in the current issue of Catholic New York:

I’m used to being the oldest mom in a crowd, at least when it comes to spending time with my youngest, Chiara, who is only 6 years old. Having had her just before I turned 43, I am closer in age to some of her classmates’ grandparents rather than their parents.

Although on the surface that might seem to be a negative, when I am willing to look beyond the inevitable challenges of being an older mom — like not having nearly the same energy level I had when I was running around with my first 15 years ago — I think being of an “advanced maternal age,” as they say in the OB/GYN industry, has it benefits. Wisdom is the obvious gift that comes with age, but also a deeper appreciation for making the most of the moment when you’re in it. As I approach the half-century mark, I have become all too aware of how fleeting this life is, how quickly my 15 years of motherhood have passed and how quickly the next 15 years are likely to fly by.

Because of my age, many people assume Chiara wasn’t a “planned” baby, that she was an unexpected or maybe even an unwanted “surprise.” If they have the nerve to ask, they are always shocked to find that she was more than planned; she was desperately wanted. At 41 years old, when I thought I was done with babies and diapers and preschool selections, Dennis and I decided we really wanted to try to have one more baby before it might be too late. We were lucky, and blessed, because not long after I found out I was carrying Chiara.

And as much as I offer my littlest one the wisdom of age; she offers me the joy of childhood, something many women my age have outgrown, so to speak. Chiara keeps me young and gives me a chance to play, sometimes when I don’t really feel like playing but find out only after the fact that it was exactly what I wanted, and needed.

Just recently, Chiara and I went on a Daisy Girl Scout winter camping trip in the foothills of the Adirondacks. As far as I’m concerned, that’s enough to scare even the bravest, most energetic mom, no matter how young or old you are. I wouldn’t have chosen this trip, but my co-leader, who is probably 15 years younger than I am and with ample survivalist camping experience in her back pocket, suggested we give it a try. And so we did, with eight 6-year-old girls and seven moms in tow.

“This is our first camping trip with just the two of us,” Chiara said with excitement, hugging my leg as we waited for our ride to arrive and take us to camp. And with that one comment every doubt about the weekend vanished from my mind.

As we pulled our backpacks out of the truck and made our way on foot down the ice-covered road with only a flashlight to guide us, I looked up and saw the night sky flooded with stars. Then I looked down at Chiara holding my hand and saw the joy in her eyes as she faced the dark woods before us filled not with fear but with anticipation of the adventure that was to come.

That night we slept in our mummy bags head-to-head on crummy mattresses on a hard floor with 28 other people and only one bathroom among us. If you’d told me those details ahead of time, I would have cringed, but there, with Chiara reaching out to pat my hair now and then from her spot inside her sleeping bag, all I could do was smile and savor the moment, grateful for the gift of being the oldest mom in the crowd and knowing just how precious life is right now.

To read other Life Lines columns, visit my website at marydeturrispoust.com

Why has NSS gone AWOL?

More than three weeks. That's how long it's been since I've shown my face around these parts. If any of you are still left out there, still coming back to see if I'm around, well, all I can say is, God bless you. You have the patience of a saint.

Things have been more off the wall than usual around here. It could be the fact that I'm writing back-to-back books. I turned one manuscript in on a Wednesday and started the next on a Thursday. That's insane -- even for me, and I'm the queen of insane.

On top of that, I've been dealing with some health stuff lately. It's minor, but enough to slow me down, make me wonder, and cramp my style. Things seem like they're moving in the right direction, although I've got a couple of issues going on that will keep me from doing my beloved yoga -- or any exercises involving core strength -- for the foreseeable future. Maybe forever. That has not been sitting well with me. I'm spoiled when it comes to health stuff. I expect to be able to do anything and everything with nary a pain or problem. So this is new, and I'm trying to find the lessons in all of it. I'm skirting around a couple of possibilities I hate even to acknowledge, things I think I probably need to learn from this. It's still too early to say for sure. Maybe they'll show up in a future post.

To give you some idea just how out of it I've been, here's how Tuesday went: I almost took Chiara to dance class instead of faith formation. The only thing that prevented me from packing up the ballet and tap shoes and heading in the completely wrong direction was Olivia, who said, quite gingerly, "Isn't today religion?" Yes, and an hour earlier than dance. Lucky we didn't miss it completely.

After that brain spasm, I decided I needed a cup of tea to calm my nerves. It would have been delicious had I used a tea bag. Sigh.

Then about an hour later I rolled out some pizza dough and made our Valentine's Day dinner. Dennis and I had a special pizza, loaded with peppers and onions and olives and mushrooms. It looked fabulous. I popped it in the oven, stood up to dust the flour off my apron, and stopped. Wait a minute. I don't remember putting cheese on that, I thought to myself. Bingo. I made a pizza without cheese. Good for the heart, I guess, but not nearly as delicious. Fortunately, there was time to throw some on top and salvage the dinner. So, that's how things are going here. I'm not sure I should be allowed to operate any heavy machinery, or even the dishwasher.

I'll try to be back soon to post my latest Life Lines column and to share some thoughts on those lessons I'm supposed to be learning from this slow down of mine. Stay tuned...

Happy Anniversary to me, to us, to NSS

Happy Feast of St. Francis de Sales and Happy Anniversary to Not Strictly Spiritual. It was four years ago today that I decided to launch this blog, choosing the feast of the patron saint of journalists and one of my personal favorites as the perfect day to jump into the wild and wacky world of blogging.

Back in the early days, my blog was housed on my website, which you can see by clicking HERE. Then I moved it over to blogspot. It has ebbed and flowed with my life. When I'm writing books, as I am right now (two of them, in fact), NSS suffers a bit. When I have a little more time, I'm back at the NSS keys. Truth be told, writing on this blog is really one of my favorite "jobs." I love talking to you and sharing my faith journey -- and my recipes and photos.

This anniversary caused me to go back and look at some of my earliest posts, which gave me a good laugh at where I've been and a sobering reminder of the places where I haven't made any progress. We had THIS photo of Chiara at work while I blogged, and THIS post about trying to get through Mass with a cranky toddler (how quickly we forget those days). And then there was THIS post about being "politically homeless," especially during a presidential election year. It's deja vu all over again.

Who knows what the next four years will bring? I can guarantee that in the coming months you'll be hearing about my new books, one from Ave Maria Press and one from Penguin. And I know you'll get regular updates on my kids, my cooking, my gardening, my travels, and, of course, my spiritual journey, which twists and bends and changes with each passing year. I'm always amazed at where it takes me, where God takes me.

So thank you for joining me here whenever you can. I truly appreciate your friendship and loyalty to this blog, even when I don't show up for days at a time. And now I thought I'd end this post the same way I ended my very first blog post, with a favorite prayer written by St. Francis de Sales (one I have hanging on my bathroom mirror):

Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life;
rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise,
God, whose very own you are,
will lead you safely through all things;
and when you cannot stand it,
God will carry you in His arms.

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same everlasting Father who cares for you today
will take care of you then and every day.
He will either shield you from suffering,
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace,
and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Striving to become your 'true self'

My latest Life Lines column in the current issue of Catholic New York:

It amazes me sometimes how a casual comment, a familiar smell or the sound of a name we haven’t heard in a while can send us spiraling back in time to a place or event we’d long ago forgotten. Memories linger on our hearts. Some we’d like to preserve forever; some we wish would stay hidden. Good or bad, they are too often the things that shape us.

I was at lunch with some friends recently, laughing and sharing stories, when one line, uttered in passing, hit me like a brick. I was suddenly on the playground in elementary school, feeling unwanted for reasons I never quite understood. As I had during those sometimes painful times of my past, I kept a dim smile on my face, hoping to hide the fact that I was aching inside, not because what was said was intentionally hurtful but because it spoke a truth I’d rather not admit.

We all want to be loved, even if we don’t show it or say it. We want to feel accepted, appreciated, and while that sometimes seems important on the surface—as evidenced by the popularity of accumulating Facebook friends by the hundreds—that kind of goal only serves to take us farther and farther from our truth.

Life is not a popularity contest, and the road to sainthood is not paved with compliments and friend requests. Trying to fashion ourselves in someone else’s image is just about the worst thing we can do. It’s really no different from what I tell my kids as they face their own struggles on the playground or in the classroom, and yet I think we adults sometimes forget that it still applies to us. Too often we think becoming successful or loved or holy means becoming someone different than the person we are at our core, the person we were created to be.

Jesuit Father James Martin, in his book Becoming Who You Are, talks about our penchant for wanting to become better by becoming different:

“Early in the novitiate, I thought that being holy meant changing an essential part of who I was, suppressing my personality, not building on it. I was eradicating my natural desires and inclinations, rather than asking God to sanctify and even perfect them…As strange as it sounds, I thought that being myself meant being someone else.”

I think that same line of reasoning is true for most of us. We look around and make comparisons and see ourselves as “less than.” Comparisons lead nowhere, at least nowhere good, but that no-win proposition of keeping up with the Joneses—materially, professionally, socially, spiritually—is about as American as apple pie, or Facebook.

“Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire,” famed Trappist monk Thomas Merton once wrote, reminding us that the only way to conquer the world is to renounce it.

We can’t all “renounce” the world in monastic fashion, but we can renounce all those things that pull us off our true path, that convince us we need to be somebody else in order to be good enough, to be loved.

Truth is, we are loved exactly as we are, by a God who holds us in the palm of his hand no matter how many Facebook friends we have or how much “stuff” we have or have not accumulated.

“No one can serve two masters,” Jesus said. So often today our “masters” are not just money and possessions but the comparisons we make and strive to live up to, the desires we have to be someone we’re not, the longing to be loved not by God but by the world.

God alone. When that’s enough, no memory can knock us off our path or send us reeling because we possess the only thing that truly matters. What is the end you’re living for?

To read other Life Lines columns, visit my website at www.marydeturrispoust.com

Join me for Theology on Tap tonight!

Attention all New York Capital Region readers:

I'll be talking about spiritual friendship at Theology on Tap at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Jan. 19) at The Orchard Tavern on North Manning Boulevard in Albany. Please come by, grab a drink, and stay for the short talk and discussion.

The talk is based on my book Walking Together: Discovering the Catholic Tradition of Spiritual Friendship (Ave Maria Press, 2010).

See you at the Tavern...

Foodie Friday: Kale, it's what's for dinner

I went a little kale crazy this week, buying two different (and rather large) batches, so afraid was I that I wouldn't have enough for my planned dishes. Kale is one of my favorite dark leafy greens, and, surprisingly enough, it's also a favorite among my kids. So it's a winner all around.

My first use of kale this week was in vegetable soup (Stone Soup), which I posted about in this space last Friday. I used only half the batch for the soup, so I clearly needed to make some other kale-centric dish. Beans and greens was added to the menu, but as the day neared, I worried that the half-batch I had on hand wouldn't be nearly enough. So off we went to buy an even bigger bunch. Now I had too much, although I would question whether you can ever have too much kale.

So...Beans and greens. So easy. So delicious. So healthy. But, wait, before, I made that entree, I whipped up a batch of kale chips. First time for that. Big hit. I'll try it again soon. Here are the two easy kale recipes:

Kale Chips
Preheat over to 250 degrees.
Wash kale leaves, remove center stems, dry thoroughly.
Toss with a little olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt.
Place on a cookie sheet and pop in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until crispy.

Beans and Greens
Like my Stone Soup recipe, this one changes every time I make it, depending on what I have in the pantry and fridge. Here's the version I made this week:

1 big batch of kale, rinsed, tough stems removed, cut into wide ribbons
1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
A handful of sundried tomatoes, soaked in boiling water to reconstitute and then sliced
Baby bella mushroom, sliced
Six cloves of garlic, thinnly sliced
A splash of white wine
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 pound pasta, something short and chunky -- ditalini, farfalle, shells, even rigatoni
Parmesan cheese (for the table)

Put a pot of water on to boil. Meanwhile, prep the rest of your ingredients.
When water comes to a boil, salt it and toss in kale to blanch quickly. Just a minute or so. Then drain and set aside. (Keep the water so you can boil the pasta in the same water/pot.)

In a large frying pan, add a swirl of olive oil and heat the garlic slices.
Add mushrooms and sundried tomatoes and saute for a bit over medium heat.
Don't allow garlic to brown.
(Around now you should be putting the pasta into the already boiling, kale-scented pasta water.)

Add the beans to the frying pan and saute a minute or so more.
Throw in a splash of wine (if you like) or a splash of veggie or chicken broth.
When the pasta is close to done, add the kale to the saute pan.
Season with salt and pepper.
If it seems dry, take a little pasta water and add it to the saute pan.

Drain the pasta when it's al dente and add it to the saute pan, if it's big enough.
Otherwise, dump all of it into the serving bowl.
Serve with grated parmesan cheese on the side.

Add a nice salad and some crusty bread and you have an awesome dinner. (And at our house, the meat eaters had a link of chicken-pesto sausage on the side. Olivia and I had a tofu sausage, but it really didn't need it.)

You could also skip the pasta and make this as a side dish.

So there you have it: kale, the wonder veggie. Do you have any favorite kale recipes?

Coming up next week: Quinoa cakes with roasted red pepper sauce, which is on tonight's menu for the vegetarians. (Meat eaters are having pork pizzaiola. Dennis will need to start a blog if you want that recipe.)

Manic Monday: Returning to 'normal' life

Our Christmas tree came down last night, along with the rest of the decorations. The magi hardly had time to settle down in front of the creche when I shipped them off to the basement. Such is the end of the season, at least around here. By this time of year, I'm ready to return to ordinary time and Ordinary Time.

So here's what's on tap on this Manic Monday...

The above YouTube clip is a follow-up to last week's 'Twinkle' post. Someone captured the kids playing at Mary Jane's funeral. (Thanks, Pam, for sending that to me.) When the clip is rolling, Olivia happens to be visible on and off over on the left in the cream-colored top.

Bookshelf: I'm reading about a dozen different books all at once as research for the two books I'm writing, but there's one that stands out right now, a recommendation from a Facebook friend. It's called Listening Below the Noise: A Meditation on the Practice of Silence by Anne D. LeClaire. Loving it so far. Here's one piece that resonated with me because I have experienced it so powerfully myself:

"Over the years I had prepared meals in quiet rooms, in accidental silence, as I would later come to call it, but I was discovering that intentional silence brought a focus to everything. Ordinary acts -- measuring oats and water, chopping walnuts, scooping out a handful of raisins, stirring oatmeal -- were transformed into meditations simply by the attention stillness brought to the tasks. Later, scrubbing out the gummy saucepan, I found unexpected pleasure in this simple job. I was experiencing what Buddhists have always taught: Silence, along with the attention it fosters, is our anchor to the present, to the here and now."

Perfect. Today when I make my silent oatmeal, as I do each weekday, I will do so with those words ringing (silently, of course) in my head, reminding me that this practice of still, slow eating truly does allow me to bring a depth and calmness to my day that is absent when I skip this favorite ritual. My meditative breakfast has become, without question, one of my best prayer moments of any day.

Soundtrack: Dreamland by Madeleine Peyroux, something Dennis discovered on The Coffee House on Sirius. A bunch of it's in French. Very cool. Check it out.

Viewfinder: Below is a shot of my Christmas gifts, or most of them, collected on the dining room table. Makes you wonder if perhaps I'm planning to open a monastery or a retreat center. We've got prayer flags up front; the official Abbey Psalter from the Abbey of the Genesee; Yoga Prayer DVD by Father Thomas Ryan, CSP; Landscapes of Prayer: Finding God in Your World and Your Life by Margaret Silf; a cross candle holder; a Himalayan singing bowl; incense, lots of it; a tea set with Zen tea. I did get some other goodies that had nothing to do with prayer or spirituality, like the Midnight in Paris DVD and a flameless candle, although that last one borders on spiritual, too, doesn't it?

My Christmas bounty.

The lovely Abbey Psalter.

Visiting my grandmother, who turned 99 on New Year's Day.

Birthday boy.

Have you picked your word of the year yet?

A few days ago, I happened upon a post at the lovely Abbey of the Arts blog suggesting I pick a word as a theme or focal point for the coming year. Or, more accurately, that I let my word pick me. At the time, I was working at my basement computer with all three kids buzzing around just on the other side of the little cloth folding screen that is part of my somewhat futile attempt to create a separate office space. In reality it has created the third ring in our little circus.

Anyway, as I read the blog and pondered what my word would be if I could hear it over the mayhem, I decided there was no way I was going be picked by a word this year, and, if I was, it would probably be forced. So I let it go.

The next morning, I decided to resume writing my Morning Pages, which is part of The Artist's Way exercises. As I wrote about the start of the new year and my spiritual life and my journey in general, suddenly there it was:

LISTEN...

My word reached out and grabbed me and then shook me a bit for good measure. There was no denying it. This was my word. It had found me after all, in the brief quiet space I try to create every morning before I sit down to my silent breakfast.

Why did this word resonate with me so when I heard it? Because for the past year, or past several years, I have been desperately trying to listen more, to hear that still, small voice. Those of you who read this blog regularly are probably all too aware of this desire of mine. But this time, the need to listen goes beyond that.

Yes, yes, I absolutely need to listen for the Spirit, and, in order to do that, I need to make regular quiet time for just me and God. But as soon as I heard that word in my head, saw it in my journal, I realized that for 2012 the need to listen goes much deeper.

I need to listen to my children. Really listen. Look them in the eyes when they speak to me, not type an email and nod as they talk somewhere behind me. I need to listen for what they're trying to tell me, not only with their words but with their hearts. I need to listen to my husband, to my family, to my friends without interrupting or fashioning a response in my head while they are still speaking, or multitasking while I talk to one of them on the phone. I need to listen to my work, to the world around me, to my life unfolding before me. That's a lot of listening.

Such a simple word and yet so profound. It seems so easy to listen. But are we listening with our heads or are we, as St. Benedict instructed, listening with "the ear of our heart"? Too often I save the heart listening for prayer, when I really need to be doing that kind of listening all the time. Contemplative listening, even when there's absolutely nothing contemplative about my life. That will be a real challenge for me, I promise you that.

That's the theme of my year then. To listen. With the ear of my heart.

If you'd like some help exploring your word possibilities, head over to the Abbey of the Arts for that and so much other wonderful stuff. Just click HERE. And, when you find your word, or your word finds you, come back and share it with the rest of us.

Foodie Friday: Stone Soup

For dinner last night, and again today for lunch, I enjoyed a steaming bowl of what has come to be known at our house as "zero" soup or "stone soup." It's so named because, like the charachters in the book of the same name, I am able to make it out of nothing, or what seems like nothing. And it's perfect for a cold winter's day.

First let me share with you a tip I learned from a chef at the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. Save all your veggie scraps in a container or bag in the freezer. I keep a Ziploc in the freezer, and every time I chop onions, mince garlic, peel carrots or dice celery, I take all the odds and ends and even the papery skins off the garlic cloves and onions and dump them in my freezer bag for a rainy (or snowy) day. This stuff makes THE best vegetable broth ever, whether you're making a soup or using the broth in another recipe. Just be sure not to save clippings off veggies that will give the broth an odd or strong flavor -- peppers, eggplant, broccoli. I stick to the bare-bones basics, and since I use fresh veggies so often, I almost always have a supply for making broth.

So...dump all the frozen scraps (still frozen) into a soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and let it go for a few hours. The longer the better. Remove from heat and strain all the scraps out so you're left with a lovely dark broth. Now you can put that in a new pot and start the soup.

I usually take the first pot (since it's already dirty and I don't want to do any more dishes than necessary) and I use it to briefly saute the veggies that are going in the soup. Here's what I chopped up yesterday, but, remember, Stone Soup is about making something from nothing, so scavenge in your pantry, fridge and freezer and see what you can come up with to make your own version. Mine is different every time. I used:

1 giant onion, chopped
6 or 7 carrots, peeled and sliced in rounds
3 celery stalks, diced (use the leafy tops)
1 small pack of Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
A couple of handfuls of frozen string beans
Several giant handfuls of fresh kale
A splash of tomato juice (because it's here and I needed to use it up)
A splash of soy sauce (because it's here and why not?)
A pinch of thyme
Salt and pepper

I threw everything except the kale and string beans into the pot, brought it to a boil, turned it down, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. When it got close to serving time, I added the kale and beans so they'd still have a bright green color.

Finally, I typically add a cup of some tiny pasta to the soup at the very end -- ditalini, acini pepe, orzo. But last night I decided to use some of the Basmati rice leftover from another night's dinner.

Voila! Stone Soup made from nothing, or whatever was in my way. It was delicious. You can add whatever you like or have on hand -- zucchini, canned diced tomatoes, cannellini beans or chick peas, snow peas. You get the idea. It's a free-form soup. You can tinker with the flavoring as well. Sometimes I add red wine instead of soy sauce, sometimes basil instead of thyme. It all depends on my mood, which makes it fun, although it sometimes drives my family crazy because I can rarely re-create the same soup twice.

Nice part is that we almost always have leftovers of this soup since I make such a big batch. So I had it for lunch today and there's plenty more for lunches this weekend. Add a bright, shiny Clementine orange and light a little candle and you've got a healthy, balanced, simple (and hopefully peaceful) meal. Mangia.

Mindfulness Bell: The Sound of Silence

I have a little (easy) exercise for you to do today, or this morning. For the next few hours, pay attention to all the noises you hear. Not just the talking from the next cubicle or the voice on the other end of the phone, but the smaller, less obvious noises.

The ding of emails coming in, tweets being posted, texts being sent, Facebook chats being initiated.

The melodic tune played by the washer and dryer when they finish a cycle. The whir of the dishwasher. The rat-a-tat-tat of construction workers. The music on the car radio. The honking horn of the truck behind you.

Whatever sounds float your way, make note of them.

How many of those sounds stir a little angst in you, maybe without you even realizing it at first? The email dings, and you worry that it's about that project you're struggling with. The phone rings and you fear one of the kids is calling from the nurse's office. Now, how many of those sounds can you remove from your life? Some of them are easy, others impossible. But begin to turn off the unnecessary stuff.

I recently went into my program preferences and turned the audio off on my emails, instant messenger and other programs so I won't be distracted by the constant dinging of work piling up as I try to write a book or do yoga or meditate. (Coffee maker just beeped as I was writing that last word.) Clearly, some sounds we just have to live with, but we can begin to actively work to quiet our world, and our lives.

In keeping with all of this, I decided to add one sound to the mix in order to bring about more silence.

Sounds contradictory? At first it felt that way, but now it is doing exactly what I had hoped it would do. About a month ago, I downloaded something called the "mindfulness bell" after seeing it listed in the resource section of a book by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The idea was that the bell, which sounds like a Himalayan singing bowl being struck just once, would ring at the top of every hour as a reminder to stop for just a few seconds and re-center myself, whisper a short prayer, and move on. I also activated a second bell program that would ring at the start and end of a set 20-minute time period, figuring this would be my meditation marker so I wouldn't always be wondering if I'd reached 20 minutes yet, which can be very distracting during meditation. (Not that I can fit in a full 20 minutes very often.)

Well, somehow I did something that had these bells ringing a little too frequently. At first I found myself frustrated. Bells, bells, bells. This wasn't making me mindful; this was making me crazy. But then I clicked around and got it to where it needed to be. Once an hour. Now I'll be working away, looking at my deadline board, feeling a little frantic, and the bell will ring. My shoulders sink away from my ears and the furrow on my forehead smooths and I breathe.

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner," I whisper before I return to my work.

Yesterday afternoon, as I was chopping vegetables at record speed and throwing them into the slow cooker in a desperate attempt to get dinner made before I had to run out the door, I heard the bell ring from a floor away, and I smiled. Suddenly my chopping became less manic and my breathing slowed and nothing seemed quite so urgent. In a short time the bell has gone from unnerving to comforting.

Obviously this kind of thing resonates with people. Just two days ago I posted a brief Facebook status update about my mindfulness bell experiment and the next thing I know it showed up in a blog post. In our chaotic and noisy world, people are hungry for whatever they can find that will bring them back to the still point, that center of calm in the midst of life's storms.

The trick is to learn -- eventually -- to allow all those other noises in our lives to become mindfulness bells in their own right. When we become centered enough, through prayer and awareness and, well, mindfulness, evening the dinging and honking and beeping can become calls to calm.

Pick one of the noises you can't turn off and make it your own mindfulness bell.

Every time you hear it, stop for a second and breathe deep. Maybe whisper a prayer or a word that calms you. Find that place of silence you crave.

Become the silence...

My mindfulness bell just rang downstairs. I'm not kidding. I think that's a sign to end this post and have my silent meal before setting to work. Peace.

Last wishes and little stars

The new year began with a funeral, which sounds sad but ended up being so uplifting. Mary Jane had been Olivia's violin teacher, first in elementary school and later privately. Last summer, the day before Mary Jane was scheduled to have brain surgery for the cancer that was taking her bit by bit, she insisted on giving Olivia a lesson at her home. A week after the surgery, she called to schedule yet another lesson. At first I tried to insist that we hold off, but then I realized that this was exactly where Mary Jane wanted to be, with one of her students, doing what she loved to do.

When Mary Jane died last week, the school district sent out an email inviting her former students to come to St. Thomas the Apostle Church the day of the funeral and play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" 10 minutes before the Mass was to begin. We emailed back immediately, saying that Olivia would be honored to play as long as there were other children there with her.

I loved the fact that one of Mary Jane's last wishes was to have her students play one of the first songs she ever taught them. Not Beethoven or Bach, but a childhood favorite, probably the simplest song they would ever learn, ensuring that even her youngest students could participate.

The morning of the funeral we arrived 30 minutes early, as requested, only to walk into a sea of orchestra students, hundreds of children ranging in age from middle school through college. I was crying before I even helped Olivia take off her coat. What a testament to the power of a great teacher. We left Olivia with her current instructor to tune up and found our place in a pew.

A few minutes later, the children filed in -- more than 50 cello players, at least 100 violins and I don't know how many violas and basses. They filled the side chapel and stood ringing the entire main church. Then Mary Jane's sister read the letter she left for her students. More tears. "When you can play Twinkle," Mary Jane wrote, "you know you've made progress."

The children lifted their bows, played the few short lines of the simple song, and then they filed right back out, but the beauty of what we had witnessed lingered long after the last note had ended.

Any teacher who has ever doubted the power he or she has to shape young lives and our world needs to remember this story. Those children didn't come out to a funeral to play a few lines on their last day of winter break simply because Mary Jane had been a great teacher but because she had been a great person. She loved her students, really loved them. And she loved teaching them, and that clearly came through to those kids who wanted to be there to pay tribute to her.

Now whenever I hear "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," I'll think of Mary Jane and of her reminder to her students -- and to all of us -- that sometimes mastering the simplest thing is a sign that we are making great progress.

Rest in peace, Mary Jane. You will be missed.

Happy Birthday, beautiful boy

Noah will officially turn 15 at 7:11 p.m. (technically that's Central Time). I cannot think of his newborn days without thinking of this song. The two of us danced around our Texas living room to the beautiful words and melody by John Lennon, with me crying the whole time. Even now, tears are rolling down my face as I listen to it while posting. It reminds me of those early days, my first days as a mother, and it reminds me how quickly life passes us by if we're not careful to pay attention, and even if we are.

Happy Birthday, darling Noah. Here's our song. (I've threatened to dance to it with him at his wedding some day.)