NEW COURSE! “Feral Fables” to begin April 16, 2023.
For centuries, women and men have sought guidance and counsel to help them in processes of change, healing, and transformation. The most popular and the most universal of the wisdom traditions is telling stories, both as an art and as a way of learning about life.
The Feral Fablesare unique stories of transformation that are not based on a particular ethnicity or cultural tradition, but rather draw from what is universal in each of the various traditions.
Most often in these stories, you will recognize someone or something that you have encountered before. You can receive the message of the story on an intuitive level. In this course, we will explore six of the fables in Feral Fables and their meaning for your life.
You will be permitted to drop your persona and rediscover who you really are. This e-course will assist in opening your heart and mind to new and often strange possibilities, ideas that come from that deep, wild, or feral self.
ON-GOING COURSE – “Growing Older with Gusto!”
This course is available for you to explore at your own pace. You may contact me for any questions you have as you go through the course.
Everyone has a personality. Some seem more dynamic than others, and sometimes we meet someone who doesn’t seem to have much personality at all.
So just exactly what is it that we call “personality?”
Sometimes we talk about someone who is famous or who is a celebrity of some sort as being a “Personality,” and we’re using the word as a title for that person.
Sometimes we say that someone has a lively or interesting personality, and just what does that mean? Does this “lively personality” only show up at certain times, or is that who this person is at all times? How can we know? And what makes it an “interesting” personality?
Generally, our personality is the combination of characteristics or qualities that make up who we are. And where do these qualities come from? Does our personality change throughout our lives? What are the influences in our lives that help to create what we call our “personality?” Can we decide how we want our personality to develop? Or is our personality something that just happens?
If you have ever wondered about your own personality or if you are curious about where it came from or how it developed, then you want to take my next online course that will start on March 19, 2023. Look for more information at Learn with Lucy.
I haven’t always been in a place to garden. For about five years, I lived on my 37′ sailboat. At least one son lived there permanently with me, and two of my other teens spent a lot of time there, also. However, I kept several pots of aloe vera on hand for sunburns and cuts, as well as a hanging cherry tomato or two for something fresh to eat.
When I first moved onboard, I had a wicked time trying to cook a meal on the little two-burner propane stove. By the time I moved off the boat and into a house, I could cook a full Thanksgiving dinner on the tiny stove – turkey, pumpkin pie, and all the trimmings.
There was a small oven on the stove, and I had this fantasy that people would be lured by the smell of baking bread as we sailed along. Probably no one else could smell it, but it was enough to tantalize myself and whatever crew was sailing with me at the time. Can you smell it baking while I’m hoisting up my sails?
My recipe was simple – a no-knead whole wheat bread. In a very low oven, warm 7 ½ cups of whole wheat flour in a large bowl for about 20 minutes. Dissolve 6 teaspoons dry yeast in 1 cup lukewarm water and add 1 tablespoon honey. Mix 4 tablespoons molasses with 1 cup warm water. Combine yeast and molasses mixtures and add with 2 tablespoons salt to the warm flour. Add enough water to make a sticky dough, approximately 2 cups.
I usually get 2 large loaves out of this, or you can get 3 small loaves. Butter your pans and turn the dough into the pans. No need to knead the dough. Let it rise for an hour and preheat oven to 450 F. Bake about 50 minutes or until crust is brown. I let it stand in the oven for a bit after I turn off the oven. You are supposed to let it cool before you eat it, but I’ve never been able to do that!
I marked it in my cookbook that I fixed this for the first time while sailing into Avalon on July 25, 1980. Mark, my third child, was turning 21 the next day, so we celebrated that night.
Split pea soup became another tradition on all our homeward bound trips after a week or more at sea. It’s a good thing stoves on a sailboat are gimbaled so that they remain steady and the soup doesn’t slop out when we are heeled over on a good run.
Brown up some bacon ends and pieces in a pan, then add chopped onion and slivers of carrot and cook slightly. Add a package of split peas and water. Add seasonings. I put in pepper, oregano, marjoram, bay leaf, or whatever I have on hand. Simmer until peas and veggies are cooked, but I like to leave the peas slightly lumpy for a hearty soup. It thickens as it stands, but like the bread, it rarely has time to stand.
A big mug of hot pea soup with freshly baked bread slathered in butter seemed to make it easier to head back home. There was no hardtack for us!
Even though I am no longer known as the “BOATLDY,” I still fix this soup, and serve it along with biscuits, garlic bread, cornbread, or my fast no-knead whole wheat bread. It is a wonderfully rustic and earthy meal for visiting friends – and especially on those coolish evenings that we can experience, even here in Hawaii. A few fresh herbs from my herb garden add extra flavor.
“Growing Older with Gusto!” is now available for registration!
If you are interested, go to https://lavalily.com/learn-with-lucy/ to find out more about the course and to register. Checking out with PayPal will give you access to the course.
Because I am teaching this course through WordPress.com, you will also need to sign up for an account with WordPress.com. It’s simple and it’s free!
In the meantime, go to the link above, and read more about the course. I will be offering several other courses in the future. Share this information with anyone you think might be interested. If you have any questions, send me a note via lucyj@lavalily.com.
The e-course is available for registration! I realize there may be a problem with the registration page, but if you are interested, you can go ahead and send your name, phone number, and email address to me: lucy@lucyleejones.com. Checking out with PayPal will give you access to the course on February 5, 2023.
In the meantime, go to the link above, and read more about the course. I will be offering several other courses over the next few months. Share this information with anyone you think might be interested.
Growing space is limited for me, even though I have a couple of raised beds. They are at a level that keeps me from having to bend too far or get down on my knees (difficult if not impossible these days)!
I need several more to really grow as much food as I’d like. So as much as I love fresh lettuce, I have settled for buying it at the market and using my garden space for things I can’t easily find to buy – like arugula and certain herbs.
I enjoy growing arugula (sometimes called “rocket”), and I love the spicy flavor. Before I started growing my own arugula, I bought what I needed at a little outdoor market and coffee shop in downtown Tucson. One of the growers there always had a huge batch of arugula for sale. I no longer live in Tucson, so I miss that little market and the friends who gathered thee.
My current patch of arugula is in a raised bed right by my side patio. Arugula grows quickly, and I love to pick a handful to add to my salad or sandwich. The more I pick, the thicker it grows! Fresh arugula is such a delicious treat!
If you are looking for a delicious, refreshing, non-alcoholic drink to enjoy, here it is!
Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to drink Ginger Beer. It’s non-alcoholic, sharp, and refreshing. Similar to that is my very favorite drink (similar to Ginger Beer) is Ginger Limeade.
You can buy this drink in a bottle in many of our Hawaiian stores. It is made locally, and it’s very similar to Ginger Beer, but it will never surpass the taste of freshly made in your own kitchen.
I can only give you the approximate proportions I use, and you may need to experiment for your own tastes. If you wish, lemons could probably be substituted for limes, but I have never tried it. I have limes, and I prefer limes, so that’s what I use.
The piece of ginger I use is about 3/4 the size of the one in the picture above. Peel it, then slice it into thin circles.
Put these in a saucepan, add about 1 cup of sugar, more or less to taste (I use Splenda or Monkfruit or Erythritol for this). Fill to about an inch from the top with water. Simmer until it has reduced by about half.
Let it cool while you squeeze the juice from about 8-10 limes. Add the juice to the ginger syrup. I add either a liter of seltzer water or diet tonic (my preference).
Serve over ice for one of the most delightful drinks you’ll find anywhere. There is almost always a pitcher of it waiting in my fridge!
This is a wonderfully fragrant and delicious bread that originated with my mother years ago. “Clara” was a woman in a church where my father was pastor, and she had given this recipe to my mother. This is something I look forward to making now that I have an oven again.
I have added Mother’s comments, some of them seem a bit old-fashioned. Plus she always wrote her recipes out on onion-skin paper, making it extremely difficult to read! I think you can enlarge the picture of the recipe to get an idea of what I had to translate.
This was a staple in my home when I was growing up and she sent this to me when I was a young bride. I had to laugh when I read her last comment about how to eat the loaf! I’d forgotten that.
Mix 1 package dry yeast with ¼ cup warm water.
Add 1 cup creamed cottage cheese OR 1 cup clabbered milk heated to lukewarm, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon minced fresh onion.
Mix in 1 tablespoon butter, 2 teaspoons dill seed, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 unbeaten egg, ¼ teaspoon soda, and 4-5 cups flour (more or less to make the right consistency of bread dough.)
Combine all in a mixing bowl, let rise until double in bulk in warm place (50-60 minutes).
Punch down and put into 2 greased loaf pans, or 1 loaf pan and 1 greased round casserole.
Let rise a bit, then bake in 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes until done.
Remove from oven and butter tops thoroughly while hot and sprinkle with lots of salt.
This is a lovely bread to give as a gift, or to slice for a party.
The final note on my mother’s recipe: “If the family isn’t around, eat one loaf yourself and save the other until they get home.” There was never any left over for sandwiches to take to school.
This week is an appropriate time to share a little bit about one of my trips to the Middle East. I was still in active ministry at the time, making everything I learned there more valuable.
So much of what we saw on that trip was exactly how most people picture that part of the world – wide expanses of desert with Bedouins and their tents. Expand the picture above and you’ll get a better idea of a typical Bedouin with his camel.
When I was offered a chance to ride a camel, I quickly agreed. Riding a camel certainly has been one of my more unique experiences! I’d been riding horses for many years, so I thought a camel would be a cinch. How wrong I was!
Camels have a nasty disposition! Also, along with their constant complaining, they bend down in stages to let you climb on, which gives you the sensation of being on a very fluky rocking chair (or a slow roller coaster).
I took this ride near the Qumran where ancient papyrus scrolls were found in 1945. Later, I visited the museum where these scrolls are on exhibit.
In just a few days, we will celebrate Epiphany and the magi who followed a star to visit a baby in a stable. The word Epiphany means a “revelation,” or what I call an “ah ha!” moment and especially when we realize that God or the Holy Spirit is with us at all times, no matter what our religious tradition.
In the meantime, I want to say that I truly appreciate those guys even more now. I can empathize with the grueling ride they must have had on those camels!
I have been collecting representations of the Black Madonna for many years. I’m not quite sure what my attraction is, but I suspect it’s because she’s not the untouched virginal White Madonna we often think of at this time of year. The Black Madonna has been through the fires of experience and has survived, each time stronger than ever. I have photographs of paintings, sculptures, icons, and more.
The Black Madonna is a national symbol in Poland, with Polish Catholics making the pilgrimage as often as possible to see her. The story of how she came to be known as the Black Madonna can be found here. You might want to search for a list of countries where the various Black Madonnas can be found.
There is a beautiful essay online by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox first written in 2006. I highly recommend that article to you. He talks about the “Return of the Black Madonna” as being a sign of our times.
Of all the female religious icons, the Black Madonna is my favorite, and my favorite representation is the Virgen de Guadalupe (Spanish for the “Virgin of Guadalupe”). Most of my collection is about her. I even have a mouse pad with her picture on it, although someone once asked if I didn’t think it was a bit sacrilegious to be running a mouse over her.
I love to light rose-scented candles labeled “Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe” that are very popular with the Mexican population. When I lived in Tucson, I kept one burning on the altar in my entryway at all times. What a warm welcome the smell of roses gave each time I walked in my door.
The photo above is a painting that hangs by my front door of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I also have a huge platter with her image painted on it, that even my Kaimana Kat seemed to love!
There are several books available if you are interested in reading more about the Black Madonna. Three exceptionally good books of all the ones I own are:
1) Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna, by China Galland
2) Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women by Jeanette Rodriquez
3) Dancing in the Flames by Marion Woodman and Elinor Dickson.
I highly recommend any of these for enlightened reading this time of year. You may never think of the Madonna in the same way again.
Mele Kalikimaka and a hui hou!
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