Flavorful

carnival Archives - Candyman Kitchens

“The world needs this right now, we have received thousands of comments from people who say this has come at such a perfect time,” said Klein about the treasure hunt.

Did you read about the founder of Jelly Belly brand jelly beans, giving away one of his Candyman Kitchens, with a golden ticket/Willy Wonka style? How fun! How intriguing and inspiring and heartwarming and charmingly evocative!

Most of us would agree with David Klein, the inventor of Jelly Belly candies, in his statement, “The world needs this right now.” But what is “this” that he is referring to? What is the golden ticket that the world needs right now?

Is it fun? Is it a focus on the light-hearted, happy stuff? Is it excitement? Is it smiling, bright-eyed anticipation? Is it curiosity? Is it wonderment? Is it sweetness? Is it frivolity? Is it sugar-coated happiness? Is it innocence? Is it faith, hope and love?

Whatever “this” is which we all seem to agree that the world needs more of right now, we can try to be a little bit of “this“, today, right now, in our own spaces and our own places. If the world needs more of “this” and we have the ability to give the world more of “this“, why not try? Why not be a golden ticket in our own corners of the world? At the very least, we can be our own little flavorful jelly bellies. (I’ve been working on my jelly belly since quarantine started. It’s coming along nicely.) What flavor are you today? I think that I will be “this” flavor, just for today.

Bless This Mess

This is the state of my writing nook right now:

You can see Ralphie, the Labrador, trying to peek his head up over the rubble, in the right hand corner, like hope of life, peeking out of a war scene. I would like to take the time and space to thank the following creatives for making me feel good about my messy mess. First, a quote from the famed author, Anne Lamott:

“I absolutely don’t buy into the current mania for tidiness and decluttering. For a writer, piles of paper and notes are a fertile field.” – Anne Lamott

And a picture taken of the late, great fashion director, Karl Lagerfeld:

Thank you both, for allowing me the state of rationalizing my messiness, for today.

Rocking It Friday

Happy Friday

Good morning, friends and readers!! I was reading another blog the other day and I noticed that the blogger called her readers, “my wonderfuls”! I like that. I think that I am going to borrow that. Happy Friday, my wonderfuls!!! I had another good thought, earlier in the week, as I was gazing at my sagging jowls in the mirror. I thought to myself what is a inexpensive, non-intrusive way to cover up my middle-aged droopy jowls? I figured it out. On good days, smile, and on bad days, stay masked up. See, masks aren’t all bad. New readers, on Fridays, I don’t try to figure out any deep thoughts. I stay on the surface on Fridays to give me and you a break from my overthinking/overwriting about, just about everything. On Fridays, I list three favorite things, songs, apps, websites, food stuff, etc. and I strongly encourage you to list your favorites in my Comments section. Fridays are called Favorite Things Friday, here at Adulting – Second Half. Please check out my previous Friday posts for more favorites to enjoy. Here are my favorites for today:

Putta Tea – I discovered this tea on the Clearance shelf at my local grocery store. Now I know that a lot of people think, “There’s a reason why things are on clearance. Nobody wants them.” But, I disagree. It is more like “Nobody wants them AT THAT PRICE.” Further, sometimes things just need to be highlighted, and that is how I found this most delicious tea. I always check out the clearance rack and that is where I have found some of my most favorite things, Putta Tea being one of them. I have never tasted a more fragrant, delicious, unusual tea from tea bags, in my lifetime. Another plus, is that the boxes in which the tea comes in, are absolutely artistic and gorgeous. So far, I have tried Putta’s “Relax” and Putta’s “Tulsi Clarity” and both were fabulous. I saw that Amazon sells a variety pack of many other Putta Tea flavors. Enjoy! My British friends and family say that a cup of tea fixes everything.

Convertible Mask Chains – Fortunately, I am not one who needs to do much in public, so I have limited mask wearing time, but for those of you who have to wear masks frequently, I saw that they are now selling mask chains (similar to chains that hold your glasses around your neck). This seems like a much more sanitary way to carry around a mask, versus digging through your purse, praying that you still have a clean mask somewhere in there. I saw some pretty mask chains on Stephanie Wolf’s website. (https://stefaniewolf.com/collections/facemasks-and-headbands) And this website has a nice gold one: https://www.camillejewelry.com/products/convertible-oval-chain-necklace-for-masks

What makes the chains convertible is that they turn into necklaces when you don’t need a mask any longer, which hopefully, will be sooner than later. (On that note, I got my Barnes and Noble Desk Diary 2021 calendar delivered yesterday, this calendar being a longtime favorite of mine forever and ever, due to its sturdy, hard cover, big calendar squares and weekly pages. I have kept all of mine on a shelf, dating back to 2008, and you’d be surprised how handy it is to look information up, like when you had health care, or house work done, with phone numbers to boot, when I can read my own handwriting. Anyway, getting the calendar yesterday was exhilarating, like “Hope in a Box!”)

Nancy Meyers Kitchen playlist – I don’t have Spotify, but I have read about how great that this music play list is, more than once, so I just started playing some of the songs from the list, and it is wonderful!! This playlist has songs like La Vien Rose by Louis Armstrong., I’ve Got a Crush on You by Steve Tyrell and I Only Have Eyes for You by The Flamingos. Seriously, this is perfect, soothing background music, for almost any activity. If you have Spotify, start playing this now, you won’t be disappointed!

I’ve mentioned before that I cut out things out of magazines that are inspirational to me, and I tape them to the inside of my calendar covers to look at, here and again, to get rejuvenated and inspired. I saved this cutting from REAL SIMPLE magazine and it is going to get taped into my new 2021 calendar right after I publish my blog post. Have a wonderful weekend, my wonderfuls!!!!

I can’t wait to say, “Bye-bye 2020, don’t let the door hitcha on your way out!!

Here is an Example

I’ve mentioned it before, but I just have to do it again. Watch Street Food: Latin America (Netflix), if you need a good relaxing, heartwarming, reassuring, resonating show to watch before you go to bed at night. To be clear, I don’t really like to cook. I am not a particularly picky or discriminating eater. I don’t watch The Food Channel. I love to watch Street Food: Latin America for one major reason – the cooks in the show are absolutely passionate about what they do. They love their individual lives, each centered around cooking, and it glows out of their eyes and their whole faces beam and shine. You can’t help but feel warmed and touched by these chefs’ bursting bliss. Their happiness and contentment honestly seems to burst right out of them, like it can’t be contained in their bodies. Just like daily cooking and serving makes these cooks, in the show, buzz with delight, (and like eating their various concoctions does for their customers), I feel a complete and wholesome sensation of well-being, watching “love of life” in action. It is so utterly inspirational and uplifting.

None of the featured chefs in these shows are wealthy. In fact most of them live quite modest lives, and some of them created their shops and their street stalls out of total desperation, needing to save their families from starvation. Still, if you asked me to give you an example of a completely happy, satisfied, and totally alive person, I could quickly pick more than one of these street vendors from this delightful show, as a perfect, shining example. Honestly, it would be easier for me to show you one of these people, than most comfortable American suburbanites whom I know.

This show reminds us that real nourishment comes from living our passions. When we do this, we feed our own souls, and the by-product of being true to our own purposes and to own our selves, is that the souls of many other people are fed, as well. We are all inspired and nourished, by art, and by music, and by brilliant scientific discoveries, and by inventions, and by well-cared for, happy children, and by people who serve simple, delicious delicacies, from their well-loved stalls and carts (and hearts), every single day. We are inspired and comforted and blessed by others who are the embodiment of Love in motion. Love is an action. Our hunger and thirst for life is satiated by what we do, and what others do, all in the name of Love. Life flows so well that way, just like it was designed and intended to do.

30 Cooking Quotes to Inspire Your Inner Chef | BLINQ Blog

Come Alive

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(greeting card by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff)

Every day is a new day of a new version of ourselves. The experiences we had over the weekend, our emotional responses to those happenings, and the wisdom we gleaned from both our experiences and our responses, have added a new layer to this energy, we each call “me.” This morning I have curated quotes from my many inspirational quote journals that sort of go along with this same theme. I am sorry that I am not sure who to attribute these quotes to, but I don’t claim any of them as mine. I am just thankful for their inspiration and sagacity.

“You can’t go back and write a new beginning, but you can start from here and write a new ending.”

“I may not be there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday.”

“Today is a new day. Begin it well, and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”

“When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That is what the storm was all about.”

“When you are a better character in your story, your story gets better.”

“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“Your past is meant to be a guidepost, not a hitching post.”

“Believe with all of your heart that you will do what you are made to do.”

“I am my only project. Fully embracing this idea gives me so much freedom to do the many things that I have been born to do. Others are in our lives for a reason, but they are not present as our works in progress.”

“Never think of yourself as a self-made person. Thousands of hearts, souls, hopes and hands molded the form that became you.”

“Anything I can go through, I can grow through.”

“Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

The Shield

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(Twitter K. McIntire)

*****My heart and my prayers are with all who are affected by Hurricane Laura.

I so appreciate the picture shown above. It shows the humanity, and the empathy of the people who I know, and it depicts the good hearts of the many, many people who I have met, throughout my almost 50 years of life. This has been such a terrifying, painful, unbelievable year for so, so many people, all over the world. Today, let’s just rise above the noise, and the hatred, and the fear, and the anger, and the judgment, and the loneliness, and the bewilderment, and the need for control, and let’s just hold each other tight. I am so thankful for all of you who read my blog. Please, just feel me holding you tight. Close your eyes to all of the frightening appearances, close your ears to all of the competing, senseless noise, and only allow yourself to feel the soft, peaceful, yet impenetrable embrace of Love. Rise above it all and let Love sustain you. You are Love. You are filled with Love. Love cannot be destroyed. Let Love sustain you.

One of the more hip, modern daily horoscopes that I read, told me that today was a day that I needed to “Shield My Field.” There is no greater shield than the power of Love. Today, let Love “shield your field”. You are made of Love. It replenishes. Give Love freely to yourself, and to others, and to the clear, bright-lit vision of what the world really is, underneath all of the maddening noise, made by the weaker side of humanity (hello, egos), to provoke fear and helplessness. You have all of the materials that you need, to “shield your field”, every single day. Embrace that fact, and walk boldly into your life today. You are shielded with the most warm, calming, powerful, peaceful, eternal force that has ever been, or will ever exist, until the end of forever. Accept your shield. You can do whatever you need to do today, with the power of your shield. You are protected. The lower parts of all of us, and in all of the world, cower in awe and humility in the face of Love. And Love picks up those low, low, scared, trying desperately to control, hopeless, full of fear, full of pain, parts of us, and Love embraces them, and Love shines a Light on them, and Love cleanses them until they disappear as if they never existed. Because they don’t. They are just figments of our own imaginations, in stories that we have made up about our lives. Love shows us that we can always take up our shields and walk away from the shadows. This power of Love has NEVER left us. The world is just the world. We can pick up our shields and we look at the world through the lens of Love, or we can stay mired in our dark and fearful thoughts. That’s our free will. I think what the world needs now, is for more of us to pick up our shields of Love, and to walk confidently and calmly, with the force of Love. When we remind ourselves of the reality of what really makes us, and what really sustains us, forever and forever, others cannot help but to be reminded of that fact, too. Others are reminded to pick up their shields of Love. When we are holding our shields of Love, and we do this all together, we can open our eyes again, and we can open our ears again, and we will see a whole, new beautiful vision of the world. We will see our world as it actually is – Love. Nothing more, nothing less. Pure, Beautiful, Eternal Love.

The Way

My husband and I go about doing a lot of things, in two entirely different ways. My husband is methodical and analytical. I am intuitive and impulsive and impatient. He tends to do things more slowly and thoughtfully than me. My motto is “Get ‘er done fast, hope for the best, and we’re strong enough, and smart enough, to be able to deal with any related fallout.” My husband’s motto is “Get it done right the first time, no matter how long and boring of a process it takes.” We have made peace with each other’s differences . . . . for the most part. We get each other. We are yin and yang. On the rare times that we have been at the grocery store together, I toss things into the shopping cart with no rhyme or reason, until my cart looks the the Grinch’s overfilled sleigh, and he halts the whole production, to organize the food in the cart, like he was packing it with the precision of a nuclear engineer, avoiding detonation. When picking restaurants, my husband likes to study Yelp, with careful consideration of each and every review. My method is more, “Let’s just wing it, and stop at the next place that looks cute.”

Neither way is “right or wrong.” We have had amazing successes and utter failures, using both methodologies, going about our business. I distinctly remember sitting in a restaurant that we had picked using my “looks cute method” and my husband reading the Yelp reviews (after we had ordered our food) about how many people had been hospitalized with food poisoning after eating there. Overall though, when my husband and I work together, taking in consideration our mutual love and admiration for each other, making room for both of our ways to meld into one shared familial life, it has worked out happily and successfully, for both of us. This fact, is a good reminder for me right now, living in a world that feels like it is in such disillusioning disarray. So many of us are craving certainty right now. We are all craving the “the right answers” and “the right way” to fix everything, right now. We have to remain hopeful and optimistic and open-minded that there may be many effective processes to get us back to balance, and we have to have faith in one another, that while going at solutions differently, most of us want the same things. We all want a sense of security, a feeling of belonging and the confidence of mattering. If we make it our collective purpose for all of us to have the ability to achieve these important feelings for each of ourselves, how we get there, to this collective peace and balance, won’t be nearly as important as the end results.

There Is No One Way | Image Quotes | Know Your Meme

Shaken Up

There was a recent little on-line spat between a writer who wrote a depressing piece for Linked In, making an argument that New York City will never be the same again, due to this pandemic, and Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian, who rebutted this article, with his own opinion piece for The New York Times. Jerry was very sharp and angry and defensive, claiming that he himself will never give up on New York City. The original writer, a Manhattan comedy club owner, claims that many people have woken up to the idea that with today’s technology, many people can now live wherever they would like to live, by mostly working from home, and many people are finding other places to be cleaner, more affordable, and more restorative than living in New York City. The writer, James Altucher, suggests that the mass exodus from the city is not temporary.

I like visiting New York City. I have never had a desire to live there, but much like Jerry Seinfeld’s biggest argument about why New York City will make a roaring comeback, I know that there is a resilient, teeming, revitalizing energy in New York City that is seemingly non-replicable, anywhere else. I have felt it every time I have been there. This force of energy is, overwhelmingly, the best feature of the city, in my opinion.

That being said, I’m not going to write another piece about the redeeming and not so redeeming qualities of New York City. That is done and written ad nauseam, by more qualified writers than me. I think what struck me the most, about both of these articles, was the longing and the sadness which both men seemed to express about the loss of vitality that the city is currently experiencing. If, for argument’s sake, we want to call New York City, the energy center, the heart, and the pulse of our country, than New York City is currently being assisted by a early model pace maker with extremely weak batteries.

What I think a lot of us are deeply missing right now, no matter where we reside, even in our own bodies, is a sense of aliveness, liveliness, exuberance and vibrancy. When you feel limited, it is hard to get excited. When you can’t make plans with any sense of a good probability of the plans coming to fruition, it’s hard to muster up enthusiasm. Energy goes where energy flows and right now, many of us feel stagnant and restless, when we are not mired in apprehension and fear.

When we dropped off our youngest son at his off-campus university apartment last week, I got a little spoonful of that excited energy back. Much like NYC, there is a sizzling, underlying buzz that occurs, uniquely, in college towns. The energy there is youthful, hopeful, sometimes blindly optimistic, but full of wonder and desire and ardor and confidence, bordering on cockiness. It’s the kind of energy that fuels the flames in everyone’s heart, no matter what your age.

I am a believer that there will be a lot of changes in how and where people live and learn and work, even after a vaccine helps to tamp down the coronavirus. I think that this pandemic has been an eye-opening experience for the whole body of the world. But, even though science was never my favorite subject, even I know the first law of thermodynamics:

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. (lumenlearning.com)

We may think that the world has become listless and lifeless, but I believe that the energy, the very Lifeforce that sustains all of us, is alive and well and flowing. Energy cannot be destroyed. It is flowing fervently in the minds of the scientists and the medical experts as they race to find solutions to stopping the devastation of the virus. Energy is whirling in the passionate hearts of teachers who are having to find whole new ways to reach their students, and to help them to learn. It’s pulsating in the creativity of innovators who are changing the way they do business, in order to stay afloat in uncertain waters. And of course this Lifeforce keeps our medical teams, physically and emotionally resilient, as they put in long, hard, taxing days, doing their best, to save lives.

I think that on some of these seemingly endless days of the pandemic, when I feel lethargic and listless, and maybe even slightly depressed, I am going to envision that my energy stores are flowing somewhere else, where they are greatly needed. I am going to pray that my energy is giving vitality to where it is much demanded, such as for a coronavirus patient, struggling with everything they have, to just hang on to life. Remember, what we give, is always returned to us. I imagine that the good, good feeling of visualizing my own energy being used where it is needed, will restore my own coffers more quickly than I could have ever imagined, opening my mind, and my heart and my soul to possibilities which I would have never thought of before. Maybe the world’s energy has been shaken and stirred by this pandemic, like a horrendous storm or a planet-sized snow globe, but when everything finally settles down again, the world’s energy will be balanced like it has never been before, and we will be in total awe, of the easy flow of it all. I hope so, with the most fervent energy still left in my heart.

Path of Least Resistance

When life gives you a crazy ride with a pandemic, make jeeps!

I loved reading this news story about teachers who are trying to make this school year a little less scary and a little more fun for their students. At the “meet the teacher” event at the elementary school pictured above, the teachers handed their students “keys” to their individual cars. What a gift teachers are to this world! Today, my daughter starts her junior year of high school, in her bedroom. I am so thankful to her teachers, who are doing their best to make this hybrid “in-person/online” classroom situation work out for everyone, the best that they can, on a daily basis.

I’ve been reflecting on the idea that it is the shared love that we have for things, and people and places and passions, in our lives that really connects us. Think of what a unifying feeling it is, to share love for the same people, the same team, the same country, the same pets, the same state, the same school, the same hobby, the same favorite musician or band, the same ideals, the same religion, the same books, the same home, the same beach, the same profession, the same car, the same food, the same restaurant . . . . It is so refreshing and happily reflective to find people who share in our loves. It multiplies our joy.

Love really is the connector that lifts us, and sustains us, and gets us through our journey of life. And just because we feel a special connection to the people who love a lot of the same things that we do, we can still have a respect and a happiness that other people get zeal and joy from the things and the people and the places and the passions, which speak to them. We don’t have to convert others to our loves. We can just feel gratefulness that other people have found their own loves and their own passions, because the bottom line of it all, is that if we stay in our own lanes, there is no traffic. (I read that quote on Twitter recently and it has become my much-needed daily reminder mantra, as a well-intentioned, but highly overprotective woman/mother/wife/friend/family member during these strange and ambiguous times.)

If we are all riding on the easy street of flowing with our own loves, and our own passions, and our own inspirations, and our own well-being, and we are all living in the faith and the trust that others are capable of doing the same for themselves, and that there are enough pathways for all of us in this world, traffic jams and accidents and mass casualties, are a lot less likely to happen. If we trust that we can find what sustains us, and allow others to do the same for themselves, love flows. I think that life is meant to flow along the easy, light, beautiful, nourishing, sustaining energy of Love. It’s certainly the path of least resistance. And the path of Love is always wide open.

Sky-Blue Pink

“My dad invented a new color for us: sky-blue pink. It’s what he called the blending of day and night in the evening sky. It was his favorite color, and so it’s been mine. ” – Kate Craw

I took the photograph, seen above, while driving home, just me and my husband and my daughter, from taking our youngest son up to his apartment, close to his university, where he will live, with his best friends, while taking his sophomore college classes, online for this semester. We helped him to unpack (as much as he would let us do it). We went to the obligatory grocery store trip, to make sure that our son started the fall schooling season, all stocked up with nourishment (which made us feel better about the ultimate good-bye), and then, we sat in the apartment with our youngest son and one of his friends and our other son, who is a senior at the same university. We ate take-out burgers and cupcakes and we laughed and we lingered until we felt the obvious energetic itching, from all of the boys, for us to leave, and to make our way home, to our own fall schedules and individual lives.

I felt strangely quiet, yet peaceful, on the way home. I knew that this was the right decision for our family, to allow our boys to have a go, at a makeshift try, at a less-than-normal year at college. It makes a mama’s heart happy, to see her children excited, and joyful and bursting at the seams for a little more freedom, a little more independence, and a little more hope – at any age, but especially during these difficult times.

As I stared out of the window, at the beautiful sunset, it felt like the perfect gift from the Universe. The sunset was a lovely closing curtain on what has been one of the strangest, longest, scariest, yet in many ways, most meaningful summers of our lives. This beautiful sunset officially closed out Summer of 2020, for me. I will never forget this summer for the rest of my days. None of us will. But I have a strange inkling that how I am reflecting on all of the events of this past summer now (the long summer that really started for us, in the middle of a shell-shocked spring), will soften and change, as I survive past it and I absorb the lessons that it has brought to me and to our family and to our whole world, for that matter. I have a deep, knowing sense that the jarring events of the summer of 2020 will blend more perfectly with the ultimate destinations of each of our lives, and that this blending will happen in an unusually, entirely unexpected, beautiful way. I think that ultimately I will remember 2020 as a sky-blue pink year – a year that was more beautiful than I initially thought that it was, mostly because it was so vivid, and jarring, and colorful, and unexpected and memorable. It will be a year that reminded me and my family and my friends and all of us, about the fragility (and therefore, the breath-taking preciousness) of the gift of living a life. If there was ever a year that made us soak in the individual quiet moments, 2020 would be it. If there was ever a year that asked us to reflect, 2020 would be it. If there was ever a year that made us give up the idea that we had all or any of “the answers”, 2020 would be it. If there was ever a year that asked us to just sit still and to breathe in a sky-blue pink sunset, 2020 would be it. And in some crazy, weird way, I think that I am grateful for it. Only time will tell.