This week, I had planned to post about using “milkweed cheese”. Many milkweed seedpods are still at the perfect stage for harvesting both to eat as a vegetable, and to collect the creamy white silk from inside. However, while researching recipes I realized I had nothing to add beyond what Alan Bergo has already covered on his Forager Chef site. Except when harvesting, please mind the monarchs!
A fierce monarch caterpillar devouring its helpless prey, a milkweed seedpod
Instead, in light of the recent fate of a foraging cookbook recalled over possibly toxic ingredients, I decided to add my own “guide to safe foraging” page on this site. I’d meant to do so for a while. Now each time I post about foraging safety, I can link to that page, rather than boring you to tears with the same dire warnings over and over and over again.
I also recently updated this blog’s About page … I hadn’t touched it since 2009, and a lot has changed in nine years!
You may be wondering why my blog posts consist of a random mix of self-help / self-improvement / lifehacks and gardening / foraging. No, it’s not a symptom of multiple personality disorder, I promise! (Or is it?)
I am struggling to find (make) time to write. My weekly foraging series (while mostly unread) has created a firm commitment that I will post something, however short, at least once a week. But I have so much more to share.
I keep thinking… just one more technique from one more self-help book, and I will at last discover the ultimate trick to unlock my true gifts and unleash my creativity on the world. I will finally overcome (or embrace) the resistance, and be able to write.
Just as soon as I am done getting things done, papers filed, inbox to zero, boxes checked – then I will finally be have all the time I need to write.
Maybe I can change my life by tidying up, which will help me cultivate an uncluttered mind, and then I will finally be able to write.
You know, I need to manage my budget better, and when I am less concerned about finances, then I will have the spare brain cells to be able to write.
I must exercise, and eat healthy (including cooking meals from scratch), and take all the nutritional supplements because when I am at my peak, physically speaking, my mind will be as well and then I will be able to write.
If I could just lifehack a little more free time into my day, then, well … you know.
If I could only perfect my sleep so I could survive on less thanks to the amazing quality of the sleep I did get, then … sigh.
…are we noticing a theme here?
“Is there any chance that the healing you seek is just another form of resistance?”
–Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
My friend Kristen at The Sojourning Spinner recently suggest that for at least a month I try – get this – rather than spending time on lifehacks to free up time to write, I just (gasp!) write.
It’s a great idea. And I’m going to give it a serious try. But first, I need to find my “Flow Pattern” on the Flow Genome Project so I know I can really maximize those precious few moments to write.
Welcome to 2018! Kicked off in typical “me” style with a random kitchen injury while making dinner. Seriously, I somehow cut myself with the knife without knowing. I’m getting used to the feeling of, huh, wonder when that happened? Oh, well.
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, because I feel anything worth doing is worth starting now, not just because it’s a new year.
That said, I will try to write more in 2018. Maybe here, maybe on other blogs and forums, maybe I’ll write a book, who knows. I’m still figuring out if I have anything worth saying…. so stay tuned!
I’ve been reading a lot of business books lately. “Reading” being loosely defined as actual reading, skimming, and listening to audiobooks. I haven’t been keeping up with my book reviews because I’ve been gliding through books at such a swooping speed that I don’t have time to write anything up. (The Power of Less, Drive, and The Passion Plan, to name a few.). And in this reading frenzy, I have decided: I don’t like business books written as parables. If I want to read fiction, I’ll read fiction. Please keep your business book to the facts(-as-you-see-them), please. I’m skimming through Change Your Questions, Change Your Life right now, and while I feel there may be some good points buried in there, and I’m not sure whether it’s worth sifting through all the narration and dialog to try to find them.
