11 Words my Mother Said to Me

“YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS TO LIVE WITH YOU.”  Those eleven words I have heard directly from my amazing mother about a bazillion times in my almost forty years as a person.  Unless you have some sort of abnormal ability to have out of body experiences, this is true for you, as well as every other living soul in existence.  “YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS TO LIVE WITH YOU.” 

No, my mom is not a spirituality guru.  She hasn’t researched or written a selfhelp book.  She hasn’t studied any new aged awakening theories or fandangle mystologies.  What she is, is a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, an aunt, a friend, a companion, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a lay minister, a teacher, a woman, a person, a soul. 

 

So what allows her to make such a conclusion?  What allows her to have such insight?  The answer is as simple as the statement.  It’s because she has lived just this sort of life thus far.  In a way, it’s a sort of motto or life covenant. 

OK, so what does she mean?  How can an eleven word sentence create a life’s work?  Make choices you can live with.  Be a good person.  Step away from prejudice, inequality, and persecution and into love, acceptance, and tolerance.  Do your absolute best to love yourself, truly love yourself (now that one takes a great deal of strength).  Take charge of yourself, your world, and your life.  Encourage good living.  Take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Finding happiness is your responsibility.  Finding a compliment to YOU (meaning a partner, a friend, a fur baby) is a gift to cherish and nurture.  Incidentally, she also says, “It takes two to be in a relationship.”  Allow yourself to feel, whether it is anger, upset, happiness, hurt, love, gratitude, passion… allow yourself to experience it.  Don’t hold onto pessimism or resentment too long, and stop poisoning your life with negativity.  It all amounts to the fact, you can’t get away from yourself; you’re stuck with you.  Other people can come and go on their own accord; they have choices of their own to make.  Nevertheless, at the end of the day, YOU still remain. 

So, make it all worthwhile, meaningful, significant.  Live life to the fullest, completely, wholeheartedly.  You don’t have to be perfect.  You don’t have to be right 100% of the time.  You will most definitely trip and fall.  But if you live by these eleven words you can’t go wrong.  It’s foolproof.  And you will ultimately find peace of mind.   

Our Daily Bread - By guest blogger Guenevere

Just a quick note. 

Please let me introduce my dear, dear friend Guenevere.  She has accepted my invitation to be a guest blogger for Living Conversations, and I am simply overjoyed.  She is one of those people who, just by being in her presence, reminds one how to be a truly beautiful, genuine person.  I am confident you find her as inspirational as I do.  With that, here’s Guenevere… 

Our Daily Bread

I must admit that I have always felt a bit daunted by the idea of baking my own bread. I have made plenty of quick breads, (like pumpkin chocolate chip-yum!) but never a loaf fit for a sandwich! It sounded easy enough: simple ingredients + time...yet my inner-perfectionist worried about getting nice, even slices and making sure not to kill the yeast. But with a four-year-old who devours peanut butter & honey sandwiches, and an almost one-year-old who adores toast, we go through a lot of bread in this house! So...

Last week, in an effort to simplify my errands a bit, and to stop spending $5 on a loaf from Great Harvest, I searched through several recipes online, and finally chose one that sounded close to our favorite honey wheat. Simple, wholesome ingredients, and an easy to follow recipe. I got out my mixer and loaf pans and got to work! I have great childhood memories of trips to Madison, and smelling the intoxicating aroma of freshly baked bread as we drove past Gardener's Bakery. So I am very proud to say that I have finally recreated that amazing smell in my very own kitchen!

http://bakingdom.com/2011/09/homemade-honey-oat-bread.html

I love the method Darla uses in this recipe. Her photos were a great tutorial for this bread-baking newbie. The only change I made to the recipe is the flour: I used 2 cups of whole wheat and 1 cup of all purpose. I made a loaf with regular active yeast and a loaf with quick-rise yeast, and I yielded a much better loaf with the quick-rise. I chose to leave the honey and oat topping off my second loaf, although delicious, it was hard to put the sticky loaf back in the bread bag!

This bread is just like the honey whole wheat from Great Harvest, and in fact, even tastier! It has a nice, soft crust, a delicious chewy texture, and it slices beautifully. After my four-year-old's first taste, he said, "I can't wait for a sandwich on this bread!".

 

Whew! Not so daunting after all! Maybe now I'll have the guts to attempt one of the pretzel bun recipes I have pinned! :)