Judging judging

One of my biggest challenges with trying to be more mindful or zen, if you will, is not judging. And most of the time it is the people (or person) that I'm trying not to judge who makes it excruciatingly difficult not to judge them. Let me give you a recent and very appropriate example. I flew to Charlotte, NC last weekend to see some girlfriends. I hadn't traveled in a while and just being in an airport was pretty exciting. As I was waiting in the horrendously slow security line at ORD I realized we were in full gridlock because of one person. One person caused the entire line to shut down for 10 minutes. Allow me to elaborate. This chick, as I will call her, was attempting to bring home with her two vases filled with flowers. Fine. Take home your flowers, what do I care? Did I get flowers for Valentine's day? No, but I'm not angry about it or anything. So this chick decides to place her vases of flowers on the security screening conveyer belt, on their sides, filled with water. Are you getting what I'm saying? She didn't even use a bin, which would have been equally stupid, but at least it would have saved a little time and energy because, as you could predict, when she placed the full vases on their sides water went everywhere! What do you know? Gravity strikes again! What on earth did this moron think was going to happen? That's what I want to know. So with people like that roaming the same planet as myself, I find it very hard, extremely hard, not to judge.

My favorite vegan-ish recipe

My husband has been out of town nearly the entire week and the average temperature has been close to zero. ZERO. So, I've abused my stature as a city dweller and ordered take-out. Don't worry, I tip the delivery guys really nice. Tonight, I'm embarrassed to admit that I got a Giordano's pizza for Helena and I for dinner. I had one piece and felt ill. I tried to feed it to my child and she played with the globs of cheese for a minute before requesting spinach bites and yogurt. I happily obliged but I couldn't help but think that Helena has 1) more will power than her mother and 2) an instinctual dislike towards horribly unhealthy food. Tough to say. Below is my favorite veganish recipe, which I should've made tonight. I usually double the batch, it freezes really well.

TOMATO PESTO

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Slivered Almonds
12 oz Cherry or Grape Tomatoes (about 2.5 cups)
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 medium garlic clove, pressed or finely chopped (about 1 teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Table salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 pound of pasta (preferably linguine or spaghetti)
1 ounce parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/2 Cup)- plus extra for
serving if desired

Directions:
1. Toast almonds in small skillet over medium heat, stirring
frequently, until pale golden and fragrant- 2-4 minutes. (you can also
microwave at 20 second intervals, stirring in between) Cool to room
temperature.
2. Process cooled almonds, tomatoes, basil, garlic, vinegar, 1
teaspoon salt, and red pepper flakes in blender or food processor- pulse ingredients
until roughly chopped. Scrape down sides of blender and with machine
running, drizzle in the olive oil (about 10- 15 seconds)
3. Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta
and 1 tablespoon of salt and cook until AL DENTE :) Drain and put
pasta back in pot.
4. Add pesto and 1/2 cup parmesan to cooked pasta. Stir and serve immediately!

SEE!!!

Did anyone catch Oprah last week? I was tipped off by a fellow trying-to-eat-only-good-for-you-food-eater that she was featuring a show on going vegan for a week. I DVR'd it and watched it and was super impressed at the coverage given to the vegan lifestyle. Am I still vegan you ask? Heck no. BUT, the show was a good reminder that eating lots of things that grow in the earth (as opposed to roam the earth) is a good idea.

There are 2 kinds of people in this world

The way I figure it, there are two kinds of people in this world: the kind that sit on the inside of the El Train bench and the kind that sit on the outside seat of the El Train bench. The inside folks are conscientious- concerned that any new train rider would be more comfortable taking a seat rather than asking for one. The outside folks fall into two categories: 1) No clue that they are making it more difficult for a busy train to fill in seats and 2) Selfishly hoping to score a whole bench for their commute. Wait, so that makes 3 kinds of people. And then there are the people who take up the whole bench as a result of their girth or personal belongings, as it were. So that's 4 kinds of people. But there are also the inside sitters that just sit on the inside for the window seat I suppose. That makes 5 kinds of people. There are 5 kinds of people in this world.

And so this is Christmas

It is quite a special time of year, isn't it? People rushing you out of your parking space with a honk, tsk-ing noises behind you at long retail lines, and plenty of generalized anxiety in the air. Ah Christmas.

This year, it seems very appropriate to Zen myself out, big time. I would suggest that you do the same. If only it were that easy. But every day, at some point, I make an effort. Stop the body, stop the thoughts and ultimately stop the mind. Jon Kabat-Zinn writes, "We have only moments to live." At first glance you might be frightened by that news. However the truth behind the statement is much more profound. We all live in the moments of our consciousness- whether those moments are in the present, past or future is your choice. But it seems pretty wasteful to spend any amount of time with your psyche in any time period other than the time that is right about now.

Good Advice

At a Christmas party last weekend, I talked with a mother of three at length about the gig of mothering. Her youngest is 7 and her piece of wisdom for me was to not be bothered about the state of my home. "Don't worry about keeping the place clean, just enjoy your children," she said. Seemed like good enough advice.

So I tried it.

By day two I was so upset with the state of my home that I couldn't enjoy my child.

I would LOVE to see that woman's house. I bet it's a REAL craphole.

The Challenge

It's really hard to blog about being All Zenned Out without talking about Helena. There is no one more present, more in the now, more aware than Helena. She reminds me everyday that the only thing that matters is what is imminent. To Helena, there is no past or future, there is only what is happening at that very second. As evidenced by her tearful rejection of a meal, followed seconds later by her gobbling it up. If only we were all so resilient.