2025-10-06 - Christina's October Questions ========================================== Here are my answers to: Christina's October questions > What's your favourite item to cook in October? I don't recall having a specific thing i liked to cook in October. In the past i was really big on cooking squash pies. I stopped doing that when i dramatically reduced my intake of sugar. These days i make squash smoothies with yogurt, cinnamon, cloves, and lots of ginger, sweetened with dried fruit and tempered with nuts. One thing i don't write about much is food preservation. Recently while house sitting, i found a rash of feral pear trees with an abundance of golf-ball sized pears. I filled a large grocery bag full of these pears. Processing them was time consuming. I put them in a bowl of water and agitated them with my hands to wash them. I got a paring knife and cutting board. I quartered and cored, but did not peel them. It took around 2 to 3 hours to fill the crockpot. After some time, the cooking softened them and i used a potato ricer to mash them. I let them cook a while longer to form a thick pear butter. I mainly used this as a topping on pancakes. My grocery bag of pears yielded about a gallon of pear butter, which i processed in two batches. That was about 6 hours of my life processing pears. Recently i picked, processed, and froze about a gallon of Santa Rosa plums and a gallon of Gravenstein applesauce. I picked about 4 gallons of white concord grapes and a large quantity of walnuts to dry. I try to expose my consciousness to the real & natural world and to give myself solitude, or in other words, quality time with myself. From one perspective, this is all very inefficient. Supermarket food gives economies of scale that i can never hope to compete with. But does it nourish my soul? Here is a relevant quote: > I remember my mother uttering very moving, poetic chants as she > milled grain, grinding for six hours to fill only a small bucket. > The meal that came out of her work contained tremendous energy, the > spiritual energy of the poetry and music as well as the physical > energy contained in the grain. All of her work was a work of art, > done so genuinely, with total devotion, that it contributed to a > profound sense of fullness in the family. > > What I must emphasize here is that the energy required to sustain > the harmony we are talking about is so delicate that it can easily > be destroyed by the slightest intrusion, and such intrusion has > clearly taken place through colonialism. > > --Malidoma Patrice Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa > What films have you watched over and over again? I don't usually watch films repeatedly. During one phase of my life i watched The Big Lebowski quite a few times. It was good for laughs about the absurdity of modern life. It appealed to my slacker side. > Have you ever meditated for spiritual purposes? If yes, describe > your experience. I have meditated daily for almost a decade now. I never regret it when i meditate. One analogy i would give is that when sitting in the couch, i might not feel like leaving the couch. But if i force myself to get up, go outside, and go on a walk, i may get some sunshine, fresh air, and exercise, which will make me feel much better and more alive. I never regret going on a walk. Likewise to this day i am not surprised when i feel resistance before i meditate. It feels exactly like the inertia of not wanting to get up out of the couch. While i meditate, i become calmer, more in tune with myself, and time slows down. Life doesn't seem to fly by at such a breakneck pace and it's easier to keep an even keel. The word spirit shares a root with the words inspiration and respiration. Anything that breathes new life into your existence is spiritually healthy. Meditation is one of those things for me. I do not attempt to quiet my mind. I attempt to pay attention to it. I am trying to hold space for myself like a good friend would. Every distraction is informative about what's going on "under the hood." Every time i notice being distracted, it is good practice to strengthen my "muscles" of attention. > What objects from your childhood have you saved? Explain why. I have saved almost nothing from childhood. When family members give me items from my childhood, i strongly consider holding on to them. One example is a sock monkey with my name sewn into it. My grandmother made one for each of us. Out of all of the human beings i have known on this planet, my grandmother was the one who i was most able to receive love from. I intend to hang onto this sock monkey in honor of her love. If i lost it due to some circumstance beyond my control, that would be OK. I have plenty of even more significant mental possessions from my grandmother accumulated into my very identity. > When you feel sad, what do you do to find comfort? Once i heard someone use the phrase "sacred melancholy." From another site: > Sacred Melancholy, is a deep sadness or feeling of loss. It is a > romantic feeling really, one that fills us with yearning and > remembrance. It is something to appreciate and immerse oneself in, > for it holds great depths of knowing. When we allow ourselves to > connect with that feeling of loss, it is not the same as being > depressed and suffering, but more a tender reminder of times > past... like savoring the memory of a lovers goodbye kiss... there > is a wonderment in the remembering itself. In this sense the sadness can contain its own comfort. In the past i would seek comfort by writing poetry, listening to music, or going on walks in natural settings. Often i would feel the sadness even more acutely while doing this, but it would be followed by a sensation of relief. tags: bencollver,community,meditation Tags ==== bencollver community meditation