Gratitude Monday - Spanakopita Substitution Edition

Tortillas can be used to make spanakopita, and for it I am grateful.
I love the spinach and feta pie. It is one of my favourite things, but phyllo pastry is beyond me and I intend on keeping it that way.
Yesterday I made spanakopita and used two tortillas in place of the pastry. I used a brand containing gluten because I can get away with a bit of it and they are much easier to work with. I found just the right pan, not quite as big as the tortilla so I could bring the sides up a bit, and heated the tortilla just enough.
Once the filling was in I put a second tortilla on top and tucked it in around the edges because it seemed like the right thing to do. It got a good coating of olive oil to keep it from getting all hard and crispy.
It worked.
The spanakopita pastry substitution was tasty and not all that involved to make.
For that I am grateful.

Gratitude Monday - The Blob Edition

I had an entity attachment the other day and I am grateful I remembered what to do about it.
On the whole it wasn't a bad one, as attachments go, but neither was it a healthy thing to have hanging around.
I discovered it during my regular morning meditation. I am grateful for that and for me meditating almost every morning, because that means it wasn't there very long.
That said, its energy tentacles, if you will, has encroached far enough in that it took a bit of effort to get shed of it properly.
It appeared as a whitish blob of thick energy located at my left hip. Its tentacles were deep in my guts, but it was not malevolent. I think it just needed some energy and found me.
I am a Transpersonal Hypnotherapist. While I have no formal training in clinical depossessions, I do know how to do them and have done them on myself in the past. But it had been years and I had no intention of fooling around so I asked for both Jesus and the Archangel Michael to be present and help me.
Jesus is always good for an energy boost and the Archangel Michael is great for cutting energy cords.
Also, bringing in the big guns in these cases is never wrong.
So I found Blobby and spoke with it while the Big Guys were on standby. Blobby seemed quite simple. It didn't say much, but made it clear my energy was just what it needed as no one loved it.
I had to convince it otherwise and insist it detach from me. It was most reluctant, but did. The tentacles seemed to lengthen as it pulled them out.
This bothered me for a variety of reasons so I had Archangel Michael cut them, then he and Jesus swept them out of me while I sent Blobby on its way.
Once it was gone we three fixed up the hole in my energy where it had been and filled it with love. It is the best weapon.
I am grateful I knew what to do, grateful I had the sense to ask for help, and grateful I received it.

Gratitude Monday --What A Crock Edition

Because my husband is also taking acupuncture treatments and because he has a job and because we have to drive 50 miles to get acupuncture, our appointments are set for late afternoon, 5 p.m.
That means the evening meal is either something in the city, which is great, or  eating when we get home, also great.
To do the latter means a bit of planning and that's where the crock pot comes in. I can throw a few things in it in the morning and have food waiting when we get home.
All it takes is a bit of planning. I need an idea for what to prepare as well as a few minutes to put everything in the crock pot. The latter is easy. The former takes a bit of thinking at times.
When it all flows together we come home to a hot, home cooked meal.
For it, and for the crock pot which makes it possible, I am grateful.

Gratitude Monday--Thanksgiving Edition

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. I am grateful for the holiday, but I think it is important to be thankful all the time, not just once a year, or even once a week as it seems by my blog.

We had our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday for convenience reasons and I am grateful that we had a turkey and all which goes with it. And that brings me to my gratitude this week.

Squash.

We get squashes from Mike's parents. They are tasty enough and I am happy to have them, but as a veggie goes, they are adequate in my view. I've found a few ways to prepare them and that's all good, but on Saturday, I found the best way ever.
When I roast a turkey I put all the veggies in with the bird so all the flavours can get to know one another, exchange essences, and strive toward the greater good. On Saturday I threw in cubed squash.
I am so very grateful that I did because squash roasted in turkey juices is about the best thing ever.

Gratitude Monday - Seasoning Edition

Autumn is my favourite season. I love the cooling off, the changing leaves, the sense that the immediate world is preparing for its quiet time.
What I  really love is I get to use the oven. This opens my world back up to roasted meats, roasted vegetables, soups, stews, and cookies and cakes and pies.
I am grateful for the cooler weather, and I even look forward to winter.

The weather lends itself to kitchen experiments, playing around more with herbs and spices to see how they fare  or even changing up how one sweetens a thing.
To that end yesterday I made peanut butter cookies and threw in some molasses to see what would happen.
I am grateful they are tasty.

In This Life

I've danced around it enough in my life and online, but it is time to admit a truth that is both difficult and freeing: I am of extra- terrestrial stock.

What does that mean?

I will do my best to explain.

On the one hand I am fully human. Human birth into human life from human parents into a human family.

But the other hand tells me that the odd happenings of my life that return in dreams offering  glimpses of otherness while trying to define the otherness in a way my human mind can grasp go beyond the confines of simple Earth life.

I consider ETs my people. When I was young I considered them my real family. I know in my heart they have contacted me. While I regret having no conscious memory of it, I am sure it is for a reason. And I am equally sure I set it up this way for my own good.

Some memories have stuck with me over the decades. I have written on the blog about the clown drawn in grease pencil on a barn wall. I know a visitor put it there because I have never forgotten the day it happened. It plays in my mind frequently.

 In the last few years I have remembered more, how it didn't start as a clown, but morphed into it from fear.

Originally, after the visitor told me couldn't visit me anymore I would go into the barn and gaze at the drawing, remembering our talks.  It wasn't until years later that I understood I am the only one who ever saw the drawing.

I have remembered that during our talks we spoke about my role here, what I was to do in this life. I don't recall what it is. I very much want to, because I want to make sure I do it.

But I believe, now, that part of it is talking openly about the experiences. There are many, many different races in the Universe and I don't know which one I am from, but I do know, among other things, I am a bridge between them and us.

Here's another example:

During a past-life regression in the early nineties I went to a lifetime in Peru thousands of years ago where I was an alien. My current husband was a friend in those days. In the scene I went to he and I had been walking through the rainforest and were stopped on the crest of a large hill. The hill led to a valley and the valley led to a small mountain probably a hundred miles away, if not more.

In it was our base and it was were I was headed. I was excited to go there, but saddened that my friend, being human, could not go with me.

We parted at the hill and I was at the base in an eye blink.

I've always felt I had something to do in life and it always felt big and important. Important comes in many forms. Perhaps my role isn't so big, but it is still important.

Gratitude Monday -- South American Way Edition

Today I am grateful for a book I picked up at a garage sale in Inuvik almost 20 years ago.
The Art of South American Cookery by Myra Waldo, (copyright 1961 by Myra Waldo Schwartz, published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.)
Why?
Because right now we have plenty of tomatoes and corn and squash along with potatoes and onions and all manner of other fresh vegetables. I needed things to do with them and a South American cookbook is about the best resource ever.
I used this book years ago and then set it aside, not picking it up again until this past weekend.
The reason is the other day we found a good deal on corn, 10 cobs for $3.50. The other veggies I mentioned above are straight from the in-laws' gardens and happily filling our kitchen.
Corn tamales to which I added squash, tomato-onion salad that I decided needed an avocado,  the corn topping from a corn-potato casserole that became a side dish for roasted vegetables and chicken have all made it to the table, and they've all been tasty.
I am grateful for that, too.