Secular Graces

As much as I'd love to belong to a faith tradition and a congregation, I'm a heathen. A few people have offered to help me out with that, but there are just some hurdles I can't get over. I'm totally on board with the caring and community aspects, the devoting time to consideration of grand concepts of the divine or debased, I'd even consider getting out of bed on a Sunday (but not too early) to do that regularly because I think it's important to some intrinsic part of our humanity. I think there are a lot of rituals in religion that are worth keeping even if you don't share the relevant God.

One of them is the practice of gratitude. It is something that needs practicing; the more habitual it becomes, the better you'll feel on a normal day and the deeper you'll be able to dig on those days when you need to feel better. I don't do too much habitually except eat, so I've been considering ways to include the ritual of grace at our table without invoking a deity.

What We've Been Eating

Sometimes I forget to photograph tasty things. Sometimes the tastiest things aren't photogenic. Sometimes we're hungry and don't want to wait for photos. But more often than I realise, the food was fine, the photos are passable, but I just forget to post them. So here are a few of the meals we've had in the last while, in case it lends you a little inspiration.

Fats, B12 and Dementia

I can't think straight if my house is messy (so imagine how incredibly stimulating my posts would be if only I cleaned instead of blogging!), but no one can think straight if their belly's empty. What is in it is far more important - as you most certainly know - than how much. But have you ever sat down to investigate specifically what your doctor or friendly public health professional meant when they said that taking risks now would have consequences later?

Link Roundup 11.01.12 - videos

This film shows a big chunk of why we never want to move to the 'States, and why I'm even hesitant to move home to Canada with a young daughter in tow.


Yeah, I'm a bit behind on the I, Caveman thing. What surprised me (although it shouldn't have) is how unprepared a lot of those people were ("what do cattails look like?", "can't they just sneak me a cracker?") and how surprised the narrator sounds when he says that modern man could possibly hack it as cavemen. Um, WE ARE CAVEMEN! It drives me nuts to see, at every archeological site with a visitor's centre, comments about how aMAZing it is that "primitives" could do X, Y or Z. They are us. We are them. Whatever you and nine of your best friends could do with some planning, skills, a sharp stick and fire is what paleolithic people could do too. 'Cept they probably did it fifty times better because they had way more planning and skills and relevant culture and community. That group seemed to have a culture of laying around and a community fixation on ways to escape rather than survive. Geez.

Right, time to shake the seriousness out after that.

Over Kill

I've just finished watching the film 2012, about the end of the Earth and (American) humanity's attempt to save what we can aboard arks. Feasibility entirely aside, here's my question:

How long until movies have explosions in the first scene? 

New Year's Eve Feast

Our New Year's celebrations occurred at 8:30pm, when we could all take part. There was a slight revival at midnight to watch a surprisingly good fireworks display from our bedroom window, but we felt that the celebration of the years past and future had enough meaning to survive the slip in protocol. There was, of course, a fitting feast to accompany the occasion.

Books for Babymakers

We're well past the "top 10 gifts" list season, I know.

Good thing this list only has 4 entries then, huh?

Once again demonstrating their many similarities to puppies, babies aren't just for Christmas, so these books are as relevant now as they were two weeks ago or will be in 6 months. They're books for people planning babies, growing babies, birthing babies and raising babies to be the healthy, happy, robust little dirt-eaters they deserve to be. Personally I think this list of titles would make an outstanding wedding gift (you know who you are!).