Goat Cheese Adventure

Adventures are so good for the soul! 

Here are the new things I (the city girl) experienced in four delicious hours this brisk winter morning ---within 20 minutes of where I live!

1. Milking a goat. Yup, me. "Abby" (alpine) and "Dottie" (nubian). Squirt. Squirt---yea, there I go. Then----are you ready----two hands! Warm and surprisingly satisfying (for me AND the goats, I think!)

2. Reaching under a chicken---and voila, pulling out a freshly lain egg. Warm and smooth. Wow.

3. Tasting warm (there's the warm again!), fresh goat's milk...delicious! 

3. Making Soft Goat Cheese. I whooped as we wrapped in flourcloth, tied it off, hung it cleverly on the cupboard hook, dripping whey into the bowl beneath it.  Ahhhhh.

4. Making Goat Mozzarella. Cooking, straining, pressing, til smooth and glisteny. Slicing. Snowballing. Admiring!

5. And then there was the Goat Ricotta---yup, made with my two hands! Warm...drizzled with chocolate balsamic vinegar. So much goodness!!! 

6. Making 4 new grown-up friends (with connections and networking flowing as naturally as water)---and 2 little ones. 

My soul knew to love all of this. My soul grinned. My soul ate it up. My soul said thank you. My soul said---that was fun, let's have another adventure soon! I promised my soul the answer would be yes! 

p.s. If you'd like your own adventure---visit "The Goat Cheese Lady" online and find out how! 

Tabula Rasa

A brand spanking new year. A blank slate. I remember in college first hearing the fancy phrase, "tabula rasa"----and the idea of a blank slate got a real name. Oh yeah, baby. Immediately, I loved it. I loved it and knew it was the way I preferred to live. How I like to see a movie (knowing nothing...awash in real time.) How I read a book. (I know some prefer a glance at the last page---I'm simply not one of them!) To me, blank slates are alive with delight, possibility. I think there's a little edge of excitement/danger there too, that I like. Truly not knowing creates a wild adventure. Again, my preferred way to live.

Juicy opportunity exists in this blank slate. Yet I/we forget. I fall into rutted living. Routine roteness. It happens to all of us. The slate, oh-so-laden and oh-so-familiar. Yet, as humans I know we're wired for something else. We're wired for breakthroughs that return us to Blank Slate Being. We respond to events. To calendars. To tragedies. To pain. To ritual. To grace. We open. We pause. We Begin Again. A New Year. Poised on a precipice of time----we are anything but rutted. Not yet.

I glance up. A wren camouflaged in the white aspen bark flits. I see it. My seeing is the gift. I feel myself attune, boldly present for more against the brilliant blue sky. There's another. Oh my---there go two, no three more. Now I can't take my eyes off them.

We twenty first century humans greet each other in the new year...wired for connection. We step, just a little, out of what we see as "ordinary" time. There's a sincerity. A true desire here. We "get" that something is possible---and we speak of it and for it on behalf of all beings. With fireworks, toasts, rituals---we kiss the possibility of our collective blank slate. We bless it. We name it. Sounds primitive, yet it may be some of our highest functioning. What if we really believed it. That this year---2012, holds all that can be. Jubilee. Hope. Love. Connection. A New Way.

Here's to your blank slate. Today. This hour. This moment in which your heart beats, your fingers feel, your skin warms, your ears catch a faint wound. Your eyes see flitting...moments ago unseen. This gift of life---yours and mine---pulses. And pulses some more. Whether we notice it or not. Flowing blood and air, nerves and chemicals, water and life, streams and consciousness. To be here to witness and participate on this blank slate day at 10:57 in the morning of January 2, 2012 makes me grin. It's a fresh book. And you are in it too. Let's turn the page...and...

Female Nomad in Red Boots

The world reflects us to us. If we look and see. Several years ago people were reading, Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman...and saying, "Lynn---this makes me think of YOU!" Intrigued, I read it, and could see why! Well, not the divorce part. But the out-there, open, curious, adventuring woman part---oh yeah baby!

At 13, I took my first steps over the Mexican border in Tijuana. Eyes Wide Open. A suburban Minnesota girl seeing beyond my imagining.  Bartering for a leather fringed jacket. I was torn even then--was it good to barter (save money) or bad to barter (these people clearly needed the money)?

At 13, I heard a Japanese foreign exchange student speak. To this day, I can remember the warm afternoon in our sunny, junior high cafeteria. I went home and wrote in my diary, "I'll be a foreign exchange student one day!"

At 16, I saved my waitressing tips from The Crosstown Kitchen,  the Scandinavian cafe where we served lutefisk and lefse in our white dresses and shoes.  These tips funded a 6 week trip with fellow students to Austria, Germany, and even a whiff of Switzerland, Lichtenstein and France! I was the youngest traveler. And I was bit. Truly bit by the adventure travel bug. Bit by the clear knowing that it is in connecting that we find ourselves. I had connections with gasthof proprietors. Bus drivers. Soldiers. Boys. Single mothers. Trees. It is in these reflections of culture and humanity, by likeness or contrast,  that we see who we are. In community, we become more of who we are.

At 17, I applied to be an AFS Foreign Exchange Student. In those days, you didn't pick your country. You were saying yes to anywhere in the world. Which suited me just fine. I pictured the depths of Africa. I was chosen and sent to Tasmania, Australia. And blossomed. And struggled. And communicated. And connected---over cups of tea & bottles of rum. Legs of lamb and mixed grill on the barbie. Over hundreds of kitchen tables. I joined in.  Joined up. Joined the conversation. Joined a family for a year...and for forever. It's really profound now, as I pause and write. As a 17 year old, you're almost by definition, self-centered. (I certainly was--even tho global questions had already begun to burn in me.) Now, I realize what a wildly generous act this was for my host family... to fling open their doors and invite me, a stranger, in!  Risking...and receiving.  Last night they were in my dreams.

At 21, I accepted the job of my dreams. But first, I turned my '67 Chevy Malibu south for an inland Mexican odyssey...of course! Who knew when I'd be free to travel again?? Brass ring, grabbed!

At 24, it was Korea. To follow and check out my love. It landed and lasted. Ben and I just celebrated 31 years!

Honk Kong. Singapore. Japan. Thailand. Cambodia. China. Tibet. Morocco. Senegal. France.

At 55, Italy. Leadership on a rooftop. It was there, in Rome, that Alberto (my colleague) and I created and fired up up the "International Cooking Game." We flung out the invitation to get curious and experiment with strangers...through food, joy and play! Potatoes met fish met apples met chocolate met beans met olive oil.

At 56, I have just finished reading Female Nomad and Friends ~ Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World.  Real women's stories, compiled by Gelman.  In these pages, I see my reflection. And so, it was last night---over my kitchen table that I pulled out this book, to share this passage by Melanie Ehler from a chapter entitled, Soul Food. "Some hunger can be satisfied with food, but there is also another more intimate type of hunger that can only be appeased by kindness."

I'd intended to just read the quote. But there I was, reading the short story aloud.  It was about fried chicken---and compassion. It took about 5 minutes. Tears flowed, making it almost impossible to read. Tears that told me without a shadow of a doubt that I was right where I belonged. Looking at my true reflection.  A life of curiosity, kindness, adventure, joy, gratitude and deep, deep connection.


Postscript  
AFS still exists. It's a powerful organization uniting young people with host families globally. It was founded by WWII ambulance drivers---who experienced connection on the battlefield, regardless of country or politics. There, they were people saving people...and ideas of "enemy" slipped away. And so, they sought to create these human to human connections, very intentionally.  One student and one family at a time. This is the enduring motto: "Walk together, talk together, all ye peoples of the lands. Then and only then shall ye have peace." 

Celebrate Each Other's Dreams

I'd just left my beloved Sycamore tribe in California. Grounded in love...we became the Seek Amores. Of course! Leaders all, boldly embracing lives of passion on purpose. On fire and deeply present. Blessed.

I noticed the couple in the terminal. Flowing robes, his and hers. A turban. A nose stud. Intriguing. Flying Southwest, I boarded and landed my sweet window seat. Looking up---there they were, choosing the two seats next to me. Full bodied. Arms touching. Surprise companions. They were traveling from Pakistan to visit their children in the U.S. A warmth sprung up between us. Engaged and leaning in. Open---to this experience, in this moment. I was eating it up.

After awhile, we turned to read. I took out "The Poetry of The Sycamores." She said, "Are you a poet?"  "Yes" I claimed. I turned to the page with my poem, "Heart Healthy." And gently offered it to them to share. The container became sacred now. Leaning in together---they each read silently to themselves...lips gently forming each English word and phrase. Taking it in. Truly. He finished first...I could see the full, graceful smile...held and honoring it all. Affirming and connected. Then she---proclaiming the love for these words and pointing to her favorite line. "Celebrate each other's dreams." Yes! We talked about marriage, challenges...of course!

There was something so powerful and grace-filled about our surprise connection. Each open to the Other. Each leaning into this moment with wonder and grace. I'll always remember their soft smiles and gently moving lips. 

Heart Healthy

The menu says 'heart healthy'

Nice

I wonder what it would be like if heart healthy messages were publicly displayed

on the menu of life?

Love yourself

Love your partner

Be gentle

Cherish that which is entrusted to you

Laugh together

Surprise one another

Honor your commitment especially when it's hard

Keep each other safe

Celebrate each other's dreams

Be quick to speak truth with compassion

Let yourself be naked

Dream dreams together and help them grow

Breathe deeply together and feel your hearts beat

Take joy in all you create

If your course needs changing change it

Find a way to share what really matters

Grow community

Unlock each other's code knowing you'll never fully do so

Honor the divine Mystery in each other

Try new things

Open up

Take risks worth taking

Embrace early and often

Believe in the power of love

Rest in each other's arms

Lynn Young