In My Life

For the last couple of years, I’ve been making my own version of Bircher Muesli.  I start the night before by putting a half-handful of rolled oats into a bowl.  On top of that, I add an ever-changing mixture of nuts and dried fruit.  Most often it’s a sprinkle of flaxseed, generous pinches of coconut, sunflower seeds, and pepitas, with some naked ginger and currants, sultanas, dates, or a chopped dried fig.  Usually, I cover the mixture with soya milk or apple juice and leave to soak overnight.  In the morning it’s topped with yoghurt, honey, and some fresh fruit.  I like it so much I’ve stopped buying readymade cereals and this winter I skipped making porridge with rolled oats.  Give it a try!

On reading well

Just as water, over a long period of time, reshapes the land through which it runs, so too we are formed by the habit of reading good books well.

Karen Swallow Prior

Repeats

Stamp collectors are not the only ones who collect things.  My grandchildren collect ooshies from Woolworths; my hobby-farmer younger brother buys cattle, some collect fridge magnets, I know a man who collects tractors.  I’ve got a stash of DVDs.  I began with the rule that I would wait until what I wanted to watch was under $10, but I’d pay more for a series.  Anyway, after several years, I find myself with a stash of unwatched movies.  It’s astounding how, when I want to watch something, it’s just too hard to choose.  The genre’s not right for tonight, or it runs too long when I want an early night.  Then, what I end up doing is watching something I’ve seen before – something I’ll be sure to enjoy.  

All this has made me realize how good it is to go back and re-watch an oldie; it’s the same with books and music.  I think it was the fear-of-missing-out that made me such an avaricious acquirer of movies.  I’d read a promising review, and I’d be thinking, “I must buy that!”  But, now I know, that I would have been happy enough with just a few precious DVDs that I could view over and over again.  Besides that, there are not enough free nights in a week (or a year) to watch everything.  I guess the same could apply to meals.  How many new recipes do we need when we already have some many favourites to try again?

Another world

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C. S. Lewis

The unanswerable

We need answers to the unanswerable: how did we get here?  How did “here” get here in the first place?  Is this – this brief life – all there is?  How can it be?  What would be the point of that?  And, we need codes to live by, rules for every damn thing!  The soul needs all these explanations – not simply rational explanations, but explanations of the heart.

Salman Rushdie

Faith

Faith is not a gift we bring to God in our hands to win his favour; faith is the empty hand of the beggar reaching out for divine charity. 

Joel Beeke

It is of vital importance to every one of us that we know whether or not there is a God.  Is everything that exists the result of the activity of God, or is there some blind, impersonal force or energy or power behind everything?  Am I face-to-face with a Being and with a Person?  Or am I the victim of blind chance, of some accidental meeting of atoms or powers that are without personality, without mind, without reason, without understanding?  Is it all blind, or is it all purposeful?

Either you believe that God created the world, or you believe the talk that gases – nobody knows how or where they came from – suddenly solidified and formed some primitive slime.  Though there is no mind, no purpose in anything, somehow or other, blind hidden forces so worked and reacted against one another that from a very primitive kind of undefined life they developed into human beings with their brain and power. They produced the complexity of the flower; the extraordinary instrument that we call the eye, and all the astounding things that happen in creation.  Is it all accident?  Is it all chance?  Or is there a mind, a Creator at the back of it all?

I have a coronavirus theory

This life is all there is; we’re mere mortals.  There is no life after death.  This is it – full-stop!  Immortality is just a myth.  That is the only reason I can think of, to explain the crippling fear felt by so many when it comes to COVID-19.  It rattles them; and especially politicians with elections just around the bend.  If you think all you have is this life, you will definitely want to hold on to it, and fiercely wish to avoid a virus that might cut it short.  Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t have the same dread for me, I believe in an eternal life hereafter.  Coronavirus is nothing compared to what is to come – either in heaven or in hell.

The soundtrack of my life

There’s a song, band, or album that will always make me think of each of our children.  For Dylan, it’s U2’s The Joshua Tree.  We named our second son after Jackson Browne around about the time of The Pretender.  Andrew introduced us to Groove Amada and Moby.  Hannah played David Gray, endlessly, for a season, and then it was Coldplay non-stop; she especially loved Politik.  Meanwhile, Glenys and I drove them crazy with Van Morrison’s Enlightenment and Hymns to the Silence,  Paul Simon’s Graceland, Concerto De Aranjuez, Nessam Dorma, and Gillian Welch’s The Revelator.

Yvonne’s Cake – A Very Versatile Recipe

I once asked a dear friend for an easy cake recipe, and here’s what she told me.

Mix together: one cup each of flour, sugar, coconut, fresh or dried fruit, and liquid—Bake at 180. 

With those simple instructions, I have baked a variety of versions because you may use any flour, coconut, fruit, or liquid.  I’ve tried all kinds of combinations, but most often I have used ½ cup of self-raising flour with ½ cup of almond meal.  I add just ½-3/4 cup of raw sugar.  I’ve used both shredded and desiccated coconut.  As for fruit, sometimes chopped apricots and sultanas, once I chose prunes, raisins and ginger are a good combo, and dates and figs.  You could add fresh fruit – mashed banana or berries.   Liquid-wise, I add milk, apple juice, or orange juice (which goes well with bits of added dark chocolate).  Being a bit crazy, I also add a sprinkle of sunflower seeds to the mix, walnuts, or flax-seed. 

Having mixed the batter well, pour it into a lined round or loaf cake tin.  Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 

Who are you voting for in the election?

Even though I am not an American, a couple of friends have asked me that question.  I guess they mean, “Who are you hoping will be elected?”  I hoped that both contenders would withdraw and give someone else a go – someone with integrity and a plan to deal with the issues that cause so much division. 

Biden, I expected, would blow it at the Democratic convention, proving that he’s not ‘up to it’.  But he didn’t, thanks to the teleprompter.  Trump, I was hoping, would step down, rather than risk defeat.  Who would replace them?  I’m not sure.  How can a country of 300+million people end up with two old codgers ill-suited for the task?  That’s what astounds me!